Takamori Saigo
Saigo Takamori of Japan is known as the Last Samurai. He is remembered to this day - and mythologized - as the essence of bushido, the samurai code. It is difficult to find the actual man in the myth, but recent scholarship provides us some clues to the true nature of the Last Samurai. He became so significant because everyone looked up to him for what he had done for them.
Saigo Takamori was born on January 23, 1828, in Kagoshima, Satsuma's capital. His father, Saigo Kichibei, was a low-ranking samurai tax official. He was named Saigo Kokichi at birth, but changed his name several times throughout his life. He had six younger siblings - three brothers and three sisters. The family lived on a tiny income, despite their samurai
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Pro-emperor daimyo and extremists called for an end to the shogunate and the expulsion of all foreigners. They saw Japan as the abode gods, since the Emperor was descended from the Sun Goddess, and believed that the heavens would protect them from western military and economic. Saigo supported a stronger role for the Emperor, but didn’t trust the others millennial rhetoric. The Tokugawa regime was falling apart, but it had not yet occurred to Saigo that a future Japanese government might not include a shogun. After all, the shoguns had ruled Japan for 800 years. As commander of Satsuma's troops, Saigo led an 1864 punishing trip against the Choshu domain, whose army in Kyoto had opened fire on the Emperor's residence. Along with troops from Aizu, Saigo's enormous army marched on Choshu, where he negotiated a peaceful settlement rather than launching an attack against them. Later this would turn out to be a crucial decision, since Choshu was Satsuma's major ally in the Boshin War. On January 29, 1865, he married a wealthy samurai's daughter, Iwayama Ito. They would have three children. His success also got the formerly impoverished Saigo appointed as an elder of Satsuma in September,
The movie shows Samurai as warriors in the Edo period, during the 1800’s. They used a sword called a Kataran and a wakizashi which is a smaller sword, much like a dagger, that was used as a samurai's "honour blade" and never left the samurai's side, this was to protect them from harm and they were all taught a martial art called koryū, (which the character’s practice and some are being taught the martial art) which is the way of the Samurai people. The harakiri is a form of ritual that involves suicide, which was shown in the final battle and the last samurai had to
To many Japanese and in particular the samurai and daimyo, the Tokugawa appeared weak in how it had responded to the Western pressure to sign the ‘required’ treaties. “In 1867, Tosa, Mito, Choshu and satsuma daimyo allied with each other against the Tokugawa house.” (Woods, SW. (2004). Japan an Illustrated History (1st Edition). Hippocrene books pg. 111). The citizens of Japan wanted the Emperor to restore power over the Shogun, resulting in the sonno joi (revere the sovereign (Emperor), expel the barbarian.) The influence of Western ideas on some samurai caused some to question Tokugawa’s ideas of how to rule Japan, which is how the sonno joi movement began in 1858. Sonno joi was the movement that satsuma and choshu went through to aim to restore the power of the Emperor and bring down the
Japanese revolts ensue with the opening of Japan to the Western World. The middle and lower classes wanted Japan to be open while the conservative daimyo did not. Both of these groups looked to the emperor for a decision. The shogunate, reliant on the isolation, collapsed under pressures caused by outsid...
Katsu Kokichi lived a rather extraordinary life, under the many privileges of being a bannerman of the shogun. At the time, three classes of vassals served the shogun: daimyo, bannerman, and housemen. Although these vassals held incredible social status, they were not all as noble as one would imagine. In fact, almost a quarter of samurai were unemployed, as there simply weren’t enough official and military posts to accommodate them all. This group of samurai became to be known as ronin. Katsu is part of this group, and although his brothers hold administrative positions at some point in their lives, he is the only male sibling who does not. Rather than lead the generalized prestigious life of a samurai, Katsu uses his high status and enjoys life to the fullest. Although Katsu acknowledges his rather dishonorable life, he in no way shows any regret for his actions, but instead, pride.
Throughout History, there have been many different groups or events that are still widely known today. Groups of people such as the Indians or Vikings are popular groups which are referenced constantly in today’s society. However, none of these groups is more known or referenced than the Japanese Samurai. Originating in 646 AD, these Japanese warriors developed from a loose organization of farmers to the dominant social class in Feudal Japan. Along with their dominant military and political standing, the samurai brought with them a unique code or moral belief that became the core of Samurai culture. Because of this, the Samurai and their principles still affect modern day Japanese society with social customs today deriving directly and indirectly from the beliefs of the Samurai.
