1651: Marubashi Chuya, Keian Uprising conspirator
September 24th, 2014 Headsman
On this date in 1651, the ronin Marubashi Chuya was crucified for a failed attempt to topple the Tokugawa shogunate.
Allegedly disaffected of the national unification dynasty by having lost his father to battle against it, Marubashi orchestrated, along with a fellow martial arts adept named Yui Shosetsu, a daring plot betrayed only by illness. When shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu died in 1651, leaving power to a 10-year-old heir, the conspirators meant to set fire to Edo (Tokyo) and seize Edo Castle as well as other cities.
But Marubashi came down with a very ill-timed fever and in delirium raved treasonable plot details that got passed along to Tokugawa authorities. The so-called Keian Uprising never made it into execution.
The Keian Uprising inspired many literary interpretations. This 1883 woodblock print depicts actor Ichikawa Sadanji as Marubashi Chûya.
This is more than can be said about the uprisers.
Yui managed to commit seppuku before capture, but Murabashi and a number of the other rebels paid the ultimate price. So too did family members of the rebels.
Marubashi’s is reputed to be the first execution to take place at the Suzugamori execution grounds. The little quarter-acre patch maintained this grim role for the ensuing 220 years, during which time an estimated 100,000 people were put to death there.
That venerable execution grounds was retired in 1871. There’s a memorial marking its onetime site in present-day Tokyo near the junction of Kyu-tokaido Street and Daiichikeihin Avenue.
On this day..
- 1947: Yoshio Tachibana, ravenous - 2020
- 2002: Robert Anthony Buell - 2019
- 1788: Levi and Abraham Doan, attainted Tories - 2018
- 1815: St. Peter the Aleut, the martyr of San Francisco - 2017
- 1986: Adolf Tolkachev, the Billion-Dollar Spy - 2016
- 1482: Richard Puller von Hohenburg and Anthony Mätzler - 2015
- 1537: Jurgen Wullenwever, Burgermeister of Lubeck - 2013
- 1830: Stephen Simmons, the last executed by Michigan - 2012
- 1896: Four in New Mexico, in three different towns - 2011
- 1858: Qualchan - 2010
- 1749: Antonio Camardella - 2009
- 1652: Captain James Hind, royalist highwayman - 2008
Entry Filed under: 17th Century,Arts and Literature,Capital Punishment,Crucifixion,Death Penalty,Execution,Famous,History,Japan,Mass Executions,Power,Soldiers,Treason
Tags: 1650s, 1651, coup d'etat, marubashi chuya, suzugamori execution grounds, theater, tokugawa shogunate, tokyoseptember 24, yui shosetsu
Crucifixions at Suzugamori must have been a frightening spectacle with the condemned crucified upside down in the bay at low tide and left to contemplate their fate until high tide.