Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Arashi Rikaku III 嵐璃鶴 (3代目) (later Ichikawa Gonjūrō II 市川權十郎 (2代目)
1848 -1904) and Yoarashi Okinu 夜嵐おきぬ (1844-1872)
Tōkyō Nichi Nichi Shimbun (Tokyo Daily News) 東京日日新聞 No. 3 – 31st March
1872 nishiki-e (minature woodblock) with the story
http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/yosha/nn/stories/TNS-0003_okinu_and_rikaku.html
On the 23rd of February 1872 the forerunner of the Mainichi Shimbun (Daily News)
毎日新聞 newspaper, Tōkyō Nichi Nichi Shinbun (Tokyo Daily News) 東京日日新聞,
established the same year, published the charges against him.
Tokyo Prefecture office report states that a thief taker entered Okinu’s Harada shop
on 4th avenue (yonban) off Komagata-chō in the neighbourhood of Kobayashi,
Asakusa. A 29 year old person who gave a false identity and Arashi Rikaku were
both arrested for the criminal poisoning of a local person. Having committed such a
shameful and nefarious deed they were imprisoned and placed in solitary
confinement. Twenty days later they were both sentenced to be executed twenty-two
days after sentencing and their heads exposed publicly for three days. Tōkyō Nichi
Nichi Shinbun 23rd February 1872
Arashi Rikaku, whose later name was Gonjurō, was ordered to be executed at
Kodukahara’s keijō (execution ground)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozukappara_execution_grounds
…and his head exposed in public for three days, a type of execution and public
exposure of heads called ‘to perform the Kyōboku (tall tree)’. Kobayashi Kinpei, a
Government official (Trans note: he was actually the boss of a money lending gang
and almost certainly an unpleasant character; money lenders were extremely
unpopular and were attacked in 1884 in the Gunma Incident by 3,000 people and the
Kabasan Incident by 16 people), had been drugged and poisoned with rat killer
(arsenic) from Iwami Ginzan silver mine in Shimane Prefecture, a crime for which his
mistress, Okinu, was also charged. At one of Rikaku’s theatre appearances he had
fallen in love with his neighbour (Okinu) and into a relationship which became
complicated by her becoming pregnant. Finally, together with Rikaku she plotted the
murder of Kinpei. When the crime was discovered Okinu was arrested and then, in
June 1871, at the Moritaza (Kabuki Theatre –
http://www.kabuki21.com/moritaza.php),
…in the middle of a performance Rikaku, who was also under suspicion of being an
accomplice, was arrested as well and sent to Kodenma-chō prison. In November of
that year, while in prison, Okinu gave birth to a son. At first, given the evidence, both
Rikakau and Okinu were preparing themselves to die. It seems that because of their
deeds their child’s future was deemed bleak. Rikaku’s part in the murder was an
issue for the court which began deliberations. As was the custom Okinu was to be
beheaded whilst, as a result of a judicial decision, Rikaku’s death sentence was
commuted to 3 years in jail and he was sent down to serve his sentence in
Ishikawashima Prison. The involvement of Rikaku, the nimaime (handsome man)
actor and the ‘evil woman’ Yoroashi Okinu in a florid murder was in the news and the
subject of a book ‘Yoarashi Okinu’ (夜嵐お絹) which cited her as motivated by an
infamous hatred. Another nimaime, Onoe Matsusuke IV (at the time Onoe Umegorō)
http://www.kabuki21.com/matsusuke4.php,
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/尾上松助_(4代目)
…was implicated but acquitted of having been an accomplice of Okinu, criticising her
in his rehearsed appeal as a voluptuous woman.
Yoarashi (Night Storm) Okinu pays for an actor and then runs amok
committing a last crime
http://www.geocities.jp/bonito199504/sub1.htm
(Translated and adapted by Trevor Skingle)
嵐璃鶴のち市川權十郎に改名 - お絹との一件で有名になった
The name change ceremony (shumei) of Arashi Rikaku III (right) to Ichikawa Gonjurō at the Kawarazakiza October
1874 at the Nakamuraza
With (left) Ichikawa Danjūrō IX
He was involved in the famous case concerning the money lender Kobayashi Kinpei and Okinu
http://www.geocities.jp/bonito199504/sub1.htm
An account concerning an example of an evil Asakusa woman in the period from the
Bakumatasu (last days of the Shōgunate) to the Meiji (era 1868 - 1912). The last part
of the death poem (jisei) that remains is ‘Yoarashi (Night storm) is awake again
dreaming of arranging flowers‘.
