Red Flag Incident

An incident of oppression against socialists in the late Meiji period. It is also known as the Kinkikan Incident. On June 22, 1908 (Meiji 41), at the end of a welcome party for Yamaguchi Gizou after his release from prison at Kinkikan in Kanda, Tokyo, Osugi Sakae, Arahata Kanson and other members of a group that supported Kotoku Shusui's theory of direct action waved two red flags with the words "Anarchist Communist" and "Anarchy" sewn onto them with white tape to demonstrate their intimidation of the parliamentary policy faction, sang revolutionary songs and shouted "Long live anarchism." When they left the venue, a brawl broke out between them and police who ordered them to roll up the flags. In the end, 16 people, including Osugi, Arahata, Sakai Toshihiko, Yamakawa Hitoshi and Kanno Suga, were arrested (two of them were immediately released). The Yamagata Aritomo faction made this into a major incident, forcing the first Saionji Kinmochi cabinet, which had been relatively lenient in its crackdown on socialism, to resign (July), and the second Katsura Taro cabinet adopted a stance of strengthening its crackdown on socialism. On August 29, the Tokyo Court of Appeals handed down heavy prison sentences of up to two and a half years to ten of those arrested. This became the catalyst that created a tendency towards terrorism within the direct action movement, and was an indirect cause of the High Treason Incident.

[Tsunehisa Abe]

"Arahata Kanson's Autobiography (Iwanami Bunko)" ▽ "Yoshikawa Morikuni's History of the Thorny Reverse Stars (included in "Documents on the Intellectual History of Japanese Social Movements, Vol. 6", 1968, Aoki Shoten)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

明治後期の社会主義者に対する弾圧事件。錦輝館(きんきかん)事件ともいう。1908年（明治41）6月22日東京・神田の錦輝館における山口義三(ぎぞう)出獄歓迎会の終了まぎわ、幸徳秋水(こうとくしゅうすい)の直接行動論を支持する大杉栄(おおすぎさかえ)、荒畑寒村(あらはたかんそん)ら一派の者が、議会政策派への示威のため「無政府共産」「無政府」の文字を白テープで縫い付けた2本の赤旗を翻し、革命歌を歌い、無政府主義万歳を叫び、場外に出たところ、旗を巻けと命ずる警官隊との間で乱闘となった。結局、大杉、荒畑、堺利彦(さかいとしひこ)、山川均(ひとし)、管野(かんの)スガら16人が検挙された（うち2人は即時釈放）。山県有朋(やまがたありとも)系勢力はこれを大事件につくりあげ、社会主義取締りに比較的寛大であった第一次西園寺公望(さいおんじきんもち)内閣を辞職に追い込み（7月）、第二次桂(かつら)太郎内閣は社会主義取締りを強化する態度を打ち出した。8月29日東京控訴院は検挙者のうち10人に重禁錮2年半以下の重い実刑判決を下した。そしてこれが契機となり直接行動派内にテロリズムの傾向を生み、大逆(たいぎゃく)事件の遠因をなした。

［阿部恒久］

『荒畑寒村著『寒村自伝』（岩波文庫）』▽『吉川守國著『荊逆星霜史』（『資料日本社会運動思想史　第6巻』所収・1968・青木書店）』

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