satsuma rebellion primary sources

Vol. Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified. Szczepanski, Kallie. During the latter years of the Tokugawa shogunate, just prior to the Meiji Restoration, the Satsuma clan began to invest heavily in armaments, building a new shipyard at Kagoshima, two weapons factories, and three ammunition depots. Three years later, he began work in the local bureaucracy as an agricultural adviser, where he continued to work through his brief, childless arranged marriage to 23-year-old Ijuin Suga in 1852. Just about 400 or 500 of the Satsuma samurai escaped the mountain slope on August 19, including Saigo Takamori. In this rebellion, Saigo Takamori, one of the veteran statesmen of the Restoration, who enjoyed a wide popularity and was well versed in military tactics, acted as the head of the insurrection. Three firsthand accounts of the condition of his deceased body exist. A Long History of Japanese Women Warriors, Biography of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 16th Century Unifier of Japan, Overview of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, Bushido: The Ancient Code of the Samurai Warrior, Russo-Japanese War: Admiral Togo Heihachiro, J.D., University of Washington School of Law, B.A., History, Western Washington University. Its name comes from the Satsuma Domain, which had been influential in the Restoration and became home to unemployed samurai after military reforms rendered their status obsolete. Feb. 15, 2023. During war, the mountain artillery had a nominal strength of 160 men per battery and field artillery had 130 men per battery. Monumenta Nipponica The first prints portraying the rebellion did not appear until early March, likely due to government restrictions on coverage "prohibiting the 'publication in newspapers of material about the Army for Subjugation of the Kumamoto Rebels. Saig was severely wounded. 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. [8] It was even recorded that his image appeared in a comet near the close of the 19th century, an ill omen to his enemies. French newsmagazine Le Monde Illustr / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain. Shiba was in the Imperial Army at the time. The head was somehow retrieved by government forces and was reunited with Saig's body, which was laid next to that of his deputies Kirino and Murata. ISBN-13: 9781437338997. Satsuma daimyo Shimazu Hisamitsu did not acknowledge the departing army when the men stopped to bow at the gates of his castle. He initiated a military advance the following month, on February 15, intending to march on Tokyo, because of "questions I intend to press on the government." Gordon, Andrew. With that, Saigo threw his support behind those organizing for a rebellion. In the end, he was killed by the imperial army he organized. On January 30, 1877, the central government launched a raid on the arms and ammunition storage areas in Kagoshima, without any prior warning to the Satsuma authorities. The Battle of Shiroyama ( Shiroyama no tatakai) took place on 24 September 1877, in Kagoshima, Japan. Troops were landed at ita and Saiki north of Saig's army, and Saig was caught in a pincer attack. 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 . Ravina said that the war's scope was much farther than Satsuma, and he characterizes the event as being closer to a civil war than a rebellion. In April of 1871, Saigo was persuaded to return to Tokyo to organize the new national army. In the final battle, the Battle of Shiroyama, 30,000 imperial troops bore down upon Saigo and his few hundreds of surviving rebel samurai. He led his samurai straight up the middle of Kyushu, planning to cross the straits and march on Tokyo. In real life, Saig initially led the Imperial forces and won the four-day Battle of Toba-Fushimi in January 1868. Saigo and his army made a seven-day march south to Hitoyoshi, where they dug trenches and prepared for the imperial army to attack. As commander of Satsuma's troops, Saigo led an 1864 punitive expedition against the Choshu domain, whose army in Kyoto had opened fire on the Emperor's residence. staff and only a handful of students, the university confronted many difficulties in its early years. While the year 1868 was crucial to the fall of the shogunate and the establishment of a new government . The modernization of the country meant the abolition of the privileged social status of the samurai class, and had undermined their financial position. On July 24, the Imperial Army forced Saig out of Miyakonoj, followed by Nobeoka. Rejecting large numbers of volunteers, he made no attempt to contact any of the other domains for support, and no troops were left at Kagoshima to secure his base against an attack. . Economic effects of the Satsuma Rebellion resulted in the passing of the Act of February 4, 1877, which reduced the land tax from 3% to 2.5%. Initial Steps toward a Constitutional State, Preview of [Report of the Artillery Attack Against (Saigo Forces) in Shiroyama], Larger image of [Report of the Artillery Attack Against (Saigo Forces) in Shiroyama], Next ( Petition by Risshisha to Establish a National Assembly ), Chapter1 Initial Steps toward a Constitutional State, a. Conceptions of the Form of Government circa the Meiji Restoration, Chapter4 Crisis in Constitutional Politics. 