Part 21

He was entrusted with the portfolio of Minister of Communications in the First Cabinet formed after the establishment of Constitutional Government in 1890, with Marquis Yamagata as Minister-President. The appointment may be said to have been a recognition of the part taken by him sixteen years before when he joined in the memorial urging the speedy formation of a National Diet. This was his last office, for two years later he died, at the age of sixty, not “full of years,” but “full of honour” won in the service of his country, and respected for his nobleness of character by his fellow-countrymen and by those foreign residents, and they were many, who had under most varied conditions experienced his unfailing courtesy and genuine good will.

XII

MARSHAL SAIGO TAKAMORI

In the sense that Japanese history begins with the landing of Jimmu Tenno in Kiushiu, and that many of the greatest events narrated in the annals of the Empire took place in that island of, as its name implies, nine provinces, there should be much to interest the student in connection with this portion of the Ten-shi’s dominions. The nine baronies of the feudal regime were ranged around the coast, their rearmost boundaries meeting on mountain ridges in the interior. The passes in these ridges were in many cases the scenes of desperate battles during the Satsuma War of 1877, as will presently be shown, there having originally been one long dividing line extending almost north and south from Shimonoseki straits to Kagoshima bay, with branch lines like the veins of a leaf splitting one half of the island into five and the other into four portions. Satsuma and Osumi were the two most southerly provinces, with Hiuga adjoining Osumi, and it is in connection with this region in particular that some of the more stirring passages of ancient and modern Japanese history have to be recorded. Marshal Saigo Takamori, who had perhaps more than anyone else to do with the formation of the nucleus of Japan’s great army, was born and died in Satsuma, and he spent most of his life in the immediate neighbourhood of the castle town of Kagoshima. From the extremity of Kiushiu the isles of Loo-Choo (now termed Riu-kiu-to or Okinawa prefecture), stretch in a south-westward direction, linking up Formosa, and to the north-west the islands of Iki and Tsushima form stepping-stones, as it were, to Korea. Excepting in Miyasaki prefecture, where the coast is less broken, facing the Pacific, the shores of Kiushiu are deeply indented with inlets and bays, lofty mountains forming the background, and there is an abundance of good harbours, rendering its populous towns and numerous villages comparatively easy of access. The chain of islets to the south sheltered vessels and aided migration from Malaysia, while Tsushima and Iki,—places made famous by the decisive battle of the Sea of Japan in 1905 which was fought in their vicinity,—doubtless prompted the exploration of the Hizen and Chikuzen coasts by adventurous voyagers from the mainland of Asia. The Nine Provinces are rich in traditions of the imperial ancestors, the reputed landing-place of Jimmu Tenno being Shibushi bay, a few miles south-east of Kagoshima. There is a very ancient Shinto shrine in a cave close by, and on Takachiho-miné, otherwise Higashi Kiri-shima-yama, the easternmost of twin peaks in the ridge which forms the boundary line of Osumi and Hiuga provinces, thirteen miles from the Satsuma stronghold, stood the palace which the founder of the imperial dynasty is believed to have inhabited prior to setting out for the Inland Sea.

[Illustration: MARSHAL SAIGO TAKAMORI]

Rein tells us that in 1875 he saw on a blunt cone of piled-up stones on the summit of the volcanic peak of Kiri-shima-yama, 5500 feet above sea-level, the famous sword which tradition says Ninigi-no-mikoto, grandson of the Sun-goddess, used. It is clumsy, and obviously of great antiquity. The material is bronze containing a large proportion of copper, the blade is not quite flat, the shaft cylindrical, with several blunt projections, and it originally was sharpened on one side towards the top. The length of this remarkable weapon was fifty inches over all, the blade measuring forty inches from point to hilt. The width of the blade was nearly three inches, and the handle extremely thick. It is evident that the weight of such a sword must have been considerable, and without entering into the question of its origin it may at least be said that the fact of its being preserved so carefully at that spot from what can hardly have been other than a very remote period of Japanese history alone would suffice to account for the store set upon this truly extraordinary relic. Jimmu Tenno is supposed to have spent some years in subjugating the tribes which he found in possession of Southern Japan, but he eventually reached Naniwa (Osaka) and established his capital in Yamato. Naniwa and Takachiho are names which have for the Japanese people historical significance sufficient to have induced the naval authorities to bestow them on two warships built for Japan on the Tyne.

