Saigo Takamori, A Portrait of A Man With No Portrait

Reversing the Image of The Last Samurai

One of the iconic images of Tokyo besides the Tokyo Tower, landmark skyscrapers and the turrets of the Imperial Palace is the statue of the warrior and statesman, Saigo Takamori located in the city’s popular Ueno Park.

Described as The Last Samurai, and as the quintessential hero of modern Japanese history, Saigo Takamori was an influential samurai, statesman and one of the leaders of the Meiji Restoration, active in the late Edo, early Meiji periods. Portrayed as a large, fit, strong, active and rugged looking man, he was in fact excessively overweight, and wracked with chronic illnesses. It was the result of one of these illnesses that helped identify his headless body following his death in the Battle of Shiroyama.

Interestingly, for such a well-known, and historically important personage, there are no contemporary photographs remaining, and the numerous remaining portraits said to be of Saigo Takamori, may not be Takamori at all.