Nishikawa Torakichi (西川寅吉)
Torakichi NISHIKAWA (1854 - 1941) was a so-called escape artist, who registered the largest number of prison breaks in the history of Japan.
Based on the episode below, he was also called by another name, Gosunkugi no Torakichi (Torakichi Long-Nail), and this pseudonym has been more popular among the people.
Biography
Nishikawa was born in 1854, as the second son of a farm family in present Meiwa-cho, Taki-gun, Mie Prefecture. It is said that he had an outstanding movement capability by nature.
He was only 14 years old, when he committed the fist crime and imprisoned. His uncle, who is said to have adored Nishikawa, was killed in a gambling dispute. Then, to avenge, he wielded the blade to the person who killed his uncle, and moreover, he set fire to this person's house. Nishikawa was sentenced to life in prison with work, and he was sent to the prison in his local Mie Prefecture.
As he was still young and the crime he committed was a vengeance, inmates took care of him in the prison. However, he came to know that the enemy was still alive; he escaped from the prison with the help of the prisoners. After that, he was caught and locked up again in the same prison of Mie before having achieved his essential purpose of avenging his uncle, but Nishikawa again broke out of the prison, helped by inmates. He wandered around all over the country as a consummate gambler, but was captured again, and this time he was sent to Shujikan (prison) in Akita City, from which he escaped once more.
Nishikawa had an extraordinary physical strength. On the way of escape from Akita Prefecture to his hometown Mie Prefecture, he was involved in a dispute related to gambling in Shizuoka Prefecture, and he ended up with being chased by police. A legend was created from this runaway: he stepped on a Gosun-kugi long nail stuck in a board, but he continued running away for over 10 kilometers until he was finally arrested; then this became the origin of the name of Gosunkugi no Torakichi (Torakichi Long-Nail).
After he was captured in Shizuoka, he was detained for a while in Tokyo Detention House in Tokyo and then sent to Tsukigata-cho Shujikan (Prison) in Hokkaido. After he committed three prison breaks in Kabato Shujikan (Hokkaido), he was captured in Kumamoto Prefecture and he was firstly sent to Mikasa City Shujikan in Hokkaido, and later he was transferred to Shibecha Shujikan, which was also located in Hokkaido. In March 1890, when Shibecha Shujikan was moved to Abashiri and it became Abashiri Prison, he was also transferred.
As a result of various criminal acts he committed along the way of escape and prison breaks themselves, in addition to the attempted murder and fire-setting that he committed in the first crime, Nishikawa had to pay an enormously long prison term for him. However, after he was transferred to Sorachi (Asahikawa, Hokkaido), due to the encounter with a good prison guard and other factors, he was consistently an exemplary prisoner, and finally he became so highly trusted that he enjoyed entire freedom of movement on the premises of the prison. On September 3, 1924, at last he was released on parole from Abashiri Prison for the reason of his old age of 71. After the release, various showmen utilized Nishikawa in performances, in which he became popular, talking about his stormy life and so on. At the beginning of the Showa period, his son living in his hometown Taki-gun, Mie Prefecture took over him, and in 1941, he ended his life peacefully.
Model
Abashiri Prison Museum: a mannequin of his reproduction with a gesture of cleaning is placed at the exhibition front gate.