Forty-Seven Ronin

The story begins with Asano, a samurai in the year 1701 who was invited to the court of a Japanese Lord. Everyone was hustling for an exaggerated reception of the Emperor’s envoy, when a court official insulted Asano by calling him a country boor with no manners. Asano was enraged and attacked him with a dagger, only to wound the court official in the face.

Drawing a sword in the castle is utterly forbidden, and for that Asano was ordered to kill himself by performing seppuku, making forty-seven samurai he mentored masterless, and craving for revenge.

Asano’s forty-seven ronins (the name for masterless samurai) were infuriated. They plotted to assassin the court official. After two years, they attacked him in his home. In the fierce struggle, one of the ronins was killed, and the battle ended with the decapitation of the court official’s head.

They rinsed the head, took it to the grave of their master and payed their respect, then took it back to the Lord’s court.

In the castle, and as they expected, they were all ordered to kill themselves by performing seppuku, ending the lives of the remaining forty six… (real story)

How’s that for revenge?