Tōyama Kagemoto

Tōyama Kagemoto (Japanese: 遠山景元, September 27, 1793 – April 15, 1855) was a hatamoto and an official of the Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period of Japanese history. His ancestry was of the Minamoto clan of Mino Province. His father, Kagemichi, was the magistrate of Nagasaki.

Tōyama Kagemoto.

During his youth, Kagemoto left his household, due to family conflict and lived among commoners as a vagabond. Legend says that he acquired a tattoo during this period, which is the basis of the folklore of the tattoo bearing magistrate. When he inherited the title of his household, he returned to his samurai post and eventually became a magistrate. Kagemoto held the posts of Finance Magistrate, North Magistrate, and subsequently South Magistrate of Edo. (The magistrates of Edo acted as chiefs of the police and fire departments and as judges in criminal and civil matters.)

When the Tokugawa Shogunate instituted Tenpō Reforms, South Magistrate Torii Yōzō and Rōjū Mizuno Tadakuni tried to enforce sumptuary edicts banning theatre and other popular entertainment. Kagemoto consistently opposed the implementation of the policy, which he believed to be an undue infringement on the livelihood of commoners.

Together with the fact that he lived among commoners in his youth, this won him tremendous popularity among the people of Edo. In 1843, he was ousted from his position as North Magistrate through the machinations of Torii, and although nominally appointed Ōmetsuke, was out of power. Two years later, when Mizuno ousted Torii, Tōyama received an appointment as South Magistrate, a post once held by Ōoka Tadasuke.

Tōyama rose to the Lower Junior Fifth rank with the name Tōyama Saemon no Jō.