Gunma Incident

This was an incident that intensified the Freedom and People's Rights Movement. It was started in May 1884 (Meiji 17) by radical Liberal Party members and indebted farmers in the farming villages at the foot of Mt. Myogi in Gunma Prefecture, which was suffering from the economic recession under Matsukata's finances. The leaders were members of the Jomo Liberal Party, which belonged to the Liberal Party group led by Oi Kentaro and Miyabe Noboru, and included local organizers Kobayashi Yasubei (Hibison), head priest of Ichinomiya Komyoin, Miura Momonosuke, Yuasa Rihyo, head of Takumi village in Kitakanra county, and Nonaka Yahachi, a farmer from Katayama village in Tago county. The incident began with a plot to overthrow the government by attacking a train carrying the emperor and other high-ranking government officials at Honjo Station during the opening ceremony for the Nakasendo Railway between Ueno and Takasaki on May 1. However, the plan was forced to change as the opening ceremony was postponed again and again, and they decided to gather at Jinba-ga-hara at the foot of Mt. Myogi on May 14, attack three police stations in Tomioka, Matsuida, and Maebashi, and then take over the Takasaki branch of the Tokyo Garrison.

The plan was developed on a scale throughout western Joshu, including Bushu. First, the plan was made at the home of Bunpei Ueno in Hirukawa Village, Kodama County, Saitama Prefecture, as a secret meeting place. Miura was sent to Chichibu in Bushu and Minamikanra County in Joshu as an organizer, and in Usui County, gambler boss Heijuro Yamada (Jonosuke) was put in charge, while Kobayashi, Yuasa, Nonaka and others went to Sugawara Village and Moroto Village in Kitakanra County and tried to organize the farmers. However, on the day of the meeting, which was postponed to the following day, May 15th, due to rain, only "only about 34 or 35 people from the surrounding area gathered at the foot of Mt. Myogi" (original decision of the preliminary hearing conclusion), and the farmers who gathered were mainly from Sugawara and Moroto. As a result, the leaders, including Yuasa, proposed an attack on the Tomioka Police Station. The debt-ridden farmers who had gathered agreed to attack the house of Okabe Tamesaku, the president of Nyu Manufacturing Company (a bank-like company) with which nearly half of the farmers had a financial network throughout Kitakanra County, on the road to Tomioka, and they burned the house down at around 2 a.m. on the 16th. However, the incident ended without the group taking any further action. As a result, Kobayashi and Yuasa were sentenced to 13 and 12 years in prison, respectively, for being a gangster, and 10 others were sentenced to imprisonment or other penalties, and more than 20 others were fined.

[Iwane Joji]

"Documents of the Gunma Incident" edited by Shinji Fujibayashi (1979, Gendaishi Publishing Co.) " " "Debt Farmers' Riots and the Intensification of the Incident" by Shosei Iwane (included in "Modern Japan's Integration and Resistance 1" 1982, Nippon Hyoronsha)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

自由民権運動の激化事件。1884年（明治17）5月、松方財政下の不況に苦しむ群馬県妙義山麓(みょうぎさんろく)の農村を舞台に、自由党急進派と負債農民によって起こされた。指導者は、自由党の大井憲太郎(けんたろう)・宮部襄(みやべのぼる)グループに属する上毛(じょうもう)自由党のメンバーで、在地のオルグ層の一ノ宮光明院(こうみょういん)住職小林安兵衛（日比遜(ひびそん)）、三浦桃之助、北甘楽(きたかんら)郡内匠(たくみ)村戸長湯浅理兵(りひょう)、多胡(たご)郡片山村農民野中弥八(やはち)らであった。事件の発端は、5月1日上野―高崎間の中山道(なかせんどう)鉄道開通式の挙行に際し、天皇はじめ政府高官が同乗する列車を本庄(ほんじょう)駅で襲撃し、政府転覆を謀ろうと計画したことにある。しかし、開通式の延期、再延期によって計画は変更を余儀なくされ、5月14日を期して妙義山麓陣場ヶ原(じんばがはら)に集結し、富岡、松井田、前橋の3警察署を襲撃し、さらに東京鎮台高崎分営を乗っ取ることとなった。

　計画は武州を含む西上州規模で進められた。まず埼玉県児玉(こだま)郡蛭川(ひるかわ)村上野文平宅を密会所として計画が練られ、武州秩父(ちちぶ)と上州南甘楽郡には三浦をオルグとして派遣し、碓氷(うすい)郡は博徒の親分山田平十郎(へいじゅうろう)（城之助(じょうのすけ)）にまとめさせ、小林、湯浅、野中らは北甘楽郡菅原(すがわら)村、諸戸(もろと)村に入り、農民の組織化に努めた。しかし雨天のため、翌5月15日に延期となった集会当日は、「僅(わず)カ近傍ノ人数三拾四、五名妙義（山）下ニ集リ」（予審終結決定原本）とあるように、菅原・諸戸両村中心の農民部隊が結集したにすぎなかった。その結果、指導部の湯浅らは富岡警察署襲撃を提案した。結集した負債に苦しむ農民部隊は、北甘楽郡一帯に金融網をもち、彼らの約半数近くが貸借関係をもつ丹生(にゅう)生産会社（銀行類似会社）頭取である岡部為作(ためさく)宅が富岡への道筋にあたるので、まずそこを襲って金穀を奪うことで同意し、16日午前2時ごろ同宅を焼き払った。しかし、これ以上に行動を進めることなく事件は終息した。その結果、前橋重罪裁判所で、兇徒聚衆(きょうとしゅうしゅう)罪などにより、小林、湯浅はそれぞれ有期徒刑13、12年、以下禁錮・懲役10名、罰金刑など二十数名が処罰された。

［岩根承成］

『藤林伸治編『ドキュメント群馬事件』（1979・現代史出版会）』▽『岩根承成著「負債農民騒擾と激化事件」（『近代日本の統合と抵抗1』所収・1982・日本評論社）』

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