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Ishikawa Goemon (石川五右衛門 Ishikawa Gôemon) (1558-1594) was a famous Japanese thief in a similar behavior to Robin Hood, put to death after failing to assassinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Sentenced to death by being boiled alive in an iron cauldron along with his young son, legends say that he attempted to hold his son above the boiling water as long as he could. A large iron kettle-shaped bathtub is called a Goemon-buro after him.
There is little historical information on Goemon's life, and thus he has become a folk hero, whose background and origins have been widely speculated and popularized.
He is the subject of many Kabuki plays. One places him on the great gate of Nanzenji in Kyoto. As he strikes a pose, he exclaims, "A magnificent view! A magnificent view! For this view of spring, a million dollars would be too low a price, too low a price!" Before his death, he composed a well-known poem: "Ishikawa may perish on the sands along the banks of this river, yet the seeds of thievery from this world shall never pass!"
Ishikawa Goemon in fiction
Goemon is the main character in a video game series produced by Konami known as Ganbare Goemon in Japan and as Mystical Ninja worldwide.
Ishikawa Goemon also recently appeared in the Koei game, Samurai Warriors, wielding a mace and with a cannon on his back. He is also mentioned in Lupin III movies as an ancestor of one of Lupin's partners, Goemon Ishikawa XIII. He is claimed to be the first of a lineage of renegade samurai.
An NPC in Live A Live's Bakumatsu chapter is called Goemon.
See also
"Ishikawa Goemon"