ABSTRACT
Marshal Saigo Takamori, who had perhaps more than anyone else to do with the formation of the nucleus of Japan's great army, was born and died in Satsuma, and he spent most of his life in the immediate neighbourhood of the castle town of Kagoshima. Saigo Kichinosuke, as he was named until he was of full age was born in 1822. Saigo's personal efforts were directed to the drilling of a competent force, capable of making the best use of modern weapons, and in the first month of 1867, the Emperor Komei died at Kioto, and was succeeded on the throne by the sovereign, Satsuma was able to place at the service of the new administration a fairly well-equipped contingent of riflemen, under the leadership of Saigo Takamori himself. However misguided may have been his actions in the opinion of some of his compatriots, Saigo was the idol of the samurai, and almost equally so of the nation at large.
