1921 (Taisho 10) On Wednesday, April 20, Kichinosuke Saigo (11 year-old), the grandson of Takamori Saigo, succeeded the title of Marquis. His father Torataro SAIGO died of the Spanish Flu in 1919 (Taisho 8), and his older brother Takateru SAIGO, who succeeded the peerage, died suddenly the following year, which made his third son Kichinosuke succeed the peerage.
After the war, he became a member of the House of Councilors from Kagoshima Prefecture, and became the Minister of Justice in the second Cabinet of Eisaku Sato in 1968 (Showa 43). However in 1971 (Showa 46), the so-called Saigo Incident was discovered, in which Kichinosuke SAIGO issued too many promissory notes due to the financial difficulties. Saigo asked Seiko Ozaki, an organized crime group related to Dowa, to collect the promissory note of about 500 million yen, which developed into a situation where the people concerned were arrested as a threatening incident. Saigo failed in the election at that time, and died in 1997 at the age of 91.
Kichinosuke Saigo’s name is inscribed on the inscription of ‘The place for the interview between Nanshu SAIGO and Kaishu KATSU’ monument on 1954 (Showa 29) near Mita Station, Shiba, Minato Ward, Tokyo. It seems that some people get confused because it is the same name as the childhood name of Takamori Saigo.
Leave a Reply