The picture was supposedly taken by Guido Herman Fridolin Verbeek in 1866 or 1867, but the notion that Saigo and others who had made achievements serving the country in the Meiji Restoration got together around that time is historically impossible, and Saigo himself was already obese by this point, but in the picture his cheek bones show and he had a normal sized body, so there are many problems with it; moreover, the picture was distorted by Taneomi SOEJIMA and Guido Herman Fridolin Verbeek, so it is likely to be nothing more than unnamed men of the warrior class in Saga, instead those who had achievements serving their country.
グイド・フルベッキの写真は撮影されたのが慶応2、3年と特定されているが（明治初年の説もある）、比定された西郷ら明治維新の元勲がこの時期に一堂に会したことは史料的にも有り得ぬし、西郷本人に限っても、既に肥満体になっていたのに、頬骨が出、普通の身躯をしているなど疑問点だらけで、副島種臣とフルベッキ、さらに無名の佐賀士族の若者たちを写した写真を元勲たちの写真とこじつけたにすぎない。