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The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori
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Review
“In a pacy narrative that reads like a thriller, Ravina follows Takamori through his last battle…” (Good Book Guide, April 2005)
Good Book Guide, February 2004
"...Reads like a thriller..."
--This text refers to the
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First Sentence
Saigo was born in Kagoshima, a castle town and the capital of Satsuma domain. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Saigo was born in Kagoshima, a castle town and the capital of Satsuma domain. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book chronicles the life of Saigô Takamori the so-called `Last Samurai' and one of the creators of the modern Japanese state. This book details his life from humble beginnings through exile twice to his position as one of the three most powerful men in Japan and his eventual fall fighting against the government he helped create. As well as this because Saigô was so involved in Japanese political reform this book is also a great source of information on Japanese politics and culture during the period. Mark Ravina does a good job in bringing the life of this remarkable man to the page, clearly explaining things that would be unfamiliar to a Western audience, although he would benefit from some better proofreading in places. This book is a must read for anyone interested in Japanese history.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the story of Saigo Takamori (1829-1877) who was ne of the most influential samurai in Japanese history livingo in the Edo period of the Meiji era.
Born in poverty he rapidly gaine promtion as a samurai but was exiled, promoted and exiled aagain but when the samurai were stripped of power by the modernist Japanese government he formed an army to attack Tokyo however the Satsuma rebellion (as it was called ) was heavily defeated and he comitted suicide.
Well written and researched with good notes and biblography but the illustrations are poor and give no credit to the book.
Born in poverty he rapidly gaine promtion as a samurai but was exiled, promoted and exiled aagain but when the samurai were stripped of power by the modernist Japanese government he formed an army to attack Tokyo however the Satsuma rebellion (as it was called ) was heavily defeated and he comitted suicide.
Well written and researched with good notes and biblography but the illustrations are poor and give no credit to the book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
24 reviews
61 of 62 people found the following review helpful
The Real Story of the Last Samurai
21 Dec 2003
Format:Hardcover
Ravina's The Last Samurai is an excellent study high on specifics in an academic subject which is often superficial and generalized. It's not a book about generals, tactics, and weapons, but a look at an idealistic and passionate man who also happened to be a samurai.
Casual readers should know right from the start that this book is an academic text with extensive annotations and a large bibliography. It is not a difficult book to read, but a fuller knowledge of Japanese history would give the book a richer historical context in which Saigo Takamori lived. With that said, I only wish Ravina had included a substantive biographical glossary of the people with whom Saigo lived and communicated. The importance of people like Okubo, Kido, and Itagaki are far understated in the text. A minor peeve are the date notations which can be confusing at times, but it reflects Ravina's conscious decision to put accuracy at the forefront of his research. Historical method is certainly the defining characteristic which makes The Last Samurai a definitive text in English (as well as in Japanese, when and if it ever gets translated).
One would have wished for a more complete examination of the alleged assassination attempt on Saigo's life for it is offered as a critical pretext for his revolt against the Meiji government. If the conspiracy to take his life were conclusively true, then Saigo could be seen as reacting in self-defense to preserve not only the independence of the Satsuma fief, but also his personal honor. If untrue, Saigo could just as easily be accused of supporting an opportunistic rebellion.
But in a book about as romanticized a figure as Saigo Takamori is in Japanese culture, my biggest worry from the onset was that Ravina would have been just as drawn as past biographers to perpetuate the standard myths about Takamori's life. But Ravina challenges the legend and brings Takamori down from the heavens and places him profanely on the battlefield where he perishes in ignominious defeat. Like Matsumoto from Zwick's film (same name, but not based on Ravina's book), much is made of Takamori's pull between tradition and modernity. Ravina's book is encouraging in that the author is not afraid to tell us what we, as a sympathetic reader, would be afraid to hear. What that is can be found quite appropriately in the book's last paragraph.
For those who have seen The Last Samurai (the movie) but want to know the REAL story of the last samurai, read this book.
Nick Jamilla, author of Shimmering Sword: Samurai, Western, and Star Wars Sword Fighting.
32 of 37 people found the following review helpful
The Paradoxical Life of a Paragon of Virtue
29 Jun 2004
Format:Hardcover
The Tom Cruise movie, "The Last Samurai" depicts Saigo Takamori as a reactionary who rejected everything Western and died valiantly waving a samurai sword as he rode into the murderous fire of gatling guns. Well, he did die valiantly (or quixotically) as a medieval samurai charging on horseback into gunfire, but he wasn't a reactionary. He was a little bit more complicated than that.
Instead of being the movie's staunch defender of the status quo, Takamori was instrumental in dismantling Japanese feudalism and bringing Japan into the 19th Century. He embraced Western technology and admired some aspects of Western government. Fierce in battle, compassionate in victory, loyal to a fault, tortured by his perception of himself as a failure, eager to embrace death before dishonor, this was a man who commanded such respect that he endangered the Meijin government by simply refusing to participate in it.
How could one of the greatest supporters of the Meijin emperor rebel against his sovereign? How could one of the main architects of the moderinzation of Japan wind up charging on horseback into the murderous gunfire of the modern Japanese army? How could he in death be transformed into a hero of mythic proportions? Read the book and find out.
