by John Man
So far, so good. But in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries he also became the symbol of more ominous views. He was, after all, the embodiment of Japan’s ideals: loyalty to the emperor and devotion to duty, both proven by his glorious, self-sacrificial death. Now, as one who had advocated the invasion of Korea, he became an inspiration for those so-called pioneer patriots who argued that Japan had an imperial mission to fulfill. She would become the bulwark against a hostile China and a Russia eager to seize Japanese territory and (after 1917) spread the plague of Bolshevism. Manchuria was increasingly Japan’s bridgehead, a base for colonists and for traders. From there, China would be absorbed, and the Europeans driven from their enclaves. In the 1930s, Japan took over Manchuria and established what was planned to be the original Great East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere. It didn’t work out, because Japanese tanks and planes were stopped by the Russians and the Mongols in 1938, at a place called Khalkhin Gol in eastern Mongolia. This, the second greatest tank battle of all time, is very little known in the West, but hugely significant, because it turned the Japanese imperial gaze away from inner Asia toward Southeast Asia and the Pacific, a change of tack that in December 1941 led to Pearl Harbor. By then, Saigo was no more than a wraith in the Japanese war machine, but his ideals were still those of Japanese officers: reverence for the emperor, disdain for foreigners, self-sacrifice in battle.
And it goes on, with ramifications that were not at all malign, not even particularly Japanese, simply human. The legends—especially the story of Yamagata weeping over Saigo’s head—were convincing because they were so right, so befitting the arc of Saigo’s epic: a deserving young man with the right spirit moves from insignificance and poverty to fame and influence, undergoes a Christlike rejection and a sort of crucifixion, and, because he has been true to his ideals, is finally restored to glory. In the postwar years and again in the austerity years of the 1990s, Saigo’s story contained the welcome message that there was dignity to be found in defeat.
A hero he remains, as opposed to Okubo, his childhood friend and then enemy, whose end was also dramatic, if a lot faster. Okubo was in power only briefly after Saigo’s death, until a spring morning six months after the end of the rebellion, when seven samurai set upon him while he was walking near the imperial palace and killed him. They were objecting to the revolution of which he was the driving force, but they were too late. Industrialization and militarization continued at a frantic pace for the next twenty years, culminating in Japan’s victory over the Russian fleet in 1905. In a sense, the unified nation and that victory were Okubo’s true memorial. A great man, certainly, a visionary, a political genius; but never beloved, as Saigo was. With his carefully cultivated muttonchop whiskers and his Western clothes, he played formality to Saigo’s impracticality, compromise to Saigo’s rigid idealism, cold to Saigo’s warmth.
What was it about Saigo? His story reveals many reasons for his appeal. Forget the legendary Saigo: there is enough in the real Saigo to make him a storybook tragic hero. First, he is a highflier. Aristotle said the hero had to be a royal to generate respect, but nowadays we find it more impressive to see someone start low and achieve greatness. Second, he is a man of many admirable virtues—generosity, courage, stoicism, intelligence and ambition, among others. Third, though virtuous, he is flawed, for he is unbending in his virtue, willing not only to die but also to impose death on others. Fourth, because he is unbending, he is doomed to confront those who are more flexible, more practical, more compromising. So (fifth), there is no way out for him but death, which he chooses freely. There is no external fate that has it in for him; his fate is his own powerful, flawed character. And he dies as if onstage or in film, in high drama. He could not be a tragic hero if, for example, he just fell into a river or had a heart attack.
Last—and this is what explains his unique position in Japan—he is not an American-style superhero, defeating villains and saving the world. It is not even possible to imagine in what way a Satsuma victory in 1877 would have saved anyone from anything. Turning back the clock, keeping the samurai in power, casting out foreigners? That sounds as much like failure as success. Anyway, it was impossible. He was doomed to fail, and that’s the point. There is a sort of glory in death facing fearful odds; but in the West, we prefer heroes who face fearful odds and win. If they happen to lose, they become tragic, but they lose by miscalculation or bad luck. In Japan, they like heroes who know they are going to die, and therefore make sure they do so. Saigo is an extreme form of this, in that he willed his own destruction several times over, succeeding only after several failures. He might have said, like a Romantic poet, “I have been half in love with easeful Death.” But Keats’s dreamed-of death was a sort of drink- and laudanum-induced haze; no heroism there. Saigo dreamed not of an easeful death, but of a hard one: a death of action, gore and glory that came not from the cause but the fact of self-sacrifice. He was indeed the last of the samurai, in that his death on Shiroyama ended the dream of a samurai revival. But in another sense a spirit such as his cannot be killed. Its peculiar uselessness ensured his survival, and the survival of the samurai ethos, at the heart of Japanese culture.
It was this that made him the spiritual ancestor of the kamikaze pilots of the Second World War, who, like Saigo, acted out of loyalty to their emperor, knowing not only that they were going to die, but also that their gesture was entirely impractical. It would not save the nation in reality; but it would do so in spirit, by expressing the self-destructive courage, the nobility of failure, that was so much part of the Japanese character.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My research would have been impossible without the committed and expert help of Yamasaki Michiko (IS Interpreters Systems) in Kagoshima; general thanks also to Taka Oshikiri, SOAS, for help on translation; Colin Young, swordsman; Alan Cummings and Angus Lockyer, SOAS.
