The were one of many sites in the vicinity 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 ...

(the forerunner of present-day

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan) where the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in ...

executed criminals, anti-government conspirators and Christians in 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 ...

. Others sites included Shibaguchi, Honzaimokuchou,

Itabashi is a special ward located in Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. In English, it calls itself Itabashi City. Itabashi has sister-city relations with Burlington, Ontario, in Canada; Shijingshan District of Beijing in the People's Republic of China; and ...

, near the Torigoe Myoujin shrine, in front of Saihouji in Kondobashi, and Kotsukappara. The Suzugamori grounds were established in 1651 and operated until 1871. During this 220 year time period, an estimated 100,000 people were executed at Suzugamori. The site measured about 74×16.2 meters. It was located along the Tōkaidō near the entrance to Edo. Criminals were executed on the outskirts of the city to avoid the "spiritual pollution" of the city. A memorial is currently located on a triangular piece of land where Kyu-Tokaido Avenue and Dai-Ichi Keihin Route cross, alongside Route 15 (the Number 1 Keihin Expressway) in Minami Ōi,

Shinagawa, Tokyo is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. The Ward refers to itself as Shinagawa City in English. The Ward is home to ten embassies. , the Ward had an estimated population of 380,293 and a population density of 16,510 persons per km2. The total a ...

. It is about a ten-minute walk from Ōmori-Kaigan Station on the

Keikyū Main Line The is a railway line in Japan, operated by the private railway operator Keikyu. The line connects the Tokyo wards of Minato, Shinagawa, Ōta, and the Kanagawa municipalities of Kawasaki, Yokohama and Yokosuka. The Keikyu Main Line began a ...

. At the time, Suzugamori was on Edo (Tokyo) Bay, and criminals were also executed in the bay. They were suspended upside-down, and drowned when the tide rose. The first person executed at Suzugamori is thought to have been

Marubashi Chūya was a ''rōnin'' (masterless samurai) from Yamagata, and instructor in martial arts and military strategy, most famous for his involvement in the 1651 Keian Uprising which sought to overthrow Japan's Tokugawa shogunate. He is said to have been a ...

, a leader of the

Keian Uprising The was a failed coup d'état attempt carried out against the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan in 1651, by a number of ''rōnin''. Though it failed, the event is historically significant as an indication of a wider problem of disgruntled rōnin through ...

. He had already been killed but was drowned as an example to prevent similar uprisings. Other criminals executed at Suzugamori include Ten'ichi-bō and

Yaoya Oshichi , literally "greengrocer Oshichi", was a daughter of the greengrocer Tarobei, who lived in the Hongō neighborhood of Edo at the beginning of the Edo period. She was burned at the stake for attempting to commit arson. The story (see below) becam ...

. A few remnants are still on the site. Among them are a well, an iron post for

execution by burning Death by burning (also known as immolation) is an execution and murder method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a punishmen ...

, and a stone base for erecting wooden pillars for

crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Cartha ...

. (The stone base has been moved from its original position.)

References

This article incorporates material from 鈴ヶ森刑場 (''Suzugamori keijō'') in the Japanese Wikipedia, retrieved December 13, 2007.

External links

Shinagawa City Library
{{coord, 35, 35, 30, N, 139, 44, 11.2, E, region:JP-13_type:landmark, display=title Edo Legal history of Japan Human rights abuses in Japan