While it is almost certain that Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro were killed by men of the Mimawarigumi (“Patrolling Corps”), some claim that Satsuma, and therefore Saigo, was complicit. In Samurai Assassins I have dismissed this claim, based on lack of any hard evidence of Satsuma’s complicity, and even more importantly, on Saigo’s character, his Confucian ethic, and his friendship with Ryoma and Nakaoka.