was an

ashigaru were peasant infantry employed by the warlords of Japan to supplement the samurai in their armies. The first known reference to ''ashigaru'' was in the 14th century, but it was during the Ashikaga shogunate (Muromachi period) that the use of ' ...

(low class footman) who served the Okudaira family, retainer of

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

. He became famous for his bravery and incredible exploit at the siege of Nagashino. He was a retainer of

Okudaira Sadamasa , also called Okudaira Sadamasa (奥平貞昌), was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku and early Edo periods. Nobumasa's family considered their origins to have been associated with Mikawa Province. The clan was descended through the Akam ...

and member of the Nagashino garrison when the fortress came under siege by the forces of

Takeda Katsuyori was a Japanese ''daimyō'' (military lord) of the Sengoku period, who was famed as the head of the Takeda clan and the successor to the legendary warlord Takeda Shingen. He was son-in-law of Hojo Ujiyasu, ''daimyō'' of Hojo clan. Early life H ...

Kamehime Kamehime (, 27 July 1560 – 1 August 1625) was the eldest daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, with his first wife, Lady Tsukiyama. She was the wife of Okudaira Nobumasa. She is primaril ...

, the wife of Sadamasa, assisted him in the defense. Torii, already renowned for his bravery and knowledge of the surroundings, volunteered for the extremely dangerous mission of sneaking through the siege lines to request aid from

Okazaki Okazaki may refer to: *Okazaki (surname) *Okazaki, Aichi, a city in Japan *Okazaki Castle, a castle in Japan *Okazaki fragments Okazaki fragments are short sequences of DNA nucleotides (approximately 150 to 200 base pairs long in eukaryotes) w ...

. However, after successfully warning Tokugawa, he was captured by the Takeda on his return to Nagashino. Torii was taken prisoner and directed to shout to his compatriots in the fortress that no help was on the way, and that they should surrender. He instead encouraged the garrison that Tokugawa's army was, in fact, on the way, and that they should keep fighting. There is some dispute as to whether Torii was crucified before or after this proclamation, as well as in the precise details of his execution. Nevertheless, the end result was the same. Although Sune'emon was an ashigaru class warrior, his family was promoted to the samurai class and served the Okudaira family until the end of the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. One Takeda retainer, Ochiai Michihisa, even used an image of a crucified Torii Suneemon on his flag from then on. The flag is now stored in the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

library. In 1923, a railway station opened near Torii's death place and was named

Torii Station US Army Garrison Okinawa is a US Army facility located in Yomitan, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Home to the United States Army on Okinawa, 10th Support Group (Regional), along with the 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), 247th M ...

References

*Turnbull, Stephen (1998). 'The Samurai Sourcebook'. London: Cassell & Co. pp. 68, 85, 226. {{DEFAULTSORT:Torii, Suneemon 1540s births 1575 deaths Samurai People executed by crucifixion Executed Japanese people 16th-century executions by Japan