The Japanese people appreciated the fact that he remained loyal to his virtues until his death in 1877. Saig met the noted British diplomat Ernest Satow in the 1860s, as recorded in the latter's A Diplomat in Japan, and Satow was present at the unveiling as recorded in his diary. The Apocryphal Suicide of Saig Takamori: Samurai, Seppuku, and the Politics of Legend. Journal of Asian Studies 69.3 (2010): 691-721. He was settling happily into island life but reluctantly had to leave the island in February of 1862 when he was called back to Satsuma. Historian Ivan Morris described him as "the quintessential hero of modern Japanese history". They saw Japan as the abode of godssince the Emperor descended from the Sun Goddessand believed that the heavens would protect them from the western military and economic might. Names, Romanizations, and Spelling (page 2 of 2), Satsuma Rebellion: Satsuma Clan Samurai Against the Imperial Japanese Army, Organization of Imperial and Satsuma Forces, Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office, Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors, Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, German preWorld War II industrial co-operation, International Military Tribunal for the Far East, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Satsuma_Rebellion&oldid=1121217754, Pages with non-numeric formatnum arguments, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Buck, James H. "The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. Saigo's nearly bloodless victory won him national fame, eventually leading to his appointment as an elder of Satsuma in September of 1866. Multiple legends sprang up concerning Saig, many of which denied his death. This fighter's primary weapon is a percussion rifle, and the only other 'modern' element of his D: THE SATSUMA REBELLION, 1877 appearance is a white crossbelt supporting a cap pouch on D1: Highranking samurai, rebel army his chest and a cartridge pouch behind his right hip. In February 1877, the Meiji government dispatched Hayashi Tomoyuki, an official with the Home Ministry with Admiral Kawamura Sumiyoshi in the warship Takao to ascertain the situation. Ravina, Mark. After that I provided some background information on the samurai and the armor that they wore. The Satsuma Rebellion, also known as the Seinan War (Japanese: , Hepburn: Seinan Sens, lit. List Price: $32.75. Format: Paperback. Rebellions by the samurai, which had broken out sporadically since 1868 (Meiji 1), including the 1869-70 conflict between irregular military units and upper rank samurai commanders in the Choshu domain, gained steam with the collapse of the "conquer Korea debate". ISBN-10: 1437338992. '", The Lavenberg Collection of Japanese Prints, Gorykaku (surrender of the Ezo rebels to Saig, The Rebellion Begins, Issue 1 from the Osaka newspaper Kagoshima-ken ari no sonomama, March 5, 1877, The Huge Win of the Armed Forces, Issue 4 from the Osaka newspaper Kagoshima-ken ari no sonomama, March 5, 1877, The Debate Over Invading Korea (Seikanron), May 15, 1877, The Arraignment of Oyama Tsunayoshi, August 27, 1877, Illustration of the Rebels Being Suppressed at Kagoshima, October 1877, Report on the Actual Condition at the Battlefield, September 21, 1877. Saig expected both that a war would ultimately be successful for Japan and also that the initial stages of it would offer a means by which the samurai whose cause he championed could find meaningful and beneficial death. After his failure to take Kumamoto, Saig led his followers on a seven-day march to Hitoyoshi. They resorted to digging up unexploded Satsuma ordinance and refiring it. On January 30, 1877, the central government launched a raid on the arms and ammunition storage areas in Kagoshima, without any prior warning to the Satsuma authorities. Outraged by the government's tactics, 50 students from Saig's academy attacked the Somuta Arsenal and carried off weapons. He hoped to raise the samurai of other domains along the way. In the 7th century, Japan took a . He also married a local woman namedAigana and fathered a son. Economic effects of the Satsuma Rebellion resulted in the passing of the Act of February 4, 1877, which reduced the land tax from 3% to 2.5%. After the Restoration the condition of things became less unsettled in Mito, and to some extent also in Choshiu. At its head was Saig Takamori, a hero of the restoration who had directed the military campaign against the Tokugawa. Because of the Satsuma Rebellion, the government faced serious financial difficulties. opposition to