The Hagi Rebellion

In 1876 (Meiji 9), disgruntled samurai led by Maehara Issei started a rebellion in Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture. The leader, Issei, was famous as a disciple of Yoshida Shoin and was active as a sonno joi (revere the expulsion of the emperor) patriot in the Choshu domain at the end of the Edo period, but he opposed the civilianism of Kido Takayoshi and other members of the same domain who held important positions in the government and took a militaristic stance. In the new government, he became a councilor and then Hyobu Taifu (Minister of War), but in 1870 (Meiji 3), he resigned due to illness and returned to Hagi. Meanwhile, samurai who were dissatisfied with the progress of the government's modernization policies, such as the abolition of feudal domains and the establishment of prefectures, conscription, the disposal of stipends, and the ban on swords, started armed rebellions, starting with the Saga Rebellion in 1874, followed by the Shinpuren Rebellion in Kumamoto on October 24, 1876, and the Akizuki Rebellion in Fukuoka on the 27th of the same year. In response to this, Issei and others gathered more than 200 people at the former domain school Meirinkan in Hagi on October 28 of the same year and started an uprising. However, they did not receive the cooperation of the disgruntled samurai of Satsuma that they had hoped for, and the rebellion was put down in just over a week by Miura Goro, commander-in-chief of the Hiroshima Garrison, and others. Issei was captured in Shimane Prefecture and beheaded in December along with eight other ringleaders. The following year, in 1877, the end of the roughly six-month long Seinan War led by Saigo Takamori and others solidified the Meiji government's bureaucratic despotism.

[Shigeru Kobayashi]

"Hagi Rebellion and Maebara Issei" by Tominari Hiroshi (1969, Sanichi Shobo)" "Research on the History of the Meiji Restoration of the Choshu Domain" by Kobayashi Shigeru (1968, Miraisha)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

1876年（明治9）不平士族らが、前原一誠(まえはらいっせい)を擁して、山口県萩で起こした反乱。指導者一誠は、吉田松陰(よしだしょういん)門下生として名声があり、幕末長州藩の尊攘派(そんじょうは)志士として活躍したが、同藩出身で政府の要路にたつ木戸孝允(たかよし)らの文治主義に反対して武断主義をとった。新政府では参議を経て兵部大輔(ひょうぶたいふ)となったが、1870年（明治3）病気のため辞任して萩に戻った。一方、廃藩置県、徴兵令、秩禄(ちつろく)処分、廃刀令など、政府の近代化政策の進展に不満を抱く士族たちは、1874年の佐賀の乱を皮切りに、1876年10月24日熊本に神風連(しんぷうれん)の乱、同27日福岡に秋月の乱と武力反乱を起こした。これに呼応して、一誠らは同年10月28日萩の旧藩校明倫館(めいりんかん)に200人余を集めて蜂起(ほうき)した。しかし期待した薩摩(さつま)の不平士族らの協力は得られず、広島鎮台司令長官三浦梧楼(みうらごろう)らによって1週間余で鎮圧された。一誠は島根県で捕らえられ、首謀者8人とともに12月斬首(ざんしゅ)された。翌1877年西郷隆盛(さいごうたかもり)らによる約半年にわたる西南戦争の終結により、明治政府の官僚専制制は固まった。

［小林　茂］

『富成博著『萩の乱と前原一誠』（1969・三一書房）』▽『小林茂著『長州藩明治維新史研究』（1968・未来社）』

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例