General Ashiwara

Japanese: 葦原将軍 - あしわらしょうぐん

1850‐1937 (Kaei 3‐Showa 12)
A notorious patient who was hospitalized at Sugamo Hospital and its successor Matsuzawa Hospital for 56 years, spanning three generations of the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras, he called himself "Shogun Ashihara." His real name was Kinjiro Ashihara. Born as the third son of a samurai of the Takaoka domain, he worked as a servant at a comb wholesaler in Fukaya, Saitama Prefecture, but he soon became mentally unstable and was hospitalized. While at the hospital, he would utter grandiose and delusional rhetoric, wear a formal uniform with gold frills, charge an audience fee, allow visitors to have an audience with him, receive "words" as if he were an emperor, and sell imperial edicts written by his subordinates.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

1850‐1937(嘉永3‐昭和12)
明治･大正･昭和の3代にわたる56年間，巣鴨病院とその後身の松沢病院に入院しつづけた名物患者で，みずから〈葦原将軍〉と名のった。本名は葦原金次郎。高岡藩士の三男として生まれ，埼玉県深谷の櫛問屋に奉公したが，まもなく精神に異常をきたし，入院させられた。院内では，誇大な妄想的言辞を常とし，金モールつきの大礼服を着て，謁見料を取り，見学者に拝謁させ，あたかも皇帝のような〈お言葉〉を賜り，部下に代筆させた勅語を売りさばいた。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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