SAIGO TAKAMORI

born Dec. 7, 1827, Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan died Sept. 24, 1877, Kagoshima original name Kichibe, or Kichinosuke, literary name Nanshu a leader in the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate who later rebelled against the weaknesses he saw in the Imperial government that he had helped to restore. Although his participation in the restoration made him a legendary hero, it also, to his mortification, relegated his samurai class to impotence. Additional reading Of the many Japanese-language biographies of Saigo, Saneatsu Mushakoji, Great Saigo (1942), is the only one translated and published in English. Also useful is the biographical essay in Ivan Morris, The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan (1975).