Takamori saigo biography of rory

After sitting in a darkened theater watching the saga of the fictional samurai leader Katsumoto unfold on screen, Associate Professor of Japanese History Mark Ravina sips coffee at a nearby café and carefully considers his reaction to the cinematic version of The Last Samurai.

“I liked it more than I thought I would,” Ravina says.

“I might go see it again.”

Pause.

“Of course,” he says, “parts of the movie are just all wrong, historically.”

Ravina should know–he spent years researching and writing a just-published biography, The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori (2004, John Wiley and Sons), about the samurai leader who inspired the movie.

Saigo was twice exiled for his political activities -- sent to Japan's remote southwestern islands where he fully expected to die.

Saigo was twice exiled for his political activities -- sent to Japan's remote southwestern islands where he fully expected to die.

Historicity and Historiography.

Saigo Taka (?) was the younger sister of Saigo Takamori and the lover of Nathan Algren.

Tour guide and history buff Rory Dent left his job at a U.K.-based tour operator to move to Japan and start his own business.

The definition of Saigo Takamori in the dictionary is –77, Japanese samurai, who led the coup that restored imperial government.

“I first heard that the movie was about the samurai rebellion [in 1877]. Then I learned more about it and I couldn’t believe it,” he says. “Someone was making a movie about my guy! I was stunned.”

Although Ravina’s book and the movie were