The 47 Ronin

The Samurai are stereotypically "known" historical figures. It is perhaps not overstating to say that, likely, nations around the world know who the samurai were. But it is more likely that this knowing is only superficial.

For 800 years, the samurai culture grew and flourished. It is officially acknowledged to have begun in year 645, at the start of the period of reform known as Taika, or "Great Change". During this time, the imperial family wrested governing control back from civilians, and Emperor Tenchi began his rule. In 672, Emperor Tenchi died, and there was a dispute as to who would succeed to the throne. The earliest historical records of Japan, The Nihongi, "mentions the use of mounted archers, a possible early model for the future samurai."

Over the next 800 years, this early model of mounted archer evolved into the great samurai warrior, developing an internal personal and cultural ethos known as bushido. The samurai were largely protectors of the imperial family, who were, I would say, "managed" by the leaders known as shogun with their political hold on the land. The shogun controlled the samurai, directing where they would live, work, and fight. To manage these fierce warriors, it was common to separate them from their families ~ often, the wife and children were forced to live within the walled city of Edo while the samurai were made to live in other parts of the country, under the direct rule of various "superior" samurai, known as daimyo. At other times, the warriors were made to move to Edo, and the families had to live in the provinces.

During roughly the last 250 years of the shogunate system, Japan was closed to the rest of the world. Attempts had been made by the Portuguese, Dutch, and English; the Portuguese fared worst, because they were more interested in missionary work than in trade, and some Japanese people (even a few samurai) began converting to the Jesuit faith. There was a story about the Shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, who had heard a rumor about the Portuguese Jesuits: "First they convert you to their religion; then they take over your country." In 1685, during (as it turns out) the last attempt by the Portuguese to re-establish relations with Japan, the entire shipload of souls was slaughtered on the beach where they tried to come ashore.

In the end, only the Dutch and English were allowed in, under extreme conditions of control and watchfulness. After the English left to realize greater profits in India, a small section of Japan became the trading center of the Dutch: Nagasaki. Even today, part of Nagasaki is known as Little Holland, where traditional Dutch streets, architecture, ceramic ware, wooden clogs, tulips, and more draw in tourists and continued trade.

Other than this tiny enclave of the Dutch at Nagasaki Port, by 1825 there was a standing order that all foreign ships nearing the coasts of Japan were to be fired upon. The shogun were dead serious: no foreigners!

In 1854, a set of "black ships" sailed into Tokyo Bay, oblivious to being fired upon. There was a new sheriff in town, and his name was US Commodore Mathew Perry. By then, the samurai culture had continued to grow but the peasants ~ or common people, including the undesirable merchants, farmers, and tanners ~ had been increasingly restless and bold in protesting the harsh conditions they were forced to bear, including heavy taxation to support the samurai and their families.

Within 22 years, the samurai were no more. In 1871, the shogunate and daimyo systems are dissolved. The outward symbol of samurai ~ the wearing of swords ~ becomes "optional." Five years later, wearing swords is prohibited. Outlawed.

The samurai are no more.

Masterless samurai. A samurai became a ronin when his master died or was killed, or when he was disowned by his master. Prior to the Edo period, ronin could align with a new master; however, during the Edo period they were absolutely forbidden to align with a new master without permission from the former master.

In the case where their former master had died, these ronin were doomed to a masterless status, and were shunned and discriminated against by all other samurai and daimyo. Although they were still allowed to wear the two swords of the samurai, they sometimes lost the bushido way and became lawless drifters.

To begin, it is important to understand bushido, known familiarly as the Samurai spirit, perhaps chivalry. Inazo Nitobe, in his treatise of 1905, Bushido, called it "the soul of Japan" and a "code of moral principles."

Bushido is a lifestyle which, at its purest and best, embraces and displays true justice, courage, benevolence, politeness, sincerity, honor, loyalty, and self-control. Nitobe explored the history of Bushido, declaring there to be no written code, but rather "a few maxims handed down.... a code unuttered and unwritten, possessing all the more the powerful sanction of veritable deed, ... an organic growth of decades and centuries of military career" (p. 5). He describes the slow dawning of the samurai as a process of evolution:

"All the while the process of elimination went on, the timid and the feeble being sorted out, and only 'a rude race, all masculine, with brutish strength,' to borrow Emerson's phrase, surviving to form families and the ranks of the samurai. Coming to profess great honour and great privileges, and correspondingly great responsibilities, they soon felt the need of a common standard of behaviour, especially as they were always on a belligerent footing and belonged to different clans. Just as physicians limit competition among themselves by professional courtesy, just as lawyers sit in courts of honour in cases of violated etiquette; so must also warriors possess some resort for final judgment on their misdemeanours" (p. 7-8).

The very condensed version of these historic events is as follows:

In April of 1701, Lord Asano drew his sword in anger against a man named Kira, inside the Shogun's castle, which was a deadly offense. Kira had goaded Lord Asano with increasingly grave insults over the course of many days, but there was no acceptable reason to draw one's sword within the castle. Lord Asano was sentenced to death but was, at least, allowed to commit seppuku, or ritual suicide. This was an honorable way to die outside of battle.

Lord Asano's retainers immediately became masterless samurai ~ ronin. After returning to their own province of Ako, they plotted revenge against Kira. They knew what they planned would result in their own deaths, and so each man was allowed to choose whether he would participate or not. Of the original 300 men, 47 chose to carry out their plans, which involved laying low for many months. They had to convince Kira and the Shogun that they were, in fact, drifters with no master, no plan, no hope, not even any self-respect. Men of no consequence.

A year and a half later, revenge was finally fulfilled: the 47 ronin had begun slowly and singly, over several weeks, entering the city of Edo. On the night of December 14, 1702, they found and assassinated Kira, restoring honor to Lord Asano's house and name.

The Shogun himself recognized that justice had been served. Kira had been a high-level official in his government, but he had also been a distasteful and unpleasant man who, the Shogun knew, had deserved his fate. Justice had been served, but the law against assassinations must also be upheld. It took the Shogun and his council two months to come to a decision.

The 47 ronin were given the honor of seppuku. They knew the penalty for assassinating Kira would be death, even before they started. But to be given the honor of ritual suicide was beyond their dreams. One by one, they said their good-byes and performed the bloody ritual.

To this day, Ako holds a festival on December 14 every year to honor these 47 Ronin and their revenge to restore the name of Lord Asano.