The story of the 47 Ronin itself is an embellishment of a true historical event known as the Ako Incident in the historical records of Japan. Instead of the official historical records, the story is portrayed in Chushingura which portrayed the fictionalized even of the Ako Incident. The historical Asano Naganori is not the gentleman portrayed in the story but a man with a rash hot-headed personality and often acts on impulse. The Shogunate had agents to spy and documented the characters and personalities of all the feudal lords. Asano's records in the Shogunate documents do not reflect any positive traits. The administration of Ako, Asano's domain was not done by Asano but rather by his chief retainer Oishi Yoshio as Asano lacks the interest in ruling his domain and spends most of the time indulging in pleasure. He and another feudal lord are assigned by the Shogunate to host a visiting envoy from Kyoto. A court official by the name of Kira Yoshinaka is assigned to teach them on court etiquettes and rituals. Kira position is koke or master of ceremonies. Kira is portrayed as a greedy and corrupt court official who demand bribes for tutoring Asano and another feudal lord court etiquettes. However, there are no evidence that suggest that Kira is a greedy and corrupted person. According to official records, Kira has the reputation of being a fair and honorable person and is highly respected by many peers which included the shogun himself. Kira often funded the construction of infrastructures in his hometown and is well respected by its inhabitants. Kira's position as the master of ceremonies is highly prestigious but unfortunately a low paid position. His annual income is barely 10% of Asano's annual income. Perhaps Kira expected some rich gifts as tokens of appreciation as well as supplement to his meagre income. As a master of ceremonies, Kira sets a very high standard and demands perfection. Asano lacks patient and discipline to learn the court etiquettes properly and perhaps got frequent reprimanded by Kira. Being a rash person, Asano perhaps see all the reprimands by Kira as insults and decides to attack Kira while still inside the Shogun's castle. It will never be known whether Kira did insulted Asano though most likely it never happens in the first place. It is a great crime of drawing a sword while in the Shogun's castle is punishable by death. Asano will choose time and place to strike Kira if he is truly a gentleman as portrayed in the story and will not foolishly attack Kira while still within the Shogun's castle. Due to his rash hot-headed personality, he attacks Kira within the Shogun's Castle and got punished by committing seppuku. The action of the 47 Ronins is criticized by some renown samurais as not everyone sees their attack on Kira as the spirit of bushido. The author of Hagakure, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, ask a well-known question of what happen if Kira died less than a year after Asano's death due to an illness. The ronins wait for more than a year before finding an opportunity to strike. Kira is already at the advanced age of 60 as the average life expectancy is around age 40 plus. When that happens, the ronins will lose their only chance to exact revenge and will forever be branded as cowards thus bringing shame to the Asano clan. Furthermore Asano did break the law and had already been dealt with accordingly while the ronins are forbidden under law to seek revenge. Out of hundreds of samurais serving the Asano Clan, only 47 decide to attack Kira to avenge their feudal lord. The attack on Kira's residence is also one sided. Kira is not a wealthy man as portrayed in the story where he employs more than a thousand guards to protect himself. Due to his lower income position, he is able to afford only a handful of guards. Official records mentioned that the ronins are heavily armed and have gunpowder weapons. Kira's guards are not only outnumbered but also outfought. Also, the ronins may have self-interest reason for reporting their plan to the Shogunate. Perhaps they expect to be pardoned by the Shogunate on grounds they had acted according to Bushido and enable them to find employment elsewhere. The ronins fail in their duty of guiding their feudal lord to become a better person. So they blame the misfortune of their feudal lord on a court official who has the misfortune of teaching court etiquettes to a feudal lord with a rash hot-headed personality rather than their own incompetent feudal lord. They justify their attack by accusing Kira as a dishonorable and corrupt court official. As the story portrayed in Chusingura spreads, the truth got distorted with a feudal lord with a hot headed and impulsive personality is posthumously reimagined as an honorable gentleman worthy of a true samurai while an elderly court official with decades of good service records to the Shogunate is posthumously vilified as greedy and cowardly court official. So, the true victim of injustice is actually Kira Yoshinaka as he has a misfortune situation of being assigned to tutor a young feudal lord with a rash impulsive personality and got vilified posthumously as a greedy and corrupt court official. Hence the story of the 47 Ronin is more about carrying out revenge based on misguided honor, loyalty and sacrifice.
