![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Uchida Masa (1861-?)
May. 3rd, 2024 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nnozomiUchida Masa was born in 1861 in Aichi, the daughter of a carpenter called Uchida Kizaemon. From there the materials I have at hand provide two completely different histories of her youth.
Nakae says: She was fostered out to a local temple on the understanding that she would become a nun. However, as a girl she became involved with a young priest called Kanjo and gave birth to a daughter called Kiyo, who was raised as Masa’s younger sister. Concerned for Masa’s future, her father forced her into a marriage with his apprentice Watanabe Gorosaburo in 1878, when she was eighteen. At this point, Kizaemon had just received a contract to build onto an elementary school, and had three hundred yen (a huge sum at the time) in hand. When her father got drunk during the topping-out ceremony, Masa seized the moment to steal the money and run away, fleeing to Yokohama by boat along with her erstwhile lover Kanjo.
However, her uncle found them and sent her home, where she spent six months locked up before being released to Gorosaburo’s custody. Here she encountered gossip that Kanjo had returned to his original name of Watanabe Seijiro and started work as a police constable in Yokohama. Once again Masa stole money (this time from her husband) and ran away to Yokohama, but could not find Seijiro at all. Unable to return home, she became a live-in maid at a clothing store. In 1880 a Chinese supplier wooed her away to be his mistress, but before Masa could save enough money to return home, he left for China. Masa’s previous employer, apparently feeling sorry for her, arranged for her to marry his younger brother, with whom she embarked on a briefly peaceful wedded life.
However again, one day she ran into her first love, Seijiro, and found herself back with him, only to discover he had become a thief. At his prompting, she went to work as a maid in a kamaboko shop to discover where they stored their money. Her hard work earned her the trust of the other workers, who revealed that the money chest was stored on the second floor of the warehouse. Masa passed this on to Seijiro and took time off from her job, lying that her father was sick. A few days later, Seijiro and his friends broke in and stole 3,200 yen in cash as well as valuables like kimonos. They lay low for a while, but in 1882 Masa was arrested and sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment. She was twenty-two.
Thereafter, she was associated with a string of crimes such as arson attempts, theft from bathhouses, stealing money from the sugar shop where she worked as a maid, and so on. She acquired the nickname of “Viper O-Masa.” Her fifth prison term was completed in 1902, when she was forty-two. It is not known what happened to her thereafter.
Maari says: Masa was a filial oldest daughter, but when her younger sister Tami married into a rich brewery, she began to desire a rich husband for herself. That was when she met and became involved with Naito Kikujiro, a local elementary school teacher from a samurai family, who was already married. Masa left her family and became a live-in maid for a scrap paper wholesaler; he and his wife turned out to be a wicked pair who tricked her into various crimes. Fleeing the police, she moved in with a man in Koishikawa, Tokyo, but found herself living as a mistress to other men for lack of money. She stole from her patrons one after the next, repeatedly imprisoned, until the 13th anniversary of her mother’s death drew her home again. Having made it up with her father, she wrote a will and prepared to commit suicide, at which point she was arrested by a constable who had been pursuing her, revealing all her crimes to the world. After her release from prison in 1902, she appeared in a play about herself put on by the entrepreneur Mori Sannosuke.
Both of these histories come from newspaper reports of the time; as with the other dokufu, the combination of sensationalized life stories and the lack of records of the poor and working class make it difficult to know what really happened.
Sources
Nakae
file:///Users/nozomi/Downloads/%E5%90%8C%E6%9C%8B%E6%96%87%E5%8C%964.64-41.pdf (Japanese) Essay on Masa’s history as a dokufu by Maari Sumika, with some illustrations of theater bills from the time
Nakae says: She was fostered out to a local temple on the understanding that she would become a nun. However, as a girl she became involved with a young priest called Kanjo and gave birth to a daughter called Kiyo, who was raised as Masa’s younger sister. Concerned for Masa’s future, her father forced her into a marriage with his apprentice Watanabe Gorosaburo in 1878, when she was eighteen. At this point, Kizaemon had just received a contract to build onto an elementary school, and had three hundred yen (a huge sum at the time) in hand. When her father got drunk during the topping-out ceremony, Masa seized the moment to steal the money and run away, fleeing to Yokohama by boat along with her erstwhile lover Kanjo.
However, her uncle found them and sent her home, where she spent six months locked up before being released to Gorosaburo’s custody. Here she encountered gossip that Kanjo had returned to his original name of Watanabe Seijiro and started work as a police constable in Yokohama. Once again Masa stole money (this time from her husband) and ran away to Yokohama, but could not find Seijiro at all. Unable to return home, she became a live-in maid at a clothing store. In 1880 a Chinese supplier wooed her away to be his mistress, but before Masa could save enough money to return home, he left for China. Masa’s previous employer, apparently feeling sorry for her, arranged for her to marry his younger brother, with whom she embarked on a briefly peaceful wedded life.
However again, one day she ran into her first love, Seijiro, and found herself back with him, only to discover he had become a thief. At his prompting, she went to work as a maid in a kamaboko shop to discover where they stored their money. Her hard work earned her the trust of the other workers, who revealed that the money chest was stored on the second floor of the warehouse. Masa passed this on to Seijiro and took time off from her job, lying that her father was sick. A few days later, Seijiro and his friends broke in and stole 3,200 yen in cash as well as valuables like kimonos. They lay low for a while, but in 1882 Masa was arrested and sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment. She was twenty-two.
Thereafter, she was associated with a string of crimes such as arson attempts, theft from bathhouses, stealing money from the sugar shop where she worked as a maid, and so on. She acquired the nickname of “Viper O-Masa.” Her fifth prison term was completed in 1902, when she was forty-two. It is not known what happened to her thereafter.
Maari says: Masa was a filial oldest daughter, but when her younger sister Tami married into a rich brewery, she began to desire a rich husband for herself. That was when she met and became involved with Naito Kikujiro, a local elementary school teacher from a samurai family, who was already married. Masa left her family and became a live-in maid for a scrap paper wholesaler; he and his wife turned out to be a wicked pair who tricked her into various crimes. Fleeing the police, she moved in with a man in Koishikawa, Tokyo, but found herself living as a mistress to other men for lack of money. She stole from her patrons one after the next, repeatedly imprisoned, until the 13th anniversary of her mother’s death drew her home again. Having made it up with her father, she wrote a will and prepared to commit suicide, at which point she was arrested by a constable who had been pursuing her, revealing all her crimes to the world. After her release from prison in 1902, she appeared in a play about herself put on by the entrepreneur Mori Sannosuke.
Both of these histories come from newspaper reports of the time; as with the other dokufu, the combination of sensationalized life stories and the lack of records of the poor and working class make it difficult to know what really happened.
Sources
Nakae
file:///Users/nozomi/Downloads/%E5%90%8C%E6%9C%8B%E6%96%87%E5%8C%964.64-41.pdf (Japanese) Essay on Masa’s history as a dokufu by Maari Sumika, with some illustrations of theater bills from the time
