Saigō Takamori
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Saigō Takamori was a Japanese samurai and politician who was one of the most influential figures in Japanese history. He played a key role in the Meiji Restoration, which overthrew the Tokugawa shogun
Posthumous portrait by C. Nakagawa
Monument marking Saigō's birthplace in Kagoshima
Shimazu Nariakira
Amami Ōshima, the site of Saigō's first exile from 1859 to 1862
Satsuma Rebellion
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The Satsuma Rebellion, known more widely in Japanese as the Seinan War, was a revolt of disaffected samurai against the new imperial government of the Empire of Japan, nine years into the Meiji era. I
Saigō Takamori
…in 1868, and subsequently served in the new Meiji government. However, he later became disillusioned with the direction of the new regime and led the Satsuma Rebellion against it in 1877, in which he was killed. Saigō and his men were completely out gunned. After all his men had been killed, and after taking a bullet…
Saigō Takamori (seated, in French uniform), surrounded by his officers, in traditional attire. News article in Le Monde illustré, 1877. This painting was imagined and depicted by a French illustrator, portraying a central figure seated in a Western-style military uniform on a chair, likely based on hearsay as Saigō Takamori. The entourage surrounding him, all dressed in heavily armored samurai attire from the 1500s, is entirely a product of the French artist's imagination and is almost entirely inaccurate.
Imperial Japanese Army officers of the Kumamoto garrison, who resisted Saigō Takamori's siege, 1877
The clash at Kagoshima
Imperial troops embarking at Yokohama to fight the Satsuma rebellion in 1877