Chichibu Incident

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The Chichibu Incident (秩父事件, Chichibu Jiken) was a peasant revolt that occurred in November 1884 in Chichibu, Saitama, a short distance from Japan's capital, and lasted approximately two weeks.

It was one of many uprisings of the same kind in Japan around that time, occurring in reaction to the dramatic and drastic changes to society which came about in the wake of the 1868 Meiji Restoration. What set Chichibu apart, however, was the scope of the uprising, which included upwards of 3000 participants, and the severity of the government response. Though the traditional view of the event reduces the peasants' motivations to being purely economic, many scholars see it as part of a suppressed peoples' rights movement in this period.

Contents

    * 1 Background

    * 2 Uprising

    * 3 Legacy