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In [[1877]], he led these men and others in the [[Satsuma Rebellion]], the largest ''[[shizoku]]'' (former samurai) uprising against the Meiji government. The rebellion was ultimately unsuccessful, and Saigô died making a last stand at [[battle of Shiroyama|Shiroyama]] in Kagoshima, fighting against the very Restoration government he had fought to establish a decade earlier.
In [[1877]], he led these men and others in the [[Satsuma Rebellion]], the largest ''[[shizoku]]'' (former samurai) uprising against the Meiji government. The rebellion was ultimately unsuccessful, and Saigô died making a last stand at [[battle of Shiroyama|Shiroyama]] in Kagoshima, fighting against the very Restoration government he had fought to establish a decade earlier.
==Legacy==
Saigô was buried at the [[Nanshu Cemetery|Nanshû Cemetery]] in Kagoshima, alongside more than 2,000 of those also killed in the Satsuma Rebellion, and he was enshrined at the [[Nanshu Shrine|Nanshû Shrine]] at the cemetery.
He has become one of the most lionized and celebrated figures in Japanese history. Despite his opposition to the State, the Empire, in the end, he is nevertheless celebrated for his bravery, his devotion to his ideals, and his willingness to die for those ideals in 1877, as well as for his successful negotiation of the bloodless transfer of Edo in 1868, where the wars of the Restoration could have otherwise been so much more lengthy and bloody than they were.
A statue of Saigô, designed by [[Takamura Koun|Takamura Kôun]] and erected in [[Ueno Park]] in [[1898]], faces towards the [[Tokyo Imperial Palace]], celebrating him as the leader of the armies which took [[Edo castle]] in 1868; it does not face away from the castle, least of all facing towards Kagoshima, which might suggest Saigô's betrayal of the Imperial state and loyalty to his Satsuma samurai roots.<ref>Takashi Fujitani, ''Splendid Monarchy'', University of California Press (1996), 91-92.</ref>
A statue of Saigô, designed by [[Takamura Koun|Takamura Kôun]] and erected in [[Ueno Park]] in [[1898]], faces towards the [[Tokyo Imperial Palace]], celebrating him as the leader of the armies which took [[Edo castle]] in 1868; it does not face away from the castle, least of all facing towards Kagoshima, which might suggest Saigô's betrayal of the Imperial state and loyalty to his Satsuma samurai roots.<ref>Takashi Fujitani, ''Splendid Monarchy'', University of California Press (1996), 91-92.</ref>