This week we’re discussing the first half of The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori by Mark Ravina. This is a biography of Saigo Takamori, who we met briefly in Beasly’s Meiji Restoration. Saigo is a legendary figure in modern Japanese history and was an early proponent of imperial as opposed to shogunate rule in Japan. However, as the Meiji Restoration’s direction pointed towards modernization of Japan rather than preservation of it’s traditions, Saigo became the last rebel of a dying world.

The first half takes us through Saigo’s early life, his unlikely rise in Japanese politics, and the ideological developments he undertakes as the battle for the future of Japan unfolds - most notably Mito Learning or the restoration of imperial authority through the Mito dynastic lineage. Saigo is a charming and dynamic character, both in the life events he experienced - from Commadore Perry’s arrival to being exiled multiple times to distant southern islands - and the legends that would eventually be made of his life.

Mark Ravina is a professor of history at Emory College who specializes in eighteenth and nineteenth century Japanese history. He has written many articles for various journals as well as another book on modern Japan Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan. Ravina is currently working on a history of the Meiji Restoration called Japan’s Nineteenth Century Revolution: A Transnational History of the Meiji Restoration.

Next week we're reading the second half of this book (The Last Samurai by Mark Ravina)

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