Saigo Takamori - The Man Behind the Myth

A biography of Saigo Takamori - the "last Samurai" and a hero of Meiji Japan. Using primary sources, the author reconstructs the historical Saigo from the mythical "Dai Saigo". He identifies that Saigo's importance lies less in historical fact, than in his influence over popular imagination.

---

First published in 1995. This volume looks at the samurai character of Saigo Takamori, a central character in the novel and television series called 'Tobu ga gotoku' (as if to fly) based on Shiba Ryotaro's novel, which was aired on Japan's public television network NHK. Shiba's main focus in the novel if on the early development of Japan's domestic politics, and on the emergence in that context of widespread discontent toward the policies of the Meiji government among the samurai class, leading eventually to a series of armed rebellions between 1874 and 1877.