Suga KANNO (管野スガ) (管野スガ)
Suga KANNO (June 7, 1881 - January 25, 1911) was a newspaper journalist, writer, feminist and socialist activist in the Meiji era. She is also known as 'Sugako' (須賀子). She is one of 12 people who were executed in the Kotoku Incident (High Treason Incident). Her family name is sometimes written as '菅野' but actually this is incorrect. In the Edo period the family used '菅野' but Suga's father changed it to '管野' in the Meiji period.
Brief Personal History
She was born in 1881, the first daughter of Yoshihide KANNO, who was a judge, lawyer and mining business entrepreneur in Kinugasa-cho, Osaka. At 19 she married Fukutaro KOMIYA, who was a merchant in Fukagawa, Tokyo, but later divorced him because he joined the navy.
After the divorce she became a reporter for "Osaka Shinpo" (Osaka News) while studying literature under Bunkai UDAGAWA, an author, and became his mistress.
Subsequently Suga met Toshihiko SAKAI in Heimin-sha (The Commoner's News Company) and through the good offices of him, she joined Muro Shinpo (Muro News) in Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture. From 1907 she cohabited with Kanson (or Katsuzo) ARAHATA, who she met in Muro Shinpo, and they later got married.
Suga was imprisoned for the Red Flag Incident ("Akahata Jiken" in Japanese) and divorced Kanson after being released from prison. Afterwards she cohabited with Shusui KOTOKU and began to sympathize with anarchism.
In 1910, Suga was charged with conspiring to assassinate the Emperor with Takichi MIYASHITA and Tadao NIIMURA. She became a defendant of so-called the High Treason Incident. She was found guilty and sentenced to death. The following year, on January 25, 1911, she was executed the day after the other 11 people, including Shusui, were executed.