About the Museum

The Jōkyō Gimin Memorial Museum (貞享義民記念館, Jōkyō Gimin Kinen-kan) is a museum dedicated to the Jōkyō Uprising that occurred in the Azumidaira area of Shinano Province of Japan in 1686 (the third year of the Jōkyō era during the Edo period). The uprising, also called the Kasuke Uprising (the leader of the peasant uprising was Tada Kasuke), is portrayed by the museum to be a struggle for the right to life. Thus the founders of the memorial museum erected two plaques at the front entrance of the building. The one on the left is inscribed with the 11th and 12th articles of the Constitution of Japan. The one on the right is inscribed with the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Those inscribed articles clearly state the fundamental rights global citizens are entitled to: Exactly the cause which the leaders of the uprising had given their lives for.