Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T21:35:53.721Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Apocryphal Suicide of Saigō Takamori: Samurai, Seppuku, and the Politics of Legend

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2010

Mark J. Ravina
Get access

Abstract

According to standard reference works, the Meiji leader Saigō Takamori committed ritual suicide in 1877. A close reading of primary sources, however, reveals that Saigō could not have killed himself as commonly described; instead, he was crippled by a bullet wound and beheaded by his followers. Saigō's suicide became an established part of Japanese history only in the early 1900s, with the rise of bushidō as a national ideology. By contrast, in the 1870s and 1880s, the story of Saigō's suicide was just one of many fantastic accounts of his demise, which also included legends that he ascended to Mars or escaped to Russia. Remarkably, historians have treated Saigō's suicide as an unproblematic account of his death, rather than as a legend codified some four decades later. This essay links the story of Saigō's suicide to the rise of modern Japanese nationalism, and examines other Saigō legends as counternarratives for modern Japan.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 69 , Issue 3 , August 2010 , pp. 691 - 721
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Arima, Tatsuo. 1969. The Failure of Freedom: A Portrait of Modern Japanese Intellectuals. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brownlee, John S. 1998–99. Review of Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan, edited by Stephen Vlastos. Pacific Affairs 71 (4): 579–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buck, James H. 1959. “The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877: An Inquiry into Some of Its Military and Political Aspects.” PhD diss., American University.Google Scholar
Chamberlain, Basil Hall. 1912. The Invention of a New Religion. London: Watts & Co.Google Scholar
Chiba, Tokuji. 1991. Tatakai no genzō: minzoku to shite no bushidō [The original state of combat: Bushidō as ethnos]. Tokyo: Heibonsha.Google Scholar
Dai Saigō zenshū henshū iinkai, , ed. 1926. Dai Saigō zenshū [The complete works of Saigō the Great]. 3 vols. Tokyo: Heibonsha.Google Scholar
Doak, Kevin M. 1999. Review of Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan, by Takashi Fujitani. Journal of Japanese Studies 25 (1): 206–11.Google Scholar
Duus, Peter. 1998. Modern Japan. 2nd ed.Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Sakutarō, Fujioka. 1902. Nihonshi kyōkasho [Japanese history textbooks]. 2 vols. Tokyo: Kaiseikan.Google Scholar
Fukumoto, Nichinan. 1912. “Dai Saigō ga kattara dō naru ka” [What if Saigō the Great had won?]. Bōken sekai 5 (12): 79–80.Google Scholar
Fukuzawa, Yukichi. 2002. Fukuzawa Yukichi chosaku shū [Selected works of Fukuzawa Yukichi]. Ed. Takao, Sakamoto. 12 vols. Tokyo: Keiō daigaku shuppankai.Google Scholar
Garon, Sheldon. 1997. Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday Life. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gluck, Carol. 1985. Japan's Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gordon, Andrew. 2003. The Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Osamu, Hizume. 2004. “Dai ni-kai: Tsuda Sanzō to Seinan sensō” [Tsuda Sanzō and the War of the Southwest, part II]. Ōtsu-shi rekishi hakubutuskan. http://www.rekihaku.otsu.shiga.jp/note/02.html [accessed February 17, 2007].Google Scholar
Asajirō, Honda. 1902. Shinpen Nihon rekishi kyōkasho [Japanese history textbooks, new edition]. Vol. 2. Tokyo: Uchida Rōkakuho.Google Scholar
