A wife of Saigo's, Itoko, who was invited to the opening, was surprised and said 'my husband didn't look like that' (a theory that claiming that the statues did not in fact look alike stems from this statement), and also she said 'he didn't walk around in a yukata' in a strong dialect of Satsu-gu (the dialect of Satsuma and Osumi Province) and she was censured by the people around her.
公開の際に招かれた西郷夫人糸子は「宿んし（うちの主人）はこげんなお人じゃなかったこてえ（あら、こんな人ではなかったですよ）」と腰を抜かし（この発言を銅像の顔が本人に似てない事と解釈する説もある）、また「浴衣姿で散歩なんてしなかった」といった意の言葉（薩隅方言）を漏らし周囲の人に窘められたという。