It has been revealed that a portrait of Torizo, the youngest of Saigo Takamori's four sons, was left in the home of Takamori's descendants who live in Fukuoka Prefecture.
This is believed to be the first time a photo of Torizo has been found.
The photographs were collected in the home of a descendant of Saigo Takamori who lived in Fukuoka Prefecture, and were analyzed and presented by historical researcher Ryoko Harada.
Takamori Saigo had four sons and one daughter with three wives during his lifetime, but the newly confirmed photo shows three sons he had with his third wife Itoko. The youngest of the two, Torizo, is shown.
The man sitting on the right side of the front row with his elbows on the desk is Torizo.
The bearded man sitting on the left is Takamori's eldest son, Kikujiro, who was born to his second wife, Aikana, when he was in Amami Oshima.
There is a signature on the back of the photo that appears to be Torizo's handwriting, and it is believed to have been taken in 1896, when Torizo was 20 years old and enrolled in a private school in Tokyo to prepare for military academy. .
Afterwards, Torizo dropped out of school and worked at the Tokyo branch of Hokkaido Railway, but in 1901, at the age of 31, he died of tuberculosis.
This is believed to be the first time that a photo of Torizo has been found, and Harada said, ``This confirms the faces of all four sons in the photo, and shows that Torizo, whose background was not well known, was aiming for military academy.'' It means a lot to know that."