Hachiro Kanno

He was seen as a leader of the social reform movement at the end of the Edo period. He was born to a village official in Kanaharada village, Date county, Mutsu province (Date city, Fukushima prefecture). Influenced by his father, who studied Yangmingism, he took a strong interest in the corruption of the magistrates and the Shogunate's coastal defense policy, and took critical actions. He approached Mito domain samurai and others, which led to his involvement in the Ansei Purge and his imprisonment and exile to Hachijojima. There he studied under the Kyoto priest Umetsuji Norikiyo, and after returning home he created an organization (Seishinko) to resist the corruption and oppression of power. In 1866 (Keio 2), he was seen as the hidden leader of the social reform movement in Shinobu and Date counties, and he had such an ideological influence on the peasants who participated that he was revered as the "Eight Elders of Social Reform, Hachiro Daimyojin." However, his life after the Meiji Restoration is still unclear. Hachiro's main works are collected in "Thoughts on the People's Movement" (Iwanami Shiso Taikei).

[Michio Aoki]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

幕末期、世直し騒動の指導者と目された人物。陸奥(むつ)国伊達(だて)郡金原田(かなはらだ)村（福島県伊達市）の村役人の子に生まれる。陽明学を学んだ父の影響で、代官の不正、幕府の海防政策などに強い関心をもち、批判的な行動をとり、水戸藩士などに接近したため、安政の大獄に連座し投獄され、八丈島へ遠島となる。ここで京都の神職梅辻規清(うめつじのりきよ)に学び、帰郷後、権力の不正や圧政に抵抗する組織（誠信講）をつくり、1866年（慶応2）には信夫(しのぶ)・伊達両郡の大世直し騒動の陰の指導者と目されるほど、参加した農民らに思想的影響を与え「世直し八老大明神(はちろうだいみょうじん)」と崇(あが)められた。ただ明治維新以降の生涯はまだつまびらかではない。八郎のおもな著作は『民衆運動の思想』（岩波思想大系）に収められている。

［青木美智男］

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