1. The Actual Person

2.  Tadasuke Ōoka was born in 1677 in Edo, Japan (now Tokyo).  However, he was not important until he was 35, when he was appointed a small judgeship.  He quickly settled a long dispute which other judges had been too afraid to settle, for fear of the leader of the side that was wrong.

3.  Five years later (1717), the shogun promoted Ōoka to the position of magistrate of Edo, which was the political capital of Japan.  He did this because of how capable Ōoka had proved in the dispute before.  The magistrate is basically the leader of all civic duties, like mayor, judge, and police chief.

4.  In his Edo years, Ōoka was highly respected as being incorruptible.  During this time, he also started the first fire brigades in Edo. (Fires were a real problem because of how the city was built.)  He also established a city hospital, important as well.

5.  After stepping down from magistrate of Edo, he moved to a lesser position of Temple Magistrate for 12 years.  His honesty was missed in Edo as more corrupt judges took over his posting.  Ōoka lived for 3 more years before dying. Not as much is known about his final years.

6.  His ability to solve crimes led him to be a folk hero after his death.  Chigasaki, Japan, has an Ōoka festival every April.  He was also a character in two television series.  And he was obviously a character in the book series I read.  This picture is from one of the TV series.