(Voice actor) Mr.Chris Koprowski

Goemon Ishikawa and Nezumi-kozo Jirokichi must be the two most notorious thieves in Japanese history. Goemon was a thief who went after large scale items, such as the golden tiger-headed carps from the roof of the Nagoya Castle, and plotted the assassination of Hideyoshi (Tokugawa). He was captured by Hideyoshi’s men and at his execution by boiling, is said to have left these last words, “the sand on the beach may disappear, but the makings of thieves never shall.” That was the cry of his heart, that there will always be people who steal from others regardless of what the world may become. And just as Goemon predicted, there came Nezumi-kozo Jirokichi whose name resounded throughout Edo which was under the Tokugawa administration His reputation as a chivalrous robber who distributed the stolen money to the poor sank in among the commoners. That was because he did not have any money on him when he was caught. Had the amount not been so great, it would be no surprise that he’d spent it all, but he had robbed a staggering amount. Jirokichi targeted samurai mansions. What he stole is said to have been from 71 samurai mansions, on 90 occasions for the total amount of 3,000 ryo (*old currency unit). Converting 1 ryo to 100,000 yen, it comes to a whopping 300 million yen. Some even say the amount was 12,000 ryo which would be over 1,200 million yen. And that would still be underestimating since they say many samurai households hid their damages out of samurai pride. If that was true, the total amount he stole was even larger than reported. With that much money, you would expect him to own luxurious belongings, but he lived in a tenement house like the other commoners, where there would be no place to hide valuables. He had not bought any treasures. He had nothing. That was why the people of Edo started spreading the rumor that Nezumi-kozo gave the stolen money to the poor. Otherwise it couldn’t have been explained that he had nothing after stealing all that money. The truth is unknown, but since he stole from domineering samurais, the commoners secretly cheered for him and made him into their hero. Nezumi-kozo was executed. His last words are said to have been “following the same old fate of the well-known thieves, here I come.” Now, the truth about whether he was a chivalrous robber or not, rests with him in Eko-in temple, but you can read about how he first came to commit robbery in this story.