Many thanks to the following for their help:
In Kyoto: Noriko Ansell.
In Kagoshima: Fukuda Kenji, Museum of Meiji Restoration; Matsuo Chitoshi, Shokoshuseikan Museum (Shimazu History Museum); Kukita Masayuki, Kagoshima Prefectural Museum of Culture Reimeikan; Narasako Hidemitsu, director general, Kagoshima Prefectural Visitors Bureau and his wonderful staff, including Matsunaga Yukichi, Higashi Kiyotaka and Morita Mikiko; Takayanagi Tsuyoshi, Saigo Nanshu Memorial Museum; Yamaguchi Morio, guide; and Saigo Takafumi, artist, potter and president of the Saigo Takamori Dedication Organization.
In Amami Oshima: Yasuda Soichiro, Hisaoka Manabu, Sakita Mitsunobu and Ryu Shoichiro, all of the Saigo Nanshu Memorial Association.
In Okinoerabu: Oyama Yasuhiro, Saoda Tomio, Minami Sanekatsu, Take Yoshiharu and Nagao Futoshi, all of the Saigo Nanshu Memorial Association.
In Kumamoto: Kuskabe Kazuhide, guide.
In Miyazaki: Kodama Gosei, Saigo Takamori Lodging Place Museum.
As ever, Felicity Bryan and all at her agency, Gillian Somerscales, for superb editing, and all at Transworld: Doug Young, Simon Thorogood, Sheila Lee and Philip Lord.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The best detailed biographies of Saigo in English are those of Ravina and Yates. Both have extensive bibliographies. The remaining works in this list are my other main sources.
Adamson, Christopher. “Tribute, Turf, Honor and the American Street Gang: Patterns of Continuity and Change since 1820.” Theoretical Criminology, February 1998, 2 (1).
Booth, Alan. Looking for the Lost: Journeys through a Vanishing Japan. New York: Kodansha, 1996.
Bottomley, Ian and Anthony Hopson. Arms and Armor of the Samurai. New York: Crescent Books, 1988.
Buck, James H. “The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877: From Kagoshima through the Siege of Kumamoto Castle.” Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 28, no. 4 (Winter 1973).
Conlan, Thomas C. (trans. and interpretive essay). In Little Need of Divine Intervention: Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001.
Conroy, Hilary. The Japanese Seizure of Korea, 1868–1910: A
Study of Realism and Idealism in International Relations. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1960.
Dore, R. P. Education in Tokugawa Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965.
Fairbank, John K., ed. Cambridge History of China, vol. 10: Late Ch’ing, 1800–1911. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
Freeman-Mitford, Algernon, Lord Redesdale. Tales of Old Japan. Los Angeles: Aegypan Press, 2009.
Harris, Victor and Nobuo Ogasawara. Swords of the Samurai. London: British Museum, 1990.
Hawks, Francis. Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan under the command of Commodore M. C. Perry. New York: D. Appleton & Co.; London: Trubner & Co., 1856.
Horowitz, Ruth and Gary Schwartz. “Honor, Normative Ambiguity and Gang Violence.” American Sociological Review, vol. 39, no. 2 (April 1974).
Ihara Saikaku. The Great Mirror of Male Love (trans. Paul Schalow). Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1990.
———. Tales of Samurai Honor. Tokyo: Monumenta Nipponica, 1991.
Ikegami Eiko. The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Inazo Nitobe. Bushido: The Soul of Japan. Tokyo: Kodansha, 2002. (First publ. 1900.)
Katsu Kokichi. Musui’s Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai (trans. and ed. Teruko Craig). Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1988.
McCullough, Helen Craig, trans. and ed. The Taiheiki: A Chronicle of Medieval Japan. New York: Charles Tuttle/Columbia University Press, 1959.
McLaren, W., ed. “Japanese Government Documents.” Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. 42 (1914).
Makato Sugawara. Lives of Master Swordsmen. Tokyo: East Publications, 1996.
Marius B. Jansen, ed. Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 5: The Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Mason, R. H. P. and J. G. Caiger. A History of Japan (rev. ed.). North Clarendon, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1997.
Mathers, E. Powys, trans. Eastern Love, vol. 7: Comrade Loves of the Samurai by Saikaku Ebara and Songs of the Geishas, limited ed. London: John Rodker, 1928.
Morris, Ivan. The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan. London: Secker & Warburg, 1975. (Contains an excellent chapter on Saigo.)
Mounsey, Augustus. The Satsuma Rebellion: An Episode of Modern Japanese History. London: John Murray, 1879.
Mushakoji Saneatsu. Great Saigo: The Life of Saigo Takamori, trans. and adapted by Moriaki Sakamoto. Tokyo: Kaitakusha, 1942. (Extremely rare. The only copy I found listed is in the Australian National Library.)
Myamoto Musashi. The Book of Five Rings (trans. William Scott Wilson). Tokyo, New York and London: Kodansha, 2001.