On the 20th day of the 2nd month of Meiji 5(20th Feb 1872) at Kodukahara execution
ground the beautiful woman ‘Yoarashi (night storm) Okinu’ was dead and the Harada
Kinu incident closed.
It is certain that Kinu was originally from Bōshū (房州) province’s Jōgashima (island),
though an influential theory is that she occasionally travelled to and from, and
eventually moved to live in, Edo.
At the time she was a young lady working as a leading music hall performer, a
magician and acrobat.
(Note: she was a fisherman’s daughter and after losing her parents at the age of 16
she was taken in by her uncle’s family in Edo)
At 16 years old at the Owari-ya (尾張屋) restaurant (Note: Owari-ya was established
in 1870 in Asakusa and is still open https://twitter.com/asakusaowariya) she
announced her early autumn (age of maturity, and became a geisha working there
calling herself Kamakura Koharu). She began to peddle herself hidarizuma (左褄 -
her artistic skills though not her body). Ōkubo the guardian of Sado and Daimyō of
Karasuyama domain made overtures to Kinu and for the first time, star struck, she
began a steady relationship and from Kinu’s early autumn onwards she became the
nobleman’s concubine, accepting hanadai (money for a woman’s companionship).
Naively, in Ansei 4 (1858), Sado’s guardian discarded her and as a result later they
mutually absolved their partnership. With her young woman’s beautiful, lustrous black
hair that she wore shorn she changed her name to Shingetsu-in (真月院) as she
became a nun and moved to a temple. As she started her calling she wished for her
guardian Sado’s happiness in the next world. Just about everything was peace and
harmony and in her calling she experienced good fortune. Then, somehow or other, a
sense of unease began for Okinu.
Note: Hidarizuma 左褄: When dressing in a kimono with a long hem both Geiko and
Maiko grip the right Tsuma (the edge of the kimono) with the left hand and pull it over
to the left hand side so a man’s hand can’t slip inside the kimono. When dressed in
such a way this indicates that both Geiko and Maiko will only sell their artistic skills
and not their bodies. Hidari means ‘left’ and zuma is a euphonic change to Tsuma
and could also be a pun on tsumaru meaning ‘blocked’, so combined the meaning
would be ‘by the left hem/blocked.
Now that young man was Narihira, which was the nick name of the sensible son,
Kakutarō, of Nihonbashi’s dry goods seller Kinokuniya (Note: Before 1923
Kinokuniya, today a book publisher and seller, used to sell charcoal and wood). At
the health resort they followed their whims against others wishes, both publicly
braiding each other’s hair in public exposing their spontaneously cheery behaviour
for all to see.
Subsequently, they returned to and waited a while in Edo. After they moved back all
Okinu could do was to think about growing back her glossy black hair, and
subsequently had it braided bun style. Afterward she sat in the youthful Kakutarō’s
lap all day, leaning against him as the sake server continue pouring. Taking his
chance Kakutarō offered and pressured her to accept his proposal of marriage.
Okinu, how should one say, drew back, giving Kakutarō the reason that he was
moving a little too fast.
So much so that many had fallen into unpaid debt and as a result the livelihood of
money lending had grown and Kobayashi Kinpei had become a boss and at the
same time Okinu was frequently seen as a revitalised source of authority. For Kinpei
this turmoil was cash profit, and in Meiji 2 (1869) he redeemed Okinu’s contract.
Then, close to the district boundary of Asakusa’s Kabuki Sanza (the area in which
were the three principal Kabuki theatres of Edo) in Saruwaka cho a shōtaku (a house
in which a mistress is kept) was set up as 26 year old Okinu continued her life as
boss Kinpei’s mistress, and with a haneri (kimono under collar) shop in the nakamise
(alleyways of shops) surrounding Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. Though he was rather
ordinary he was actually a cruel and heartless miser and an unfair debt collector to
be in service to, yet because the easy money clouded Okinu’s judgement and she
believed that she thought of him with unlimited affection and that the sun shone from
his eyes. Okinu, in the meantime, was being supplied with an abundance of ready
cash.
In 1868, amidst an early summer downpour, the battle of Ueno began when the
Imperial forces led by Saigō Takamori, whose was using used the Ueno branch of
the Matsuzakaya Department store as the base for his staff officers, attacked from
Hongo Hill in a full on assault of the Kuromon (black gate) of Kaneiji Temple.
Rumour has it that Okinu rushed over from the Sensōji’s nakamise area which had
been set up as a field hospital to see what was happening when a stray bullet passed
through her umbrella and she fainted, collapsing in the mud and was taken back to
Sensōji.
