Satsuma Rebellion (1877): Saigo Takamori and the Last Samurai

The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 was the last great armed challenge to Japan’s Meiji government. Former samurai from Kagoshima, the old Satsuma domain, rose under Saigo Takamori, one of the heroes of the Restoration, and marched north before being defeated by the new conscript army. Saigo’s death at Shiroyama on 24 September 1877 ended the age of samurai revolt and made him a legend.

Background: the samurai lose their privileges

The Meiji Restoration of 1868 had been won largely by samurai from Satsuma and Choshu, and Saigo Takamori commanded the imperial forces in the Boshin War. Yet the government they created set about dismantling the samurai class. The domains were abolished in 1871, a conscript army open to commoners was introduced in 1873, the wearing of swords in public was banned in March 1876, and in August 1876 samurai stipends were compulsorily converted into government bonds.

Saigo himself left the government in October 1873. While the Iwakura Mission was abroad he had pressed to go as an envoy to Korea, a step that might have led to war, and the returning leaders, including his old friend Okubo Toshimichi, overruled him. Saigo went home to Kagoshima, where he founded private schools (shigakko) that combined military training with Confucian study and enrolled thousands of young former samurai.

Kagoshima became almost a state within the state, ignoring many government orders. The prefectural governor, Oyama Tsunayoshi, sympathised with Saigo, and many local posts were filled by his followers; Oyama was executed after the rebellion for the support he gave it. Other revolts by discontented samurai, such as the Saga Rebellion of 1874 and the Shinpuren, Akizuki and Hagi uprisings of 1876, were crushed quickly, but Satsuma was far stronger.

The outbreak

In late January 1877 the government tried to remove weapons and ammunition from the arsenal in Kagoshima. On the night of 29 to 30 January students of Saigo’s schools raided the arsenal and seized arms. At the same time local authorities arrested a group of police officers sent from Tokyo, one of whom, under torture, confessed to a plot to assassinate Saigo.

Saigo, who had not planned the raid, agreed to lead his followers to Tokyo to “question the government”. In mid-February 1877, in unusual snowfall, a force of about 13,000 men set out north. With volunteers from other parts of Kyushu, the rebel army grew to perhaps 30,000 at its peak.

The siege of Kumamoto and Tabaruzaka

The rebels’ first objective was Kumamoto Castle, held by a garrison of about 3,500 to 4,000 men under General Tani Tateki. The siege began on 22 February. Saigo’s officers, led by Kirino Toshiaki, expected the conscripts to collapse, but the garrison held for some seven weeks.

The government rushed troops by sea and land under Yamagata Aritomo. The decisive fighting took place at Tabaruzaka, a sunken road north of Kumamoto, where the two armies fought for about two weeks in March in some of the heaviest combat of the war. Government forces broke through and relieved Kumamoto on 14 April 1877.

The government’s advantages were decisive. It could move troops and supplies by steamship and use the telegraph to coordinate them, and over the course of the war it mobilised roughly 60,000 soldiers and police. Among the police were many former samurai from domains that had fought against Satsuma in 1868, including men from Aizu. Some of them formed sword-armed units, known as the Battotai, that fought in the close combat at Tabaruzaka.

Retreat and the battle of Shiroyama

From then on the rebels were on the defensive. They retreated through central and southern Kyushu, losing men, money and supplies, and suffered a major defeat near Nobeoka in August. Saigo disbanded most of his army and, with a few hundred loyal followers, broke through government lines and returned to Kagoshima at the beginning of September.

The survivors dug in on Shiroyama, a hill above the city, where Saigo spent his last days sheltering in a small cave that is now a historic site. Government forces, numbering around 30,000, surrounded them. Early on 24 September 1877 they launched the final assault. Saigo was wounded, and according to most accounts his companion Beppu Shinsuke beheaded him. Kirino and almost all the remaining rebels died fighting.

Key people

• Saigo Takamori (1828–1877): Satsuma leader, hero of the Restoration and commander of the rebellion.
• Okubo Toshimichi (1830–1878): Saigo’s boyhood friend and the dominant figure in the government he fought.
• Yamagata Aritomo (1838–1922): Army leader who directed the government campaign and built the conscript army.
• Tani Tateki (1837–1911): Commander who held Kumamoto Castle.
• Kirino Toshiaki (1838–1877): Saigo’s leading officer, killed at Shiroyama.

Consequences and legacy

The rebellion was costly. Each side lost roughly 6,000 to 7,000 dead according to common estimates, and the government spent more than 40 million yen, which fuelled inflation. Its victory proved that an army of conscripted commoners could defeat the samurai, and armed opposition to the Meiji state ended. Political opposition shifted to the movement for freedom and people’s rights, which demanded a parliament and helped bring about the Meiji Constitution of 1889.

Okubo was assassinated in Tokyo on 14 May 1878 by former samurai sympathetic to Saigo. The war also gave rise to the Hakuaisha, a relief society founded in 1877 to treat the wounded of both sides, which became the Japanese Red Cross Society.

Saigo’s reputation recovered remarkably fast. He was pardoned posthumously in 1889, and a bronze statue of him with his dog was unveiled in Ueno Park, Tokyo, in 1898. He came to be remembered as the “last true samurai”, a symbol of loyalty, sincerity and sacrifice, an image used by later nationalists and loosely echoed in the 2003 Hollywood film The Last Samurai.

Myths and facts

• Myth: Sword-wielding samurai fought against a modern army with guns. Fact: The rebels were armed mainly with rifles and had some artillery; their real weaknesses were shortages of ammunition, money and supplies.
• Myth: Saigo fought to restore the old feudal order. Fact: His aims were never clearly stated; he presented the march as a protest to the government in loyalty to the emperor, and he had himself helped abolish the domains in 1871.
• Myth: Saigo certainly committed ritual suicide. Fact: The details of his death are uncertain; most accounts say he was wounded and then beheaded by a companion.
• Myth: The film The Last Samurai tells the story of the rebellion. Fact: Its plot and main characters are invented, though they draw on events of the 1870s.

Timeline

• 1873, October: Saigo resigns from the government after the Korea debate.
• 1876, March and August: Sword ban and compulsory commutation of samurai stipends.
• 1877, 29-30 January: Saigo’s students raid the Kagoshima arsenal.
• 1877, mid-February: The rebel army marches north from Kagoshima.
• 1877, 22 February: The siege of Kumamoto Castle begins.
• 1877, March: Battle of Tabaruzaka.
• 1877, 14 April: Government forces relieve Kumamoto.
• 1877, 24 September: Battle of Shiroyama; Saigo dies.
• 1878, 14 May: Okubo Toshimichi is assassinated.

Why it matters

The Satsuma Rebellion settled the question of who would hold armed power in modern Japan: the state and its conscript army, not a hereditary warrior class. It closed the turbulent first decade of the Meiji era and created one of the most powerful myths in Japanese history.