150,000 YEN UNSIGNED. This rebellion was led by the restoration hero Saig Takamori and lasted six months. OutOfFighters 3 yr. ago. The men were captured, and under torture, confessed that they were spies who had been sent to assassinate Saig. Rather than facing arrest, Gessho and Saigo jumped from a skiff into Kagoshima Bay and were pulled from the water by the boat's crewregrettably, Gessho could not be revived. Rather than risk desertions or defections, Tani decided to stand on the defensive. By 1861, Saigo was well-integrated into the local community. All, perhaps, over-estimated their share in the accomplishment of the Restoration. On February 19, the first shots of the war were fired as the defenders of Kumamoto castle opened fire on Satsuma units attempting to force their way into the castle. A major underlying issue within many cultures in the world is the struggle to either hold on to traditions and values or to move . After two days of fruitless attack, the Satsuma forces dug into the rock-hard icy ground around the castle and tried to starve the garrison out in a siege. Imperial reinforcements eventually forced their way through the rebel lines at the Battle of Tabaruzaka, lifting the siege. SAIGO, who was then living in seclusion, had no choice but to rise to action after the private-school faction beseeched him to do so. [citation needed], In English, the most common name for the war is the "Satsuma Rebellion". Though in Satsuma the rivalry of individual leaders had stopped short of open hostilities, the division of feeling was not less marked. 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. The coming into force in January, 1877, of the edict, issued in the previous year, prohibiting the wearing of swords, was followed by Shimadzu's resignation of the high office he held in the Ministry. The shogun's men were still hunting him, so Saigo went into a three-year internal exile on the small island of Amami Oshima. These cookies track visitors across websites . Since the OP might be interested, here are the pages from the above reading on the Satsuma Rebellion and its aftermath. Sources describe him as dressed in an austere yellow kimono . . The eight-month-long Satsuma Rebellion was the last great rebellion of feudal Japan, quite literally the last stand of the disaffected samurai warriors against the new imperial government, put in place by the Meiji Restoration. Yates, Charles L. "Saigo Takamori in the Emergence of Meiji Japan." The Satsuma rebellion is often presented as an assault by modernity on the noble samurai tradition, but this is an idealized view. The rebellion also effectively ended the samurai class, as the new Imperial Japanese Army built on heimin conscripts had proven itself in battle. Initially he was furious about the junior samurais' actions. The myth stems from the fact that the legions used a phalanx system with spears as primary system before the manipel system was introduced and the Gladius became thr primary weapon for most of the empire. The first thing about which historians often comment is the period's stability. After his failure to take Kumamoto, Saig led his followers on a seven-day march to Hitoyoshi. The rebels' momentum soon stalled when they settled into a months-long siege of Kumamoto Castle, just 109 miles north of Kagoshima. From Kagoshima Through the Siege of Kumamoto Castle." Small-scale rebellions broke out around Japan, and the shogun's troops proved shockingly unable to put down the uprisings. However, the imperial government gradually sent more than 45,000 reinforcements to relieve Kumamoto, finally driving the Satsuma army away with heavy casualties. The Satsuma vanguard crossed into Kumamoto Prefecture on February 14. Two describe a bullet wound to the hip or thigh. The imperial government in Tokyo expected Saigo to come to the capital by sea or to dig in and defend Satsuma. "Saigo Takamori: The Last Samurai." Meanwhile, the Joseon Dynasty in Korea refused to recognize the Mutsuhito as an emperor, because it traditionally recognized only the Chinese emperor as suchall other rulers were mere kings. The artillery consisted of 28 5-pounders, two 16-pounders, and 30 mortars. After that I provided some background information on the samurai and the armor that they wore. A famous bronze statue of Saig in hunting attire with his dog stands in Ueno Park, Tokyo. Format: Paperback. This document is the report by OYAMA Iwao, who led the attack on SAIGO's army at Shiroyama. Morale was extremely low, and lacking any strategy, the Satsuma forces dug in to wait for the next Imperial Army offensive. . The Last Samurai's Katsumoto Moritsugu is based on the iconic Japanese samurai Saig Takamori. The Linked Data Service provides access to commonly found standards and vocabularies promulgated by the Library of Congress. 0 references. shizoku rebellion. Improved Essays. In order to cut Saig off from his base, an imperial force with three warships, 500 policemen, and several companies of infantry landed in Kagoshima on March 8, seized arsenals, and took Satsuma's governor into custody. Satsuma had no reserve of extra weapons and insufficient ammunition for an extended war. 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. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. This opposition reached the boiling point in 1876 when the central government banned samurai from carrying swords and stopped paying them stipends. In either case, his retainer, Beppu Shinsuke, cut off his head to ensure that Saigo's death was honorable. Satsuma Rebellion Part of the ShizokuRebellions Map of the campaign Belligerents Empire of Japan Satsuma Domain Commanders and leaders Emperor Meiji Prince Arisugawa Yamagata Aritomo Kuroda Kiyotaka Tani Tateki Saig Takamori Kirino Toshiaki Beppu Shinsuke Strength 227,000 10 warships 25,000-35,000 Casualties and losses Upload media. On December 25, 1866, the 35-year-old Emperor Komei suddenly died. Wikipedia. However, Saig was one of the most vocal and vehement opponents to the negotiated solution, demanding that the Tokugawa be stripped of their lands and special status. 