Freedom and People's Rights Movement
Kyūsaku Matsuzawa (1855–1887) was a newspaper journalist and a people’s rights activist in the "Jiyū Minken Undō" (Freedom and People's Rights Movement) of the 1870s and 1880s. A talented actor, he had the idea that a play about local hero Tada Kasuke would help educate people about people’s rights. He wrote and produced "Minken Kagami Kasuke no Omokage" ("The Image of Kasuke, a Model of the People’s Rights Movement"). The play was a great success and was instrumental in relating farmers’ uprisings to people’s rights at the national level.