[Inclosure in No.
857.—Translation.]
BEHEADING OF THE ASSASSINS OF OKUBO.
At about 10 a.m. on the 27th instant, Mr. Okubo’s six murderers, Shimada,
Cho, Sugimoto, Sugimura, Asai, and Wakita, were brought up before the
special court in the shihosho from the police
prison, and Tamano hangi passed sentence upon
them. They were then tied with ropes and taken to the Ichigaya prison,
where they were beheaded at 11.30 a.m. Among their accomplices, four
were condemned to imprisonment for life; three, to ten years’; three, to
seven years’; three, to five years’; one to one years, and two to one
hundred days’ imprisonment; one was pardoned, and four, two of whom were
women, were acquitted. Shimada and his five associates recited each some
verses of poetry immediately before their execution. The sentences ran
as follows:
“To Shimada Itchiro, shizoku of
Ishikawa ken:
“You had arbitrarily decided to remove an officer of the state, who
occupied an eminent position; for that purpose you conspired with Cho,
Sugimoto, Asai, and others, you associated yourself with Wakita and
Sugimura, and then you, Cho, and four others just mentioned,
assassinated Okubo, sangi, at Kioimachi, Tokio,
on the 14th May, 1878. For this crime you are hereby degraded from your
rank as shizoku, and condemned to death.”
(The sentences of the five others are, mutatis
mutandis, identical).
“To Matsuda Katsuyuki, shizoku of
Ishikawa ken:
“You conspired with Wakita and others to assassinate Okubo, sangi, for the purpose of changing the
constitution of this empire, and with that object you came to Tokio. You
returned to your ken to enlist more conspirators,
but when you came back again to Tokio, Wakita and others had already
perpetrated the murder. Although you were not present at the
assassination, your criminal intention was manifest, and you are now
degraded from your rank as shizoku, and condemned
to imprisonment for lifetime.”
