The Saga Rebellion, 1874

     

Hizen Province

The Saga Rebellion had its fuse lit when the newly-formed national Japanese government decided not to take military action against Korea. The Koreans, believing the Meiji Emperor was under the negative influences of European powers, had refused to recognise Japan’s divine leader.

This was indeed a change in behaviour as the Koreans had regularly sent emissaries to Japan’s capital during the Edo period (1603 – 1868) to offer their respects to each Tokugawa Shogun.

Letting this snub stand was unacceptable to the Samurai. Saigō Takamori proposed a military force be dispatched to the Korean peninsular but this was rejected due to the perceived weakness of its new army and the potential that war would bankrupt the nation.

For the former Samurai looking to be employed in this endeavour, there was now little hope of the once-mighty warrior class ever regaining any significant influence or that the government would reinstate their lost privileges.

Many officials resigned their post or simply left the capital with this news. Though forbidden to do so, Saigō Takamori retuned to Kagoshima, and a man named Etō Shimpei returned to Hizen Province.

Though this photograph was taken many years later, bullet holes can still be seen in the plastered walls.

Shimpei used his time in Saga to rouse up thousands of like-minded folk via his political party, the Aikoku Kōtō. The groups three main aims:

  • War with Korea
  • Reinstatement of the Daimyō
  • Expulsion of foreigners

On February 16th, 1874 launched an attack on Saga castle. He and his army of 3,000 were successful, though this success would prove to be short-lived. By the 1st of March, the castle was back in imperial hands, but Shimpei wasn’t to be found. He had headed south to Kagoshima hoping they too would rise up.

They didn’t, and Shimpei was soon captured. On March 18th, 1874, Shimpei’s head and those of 11 co-conspirators were separated from their bodies, the gruesome photographs of which ended up circulating on the streets of Tōkyō.

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  • Travis Seifman

    You know I love these kinds of posts. Obscure, or not so obscure, individual incidents, brought (more) to light, by writing a blog post about it. Yeah, I know, I don’t do too much of that myself. But, you know what I mean. Someone reading this – hopefully many someones – is thinking s/he has never heard of this Saga Rebellion before. It sounds interesting. It sounds intriguing. Maybe I’ll go look up more about it…

    …

    You do an excellent job here, also, of conveying the attitudes and rationales of various parties at the time. Though, of course, we know that the Korean motivations for sending missions to the shoguns, and for not sending ambassadors to formally pay their respects to the Meiji Emperor, were more complicated, and perhaps quite different from what prominent samurai officials may have believed…

  • Anonymous

    Thank you @toranosukev:twitter, I’m glad you enjoyed this post, and I certainly hope others do too. I do wonder if you aren’t paying me a little too much credit though.

    While I did feel the need to simplify some elements to maintain some focus to the article, the reason I glossed-over points was due to my ignorance of the back-story.

    I’ll just have to keep plugging away.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dennis-Boyd/1152601430 Dennis Boyd

    Thanks for teaching me about the Saga Rebellion.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks Dennis!

  • http://twitter.com/RekishinoTabi Rekishi no Tabi

    This incident, as well as the Seinan Ran, are two of the more interesting highlights of early Meiji period history. Thanks for posting about this. 

  • Anonymous

    The Meiji period’s goings on I’d largely overlooked until recently. It truly is a fascinating period. And with a bit of luck, next week I’ll be heading to Kagoshima to visit some Shimazu/Saigo Takamori/Seinan Ran related places.