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. The Satsuma Rebellion was the last civil war in Japan, occurring in the tenth year of the Meiji era (1877), when the Satsuma rebel forces centering on Saig Takamori of Kagoshima collided with the regular army of the new Meiji government not long after it had formed. What the disaffected clans and individuals wanted was a larger share of power. Japan was divided into six military districts: Tokyo, Sendai, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima and Kumamoto, with two or three regiments of infantry, plus artillery and other auxiliary troops, assigned to each district. As was the tradition for samurai in the event of their lord's death, Saigo contemplated committing to accompany Shimazu into death, but the monk Gessho convinced him to live and continue his political work to honor Nariakira's memory instead. The major religious activity of this sect is to chant and meditate the true names (Sat-Nam) of God, specially Rama and Krishna. By May, the rebel army was in retreat southward, with the imperial army picking them off up and down Kyushu until September of 1877. List Price: $31.95. By ending the samurai class's privileges, the Meiji government had essentially abolished their identity, allowing small-scale rebellions to erupt all over Japan. Saigo's troops marched out confidently, sure that samurai in other provinces would rally to their side, but they faced an imperial army of 45,000 with access to unlimited supplies of ammunition. Each side had suffered more than 4,000 killed or wounded. The Satsuma samurai fought on with fierce determination; meanwhile, the defenders ran out of artillery shells. At one point, he offered to visit Korea in person and to provoke a casus belli by behaving in such an insulting manner that the Koreans would be forced to kill him. (2021, September 7). In order to concentrate power, Tokyo needed a national military, rather than relying on the domain lords to supply troops. 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. However, other evidence contradicts this, stating that Saig in fact died of the bullet wound and then had his head removed by Beppu in order to preserve his dignity. However, Saig burned his private papers and army uniform on August 19, and slipped away towards Kagoshima with his remaining able-bodied men. ThoughtCo, Sep. 2, 2021, thoughtco.com/figures-and-events-in-asian-history-s2-3896549. During the siege, many Kumamoto ex-samurai flocked to Saig's banner, swelling his forces to around 20,000 men. Publish Date: Dec 10, 2008. Some legends say Saig's manservant hid the head, and it was later found by a government soldier. Then I introduced the leader of the rebellion. Conscription System in Japan Author : Ogawa, Gataro Year- 1921 Type- book "The Satsuma Rebellion led Japan to turn over a new leaf. the authority of the Mikado's government, and form the nucleus of a permanent force, which was now seen . Buck, James H. "The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. Fighting continued into the night. Browsing subject area: Satsuma Rebellion, 1877 (Exclude extended shelves) You can also browse an alphabetical list from this subject or from: . Rebellions by the samurai, which had broken out sporadically since 1868 (Meiji 1), including the 1869-70 conflict between irregular military units and upper rank samurai commanders in the Choshu domain, gained steam with the collapse of the "conquer Korea debate". All three accounts report that the body was decapitated. [See the print, The outbreak of the rebellion is generally given as January 29, 1877 when "students", really samurai who attended Saig's private schools (, muda in Kagoshima. Modern weapons were also used such as the Smith & Wesson Model No. Zargabraath 3 yr. ago. The conflict of opinions between the conservative internal policy party and the strong foreign policy party resulted in a vehement controversy over the question of an invasion of Korea, and finally led to the great Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. By 1877, he sided with rebel forces and fought in what's now known as the Satsuma Rebellion. [6] In debate, some scholars have suggested that neither is the case and that Saig may have gone into shock following his wound, losing his ability to speak. Determined not to let the rebels escape again, Yamagata sent in a large force which outnumbered the Satsuma army 7:1. To supply troops initially he was killed by the Imperial government in Tokyo Saigo... To either hold on to traditions and values or to dig in and defend.. Take Kumamoto, finally driving the Satsuma army away with heavy casualties and prepared for the Imperial government sent! James H. `` the Satsuma rebellion death was honorable over-estimated their share the! Cultures in the end, he was killed by the restoration hero Saig Takamori and lasted six months 45,000 to. Iwao, who led the attack on Saigo 's army at Shiroyama march to Hitoyoshi forces to around 20,000.. Strategy, the 35-year-old Emperor Komei suddenly died might be interested, here the. 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