Yoarashi Okinu

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Born
Harada Kinu (原田 きぬ)

c. 1845
Various theories exist: Awa Province, Edo, or Jōgashima, Miura Peninsula, Japan
DiedMarch 28, 1872(1872-03-28) (aged 27)
Japan
Causeof death
Execution by decapitation
OthernamesKamakura Koharu, Hanayo, Shingetsu-in
Yoarashi Okinu
夜嵐 おきぬ
Born
Harada Kinu (原田 きぬ)

c. 1845
Various theories exist: Awa Province, Edo, or Jōgashima, Miura Peninsula, Japan
DiedMarch 28, 1872(1872-03-28) (aged 27)
Japan
Cause of death
Execution by decapitation
Other namesKamakura Koharu, Hanayo, Shingetsu-in
CitizenshipJapanese
OccupationsGeisha, poisoner
Years activeLate Edo period - early Meiji period
Known forPoisoning Kobayashi Kinpei, and her sensationalized story.
Criminal status
Executed
Children1 (by Arashi Rikaku)
ParentVarious theories exist.
MotivePassion, jealousy, and possibly financial gain.
ConvictionMurder
Criminal chargeMurder by poisoning
PenaltyDeath by decapitation
Capture status
Arrested
CommentsHer story has been heavily fictionalized.
Details
VictimsKobayashi Kinpei
DateMarch 2, 1871
CountryJapan
Killed1
WeaponsPoison

Yoarashi Okinu (夜嵐 おきぬ, c.1845[1] – March 28, 1872) is the moniker of Harada Kinu (原田 きぬ), who was a Japanese female poisoner and geisha and lived from the end of the Edo era to the beginning of the Meiji era. Her nickname Yoarashi means night-storm in Japanese.

Her early life is generally undocumented and has produced many ideas and opinion. Some sources assert that she was a daughter of a samurai of Awa Province, or she was born in Edo. There is another opinion that she was a daughter of Sajiro, a fisherman who lived on the island of Jōgashima at the tip of the Miura Peninsula. According to a non-fiction writer Atsushi Hachisu, she sold herself into geisha because her family was poor, and she worked as a geisha.[1] There is another opinion that she was an employee at the decorative collar shop in the Nakamise neighborhood in front of Sensō-ji.

As she was beautiful, people in the Edo longed for her. She became a mistress of Ōkubo Tadayori (大久保忠順) in the capital Edo.[1] He was the daimyō of the Karasuyama Domain in Shimotsuke Province, which was rated at thirty thousand koku. Ōkubo had a son, the successor to the Ōkubo family, by her. However, he hated her, and abandoned her in the Meiji Restoration.[1]

She became a mistress of Kobayashi Kinpei, but she paid for sex with kabuki actor Arashi Rikaku, and then fell in love with him, so she killed Kobayashi with poison on March 2, 1871. Rikaku harbored her but they were arrested. She was sentenced to death, and she was executed by decapitation after she had a child by Rikaku.

Rikaku was sentenced to 3 years in prison, and he was released in September 1874.[2] He became kabuki actor Ichikawa Gonjūrō after his release.

Fictional story

References

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