Saigo Takamori

• Born: 1828
• Died: 1877
• Japanese: 西郷 隆盛 (Saigou Takamori)

Portrait of Saigô Takamori

Statue of Saigô Takamori by sculptor Takamura Kôun in Ueno Park. Unveiled 1898/12/18.

The military leader of Satsuma during the waning days of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Saigô played a pivotal role in the restoration of Imperial rule to Japan. While his daimyo, Shimazu Hisamitsu, tended to vacillate on his position regarding supporting the shogunate or not, Saigô was resolute in his distaste for the Tokugawa regime and was determined to completely crush Tokugawa power at almost any cost. Saigô was one of Sakamoto Ryôma's closest allies and friends, but some historians have speculated that he may have had a hand in Ryôma's assassination by leaking the location of Ryôma's hideout to Bakufu officials. The logic behind this speculation is that Saigô deemed that Ryôma would be a formidable roadblock in his plan to crush the Tokugawa. Surprisingly, Saigô went on to become the commander-in-chief of the Meiji army, laying the groundwork for what became the modern Imperial Japanese Army.

Saigô supported proposals to invade Korea in 1873; according to some accounts, he was willing to go so far as to travel to Korea as an ambassador and arrange for himself to be killed in order to manufacture a justification for invasion. The invasion was ardently opposed by his younger brother Saigô Tsugumichi, however, among many others, and Saigô left the government. He died leading the Satsuma Rebellion against the government he helped to establish.

References

• Jansen, Marius B. Sakamoto Ryoma and the Meiji Restoration. Columbia University Press, 1994.
• Lanman, Charles. Japan - Its Leading Men D. Lothrop & Co., Boston, 1886.
• Hillsborough, Romulus. RYOMA- Life of a Renaissance Samurai. Ridgeback Press, 1999