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Concept
Forty-seven rōnin
Summary
The revenge of the 'forty-seven rōnin', also known as the Akō incident or Akō vendetta, is a historical event in Japan in which a band of rōnin (lordless samurai) avenged the death of their master on 31 January 1703. The incident has since become legendary. It is one of the three major adauchi vendetta incidents in Japan, alongside the Revenge of the Soga Brothers and the Igagoe vendetta.
The story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless after their daimyō (feudal lord) Asano Naganori was compelled to perform seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a powerful court official named Kira Yoshinaka. After waiting and planning for a year, the rōnin avenged their master's honor by killing Kira, knowing full well that the authorities would likely not tolerate this vendetta's completion and put them to death. Due to considerable public support in their favor, the authorities compromised by ordering the rōnin to commit seppuku as an honorable death for the crime of murder. This true story was popularised in Japanese culture as emblematic of the loyalty, sacrifice, persistence, and honor that people should display in their daily lives. The popularity of the tale grew during the Meiji era, during which Japan underwent rapid modernisation, and the legend became entrenched within discourses of national heritage and identity.
Fictionalised accounts of the tale of the forty-seven rōnin are known as Chūshingura. The story was popularised in numerous plays, including in the genres of bunraku and kabuki. Because of the censorship laws of the shogunate in the Genroku era, which forbade portrayal of current events, the names were changed. While the version given by the playwrights may have come to be accepted as historical fact by some, the first Chūshingura was written some 50 years after the event, and numerous historical records about the actual events that predate the Chūshingura survive.
Official source
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