Jokyo Uprising
Encyclopedia
The , or the Kasuke Uprising, was a large-scale peasant uprising that happened in 1686 (in the third year of the Jōkyō
era during the Edo period
) in Azumidaira, Japan
. Azumidaira at that time, was a part of the Matsumoto Domain
under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate
. The domain was ruled by the Mizuno clan
at the time. Numerous incidents of peasant uprising have been recorded in the Edo period, and in many cases the leaders of the uprisings were executed afterward. Those executed leaders have ben admired as Gimin, and arguably the most famous Gimin is Sakura Sōgorō
. (Gimin means martyr, in the non-religious sense.) But the Jōkyō Uprising was unique in that not only the leaders of the uprising, but also a sixteen-year-old girl who had helped her father, "the deputy ringleader", were caught and executed. On top of that, the leaders of the uprising clearly recognized what was at stake. They realized that the real issue was human rights abuse. Because the newly raised tax level was equivalent to a 70% tax rate; an impossible rate. Amazingly though, the Mizunos compiled Shimpu-tōki, an official record of the Matsumoto Domain about forty years after the uprising. This Shimpu-tōki is the major and credible source of information concerning the uprising.
and Oana Zembei tried to relieve the farmers' suffering by giving away rice from their own storehouses. But their acts of righteousness were met with a harsh reprimand from officials in Matsumoto
. Tada Kasuke was fired as the headman of Nakagaya village, and Oana Zembei was fired as the headman of Niré village. Then in the fall of 1686, the domain government raised taxes to an exorbitant level. (The domain lord who was away from home at the time was obviously not informed of the tax rise.) The reason for this tax rise was that the domain government needed more money. The domain lord of Matsumoto was a fudai daimyo, who was obligated to perform many duties, and therefore had to spend a lot of money. The domain lords of neighboring Takatō
and Takashima were not under such pressure to perform such duties, even though they used to be a part of the Matsumoto Domain. They collected lower taxes from their people. When Azumidaira farmers were notified of the tax rise, the atmosphere among tax collectors and peasants became tense, for their neighbors didn't have to pay the same amount of taxes.
. The sacred place was an appropriate venue for discussing the issue of peasants' survival. After a series of such meetings, Tada Kasuke and his followers came to the conclusion that appealing to the magistrate’s office in Matsumoto was inevitable. They decided to do so even though they knew that to appeal was forbidden. Married men divorced their wives and sent them back to their parents’ homes. They then prepared a letter of appeal of five articles. In the letter they humbly asked for a tax reduction.
The five points of the letter of appeal were :
1. Rendering rice tax after processing is too much of a burden.
2. We ask for a reduction of rice tax to the level of those of two neighboring domains.
3. Concerning the part of rice tax collected in the form of soy-beans, half of which is collected in cash; We ask that the tax money be calculated based on the price of rice, not on the price of soy-beans.
4. Concerning the obligation of transportation of rice, we ask that the obligation be reduced to transporting it only as far as the domain limits.
5. Concerning the personnel cost of local and Edo offices, which we are obligated to shoulder, we ask that the obligation be cancelled.
, and handed in the letter of appeal. What they had not expected was that a huge crowd of farmers would gather and intimidate the officials. Kasuke and his followers had started this out as a peaceful mission. (There is a scholar who refutes this generally accepted notion. He claims that the leaders had intended to mobilize people from the outset. But in the process of dramatizing the story of the executed farmers who would later be revered as Gimin, their initial intention was changed into a more peaceful one.) But when word spread that they were appealing, thousands of peasants flocked to the castle, some of whom stormed shops and the castle gate. The domain lord, Mizuno Tadanao, was away in Edo for sankin kōtai
(alternate-year attendance) at the time, so the executives had to deal with the situation themselves. Their biggest concern was how much this incident would negatively affect the position of the Matsumoto Domain. Thousands of farmers were camping out in the cold outside the castle. On the night of October 16, the domain government issued a response paper signed by two magistrates. When the news of the response paper spread, the majority of peasants who had gathered around Matsumoto Castle went home. But Kasuke and his followers were not satisfied with the response. They lingered behind. They were so determined to get a satisfactory answer that they stayed two more nights outside the castle. At last five executives signed the second response paper responding favorably to the farmers' appeal. The documents granted the farmers’ wishes to decrease the tax. Kasuke went home along with his followers. On October 18, the incident was settled peacefully.
