was a popular figure in the
Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
. He was a
bakuto
''Bakuto'' (博徒) were itinerant gamblers active in Japan from the 18th century to the mid-20th century. They were one of two forerunners (the other being ''tekiya'', or peddlers) to modern Japanese organized crime syndicates called ''yakuza'' ...
(gamblers commonly seen as forerunners to the modern
yakuza
, also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media (by request of the police) call them , while the yakuza call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ''yak ...
).
His story is mainly responsible for the romanticised "chivalrous bandit" or "
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary noble outlaw, heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions o ...
" image in Japan. An example was when a village had a famine, he helped the village out.
He was publicly executed in 1850 for various crimes after a large man-hunt.
Chūji is depicted
on a 1999 Japanese stamp.
See also
*
A Diary of Chuji's Travels
is a silent Japanese jidaigeki made in 1927 starring Denjirō Ōkōchi and directed by Daisuke Itō (film director), Daisuke Itō. It was originally released in three parts, all of which were long thought to be lost until portions of the second ...
(忠治旅日記 Chūji tabi nikki)
* Films based on his story in
1954
Events
January
* January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting.
* January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...
,
1958
Events
January
* January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being.
* January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed.
* January 4
** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...
and
1960
It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism.
Events January
* Janu ...
References
External links
Wild Weird Realm history, folklore, and films of Chuji
People of the Edo period
Japanese gamblers
1810 births
1851 deaths
Culture articles needing translation from Japanese Wikipedia
{{Japan-bio-stub