Samurai Takamori Saigō: Biography

The name of the most influential samurai to ever live and a huge political and historic hero was Takamori saigo the date of the day he was born was the “December 7, 1827” in the prefecture of Kagoshima. He from a samurai classed family. With the lower rank of retainer of a daimyo. From child hood, Takamori Saigo was identified by his unusual size and his musculature body. He was 1.82 meters tall and had a weight of 90.71 Kg. A giant among his allies and enemies, with large, piercing eyes and bushy eyebrows. He looked extremely frightening at his first sight. Any enemy who laid his eyes on him would be frightened by his look before his skills for wielding the katana around.

One day in his child hood while playing with his friends he fell down and broke and injured his right elbow it is considered that it was after this incident he was never able to bend his elbow again. It is also considered that this horrible accident made saigo abandon his martial arts training and concentrate on his studies Which came in really handy to his later life as a samurai.

When he was 16 years old, he got appointed by the domain satsuma as an aide to Korikata who was an agriculture department. Saigo submitted a petition concerning an agricultural administration to the lord Nariakira, who recognized Saigo’s ability and appointed him Edo-zume (one of the staff to the ambassador to the capital Edo). In Edo (modern Tokyo), Saigo had the opportunity to work with well-known leaders from other domains in 1853.

Saigo was now thirty years old. The Satsuma domain sent him to Amami Oshima Island to protect him from the purge of Ii Naosuke. Saigo remained in hiding there for three years, and married Aikana, the daughter of a distinguished family. In 1860, Ii Naosuke was assassinated outside of Edo castle by a samurai group from the Mito domain. After this incident, the shogunate government repented of Ii Naosuke’s policy as regrettable and changed to” Kobu gatai”. At the age of 49 years this great personality died by committing suicide when all his followers were dead. Many legends came up concerning Saigo, many of which denied his death. Many people in Japan expected him to return from Raj India or Qing Dynasty China or to sail back with Tsesarevich Alexander III of Russia to overthrow injustice. It was even recorded that his image appeared in a comet near the close of the nineteenth century, an ill omen to his enemies. Unable to overcome the affection that the people had for this hero of tradition, the Meiji Era government recognized his bravery and pardoned him posthumously on February 22, 1889.