There was one time, when he was little, that he was walking with a water bottle (another theory has it that it was a soybean curd) and a mischevious boy surprised him from a hiding place, and Saigo, terrified and dropped the water bottle on the ground, but then thereafter he picked up the water bottle as if nothing had happened.
幼少期、近所に使いで水瓶（豆腐と言う説もある）を持って歩いている時に、物陰に隠れていた悪童に驚かされた時、西郷は水瓶を地面に置いた上で、心底、驚いた表現をして、その後何事も無かったかのように水瓶を運んで行った。