パペットホームズ、大河ドラマなどの好きなテレビ番組やラグビーについて書いています。アフィリエイトはやっていません。／Welcome to my blog. I write about some Japanese TV programmes including NHK puppetry and Taiga Drama, Sherlock Holmes and rugby. I don't do affiliate marketing.
At last he dies in the last battle of the Satsuma Rebellion. It is commonly believed that he who goes out of the cave is wounded by a bullet. Then he decides to commit hara-kiri and says to BEPPU Shinsuke,
"Shin-don, mō kokoira de yoka".
(Shinsuke, it's time that I should die)
So Shinsuke helped his death (kaishaku) and killed himself also. The others charged the enemy and some of them are shot and the others commit suicide. But in the series, he doesn't do so and leads his fellows to attack his enemy. And he doesn't wears hakama that symbolises samurai but tucks up his kimono and wears momohiki, a close-fitting trousers for a farmer. The style proves his words that he wants to die as a farmer in the series.
Takamori (far right) tucks up his kimono
After that he was regarded as a rebel and was pardoned when the Meiji Constitution was issued. Then two famous statues that memorises him were sculptured. One stands in Kagoshima and the other stands in Ueno, Tokyo. But the latter one dresses casually and is with a dog though a statue of a great man should be in full dress. In the episode 1 of the series, his wife Ito says
"This is not my husband. He was not a man like this. No!"
She wants to say that he is not a man who goes out with a dog in such a casual style. Then why such a statue was sculptured? Maybe there are many officials in the government who opposed pardoning him. However, the statue became to be popular among the people in Tokyo. And the statue in Kagoshima wears military uniform.
His statue in Ueno Park
and the one in Shiroyama, Kagoshima
After his death, Saigō Star is rumoured and it shows his popularity. On the other hand, he was said to go to Russia and accompanied Nicholas, Croen Prince of Russia (later Nicholas II) when he visited Japan.
The images are from the official website of "Segodon" and Wikimedia Commons.
