No rebellion, however, proved more serious and more difficult to repress than the revolt of Saigō in Satsuma. The genesis of this insurrection must be traced to complex circumstances under which the leading statesmen of the new government had been split into two factions, one of which had its central figure in Saigō. The occasion for the rupture was the dispute which arose among the ministers of the crown in regard to the policy to be pursued by Japan toward Korea. Throughout the Tokugawa period it had been customary for Korea, on each occasion of a coronation in that country, to send an ambassador to confirm the friendly relations between the two states. When the restoration took place in Japan her government dispatched an envoy to Korea to convey intelligence of the fact and to renew expressions of amity, but the Koreans refused to recognize the envoy or accept his message, owing ostensibly to the fact that the new term "Great Empire of Japan" was employed in the imperial letter. At a later date the Japanese sent home certain Koreans who had been shipwrecked on the coast of Japan, and took the opportunity of renewing expressions of friendship by the mouths of the officials who escorted the castaways. Korea received the shipwrecked sailors, but declined to receive the officials accompanying them. The youthful government contained men, particularly the Councilors Saigō Takamori, Soyeshima Taneomi, Itagaki Taisuke, Gotō Shōjirō, and Etō Shimpei, who deeply resented the conduct of Korea, and counseled the opening of the peninsular kingdom by force of arms. Other chief officials of the government, headed by Ōkubo Toshimichi, opposed this view, and being supported by the minister of the left, Iwakura, who had just returned from his travels through Europe and America, the peace party carried the day. The advocates of recourse to arms resigned, and a new cabinet was organized, under Iwakura and Ōkubo, which was the first cabinet change in Japan since the restoration. The immediate effects of this change were important. The revolt of Etō has already been related, and the case of Itagaki and Gotō will soon be heard of. The name of Saigō has been mentioned as one of the two heroes whose mutual trust had resulted in averting the great battle imminent in Edo. A man of overmastering sincerity, his position in the Tōkyō government, in which he was commander in chief of the army, had been unique. When he resigned and retired to Kagoshima in Satsuma, and established a private military school, nearly all the ambitious young men of the province flocked to the school. Many came from other prefectures also, for Saigō's reputation as the chief agent in bringing about the restoration was immense, and his simple, great personality commanded universal love and respect. These students, little intent on studies, where animated by a desire to raise Saigō to the leadership of a colossal opposition to the new cabinet, whose policy and conduct they honestly abhorred.