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Saigo Takamori: The Man Behind the Myth. By Charles L. Yates. London: Kegan Paul International, 1995.239 pp. L45.00.

The received wisdom that the Meiji Restoration of 1868 was a peaceful "revolution from above" obscures the fact that the new order caused widespread hardship and unrest among former samurai who were suddenly stripped of their livelihood and privileges.

Saigo Takamori (1827-1877), the son of a low-ranking samurai from Kagoshima, has long served as a symbol of...