Saigo Kichinosuke, as he was named until he was of full age, was born in Satsuma province in the year 1822. His father was a Samurai, of foot-soldier rank. It is clear, however, that the father possessed an accurate idea of the value of education and training, if only from the prominence which both his sons achieved in the service of their country. Kichinosuke was the elder of the two, his younger brother achieving the rank of Marquis, and figuring in the national annals with a lustre but little inferior to that of the popular hero himself. While yet young Kichinosuke was given the post of gardener to the prince of Satsuma. In days of old this was often a position of trust, for the individual occupying it necessarily came into close contact with his lord when it happened, as it did in nine cases out of ten, that the chieftain of a clan had a taste for horticulture. Trustworthy Samurai of rank were sometimes given the office of gardener for the sake of the opportunities thus afforded for direct communication, between the baron and his faithful retainers, free from the risk of surveillance by emissaries of the Shogun’s Government who under the old regime were to be found in every mansion. That Saigo held this post is a proof of his lord’s confidence in him. When twenty years old Kichinosuke went to Mito and there became a pupil of Fujita Toko—whose history is elsewhere in this volume briefly recorded—and under that profound scholar’s guidance studied Chinese literature so assiduously that Fujita always spoke of Saigo with pride as one of his best pupils. It was from Fujita that Saigo imbibed his rooted hostility to the Shogunate, Fujita being the confidential friend of the old prince of Mito, whose opposition to the Bakufu is always believed to have culminated in the assassination by his followers of the Regent, Ii Kamon-no-kami, at the Sakurada Gate of Yedo Castle, in March 1860. On separating after the lapse of some years from Fujita Toko, Saigo went to Kioto and there became the intimate friend of Gessho, the high priest of the famous Buddhist temple of Kiyomidzu, and during the eventful five years from 1854 to 1859 Saigo was resident either in Kioto or Osaka. It was when the Regent or “Gotairo” Ii-kamon-no-kami came into power in 1859 at Yedo, during the minority of the Shogun Iyemochi, that Saigo, dissatisfied with the course things were taking, and possessing definite views of his own, formed a party opposed to the Bakufu. In the same year, 1859, when he was about to return to Satsuma, his friend Gessho was selected by the Imperial Court to be the bearer of a despatch to the prince of Mito. Gessho, however, pleaded that the honour of being the imperial messenger should be bestowed on Saigo, as being far better qualified for the office, and his prayer was granted. Saigo could not succeed, however, in delivering the secret despatch, owing to the rigorous watch kept by the Mito prince’s retainers over his person,—it is easy to picture the position, knowing as we now do, how exceedingly strict was it needful to be in those stormy days of frequent assassination and widespread feuds,—and in the end the imperial courier had to return to Kioto with his task unfulfilled. Saigo and others opposed to the Bakufu became marked men, but the dread of Satsuma’s vengeance protected them from actual arrest. Gessho also was suspected, and for his safety Saigo resolved to take the priest with him to the south. The priest rode in a palanquin, and Saigo, assisted by a fellow-clansman named Umeda, acted as escort. They were not attacked, though they fully apprehended that they would be, and reached Kagoshima in safety. Saigo acquainted his clansmen with what he had done, but the explanation was coldly received. At this time his opposition to the Bakufu was not shared by the officers of the Satsuma province. Gessho’s hiding-place was soon discovered, and he was in danger, and Saigo went at midnight to the place where he had secreted his friend to warn him. Together they resolved to drown themselves in the bay of Kagoshima, for Saigo, perceiving that the priest’s death was inevitable, deemed it a point of honour to die with him, in despair at the absence of a true chivalric spirit in the clan. They actually threw themselves into the sea, but the act had been observed, and some boatmen recovered the bodies from the waves in time to resuscitate Saigo, though Gessho had expired. The provincial officers were wrathful at the stigma cast on the clan’s hospitality by Gessho’s death, and also at Saigo’s uncompromising hostility to the Shogunate, and they banished him to the island of Oshima, some distance from the Satsuma coast. Here he changed his name to Oshima Sanyemon, the reference in the second word being to the circumstance that this was his third visit to the islet, his previous banishments having been the fruits of similar opposition to the Bakufu, and the result moreover of his being appreciably in advance of the times. It was not long before the entire clan was united with Saigo in his unswerving hostility to the Yedo Government, but meanwhile he suffered for his temerity. On Oshima he studied incessantly, when one not of his indomitable spirit might have broken down under a sense of disappointment and the conviction of wrongs sustained without hope of remedy. His feudal chieftain pardoned him after the expiration of four years, and Saigo returned to Satsuma and became one of the clan officials. When the Shogunate entered into the treaties with foreign powers Saigo opposed it with all the resolution of his unbending character, and during the conflicts which ensued at Kioto he sheltered many who were pursued by the Yedo Government’s officers and helped them to escape. He it was who strongly favoured a reconciliation between his clan and Choshiu and advocated their coalition in opposition to the Bakufu.

