It was against this background that the revolt in the southwest of Japan, known as the Satsuma Rebellion and immortalized in the apparent martyrdom of Saigo Takamori, the Last Samurai. The truth was rather more complex than this form of mythmaking would allow but Saigo has subsequently become an important figure in Japan. On some occasions, he has been lauded as a symbol of past virtues now lost from modern Japan, a modern Japan that has now succumbed to immoral consumerism imported from the west. Saigo has even been invested with supernatural and sacred powers by other writers.
No matter how much of Saig's myth was truth, part of his legacy was certainly to bring about the end of the shogunate and to restore power in the hands of the imperial court. Saigo and his colleagues realised that to deal with foreign powers, it was necessary for Japan to speak with one voice. Hence, a centralized bureaucracy must be created instead of the decentralized multiple state that had existed until then. The extent to which they were successful in this modernization attempt may be gauged by the fact that in 1905 Japan was able to engage in war with and defeat Russia, a major European power.
Ravina, Mark, The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori (John Wiley and Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, New Jersey, 2004).
Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Commodore Perry and the Opening of Japan - Page 2 in East Asian History is owned by . Permission to republish Commodore Perry and the Opening of Japan - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
