She has taught at the high school and university levels in the U.S. and South Korea. Even before the Restoration the contentions of rival parties had led in Choshiu to grave disorders, which had weakened that clan in its conflict with the Tokugawa Government; while in Mito the struggle of opposing factions, supporting, respectively, the Shogunate, and the Court party represented by the old Prince of Mito, had resulted in prolonged and fierce fighting. The decision in 1938 staff and only a handful of students, the university confronted many difficulties in its early years. Many former samurai from the area joined Saigo's army, increasing his force to 20,000. However, a government garrison at Kumamoto Castle stood in the Satsuma rebels' path, manned by about 3,800 soldiers and 600 police under Major General Tani Tateki. On September 24, 1877, at 3:45 am, the Emperor's army launched its final assault in what is known as the Battle of Shiroyama. In New England, merchants and farmers struggled to maintain their businesses in a new economy without established European trade or credit lines. 0 references. During war a company's strength was to be increased to 240 privates. They were armed with breech-loading Snider rifles and could fire approximately six rounds per minute. During the Boshin War, Saig led the imperial forces at the Battle of TobaFushimi, and after led the imperial army toward Edo, where he accepted the surrender of Edo Castle from Katsu Kaish. Saigo was disgusted by this treacherous tactic as well. Instance of. Imperial reinforcements eventually forced their way through the rebel lines at the Battle of Tabaruzaka, lifting the siege. The Satsuma advance guard, 4,000 strong, set out on February 15, marching north. By 1861, Saigo was well-integrated into the local community. Format: Paperback. ISBN-13: . Although Satsuma had been one of the key players in the Meiji Restoration and the Boshin War, and although many men from Satsuma had risen to influential positions in the new Meiji government, there was growing dissatisfaction with the direction the country was taking. academic excellence, an international orientation, and a liberal spirit. Legend says that one of his followers, Beppu Shinsuke, acted as kaishakunin and aided Saig in committing seppuku before he could be captured. Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned, returning power to the Emperor in what came to be known as the Meiji Restoration. By ending the samurai class's privileges, the Meiji government had essentially abolished their identity, allowing small-scale rebellions to erupt all over Japan. The Satsuma Rebellion: An Episode of Modern Japanese History ; with Maps. https://www.thoughtco.com/the-satsuma-rebellion-195570 (accessed March 1, 2023). Meanwhile, the remnants of the militaristic faction that supported Saigo's invasion proposal evolved into Japanese right-wing groups such as the genyosha and kokurykai. He excelled more as a scholar than a warrior, reading extensively before he graduated from school at 14 and was formally introduced to the Satsuma in 1841. "Saigo Takamori: The Last Samurai." Satsuma's governor, Oyama Tsunayoshi, explained that the uprising was in response to the government's assassination attempt on Saig, and asked that Admiral Kawamura (Saig's cousin) come ashore to help calm the situation. . Author: Augustus Henry Mounsey. Szczepanski, Kallie. The Satsuma Rebellion - Free ebook download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read book online for free. Led by Daniel Shays, the rebel "Shaysites" of . image. 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. Saigo was getting accustomed to the second island when he was transferred to a desolate penal island further south, where he spent more than a year on that dreary rock, returning to Satsuma only in February of 1864. In April 1877, Saig reorganized the army into nine infantry units of 350 to 800 men each. After receiving reinforcements, the imperial force, now totaling 4,000 men, attacked the rear elements of the Satsuma army and drove them back. Yates, Charles L. "Saigo Takamori in the Emergence of Meiji Japan." Down to about 3,000 men, the Satsuma forces made a stand on Mount Enodake. At the height of the battle, Saig wrote a private letter to Prince Arisugawa, restating his reasons for going to Tokyo. [4], Word of Saig's academies was greeted with considerable concern in Tokyo. The samurai were armed with traditional weapons including katanas, naginata and yari polearms, yumi bows, and Sengoku era gunpowder weapons such as tanegashima, baj-zutsu, and wooden cannons. A battalion had 640 men in peacetime and theoretically 960 men in wartime. Call Number: E315 .H64 2006. Historian Ivan Morris described him as "the quintessential hero of modern Japanese history". With a smaller force, and unsure about the loyalty of his Kyushu-native troops, Tani decided to stay inside the castle rather than venture out to face Saigo's army. List Price: $32.75. By this time much uneasiness prevailed. Ravina, Mark. Battle of Tabaruzaka: Imperial troops on the left, rebel samurai troops on the right, Saigo's army clashes with the government's forces. On the night of April 8, a force from Kumamoto castle made a sortie, forcing open a gap in the Satsuma lines and enabling desperately needed supplies to reach the garrison. Omissions? Although the Satsuma Rebellion far exceeded the next largest disturbance, the 1874 Saga Rebellion of 2, 500 samurai, it followed a general pattern of samurai protest. 