The Tale of the 47 Ronin

In 1701 two young provincial lords were appointed by the shogunate to act as hosts during a visit by a member of the Imperial Court in Kyoto. The problem was that both lords were inexperienced and so an elderly high official named Yoshinaka Kira was appointed to help them.

The problem with that was that Yoshinaka was greedy and conceited. He became angry because Lord Asano, one of the two young lords, did not give him expensive gifts for helping out. Thus Yoshinaka became abusive and insulting towards Lord Asano. Lord Asano finally had enough and drew his sword and attempted to kill Yoshinaka.

Drawing a sword within Edo Castle was definitely not allowed. Lord Asano was taken captive after only wounding Yoshinaka and was ordered to commit suicide after which his lands and property was confiscated.

Yoshio Oishi was Lord Asano's chief councilor and upon hearing the news he called a meeting of Asano's retainers. They decided to petition the shogun to reestablish Lord Asano's house with his younger brother, Daigaku, as its head. If the petition didn't work then Oishi and the others were ready to defend Lord Asano's castle to the death.

Unfortunately a lot of the samurai employed by Lord Asano did not sign the petition and then left the castle, leaving only 60 loyal men behind. Daigaku Asano wrote a letter to Oishi and asked him to obey the orders of the shogun and surrender the castle.

The 60 defenders considered Daigaku's word binding and so they left the castle, but made plans to obtain revenge against Yoshinaka Kira. Knowing that they were going to be watched by men working for Kira they split up. Yoshio Oishi went to a suburb of Kyoto and seemed to be spending his days doing almost nothing but loafing and spent his evenings with prostitutes in the gay quarters.

The shogun, though, also suspected trouble might be coming so he had Daigaku Asano arrested and put under house arrest. In effect this made sure that the House of Asano would not be re-established.

Oishi and the others decided at a secret meeting to make their move but not before 13 of the men were sent by Oishi to return to their families. The rest infiltrated Edo one at a time and on the night of December 14, 1702 they attacked Kira's mansion. They overcame Kira's samurai guards but not before Kira had managed to hide himself in an outhouse.

When Asano's men came to the outhouse they thrust a spear into it. The spear injured Kira but he wiped the blood off the spear before it could be removed hoping that no one would know he was inside. That didn't work, though, and he was hauled out of the outhouse and beheaded.

After this the youngest samurai of the group was sent off to inform Lord Asano's wife that he had been avenged. Kira's head was taken to Asano's grave and given to his spirit as a gift.

Oishi then informed the Magistrate of Edo about what had happened and said that he and the others would be at the Sengaku Temple in Edo. All this caused a considerable controversy but in the end the shogunate ordered Oishi and 45 of his men to commit suicide. The youngest men, sent to inform Lord Asano's wife, was exempted from the sentence.

The men were separated into four groups and sent to different daimyo (lords) to have their sentences carried out. When the task was finished the men were buried at the Sengaku Temple in Edo. Their tale of loyalty and bravery has been carried down through the ages.

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