The Satsuma Rebellion was the last of several uprisings against the new Meiji government by former samurai dissatisfied with state policies, the loss of former-samurai rights, and the modernization of Japan. The rebellion also marked the end of six centuries of feudalism in Japan.
Japan’s 1877 Satsuma Rebellion
There were two major reasons for the various rebellions in Japan in the 1870’s. First, in an attempt to resist the growing Western economic and military threats, the old Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown by principled and idealistic midlevel samurai who sought to restore the emperor to power. With the restoration of Mutsuhito
The second factor behind the rebellions was the Seikanron debate (1873) over Japan’s expansion
Young Samurai rebels in training.
In 1873 members of the Japanese government had become divided over whether or not to punish Korea for these insults. Many permanent government officials were traveling to the United States and Europe on a goodwill mission at the request of the emperor, and more ambitious politicians, eager for military action, were in charge. These figures included Saigō Takamori, who offered to travel to Korea and provoke a violent incident there, perhaps even at the expense of his own life. Upon the return of those with cooler heads, Saigō’s offer was dismissed, and he was sent away in disgrace to his home in Satsuma (modern-day Kagoshima prefecture) on the southern Japanese island of Kyūshū in October, 1873.
The 1870’s saw several uprisings, mostly in Kyūshū. In the Saga Rebellion of 1874, three thousand former samurai in Saga prefecture had attacked a bank. Most wanted war with Korea, but probably one-third also were angry about the loss of samurai rights. Imperial troops quelled the disturbance within two weeks.
The Jimpūrun Rebellion of 1876
The Akizuki Rebellion
The Satsuma Rebellion was the last, and largest, of the uprisings. Tensions between Satsuma and the central government had been rising throughout the fall of 1876. Satsuma still had not adopted many of the reforms ordered by the government in Tokyo, and it continued to retain its own armed forces under the guise of private military schools that Saigō Takamori had established to provide employment for the many jobless former samurai. The rebellion technically began on January 30, 1877, when one thousand students from these private military academies seized some Meiji government arsenals and a shipyard in Kagoshima City and Iso. The imperial government, suspecting trouble, had wanted to secretly move these munitions to safer quarters at the main arsenal in Osaka, but they were detected by Satsuma antigovernment forces, who immediately attacked them.
Saigō was sympathetic to the complaints of the former samurai and to the cause of the rebels in Satsuma and other prefectures. He also was concerned about the plight of the farmers who were suffering greatly under the Meiji government’s new draconian land-tax system. Still, Saigō did not want another revolution. Although exiled from the national government several years earlier, his popularity remained strong both nationally and locally, and many believed that with his support the central government could still be brought down. Thus, when rebellions broke out, he deliberately kept himself in seclusion for fear that his appearance would be taken as a call to arms.
When his students and fellow Satsuma leaders, however, attacked the government powderhouse in Kagoshima, Saigō felt obligated to support them. The capture of several Meiji government spies thought to have come to Satsuma to assassinate Saigō likely also changed his mind. In February, he decided to raise an army, go to Tokyo
Although well trained and with high morale, the rebel army was limited by shortages of ammunition, artillery, food supplies, and money. In contrast, Aritomo Yamagata’s new modern imperial army enjoyed better logistics, interior lines, control of the seas, and limitless supplies. Although initial advances were quick, the rebels became bogged down in a siege of the imperial garrison at Kumamoto, which lasted fifty days. This gave the government time to fully mobilize and force Saigō’s retreat to the mountains. By September, all that was left of the Satsuma army was three hundred men. All perished in a final charge to their deaths on September 24.
The suppression of the Satsuma Rebellion marked the true end of more than six centuries of feudalism in Japan. After suppressing the various rebellions of the 1870’s, the new central government no longer had to face organized military resistance from the domains or clans. The new Meiji central government became legitimized internationally and gained strong national support. The loyalty of the people was no longer in doubt, and the samurai era had ended.
The new conscript army eventually proved itself a disciplined and well-trained force, pledging total allegiance to the emperor. The early criticisms made by the former samurai—that an army of commoners could not defend the nation—proved unfounded. This same army would lead Japan to victory against China in 1894 and Russia in 1905.
In its wisdom, the Meiji government held no special resentments toward the rebel provinces, which speeded healing and unification. Even many of the participants were pardoned, though most leaders and instigators were harshly punished. The government, did, however, posthumously pardon Saigō in 1891. He is still venerated as a hero—considered an upholder of traditional values rather than a rebel—and his statue stands in Ueno Park in Tokyo.
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Buck, James. “The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877: From Kagoshima through the Siege of Kumamoto Castle.” Monumenta Nipponica 28, no. 4 (1973): 427-446. The classic, and most detailed, account in English of the actual battle of the Satsuma Rebellion. -
Hacket, Roger. Yamagata Aritomo in the Rise of Modern Japan, 1838-1922. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971. The standard biography of one of the founders of the Meiji state and the architect of the modern army. -
Ikegami, Eiko. The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995. Covers the one-thousand-year history of the samurai, their particular world view of loyalty and honor, and attempts to domesticate them (ending with the Satsuma Rebellion). -
Ravina, Mark. The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigō Takamori. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2004. The second biography of Saigō to appear in English (and the basis for Tom Cruise’s movie of the same name) by a noted historian. -
Yates, Charles. Saigō Takamori: The Man Behind the Myth. London: Kegan Paul, 1995. The first biography in English of Saigō, giving a good examination of his motivations in rebelling against the state he helped create.
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Itō Hirobumi; Mutsuhito; Matthew C. Perry; Saigō Takamori.