Oshio Heihachiro

  • Born: 1793
  • Died: 1837
  • Japanese: 大塩 平八郎 (Ooshio Heihachirou)

Ôshio Heihachirô was a low-ranking samurai who led a significant uprising or revolt in Osaka in 1837.

A low-ranking official within the Osaka city government, Ôshio had been educated in a particular strain of Confucian thought that emphasized righteous individual action. Outraged by the shogunate's failures to provide for people during the Tenpô famine in 1837, he led a large number of Osaka townspeople in an uprising. Fully one-quarter of the city was destroyed before the rebellion was suppressed by the authorities. Ôshio was killed in the process.

References

  • Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan, Oxford University Press (2013), 54.