Humphreys, Leonard A. 1995. The Way of the Heavenly Sword: The Japanese Army in the 1920s. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takaaki, Ikai. 1992. Saigō Takamori: Seinan sensō e no michi [Saigō Takamori: The road to the War of the Southwest]. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.Google Scholar
Takaaki, Ikai. 2004. “Shizoku hanran to Saigō densetsu” [Samurai rebellions and Saigō legends]. In Meiji ishin to bunmei kaika, Nihon no jidaishi [The Meiji Restoration and civilization and enlightenment: A history of Japan by period], vol. 21, ed. Masahito, Matsuo, 275–302. Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan.Google Scholar
Ikegami, Eiko. 1995. The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kiyoshi, Inoue. 1966. Meiji Ishin, Nihon no rekishi 20 [The Meiji Restoration, a history of Japan]. Tokyo: Chūō kōronsha.Google Scholar
Kiyoshi, Inoue. 1970. Saigō Takamori. 2 vols. Tokyo: Chūkō shinsho.Google Scholar
Tetsujirō, Inoue. 1901. Bushidō. Tokyo: Heiji zasshi sha.Google Scholar
Kagoshima-ken, , ed. 1879. Teichū rangai [An outline of the rebellion of 1877]. 2 vols. Kagoshima, Japan.Google Scholar
Kagoshima-ken ishin shiryō hensanjo, , ed. 1978–80. Kagoshima-ken shiryō: Seinan sensō [Sources for the history of Kagoshima prefecture: The War of the Southwest]. 3 vols. Kagoshima: Kagoshima-ken.Google Scholar
Tokuomi, Kaigo, ed. 1961–67. Nihon kyōkasho taikei kindaihen [An outline of modern Japanese textbooks]. 27 vols. Tokyo: Kōdansha.Google Scholar
Kaigunshō, , ed. 1885. Meiji jūnen seinan seitōshi [A history of the 1877 subjugation of the Southwest]. 5 vols. Tokyo: Kaigunshō.Google Scholar
Tsuneki, Kajiki. 1912. Satsunan ketsurui shi [A history of Satsunan (Satsuma and the south) in blood and tears]. Tokyo: Satsunan ketsurui shi hakkōsho.Google Scholar
Yashi, Kakuroku. 1900. Satchōbaku sanketsuden [Three heroes of Satsuma, Chōshū and the bakufu]. Tokyo: Uedaya shoten.Google Scholar
Yashi, Kakuroku. 1909. Meiji sanketsu den [Three heroes of Meiji]. Tokyo: Seirindō.Google Scholar
Karlin, Jason G. 2002. “The Gender of Nationalism: Competing Masculinities in Meiji Japan.” Journal of Japanese Studies 28 (1): 41–77.Google Scholar
Karlin, Jason G. Forthcoming. “The Formation of Modern Imperial Japan from the Perspective of Gender.” In Gender, Nation and State in Modern Japan, ed. Mackie, Vera, Woehr, Ulrike, and Germer, Andrea. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Magoya, Katsuta. 1894. Saigō Takamori den [A biography of Saigō Takamori]. Tokyo: Shigensha.Google Scholar
Takesada, Kawaguchi. [1878] 1988. Jūsei nikki [A diary of the expeditionary mission (in the Southwest)]. 2 vols. Kumamoto: Seichōsha.Google Scholar
Hiroshi, Kawahara. 1971. Saigō densetsu [Saigō legends]. Tokyo: Kōdansha.Google Scholar
Keene, Donald. 1964. “Japanese Writers and the Greater East Asia War.” Journal of Asian Studies 23 (2): 209–25.Google Scholar
Ketelaar, James Edward. 1990. Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan: Buddhism and Its Persecution. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kinmonth, Earl H. 1981. The Self-Made Man in Meiji Japanese Thought: From Samurai to Salary Man. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Naoyuki, Kinoshita, and Shun'ya, Yoshimi. 1999. Nyūsu no tanjō: kawaraban to shinbun nishikie no jōhō sekai [The birth of the news: The information world of kawaraban and illustrated newspapers]. Tokyo: Tōkyō daigaku shuppankai.Google Scholar
Zenji, Koishikawa. 1998. Ōtsu jiken to Meiji tennō [The Ōtsu incident and the Meiji emperor]. Tokyo: Hihyōsha.Google Scholar
Kokuryūkai, , ed. 1908–11. Seinan kiden [A historical record of the (War of the) Southwest]. 3 vols. Tokyo: Kokuryūkai honbun.Google Scholar
Ren, Kosuge, ed. 1897. Bisan hōkan [A treasury of exemplars from Owari]. Nagoya: Kōbundō.Google Scholar