By chance she saw the actor Inosuke (Note: probably Onoe Matsusuke IV who had
also moved from Ōsaka to Edo and was indicted as a potential accomplice in the
murder and then acquitted) in a play at Saruwaka cho’s Moritaza (Kabuki theatre)
and then went to meet him again later.
Money continued to be loaned at the Kobayashi family home. With her allowances
Okinu went to and was introduced to actors one by one. As she had a naturally
amorous disposition she paid for actors for the next two days. In those days all the
great stars, Ichikawa Danzō (VI), Onoe Kikugorō (V), Ichikawa Metora (II) (later
Ichikawa Monnosuke VI), Suketakaya Takasuke (IV), Bandō Kakitsu (I) and so on,
were all connected. Paying for a Kabuki actor was a publicity stunt. At the time she
was a Kabuki actor’s modern style host.
Note: During the Edo era actor buying’ (役者買い yakusha gai やくしゃがい) was the
agreement of an exclusive personal contract with actors through a system
asymmetric patronage.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/役者買い
In the 12th month of Meiji 3 (December 1870), with the snow falling, Rikaku went to a
tryst in a detached tatami room at a Mukojima (Tōkyō geisha district) restaurant
Daikokuya. Okinu leant hard against Rikaku, sitting in his lap.
Rikaku - ‘Okinu han, I am forgetting myself and whether or not it’s OK with you for me
to involve myself in your affairs. But Okinu han, look, about your patron, he is a lucky
and flourishing prominent money lender. Can you do this? By your deed from
tomorrow we will have a new life when will know if we’ll become a committed couple’.
Okinu - ‘My teacher, unless my patron is too clever if I need to do this to get away
from him, then I, his mistress, will do it’
Rikaku - ‘You’ve already acknowledged our love. Did you find it difficult to have to
wait until coming to Mukojima like this on this snowy day?’
Rikaku - ‘If I am to be truthful it is unlikely that our meetings will concern anyone. In
this society, Okinu san, it’s trifling and expected of a woman’
Okinu’s heart was intoxicated with sake and by Rikaku’s sweet words and she was
spellbound and in a drifting, dreamy state of mind about her fate. She thought about
her patron Kinpei’s greasy insistent face and looked up admiringly at the younger
Rikaku’s beautiful face and as a result was saved from her loneliness.
Iwami Ginzan (Iwami Silver mine - rat poison) gets the rat
(Note: The following text includes conversations involving Inosuke/Matsusuke and
may have been recorded as part of the transcripts of trial testimony)
As far as Rikaku was concerned, Okinu had admitted that the affair involving
Kakutarō was finished though she had since almost had a tryst in Kōtō (previously
Fukagawa).
A few nights later they finalised their plan in discussions with another nimaime
Kabuki actor, Onoe Matsusuke IV, who advised them, ‘Anyway, from our
conversations if your patron is to die, how is it to be done? First you must mix Iwami
Ginzan (silver mine – an analogy for arsenic rat poison) in with the kuzuyu (starch
gruel). You must also understand perfectly the plan that was put together a few
nights ago. Well I never! That patron Kinpei will be beaten by a rat’.
Implicated in the later trial he was acquitted of having been an accomplice of Okinu,
criticising her in his rehearsed entreaty as a debauched woman. On the evening of
New Year’s Day in 1871 Okinu followed his advice and poisoned and murdered
Kinpei.
Later on, feigning ignorance, Rikaku enjoyed further trysts with Okinu because he
had decided that he would back her cause.
Society gossip then became rumour until finally, on Meiji 4 month 5 (May 1871),
Okinu was arrested.
The original murder was, according to one of a variety of excuses feigning ignorance,
‘A careless mistake which might have been made, damn it, because the kuzuyu
starch gruel was mixed with a jittei (a small truncheon)’ and ‘I guess Rikaku
instigated it’. A cross examination ensued and the ulterior motive, the reason for
Rikaku’s assistance, was confessed.
Rikaku was then arrested for the murder (June 1871 at the Moritaza theatre in the
middle of a performance) and his career ruined. Okinu, in silent tears, said ‘My
misbehaviour has offended my handsome master and I am sorry for the inexcusable
annoyance’.
left, Arashi Rikaku III 嵐璃鶴 (later Ichikawa Gonjuro) as Ishii Genzo 石井源蔵 and right Kawarazaki Gonjuro I (later
Danjuro IX) as Akahori Mizuemon 赤堀水衛 in the play Katakiuchi Ukiki no Kameyama (Grief for a gentle flower and
revenge at Kameyama) at the Moritaza
Around the same time Okinu gave birth was also the time she was to die. Still
weaning the baby, the permanent separation of the boy from his mother, and her
imminent death, did not at all affect the baby’s innocent sleeping cheeky face. Okinu
shuddered and moaned, choking with tears.
