Saigō Takamori in the Emergence of Meiji Japan
1994; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 28; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1017/s0026749x00011823
ISSN1469-8099
Autores Tópico(s)Chinese history and philosophy
ResumoAccording to the view current among most Japanese today, the samurai lost their last hope of surviving as a distinct social or political group when Saigō Takamori died in the autumn of 1877. In fact, the fate of the samurai class had been sealed as early as 1866, when Satsuma and Chōshū joined forces to destroy the only institutional order in which the samurai had any functional meaning. Their disappearance from the Japanese stage was brought about by forces that Saigō helped to set in motion, but over which neither he nor any other individual could possibly have exerted much control. In the end he had no significant effect on the fate of the samurai.
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