Saga Rebellion

Part of Shizoku rebellions of the Meiji period

Saga rebellion.

Date	16 February 1874 – 9 April 1874
Location	Saga Prefecture
Result	Government victory; rebellion crushed

Belligerents

Imperial Japanese Army

Rebels of former Saga Domain

The Saga Rebellion (佐賀の乱, Saga no ran^?) was an 1874 uprising in Kyūshū against the new Meiji government of Japan. It was led by Etō Shimpei and Shima Yoshitake in their native domain of Hizen.

Following the 1868 Meiji Restoration, many members of the former samurai class were disgruntled with the direction the nation had taken. The abolition of their former privileged social status under the feudal order had also eliminated their income, and the establishment of universal military conscription had eliminated much of their reason for existence. The very rapid modernization (Westernization) of the country was resulting in massive changes to Japanese culture, language, dress and society, and appeared to many samurai to be a betrayal of the jōi (“Expel the Barbarian”) portion of the Sonnō jōi justification used to overthrow the former Tokugawa shogunate.

Hizen Province, with a large samurai population, was a center of unrest against the new government. Older samurai formed political groups rejecting both overseas expansionism and westernization, and calling for a return to the old feudal order. Younger samurai organized the group Seikantō political party, advocating militarism and the invasion of Korea.

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