@@TheHistoricalMysteries29 The story of the 47 Ronin depicted in the Chushingura is the one that the general public is most familiar with. I suspect that the Ako Incident is exploited, and the truth got distorted as a form of satire against the Tokugawa Shogunate. The shogunate has imposed a mandatory sankin-kotai on all the feudal lords of Japan. Under sankin-kotai, every feudal lord must have a residence in Edo, present day Tokyo and must spend alternate residence between their home domain and their residence in Edo annually. However their families must be remained at Edo while the feudal lords returned to their home domains. They must submit annual reports of their annual income to the Shogunate to be verified by the government. Feudal lords must get approval from the Shogunate when they need to renovate or repair their residences in Edo as well as their castles in their home domains. The Shogunate will send officials to make inspections before submitting the reports of their findings. Then only the Shogunate will grant approvals. Sankin-kotai is a very expensive as large sums of money are needed to maintain the Edo residence and home domains as well as large numbers of employees. In many cases, half of the annual income is spent for such purpose. Sankin-kotai is used by the Shogunate to control the feudal lords by draining them financial as well as making their families to be remain at Edo as hostages. Also the feudal lords are subjected to a number of punishments if they had something wrong in the eyes of the Shogunate. The most severe punishment is the abolishment of feudal clans and their wealth got confiscated like the fate of Asano Clan when Asano drew his sword and attacked Kira while within the Shogun's castle. Less severe punishments like feudal lords got assigned and relocated to less productive domains where their financial status got greatly reduced. Such punishments and other restrictions have made the feudal lords resent the Tokugawa Shogunate. So they exploited the Ako Incident by making Asano, a fellow feudal lord, as a hero that suffered injustice while making Kira, a loyal servant of the Shogunate, as a villain who provoked Asano into committing an act that defies the Shogunate. In the end, the best story wins as Asano is remembered as an honorable gentleman that suffered injustice while Kira is remembered as greedy and corrupted court official that deserved to be attacked and killed by Asano's loyal samurais.
The story of the 47 Ronin itself is an embellishment of a true historical event known as the Ako Incident in the historical records of Japan. Instead of the official historical records, the story is portrayed in Chushingura which portrayed the fictionalized even of the Ako Incident. The historical Asano Naganori is not the gentleman portrayed in the story but a man with a rash hot-headed personality and often acts on impulse. The Shogunate had agents to spy and documented the characters and personalities of all the feudal lords. Asano's records in the Shogunate documents do not reflect any positive traits. The administration of Ako, Asano's domain was not done by Asano but rather by his chief retainer Oishi Yoshio as Asano lacks the interest in ruling his domain and spends most of the time indulging in pleasure. He and another feudal lord are assigned by the Shogunate to host a visiting envoy from Kyoto. A court official by the name of Kira Yoshinaka is assigned to teach them on court etiquettes and rituals. Kira position is koke or master of ceremonies. Kira is portrayed as a greedy and corrupt court official who demand bribes for tutoring Asano and another feudal lord court etiquettes. However, there are no evidence that suggest that Kira is a greedy and corrupted person. According to official records, Kira has the reputation of being a fair and honorable person and is highly respected by many peers which included the shogun himself. Kira often funded the construction of infrastructures in his hometown and is well respected by its inhabitants. Kira's position as the master of ceremonies is highly prestigious but unfortunately a low paid position. His annual income is barely 10% of Asano's annual income. Perhaps Kira expected some rich gifts as tokens of appreciation as well as supplement to his meagre income. As a master of ceremonies, Kira sets a very high standard and demands perfection. Asano lacks patient and discipline to learn the court etiquettes properly and perhaps got frequent reprimanded by Kira. Being a rash person, Asano perhaps see all the reprimands by Kira as insults and decides to attack Kira while still inside the Shogun's castle. It will never be known whether Kira did insulted Asano though most likely it never happens in the first place. It is a great crime of drawing a sword while in the Shogun's castle is punishable by death. Asano will choose time and place to strike Kira if he is truly a gentleman as portrayed in the story and will not foolishly attack Kira while still within the Shogun's castle. Due to his rash hot-headed personality, he attacks Kira within the Shogun's Castle and got punished by committing seppuku. The action of the 47 Ronins is