Jabarkan Jalannya Pemberontakan dari Pemberontakan Saga

Etō memutuskan untuk mengambil tindakan pada 16 Februari 1874, dengan merampok bank dan menduduki kantor-kantor pemerintah di halaman kastil Saga lama. Etō expected mengharapkan bahwa samurai yang sama-sama tidak puas di Satsuma dan Tosa akan melancarkan pemberontakan ketika mereka menerima kabar tentang tindakannya, tetapi dia salah perhitungan, dan kedua wilayah tetap tenang.

Etō decided to take action on the 16th of February 1874, by raiding a bank and occupying government offices within the grounds of old Saga castle. Etō had expected that similarly disaffected samurai in Satsuma and Tosa would stage insurrections when they received word of his actions, but he had miscalculated badly, and both domains remained calm.

On February 19, Ōkubo set up his headquarters in Hakata and issued a proclamation condemning the Saga rebels as traitors. Government troops marched into Saga the following day. After losing a battle on the border of Saga and Fukuoka on February 22, Eto decided that further resistance would only result in needless deaths, and disbanded his army.

Etō told his followers that he intended to escape to Kagoshima to obtain help from Saigō Takamori and his Satsuma samurai. If Saigō refused, he intended to go to Tosa, and if Tosa likewise refused, he would make his way to Tokyo to commit seppuku.

Although the Saga rebels were greatly demoralized by Etō's flight, they continued to fight on, with some of the most violent combat occurring in the streets of Saga on February 27. Shima, who announced his decision to die fighting at Saga castle, fled that night for Kagoshima with his staff. Government forces seized Saga Castle of March 1 without further bloodshed.

Arrest warrants were circulated for Etō and Shima, and it is ironic that Etō was on the run as a fugitive from the very police force whom he had helped create. Etō was refused support in Kagoshima, and fled to Tosa in a fishing boat, where he was received coldly. While attempting to find a boat to take him to Tokyo, he was apprehended on March 28.

Sympathy for Etō was high, with Sanjo Sanetomi writing to Ōkubo to remind him that Etō's motives were not evil, and with Kido Takayoshi likewise writing to suggest that Etō be employed in the upcoming Taiwan Expedition of 1874. However, Okubo was adamant that an example be set, and Etō and Shima were tried by a military tribunal on April 12, and executed the next day along with eleven other leaders of the revolt. Etō was beheaded at Ōkubo's orders, and his severed head placed on public display – considered a demeaning punishment for someone of samurai class. Photographs were taken and were sold in Tokyo; however, the Tokyo government later banned their sale and ordered people who purchased the photographs to return them. Ōkubo, however, refused to comply and hung a copy of the photograph in the reception room of the Home Ministry.