Takamori saigo biography of william

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Takamori saigo biography of william

Learn more about citation styles Citation styles Encyclopedia. More From encyclopedia. About this article Takamori Saigo All Sources. Updated Aug 24 About encyclopedia. Related Topics Kagoshima. Takamine, Hideko. Takamine Hideko —. Takamatsu, Shin. Takalo, Helena —. Takalik Abaj. Takaki, Ronald T oshiyuki Takaki, Ronald T oshiyuki. Achievements Add photo.

Membership Add photo. Awards Add photo. Other Photos Add photo. Other photo of Takamori Saigo The Seikanron debate. Connections Add photo. Living during the late Edo and early Meiji periods, he has been dubbed the last true samurai. His common name was Kichibei, later Kichinosuke, and his literary name, Nanshu. More photos. View map. Born January 23, Satsuma, Japan.

September 24, aged Career private secretary. This education was useful to him in his later life. Inwhen he was sixteen years old, the domain of Satsuma appointed Saigo as an aide of Korikata, an agricultural administration. The job required considerable physical stamina, as it sometimes involved collecting tributes from local farmers. The magistrate of Korikata, Sakota Tajiuemon-toshinari, was famous for his righteous character.

Sakota observed the suffering of the farmers because of heavy taxes, and resigned, takamori saigo biography of william a poetic warning to the upper bureaucracy on the gates of his office. The poem cautioned that if the office imposed unreasonably heavy taxes on the farmers, it would also, finally, collapse. Saigo learned from Sakota both about the agricultural administration, and about his beliefs and his righteousness.

Although Nariakira was an enterprising and clever person, his father, Narioki, disliked him and did not wish him to be his successor as lord. At that time, Shimazu Narioki was already fifty-eight years old, and his son Nariakira was forty. Takasaki and Kondo were ordered to commit hara-kiri and others were exiled to remote islands. InNariakira became the 28th lord of Satsuma domain.

He immediately began to modernize his domain, setting up the fabrication of steamships, researching the construction of a railway, and establishing an iron industry. In Edo modern TokyoSaigo had the opportunity to work with well-known leaders from other domains. InCommodore Perry arrived with four black-hulled steam frigates at Uraga, near Edo, with a letter from United States President Fillmore demanding the opening of Japanese ports.

Perry returned with twice as many ships in February, A treaty had been prepared embodying virtually all the demands in Fillmore's letter. Perry signed the Convention of Kanagawa on March 31, and departed, mistakenly believing the agreement had been made with imperial representatives. At that time, the foreign policy of Japan was unclear and evasive.

The 13th Shogun Tokugawa Iesada was weak in both spirit and body, and had difficulty overcoming these national crises. He plotted to install Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu later Tokugawa Yoshinobu as the new Shogun, and began to recruit several leaders to join him. Saigo, a favored supporter of the lord Shimazu Nariakira, worked hard to advance his policies in the Imperial court.

Another group, organized by Mizuno Tadanaka, supported Tokugawa Yoshitomi then a teenager as a candidate to become the new Shogun. Mizuno Tadanaka used the subtle strategy of having Ii Naosuke, the lord of Hikone domain, appointed as the great elder the highest-ranked adviser to a Shogun. 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.

This provoked open conflict, although with the elimination of samurai rice stipends intensions were already extremely high. The rebels fought two significant battles against the central government: the Siege of Kumamoto Castle and the Battle of Tabaruzaka. Imperial reinforcements eventually forced their way through the rebel lines at the Battle of Tabaruzaka, ending the siege.

The exact manner of his death is unknown. There are no published reports by eyewitnesses. The accounts of his subordinates claim that he stood up and committed seppuku after his injury or that he requested that his friend Beppu Shinsuke assist his suicide. Three firsthand accounts of the condition of his deceased body exist. It is said that he was shot in the femur, then he thrust a sword into his stomach region, then was decapitated deliberately by a fellow citizen.

All three accounts report that the body was decapitated. Two describe a bullet wound to the hip or thigh. Several samurai, upon seeing him in this state, would have severed his head, assisting him in the warrior's suicide that they knew he would have wished for. Later, they would have said that he committed seppuku to preserve his status as a true samurai.

This was witnessed by the American sea captain John Capen Hubbard. A myth persists that the head was never found. It was believed by some that he had fled to Russiaor ascended to Mars. Unable to overcome the affection that the people had for this paragon of traditional samurai virtues, the Meiji-era government pardoned him posthumously on February 22, The Japanese people appreciated the fact that he remained loyal to his virtues until his death in Contents move to sidebar hide.

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