Owing to his banishment Saigo was not present in Satsuma during the earlier part of the period of intense military activity which was noticeable in his native province, but he may be said to have been with his fellow-clansmen in spirit, and he was, in all probability, in close touch with them by the agency of mutual friends, despite his enforced absence. There were ways and means even in those days of maintaining communication when necessary.

At this period the policy of the Satsuma clan as a whole was distinctly reactionary, and ample indication of the bent of its chieftain’s inclinations is to be traced in a memorial which he about this time addressed to the Emperor, setting forth his reasons for believing that the administration at the capital was conducting the national affairs without due respect for the traditions of the Empire.

Shimadzu Saburo, author of this uncompromisingly anti-foreign proposal, subsequently held office in the Government which was formed immediately on the restoration of imperial rule in 1868. He had been a great student in early life, and was the father of the real daimio of the Satsuma province. He was also, by the system of adoption which prevailed, uncle to the same person, who had been adopted by the previous daimio, Shimadzu Saburo’s brother. Virtually, though not nominally head of the clan, the uncle wielded immense influence in Kagoshima, and vehemently opposed the Yedo Government, though he was not antagonistic to foreigners or their inventions in the abstract, and had purchased steamers from them and set up a cotton mill in Satsuma itself. His province had indeed benefited hugely by its proximity to Nagasaki, which had for centuries been the only port open to trade of any kind with the Occident, and he had expressed his willingness to throw open the whole of the Satsuma province to Western trade, but the Yedo government had set its face against the proposal, some years before the Restoration of the Imperial power.

