In a message dated 6/17/2004 6:20:22 PM Eastern Standard Time,
secretarytocapt3@... writes:
In another pic you its kind of like "its a bird, its a plane, its
Saigo in the meteor!"...2 versions of this Saigo sighting similar to
the one M pointed out in the newspaper archive.
The book I'm reading on Saigo has one of those pics in it. I don't know if
you've read this or not Sec. I know I told phil and Barb, but let me fill
everyone else in. The reason Saigo is being shown in the meteor is that on August 2,
1877 (while Saigo was still fighting in Satsuma) a meteor appeared in the
skies over Osaka. A newspaper called the Osaka nippo reported the next day that
if the "bright star" was viewed through a telescope one could see a portrait of
Saigo in full Imperial army uniform. Popular opinion being with Saigo at the
time, people took this at evidence he was already ascending to the stars and
"night after night people stood on their laundry-drying platforms to get a
better look at the celestial hero".
By the time the comet appeared over Tokyo it had become an object of
veneration. The term at the time for a comet was "hoki boshi", but this could also be
read as "rebellious star" in reference to the insurrection. People by this
time were climbing onto their roofs to get a better view and many wound up
getting hurt because the roof boards would collapse under all the weight.
There are supposed to be some prints of this star by a guy named Haneda that
show people unhappy with his leaving trying to drag the star back down with
ropes. Another print by Tsukioka Yonejiro shows the government trying to shoot
the star down with a millitary balloon!
There are some other prints Sec that are called "Saigo nehanzo" or nirvana
prints. Saigo is presented as an enlightened being (still in his uniform) who is
about to transcend this world. More "common" people from all walks of life
surround him, praying for him to remain. Even animals are shown grieving!
(Perhaps the most telling of these is the snake?)
Yet another type of Saigo print is the ones made after his defeat. They are
commonly called "kubi Jikken" or "inspection of heads" and show Yamagata and
Co. sitting around while the heads of the traitors are lined up before them. NO
such inspection ever took place however.
What these are all about is the fact that for a short time after his defeat,
Saigo's head went missing. The new government had begun a policy of not
displaying heads publicly because it was "an example of the cruelty of the old
regime". (So was anyone else unaware that it was the "evil old regime" that
displayed Kondo and Sagara's heads rather than the "good" new one?) The fact is that
they didn't really need the head. However they were frantic to find it because
of all the myth that had already sprung up around Saigo.
They had the body. They could prove that it was truly him. He was an
unusually tall man of nearly six feet and had a very distinctive scar on his right arm
from a youthful quarrel, so he was easy to identify. However they wanted the
head to lay the rumors and legends to rest along with him. Not only had he
already become something of a demigod while he was still alive, but there were
many who did not accept the reality of his death even WITH the head.
Rumors began to circulate that he was in either China or India preparing an
army to come back and seize control of Japan. These stories continued to pop up
every now and again. As late as 1891 people were claiming that Saigo was in
Russia (who was coming for a visit) and would return to Japan in the company
of Crown Prince Nikolai to start the new rebellion. When Saigo failed to appear
a constable named Tsuda Sanzo decided this was evidence of foul play and
attacked the crown prince!
Legend tells of Saigo's fall and the finding of his head in this way:
When they rushed down the hill Saigo was struck in the hip by a bullet and
fell. He supposedly composed himself and prepared to die. He asked his friend
Beppu to be his second (the actual conversation gets VERY long according to the
source), then faced east and the Imperial Palace. In prints he's shown
thrusting a sword into his abdomen just before Beppu cuts his head off. The head is
given to Saigo's manservant Kichizaemon, who flees with it and tries to hide it
from the Imperial army by burying at the gate of a private home. (The
manservants name changes from tale to tale, as does the home where he did this.)
The next part of the myth is the presentation of the head to Yamagata. I've
already mentioned that no such scene as the one depicted in the prints ever
occured. The "historical" version that is usually given is that a man named Maeda
Tsunemitsu (again, there is a question of WHO actually found the head, but
this name is the most likely) brought the head to Yamagata. The general of the
Imperial army treats it with great respect, washing it and praising his
"glorious death". He recollects how they fought together during the Revolution and
weeps for his fallen comrade.
The reality is this: According to the autopsy done on Saigo's body, he could
not have sat there calmly or make a big speech. He was most likely in shock at
the time and a shattered hip would have made it impossible to do what he does
in the story. Furthermore, there were no sword wounds of any sort on his
abdomen. His head was indeed severed with a clean cut, but that's all.
The second part of the story comes from an American observer named Captain
Hubbard. He reports that the bodies of the rebels had been striped naked and
lined up in two rows on a hill by the Imperial army's barricades. Hubbard
immediately spots Saigo's body and realizes the head is missing. It is the only one
that the head is completely gone from. Others were "dreadfully cut up" and he
felt certain they had killed each other. While he was watching Saigo's head was
brought in and unceremoniously placed beside his body. And that's all there
was to it.
This is of course all from Mark Ravina's book, The Last Samurai.
-MissBehavin
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