The Jōkyō Gimin Memorial Museum (Jōkyō Gimin Kinen-kan) is a museum dedicated to the Jōkyō Uprising

Jokyo Uprising

The , or the Kasuke Uprising, was a large-scale peasant uprising that happened in 1686 in Azumidaira, Japan. Azumidaira at that time, was a part of the Matsumoto Domain under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate. The domain was ruled by the Mizuno clan at the time...

 that occurred in Azumidaira, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 in 1686 (the third year of the Jōkyō

Jokyo

was a after Tenna and before Genroku. This period spanned the years from February 1684 through September 1688. The reigning emperors were and .-Change of era:...

 era during the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

). The uprising, also called the Kasuke Uprising (the leader of the　peasant uprising was Tada Kasuke

Tada Kasuke

was a Japanese farmer　who led a failed appeal for lowered taxes in Azumidaira, a part of the Matsumoto Domain under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate. He was caught and executed along with twenty-seven farmers without trial...

), is perceived to be a struggle for the right to life. Thus the founders of the memorial museum erected two plaques at the front entrance of the building. The one on the left is inscribed with the 11th and 12th articles of the Constitution of Japan

Constitution of Japan

The is the fundamental law of Japan. It was enacted on 3 May, 1947 as a new constitution for postwar Japan.-Outline:The constitution provides for a parliamentary system of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights...

. The one on the right is inscribed with the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...

. Those inscribed articles clearly state the fundamental rights global citizens are entitled to: Exactly the cause which the leaders of the uprising had given their lives for.

Goals

After the 300th anniversary of the Jōkyō Uprising, the local people decided to build a memorial museum a) to commemorate the uprising, and b) to preserve historic archives of the uprising. To that end they selected a building site of the museum right across the street from Jōkyō Gimin-sha (Jōkyō Gimin shrine) and the former Tada family homestead (a cultural asset of Nagano Prefecture

Nagano Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of the island of Honshū. The capital is the city of Nagano.- History :Nagano was formerly known as the province of Shinano...

). It is located in the former village of Nakagaya (in the Matsumoto Domain

Matsumoto Domain

The ' was a Japanese feudal domain in Shinano Province . Home to a major strategic center in the form of Matsumoto Castle, it was ruled by various families during the course of its history, the Hotta among them.-List of Daimyo:...

during the Edo period), where Tada Kasuke had governed in the late 17th century.

Building

The memorial museum's building is structured with two wings spread wide apart. It symbolizes the open arms of Kasuke and other farmers who were executed after the uprising. The main hall in the center that connects the two wings has a roof designed to look like a conical hat. Farmers who had taken part in the uprising wore one as their uniform.

Also, there is a man-made stream in the front garden. The clear water of the stream symbolizes the purity of Gimin's heart. The water is designed to remind visitors that a part of the reason for the farmers' sufferings of the time came from water shortage. It was before the time of Jikka-segi, the irrigation network this region is famed for.

Theater

The Jōkyō Gimin Story is presented at the theater, Yume-dōjō (dream hall). The story is about the Jōkyō Uprising told by Oshyun, the only female farmer who was executed after the uprising.
The seventeen-minute performance covers the development of the Jōkyō Uprising: From the exorbitant tax rise against the backdrop of crop failure, to the letter of appeal of five articles presented by Tada Kasuke and others, to the deception on the part of the executives of the domain government, and finally to the executions of twenty-eight farmers, Tada Kasuke among them.

Exhibition

Items and records concerning the uprising are displayed. Highlights include:

• The letter of appeal of five articles (prepared by Tada Kasuke and others)
• The response document signed by executives of the Matsumoto Domain (turned out to be an evasive tactic)
• The copy of Shimpu-tōki, the official record of the Matsumoto Domain compiled by the Mizuno clan forty years after the uprising
• Tada Kasuke's statue (replica; the original sits in Jōkyō Gimin-sha)
• A scale model of Azumino at the time of the uprising featuring spots and areas involved in the incident

External links

• http://www.anc-tv.ne.jp/~gimin/english.html The official English website
• http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/JapanUDHRPlaque.aspx The Universal Declaration of Human Rights amidst Rice Paddy Fields