For the benefit of the newcomers, here is a brief chronicle of the
Satsuma Rebellion, the event that inspired the book and the movie "The
Last Samurai," plus some extra freebies. It'a all stuff taken from the
Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan Online. (
http://www.ency-japan.com -
paysite)
Hope it helps
cepo, honolulu.
Satsuma Rebellion
Seinan Senso
The last major armed uprising against the new Meiji government and its
reforms. Carried out by former samurai of the Satsuma domain (now
Kagoshima Prefecture) under the leadership of Saigo Takamori, the
rebellion lasted from 29 January to 24 September 1877. Its suppression
proved the effectiveness of the government's new conscript army in
modern warfare.
The reform program of the government had caused the disestablishment of
the samurai class, the abolition of their social privileges, a drastic
reduction of their income, and the destruction of their traditional way
of life. When their hero, Saigo Takamori, was politically discredited
and resigned from the government in October 1873 as a result of a
debate over whether to wage war on Korea , a number of former Satsuma
samurai left their posts in the army and police force en masse to
return to Kagoshima with Saigo.
Seizure of arms and ammunition from a naval yard and army munitions
depot by some of Saigo's followers was the spark that touched off open
rebellion. Presented with thisfait accompli, Saigo saw no choice but to
come out of semiretirement to lead a hastily organized and poorly
equipped rebel army of about 40,000 men.
After a battle between the rebels and the local garrison at Kumamoto
lasting about 50 days, the arrival of government reinforcements turned
the tide and forced Saigo's retreat. For the next few months the
remnants of the Satsuma army fought their way through the mountains of
southern Kyushu, arriving in Kagoshima with about 400 troops. The
rebellion came to an end with a last charge by Saigo and his men,
followed by Saigo's suicide.
--- and here's something about the end of the Samurai...
The Tokugawa Shogunate (1603�1867) brought peace, which posed problems
for the ruling samurai class. Some samurai were employed in government,
but many more became idle stipendaries. In response to these problems
of the samurai during the peaceful Edo period (1600�1868),
intellectuals formulated the code of bushido, or the �Way of the
warrior.� Bushido romanticized the Japanese warrior tradition and
enjoined samurai to maintain military preparedness.
The visit to Japan in 1853 of a squadron of ships commanded by
Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States brought Japan's National
seclusion policy to an end. During the next decade and a half, owing to
its inability to deal effectively with foreign relations, the shogunate
was increasingly criticized and attacked, especially by samurai
opponents within those domains, including Satsuma (now Kagoshima
Prefecture) and Choshu (now Yamaguchi Prefecture), that had never been
permitted to participate directly in central government affairs.
Ultimately there arose in the mid-1860s an imperial-loyalist movement,
led by lower-level samurai from Satsuma, Choshu, and other domains,
which branded the shogunate an unworthy government and led to the Meiji
Restoration of 1868.
The Meiji government, however, could ill afford to continue payment of
the hereditary samurai stipends; moreover, continuance of the samurai's
elite warrior status was incompatible with the building of a modern
conscript army. Dissolution of the samurai class was carried out
between 1873 and 1876 in a series of measures collectively called
chitsuroku shobun. Some samurai leaders undertook armed rebellions, the
last of which�the Satsuma Rebellion�was put down in 1877; others
founded Western-style political parties and launched a movement for
representative government.
--- finally...
chitsuroku shobun
Measures (shobun) adopted by the government in the 1870s to abolish the
hereditary stipends (chitsuroku) granted to the nobility and members of
the samurai class immediately after the Meiji Restoration of 1868. In
1869 the court aristocracy and former daimyo had been classified as
kazoku, while the former samurai were divided into shizoku or sotsu;
these status distinctions became the basis for computing the stipends
to be paid to members of these groups.
By 1871, however, the government began to reconsider the whole stipend
system. The cost of rice stipends alone constituted 30 percent of total
government expenses and was diverting essential resources from other
crucial tasks such as the development of a modern army and navy. As a
result, the government began to tax the stipends in 1873, and in 1876
decreed that all stipends be converted into government bonds called
kinroku kosai that would not be redeemable for a five-year period.
These measures were a blow to the former samurai and, together with the
loss of other feudal privileges, led to a wave of samurai revolts
culminating in the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. By 1880 more than half of
the poorer samurai had sold off their bonds; the nobility and former
daimyo fared better, many using the bonds as investment capital in the
newly formed national bank system.
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