criticized by some renown samurais as not everyone sees their attack on Kira as the spirit of bushido. The author of Hagakure, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, ask a well-known question of what happen if Kira died less than a year after Asano's death due to an illness. The ronins wait for more than a year before finding an opportunity to strike. Kira is already at the advanced age of 60 as the average life expectancy is around age 40 plus. When that happens, the ronins will lose their only chance to exact revenge and will forever be branded as cowards thus bringing shame to the Asano clan. Furthermore Asano did break the law and had already been dealt with accordingly while the ronins are forbidden under law to seek revenge. Out of hundreds of samurais serving the Asano Clan, only 47 decide to attack Kira to avenge their feudal lord. The attack on Kira's residence is also one sided. Kira is not a wealthy man as portrayed in the story where he employs more than a thousand guards to protect himself. Due to his lower income position, he is able to afford only a handful of guards. Official records mentioned that the ronins are heavily armed and have gunpowder weapons. Kira's guards are not only outnumbered but also outfought. Also, the ronins may have self-interest reason for reporting their plan to the Shogunate. Perhaps they expect to be pardoned by the Shogunate on grounds they had acted according to Bushido and enable them to find employment elsewhere. The ronins fail in their duty of guiding their feudal lord to become a better person. So they blame the misfortune of their feudal lord on a court official who has the misfortune of teaching court etiquettes to a feudal lord with a rash hot-headed personality rather than their own incompetent feudal lord. They justify their attack by accusing Kira as a dishonorable and corrupt court official. As the story portrayed in Chusingura spreads, the truth got distorted with a feudal lord with a hot headed and impulsive personality is posthumously reimagined as an honorable gentleman worthy of a true samurai while an elderly court official with decades of good service records to the Shogunate is posthumously vilified as greedy and cowardly court official. So, the true victim of injustice is actually Kira Yoshinaka as he has a misfortune situation of being assigned to tutor a young feudal lord with a rash impulsive personality and got vilified posthumously as a greedy and corrupt court official. Hence the story of the 47 Ronin is more about carrying out revenge based on misguided honor, loyalty and sacrifice.
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@@TheHistoricalMysteries29 The story of the 47 Ronin depicted in the Chushingura is the one that the general public is most familiar with. I suspect that the Ako Incident is exploited, and the truth got distorted as a form of satire against the Tokugawa Shogunate. The shogunate has imposed a mandatory sankin-kotai on all the feudal lords of Japan. Under sankin-kotai, every feudal lord must have a residence in Edo, present day Tokyo and must spend alternate residence between their home domain and their residence in Edo annually. However their families must be remained at Edo while the feudal lords returned to their home domains. They must submit annual reports of their annual income to the Shogunate to be verified by the government. Feudal lords must get approval from the Shogunate when they need to renovate or repair their residences in Edo as well as their castles in their home domains. The Shogunate will send officials to make inspections before submitting the reports of their findings. Then only the Shogunate will grant approvals. Sankin-kotai is a very expensive as large sums of money are needed to maintain the Edo residence and home domains as well as large numbers of employees. In many cases, half of the annual income is spent for such purpose. Sankin-kotai is used by the Shogunate to control the feudal lords by draining them financial as well as making their families to be remain at Edo as hostages. Also the feudal lords are subjected to a number of punishments if they had something wrong in the eyes of the Shogunate. The most severe punishment is the abolishment of feudal clans and their wealth got confiscated like the fate of Asano Clan when Asano drew his sword and attacked Kira while within the Shogun's castle. Less severe punishments like feudal lords got assigned and relocated to less productive domains where their financial status got greatly reduced. Such punishments and other restrictions have made the feudal lords resent the Tokugawa Shogunate. So they exploited the Ako Incident by making Asano, a fellow feudal lord, as a hero that suffered injustice while making Kira, a loyal servant of the Shogunate, as a villain who provoked Asano into committing an act that defies the Shogunate. In the end, the best story wins as Asano is remembered as an honorable gentleman that suffered injustice while Kira is remembered as greedy and corrupted court official that deserved to be attacked and killed by Asano's loyal samurais.
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