With their elaborate armour, fierce swordsmanship and code of honour, the samurai are iconic. This is the stunning story of Japan’s last true samurai.
From his birth in the shadow of the great volcano Sakurajima, to his honourable death by ritual suicide, Saigo Takamori was the ultimate Samurai leader. His fall brought about the end of hundreds of years of Samurai tradition and in many ways marks the birth of modern Japan.
Saigo was a man trapped by paradox: a faithful servant to the emperor, and yet a leader of rebel troops: a mighty Samurai warrior, and also a master of Chinese poetry. His life, and ultimately his death, offer a window into the hundreds of years of culture that defined the samurai.