Tashiro Eisuke (田代栄助)
Eisuke TASHIRO (September 16, 1834 - May 17, 1885) was a kyokaku (professional gambler) over the Edo and Meiji periods. He led the uprising of the Chichibu Incident as the head of the Konminto Party. Yoshihiro SOMA (相馬義広) was his false name.
He was born as a son of Yutaro Yoshiyuki TASHIRO (田代勇太郎嘉之) in Aza Kumaki, Omiyago, Chichibu District, Musashi Province (present Kumaki-cho, Chichibu City, Saitama Prefecture). His family home was an important family which had served as a wariyaku nanushi (representative of village headmen) for the Oshi Domain in the Edo period.
He was so chivalrous that he would mediate people's debt problems, help the poor and save wanderers, while being engaging in farming. It is said that he was greatly trusted by the people of Chichibu District, and had more than 200 people who claimed themselves his followers. After the Meiji period, however, he became so poor that he had to borrow money from a loan shark.
In early 1884 (from late January to early February), he joined the Liberal Party (of Japan), but he got angry with a domineering attitude shown by a party member, Taiji MURAKAMI after the entrance processing, so that he did not get involved in the party due to this incident.
In September of the same year, he was called on by the Konminto Party and nominated for the party leader. After the discussion, he decided to rise in revolt and launched the uprising on October 31. However, he was removed from the chain of command because he had a chest pain, his chronic disease on November 3 and then left the headquarters on the following day of November 4. After that, he ran away, went into a mountain until November 11, and then stayed in his friend's home in Kurodani Village (later Haraya Village in Saitama Prefecture, and present Chichibu City). He was, however, betrayed by an old woman servant at the home and arrested by the police before dawn on November 15 while being asleep in bed.
After that, he was questioned and sentenced to death penalty on February 19, 1885. He was executed by hanging along with Orihei KATO, Shuzaburo ARAI, Zenkichi TAKAGISHI and Sosaku SAKAMOTO on May 17 of the same year. He was 52 years old. His death haiku (Japanese poem composed immediately before one dies) was: "When I swing around, Shadows of yesterday are not seen, Dark road to go is a mountain pass to death."