In the year 1862 he had purchased the steamer _Fiery Cross_ for his nephew, and went for a trial trip in her, outside Yokohama, and he had otherwise evinced his perfect readiness to avail himself of such novel methods and appliances, and of the services of Europeans in general, as were from time to time offered to the local authorities of Satsuma as a distinctly progressive body. It is requisite that the real attitude of the Satsuma chieftain towards strangers should be made clear, because it was owing to the precipitate action of some of his followers, in attacking a party of Yokohama residents on the highway, for no better reason than that they did not at once alight from their horses and stand at the edge of the roadway while the Daimio’s procession passed on its way back to Satsuma, that the British squadron was ordered to bombard Kagoshima in 1863. The murder of Mr Richardson near Tsurumi was perpetrated, in fact, when the Satsuma chief was returning after escorting to Yedo a high official whom the Emperor Komei had sent in the spring of 1862 to announce to the Bakufu his determination to expel all foreigners from Japan. This was the period when reactionary influences at Kioto were strongest, and even the Shogun Iyemochi, to whom Prince Tokugawa Keiki was at the time the appointed guardian, could do no other than promise obedience to the Imperial mandate. The Emperor Komei’s orders had been to the effect that Iyemochi must at once visit Kioto and there confer with the Court nobles, the avowed intention being that the Shogun should put forth all his strength, in concert with the clans throughout the empire, and restore tranquillity by effecting the complete expulsion of “the barbarians.” So long as the Court influence remained inimical to foreigners it was almost inevitable that there should be a vast percentage of the population averse to the treaties, to the Shogunate which had entered into those treaties, and to everything that was to be regarded as an alien intrusion. Shimadzu Saburo’s relations with the Bakufu were obviously of a nature to preclude the possibility of its calling him to account for the crime perpetrated at Tsurumi, and the British Admiral therefore undertook the duty, with the result that the Kagoshima batteries were silenced and three of Satsuma’s recently purchased steamers were captured. But as so frequently happens after a quarrel, the foes were better friends than ever within a year or two, and on the 27th of July 1866 Sir Harry Parkes, the British Minister, paid Kagoshima a visit at its lord’s special invitation, in the man-of-war _Princess Royal_, accompanied by the _Serpent_ and _Salamis_, and received a most enthusiastic welcome. The young Prince, nephew of Shimadzu Saburo, came off in his state barge, and the British visitors were taken to see the foundry, where cannon were being cast, and shot and shell turned out in great quantities, almost within a stone’s throw of the walls of the daimio’s palace. Satsuma’s acquisitions were seen to have included a steam lathe, and there likewise was a glass works in full operation. Saigo Takamori being temporarily in exile, he was not there personally to attend to the training of the Satsuma rank and file, but it was carried on by his lieutenants with ardour, in view of possible eventualities, and the general impression created was that the Satsuma clan had resolved to make the best use of the knowledge that it had gained of the power of modern weapons, and of Western inventions and appliances, and would thenceforward seek by every means at command to maintain its position in the van of Japan’s progress.

In 1865 Saigo was again prominent at Kagoshima, having been restored to favour by his feudal lord, and he seems to have had a great share in the direction of affairs in his native province, more particularly in respect of the preparations that the clan was then making for taking a leading

## part in the conflict which it was becoming more and more evident would

occur in the near future between the followers of the Tokugawa house and the supporters of O-Sei—_i.e._ Imperial Government. Saigo’s personal efforts were directed to the drilling of a competent force, capable of making the best use of modern weapons, and when, in the first month of 1867, the Emperor Komei died at Kioto, and was succeeded on the throne by the present sovereign, Satsuma was able to place at the service of the new administration a fairly well-equipped contingent of riflemen, under the leadership of Saigo Takamori himself. For a considerable portion of the first year of the Meiji era there was warfare between the troops of the Shogun and the Choshiu clan, and in January 1868 came the _coup d’état_ at Kioto by which the Aidzu clansmen were relieved of the guardianship of the Nine Gates of the capital and the duty was undertaken by the drilled forces of Satsuma and Choshiu combined.

In the memorable battle at Fushimi, seven miles from Kioto on the Osaka road, Saigo was leader of the imperial troops opposed to those of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and exhibited on that occasion marked military genius as well as great personal bravery. His coolness under fire was ever a subject of intense admiration to his comrades, and it was conspicuous in this fiercest of engagements, lasting for three days, at the very outset of the Meiji era.

