Tag - saigo-takamori

 
 

SAIGO TAKAMORI

Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Apr 18, 2022
Saigo Takamori: The last ‘true’ samurai, defender of the Japanese spirit
Saigo Takamori's samurai rank was low, but that might account for his love for the land and disdain for wealth and power.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / AT A GLANCE
Apr 28, 2018
150 years since the Edo Castle surrender
What's done is done. But what if a historic negotiation over the surrender of Edo Castle between Saigo Takamori, who led the Imperial forces during the fall of Edo, and Katsu Kaishu, the shogunate's army minister, had fallen through 150 years ago? The surrender of the fort, or the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate, which opened the door to Japan's modernization, might not have happened, and what is now the nation's capital could have gone up in flames. Edo, renamed Tokyo in September 1868, was controlled by the shogunate for 260 years, but it fell to the alliance of Satsuma and Choshu forces supportive of the formation of a new government under the restored Imperial rule of Emperor Meiji. One of the central conditions for the peaceful handover, which saved Edo and its population of more than 1 million from war, was to spare the life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the 15th and last shogun. Emperor Meiji moved from Kyoto to his new residence in the castle, which today is part of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 30, 2016
British envoy, Japan Times turn tide in NHK history drama
Japanese love watching historical dramas, and one of the most popular times portrayed is the final years of the Edo Period (1603-1868), when the nation went through dramatic change politically, diplomatically and socially with the fall of the shogunate.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Dec 10, 2016
Meiji Restoration leader's lessons of sincerity
Is there any understanding a man like Saigo Takamori? His spirit seems as vast as his bulk, and his bulk was that of a sumo wrestler. He is "the quintessential hero of modern Japanese history," said historian Ivan Morris.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Nov 19, 2016
Vileness is a quality more repugnant than evil
There is a kind of moral ugliness that, without being quite evil, may be even more repellant than evil because evil — genuine evil — has, sometimes, a certain romantic appeal. You can admire the villain's strength, or courage, or dash, or reckless defiance of that which we all, sometimes, wish we could defy — the smug, complacent society that bears down on the individual with all its stifling weight and ruthless indifference.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 9, 2016
Exploring Tabaruzaka's idyllic but forgotten samurai battleground
The gray spring clouds have given way to a gentle drizzle by the time I pull my car into a spacious parking lot bordering the Tabaruzaka battlefield. It's fitting weather, considering the massive battle that took place here in 1877 in this rural corner north of Kumamoto city was fought in similar conditions. Yet despite the 17-day conflict racking up enough casualties to mark it as one of the country's most noted battles, Tabaruzaka sits all but forgotten in its idyllic rural setting.

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on