Instead of being the movie's staunch defender of the status quo, Takamori was instrumental in dismantling Japanese feudalism and bringing Japan into the 19th Century. He embraced Western technology and admired some aspects of Western government. Fierce in battle, compassionate in victory, loyal to a fault, tortured by his perception of himself as a failure, eager to embrace death before dishonor, this was a man who commanded such respect that he endangered the Meijin government by simply refusing to participate in it.
How could one of the greatest supporters of the Meijin emperor rebel against his sovereign? How could one of the main architects of the moderinzation of Japan wind up charging on horseback into the murderous gunfire of the modern Japanese army? How could he in death be transformed into a hero of mythic proportions? Read the book and find out.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
A Conflicted hero that endures today
20 Oct 2004
Format:Hardcover
"Where is Saigo Takamori's head?"
Thus begins Mark Ravina's intriguing and amazingly detailed historical narrative of Japan's enduring hero of its traditional cultural ways, the way of the Samurai. As Ravina ponders, why did finding Takamori's head matter: because it represented one of the oldest traditions of the warrior class. At the final battle between the rebel forces against the Meiji state on the morning of September 24, 1877, in which the rebel forces were defeated, by presenting the severed head of this legendary defeated warrior, it displayed honour, and offering the head to the lord as tribute, this showed great respect for the Samurai class as a whole. (This was a contradiction, as the Meniji state had been suppressing the Samurai tradition for some time) It was highly symbolic that Takamori's head could not be found, which the author exams with great erudition and depth.
Saigo Takamori continues to be revered in Japan because he has come to represent the true Japan, medieval Japan, before the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate and the rise of the Meiji state, which ironically, Saigo Takamori played a major role that contributed to their rise and fall, respectively. Takamori was at once a great traditionalist and reformer. He practiced the old ways and believed passionately in the basic virtues of the Samurai, though at the same time realised the great need for his country to reform. In the end, he knew that Japan had to retain its cultural heritage, all that was good and positive, but he also realized the need to move with the west. He believed the west was advanced in many ways, politically, yet cultural anomalies such as ballroom dancing, he utterly appalled. In effect, he desired everything good from both cultures.
In fact this entire story is a paradox. It is because the desire for reform and the desire to retain the traditional are equal in importance and strength. Interestingly, after Saigo's death, a slogan appeared in the popular press at the time: "Shinsei kotoku" (A New Government, Rich and Value), in other words, a new governing body that retains traditional values. As the author points out -
"...it looks forward to a new government but harkens back to the notion that the state should be benevolent rather than bureaucratic. Implicit in the slogan was the contradictory but compelling desire for the vitality of a free society combined with the security of a Confucian patriarchy." (P.206)
The last Samurai, Sagio Takamori, is a mixture of legend and historical fact. Japan has created him as a symbol of modern Japan, that contradiction of modernity and deep-seated tradition that endures today. This is an excellent work on a fascinating individual.
Highly recommended.
Thus begins Mark Ravina's intriguing and amazingly detailed historical narrative of Japan's enduring hero of its traditional cultural ways, the way of the Samurai. As Ravina ponders, why did finding Takamori's head matter: because it represented one of the oldest traditions of the warrior class. At the final battle between the rebel forces against the Meiji state on the morning of September 24, 1877, in which the rebel forces were defeated, by presenting the severed head of this legendary defeated warrior, it displayed honour, and offering the head to the lord as tribute, this showed great respect for the Samurai class as a whole. (This was a contradiction, as the Meniji state had been suppressing the Samurai tradition for some time) It was highly symbolic that Takamori's head could not be found, which the author exams with great erudition and depth.
Saigo Takamori continues to be revered in Japan because he has come to represent the true Japan, medieval Japan, before the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate and the rise of the Meiji state, which ironically, Saigo Takamori played a major role that contributed to their rise and fall, respectively. Takamori was at once a great traditionalist and reformer. He practiced the old ways and believed passionately in the basic virtues of the Samurai, though at the same time realised the great need for his country to reform. In the end, he knew that Japan had to retain its cultural heritage, all that was good and positive, but he also realized the need to move with the west. He believed the west was advanced in many ways, politically, yet cultural anomalies such as ballroom dancing, he utterly appalled. In effect, he desired everything good from both cultures.
In fact this entire story is a paradox. It is because the desire for reform and the desire to retain the traditional are equal in importance and strength. Interestingly, after Saigo's death, a slogan appeared in the popular press at the time: "Shinsei kotoku" (A New Government, Rich and Value), in other words, a new governing body that retains traditional values. As the author points out -
"...it looks forward to a new government but harkens back to the notion that the state should be benevolent rather than bureaucratic. Implicit in the slogan was the contradictory but compelling desire for the vitality of a free society combined with the security of a Confucian patriarchy." (P.206)
The last Samurai, Sagio Takamori, is a mixture of legend and historical fact. Japan has created him as a symbol of modern Japan, that contradiction of modernity and deep-seated tradition that endures today. This is an excellent work on a fascinating individual.
Highly recommended.
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