Kowner, Rotem. 2007. “The War as a Turning Point in Modern Japanese History.” In The Impact of the Russo-Japanese War, ed. Kowner, Rotem, 29–46. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kumamoto junsatsuchō, . 1877. “Jūnen seinan senran no sai jinryoku seshi junsa shōyo chō” [A survey of bonuses awarded to constables for service in the 1877 southwest rebellion]. In Kumamoto kenritsu toshokan.Google Scholar
Seiichirō, Kusunoki. 1997. Kojima Korekata: Ōtsu jiken to Meiji nashonarizumu [Kojima Korekata: The Ōtsu incident and Meiji nationalism]. Tokyo: Chūō kōronsha.Google Scholar
Masatoshi, Mizuno. 1978. Seinan sensō-ki ni okeru nōmin ikki: shiryō to kenkyū [Peasant rebellions during the War of the Southwest: Sources and research]. Fukuoka: Ashi shobō.Google Scholar
Masatoshi, Mizuno. 2000. Seinan sensō to Azo [The War of the Southwest and Azo]. Kumamoto: Kumamoto Nichinichi shinbun jōhō bunka sentā.Google Scholar
Shigeyoshi, Mori. 1984. “Saigō nanshū no byōki to hoyō” [The illnesses and recuperation of Saigō of the South (Nanshū)]. Keiten aijin 2:188–99.Google Scholar
Morris, Ivan. 1975. The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan. New York: New American Library.Google Scholar
Morse, Edward S. 1917. Japan Day by Day. 2 vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Gensai, Murai, and Chikutei, Fukura. 1899–1903. Saigō Takamori shōden [A short biography of Saigō Takamori]. 3 vols. Tokyo: Shunyōdō.Google Scholar
Sumio, Murakami. 1995. “Saigō no shi o hōzuru ittsu no denpō” [The telegram reporting Saigō's death]. Keiten aijin 13:137–65.Google Scholar
Mushakoji, Saneatsu. 1942. Great Saigo: The Life of Saigo Takamori. Trans. Sakamoto, Moriaki. Tokyo: Kaitakusha.Google Scholar
Saneatsu, Mushanokōji. 1938. Saigō Takamori. Tokyo: Dainihon yūbenkai kōdansha.Google Scholar
Nanshū jinja gojūnen-sai hōsankai, , ed. 1927. Saigō nanshū sensei den [A biography of master Saigō of the South (Nanshū)]. Tokyo: Nanshū jinja gojūnen-sai hōsankai.Google Scholar
Nitobe, Inazo. [1900] 1905. Bushido: The Soul of Japan. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.Google Scholar
Nock, Elizabeth Tripler. 1948. “The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877: Letter of John Capen Hubbard.” Far Eastern Quarterly 7 (4): 368–75.Google Scholar
Nolte, Sharon H., and Onishi, Hajime. 1983. “National Morality and Universal Ethics: Onishi Hajime and the Imperial Rescript on Education.” Monumenta Nipponica 38 (3): 283–94.Google Scholar
Numata, Jiro. 1961. “Shigeno Yasutsugu and the Modern Tokyo Tradition of Historical Writing.” In Historians of China and Japan, ed. Beasley, W. G. and Pulleyblank, Edwin G., 264–87. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Naka, Ogamino, ed. 1877. Saigō Takamori monogatari narabi ni Shiroyama uchijini no den [A tale of Saigō Takamori and his death in battle at Shiroyama]. Tokyo: Seifūdō.Google Scholar
Kenji, Ōhara. 1938. Saigō Takamori. Tokyo: Hakuyōsha.Google Scholar
Sakae, Ōsugi. [1921–22] 1961. Jijoden Autobiography. Tokyo: Gendai shichōsha.Google Scholar
Sakae, Ōsugi. [1921–22] 1992. The Autobiography of Ōsugi Sakae. Trans. Marshall, Byron K.. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ōtsu-shi rekishi hakubutsukan, , ed. 2003. Kikakuten: Ōtsu jiken [Exhibition catalogue: The Ōtsu incident]. Ōtsu: Ōtsu-shi rekishi hakubutsukan.Google Scholar
Fumihiko, Ōtsuki. [1889] 2004. Genkai [Ocean of words]. Tokyo: Chikuma shobō.Google Scholar
Yukio, Ōzaki. 1893. Naichi gaikō [Domestic administration and foreign policy]. Tokyo: Hakubundō.Google Scholar
Norimasa, Ozeki. 1910. Kendō yōran [A kendō handbook]. Yamagata: Dai Nihon butokukai Yamagata shibu.Google Scholar
