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In English, the most common name for the war is the "Satsuma Rebellion". Mark Ravina, the author of The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori, argued that "Satsuma Rebellion" is not the best name for the war because the English name does not well represent the war and its Japanese name. Ravina said that the war's scope was much ...
The Battle of Shiroyama (城山の戦い, Shiroyama no tatakai) took place on 24 September 1877, in Kagoshima, Japan. [3] It was the final battle of the Satsuma Rebellion, where the heavily outnumbered samurai under Saigō Takamori made their last stand against Imperial Japanese Army troops under the command of General Yamagata Aritomo and Admiral Kawamura Sumiyoshi.
Saigō Takamori (or Takanaga) (西鄕 隆盛 [隆永], January 23, 1828 – September 24, 1877) was a Japanese samurai and nobleman. He was one of the most influential samurai in Japanese history and one of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration .
Satsuma Rebellion: An Episode of Modern Japanese History. University Publications of America. ISBN 0-89093-259-X. Ravina, Mark (2004). The Last Samurai : The Life and Battles of Saigō Takamori. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-08970-2.
The shogunate entrusted Satsuma and Aizu with the protection of the Imperial court, against attempts of the Sonnō jōi faction to take over, as in the Kinmon Incident of 1864. The shogunate decided to punish Chōshū for this event with the First Chōshū expedition, under the leadership of a Satsuma retainer, Saigō Takamori.
In the end, Saigō Takamori's forces would number 15,000, and the Imperial Japanese Army, led by Arisugawa Taruhito and Yamagata Aritomo, [2] numbered 90,000. The first days of the battle were marked by heavy rain, which hampered the rebel's ability to resupply. [ 1 ]
Saigō led the Satsuma Rebellion, the largest uprising against the new Meiji government, and died at the Battle of Shiroyama. Kido died from an unknown illness during the Satsuma Rebellion, and Ōkubo was later assassinated by former samurai of the Kaga Domain (modern day Ishikawa Prefecture) for his involvement against the uprising.
Yamagata in 1877 led the newly modernized Imperial Army against the Satsuma Rebellion led by his former comrade in revolution, Saigō Takamori of Satsuma. At the end of the war, when Saigo's severed head was brought to Yamagata, he ordered it washed, and held the head in his arms as he pronounced a meditation on the fallen hero.