The rumour is that it was due to Tada Kasuke's passionate outcry. But in fact, the rumor started in the Meiji period
when the castle tower actually started to lean to one side.)
in the Meiji period). This movement swept across the nation in the 1870s and 1880s. The bicentennial anniversary of the Jōkyō Uprising was observed in an atmosphere of excitement over the movement. Matsuzawa Kyūsaku, a newspaper journalist from Azumidaira, wrote a play based on the uprising, giving it a title Minken Kagami Kasuke no Omokage (The Image of Kasuke, a Model of the People's Rights Movement). Incidentally, Matsuzawa died in prison exactly 200 years after Kasuke and others had been executed.
In 1950, at a construction site near Seitaka shrine in Matsumoto City, a human body was found. In the next few weeks, additional bodies were found. The number of the unearthed bodies came to eighteen. Seventeen bodies were clustered, and one was found apart from the rest. Four of the seventeen bodies were headless, which coincides with the story handed down by tradition. And one of the seventeen clustered bodies had a larger pelvis and slender bones. Taking these into consideration, historical and medical researchers of the time concluded that it was highly possible that the seventeen clustered bodies were those of the executed farmers of the Jōkyō Uprising. (The one with a larger pelvis must be Oshyun's body. Oana Zembei's body was also easily identified by its long bones, because he had been known for being tall.) In 1952, the bodies were buried in a mound, and the mound has been called Gimin-zuka. Every year on the anniversary day of the executions of the Gimin, a memorial service is held in front of the mound.
Then questions arise as to the whereabouts of the bodies of the farmers who had been executed at Idegawa execution site. It is widely believed that the eleven bodies have been washed away by river water, for the execution site was on the bank of the Tagawa river. When Gimin-zuka was built, some soil from the former Idegawa execution site was used in the construction.
After the 300th anniversary of the uprising, Azumino people founded in 1992 a memorial museum in honor of the uprising. The museum, Joukyou Gimin Memorial Museum, has a plaque with the inscription of the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
, and another plaque with the inscription of the 11th and 12th articles of the Constitution of Japan
, in both English and Japanese. They stand on each side of the main entrance to the building. The museum is located right across the street from the former Tada family homestead (designated as a cultural asset of Nagano Prefecture
in 1960).
Matsumoto Domain (ed), Shimpu-tōki (The official record compiled by the Matsumoto Domain), 1724
TOBA Tōru, Chūō-sen (The Chūō Line), self-published, c.1983
TSUKADA Masakimi, Gimin Shiro ni Sakebu (Gimin Shouts at the Castle), Shinkyō Shuppan-bu, 1986
KODAMA Kōta (ed), Nihonshi-Nempyō・Chizu (The Japanese Chronological Table & Maps), Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1995 ISBN 978-4-642-09504-4
HOSAKA Satoru, Hyakushō Ikki to Sono Sahō (Farmers' Uprising and Its Manners), Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 2002 ISBN 9784642055376
TANAKA Kaoru, Jōkyō Gimin Ikki no Jitsuzō (The Real Image of the Jōkyō Gimin Uprising), Shinmai Shoseki Shuppan Center, 2002 ISBN 4-88411-005-6
SATŌ Makoto et al. (ed), Nihonshi Kenkyū (Japanese History Study), Yamakawa Shuppan-sha, 2008 ISBN978-4-634-01101-4
Jokyo
was a after Tenna and before Genroku. This period spanned the years from February 1684 through September 1688. The reigning emperors were and .-Change of era:...
era during the Edo period
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
) in Azumidaira, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Azumidaira at that time, was a part of the Matsumoto Domain
Matsumoto Domain
The ' was a Japanese feudal domain in Shinano Province . Home to a major strategic center in the form of Matsumoto Castle, it was ruled by various families during the course of its history, the Hotta among them.-List of Daimyo:...
under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...
