is the nickname of , a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

thief and folk hero who lived in

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

(present-day

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

) during 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 ...

.Goodman, David G. (1986). Pg 256-257. "After Apocalypse: Four Japanese Plays of Hiroshima and Nagasaki", New York: Columbia University Press. His exploits have been commemorated in

kabuki is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...

theatre,

folk songs Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has be ...

jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "historical drama, period dramas", it refers to stories that take place before the Meiji Restoration of 1868. ''Jidaigeki'' show the lives of the samurai, farmers, crafts ...

, and modern

pop culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art pop_art.html" ;"title="f. pop art">f. pop artor mass art, some ...

Capture and tattoo

In 1822, he was caught and tattooed, and banished from Edo. On August 8, 1831, he was captured again, and confessed to the

burglary Burglary, also called breaking and entering (B&E) or housebreaking, is a property crime involving the illegal entry into a building or other area without permission, typically with the intention of committing a further criminal offence. Usually ...

of over 100

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

estates and the impressive

theft Theft (, cognate to ) is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shor ...

of over 30,000

ryō The was a gold currency unit in the shakkanhō system in pre- Meiji Japan. It was eventually replaced with a system based on the '' yen''. Origins The ''ryō'' was originally a unit of weight from China, the ''tael.'' It came into use in Ja ...

throughout his 15-year career. He was tied to a horse and paraded in public before being

beheaded Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common c ...

at the

Suzugamori execution grounds The were one of many sites in the vicinity of Edo (the forerunner of present-day Tokyo, Japan) where the Tokugawa shogunate executed criminals, anti-government conspirators and Christians in the Edo period. Others sites included Shibaguchi, Honza ...

. His head was then publicly displayed on a stake. He was buried at

Ekō-in , also known as Honjo Ekō-in, is a Jōdo-shū Buddhist temple in Ryōgoku, Tokyo. The formal name of the temple is , reflecting its founding principle of Pariṇāmanā, or the spreading of Amida Buddha's benevolence to all souls of all living cr ...

located in the

Ryōgoku is a district in Sumida, Tokyo. It is surrounded by various districts in Sumida, Chūō, and Taitō wards: Yokoami, Midori, Chitose, Higashi Nihonbashi, and Yanagibashi. History In 1659, the Ryōgoku Bridge was built, spanning the Sumida ...

section of Tokyo. So many pilgrims have chipped away pieces of his tombstone for charms that his

headstone A gravestone or tombstone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. A marker set at the head of the grave may be called a headstone. An especially old or elaborate stone slab may be called a funeral stele, stela, or slab. The u ...

has had to have been replaced a number of times since his death.

Background

At the time of the arrest, Jirokichi was found to have very little money. This, combined with the

public humiliation Public humiliation or public shaming is a form of punishment whose main feature is dishonoring or disgracing a person, usually an offender or a prisoner, especially in a public place. It was regularly used as a form of judicially sanctioned puni ...

he dealt out to the ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'', resulted in the popular legend that he gave the money to the poor, turning the petty crook into a posthumous folk hero similar to

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 ...

. The fact that he died alone, serving his wives with divorce papers just prior to arrest in order to protect them from sharing in the punishment as the law decreed, further enhanced his stature.

Nickname

Jirokichi's nickname Nezumi Kozō roughly means "Rat Kid". The word ''nezumi'' means "rat" or "mouse" and ''kozō'' translates to "kid, brat". The term ''kozō'' is a somewhat pejorative word for any young male.''kozō (3)'' in '' Kojien'' (4th ed., 1991). . In actuality, even though the nickname containing the term ''kozō'' was frequently applied to pickpockets, there are many other instances where it became the epithet of other types of criminals.

Media

* '' Nezumi, Edo wo hashiru'': a Japanese television series relating the adventures of Nezumi Kozo, with

Hideaki Takizawa , also known professionally as , is a Japanese businessman, record producer and former singer and actor. He is the president of the Japanese talent agency Tobe. Takizawa debuted as an actor in 1995, and in 2002, he made his musical debut as the ...

in the main part. * In the video game ''

Persona 5 is a 2016 role-playing video game developed by P-Studio and published by Atlus. The game is the sixth installment in the ''Persona'' series, itself a part of the larger ''Megami Tensei'' franchise. It was released for PlayStation 3 and PlayStat ...

'', the

main character A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

is shown wearing a T-shirt referencing the year of his birth and there is a pop quiz question related to his execution. * In an episode of '' Lupin III Part 2'', Nezumi Kozō's fourth descendant, named Rat Boy Jirokichi IV, teams up with

Goemon Ishikawa XIII is a fictional character created by Monkey Punch for his manga series ''Lupin III'', which debuted in ''Weekly Manga Action'' on August 10, 1967. Goemon is a thirteenth generation descendant of the renegade samurai Ishikawa Goemon. He is famous ...

to pull off a heist in the Sakuradamon Police Station.

Explanatory notes

References

;Citations ;Bibliography *

External links

Robin Hoods of the World: Japan's Jirokichi the Rat from the BBC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nezumi Kozo 1831 deaths 1790s births Japanese folklore Japanese thieves 19th-century executions by Japan Executed Japanese people People executed by Japan by decapitation Ninja