He is said to have appealed directly to the shōgun in 1652 when he was serving as a headman of one of the villages in the Sakura Domain.

In the appeal he requested the shōgun to help ease the peasants' burden of heavy taxes and bad crops.

It is widely believed that he was executed (crucified) along with his sons (and some sources claim also his wife) in 1653 by the daimyō of his feudal domain.

[1] The legend of Sakura Sōgorō has been made into numerous stories and plays of kabuki, Jōruri, and so on (a.o.

He was praised by Fukuzawa Yukichi and in the Freedom and People's Rights Movement and is still admired by many as gimin (martyr, in the non-religious sense).