Saigō Takamori Waking Tour of Kagoshima City

I wasn’t going to upload this video because the sound of the cicadas were extremely loud at some points in the video, but I decided to upload it anyway. This is a Saigō Takamori walking tour of Kagoshima City. I visited the locations of his birth, death, and the cave where he hid out for six days hiding from the imperial army.

Music by:

Lukrembo – Highball
Scott Buckley – Undertow

Today we’re in kagoshima and we’re going to visit shyama which was the final battle of the Satsuma rebellion and where saigo tamole died which is it behind us it’s not a very tall mountain it’s only a little bit over 100 m tall so we’ll go look at a statue and

The cave where he hid out for 6 days maybe just around Hill or mountain is what they call it more like a hill all right let’s go walk around KAG a little Bit here’s the statue of pyo Takami right Here Last Samurai is what he’s typically referred to as Last Samurai in Japan he led a rebellion against the new mag government This is our walk to kakoshima we just saw the bronze statue now I’m heading towards the cave where he spent 6 days hiding out during final battles during the final uh I guess yeah the final battle of the SATA Rebellion have to be careful because crossing the street so let’s go to that

Cave where he hit out for 6 days before he ultimately committed something that’s what they say and then his second cut his head off buried his head somewhere but all of that’s debated of course there’s a lot of things are in Japanese history all those you can hear

Them so here’s just the basic walk on my way to the cave and you see there’s not really anything but if you look over here oh there’s fish and koi if you ever come to kagoshima you’ll see this symbol everywhere and this is the family crest

For the shimazu clan who were the rulers of Satsuma domain just little circle and across in it as we move over this way uh we see the castle ruins of the guess the satma castle nothing left but the wall the gate was recently built or restored but it was

Destroy as most castles were after the ma resolu not resolution the M the mag Revolution restoration I guess m restoration sorry guys I woke up at 5:00 to take this walk I’m walking around the castle moat getting closer to the cave and here’s think we got to walk up here a little bit

Walk through the mountains some maybe through the castle grounds let’s find out probably up that path there’s a monument for the satore retainers people that serve Lord shimazu there’s the Crest at the cross on the circle so now this area is full of mansions and houses but before it was just this mountain and some farms and the castle and things they didn’t have a castle town because shimasu Clan believed that the people were the stronghold of the domain not the

D but at that time you know during the Battle of Shila Yama 30,000 Imperial troops think 500 of Sao troops it’s the last battle of the C Amai all 500 people died only 30 deaths on the Imperial side pretty lopsided battle if you ask me so where is the cave let’s

See this isn’t the cave although there is like an entrance here to Nowhere blocked off there’s a train tunnel down there but there is a little statue for prayer and worship okay come to these old battlefields and thinking about what happened and a lot of people that died and bombs exploding swords

Clanking even though they were pretty much done with Swords by that time but saigo and his troops did charge with swords because the Imperial troops weren’t skilled at using swords they were more of a modern Army so they they did use sords during that battle but mostly guns not like The Last

Samurai movie with Tom Cruz even though I love that movie A lot of people didn’t but I did it’s actually one of my favorite movies okay let’s keep going and see if we can find a cave I’m assuming we’re getting near it cuz I see a lot of souvenir shops Cafe why not

Profit off of the death of a national hero and here it is good see we got here early no See so this here I go takamo the last time Amai H out from the Imperial Army for 6 days after the failed Siege of Kumamoto Castle he retreated back to Kagoshima and it was in this cave that they hung Out This before he led the battle sh y final battle of the Samurai Sure this Cafe wasn’t There It’s crazy to imagine that this is where Sao tamole a huge Japanese General was spending six days hiding out then on his last day he stepped out of this exact cave walked down this way probably or maybe down this way somewhere went down the valley so that’s probably down this

Way let his final charge where he was hit by a bullet in his hip and he pretty much knew he was going to die I’m sure then his second I think be forget what his spamming is the be uh cut off his head after after he committed

Seuk and they hit his head somewhere that’s what they say people say they already found his head government found his head but nobody really knows I’m sure if they found it they would have made it public Imperial government I don’t know this is from 1877 just found this

Spot which shows you kind of what it was like ioes in the cave minus the electricity but CYO hiding it’s pretty cool behind the statue pretty interesting these things drawings and paintings didn’t take care of it very well though spiders and bugs and all kinds of things but

Pictures of the battle of shi y they’re attacking the castle that we saw goodbye so long okay I’m moving on from pyo’s cave going to an observation deck what’s this the 13 stone budas sure why not I’d love to see 13 stone Buddhas statues they put hats and clothes on

