Course description

The 47 Ronin

At the start of the eighteenth century in Japan, the Emperor sent a great lord – his name was Kira Yoshinaka - to teach two young chiefs, Asano and Kamei. Kira was often bad-tempered and also dishonest. He was angry with the young men because they did not give him – their teacher - enough presents. Actually, he was often rude to them too.

Kamei’s people did not want Kira to be angry with their chief and they gave him a lot of money. Kira then changed his attitude and was friendly to Kamei, but he was still rude to Asano. One day, he called the young chief a ‘farmer’. This made Asano so angry that he stabbed Kira in the face with his knife.

To attack the Emperor’s man was an unforgiveable offence and the Emperor told Asano to commit suicide. The samurai had a special way of doing this. They put a knife in their stomach and pulled it up so that they died. The Emperor took all Asano’s land and money. His family was now very poor. His samurai soldiers had no chief either and became ‘ronin’ (or soldiers without a leader).

But forty-seven of Asano’s three hundred men did not forget Kira. They knew he was very rude to their chief. They decided to kill him. They planned this for two years. It took so long because Kira had many soldiers and bodyguards. The forty-seven got jobs in Edo, the town where Kira lived – all except for their leader. His name was Oishi and he started to drink and behave badly in front of everyone. One day, he fell asleep when he was drunk in the street. People thought Oishi was a very unprincipled man and they felt sorry for the dead Asano because his soldiers were not brave. Kira understood that Asano’s soldiers could not hurt him. He thought they were drunks and workmen.

Oishi divorced his wife and sent his children away. Only the oldest boy stayed with him.

One day in 1703, Oishi put the forty-seven ronin in two groups. He told them only to kill Kira’s soldiers, not his family. One group of ronin attacked the front of Kira’s house and the other group attacked the back. They killed a lot of Kira’s soldiers but they did not touch his wife or the other women in the house. After a long time, they found Kira. They knew him because of the mark on his face, where Asano stabbed him with his knife. They assassinated him.

The Emperor was angry but he did not want to kill the ronin like criminals because they were so brave. He told them to commit suicide. All forty-seven died. Oishi’s son was only sixteen.

Nothing happened to Oishi’s wife and other children because she was divorced from her husband. Today, the Japanese think Asano’s ronin were very brave soldiers and they are famous all over the country.

If you want to watch some videos on this topic, you can click on the links to YouTube videos below.

If you want to answer questions on this article to test how much you understand, you can click on the green box: Finished Reading?

Videos :

1. 47 Ronin (4:30)

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