Uchiyama Hikojiro (内山彦次郎)
Hikojiro UCHIYAMA (1797 - June 23, 1864) was a yoriki (a police sergeant) of Osaka Nishimachi magistrate in the end of the Edo period. There is also the theory that he was the head of yoriki. His name was Yukimasa.
Although he was capable and achieved great results as a economic official, he was not evaluated fairly because he was said to be assassinated by Shinsengumi (a group who guarded Kyoto during the end of the Tokugawa shogunate).
Personal Profile and Brief Personal History
Hikojiro UCHIYAMA was the seventh head of the family who successively served as yoriki of the magistrates of Osaka town. Uchiyama as yoriki was involved in price control as with other economic officials and there are reports that he submitted to machi-bugyo (town magistrate).
In particular, there is the theory that he had a positive attitude to 'market intervention by the government.'
It is obvious from the existence of kogi (shogunate) of 'okaiage-mai' (rice purchased by government). Before he was in office, merchants in Edo had bought up rice in Osaka for speculation purposes with the consent of the bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun) and unreasonably raised rice price. It was a matter of course to focus on price control in Edo in terms of national influence and Uchiyama as government official also advocated it.
However, local distributors were oppressed and as a result rice price throughout the Kinai region (provinces surrounding Kyoto and Nara) including Osaka jumped extraordinarily. Yoriki who should monitor fair trade turned a blind eye to market intervention by enormous transfers of funding for certain privileged classes. The War of Heihachiro OSHIO in 1837 was a rebellion by Oshio who hated the attitude of such government officials.
It is told that, at that time, Uchiyama was one of the persons who found Heihachiro OSHIO and his son hiding in the house of Gorobe MIYOSHIYA and surrounded them. Both of Uchiyama and Oshio who were local yoriki lived close to each other and they knew each other.
According to the book "Heihachiro OSHIO" written by Ogai MORI, Uchiyama who was a trainee of yoriki at that time was hated by Oshio. It is unknown whether there was actually a feud between Oshio and Uchiyama, but it is said that there is a letter to Uchiyama which was sent by Oshio in 1831 in Josen-ji Temple in Moriguchi City, Osaka Prefecture.
Theory about Uchiyama's assassination and criminals
On June 23, 1864, Hikojiro UCHIYAMA was assassinated by an unknown assailant. It is said that he was assassinated in Tenmabashi Bridge or Tenjinbashi Bridge (Osaka Prefecture) (both located in Osaka City). Uchiyama was beheaded and his head was exposed to public view with zankanjo (document in which the charges in his lifetime [=reason to kill him] was written) (According to one theory, zankanjo was just placed on his dead body).
It is generally said that the criminals were four people: Soji OKITA, Shinpachi NAGAKURA, Sanosuke HARADA and Genzaburo INOUE of Shinsengumi and another theory suggests that the criminals were Isami KONDO and Toshizo HIJIKATA in addition to these four people. It is said that the motive that Shinsengumi assassinated Uchiyama was as follows: Uchiyama was suspected of having cooperated with Onogawa-beya (a sumo stable) in the 'Osaka sumo wrestling incident' that a scuffle occurred between Shinsengumi and sumo wrestlers of Onogawa-beya when Shinsengumi went to Osaka for a business trip in the year before; or the investigation of the incident was aggressive and it caused a feud between Uchiyama and Kondo and then Kondo had a grudge against Uchiyama; or Uchiyama was suspected of having driven up rice price and oil price in conspiracy with supporters of tobakuha (anti-bakufu, crushing-the-bakufu faction) and inflicted a well-deserved punishment on him.
As a basis for this theory, the "Shinsengumi Tenmatsuki" that Shinpachi NAGAKURA, a former leading member of Shinsengumi, dictated in his later years and the "Shinsengumi Shimatsuki" written by Kanefumi NISHIMURA, a terazamurai (samurai who performed administrative functions at temples) of Nishi Hongan-ji Temple in Kyoto where Shinsengumi used as their post can be given.
However, at present, many people disagree with the theory of assassination by Shinsengumi. Regarding the documents cited as evidence, the "Roshi (masterless samurai) Bunkyu Era Patriotism Articles" (a diary written before the "Tenmatsuki") by Shinpachi NAGAKURA which was discovered later does not describe 'the Uchiyama assassination' and the "Tenmatsuki" seems to have been dramatized by Nagakura himself and an editor of 'Otaru Shimbun' in which the "Tenmatsuki" was serialized, while Kanefumi NISHIMURA who wrote the "Shimatsuki" bore ill will toward Shinsengumi and therefore both documents lack credibility.
In fact, a storm of so-called Sonno Joi (slogan advocating reverence for the Emperor and the expulsion of foreigners) and tobaku (overthrowing the Shogunate) has been sweeping in Kyoto and Osaka of that time and incidents in which bakuri (shogunate official) such as officials in a magistrate's office were assassinated by supporters of tobakuha occurred frequently and therefore a theory that Uchiyama was assassinated by such supporters cannot be ruled out.