Seppo ruefully said "although Kagoshima had many talented people before the war, such people and talents all vanished like those trees disappeared and only bald hills remain here, I cannot stand even saying this; it takes a hundred years to raise a tree, and I think a titan like Saigo would appear only once in a hundred years or once in a thousand years, so, we can never see anyone like him."
雪蓬、悵然之に謂て曰く『十年役前の鹿児島は、有用の人材輩出せしも、今や、禿山と一般、人才一空、復言ふに忍びざるなり。樹を植ゆるは、百年の計なり。想ふに西郷の如き巨人は、百年又は千年にして一たび出づるもの。而して、斯人再び見る可からず』と。