The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori

by Mark Ravina and Mark J. Ravina

Book Overview

The dramatic arc of Saigo Takamori's life, from his humble origins as a lowly samurai, to national leadership, to his death as a rebel leader, has captivated generations of Japanese readers and now Americans as well - his life is the inspiration for a major Hollywood film, The Last Samurai , starring Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe. In this vibrant new biography, Mark Ravina, professor of history and Director of East Asian Studies at Emory University,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471705373
• ISBN13: 9780471705376
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 265 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

I haven't read it yet but,

it is the story behind "The Last Samurai" Tom Cruise movie. So I want read the real story.

The Paradoxical Life of a Paragon of Virtue

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.

If you're interested in Saigo, you'll love this book

I'm familiar with Japanese history, including the Meiji Restoration, so this book read like a breeze to me; no problem with the historical references. I had previously read "Saigo Takamori: The Man Behind the Myth" by Charles Yates. You'll find Ravina's book is much better written - a more exciting read. Ravina has a fresh take on Saigo. In Yates' book, I would say the defining Saigo event is his life-risking mission to Choshu, showing Saigo's ability to gain trust through altruistic moves. By contrast, in Ravina's book I would say the defining Saigo event is his partnering with Okubo to overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1868. Saigo was the perfect idealistic partner to the political pragmatist Okubo. Nine years later, this perfect partnership became the perfect storm, with the idealist Saigo going to war against the pragmatic Okubo. Ravina starts off with an informative account of Saigo's upbringing and the environment from which he came. Ravina provides fascinating detail on Saigo's scholarism and the Chinese classics he studied. Later, there is an insightful and engaging description of Saigo's life in exile on the Amami and Erabu islands. Finally, Ravina devotes 13 pages to the Seinan War, much better than Yates' two pages. But war buffs like me will still be thirsting for more. Maybe some day, someone will write a more detailed English account of this key conflict - really the last domestic Japanese battle in a long history of internal warfare.

Timely and insightful

As someone who has strong personal connections to Japan, I was drawn to this title as a means of understanding the real story behind the movie. I was rewarded with a readable, apparently accurate review of one of the great men of the Meiji Restoration period of Japan. Saigo was a man of the era, first arriving in Edo at the same time as Perry's Black Ships, and fulminating what could arguably be the final resistance to the cataclysmic changes of that era in Japan.One's understanding of the book would be enhanced, however, with some better understanding of the political institutions of the period, and broader knowledge of the part that various people played in the same historical context. Especially difficult are references to now-archaic regions in feudal Japan, regions which were expressly deconstructed by the new Meiji Government to cause their loss of significance in political affairs. For example, Saigo was from Satsuma, which is Southern Kyushu. But Tosa is a major player in the book, and I am still unsure of where that domain was. What impressed me was Mr. Ravina's insight into the ambivalence and moral contradictions of the social, political, technological, and economic changes forced on Japan after 250 years of isolation. Only once does the author allude to the parallels to the modern-day situation in the Middle East, but the comparison is apt. I think this is an excellent book to gain some understanding of why the Islamic world has trouble with the West, and in doing so, the book could help the West formulate more appropriate responses to the Middle East's problems.

The Real Story of the Last Samurai

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.

if you've seen the movie, you must read this book

Ken Watanabe's character, Katsumoto, the real soul of Tom Cruise's movie "The Last Samurai," is based on Saigo, and the movie's screenwriter has admitted that Saigo's story is what inspired the movie in the first place. This book shows why he was so inspired and why Katsumoto has such depth. Saigo was a complex, brilliant man, a hero in ways that the standard good v. evil model simply cannot account for. And his Japan was a marvelous place where history and the future were in dramatic and dangerous collision. If you love the movie--and, really, it is tough not to love it--you will also love this book.