Saigo takamori biography
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SAIGO Takamori
Leader of the Meiji Restoration; statesman. Born in Kagoshima. Holding high office beneath the Kagoshima Clan lord Nariakira Shimazu, he tried to commit suicide by drowning on the occasion of the Ansei Purge and the death of Nariakira. Later he was active beneath Hisamitsu Shimazu, who aimed at kobu gattai (the reconciliation between the Imperial Court and the Shogunate government), but because of a conflict with Hisamitsu he was exiled. When recalled, he took an active part as staff officer on the side of the Shogunate government on its first Choshu expedition. Later he changed allegiance to oppose the Shogunate government, and concluded the Satsuma-Choshu Alliance with Takayoshi Kido through the intermediation of Ryoma Sakamoto. Jointly with Kaishu Katsu, he achieved the bloodless surrender of Edo Castle and successfully conducted the coup d'etat of osei fukko (restoration of Imperial rule). As a sangi (councillor) in the new government, he pushed through refor
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Saigō Takamori was one of Japan’s most influential samurai in history and is best remembered for being the Last True Samurai. He is considered the embodiment of bushido, the samurai code, and legends paint a magnificent picture of a life well lived in the annals of history. The movie “The Last Samurai” starring Ken Watanabi and Tom Cruise was based on his life.
Saigō Takamori (1828 – 1877), named Takamori in adulthood, and also known as Takanaga, was born is the Satsuma Domain (modern day Kagoshima Prefecture). He started his career as a low-ranking samurai and later served the Daimyo of Satsuma, Shimazu Nariakira, in Edo during the Kōbu gattai movement which promoted reconciliation between the Tokugawa shogunate and the Imperial court.
Tokonami Masayoshi’s painting of Saigō Takamori in uniform.
He was banished twice to fjärrstyrd islands when his master suddenly died but was later pardoned by the new Satsuma Daimyo, Shimazu Hisamitsu, in 1864 and was tasked to handle the d
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After sitting in a darkened theater watching the saga of the fictional samurai leader Katsumoto unfold on screen, Associate Professor of Japanese History Mark Ravina sips coffee at a nearby café and carefully considers his reaction to the cinematic version of The Last Samurai.
“I liked it more than I thought I would,” Ravina says. “I might go see it again.”
Pause.
“Of course,” he says, “parts of the movie are just all wrong, historically.”
Ravina should know–he spent years researching and writing a just-published biography, The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori (2004, John Wiley and Sons), about the samurai leader who inspired the movie.
“I first heard that the movie was about the samurai rebellion [in 1877]. Then I learned more about it and I couldn’t believe it,” he says. “Someone was making a movie about my guy! I was stunned.”
Although Ravina’s book and the movie were