2 See Augustus Mounsey, The Satsuma Re-bellion, London, 1879, p. 274 and appendices. RF HA13E4 - The donjon or central keep of the castle is a reconstruction built in the 1970s of the original sacked and burned during the AD.1877 Satsuma rebellion RM P3P0W0 - Battle of Seinan (1877)from Dainihon Rekishi Nishikie, published between late Edo and early Meiji period, Artist Yoshusai (Toyohara) Chikanobu, Private Collection. Updates? After that I provided some background information on the samurai and the armor that they wore. The Daimyo of Satsuma was one of the most powerful and aggressive of the . On January 3, 1868, the Boshin War began with Saigo's army of 5,000 marching forward to attack the shogun's army, numbering three times as many men. Founded by a saint named "Birbhan" in 1657 in Narnaul in Haryana. Over the next two years, the government seized land from the elite samurai and redistributed profits to lower ranked warriors. Takamori's parents also had to borrow money to buy farmland in order to have enough food for the growing family. Ravina, Mark. But this war served as a touchstone to test the ability of the new regime and was an indispensable medium for perfecting the modern institutions and unified organization of the state. The true story that inspired the 2003 Tom Cruise film The Last Samurai, the Satsuma Rebellion (seinan sens, or "Southwestern War" in Japanese) was an 1877 rebellion of disaffected ex-samurai from Satsuma domain against the newly constituted Meiji government of Japan.Led by an erstwhile member of the government's highest circle, the legendary samurai Saigo Takamori, the . Szczepanski, Kallie. He was one of the most influential samurai in Japanese history and one of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration. The first thing about which historians often comment is the period's stability. Saigo soon noted that he had "fallen into their trap and taken the bait" of settling into a siege. By 1877, he sided with rebel forces and fought in what's now known as the Satsuma Rebellion. In either case, his retainer, Beppu Shinsuke, cut off his head to ensure that Saigo's death was honorable. This provoked open conflict, although with the elimination of samurai rice stipends in 1877, tensions were already extremely high. https://www.thoughtco.com/figures-and-events-in-asian-history-s2-3896549 (accessed March 1, 2023). Undeniably, it was one of the most noteworthy incidents during Japan's transition from a feudal regime to a modern state. There are no published reports by eyewitnesses. In reality it was a military college. Imperial forces emerged victorious, but with heavy casualties on both sides. Scene of Satsuma rebellion, triptych. The imperial governments conscript levies were hard-pressed to defeat Saig, but in the end superior transport, modern communications, and better weapons assured victory for the government. [2] He had six siblings and his younger brother was Marshal-Admiral Marquis Saig Jd. The Linked Data Service provides access to commonly found standards and vocabularies promulgated by the Library of Congress. Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Meiji Restoration leader's lessons of sincerity", Names, Romanizations, and Spelling (page 1 of 2), On Saig and the establishment of a railway, "The Apocryphal Suicide of Saig Takamori: Samurai, "Seppuku", and the Politics of Legend", Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saig_Takamori&oldid=1130843774, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles lacking in-text citations from January 2018, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Saig Kichijir (younger brother): Killed in action in the, Saig Kohei (younger brother): Killed in action in the, This page was last edited on 1 January 2023, at 07:05. Next, I stated the cause of the rebellion and the reaction of the Japanese government. ThoughtCo, Sep. 7, 2021, thoughtco.com/the-satsuma-rebellion-195570. Later, they would have said that he committed seppuku to preserve his status as a true samurai.[7]. [citation needed], In English, the most common name for the war is the "Satsuma Rebellion". Although much of his history has been lost, recent scholars have discovered clues to the true nature of this illustrious warrior and diplomat. Not being allowed to travel by sea, he went back to Satsuma by land, following the historic route he and other nobles had so often taken before. However, the shogun began to purge pro-imperial politicians, forcing Gessho to seek Saigo's help in escaping to Kagoshima, where the new Satsuma daimyo, unfortunately, refused to protect the pair from shogun officials. The training provided was not purely academic: although the Chinese classics were taught, all students were required to take part in weapons training and instruction in tactics. ISBN-13: 9781142113520. Soon, more than 1,000 Satsuma samurai appeared and drove off the intruding sailors. Page 1 of 17 - About 161 Essays Improved Essays. Dr. Kallie Szczepanski is a history teacher specializing in Asian history and culture. Details; Description; The government had just dealt with several small but violent samurai revolts in Kysh, and they found the prospect of rebellion by the numerous and fierce Satsuma samurai, led by the famous and popular Saig, an alarming one. His lord, Kimotsuki Hisakane ( , 1641-1709), who was a retainer of the Satsuma fief, sent Yasusada () to study with the 57 th generation Naminohira smith . In February 1877, the Meiji government dispatched Hayashi Tomoyuki, an official with the Home Ministry with Admiral Kawamura Sumiyoshi in the warship Takao to ascertain the situation. Just four days after his return, he had an audience with the daimyo, Hisamitsu, who shocked him by appointing him commander of the Satsuma army in Kyoto. Upload media. 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