Format: Paperback. List Price: $31.95. The shogun's men were still hunting him, so Saigo went into a three-year internal exile on the small island of Amami Oshima. A Long History of Japanese Women Warriors, Biography of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 16th Century Unifier of Japan, Overview of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, Bushido: The Ancient Code of the Samurai Warrior, Russo-Japanese War: Admiral Togo Heihachiro, J.D., University of Washington School of Law, B.A., History, Western Washington University. As was the tradition for samurai in the event of their lord's death, Saigo contemplated committing to accompany Shimazu into death, but the monk Gessho convinced him to live and continue his political work to honor Nariakira's memory instead. Saigo Takamori had led the way in Meiji reforms including the creation of a conscript army and the end of daimyo rule. Satsuma rebeliion.svg 703 965; 1.09 MB. Marching north, his army was hampered by the deepest snowfall Satsuma had seen in more than 50 years, which, because of the similarity to the weather that had greeted those setting out to enact the Meiji Restoration nine years earlier, was interpreted by some as a sign of divine support.[3]. ThoughtCo, Sep. 2, 2021, thoughtco.com/figures-and-events-in-asian-history-s2-3896549. A reproduction of the same statue stands on Okinoerabujima, where Saig had been exiled. Secretary of the British Legation in Tokyo during the rebellion, Mounsey relied on the 'most authentic sources, oral and documentary'. The artillery consisted of 28 5-pounders, two 16-pounders, and 30 mortars. Instead, he went home to Kagoshima. Although greatly dismayed by the revolt, Saig was reluctantly persuaded to lead the rebels against the central government. English Wikipedia. Kumamoto, Fukuoka, Saga and other places in Kyushu, not to speak of Satsuma, his birthplace, responded to his call. The Imperial Artillery consisted of 18 batteries divided into 9 battalions, with 120 men per battery during peacetime. Each side had suffered more than 4,000 killed or wounded. revolt of disaffected samurai against the new imperial government, nine years into the Meiji Era. However, disgruntled samurai in Satsuma viewed him as a symbol of traditional virtues and wanted him to lead them in opposition to the Meiji state. 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. In August 1786, tensions culminated in what is now known as Shays' Rebellion, an uprising in Massachusetts that lasted until the summer of 1787. Above all these classes were the Mikado, the secluded divinity of Ki6to, still theo- retically the source of all authority; . Takamori Saigo, defeated in his insistent advocacy of the invasion of Korea, resigned his councillorship in the Cabinet and returned to his native place. After months of fighting the Satsuma forces had dwindled to approx 400 . It threatened an all-out attack on Choshu, even though it did not have the military might to defeat that large domain. He was one of the most influential samurai in Japanese history and one of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration. Faced with 21,000 imperial army troops, the majority of the rebels ended up committing seppuku (surrendering by suicide). 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. During the battle of Shiroyama, Saig was badly injured in the hip. A battalion had 640 men in peacetime and theoretically 960 men in wartime. ISBN-13: 9781142113520. Satsuma Rebellion. Over the next several nights, they raided additional arsenals around Kagoshima, stealing weapons and ammunition, and to make matters worse, they discovered that the national police had sent a number of Satsuma natives to the Shigakko as central government spies. Like all other times in his life, though, his retirement was short-livedin January of 1869, the Satsuma daimyo made him a counselor of the domain's government. 7. Today, building on this tradition, Sophia has developed "Saigo Takamori: The Last Samurai." The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Frontier Rebels who Challenged America's Newfound Sovereignty by William Hogeland. Saig Takamori Gunmusho () banknote, issued in 1877 to finance his war effort. By August 17, the Satsuma army had been reduced to 3000 combatants, and had lost most of its modern firearms and all of its artillery. [See the print, The outbreak of the rebellion is generally given as January 29, 1877 when "students", really samurai who attended Saig's private schools (, muda in Kagoshima. The government, however, refused to negotiate. In order to concentrate power, Tokyo needed a national military, rather than relying on the domain lords to supply troops. It was the final battle of the Satsuma Rebellion, . 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. A Modern History of Japan from Tokugawa Times to the Present, Second Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 84. On the third day of battle, the artillery division from Tsu domain defected to Saigo's side and began to shell the shogun's army instead. Takamori's parents also had to borrow money to buy farmland in order to have enough food for the growing family. 20-11-2011 19:18:05 ZULU. by HistoryNet Staff 6/12/2006 Sophia University was established in Tokyo in 1913 by the Society of Jesus. What the disaffected clans and individuals wanted was a larger share of power. As a peer-reviewed international forum for researchers across the globe, it carries original scholarly contributions on premodern and modern history, literature, art history, religion, and thought; translations of important Japanese literary and historical sources; and authoritative reviews of recent books on 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. Saig did insist, however, that Japan should go to war with Korea in the Seikanron debate of 1873 due to Korea's refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the Emperor Meiji as head of state of the Empire of Japan, and insulting treatment meted out to Japanese envoys attempting to establish trade and diplomatic relations. 