The {{nihongo, Itabashi execution grounds, 板橋刑場, Itabashi Keijō were one of the three sites in the vicinity of
Edo (the forerunner of present-day
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
) where the
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...
executed criminals in the
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
. Located near
Itabashi-shuku, the first
post station from Edo on the
Nakasendō
The , also called the ,Richard Lane, ''Images from the Floating World'' (1978) Chartwell, Secaucus ; pg. 285 was one of the five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Kyoto in Japan. There were 6 ...
(a major inland route to
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...
), it is within the city limits of modern-day
Itabashi, Tokyo near
JR Itabashi Station.
In 1868,
Kondo Isami, leader of the
Shinsengumi
The was a special police force organized by the (military government) during Japan's Bakumatsu period (late Tokugawa shogunate) in 1863. It was active until 1869. It was founded to protect the shogunate representatives in Kyoto at a time when ...
, was jailed for twenty days at Itabashi, and beheaded at the execution grounds. A memorial to him stands at the east (Takino-gawa) exit of Itabashi Station. On the right side are engraved the names of forty
Shinsengumi
The was a special police force organized by the (military government) during Japan's Bakumatsu period (late Tokugawa shogunate) in 1863. It was active until 1869. It was founded to protect the shogunate representatives in Kyoto at a time when ...
people who died in war, and on the left, the names of 64 who died of disease,
seppuku
, sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people ...
, or other causes. To the left of the memorial is a Buddha statue dedicated to people who died without relatives to care for their graves, and to the right, the graves of Kondō and
Nagakura Shinpachi
was the former captain of the 2nd troop of the Shinsengumi, He was later known as during the Meiji era.
History Early life
Nagakura Shinpachi Noriyuki, known as Eikichi or Eiji during his childhood, was born in the Matsumae clan's "kami-yash ...
, who is said to have erected the memorial. There is also a stone for
Hijikata Toshizō
was a Japanese warrior. As of the ''Shinsengumi'', he resisted the Meiji Restoration and fought to his end.
Background
was born on May 31, 1835, in the Ishida village, Tama region of Musashi Province (present day Ishida, Hino, Tokyo), Jap ...
, who died in battle at
Goryōkaku.
Sources
This article incorporates material from
板橋刑場 (''Itabashi Keijō'') in the Japanese Wikipedia, retrieved on December 13, 2007.
External links
Itabashi historical sitesguide to sites along its lines
(Itabashi government site)
Edo period
Itabashi
Execution sites in Japan