Born in Matsuyama, Iyo (Ehime), the fifth son of Akiyama Hisataka, a samurai of Matsuyama domain. The family was poor, and his elder brother Akiyama Yoshifuru, later called the father of the Japanese cavalry, paid for his schooling and supported him.
He went to Tokyo and the next year entered the University Preparatory School. He was close to his childhood friend from Matsuyama, Masaoka Shiki, and the two were best friends who talked about literature together.
Partly to spare his brother the cost of his education, he left the preparatory school and entered the Naval Academy. He and Shiki took different paths, but their friendship lasted for life.
He graduated top of his class from the Naval Academy and began his career as a naval officer. He later served aboard a warship in the First Sino-Japanese War.
He went to study in the United States and received instruction from Mahan, the great authority on naval strategy. In the Spanish–American War the next year he observed the American fleet's operations at close range and wrote a detailed report.
His dear friend Masaoka Shiki died of illness. That year Japan and Britain concluded the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and tension with Russia was rising.
When the Russo-Japanese War began, he became operations officer of the Combined Fleet under Tōgō Heihachirō. Among other plans he devised the attempt to block the entrance of Port Arthur by sinking ships, an operation in which his friend Hirose Takeo lost his life.
He planned the Battle of Tsushima against Russia's Baltic Fleet. The line in the sortie telegram, "The weather today is fine but the waves are high", is said to have been added by Saneyuki. The battle ended in a great Japanese victory.
He became director of the Naval Affairs Bureau of the Navy Ministry, working at the heart of naval policy. When World War I broke out he studied its course and kept thinking about what future wars would be like.
He was promoted to vice admiral. From around this time, however, his health declined, and he also took a deep interest in religion and questions of the human mind.
He died of illness at Odawara, Kanagawa. Known as the brilliant strategist of the Russo-Japanese War, he is one of the heroes, with his brother Yoshifuru and Shiki, of Shiba Ryōtarō's novel Clouds above the Hill.
Tōgō HeihachirōMasaoka ShikiYamamoto GonbeeKatō Tomosaburō
Toyoda SakichiKōda RohanOzaki KōyōYokoyama TaikanKitamura TokokuShiga KiyoshiKunikida DoppoKōtoku Shūsui
People of the Meiji period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.