In ample time they reached the place of execution. It was enquired of her if ‘In one’s
final moments is there something, anything, that you would like to say to leave to
posterity?’ The government official listened to her reply, ‘Master just cause demands
repayment’. She was brought out of the cage and inspected. In the meantime, whilst
still in prison, Rikaku’s crime had been deemed insufficiently serious enough to
warrant capital punishment. For Okinu though the government’s official position was
publicly unyielding. She was told that ‘For having committed a capital crime a while
ago your sentence is still in effect and at this time you are expected to cross the
Sanzu River (the Buddhist equivalent of the River Styx; the river to be crossed on the
way to the afterlife)’ ‘Does this happen straight away?’ she said, ‘For what I caused in
this wretched matter my end is nigh’. Then suddenly, and without warning, stumbling,
the 28 year old bequeathed her death poem, ‘Yoarashi is awake and arranging
flowers without dreaming’ just before her brief life ended.
Because of the exceedingly difficult suffering she had caused her decapitated head
was gibbeted She had been beheaded in the prone position and her head was
exposed to public scorn to show that her evil had come to an end. In Okinu’s
beheading the famous katana (Japanese long sword) used was Seki no Maguroku
Kanemoto
Its length was two shaku three sun (nearly 67 cm) 5 parts and the width one sun
(3.03 cm) 3 parts, a thing of superb craftsmanship. Because of this the mood of the
general public present at the execution was respectful.
When Okinu left the jail it was to the reluctant farewells of the other women prisoners,
‘Okinu san, with great regret we ask you to accept your fate and go forward on your
journey into the next life, as we will also’. A rosary, made of 108 beads of rice and
string made from twisted paper, was given to her.
During the bound Okinu’s final moments a government official enquired of Rikaku, as
he heard his official sentence, ‘Rikaku san what’s to do?’ His survival had not been
as a result of skilful means, and even though harsh he was prepared. ‘You are he for
whom this lotus blossom has been decapitated. Don’t you agree that she was a
special part of your life?’ Moved to floods of tears he replied ‘I am sorry I caused this
wretched matter’. In practical terms Rikaku was released after 3 years eventually
becoming Ichikawa Gonjūrō who became very popular with the public. What’s more,
having been an artisan, Okinu’s case has remained famous.
Kodukahara field
The execution was carried out and the body was taken to a private place and from
there to a temple for a Buddhist memorial service
Kotsu Street is now accepted as the area where the once famous Kodukahara
execution ground (nicknamed Kotsu) was. Excavations revealed bone fragments. On
the 7th month of Meiji 14 (July 1881) death by decapitation was abolished for those
under 20 years old. According to the anatomy book published by Sugita Genpaku
(Note: He studied anatomy by undertaking dissections at Kodukahara)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugita_Genpaku
…these remains were determined to have been divided (Note: this might mean by
either decapitation or by being subjected to a sword tester).
http://www.geocities.jp/bonito199504/sub1.htm
(Translated and adapted by Trevor Skingle)
After resuming his acting career on his release from prison Arashi Rikaku III became
a successful Kabuki actor and took the name of Ichikawa Gonjūrō II. He died of
pneumonia in Tōkyō in 1904
Ichikawa Gonjūrō
A note on the name Yoarashi Okinu
The kanji for yo 夜 (evening) could also be a pun, or sharé, using a contracted form
of 夜露死苦 – yoroshiku, please remember me
The kanji for Arashi in Yoarashi is the same as that of Arashi in the Kabuki actor’s
name Arashi Rikaku
This could then be read as ‘Please remember me Arashi’
Alternatively when taken separately the individual kanji give the following meaning
夜 – Yo evening
露 - Ro tears
死 – Shi death/die
苦 – Ku suffering/trial
Somewhat fanciful perhaps but when all is put together there could be a double pun
possibly meaning…‘As I suffer death and cry evening tears please remember me
Arashi’. Given that her last words were her death poem (jisei), ‘Yoarashi is awake
and arranging flowers without dreaming’, she could feasibly have been sending
Arashi Rikaku a message that she thought might not get to him otherwise