what is the significance of takamori saigo
The Japanese rebel and statesman Takamori Saigo (1827-1877) was the military leader of the Meiji restoration. His eventual revolt against the Meiji government in 1877 represented the resistance of the old warrior class to the swift and often ruthless policy of Westernization of Japan.Takamori Saigo was born the eldest son of a lower-ranking samurai family on Feb. 7, 1827, in Kagoshima, the castle town of the Satsuma domain.As a youth, he showed much interest in both Wang Yangming Confucianism and Zen Buddhism, both of which stressed the importance of acting on individual conscience.ne biography of Saigo in English is a translation of a work by a well-known novelist, Saneatsu Mushakoji, Great Saigo: The Life of Takamori Saigo (1942), which is romanticized and eulogistic.