“My lord,” replied Shikibu, prostrating himself, “your lordship’s intentions are just.  Sogoro, indeed, deserves any punishment for his outrageous crime.  But I humbly venture to submit that his wife and children cannot be said to be guilty in the same degree:  I implore your lordship mercifully to be pleased to absolve them from so severe a punishment.”

“Where the sin of the father is great, the wife and children cannot be spared,” replied Kotsuke no Suke; and his councillor, seeing that his heart was hardened, was forced to obey his orders without further remonstrance.

So Kotsuke no Suke, having obtained that Sogoro should be given up to him by the Government, caused him to be brought to his estate of Sakura as a criminal, in a litter covered with nets, and confined him in prison.  When his case had been inquired into, a decree was issued by the Lord Kotsuke no Suke that he should be punished for a heinous crime; and on the 9th day of the 2d month of the second year of the period styled Shoho (A.D. 1644) he was condemned to be crucified.  Accordingly Sogoro, his wife and children, and the elders of the hundred and thirty-six villages were brought before the Court-house of Sakura, in which were assembled forty-five chief officers.  The elders were then told that, yielding to their petition, their lord was graciously pleased to order that the oppressive taxes should be remitted, and that the dues levied should not exceed those of the olden time.  As for Sogoro and his wife, the following sentence was passed upon them:—­

“Whereas you have set yourself up as the head of the villagers; whereas, secondly, you have dared to make light of the Government by petitioning his Highness the Shogun directly, thereby offering an insult to your lord; and whereas, thirdly, you have presented a memorial to the Gorojiu; and, whereas, fourthly, you were privy to a conspiracy:  for these four heinous crimes you are sentenced to death by crucifixion.  Your wife is sentenced to die in like manner; and your children will be decapitated.

“This sentence is passed upon the following persons:—­

“Sogoro, chief of the village of Iwahashi, aged 48.

“His wife, Man, aged 38.

“His son, Gennosuke, aged 13.

“His son, Sohei, aged 10.

“His son, Kihachi, aged 7.”

The eldest daughter of Sogoro, named Hatsu, nineteen years of age, was married to a man named Jiuyemon, in the village of Hakamura, in Shitachi, beyond the river, in the territory of Matsudaira Matsu no Kami (the Prince of Sendai).  His second daughter, whose name was Saki, sixteen years of age, was married to one Tojiuro, chief of a village on the property of my lord Naito Geki.  No punishment was decreed against these two women.

The six elders who had accompanied Sogoro were told that although by good rights they had merited death, yet by the special clemency of their lord their lives would be spared, but that they were condemned to banishment.  Their wives and children would not be attainted, and their property would be spared.  The six men were banished to Oshima, in the province of Idzu.