Nock, Elizabeth Tripler. “The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877: Letters of John Capen Hubbard.” Far Eastern Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 4 (August 1948), pp. 368–75.
Ravina, Mark. The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2004.
Roberts, John. The New Penguin History of the World, rev. ed. London: Penguin, 2004.
Safilios-Rothschild, Constantina. “‘Honour’ Crimes in Contemporary Greece.” British Journal of Sociology, vol. 20, no. 2 (June 1969).
Satow, Sir Ernest. A Diplomat in Japan. San Diego, Calif.: Stone Bridge Press, 2006. (First pub. London: Seeley, Service & Co., 1921.)
Shigeno Yasutsugu. Saigo Nanshu Itsuwa. Tokyo: Shoyu Kurabu, 1998.
Shinichi Miyazawa. Englishmen and Satsuma, limited ed. Kagoshima: Takishobou-Shuppan, 1988.
Sinclaire, Clive. Samurai: The Weapons and Spirit of the Japanese Warrior. Guildford, Conn.: Lyons Press, 2004.
Takehiko Ideishi. The True Story of the Siege of Kumamoto Castle, trans. James Buck. New York: Vantage Press, 1976.
Turnbull, Stephen. The Lone Samurai and the Martial Arts. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1990.
———. The Samurai Sourcebook. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1998.
Yamakawa Kikue. Women of the Mito Domain: Recollections of Samurai Family Life (trans. Kate Wildman Nakai). Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, c. 1992.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo. Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai (trans. William Scott Wilson). Tokyo, New York and London: Kodansha, 2009.
Yates, Charles L. Saigo Takamori: The Man behind the Myth. London: Kegan Paul, 1995.
INDEX
The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your e-book reader’s search tools.
Abbot’s Hall, Tofuku, 103
Adachi Yasumori, 22
Aikana. see Ryu Aikana (wife of Saigo)
Ainu people, war aginst, 15
Aizu (Mutsu province), and Satsuma, 163, 167
Akadani, Saigo at, 265
Akizuki, League of the “Divine Wind,” 216
All-Japan Swordsmith Association, 56
Amami Oshima
Kagoshima samurai and, 200
Saigo exiled to, 125
Saigo’s life in, 127–137, 154–156
Americans
first arrival, 68–75
Harris Treaty, 95, 104, 133
Anglo-Satsuma War, 149–151, 157–162
Ansei Purge, 119
Arai Hakuseki, Told around a Brushwood Fire, 60
Arao, swordmaking, 55–60
Argus (ship), 161
Arisugawa, Prince, 232, 234
armies, financing of, 16–17
armor
development, 62–63
as display, 64
Armstrong cannons, 174, 183, 186, 234
Asano Takumi no Kami, Lord, 79–80
Asauemon (official executioner), 82
assassination plot, fabricated, 218–220, 241
Atsuhime, Nariakira’s daughter, 93, 94–95
Banba town, graveyard, 77–78
Beppu Shinsuke, 278, 279–281, 288, 289
Biddle, Commodore James, 69
Bismarck, Otto von, 205
Booth, Alan, Looking for the Lost, 49, 263, 267
Borradaile, Margaret, 149–150
Boshin War (Earth-Dragon War), 183–186
boys
education, 26–28
samurai and, 96–100
Brinkley, Frank, A History of the Japanese People, 213
Britain
Anglo-Satsuma War, 149–151, 157–162
First Opium War, 42–45, 49
Foreign Office, and Richardson murder, 151, 157–162
and Satsuma, 174–178
students smuggled to, 173–174
Buddhism, 51, 77, 100, 108, 124. see also Confucianism
Shugendo sect, 258–259
temple schools, 26
temples, 51, 84–85, 102–103
bushi (landowning warriors), 16–18
Bushido, 80, 82, 111–117
calendar, xv
China
clash over Taiwan, 198–199, 213
Confucian education, 26–30
First Opium War, 42–45, 49
influences during isolation, 107
and Ryukyu Islands, 40
Chinese script (kanji), 29
Choshu (Nagato province), and Satsuma, 163–164, 166–167, 169–170, 172, 174–178
Christians, 40, 115–116, 216, 294–295
expulsion, 91, 107
civil war, “Period of the Country at War,” 24
comet, Saigo’s, 285
Confucianism, 26, 27, 35, 114, 155, 193, 209, 212, 293
education, 26–30
Neo-Confucianism, 35
Confucius, Four Books, 28–30
Conlan, Thomas, In Little Need of Divine Intervention, 21–24
Council of Elders, 95
Saigo and, 171
criminal gangs (yakuza), 62
criminals, execution
schoolboys and, 31–32
sword testing on, 58, 76
Cruis
e, Tom, 2–3
daimyos “great names,” 24–25
become governors, 190–191
required Edo residence, 79, 88, 108
death preoccupation, 114–117
d’Arrest, Ludwig, 285
Divine Wind (kamikaze), and Mongol invasions, 24
domain leaders meeting, 178–180
domain schools education, Kyushu, 35–36
domains, abolition, 193–194
Dutch traders, 42, 46, 68, 69, 107