It was evident that they had been wrong about how Japan would be better off isolated from Western technology, because it was help from that Western technology that the Imperial army was able to defeat the Satsuma rebels and set the path toward a modernized country. Modern Japan had been passed with its people, and although Saigo’s plan to keep things as they were had ultimately failed and completely did away with the samurai class, his strength and principles were broadcasted through Japan through this battle. Word reached all over the country and made an impression that lasted. A statue was built in his honour in Ueno and the title “traitor” was taken out of his name.
Several testimonies are shown and tell their side of the story as they see it. One is a woodcutter that just wandered to where the body of the dead samurai is and he likely called the authorities. The next is a wandering cleric who noticed a well-armed man and a woman who would not show her face, both were on horseback. Then the testimony of a police officer that arrested a well-known bandit who is a suspect with the previous murder and abduction. The police officer notes that the bandit was well-armed and had a horse matching the description of the horse owned by the samurai victim, but, where is the samurai’s wife?
During the relatively peaceful Tokugawa period, the samurai were not as occupied with waging war as they had been in the past, and as such they had begun devoting their time to other things. The samurai spent more time in intellectual and artistic pursuits, and thanks in part to Tsunetomo himself, the culture of Bushido flourished. Bushido became a formal ideology and was pieced together by the samurai at the time (including Tsunetomo) similar to how Chivalry had been formalized in Europe. Ironically, Tsunetomo had done exactly what he had admonished. While he despaired at the fate of the samurai, becoming more involved in scholarly and artistic activities, he himself was spending time philosophizing on the Way of the Samurai.
The term samurai was first used in the 10th century and means “those who serve”. In the beginning it stood for men who guarded the capital for the Emperor, some where used as tax collectors. Later the word grew to include any military man who served a powerful landlord, almost like a police force for that time. They would go around the countryside on horseback collecting taxes from the peasants, often this was in the form of rice. This money helped the Emperor pay for his lavish life style. The word, samurai, quickly spread and was respected (and maybe feared a little) for the men it represented.
In 1274 The Mongols were invading and conquering much of china and they set their eyes upon Japan. The samurai in Kyushu were outnumbered and at a major disadvantage. A mighty storm came into the area and...
...t only in the code of chivalrous Honor does Loyalty assume paramount importance. The eighth and last virtue is character and self-control. Bushido teaches that men should behave according to an absolute moral standard, one that transcends logic. What’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong. The difference between good and bad and between right and wrong are givens, not arguments subject to discussion or justification, and a man should know the difference. Finally, it is a man’s obligation to teach his children moral standards through the model of his own behavior: The first objective of samurai education was to build up Character. The subtler faculties of prudence, intelligence, and dialectics were less important. Intellectual superiority was esteemed, but a samurai was essentially a man of action. These are the eight virtues of the samurai code bushido.
In this book, the murders happen when the war complicates the selection of the new heir. Sahei Inugami is the man of a success story; his silk company has expanded, as silk production was the major industry in Japan’s industrialization period before World War II. The story starts after the end of World War II at Sahei’s deathbed. All his family members have gathered, excepted Sukekiyo, the grandson who has not returned from the war and most likely to be an heir. The tragedy begins after Shizuma’s appearance that is a son of Sahei and his mistress and had been lost for a long time. Matsuko, Sukekiyo’s mother kills other grandsons; include Shizuma to make way for her son, whom she believes to be the legitimate
The movie, The Last Samurai, filled the theatres in 2003 with its suspenseful plot, exciting battle sequences and historical reference within the script. In the film, The Last Samurai, Americans were portrayed as an influential world power. Thus, a troubled American, Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) is hired to teach the Japanese, American war tactics in order to fight in combat against the Samurai. Through a brutal journey of battle and strife, Nathan is faced with the life or death situation of fighting for his new home and for the last of the Samurai or battle for the land, he is not proud to call his own. The film makes use of the time period, politics, technology, and violence to illustrate the horrors of the real, America.
There are many historical aspects of the Japanese, but the most interesting is the history of the Samurai. In Japans history war played a large role in the country. Controlling clans fought for parts of the land and overall control of the country. These clans were powerful families that resided in the country and who all wanted power and control of Japan for themselves. The families that would be in control were known as Shoguns. These shoguns would have warriors that fought for them if any of the other clan families would try to attack him in order to overthrow him and take his power from him. The Samurai followed a code that developed from Chinese beliefs when in battle. The Samurais code was known as the Bushido. This code was also known as “The Way of The Warrior” which was the main belief s...