Kunisada Chūji

Kunisada Chūji (国定 忠治) was a popular figure in the Edo period. He was a bakuto (gamblers commonly seen as forerunners to the modern yakuza).

His story is mainly responsible for the romanticised "chivalrous bandit" or "Robin Hood" image in Japan. An example was when a village had a famine, he helped the village out.

He was publicly executed in 1850 for various crimes after a large man-hunt.

Chūji is depicted on a 1999 Japanese stamp.