It signaled the beginning of the Japanese Imperial Army's rise to domination in eastern Asia, which would end only with Japan's eventual defeat in World War II almost seven decades later. [4], Word of Saig's academies was greeted with considerable concern in Tokyo. academic excellence, an international orientation, and a liberal spirit. Next, I stated the cause of the rebellion and the reaction of the Japanese government. At the start of the Satsuma Rebellion, the Imperial Japanese Army (including the Imperial Guard) numbered approximately 34,000 men. How the Samurai Ended During the Satsuma Rebellion, Overview of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, A Long History of Japanese Women Warriors, The Four-Tiered Class System of Feudal Japan, J.D., University of Washington School of Law, B.A., History, Western Washington University. into one of Japan's leading private universities, with a student body of nearly 14,000 and a multinational faculty of some 1,500 as of 2019. 0 Reviews. The schools resembled paramilitary political organizations more than anything else, and they enjoyed the support of the governor of Satsuma, who appointed disaffected samurai to political offices, where they came to dominate the Kagoshima government. This rebellion was led by the restoration hero Saig Takamori and lasted six months. The new conscript levies initially struggled to defeat Saig, and the government found it necessary to enlist former. Many native infantryman (sepoys) believed that these new cartridges introduced in early 1857 had been greased by cow and pig fat. 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. Szczepanski, Kallie. Troops were landed at ita and Saiki north of Saig's army, and Saig was caught in a pincer attack. They resisted the Imperial forces until they were destroyed to the last man. However, Yamagata was determined to leave nothing to chance. Japanese samurai (18281877) who led the Satsuma Rebellion. 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 Satsuma advance guard, 4,000 strong, set out on February 15, marching north. On February 13 and 14, the Satsuma domain's army of 12,900 organized itself into units. The influential Satsuma samurai, Saigo Takamori, was away at the time and had no knowledge of these events, but hurried home when he heard the news. The Satsuma Rebellion which took place in 1877was the most famous, and the final major instance out of a series of shizoku rebellionsled in the late 1870s by former samuraiof southwestern Japan against the prospect of the Meiji governmentabolishing their elite status and the rice stipends which had traditionally been the samurai's chief or sole Saigo was shot through the femur in the last suicide charge and one of his companions cut off his head and hid it from the imperial troops to preserve his honor. There are no published reports by eyewitnesses. This fighter's primary weapon is a percussion rifle, and the only other 'modern' element of his D: THE SATSUMA REBELLION, 1877 appearance is a white crossbelt supporting a cap pouch on D1: Highranking samurai, rebel army his chest and a cartridge pouch behind his right hip. The Satsuma Rebellion book. He funded but was not directly involved with the schools, so did not know that the students were becoming radicalized against the Meiji government. The Last Samurai chronicles the fortuitous rise and tragic fall of Saig. Saigo Takamori was born on January 23, 1828, in Kagoshima, Satsuma's capital, the oldest of seven children. Saigo's nearly bloodless victory won him national fame, eventually leading to his appointment as an elder of Satsuma in September of 1866. As a result, Takamori and his siblings all shared a single blanket at night even though they were large people, sturdy with a few standing over six feet tall. They retreated once more to Mount Shiroyama, which stands above the city of Kagoshima, where the rebellion began seven months earlier. Blog. The division of feeling which existed in several of the clans following the Meiji Restoration was most conspicuous in Satsuma, Choshiu and Mito. The Imperial Guard (mostly ex-samurai) was always maintained at wartime strength. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/figures-and-events-in-asian-history-s2-3896549. By May, the rebel army was in retreat southward, with the imperial army picking them off up and down Kyushu until September of 1877. The Satsuma Rebellion. One of the most noteworthy incidents in the history of Japan's transition from a feudal regime to a modern state was the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877. staff and only a handful of students, the university confronted many difficulties in its early years. Author: Mounsey, Augustus Henry. Satsuma had no reserve of extra weapons and insufficient ammunition for an extended war. To understand the dynamism of the Meiji years, one must begin with the factors in the Tokugawa era (1600-1868) that made Japan a unique and sophisticated nation. By 6 a.m., only 40 rebels were still alive. The conflict effectively ended the samurai class and ushered in modern warfare fought by conscript soldiers instead of military nobles. Each side had suffered more than 4,000 killed or wounded. As none of the eyewitness accounts mention a wound to the abdomen, or any fresh sword wound at all, it is unknown if Saig pierced his stomach with his sword. Made by Takamura Kun, it was unveiled on December 18, 1898. ISBN-13: 9781142113520. Friction among the Cabinet members over the question of Korean conquest, added to the local disturbances, made the already confused state of things worse confounded, and the result was the famous Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. Founded by a saint named "Birbhan" in 1657 in Narnaul in Haryana. Each man was armed with a small firearmeither a rifle, a carbine, or a pistolas well as 100 rounds of ammunition and, of course, his katana. Satsuma Rebellion The imperial government in Tokyo expected Saigo to come to the capital by sea or to dig in and defend Satsuma. A primary source of its causes and events. Complete Chronicle of the Subjugation of Kagoshima: Illustration of Government Forces Attacking Miyazaki, Illustration of the Rebels Being Suppressed at Kagoshima, October 4, 1877. to undertake publication of Monumenta Nipponica despite these problems symbolized the founders' commitment to Pro-emperor daimyo and radicals called for an end to the shogunate and the expulsion of all foreigners. 