Samurai serial killers and mass murderers

Killing is a funny old thing. You could cut down 17 people, decapitate their bodies, and then Stuff their mouths with bamboo grass – People will call you one of the greatest warriors of all time simply because the massacre happened during the war. That’s why there are so few “evil warriors” on record. Throughout its history, Japan has believed that all is fair in love and war, and over the years, the latter has become a common occurrence. but once Tokugawa Ieyasu At the beginning of the 17th century, Japan completed its unification and Japan’s wars basically ended. From that point on, we began to see examples of monsters who used katana swords to commit mass murder, serial killings, and eventually go down in history as Japan’s most notorious samurai. criminallike…

Sano Jirozaemon by Utagawa Kunisada | Sano Jirozaemon National Museum of Ukrainian Art

Sano Jirozaemon: Yoshihara Hundred Killers

Yoshiwara was an entertainment district approved by the government of Edo (modern Tokyo), Helped create the female geisha. One can also access the services of the capital’s sex workers here, or, if you’re wealthy enough, surrender to your enemies In truly spectacular fashion. Sadly, it was also the site of the first and only killing spree of the Edo period (1603-1867), when Sano Jirozaemon went crazy and rampaged through the area, killing people indiscriminately with his sword. The event is now known as the “Yoshiwara Hundred Massacre.”

Reliable historical details about the tragedy are sparse, but what is known is that in 1696 Sano attacked and killed a prostitute who rejected him—because some Yoshiwara sex workers had the right to choose their own clients—and then he ……move on. Although the killings were dubbed the “Massacre of the Hundred,” Sano’s total number of victims was likely closer to 12 to 20. But that doesn’t make it any less scary. The name is likely an invention of Kabuki theater, which immortalized and sensationalized Sano Jirozaemon’s rampage while making it difficult to distinguish fact from fiction.

In Kabuki, there is a whole play about Sano and Yatsuhashi, the name of the prostitute who rejected him. Is that really what she called it? Did she just reject Sano as a client or did he propose to her? We’re not sure because history and drama have become muddled over the centuries. We’re not even 100 percent sure who Sano is. Some sources/plays claim that he was the chief of a village. Others identified him as a lord. He must have been a samurai, as only samurai were allowed to carry swords at the time, and some served as leaders of rural communities. What we know for sure is that, despite Kabuki’s insistence, Sano’s sword was not cursed, and it definitely didn’t make him kill all those people.

In the end, Sano was captured and silently accepted the death penalty of beheading without any explanation for his actions.

Hiroshige’s Yoshiwara Red Light District | Wikimedia

Mara Shingoro: The Crazy Ronin of Atago Shrine

Not intending to spark any rumors about haunted locations around Tokyo, but oddly enough, 30 years before Sano Jirozaemon’s rampage in Yoshiwara, another samurai was in roughly the same area (more or less the modern equivalent of Nihonbashi ) murdered a large group of people.

Based on the 2016 book Edo Hansaiko According to Ujiie Mikito’s “Edo Period Crime Records” (“Records of Crimes of the Edo Period”), in 1663, a series of attacks on random civilians occurred one night outside the Kunimachi area. An unidentified attacker armed with a sword killed a total of 8 people and seriously injured 10 others. The next day, a monk arrived at the local magistrate’s office with shocking news: he knew who the murderer was.

According to his testimony, the night before, a ronin (self-taught samurai) named Mara Shingoro requested to spend the night at his temple, and since he seemed respectable enough, the monk agreed…. ..but only because he couldn’t get a good look at Magala in the dead of night.

In the cold morning light, as he was bringing food to the sleeping ronin, the monk noticed that Magara’s clothes and katana, blade and hilt, etc., were covered in blood. The monk hid the Ronin’s sword and rushed to the magistrate, who immediately sent a team to capture the murderous samurai. He was taken aback, did not resist, and soon confessed his crime. However, unlike Sano Jirozaemon, he actually gave a reason for his killings, claiming that while praying at Atago Shrine, he received a message from heaven telling him that if he killed 1,000 people, his All wishes will come true.

According to the author, the samurai serial killer then ended the interrogation with the following plea: “Please allow me to kill 1,000 people. I really want my wish to come true.” He never said what his wish was. Maybe that’s for the best.

Nakamura Utaemon III plays the role of Hirai Gonpachi in the play “Osaka is a rich purple color” | Smithsonian Institution

Hirai Gonpachi: The samurai who killed for love

Hirai (or Shirai in other sources) Gonpachi was born around 1655 in what is now Tottori Prefecture. OK Finally, we debunk rumors that the 17th-century Nihonbashi area turned people into crazy killers. Anyway, after murdering a man in his hometown, Gonpachi fled to Edo… where he eventually started robbing and killing people around Yoshiwara… damn.

Similar to Sano Jirozaemon, everything we know about Gonpachi today is a little questionable because it has been diluted by the stories concocted by the drama world. Gonpachi’s real life creates some exciting drama, as not only was he a samurai who lost his identity, but he also fell in love with a prostitute named Komurasaki after arriving in Edo. Thankfully, this time, the feeling is mutual. However, the two failed to get together because Komurasaki signed a contract at the Yoshiwara brothel in order to pay off his parents’ debts.

After Quanba fell in love with her, he often visited Xiaozi, and her beauty cost her a high price. Gonpachi allegedly began robbing and killing businessmen visiting the red-light district, among others, to support visits to Komurasaki’s brothel. The total number of his victims is usually 130, but this seems to be another invention of the dramatist. Still, he killed enough people to be sentenced to death, after which Komurasaki is said to have committed suicide on his grave.

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