Pyle, Kenneth B. 1969. The New Generation in Meiji Japan: Problems of Cultural Identity, 1885–1895. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Ravina, Mark. 2004. The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.Google Scholar
Suguru, Sasaki. 1994. “Saigō Takamori to Saigō densetsu” [Saigō Takamori and Saigō legends]. In Iwanami kōza Nihon tsūshi 16: Kindai 1, ed. Naohiro, Asao, Yoshihiko, Amino, Susumu, Ishii, Masanao, Kano, Shōhachi, Hayase and Yoshio, Yasumaru, 325–40. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.Google Scholar
Tomofusa, Sassa. [1891] 1986. Senpō nikki [A combat diary]. Ed. Kazuto, Takano. Kumamoto-shi: Seichōsha.Google Scholar
Yasutsugu, Shigeno, and Hiroshi, Kusaka, eds. 1909. Nihon bushidō [Japanese bushidō]. Tokyo: Taishūdō.Google Scholar
Toyō, Shindō. 1982. Jiyū minken to Kyūshū chihō: Kyūshū kaishintō no kenkyū [The Freedom and Popular Rights Movement and the Kyūshū region: Research on the Kyūshū Progressive Party]. Fukuoka: Koga shoten.Google Scholar
Shōsaku, Shinoda. 1892. Risshi no tomo [A companion to success]. Osaka: Shōbidō.Google Scholar
Sibley, William F. 1979. The Shiga Hero. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Smethurst, Richard. 1971. “The Creation of the Imperial Reserve Association in Japan.” Journal of Asian Studies 30 (4): 815–28.Google Scholar
Smith, Henry D. 2006. “What Is Bushidō?” Paper prepared for the Princeton-in-Kanazawa Program, July 18.Google Scholar
Mitsutoshi, Takayanagi, and Rizō, Takeuchi, eds. 1974. Kadokawa Nihon shi jiten [The Kadokawa dictionary of Japanese history]. 2nd ed.Tokyo: Kadokawa shoten.Google Scholar
Taijō, Tamamuro. 1960. Saigō Takamori. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.Google Scholar
Taijō, Tamamuro. 1966. Seinan sensō [The War of the Southwest]. Tokyo: Shibundō.Google Scholar
Tao, De-min. 1997. “Shigeno Yasutsugu as an Advocate of ‘Practical Sinology’ in Meiji Japan.” In New Directions in the Study of Meiji Japan, ed. Hardacre, Helen and Kern, Adam L., 373–82. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Tucker, John Allen. 2002. “Tokugawa Intellectual History and Prewar Ideology: The Case of Inoue Tetsujirō, Yamaga Sokō, and the Forty-Seven Rōnin.” Sino-Japanese Studies 14: 35–70.Google Scholar
Vlastos, Stephen. 1989. “Opposition Movement in Early Meiji, 1868–1885.” In Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 5, The Nineteenth Century, ed. Jansen, Marius B., 367–431. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. 2004. “Director Edward Zwick Realizes Lifelong Dream with The Last Samurai.” http://lastsamurai.warnerbros.com/index.php?c=5 [accessed July 10, 2007].Google Scholar
Aizan, Yamaji, ed. 1915. Nanshū zenshū [The complete works of Nanshū (Saigō)]. Tokyo: Shunyōdō.Google Scholar
Naotaka, Yasuda, ed. 1889. Saigō gojitsu eiyo [Recollections of Saigō's glory]. Tokyo: Yasuda Naotaka.Google Scholar
Yates, Charles L. 1994. “Saigō Takamori in the Emergence of Meiji Japan.” Modern Asian Studies 28 (3): 449–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yates, Charles L. 1995. Saigō Takamori: The Man Behind the Myth. London: Kegan Paul International.Google Scholar
Yorimitsu, Hashimoto. 2007. “White Hope or Yellow Peril? Bushido, Britain and the Raj.” In The Russo-Japanese War in Global Perspective: World War Zero, vol. 2, ed. Wolff, David, Marks, Steven G., Meenings, Bruce W., van der Oye, David Schimmelpenninck, Steinberg, John W., and Shinji, Yokote, 379–402. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Yui Masaomi, Fujiwara Akira, and Yutaka, Yoshida, eds. 1989. Nihon kindai shisō taikei 4: Guntai, heishi [An outline of modern Japanese thought: The military and soldiers]. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.Google Scholar