Nightmare Prison in Edo Period in Tokyo

Between 1613 and 1875, if you are arrested Warrior police And convicted in court – almost always happens because the Edo judicial system (modern Tokyo) thinks that letting people free for failure – and then you pray There is no time to go to jail.

Brands, tattoos, whipping or deportation to distant provinces all prefer imprisonment. That’s because the Edo government has only one prison, and it’s a place where you hope to die. Well, hope and about 200,000 people. This is the story of the nightmare Denmacho prison.

Give up all hope

Edo is located in Kodenmacho near Nihonbashi, so it is sometimes called Kodenmacho Prison, and Edo’s only holding facility is the City of Pain in the heart of the Japanese capital. It covers an area of ​​about 8,700 square meters, with 300 to 900 prisoners living there.

This is a large number of prison cells supervised by more than 100 staff members. Ronanushi,Terrifying prisoner’s cell barrier leader. The building is surrounded by huge walls and moats, one of which is called Fujomon or unclean doors to increase insult to the harm that is happening.

Denmacho is also a place of execution, a place where a savage defendant confesses from them before trial, and has a dedicated torture chamber and everything. In the cell block, things are not much better, where conditions will require weeks of deep cleaning and a comprehensive overhaul of operation to be considered “dull”.

The lack of windows in the cells, the lack of ventilation and limited access to water, leads to terrible odors and frequent diseases such as scum. There are doctors there, but their role is mainly to sign a death certificate indicating that the prisoners died of “natural causes,” even if their bodies are covered with bruises.

The non-fatal assault is part of the initiation process for the new inmates and is then asked if they have a lifeline – inochi no tsuru In Japanese – basically ask them if they have money or someone outside can get some. If the answer is “No”, the beating will continue. Violence is the universal language of Denmacho, although there is another thing in prison.

A man arrested by Edo weapons

Even in hell, money matters

All kinds of people were placed in Denmacho, including samurai, monks and civilians. However, not in the same cell, because even in prison, feudalism believed in social hierarchy, so senior prisoners were sent to the VIP section.

this agari-zashiki and agariya Partly built in 1683, the purpose of detaining direct vassals of shoguns, nobles, famous priests and political prisoners. They offer semi-private spaces, access to bathrooms, actual ventilation, better meals, and even books and writing tools.

But these are not freebies. Senior prisoners are expected to pay for all of this, but if they have enough money, they can basically create conditions where you can temporarily forget about yourself in prison, including your private furniture, or even a servant. “Even in hell, the amount of money” is actually an ancient Edo-era proverb, illustrated in Denmacho.

Still, there are some things that money and privileges cannot buy. One of Denmacho’s most famous residents is the prominent intellectual Shoin Yoshida, who was arrested for planning to overthrow Tokugawa Shogunate later in the Edo period.

He was briefly placed on the VIP section and then beheaded. II Naosuke, the person in charge of incarceration, later Being shot in the street and beheaded.

The prison occasionally holds clearance nights

Not every official in Danmacho is inhumane. In 1657, in the fires that destroyed more than half of Edo, the prison actually released prisoners so they would not burn and expect them to return within the next 3 days.

According to some sources, most of them did. This has been reported to have happened several times and the results are the same. Although, when prisons start to get a little overcrowded, it may not be. When this happens, you don’t want to be in Denmacho.

In order to control the prison population, authorities approved or directly ordered the murder of “expendable” prisoners. The most common goal of these cleanings is homeless people without stable addresses or occupations, as their deaths are seen as no huge loss to society.

Other targets include former policemen and those without money or those who annoyed Ronanushi’s cell disorder leader. The prisoners who beat S were obviously one of the earliest prisoners to go during the Danmacho cleaning.

Because prisoners cannot use weapons, a deviated diaphragm can cause ugly deaths caused by the use of anything heavy or fist that prisoners may find. Many of the dead were then transferred to the ward so that the doctor could record the cause of death as a “disease.”

It is estimated that up to 200,000 people died in Denmacho through executions, illness or murder. After the prison was closed and demolished (with only a few traces left), the Daianrakuji temple was built on the grounds of execution to appease the spirit of those who died in Denmacho.

It seems to work since then, with Kozukapparaone of Kodenmacho’s other reasons for execution, is not yet called one of the most troubled places in Tokyo. Is that a happy ending?

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