Jirocho Shimizu - Jirocho Shimizu

Japanese: 清水次郎長 - しみずのじろちょう

Year of death: June 12, 1893 (Meiji 26)
Year of birth: Bunsei 3.1.1 (1820.2.14)
He was a gangster during the Meiji Restoration and a businessman during the Meiji Period. His real name was Yamamoto Chogoro. His biological father was Kumohime Sanemon, a boatman and captain at Shimizu Port in Suruga Province (Shizuoka Prefecture). His birth on New Year's Day was said to be an unlucky day, so he was adopted by his uncle Yamamoto Jirohachi (a rice wholesaler). At the age of 15, he was a mischievous and uneducated man, and while an uprising called the Great Kai National Uprising broke out in the neighboring country, he took his family's money and ran off to Hamamatsu to buy up all the rice. This is the first page in the Bakumatsu Fuunroku that Jirocho appears in. In 1839, a traveling monk saw his appearance and told him that he would not live longer than 25 years old. He decided to live a full, short life, and became a yakuza. At the age of 23, he thought he had killed someone in a fight, so he ran away from Shimizu and joined Teratsu Jisuke in Mikawa. He spent all his time fighting, and earned the nickname Goroncho. In 1845, he mediated a quarrel between Tsumugi Bunkichi of Kai and Wadajima Taemon of Suruga, and sold them out. At the age of 28, he married Otefu, the younger sister of Ejiri Okuma. In 1850, he assisted Hogeta Kyuroku in a fight with Ichinomiya Kyuzaemon (Kunisada Chuji was executed that same year). Jirocho's mid-30s were a time of crisis, and in 1858, he had a falling out with Sukenori Sennosuke of Kai, and after making a pilgrimage to Konpira in Sanuki, he murdered Kyuroku in 1859. During his pilgrimage to Konpira before the decisive battle, he inherited his father's faith in Konpira. In 1860, he had Mori no Ishimatsu visit Konpira in his place to pray for the death of Kuroku, but on the way back, Ishimatsu was killed by the Miyakoda family. Shimizu avenged his death and brought Mikawa into his sphere of influence. Around this time, his arch enemy Kurokoma Katsuzo appeared. In order to counter the mobility of the Kurokoma, who came down the Fuji River and Tenryu River on rafts from the mountainous regions, Shimizu created the "Shimizu Nijyuhachishu", a professional fighting group that traveled outside of Shimizu's territory, in 1864. This was earlier than the Shinsengumi, a professional fighting group of samurai. The second conflict in Mikawa between Shimizu and Unkaze Kamekichi of the Kurokoma side was called the Battle of Hiraimura (1864), and was the most bloody battle in the history of gambler conflicts. The Shimizu family, who controlled the Tokaido up to Nagoya, began their control of the Ise Route with the Battle of Kojinyama in 1866. In the turf war between Kobe Nagayoshi and Anato Toku, Jirocho sided with Nagayoshi, and had Omasa's (Yamamoto Masagoro) fighting corps and Oose Hangoro's detachment, which was fighting to conquer Kai and Shinano, join forces at Terazu in Mikawa, and head to Aragamiyama under the command of Kira Niyoshi. Niyoshi was killed in battle. In retaliation, Jirocho landed in Ise with a strategic fleet of two Senkoku ships carrying 480 men, 40 guns, 170 spears, and 90 bales of rice, and forced Anato Toku and his backer, Tanbaya Denbei, to submit. The weapons were procured by Tanaka Keijiro, the third head of the Kunisada family. Jirocho's pirate nature was due to his faith in Konpira. Jirocho's fight, the best in the Tokaido, came to an end when it collided with the best fight in Japan, the civil war of the Meiji Restoration. After the Meiji Restoration, he became a businessman, and worked on the repair of Shimizu Port, cultivating the foot of Mt. Fuji, and establishing a steamship company to transport Shizuoka tea to Yokohama. He died the year before the Sino-Japanese War, dreaming of traveling to France. He is buried at Bainji Temple in Shimizu. The inscription on his tomb was written by Takeaki Enomoto.

(Masaaki Hiraoka)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：明治26.6.12(1893)
生年：文政3.1.1(1820.2.14)
幕末維新期の侠客,明治期には実業家。本名山本長五郎。実父は雲不見三右衛門と称した駿河国(静岡県)清水湊の船持船頭。元旦生まれは不祥との伝説から叔父の山本次郎八(米問屋)の養子になる。悪さと無学の15歳時,隣国で甲斐国民大奮起という一揆が起こったのを尻目に家の金を持ちだし,浜松に米の買い占めに走ったのが幕末風雲録に次郎長登場の第1頁。天保10(1839)年,旅の僧に人相を見られ「命数25歳を出ず」といわれて,「じゃあ太く短く生きる」とヤクザになった。23歳のとき,喧嘩で相手を殺したと思い込み清水を出奔,三河の寺津治助にわらじを脱ぎ,喧嘩に明け暮れてあだ名はゴロ長。弘化2(1845)年,甲斐の紬文吉と駿河の和田島太右衛門の喧嘩を仲裁して売り出した。28歳で江尻大熊の妹おてふを娶る。嘉永3(1850)年,保下田久六を助勢し一の宮久左衛門と争った(この年国定忠治刑死)。 30歳代半ばは次郎長の危機の時代で,安政5(1858)年,甲斐の祐典仙之助と不和,讃岐の金比羅に詣でたのちの同6年,久六を殺害した。決戦前の金比羅詣では実父の金比羅信仰を継いだもの。万延1(1860)年,久六斬り祈願成就に森の石松を金比羅に代参させ,その帰路に石松が都田一家に殺されると,その仇を討って三河を勢力圏に収めた。このころ宿敵黒駒勝蔵が現れる。山岳地帯から富士川,天竜川を筏に乗って下ってくる黒駒の機動力に対抗して,縄張り外を転戦するプロの戦闘集団「清水二十八衆」を元治1(1864)年に創出。これは士のプロ戦闘集団新選組より早い。黒駒方の雲風亀吉との2次にわたる三河の抗争は平井村の役(1864年)と呼ばれ,博徒抗争史上かつてない殺戮戦だった。東海道を名古屋までおさえた清水一家が伊勢路制圧に着手したのが,慶応2(1866)年の荒神山の喧嘩だ。神戸長吉と穴太徳の縄張争いで長吉方につき,大政(山本政五郎)の戦闘団と甲斐信濃制圧に転戦する大瀬半五郎の別働隊を三河の寺津で合流させ,吉良仁吉を大将に荒神山に向かわせる。仁吉戦死。その報復に次郎長は千石船2隻に手勢480人,銃40丁,槍170幹,米90俵をのせた戦略艦隊をもって伊勢に上陸し,穴太徳とその後ろ盾丹波屋伝兵衛を屈服させる。その武器調達は国定一家3代目田中敬次郎による。金比羅信仰の次郎長の海賊的性格である。海道一の次郎長の喧嘩は日本一の喧嘩,維新の内戦にぶつかってとまる。維新後は実業家になって,清水港の改修工事,富士山麓開墾,静岡茶を横浜に運ぶ蒸汽船会社の設立などをやりながら,フランス渡航を夢見つつ日清戦争の前年に死す。墓は清水の梅蔭寺。墓銘は榎本武揚の筆による。<参考文献>天田愚庵『東海遊侠伝』

(平岡正明)

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