Gensui (Imperial Japanese Navy)

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Kaigun-gensui 海軍元帥
Gensui Badge
Country	Japanese Empire
Service branch	Imperial Japanese Navy
Formation	20 January 1898
Abolished	1945
Next higher rank	Dai-gensui
Next lower rank	Admiral
Equivalent ranks	Gensui (Army)

Kaigun-gensui (海軍元帥, Grand admiral), formal rank designations: Gensui-kaigun-taishō (元帥海軍大将, Marshal-admiral) was the highest rank in the prewar Imperial Japanese Navy. The term gensui was used for both the navy and the Imperial Japanese Army, and was a largely honorific title awarded for extremely meritorious service to the Emperor. In the Meiji period, the title was awarded to five generals and three admirals. In the Taishō period it was awarded to six generals and six admirals, and in the Shōwa period it was awarded to six generals and four admirals. Equivalent to a five-star rank (OF-10), it is similar to Admiral of the Fleet in the Royal Navy and Fleet admiral in the United States Navy.

List of Kaigun-gensui[]

Note that several were promoted the same year they died; these were posthumous promotions.

Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Appointed	Retired	Origin	Ref.
	Marquis Saigō Tsugumichi (1843–1902)	20 January 1898		Kagoshima
	Count Itō Sukeyuki (1843–1914)	31 January 1906
	Viscount Inoue Yoshika (1845–1929)	31 October 1911
	Marquis Tōgō Heihachirō (1847–1934)	21 April 1913
	Prince Arisugawa Takehito (1862–1913)	7 July 1913		Imperial Family
	Baron Ijūin Gorō (1852–1921)	26 May 1917		Kagoshima
	Prince Higashifushimi Yorihito (1867–1922)	26 May 1917		Imperial Family
	Baron Hayao Shimamura (1858–1923)	8 January 1923		Kōchi
	Baron Katō Tomosaburō (1861–1923)	24 August 1923		Hiroshima
	Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu (1876–1946)	27 May 1932		Imperial Family
	Isoroku Yamamoto (1884–1943)	18 April 1943		Nagaoka
	Osami Nagano (1880–1947)	21 June 1943		Kōchi
	Mineichi Koga (1885–1944)	31 March 1944		Arita

See also[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gensui (Imperial Japanese Navy).

• Gensui (Imperial Japanese Army)
• Imperial Japanese Navy
• Grand admiral

References[]