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. The surviving rebels made a stand on the slopes of Mount Enodake, and were soon surrounded. ISBN-10: 1142113523. The major religious activity of this sect is to chant and meditate the true names (Sat-Nam) of God, specially Rama and Krishna. traffic source, etc. During war, the mountain artillery had a nominal strength of 160 men per battery and field artillery had 130 men per battery. . By August 17, the Satsuma army had been reduced to 3000 combatants, and had lost most of its modern firearms and all of its artillery. In disgust, Saigo resigned as the army general, imperial councilor, and commander of the imperial guards the next day. They resorted to digging up unexploded Satsuma ordinance and refiring it. Following the repression of the Satsuma Rebellion, a samurai uprising in 1877, Japan again forged ahead toward political unity, but there was an increasing trend of antigovernment protest from below, which was epitomized by the Movement for Peoples Rights. Kyushu, Kysh region, Japan. 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. Ten years passed after the Restoration, and during that time order was gradually restored within the country. In October, the prime minister announced that Saigo would not be allowed to travel to Korea as an emissary. Instance of. The work is generally accurate and has much of . https://www.thoughtco.com/figures-and-events-in-asian-history-s2-3896549 (accessed March 1, 2023). 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. He was settling happily into island life but reluctantly had to leave the island in February of 1862 when he was called back to Satsuma. This includes data values and the controlled vocabularies that house them. Bibliolife DBA of Bibilio Bazaar II LLC, 2014 - 358 pages. The Shigakko students heard that the Meiji ship was coming and emptied the arsenal before it arrived. On March 4, Imperial Army General Yamagata ordered a frontal assault against Tabaruzaka, guarding the approaches to Kumamoto, which developed into an eight-day-long battle. This influential clan was headed by the Shimazu family, which had been founded by Shimazu Tadahisa, son of Minamoto Yoritomo, in the Kamakura period. The artillery battalion was divided into 2 batteries with 130 men per battery. The survivors were out of ammunition, so had to rely on their swords. Dr. Kallie Szczepanski is a history teacher specializing in Asian history and culture. Those men were motivated by growing domestic problems and by the threat of foreign encroachment. By 7 o' clock that morning, all of the Satsuma samurai lay dead. Above all these classes were the Mikado, the secluded divinity of Ki6to, still theo- retically the source of all authority; . ISBN-10: 1437338992. He also cancelled scholarships for Japanese students abroad and fired foreign experts.[8]. Roughly one-half of the work is devoted to the entire course of the rebellion. Names, Romanizations, and Spelling (page 2 of 2), Satsuma Rebellion: Satsuma Clan Samurai Against the Imperial Japanese Army, Organization of Imperial and Satsuma Forces, Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office, Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors, Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, German preWorld War II industrial co-operation, International Military Tribunal for the Far East, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Satsuma_Rebellion&oldid=1121217754, Pages with non-numeric formatnum arguments, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Buck, James H. "The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. [3], To help support and employ these men, in 1874 Saig established a private academy known as the Shi-gakk in Kagoshima. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). https://www.thoughtco.com/the-satsuma-rebellion-195570 (accessed March 1, 2023). 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. (2021, September 7). [2] He wrote poetry under the name Saig Nansh ( ).[3]. Datasets available include LCSH, BIBFRAME, LC Name Authorities, LC Classification, MARC codes, PREMIS vocabularies, ISO language codes, and more. The Last Samurai's Katsumoto Moritsugu is based on the iconic Japanese samurai Saig Takamori. [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. List Price: $31.95. [9], A Japanese hand fan commemorating the event, which survives in the collection of the Staten Island Historical Society in New York, features a depiction of Saig Takamori in a scene labeled (in English) "The Battle Near the Citadel of Kumamoto".[10]. by HistoryNet Staff 6/12/2006 Forty-six other military officers from the southwest resigned as well, and government officials feared that Saigo would lead a coup. Determined not to let the rebels escape again, Yamagata sent in a large force which outnumbered the Satsuma army 7:1. instance of. The Meiji government, with an army numbering 300,000 to 350,000 and was able to cripple the Satsuma rebellion in a matter of months. By 1877, he sided with rebel forces and fought in what's now known as the Satsuma Rebellion. List Price: $32.75. "How the Samurai Ended During the Satsuma Rebellion." 0 references. 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. In real life, Saig initially led the Imperial forces and won the four-day Battle of Toba-Fushimi in January 1868. 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. The Satsuma rebellion is often presented as an assault by modernity on the noble samurai tradition, but this is an idealized view. Each entry is based on a primary source we analysed ; We used a website to compile the entries because it's easier to navigate with; HERE is the link to the primary documents/analysis In the about page there will be a video on the Satsuma Rebellion and a brief paragraph describing what was going on in the rebellion Then we have Luke's entry. 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