Chapotraphouse

'Taigyaku Jiken', a 1989 piece by Iri and Toshi Maruki, was inspired by the High Treason Incident of 1910

Kōtoku Incident (幸徳事件, Kōtoku Jiken), was a socialist-anarchist plot to assassinate the Japanese Emperor Meiji in 1910, leading to a mass arrest of leftists, as well as the execution of 12 alleged conspirators in 1911.

Uchiyama Gudō, born on this day in 1874, was a socialist Buddhist priest who opposed Japanese imperialism, oligarchic land ownership, and the rule of the Emperor. He was executed by the state in 1911 during the "High Treason Incident".

Gudō was ordained as a Soto Zen priest in 1897. In 1904, he became the abbot of Rinsenji temple in a poor area of a rural region of the Hakone Mountains. Village tradition states that every autumn Gudō would invite poor villagers to divide the harvest from the temple's only two trees equally among themselves.

Gudō was a self-identified socialist and outspoken advocate for redistributive land reform, overturning the Meiji emperor system, encouraging conscripts to desert en masse, and advancing democratic rights for all. He also criticized Zen leaders who claimed that low social position was justified by karma.

One of Gudō's most widely read and circulated works was a scathing denunciation of the Imperial Japanese government. Contradicting official state doctrine, he argued that the Emperors of the Imperial family were neither divine nor the destined rulers of Japan, and that their ancestors "came forth from a corner of Kyushu, killing and robbing people as they did. They then destroyed their fellow thieves."

Due to the popularity of Gudō's subversive publications, he was arrested in May 1909 and charged with violating press and publication laws. When police uncovered an alleged socialist plot to assassinate the Emperor (known as the "High Treason Incident"), Gudō was accused of being a co-conspirator.

In 1911, he, along with eleven other socialists, were convicted and executed. In July 1909, before Gudō's conviction, officials of the Sōtō Zen sect revoked Gudō'sabbotship.

"When I began reading the Heimin Shimbun at that time [1904], I realized that its principles were identical with my own and therefore I became an anarcho-socialist."

Uchiyama Gudō

• UCHIYAMA GUDŌ: RADICAL SŌTŌ ZEN PRIEST

• The Japanese Anarchist Movement

• The Great Treason Incident - Anarchism in Japan

• 大逆事件 (Taigyaku Jiken): An Introduction to the Anarchists of Japan

Megathreads and spaces to hang out:

• 🐻 Link to all Hexbear comms https://hexbear.net/post/1403966
• 🐼 Hexbear Matrix Chat https://matrix.to/#/#Hexbear:matrix.org
• 📀 Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube](https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies
• 🔥 Read and talk about a current topics in the News Megathread https://hexbear.net/post/8466891
• ⚔ Come talk in the New Weekly PoC thread https://hexbear.net/post/8358697
• 🏳️‍⚧️ Talk with fellow Trans comrades in the New Weekly Trans thread https://hexbear.net/post/8530300
• 👊 New Weekly Improvement thread https://hexbear.net/post/8527022
• 🧡 Disabled comm megathread https://hexbear.net/post/8530014
• ☕ Parenting Chat https://hexbear.net/post/8530013
• 🐉 Anime & Manga discussion thread https://hexbear.net/post/8380955
• 🎩Fashion megathread https://hexbear.net/post/7228810
• 🎨 Art & Drawings megathread https://hexbear.net/post/8430281

reminders:

• 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
• 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
• 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
• 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog

Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):

Aid:

• 🌈 LGBTQ+ Resource Post
• 🍉 Resources for Palestine
• 🐌☕ Zapatista Coffee

Theory:

• ❤️Foundations of Leninism
• ❤️Anarchism and Other Essays

Financial Support to the Bearsite

• 🇨🇳 https://liberapay.com/hexbear

• 🇷🇺 https://www.patreon.com/hexbear