The year was 1859. Only five years earlier, the now-famous Saigo Takamori had been a mere tax clerk. The path Saigo had taken from local obscurity to national figure and then to exile had already been a circuitous one.
Saigo came of age in a changing Japan. The arrival of powerful foreign ships in Japan had given lie to the strength and prestige of the aging Tokugawa Shogunate, and powerful local lords (daimyo) had begun to assert their own power, attempting to influence the central government in Edo. Many had begun to realize that the Shogunal state was not powerful enough to deal with the demands of recently-arrived Western empires. It was during this time that Saigo had suddenly been chosen to become the aid and confidant of his lord, Shimazu Nariakira. Saigo was known in Satsuma for his loyalty and idealistic clarity; he would be the perfect samurai to serve a lord beset by treacherous local and national disturbances.
Nariakira and Saigo found they shared similar ideas regarding the correct direction for their country. Soon, their dynamic had transformed into what was for Saigo the ideal samurai-master relationship. Together, they strove to influence national politics within the Shogunal capital. Their goal was to assure that the young and potent Hitotsubashi Keiki be named as heir to the Shogun. To this end, Saigo was made Nariakira’s man in Edo, surreptitiously running messages and converting important figures to their side. Saigo’s charisma and idealism made him many devoted friends, and soon his name was known far and wide.
Attracted to burgeoning schools of thought that placed primacy in the emperor, Saigo was soon off to the imperial capital of Kyoto. He and his compatriots tried to convince likely nobles (traditionally uninvolved in politics) to bring their influence to bear on the Shogunal succession. All was progressing well until the reactionary pro-Tokugawa daimyo Ii Naosuke seized power back in Edo. Ii became the shogun’s tairo (Great Elder) and used his new position of power to initiate a purge of those who threatened the primacy of the Shogunate. The imperial court balked under newly invigorated Shogunal power.
All Saigo’s efforts had been for naught. But worse still, Saigo suffered a great personal tragedy. His lord, Nariakira, passed away suddenly, leaving his arch-rival Shimazu Hisamitsu in control of Satsuma Domain. Saigo had lost the most important person in a samurai’s life: his master. He had also been made bereft of political standing. As shogunal forces drew near, Saigo fled with the monk Gessho, the two hoping to find safety in Saigo’s native Satsuma. Alas, the new lord refused to protect the monk. Having failed in all their attempts, and with Shogunal spies all around, Saigo and Gessho decided to escape from their mortal plane. The two leaped from a boat into the freezing waters of Kagoshima Bay. Gessho succeeded in his suicide; Saigo, miraculously, survived. Even this, however, seemed to him to be a failure.
Saigo did not have long to recuperate from his near-miss with death. The Shogunate had put out a warrant for his arrest. Rather than risk Edo’s wrath by protecting Saigo or create strife in Satsuma by giving up a popular samurai, the Satsuma government claimed Saigo had succeeded in committing suicide. They then exiled the very much alive Saigo to the farthest ends of the Satsuma Domain.
Takamori Saigo (alias: Nanshu Saigo), a notable figure in the Late Edo period, was exiled from mainland Kagoshima to Amami Oshima in the time before the Meiji Restoration. He spent 3 years on Amami in Tatsugo, where he married a local woman named Aikana of the Ryu household, and had two children with her. At the Saigo Nanshu Former Residence Site, there are artifacts related to Saigo and his legacy, a cherry tree he planted himself, as well as an epitaph written by Kaishu Katsu.
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