the Meiji Restoration In Japan: Abolition of feudalism the greatest, revolt came in Satsuma in 1877. Saigo Takamori: The Last Samurai. [3], Saig Takamori, one of the senior Satsuma leaders in the Meiji government who had initially supported the reforms, was especially concerned about growing political corruption - popular prints depicted the rebel army with banners bearing the words shinsei-ktoku (, new government, high morality). Battle of Tabaruzaka: Imperial troops on the left, rebel samurai troops on the right, Saigo's army clashes with the government's forces. Although greatly dismayed by the revolt, Saig was reluctantly persuaded to lead the rebels against the central government. While the year 1868 was crucial to the fall of the shogunate and the establishment of a new government . Each battalion consisted of four companies. This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. Artillery consisted of over 100 pieces, including 5.28 pound mountain guns, Krupp field guns of various calibers, and mortars. 4, Sophia University, JSTOR, 1973. The samurai then attacked imperial facilities around the province, seizing weapons and parading them through the streets of Kagoshima. Each battalion was divided into ten companies of 200 men. Japan Currency Museum. Themes In Keeper N Me. Japan. They had, they considered, paid the piper, and they wished to call the tune. The imperial government in Tokyo expected Saigo to come to the capital by sea or to dig in and defend Satsuma. Several samurai, upon seeing him in this state, would have severed his head, assisting him in the warrior's suicide that they knew he would have wished. . With Portrait, Maps, and. Each man was armed with a small firearmeither a rifle, a carbine, or a pistolas well as 100 rounds of ammunition and, of course, his katana. He famously opposed the construction of a railway network, insisting that money should rather be spent on military modernization.[4]. For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions Shiba was in the Imperial Army at the time. But in Satsuma the division of feeling remained unaltered, a circumstance which, added to separatist tendencies that stood in the way of combined action, was, in the sequel, of much benefit to the Government. A reproduction of the same statue stands on Okinoerabujima, where Saig had been exiled. He was the third son of Nakamura Kiyosada (). In the end, he was killed by the imperial army he organized. This includes data values and the controlled vocabularies that house them. Japanese Government Documents, 1867-1889 (special issue of Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan; 1914), by Japan, ed. Later this would turn out to be a pivotal decision since Choshu was Satsuma's major ally in the Boshin War. SAIGO's army campaigned as far as Kumamoto and Miyazaki (both in Kyushu), but then returned to Kagoshima in September, where it holed up in Shiroyama. Updates? Although Nakahara later repudiated the confession, it was widely believed in Satsuma and was used as justification by the disaffected samurai that a rebellion was necessary in order to "protect Saig". When the attack finally came, the Satsuma forces withdrew, leaving small pockets of samurai to hit the larger army in guerrilla-style strikes. The work is generally accurate and has much of . Located on the southern tip of Kyushu Island, more than 800 miles south of Tokyo, the Satsuma domain had existed and governed itself for centuries with very little interference from the central government. Instance of. Publish Date: Jan 02, 2010. Publish Date: Dec 10, 2008. When the plan was rejected, Saig resigned from all of his government positions in protest and returned to his hometown of Kagoshima, as did many other Satsuma ex-samurai in the military and police forces. Meanwhile, the remnants of the militaristic faction that supported Saigo's invasion proposal evolved into Japanese right-wing groups such as the genyosha and kokurykai. In October, the prime minister announced that Saigo would not be allowed to travel to Korea as an emissary. Saigo privately cheered on the rebels in other provinces, but stayed at his country house rather than returning to Kagoshima for fear that his presence might spark yet another rebellion. Feb. 15, 2023. Made by Takamura Kun, it was unveiled on December 18, 1898. His political organizing ran afoul of the new daimyo, however, who had him arrested and banished to a different small island just four months after his return from Amami. Sources of the Meiji Restoration. By May, the rebel army was in retreat