A remarkable and true tale of loyalty, vengeance, and ritual suicide. .
. . In the spring of 1701, the regional lord Asano Naganori wounded his
supervising official, Kira Yoshinaka, during an important ceremony in
the ruling shogunate's Edo Castle and was at once condemned to death.
Within two years, in the dead of winter, a band of forty-seven of
Asano's retainers avenged him by breaking into Yoshinaka's mansion and
killing him. Subsequently, all the men were sentenced to death but
allowed to perform it honorably by seppuku.
This incident--often called the Ako Incident--became a symbol of samurai
honor andat once prompted stage dramatization in kabuki and puppet
theater. It has since has been told and retold in short and long
stories, movies, TV dramas. The story has also attracted the attention
of foreign writers and translators. The most recent retelling was the
2013 Hollywood film 47 Ronin, with Keanu Reeves, though it was wildly
and willfully distorted.
What did actually happen and how has this famous vendetta resonated
through history? Hiroaki Sato's examination is a close, comprehensive
look at the Ako Incident through the context of its times, portraits of
the main protagonists, and its literary legacy in the haiku ofthe
avengers. Also included is Sato's new translation of Akutagawa
Ryunosuke's short story about leader Oishi Kuranosuke as he awaited
sentencing.
