at the cramped military system of feudalism that a story is told of his refusing to talk to a close companion of arms who offended him by wearing his long samurai sword during a conference. Assassination It was the opposition of some of these samurai that led to his demise in the late 1860s. While in the Kansai region looking at sites for future military schools in September 1869, Ōmura was attacked by eight disgruntled ex-samurai, ironically, mostly from Chōshū. These ex-samurai were followers of the by-then abandoned sonnō jōi movement and retained a zealously xenophobic antipathy to foreigners and Western ideas. On the night of October 9, 1869, he and several associates were attacked at an inn in Kyoto. Wounded in several places, he barely escaped with his life by hiding in a bath full of dirty water. The wound on his leg would not heal and he traveled to Osaka to be treated by the Dutch doctor A. F. Bauduin, who wanted to amputate his leg. However, before the operation could be performed, Ōmura succumbed to his wounds in early November of that year. Ōmura's assassins were soon apprehended and sentenced to death, but were reprieved due to political pressure at the last moment by government officials who shared their views that Omura's reforms were an affront to the samurai class. They were executed a year later. Legacy Soon after Ōmura's death, a bronze statue was built in his honor by Ōkuma Ujihiro. The statue was placed in the monumental entry to Yasukuni Shrine, in Tokyo. The shrine was erected to Japanese who have died in battle and remains one of the most visited and respected shrines in Japan. The statue was the first Western style sculpture in Japan Ōmura's ideas for modernizing Japan's military were largely implemented after his death by his followers such as Yamagata Aritomo, Kido Takayoshi, and Yamada Akiyoshi. Yamada Akiyoshi was the strongest leader out of the four and was mainly responsibly for establishing Japan's modern military using Ōmura's ideas. Yamada promoted Ōmura's ideas by establishing new military academies that taught Ōmura's ways. Yamagata Aritomo and Saigō Tsugumichi also had Ōmura's ideas in mind when passing legislation imposing universal military conscription in 1873. Yamagata Aritomo, a devoted follower of Ōmura, traveled to Europe to study military science and military techniques that could be adapted in Japan. Upon returning from Europe, he organized a