The Aidzu men had retired northward after the defeat of the Shogun’s army at Fushimi, but at Yedo the forces of the Shogunate still held their ground, and the Emperor’s uncle, Arisugawa-no-miya, was sent, bearing the imperial brocade banner, to suppress them. With him went Saigo Takamori, as his Sambo, or military adviser, a post that would in these days be described as that of Chief of Staff. There was some severe fighting at different points on the road to Yedo, but early in 1868 Saigo Takamori, at the head of the imperial forces reached the southern suburb of the capital at Shinagawa, and the occupation of Yedo by them took place on the 26th of April of that year. The Tokugawa men shut themselves up in the castle and were not subdued until a desperate fight had occurred at Uyeno, in grounds then belonging to the temples, but at the present day forming a beautiful public park. This battle was fought on 4th of July 1868, his Imperial Highness Higashi Fushimi, to whom some reference has already been made as having at a later date visited London, having on that day borne the imperial brocade banner to victory. Though this engagement was in July the Shogun had ceased his connection with the rebellion—for such it had now become, being a revolt against the administration which had received the Emperor’s authority to act,—and after making his submission had been directed to retire for the time being to his original home at Mito, on the east coast. At a later period he finally went into complete seclusion at Shidzuoka, in the province of Suruga.

The dignified manifesto to his adherents which the Shogun issued at the time of his retirement made evident his conviction that unity was absolutely essential to the success of the national policy and that it was the duty of all true patriots to sink their differences and join in unselfish endeavours to promote the influence and supreme authority of the Imperial Court.

While Saigo was at Shinagawa, in the yashiki of the Satsuma clan, which the recent combat and subsequent fire had left in a deplorably ruinous condition, an old friend came to him in the person of Katsu, the lord of Awa,—a province facing Yokohama across the Bay of Tokio,—who pleaded that the capital should be spared the horrors of an assault, and representing the willingness of the Shogun’s supporters to submit. Saigo consented to place matters before his chief, the Prince Arisugawa, and terms of peace were arranged on the lines that Katsu had suggested, namely that the city should be spared in consideration of the vessels belonging to the Shogunate being surrendered, and the castle of Yedo handed over to the imperialists. With men of the type of the Shogun’s supporters, however, it was one thing to make peace on their behalf and quite another to induce them to abide by the bargain when it involved complete submission in token of defeat. A number of them determined to hold out in Uyeno, and the fleet made good its retreat from Yedo bay and was next heard of at Hakodate, where it held out for some considerable time. Another section of the Shogun’s supporters under Otori Keisuke, went northward, and were followed by the imperialists under Saigo, a severe engagement ensuing at Utsunomiya, some sixty miles north of the capital. It is related of Katsu that he persuaded his friend Saigo to accompany him to the top of Atago-yama, a conspicuous hill near Shiba, within the city limits, and from that elevation showed him a great part of Yedo lying helpless, as it were, at his feet. “If we fight, these innocent people will be great sufferers,” said Katsu, and the appeal to Saigo’s humanity was not in vain. Katsu, as the lord of Awa, was on the side of Saigo’s opponents, in virtue of his holding under the Bakufu, and though the Shogun’s Government had been rather severe with him for some of his pro-foreign ideas, imbibed when he navigated the first Japanese vessel of war across the Pacific to San Francisco, some few years previously, he was bound in honour to espouse the Shogun’s side in the struggle then taking place.

On the termination of the War of the Restoration Saigo received a grant, for his eminent services to the State, in the form of an estate of the annual value of 2000 _Koku_, equivalent, if the present-day price of rice be taken as a guide, to £2500 per annum. He retired to his native province and settled at Takemura, a village close to Kagoshima, his life from that time forward being characterised by extreme simplicity, frugality, and the cultivation of his lands with his own hands, until duty once more called him forth from his eminently peaceful pursuits to take part in matters of administration. Although the idol of the samurai, and constantly mixed up in political affairs, as was indeed almost unavoidable in that stage of the national progress, when every prominent man was intimately concerned with one party or another, it was nevertheless contrary to Saigo’s personal tastes to figure as a Government official, and he would infinitely have preferred to roam the hills of Satsuma or Osumi, gun in hand, than to take part in State functions.