Born into a Choshu domain samurai family in Hagi, Nagato Province (present-day Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture). He studied under Yoshida Shoin's nephew Tamaki Bunnoshin and served in the Boshin War and Satsuma Rebellion. During the Satsuma Rebellion he suffered the disgrace of having a regimental flag captured by the enemy, and was driven by self-reproach for many years afterward. After the First Sino-Japanese War, he served as Governor-General of Taiwan. In the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), commanding the Third Army, he was ordered to capture Port Arthur fortress and took it by conquering Hill 203. However, the siege of Port Arthur was a desperate battle in which his first son Katsusuke and second son Yasutsuke both perished, along with many of his subordinates, and he spent the rest of his life carrying the weight of responsibility for those deaths. He served in the Imperial Court as Grand Chamberlain to Emperor Meiji and as president of Gakushuin, also participating in the education of Emperor Showa (then Crown Prince Hirohito). On September 13, 1912, the day of Emperor Meiji's state funeral, he and his wife Shizuko died together by ritual suicide. This act of "following one's lord in death" (junshi) gave great shock to Japanese society and was passed down as a symbol of the Meiji spirit. He is said to have been the model for the "junshi" referenced by Mori Ogai in "The Abe Clan" and by Natsume Soseki in "Kokoro." He died at 63.