southward, with the imperial army picking them off up and down Kyushu until September of 1877. From Kagoshima Through the Siege of Kumamoto Castle", This page was last edited on 11 November 2022, at 04:04. Augustus Henry Mounsey. He funded but was not directly involved with the schools, so did not know that the students were becoming radicalized against the Meiji government. In New England, merchants and farmers struggled to maintain their businesses in a new economy without established European trade or credit lines. [3], To help support and employ these men, in 1874 Saig established a private academy known as the Shi-gakk in Kagoshima. SAIGO, who was then living in seclusion, had no choice but to rise to action after the private-school faction beseeched him to do so. Wikipedia. After Saigo's death, Beppu and the last of the "ex-samurai" drew their swords and plunged downhill toward the Imperial positions and to their deaths. Few would return. In 1871 he was left in charge of the caretaker government during the absence of the Iwakura Mission (187173). Friction among the Cabinet members over the question of Korean conquest, added to the local disturbances, made the already confused state of things worse confounded, and the result was the famous Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. More critically, the defeat of the samurai displayed the power of modern artillery and rifles, against which a banzai charge had no appreciable effect. Publish Date: Oct 08, 2018. Satsuma Rebellion. The Satsuma Rebellion, also known as the Seinan War was a revolt of disaffected samurai against the new imperial government, nine years into the Meiji Era.. Maebara Ikkaku, from Bumbu komei den (Story of famous figures for military and literary) 20,000 YEN TOSHIMOTO. The Death of the Last Samurai Saigo's troops marched out confidently, sure that samurai in other provinces would rally to their side, but they faced an imperial army of 45,000 with access to unlimited supplies of ammunition. History of the Western Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania, Commonly Called the Whiskey Insurrection. [10] Statues in Ueno Park, Tokyo and near the ruins of Kagoshima Castle stand in his memory. Though in Satsuma the rivalry of individual leaders had stopped short of open hostilities, the division of feeling was not less marked. 7. Advertisement Advertisement. The Satsuma advance guard, 4,000 strong, set out on February 15, marching north. The cavalry regiment consisted of 150 men. [citation needed]. Armed uprisings erupted successively in the Chugoku Region (western Honshu) and Kyushu, with the protagonists arguing for going through with the conquest of Korea and restoring samurai privileges. However, despite their successes, the Satsuma army failed to take the castle, and began to realize that the conscript army was not as ineffective as first assumed. Many former samurai from the area joined Saigo's army, increasing his force to 20,000. Saigo's retirement project was the Shigakko, new private schools for young Satsuma samurai where the students studied infantry, artillery, and the Confucian classics. In December 1876, the Meiji government sent a police officer named Nakahara Hisao and 57 other men to investigate reports of subversive activities and unrest. The very rapid and massive changes to Japanese culture, language, dress and society appeared to many samurai to be a betrayal of the ji ("expel the barbarian") portion of the sonn ji justification used to overthrow the former Tokugawa shogunate. However, he was never able to reconcile his love of samurai tradition with the demands of modernizing the nation. Although the samurai were heavily outnumbered, they made a heroic stand and counterattack against the Japanese Army and showed their legendary skills off to the world in their final fight. He also cancelled scholarships for Japanese students abroad and fired foreign experts.