. The domain was ruled by the Mizuno clan
Mizuno clan
The was a Japanese clan which claimed descent from the Seiwa Genji branch of the Minamoto clan. In the Edo period, the Mizuno clan produced many men who were fudai daimyo serving the Tokugawa shogun, as well as countless families of hatamoto...
at the time. Numerous incidents of peasant uprising have been recorded in the Edo period, and in many cases the leaders of the uprisings were executed afterward. Those executed leaders have ben admired as Gimin, and arguably the most famous Gimin is Sakura Sōgorō
Sakura Sōgorō
Sakura Sōgorō or better known as Sōgo-sama , was a legendary Japanese farmer whose real family name was Kiuchi. He is said to have appealed directly to the shogun in 1652 when he was serving as a headman of one of the villages in the Sakura Domain. In the appeal he requested the shogun to help ease...
. (Gimin means martyr, in the non-religious sense.) But the Jōkyō Uprising was unique in that not only the leaders of the uprising, but also a sixteen-year-old girl who had helped her father, "the deputy ringleader", were caught and executed. On top of that, the leaders of the uprising clearly recognized what was at stake. They realized that the real issue was human rights abuse. Because the newly raised tax level was equivalent to a 70% tax rate; an impossible rate. Amazingly though, the Mizunos compiled Shimpu-tōki, an official record of the Matsumoto Domain about forty years after the uprising. This Shimpu-tōki is the major and credible source of information concerning the uprising.
Background
For several years there had been crop failure caused by severe winters. Azumidaira farmers had suffered from this and many people had starved to death. Poverty was rampant. Under the circumstances some households had to sell their daughters to brothels, and others had to kill newborn babies. Some village heads like Tada KasukeTada Kasuke
was a Japanese farmer who led a failed appeal for lowered taxes in Azumidaira, a part of the Matsumoto Domain under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate. He was caught and executed along with twenty-seven farmers without trial...
and Oana Zembei tried to relieve the farmers' suffering by giving away rice from their own storehouses. But their acts of righteousness were met with a harsh reprimand from officials in Matsumoto
Matsumoto
Matsumoto is the 16th most common Japanese surname and the name of a city in Nagano Prefecture.-People:* Chizuo Matsumoto, a.k.a...
. Tada Kasuke was fired as the headman of Nakagaya village, and Oana Zembei was fired as the headman of Niré village. Then in the fall of 1686, the domain government raised taxes to an exorbitant level. (The domain lord who was away from home at the time was obviously not informed of the tax rise.) The reason for this tax rise was that the domain government needed more money. The domain lord of Matsumoto was a fudai daimyo, who was obligated to perform many duties, and therefore had to spend a lot of money. The domain lords of neighboring Takatō
Takato
Takatō is a Japanese family and place name.*Takatō, Nagano, former town in Nagano Prefecture*Takatō Domain, feudal domain with its capital at that town*Takatō Castle, home of the lords of the domain**Siege of Takatō **Siege of Takatō...
and Takashima were not under such pressure to perform such duties, even though they used to be a part of the Matsumoto Domain. They collected lower taxes from their people. When Azumidaira farmers were notified of the tax rise, the atmosphere among tax collectors and peasants became tense, for their neighbors didn't have to pay the same amount of taxes.
The Event
Secret Meetings
In October of 1686, Tada Kasuke summoned a dozen trustworthy farmers to a secret meeting held at a local Kumano ShrineKumano Shrine
A ' is a type of Shinto shrine which enshrines the three Kumano mountains: Hongū, Shingū, and Nachi . There are more than 3000 Kumano shrines in Japan, and each has received its kami from another Kumano shrine through a process of propagation called or...
