Sakura Sōgorō was a village headman of the early Edo period. According to the legend, he appealed directly to the shogun against his lord’s heavy taxes, and he was executed for it.
In 1851, his story was staged at the Nakamura-za theater in Edo as the play Higashiyama Sakura Sōshi. He became the best-known gimin, a man who gave his life for the people. Little about him is historically certain, and some have argued that he never existed.