Hiroyasu Koga

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Hiroyasu Koga (古賀浩靖 Koga Hiroyasu) is a former Tatenokai (楯の会) member responsible for the decapitation of Yukio Mishima during his seppuku on November 25, 1970. He studied law at Kanagawa University, and intended to become a lawyer.

Koga, known by the nickname Furu-Koga to distinguish him from another Tatenokai member with the name Koga (小賀), was a skilled practitioner of kendo (swordsmanship). It was originally planned that Mishima would be decapitated by Masakatsu Morita, the Tatenokai's student leader; however, Morita was not trained in the sword and botched the job, at which point Koga stepped in to complete it. Koga then decapitated Morita as part of Morita's own seppuku.

After the trial, he and three other members were sentenced to four years' penal servitude. He married the daughter of Seicho Taniguchi, the leader of Seicho no Ie, and changed his surname to Arechi (荒地). He is currently a priest at an undisclosed Shinto shrine somewhere in Shikoku.[citation needed]

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