28, No. #ga-ad {display: none;} Satsuma Rebellion The first test of the young Meiji government came with the revolt of the powerful Satsuma clan based in the southern region of the island of Kyushu. When an Imperial Navy landing party reached the arsenal at Somuta under cover of night, locals raised the alarm. Saigo's nearly bloodless victory won him national fame, eventually leading to his appointment as an elder of Satsuma in September of 1866. The Satsuma rebellion was a resist from the Meiji government and modern changes that took place in 1877. Datasets available include LCSH, BIBFRAME, LC Name Authorities, LC Classification, MARC codes, PREMIS vocabularies, ISO language codes, and more. The year 2018 has seen many events in Japan marking 150 years since the Meiji Restoration. Bibliolife DBA of Bibilio Bazaar II LLC, 2014 - 358 pages. "Southwestern War") was a revolt of disaffected samurai against the new imperial government, nine years into the Meiji Era. Over the next two years, the government seized land from the elite samurai and redistributed profits to lower ranked warriors. Satire picture of Boshin War, diptych. Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 - Sources The division of feeling which existed in several of the clans following the Meiji Restoration was most conspicuous in Satsuma, Choshiu and Mito. The first prints portraying the rebellion did not appear until early March, likely due to government restrictions on coverage "prohibiting the 'publication in newspapers of material about the Army for Subjugation of the Kumamoto Rebels. The second crisis, the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877, was even . Made by Takamura Kun, it was unveiled on December 18, 1898. shizoku rebellion. The decision in 1938 He initiated a military advance the following month, on February 15, intending to march on Tokyo, because of "questions I intend to press on the government." The survivors were out of ammunition, so had to rely on their swords. The Battle of Shiroyama ( Shiroyama no tatakai) took place on 24 September 1877, in Kagoshima, Japan. Ravina, Mark. Buck, James H. "The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. A myth persists that the head was never found. The situation was especially desperate for the defenders as their stores of food and ammunition had been depleted by a warehouse fire shortly before the rebellion began. The Satsuma Rebellion, also known as the Seinan War (Japanese: , Hepburn: Seinan Sens, lit. 8 Practical Tips to Maximize Efficiency in Real Estate Investing [citation needed], In English, the most common name for the war is the "Satsuma Rebellion". (2021, September 7). Although all of the rebels were killed, the imperial troops managed to locate Saigo's buried head. Most of Saig's remaining forces either surrendered or committed seppuku. He did not want to rebel, still feeling deep personal loyalty to the Meiji Emperor, but announced on February 7 that he would go to Tokyo to "question" the central government. 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". As a result, Takamori and his siblings all shared a single blanket at night even though they were large people, sturdy with a few standing over six feet tall. Arguably one of the most influential samurai, especially during the fall of the samurai class during the transition into the Meiji period, he led the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877, which marked the last of a series of uprisings against the new Meiji government. Corrections? 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. These disaffected samurai came to dominate the Kagoshima government, and fearing a rebellion, the government sent warships to Kagoshima to remove weapons from the Kagoshima arsenal. At the height of the battle, Saig wrote a private letter to Prince Arisugawa, restating his reasons for going to Tokyo. Beginning its educational efforts with a small [8] It was even recorded that his image appeared in a comet near the close of the 19th century, an ill omen to his enemies. 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. He funded but was not directly involved with the schools, so did not know that the students were becoming radicalized against the Meiji government. Meanwhile, the Joseon Dynasty in Korea refused to recognize the Mutsuhito as an emperor, because it traditionally recognized only the Chinese emperor as suchall other rulers were mere kings. Each battalion was divided into ten companies of 200 men. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The traditional explanation of the offensive rifle cartridges causing the initial outbreak of mutiny is only part of the story. He was born on May 26 th in the fourth year of Keian (, 1651). Saigo Takamori was born on January 23, 1828, in Kagoshima, Satsuma's capital, the oldest of seven children. There, the situation was complicated by the existence of no less than three parties two conservative groups led, respectively, by the old noble Shimadzu, the father of the young ex-daimio, and by the elder Saigo, the latter being at once the most influential and most numerous; and a thirdthe party of reformwhich looked for guidance, among other prominent men, to Okubo, Kuroda, Matsugata, Kawamura and the younger Saigo. By May, Saigo's army had surrounded Edo and threatened to attack, forcing the shogun's government to surrender. 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satsuma rebellion primary sources