. The sacred place was an appropriate venue for discussing the issue of peasants' survival. After a series of such meetings, Tada Kasuke and his followers came to the conclusion that appealing to the magistrate’s office in Matsumoto was inevitable. They decided to do so even though they knew that to appeal was forbidden. Married men divorced their wives and sent them back to their parents’ homes. They then prepared a letter of appeal of five articles. In the letter they humbly asked for a tax reduction.
The five points of the letter of appeal were :
1. Rendering rice tax after processing is too much of a burden.
2. We ask for a reduction of rice tax to the level of those of two neighboring domains.
3. Concerning the part of rice tax collected in the form of soy-beans, half of which is collected in cash; We ask that the tax money be calculated based on the price of rice, not on the price of soy-beans.
4. Concerning the obligation of transportation of rice, we ask that the obligation be reduced to transporting it only as far as the domain limits.
5. Concerning the personnel cost of local and Edo offices, which we are obligated to shoulder, we ask that the obligation be cancelled.
Appealed to the Magistrate's Office
Early on the morning of October 14, Tada Kasuke and Oana Zembei, along with their followers, went to the magistrate’s office outside Matsumoto CastleMatsumoto Castle
, also known as the because of its black exterior, is one of Japan's premier historic castles. It is located in the city of Matsumoto, in Nagano Prefecture and is within easy reach of Tokyo by road or rail....
, and handed in the letter of appeal. What they had not expected was that a huge crowd of farmers would gather and intimidate the officials. Kasuke and his followers had started this out as a peaceful mission. (There is a scholar who refutes this generally accepted notion. He claims that the leaders had intended to mobilize people from the outset. But in the process of dramatizing the story of the executed farmers who would later be revered as Gimin, their initial intention was changed into a more peaceful one.) But when word spread that they were appealing, thousands of peasants flocked to the castle, some of whom stormed shops and the castle gate. The domain lord, Mizuno Tadanao, was away in Edo for sankin kōtai
Sankin kotai
was a policy of the shogunate during most of the Edo period of Japanese history. The purpose was to control the daimyo. In adopting the policy, the shogunate was continuing and refining similar policies of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1635, a law required sankin kōtai, which was already an established...
(alternate-year attendance) at the time, so the executives had to deal with the situation themselves. Their biggest concern was how much this incident would negatively affect the position of the Matsumoto Domain. Thousands of farmers were camping out in the cold outside the castle. On the night of October 16, the domain government issued a response paper signed by two magistrates. When the news of the response paper spread, the majority of peasants who had gathered around Matsumoto Castle went home. But Kasuke and his followers were not satisfied with the response. They lingered behind. They were so determined to get a satisfactory answer that they stayed two more nights outside the castle. At last five executives signed the second response paper responding favorably to the farmers' appeal. The documents granted the farmers’ wishes to decrease the tax. Kasuke went home along with his followers. On October 18, the incident was settled peacefully.
Evasive Tactic
But it turned out that the response documents signed by the executives were a tactic used to settle the rebellion. (Under the strict Tokugawa administration, domain government's failure to control an uprising meant dethronement for the domain lord. The executives of the Matsumoto Domain who were in charge of the incident needed to suppress it by all means.) A month later, Kasuke and other leaders of the uprising were arrested. The response documents were confiscated. Kasuke and his followers along with the male members of their families were executed without trial. (Kasuke's twelve-year-old first-born son, ten-year-old second-born son, and a mere five-year-old son of one of Kasuke's followers were executed, though they did not take part in the uprising.) Oana Zembei's daughter, Oshyun was responsible for delivering invitations to secret meetings at the Kumano Shrine. She was also executed (since females were not supposed to be executed for such a crime in feudal times, her name was changed to a boy's name in the official record, Shimpu-tōki). Twenty-eight farmers were executed in all. The executions took place on November 22 (Jan.5, 1687 according to the solar calendar) at two separate locations. One execution site was at Seitaka (a temporary site) and the other was at Idegawa. Seventeen farmers from the north of the castle were taken to Seitaka. Kasuke, Zembei, and Oshyun were among them. Eleven farmers from the south of the castle were taken to Idegawa. (In addition to the November executions, the new-born baby boy that Oana Zembei's widow, Osato, gave birth to a few months later was sentenced to death. But the baby died of an unexplained illness within a few weeks after birth.) Kasuke is said to have shouted out for lowered taxes when he was tied to the execution pole. Matsumoto Castle had been built with a structural defect which caused it to lean. (The rumour is that it was due to Tada Kasuke's passionate outcry. But in fact, the rumor started in the Meiji period
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
when the castle tower actually started to lean to one side.)
