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Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosity's, A Production of IHeart Radio and Grim and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosity's.

In the year 1487 in southern Japan, the military governor of the Kaga province returned home to a surprising but inevitable welcome.

His people, the peasants of Kaga province, were an open rebellion.

The governor, whose name was Togashi Masachika, had spent much of the last 10 years suppressing these sorts of rebellions.

The Ashikaga Shogunate was weakening, and feudal Japan had been erupting in challenges

to the Shogun's authority, both from rival lords and from bands of peasants,

like the ones at Masa Chica faced in the Kaga province. These peasants formed themselves

into grassroots militia, known as Iki, and were comprised of Buddhist warrior monks,

as well as peasants who were dissatisfied with their rulers. Masachika hoped that he'd be able to

extinguish this rebellion once and for all with the help of support from the Shogun,

but no such reinforcements arrived. The peasant rebellion lay siege to the castle of Kaga.

In 1488, as his castle burned around him and with no prospect of rescue, Masa Chica committed Sapuku.

After that, he was replaced as governor by his uncle Yasutaka.

But the real power the world knew lay in the hands of the Iki.

The Kaga region became known as Kaga Iki, or less formally, the province ruled by peasants.

And this would hold true for decades, while in greater Japan, the Shogun struggled to remain

in power.

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