Saigo Takamori

Saigo Takamori

(born Dec. 7, 1827, Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan—died Sept. 24, 1877, Kagoshima) Japanese military and political leader of the late Tokugawa and early Meiji periods. A samurai from the domain of Satsuma, Saigo joined Okubo Toshimichi and Kido Takayoshi in working to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate (military government) and restore rule by the emperor. He commanded the troops that seized control of the imperial palace from the shogunate, and went on to lead a campaign against the shogunate's supporters. After the Meiji Restoration (1868), he was given command of the new Imperial Guard. In 1873 he supported a war with Korea; when this plan was cancelled, he resigned from government. He opened a military school in his native Kagoshima that drew to it disaffected former samurai (class distinctions had been abolished in 1871). In 1877 some of his disciples attacked a government arsenal, and he found himself the unwilling head of a rebellion. It lasted for six months and resulted in some 12,000 dead on both sides, including Saigo himself. He is regarded as a tragic hero by the Japanese.

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Saigo Takamori 

Born Dec. 7, 1827, in Kagoshima; died Sept. 14, 1877. Japanese political figure.

A samurai from Satsuma principality, Saigo commanded the forces of the antishogun coalition during the incomplete bourgeois revolution of 1867–68. In the 1870’s he defended the interests of many of the samurai dissatisfied with their diminished role after the revolution. Saigo demanded restoration of the feudal privileges of the samurai. In order to enhance the importance of the military clique, he pressed for a campaign against Korea; however, his proposal of a military expedition into Korea was rejected by the government, which considered such a step premature. In 1873, as a gesture of protest, Saigo resigned from his post as minister of war.

In 1877, Saigo led a rebellion of reactionary samurai in Satsuma, in which more than 40,000 took part. The government suppressed the rebellion; Saigo, who was wounded in the fighting, committed suicide.