Influence on Jiyū-Minken Undo
The uprising has been perceived as a struggle for the right to life, and thought to be a forerunner for the Jiyū Minken Undo (Freedom and People's Rights MovementFreedom and People's Rights Movement
The was a Japanese political and social movement for democracy in 1880s....
in the Meiji period). This movement swept across the nation in the 1870s and 1880s. The bicentennial anniversary of the Jōkyō Uprising was observed in an atmosphere of excitement over the movement. Matsuzawa Kyūsaku, a newspaper journalist from Azumidaira, wrote a play based on the uprising, giving it a title Minken Kagami Kasuke no Omokage (The Image of Kasuke, a Model of the People's Rights Movement). Incidentally, Matsuzawa died in prison exactly 200 years after Kasuke and others had been executed.
Gimin-zuka (the burial mound)
Then questions arise as to the whereabouts of the bodies of the farmers who had been executed at Idegawa execution site. It is widely believed that the eleven bodies have been washed away by river water, for the execution site was on the bank of the Tagawa river. When Gimin-zuka was built, some soil from the former Idegawa execution site was used in the construction.
The Joukyou Gimin Memorial Museum
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
, and another plaque with the inscription of the 11th and 12th articles of the Constitution of Japan
Constitution of Japan
The is the fundamental law of Japan. It was enacted on 3 May, 1947 as a new constitution for postwar Japan.-Outline:The constitution provides for a parliamentary system of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights...
, in both English and Japanese. They stand on each side of the main entrance to the building. The museum is located right across the street from the former Tada family homestead (designated as a cultural asset of Nagano Prefecture
Nagano Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of the island of Honshū. The capital is the city of Nagano.- History :Nagano was formerly known as the province of Shinano...
in 1960).
List of references
(In Japanese)Matsumoto Domain (ed), Shimpu-tōki (The official record compiled by the Matsumoto Domain), 1724
TOBA Tōru, Chūō-sen (The Chūō Line), self-published, c.1983
TSUKADA Masakimi, Gimin Shiro ni Sakebu (Gimin Shouts at the Castle), Shinkyō Shuppan-bu, 1986
KODAMA Kōta (ed), Nihonshi-Nempyō・Chizu (The Japanese Chronological Table & Maps), Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1995 ISBN 978-4-642-09504-4
HOSAKA Satoru, Hyakushō Ikki to Sono Sahō (Farmers' Uprising and Its Manners), Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 2002 ISBN 9784642055376
TANAKA Kaoru, Jōkyō Gimin Ikki no Jitsuzō (The Real Image of the Jōkyō Gimin Uprising), Shinmai Shoseki Shuppan Center, 2002 ISBN 4-88411-005-6
SATŌ Makoto et al. (ed), Nihonshi Kenkyū (Japanese History Study), Yamakawa Shuppan-sha, 2008 ISBN978-4-634-01101-4
External links
- http://www.anc-tv.ne.jp/~gimin/what.html from Joukyou Gimin Memorial Museum
- http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/JapanUDHRPlaque.aspx The Universal Declaration of Human Rights amidst Rice Paddy Fields