The Japanese military figure who became Louis Vuitton’s first recorded Japanese customer was Ōyama Iwao.
Ōyama purchased luggage while he was in France in 1871, where he was serving as a military observer during the Franco-Prussian War. His purchase is recorded as an early link between the French luxury house and Japan, well before Louis Vuitton opened Japanese stores.
Ōyama was an important Meiji-era military leader who later became a field marshal and one of Japan’s most senior statesmen. His European experience placed him among the Japanese officials and military figures encountering Western institutions, technology, and luxury goods during Japan’s rapid modernization.
The other options were prominent Japanese military figures, but they were not the person identified in Louis Vuitton’s historical account as its first recorded Japanese customer. “First recorded” is significant: it describes the earliest documented customer, not necessarily the first Japanese person ever to own a Vuitton item.