was a ronin

Ronin

A or rounin was a Bushi with no lord or master during the feudal period of Japan. A samurai became masterless from the death or fall of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege....

 (masterless samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

) from Yamagata

Yamagata

-Places in Japan:*Yamagata Prefecture**Yamagata City, the capital city of Yamagata Prefecture**Yamagata Airport , an airport located in Yamagata**Yamagata Shinkansen, one of Shinkansen lines running between Tokyo Station and Shinjo Station...

, and instructor in martial arts and military strategy, most famous for his involvement in the 1651 Keian Uprising

Keian uprising

The was a failed coup d'etat attempt carried out against the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan in 1651, by a number of ronin. Though it failed, the event is historically significant as an indication of a wider problem of disgruntled ronin throughout the country at the time...

 which sought to overthrow Japan's Tokugawa shogunate

Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

. He is said to have been a man of great strength and good birth whose distaste for the shogunate stemmed primarily from a desire for revenge for the death of his father, killed by the shogunal army at the 1615 siege of Osaka

Siege of Osaka

The was a series of battles undertaken by the Tokugawa shogunate against the Toyotomi clan, and ending in that clan's destruction. Divided into two stages , and lasting from 1614 to 1615, the siege put an end to the last major armed opposition to the shogunate's establishment...

. The identity of his father is not clear, but may have been Chōsokabe Motochika

Chosokabe Motochika

was a Sengoku period daimyo in Japan. He was the 21st chief of the Chōsokabe clan of Tosa Province . He was the son and heir of Chōsokabe Kunichika and his mother was a daughter of the Saitō clan of Mino Province....

.

He found work teaching the use of the halberd

Halberd

A halberd is a two-handed pole weapon that came to prominent use during the 14th and 15th centuries. Possibly the word halberd comes from the German words Halm , and Barte - in modern-day German, the weapon is called Hellebarde. The halberd consists of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on...

, and other aspects of martial arts and strategy. Marubashi met Yui Shōsetsu

Yui Shosetsu

Yui Shōsetsu was a military strategist, and leader of the unsuccessful 1651 Keian Uprising. Though a commoner, and thus not officially of the samurai class, Yui was known as one of the "Three Great Ronin" along with Kumazawa Banzan and Yamaga Sokō.Born in Sunpu to humble origins, Yui is said to...

, later to be his partner in organizing the Keian Uprising, at the armorer shop run by the latter. At some point after 1645, the two began to plot their rebellion, which would revolve around starting a fire in the capital of Edo

Edo

, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...

 and using this as a distraction to allow the rebels entry into the castle.

They planned to strike shortly after the death of Shogun

Shogun

A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...

 Tokugawa Iemitsu

Tokugawa Iemitsu

Tokugawa Iemitsu was the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Iemitsu ruled from 1623 to 1651.-Early life :...

 in 1651, but Marubashi fell quite ill at that time, and revealed secrets of the plot in his delirium. Before any part of the plot was initiated, Marubashi was arrested in Edo. Yui killed himself shortly afterwards, while Marubashi and a number of the other rebels were crucified, their families beheaded.

He is the titular figure in a 1870 kabuki

Kabuki

is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing , dance , and skill...

 play by Kawatake Mokuami

Kawatake Mokuami

' was a Japanese dramatist of Kabuki. It has been said that "as a writer of plays of Kabuki origin, he was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Japan has ever known." He wrote 150 or so plays over the course of his fifty year career, covering a wide variety of themes, styles, and forms,...

 also known as Keian Taiheiki.