Them guess these are je statues say buddas like J so stches to me holding flowers oh there’s a bee hanging out watching the video like right in front of my screen just watching feel like this is more than 13 or am I wrong 1 2 three four five 6 7even 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 thought so maybe this no there’s not 13 in there either pretty sure these a Jesus that 13 that the night here any longer it’s nice to see Che statues too still looking for the observation deck

But again coming to these old battle sites your destination is on the left it’s kind of morbid to think about probably but I always wonder how many bodies are still kind of buried here and lost that were never collected also you know how many artifacts are still hiding around

Here that would be cool to find always thought about getting a metal detector and going to these old Japanese sites looking for artifacts and the observatory is coming up as you can see let’s keep moving okay so this is the first for me to walk through a tunnel in

Japan and have a reputation of being haunted for some reason so this is the first okay made it out of the tunnel safe and sound they have a hotel up here also right on the mountain parking y there’s the sign right there got to read the

Signs I forget who sung the song Signs but still probably this way I think there’s a view of sakima from here which is a famous mountain in kakushima let’s see how much we can see from the top up to the top there’s the toy gate that we saw we at the

Bottom oh there’s sakima it’s an active volcano right [Applause] there It’s a nice morning walk saw some things I only dreamed about seeing after reading about uh the Battle of Shila Yama and Sao Takami in The Last Samurai it was good to finally see that ohas good morning I wonder if this tree was still standing when side go and his men were

Battling the Imperial troops if anybody hid under there takeing Retreat or holding the line looks like a pretty old tree probably was 1877 was when the battle happened so we made it to the bottom Ofum now I’m going to head back to the hotel but I not to self don’t wear a light blue shirt and heing CU it’s no longer light blue it’s more like dark blue now for the most part yeah I have to keep that in mind next time so heading back to the hotel

If there’s anything I see I’ll film it I guess Old Government building from the ma rest and there’s where we were all the way up there on the observatory a try they’re open I’m going to get a g sh for my book I’m go Shing so go sh h B

Tree pretty cool way see the B side ni it’s too early to get a go shoting the shrine stand so maybe I’ll come back later I think I’m coming up on a statue of Sakamoto Leoma and oio Maybe not maybe not oio I know they have some statue around here with sakota

And oio cuz they took the first honeymoon in Japanese history when they came to kagoshima so that Sakamoto lioma could heal but that’s not who this is These are two other Samurai let’s see kabayama and Cola Right now I’m heading to saigo tak’s birthplace I don’t think the house stands anymore it’s just a memorial but here’s a cool kind of artwork of C that’s pretty cool look like he has two ears there there he goes okay then let’s break it a far here’s the educational District where

Saigo and okubo and a lot of the other Satsuma Heroes grew up and spent their time and was born think CYO birthplace is over over there by that Park this was a educational District this was all about schooling and learning and education how to be a samurai things like

That this is where he would spend a lot of time playing and learning crafting of his skill as a samurai I think down there was the birth place as the house doesn’t stand anymore let’s go down and take a look first place of psycho takoni

This is the place now it’s just a public Memorial For this is what saigo tak’s house would have looked like if they were still standing most likely this was the style of house for Satsuma Samurai low ranking Samurai which psycho was at the time of his birth gu when he was younger can’t go inside smells like wood simp I like the

Smell it’s like a cedar smell I guess this is what it would have looked like we were children W Ando running around you see that roof made of a lot of straw active volcano saigo takamo and his students who led the Revolution or Rebellion uh used to have a school in this location it’s kind of where he trained all his students in military Warfare and if you can see these little holes are kind of cir dents or imprint these are bullet holes uh from the Rebellion fighting the Imperial forces all these little circle

Dots Circle Imprint our bullet holes left over from the 1877 Sano taco School used to be in this location you can see Them school only lasted for 4 years because a lot of the students were anti-government so they attacked uh a government arms Warehouse set it on fire and took all of the weapons and things so then the government came down and kind of put an end to it and closed

The school and that this was the location of the school this wall was the uh outside of the school you can see all the bullet holes and wow it’s a lot of them a lot of bullet all of these holes are bullet holes pretty big bullets a lot of bullets

Probably the entrance to the school right Here this is supposed to be the place of saigo takumi’s death where he committed sapu and his second be cut off his head came down from Sheila Yama got shot in the hip couldn’t continue on so he committed to after he let his last Charge this is where it happened This is his Memorial oh