Takada Incident

In March 1883 (Meiji 16), leading members of the Kubiki Liberal Party, based in the Joetsu region of Niigata Prefecture, were rounded up for plotting civil war. The Kubiki Liberal Party, which was formed in November 1881, became more radical as moderates defected from the party, attracting the attention of the authorities. Party member Hasegawa Saburo was pursued by party executives as a spy for the authorities, and found himself in a difficult position. He turned himself in to Takada Police Station, claiming that the party was planning to assassinate a minister, and gave the name of the mastermind behind the plot. As a result, 37 members of the Kubiki Liberal Party and influential civil rights figures in the prefecture were all arrested at once. A police search of Akai Kageaki's home revealed the "Tenchu ​​Party Mission Statement," which advocated the assassination of high-ranking government officials, but the connection to the Kubiki Liberal Party could not be proven, and everyone was released except for Akai, the writer of the mission statement, and three others. In the end, only Akai was sentenced to nine years in prison by the Tokyo High Court. Akai later escaped from prison, but was executed for killing the rickshaw driver. Some parts of the truth of the incident are still unclear, but it is said that it was a provocation orchestrated by Takada Police Station Chief Akagi Yoshihiko and instigated by Takada District Court Prosecutor Hori Kotaro, who had instigated Kubiki Liberal Party member Hasegawa Saburo, in order to suppress the Freedom and People's Rights Movement.

[Homma Shinichi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

1883年（明治16）3月、新潟県上越(じょうえつ)地方を基盤とする頸城(くびき)自由党の主要党員が、内乱陰謀を理由に一斉検挙された事件。81年11月に結成された頸城自由党は、穏健派の脱党で急進的となり、官憲の注目するところとなった。官憲のスパイとして党幹部より追及を受けた党員長谷川三郎は窮地に陥り、高田警察署へ同党に大臣暗殺計画があるとして、その主謀者名を携えて出頭し、それにより頸城自由党員や県下の有力民権家37名が一斉に検挙された。警察の家宅捜索により、赤井景韶(かげあき)宅から政府高官の殺害を主張する「天誅(てんちゅう)党旨意書」が発見されたが、頸城自由党との関係が立証できず、旨意書の作成者赤井ら3名を除き、他は釈放された。結局、赤井だけが東京高等法院で重禁錮(きんこ)9年の判決を受けた。赤井はその後脱獄したが、車夫を殺したため死刑に処せられた。事件の真相はなお不明の部分もあるが、高田裁判所の検事補堀小太郎が自由民権運動を弾圧するため、頸城自由党員長谷川三郎を使嗾(しそう)して、高田警察署長赤木義彦(よしひこ)と仕組んだ挑発事件であったといわれる。

［本間恂一］

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