Ikuta Yorozu

, better known as was a Japanese student of the nationalist kokugaku school. He is remembered for his death leading an army of the poor during the Tenpō famine.

Early life Ikuta Kunihide was born in 1801 into a samurai family in the Tatebayashi Domain. His father, served as a senior retainer to the Matsudaira clan. Kunihide later took the name Yorozu.

Ikuta studied Confucianism at the domain school, the , and was regarded as an intelligent and well-read pupil, but he developed an interest in the austere and idealistic Yangming school and gradually became estranged from his teachers and the other students. In 1824, when he was 23 years old, he travelled to Edo to study kokugaku under Hirata Atsutane. As one of Atsutane's two most prominent disciples, alongside , the brother of Hirata Kanetane, he served as an administrator for the Hirata school and was respected by Atsutane, who is said to have remarked, "Kunihide will be my successor."

In 1833, he completed a small book titled in which he depicted ancient Japan as a land of ruled over by a benevolent Emperor. This book was later used by the Hirata school in Edo as a textbook for learning calligraphy.

In 1836, he moved to Kashiwazaki in Echigo Province and established a school where he taught kokugaku. He was well liked for providing food to the poor.

Rebellion In 1837, Echigo Province was stricken by famine, and the farmers of the region were in a desperate state. Ikuta appealed to the local office of the Kuwana Domain for the distribution of food from government granaries for famine relief, but his appeals were repeatedly ignored. When news of Ōshio Heihachirō's revolt reached Echigo, Ikuta rallied a force of armed farmers under banners calling to and attacked the Kuwana troops stationed in Kashiwazaki. However, Ikuta failed to secure the support of local gōnō and he was defeated upon the arrival of government reinforcements. Surrounded, Ikuta died by suicide.