was a

hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as '' gokenin.'' Howev ...

and an official of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

Japanese history The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inventi ...

. His ancestry was of the

Minamoto clan was one of the surnames bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the imperial family who were excluded from the line of succession and demoted into the ranks of the nobility from 1192 to 1333. The practice was most prevalent during th ...

of the

Mino Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today southern Gifu Prefecture. Mino was bordered by Ōmi to the west, Echizen and Hida to the north, and Shinano to the east, and Ise, Mikawa, and Owari to the south. Its abbreviat ...

. His father, Kagemichi, was the magistrate of

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

Biography

During his youth, Kagemoto departed from his household due to family conflict, and started a life among commoners as a vagabond. It was during this period of time that he supposedly got a tattoo, uncommon for a magistrate. When he inherited the title of his household, he returned to his samurai post and eventually became a

bugyō was a title assigned to '' samurai'' officials during the feudal period of Japan. ''Bugyō'' is often translated as commissioner, magistrate, or governor, and other terms would be added to the title to describe more specifically a given offic ...

. Kagemoto held the posts of Finance Magistrate, North Magistrate, and subsequently South Magistrate of

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

. When the Tokugawa Shogunate instituted the Tenpō Reforms, South Magistrate Torii Yōzō and Rōjū Mizuno Tadakuni tried to enforce sumptuary edicts banning theatre and other popular entertainment. Kagemoto opposed the implementation of the policy, which he believed to be an undue infringement on the livelihood of commoners. Kagemoto's youth won him tremendous popularity among the people of Edo. In 1843, he was ousted from his position as North Magistrate through the machinations of Torii, and although nominally appointed Ōmetsuke, he was without any meaningful power. Two years later, when Mizuno ousted Torii, Tōyama received an appointment as South Magistrate, a post once held by

Ōoka Tadasuke was a Japanese samurai in the service of the Tokugawa shogunate. During the reign of Tokugawa Yoshimune, as a magistrate (''machi-bugyō'') of Edo, his roles included chief of police, judge and jury, and Yamada Magistrate (Yamada bugyō) prio ...

. Tōyama rose to the Lower Junior Fifth rank with the name Tōyama Saemon no Jō.

In fiction

kabuki is a classical form of Japanese dance- drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought ...

and kōdan, he was celebrated under his childhood name of Kinshirō, or popularly, Tōyama no Kin-san (Mr. Kin of Toyama). The common theme is the image of a magistrate with a flashy cherry blossom tattoo on his shoulder who fights against corrupt officials and greedy merchants in defense of the ordinary people. The novelist Tatsurō Jinde (陣出達郎) wrote a series of books about Kin-san. Noted actor

Chiezō Kataoka (March 30, 1903 – March 31, 1983) was a Japanese film and television actor most famous for his starring roles in jidaigeki. Career Born in 1903 in Gunma Prefecture (his real name was Masayoshi Ueki), he was raised in Tokyo. As a child he bega ...

starred in a series of eighteen Toei ''

jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", they are most often set during the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—'' Portrait of H ...

'' films about him. Several Japanese television networks have aired series based on the character. These portrayed him pretending to be a petty hood or a '' yojimbo'' while solving crimes as the chief of police.

References

* https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/199898399/kagemoto-toyama * Tōkyō Daigaku Shiryō Hensanjo. (2019). ''Dainihon kinsei shiryō. 6(30).''

University of Tokyo Press The is a university press affiliated with the University of Tokyo in Japan. It was founded in 1951, following the post-World War II reorganization of the university. Honors * Japan Foundation: Special Prize, 1990. Location The headquarters o ...

.
OCLC 1107038555
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toyama Kagemoto 1793 births 1855 deaths Hatamoto Samurai