Ishikawa Goemon was a robber of the Azuchi-Momoyama period. He tried to kill Toyotomi Hideyoshi but failed and was sentenced to death by ... boiling. He was executed in front of the main gate of the Nanzenji Temple in Kyôto. His young son was also put in the cauldron but it was said that Goemon held his kid above the boiling water up to his death. The life of this larger-than-life robber was dramatized in both Kabuki and the puppet theater. The most famous drama with Ishikawa Goemon is "Sanmon Gosan no Kiri", which was staged for the first time in April 1778.