[8]. Saig and his remaining samurai were pushed back to Kagoshima where, in a final battle, the Battle of Shiroyama, Imperial Army troops under the command of General Yamagata Aritomo and marines under the command of Admiral Kawamura Sumiyoshi outnumbered Saig 60-to-1. After two days of fruitless attack, the Satsuma forces dug into the rock-hard icy ground around the castle and tried to starve the garrison out in a siege. Satsuma Rebellion. The Battle of Shiroyama ( Shiroyama no tatakai) took place on 24 September 1877, in Kagoshima, Japan. With an army in place, the Meiji government summoned the remaining daimyo to Tokyo in mid-July, 1871 and abruptly announced that the domains were dissolved and the lords' authorities abolished. ThoughtCo, Sep. 7, 2021, thoughtco.com/the-satsuma-rebellion-195570. By early 1873, Japanese militarists who interpreted this as a grave affront called for an invasion of Korea but in a July meeting that year, Saigo opposed sending warships to Korea. Its name comes from the Satsuma Domain, which had been influential in the Restoration and became home to unemployed samurai after military reforms rendered their . Originally, they were a militant sect of Hindu Worshippers. Despite the overwhelming odds, the Imperial Army did not attack immediately upon arrival on September 8 but instead spent more than two weeks carefully preparing for its final assault. The Imperial Artillery consisted of 18 batteries divided into 9 battalions, with 120 men per battery during peacetime. Not being allowed to travel by sea, he went back to Satsuma by land, following the historic route he and other nobles had so often taken before. The schools resembled paramilitary political organizations more than anything else, and they enjoyed the support of the governor of Satsuma, who appointed disaffected samurai to political offices, where they came to dominate the Kagoshima government. First I developed my thesis statement. The shogun's men were still hunting him, so Saigo went into a three-year internal exile on the small island of Amami Oshima. In the Emperor's capital, politics had changed significantly during Saigo's exile. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Next, I stated the cause of the rebellion and the reaction of the Japanese government. He led his samurai straight up the middle of Kyushu, planning to cross the straits and march on Tokyo. A myth persists that the head was never found. Small-scale rebellions broke out around Japan, and the shogun's troops proved shockingly unable to put down the uprisings. They were armed with breech-loading Snider rifles and could fire approximately six rounds per minute. The Rebellion reduced Japan's yearly expenditure from 13,700,000 to 10,250,000, and it raised Japan's national debt from 28,000,000 to 70,000,000. By clicking Accept All Cookies, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Soon, Saigo was Daimyo Shimazu Nariakira's closest adviser, consulting other national figures on affairs including the shogunal succession. A battalion had 640 men in peacetime and theoretically 960 men in wartime. Nariakira and his allies sought to increase the emperor's power at the expense of the shogun, but on July 15, 1858, Shimazu died suddenly, likely of poison. Kumamoto castle, built in 1598, was among the strongest in Japan, but Saig was confident that his forces would be more than a match for Tani's peasant conscripts, who were still demoralized by the recent Shinpren rebellion. The province of Satsuma is situated in the southernmost portion of the island of Kyushu, and Kagoshima is the capital city. Who are Satnamis? Browsing subject area: Satsuma Rebellion, 1877 (Exclude extended shelves) You can also browse an alphabetical list from this subject or from: . }, Page last modified: Mark Ravina, the author of The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori, argued that "Satsuma Rebellion" is not the best name for the war because the English name does not well represent the war and its Japanese name. Public apprehension found free expression in the Press, which said that the nation was divided into two parties, one being for the Government, the other for Satsuma, and asked what could be done to preserve peace. @media only screen and (min-device-width : 320px) and (max-device-width : 480px) { However, Saig was one of the most vocal and vehement opponents to the negotiated solution, demanding that the Tokugawa be stripped of their lands and special status. Saigo's troops marched out confidently, sure that samurai in other provinces would rally to their side, but they faced an imperial army of 45,000 with access to unlimited supplies of ammunition. Instead, he went home to Kagoshima. Morale was extremely low, and lacking any strategy, the Satsuma forces dug in to wait for the next Imperial Army offensive. Saig was defeated and killed at the . Legend says that one of his followers, Beppu Shinsuke, acted as kaishakunin and aided Saig in committing seppuku before he could be captured. Just four days after his return, he had an audience with the daimyo, Hisamitsu, who shocked him by appointing him commander of the Satsuma army in Kyoto. 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