Japan’s cruel history of 700 years of suffering

Japan may hold the record for the longest use of the cross as a form of punishment in world history. The ancient Romans had been crucifying people for about 500 years, starting around 3 ADRD This practice was abolished in the 4th century B.C.th century AD. Japan started much later, with literary sources including The Tale of the Heike Point out 1181 as an early reference.

However, one of them final Records of crucifixions come from the 1860s, a few years before the Meiji government abolished the penalty. This marks nearly 700 years of people killing people in the most brutal ways. It is difficult to imagine—in fact, nearly impossible—because Japanese crucifixion was so different from Western crucifixion. Here’s how:

Annaori Sakuma’s depiction of the Edo Crucifixion | | WahooArt.com National Food Collection, Wikimedia

For display purposes only

Japanese Hansuke Crucifixion likely evolved from earlier punishments in which criminals were tied to their posts and subjected to abuse and humiliation by the community before execution. Haritsuke follows a similar pattern. Those who committed particularly heinous crimes – such as killing their masters or parents, rebelling against the government, especially during the Edo period (1603 to 1867), and counterfeiting currency – were first given “horse riding”. That’s the humiliating part. called wisdomwhich involved having criminals paraded through the streets on horseback, holding banners announcing their crimes.

In later years this was replaced put criminals in a box Only their heads were exposed and they were left for two days in a busy area of ​​Edo (now Tokyo) where passers-by could spit at them and laugh at them.

Only after that did the crucifixion appear, although this practice used ropes instead of nails, and a pole with two crossbars arranged like katakana characters arrive (キ) For men. Women were crucified on classic single-beam crosses shaped like the Chinese character for “ten”.

Another important difference: The man who was crucified didn’t actually die doing the deadly CrossFit. Once on the cross, their sides were pierced with spears and their throats slit, but only after hours of blood loss and stab wounds. The bodies were left on crosses for several days as a warning to potential criminals. If a person died from torture before the crucifixion, the body would still be displayed on the cross, but would simply be preserved in vinegar to retard decay.

Nagasaki Twenty-Six Martyrs Monument, built in 1962

Christians are worst off

Bofu was most popular during Japan’s Warring States Period (mid-15th century).th century to early 17th centuryth century), although even then this was not common. It’s reserved for worst-case scenarios and takes a lot of time and effort. After Christian missionaries arrived in Japan in the 16th centuryth In the twentieth century, a strange coincidence was discovered: both cultures were fascinated by the Man on the Cross. Practitioners of Bofu are encouraged to continue.

Japan’s second great unifier, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537 – 1598), was particularly fond of crucifixion. After Christianity fell out of favor, he massively revived Zhang Fu, carrying out mass executions and spin-offs such as happy Used to kill Christians. During the festival, a “haritsuke” cross is planted on the coast at low tide, and as the water rises, the condemned men are slowly engulfed – the water reaches just below their mouths, but does not drown them. There is no euthanasia here; death from combined injuries can take several days.

In 1597, Hideyoshi returned to his roots and ordered 26 Catholics, both foreigners and Japanese, to be crucified and speared to death in what was known as “execution.” Nagasaki 26 Martyrs. Incredibly, however, haritsuke’s history gets even darker, so get ready because it’s about to happen severe.

Not just for humans

There’s no easy way to express this, so we’ll just say it: There is one documented example of animals being crucified in Japan, not to kill their owners or for the sake of forgery, although you might have guessed that.

It started with Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, known as “dog generalA big shot who loved animals, he issued the “Edict of Compassion for Life.” This decree stated that anyone who abused animals, especially dogs, must be severely punished, sometimes even sentenced to death. The original intentions of these decrees may have been good, but many people at the time were unhappy with the implication that a dog’s life was equal to or even higher than theirs.

In 1695, people in what is now Tokyo’s Adachi Ward reportedly crucified two dogs in protest of Tsunayoshi’s laws, alongside a sign that read: “These dogs took advantage of the dog shogun’s power to torture people.” The act was intended to mock the government’s policy, and while innocent animals had to suffer for it, at least the executions were fruitless. Tsunayoshi’s decree remained in effect until his death in 1709. There is no silver lining to this story, just pointless misery like so much of history.

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