When I visited Ueno Park with Peter last Saturday, we saw the famous statue of Takamori Saigo. I couldn't explain about Mr. Saigo because I didn't know much about him. So, I'm going to write about him here.
Takamori Saigo was the man who played a very important role at the Meiji Restration in Japan. Before the restration, Japan had been ruled by Tokugawa family for more than 250 years which were the age of national isolation of Japan. Takamori was the samurai of Satsuma Clan which was located south part of Japan. He worked well and succeeded to move the power from the General Tokugawa to the Emperor. Owing to Takamori, the Castle of Edo which had been the headquarters of Tokugawa was evacuated to the Empelor without any battle, and he became the first general of the army. But after a few years, he spinned out of the new Japanese government because his policy about Korea was not accepted. And after a few more years, he plotted for the coup d'etat and failed. He failed in his coup d'etat and killed himself on the top of the mountain.
I don't think that most Japanese know much about Takamori Saigo, but he is very popular in Japan because of his characteristic style. He is far from ordinary Japanese people with a round face, big eyes, and thick lips. I don't know why his statue stands in Ueno Park, and why he is leashing a dog. He is also a man of riddles.
When I visited Ueno Park with Peter last Saturday, we saw the famous statue of Takamori Saigo. I couldn't explain about Mr. Saigo because I didn't know much about him. So, I'm going to write about him here.
Takamori Saigo was the man who played a very important role at the Meiji Restoration in Japan. Before the restoration, Japan had been ruled by the Tokugawa family for more than 250 years which were the years of national isolation for Japan. Takamori was the samurai of the Satsuma Clan which was located in the southern part of Japan. He worked well and succeeded to move the power from General Tokugawa to the Emperor. Because of Takamori, Edo Castle, which had been the headquarters of Tokugawa was acceded to the Emperor without any battle, and he became the first general of the army. But after a few years, he lost the support of the new Japanese government because his policy on Korea was not accepted. And after a few more years, he plotted a coup d'etat and failed. He failed in his coup d'etat and killed himself on the top of the mountain.
I don't think that most Japanese know much about Takamori Saigo, but he is very popular in Japan because of his characteristic style. He is far from an ordinary Japanese person with a round face, big eyes, and thick lips. I don't know why his statue stands in Ueno Park, and why hehas a dog on a leash. He is also a man of riddles.
Posted by: Corrector | November 16, 2004 at 06:07 PM