Editing Takagi Kenmyo (section)

=== The High Treason Incident ===

Takagi's association with the socialist movement ultimately brought him within the widening suppression of political radicalism. The immediate connection was Kōtoku Shūsui's visit to Shingū in 1908. While staying in the city, Kōtoku delivered a lecture at Jōsenji on “Naturalism from the Perspective of Socialism” (''Shakaishugi yori mitaru shizenshugi'' 社会主義より見たる自然主義). Takagi, Ōishi, and other members of what later became known as the “Shingū group” also associated with Kōtoku during his stay. These encounters would later be treated by prosecutors as evidence linking the group to a broader conspiracy against the emperor.<ref>Swanson (2014), “Takagi Kenmyō and Buddhist Socialism”, pp. 150–52.</ref>

The High Treason Incident (''Taigyaku jiken'' 大逆事件) began in 1910 after police discovered explosives connected with a small group of radicals who had discussed assassinating Emperor Meiji. The investigation rapidly expanded beyond those directly involved in the plot into a much broader prosecution of socialists and anarchists. Takagi was among six people associated with the Shingū circle who were prosecuted. His antiwar activity, socialist sympathies, association with Ōishi, and contact with Kōtoku brought him within the expanding investigation. Prosecutors subsequently treated the Shingū group's contacts with Kōtoku as part of the larger conspiracy.<ref>Swanson (2014), “Takagi Kenmyō and Buddhist Socialism”, pp. 151–52.</ref>

Police searched the homes of Takagi, Ōishi, and others in June 1910, and Takagi was arrested and subsequently transferred to Tokyo for trial. According to later reconstructions of the interrogation and trial records, the prosecution produced no evidence that Takagi had participated in the assassination plot. Scholarship on the incident has consequently distinguished the existence of assassination planning among a small number of radicals from the much broader conspiracy for which Takagi and numerous others were convicted.<ref>Swanson (2014), “Takagi Kenmyō and Buddhist Socialism”, pp. 151–52.</ref>

The Shinshū Ōtani-ha responded to Takagi's arrest by investigating his activities but did not challenge the government's case. When his trial began, the denomination revoked his clerical status (''samen'' 差免). After he was found guilty, it imposed its most severe disciplinary punishment, expelling him from the denomination (''hinseki'' 擯斥). Takagi's prosecution thus involved not only state repression but institutional Buddhist discipline directed against a priest whose religious and political commitments had brought him into conflict with the imperial state.<ref>Swanson (2014), “Takagi Kenmyō and Buddhist Socialism”, pp. 152–53.</ref>

The trial opened in December 1910. On January 18, 1911, Takagi and twenty-three other defendants were sentenced to death for high treason. The following day, an imperial rescript commuted twelve of those sentences, including Takagi's, to life imprisonment. The remaining twelve—including Kōtoku, Ōishi, and the Sōtō Zen priest Uchiyama Gudō 内山愚童—were executed on January 24 and 25. Takagi remained imprisoned.