User:Scry3214/Shitetsu Prefecture Resuscitation Case

Fujisaku Tanaka (31 years old at the time), a farmer from Kitakata Village, Kume County, allegedly set fire to a fire during an uprising and destroyed the high stone walls of Matsuyama (present-day Fujiwara, Matsuyama City) on November 28, 1872 (Meiji 5). town) was executed. According to the custom at the time, the bodies of condemned prisoners were to be dissected if there was no one to take them, but Fujisaku was taken in by his relatives.

When Fujisaku's coffin was carried about 1 ri (about 4 km) from the prison, he heard a groan from his coffin, and when he opened the coffin, Fujisaku was revived. Fujisaku returned to the village alive, but the villagers reported the fact of resuscitation to the Litigation Division of Sekitetsu Prefecture and asked for further instructions. In the Edo period, the bodies of death-row inmates were destroyed, and there was no precedent for bringing them back to life.

In September 1873 (Meiji 6), an instruction from the central government arrived, and the text read, ``Resuscitation after Sudeni's strangulation, Mata theory is unsuccessful. However, even if he was revived, the punishment had already been executed according to the law, so there was no reason to execute it again. In France before the revolution, there were rare death row prisoners who were resuscitated by hanging, but in this case, the king pardoned them. The prefectural official was not punished because there was no problem with the autopsy.

It is said that Fujisaku lived until 1898 (Meiji 31), 26 years later, but there is also a story that he died four years later, so it is not clear which one. However, it is said that Fujisaku was living a lonely life in a small hut without vividness, probably due to the aftereffects of a temporary asphyxia. His grave is said to be somewhere in the bamboo grove because there was no tombstone.