47 Loyal Samurai

Day 4 of sight seeing.  Honestly, after the plane ride and all of our walking in the days before, I was about ready to stick my feet in a vat of ice and leave them there for a day or two.  After all, once the sight seeing was done, our martial arts training started.  There was, however, one other place that I and my group, as martial artists, had to visit.  

We walked down a busy street in Tokyo and then, after the usual asking of directions and attempting to understand what was said, turned down a side street.  We immediately spied this entrance: 

It did not look like the entrance to one of the most sacred spots in Japan but we went through and, sure enough, this was the site of the memorial for the 47 Loyal Samurai of Ako.  

The link above will take you to the Wikipedia article on this historical event of 1701 to 1703.  Briefly, the story is that two daimyo (regional lords), Asano and Kamei, were ordered to provide a fitting reception for an envoy of the Emperor.  There instructor in court etiquette was a shogunate official called Kira Kozuke-No-Suke Yoshinaka.  For some reason, Kira seemed to take offense to both daimyo and treated them in a manner that no samurai could countenance forever.  Lord Kamei's retainers apparently offered Kira a large bribe which mitigated his treatment of Kamei but Lord Asano continued to be abused until he finally snapped and attacked Kira, wounding him superficially.  

In those days, an attack on an official of the Shogun could not be overlooked and, in the end, Lord Asano was sentenced to commit seppuku, ritual suicide.  Asano's lands were confiscated and his samurai became ronin - samurai without a master, the greatest disgrace that any samurai could ever know.  

47 of those samurai banded together under Oishi Kuranosuke Yoshio and vowed vengeance against the official Kira.  After spending a considerable period of time acting in a very un-samurailike manner, in order to put off Kira's spies, the 47 Loyal Samurai breached Kira's fortified home and took his head.  Having avenged their lord, they took the head to their master's grave at the Sengaku-ji temple and then to the Shogun's palace in Edo. 

The shogunate faced a quandary.  On the one hand, the 47 Loyal Samurai had obeyed the code of bushido in avenging their lord.  On the other hand, these 'ronin' had directly disobeyed the orders of the Shogun.  That great lord resolved the problem by allowing the 47 Loyal Samurai to commit seppuku, an honorable death for a samurai, rather than having them executed as criminals.  46 of the Loyal Samurai committed ritual suicide on March 20, 1703.  One of them, Terasaka Kichiemon, was unaccountably not with the group and was later pardoned by the Shogun.  Nevertheless, when this last 'ronin' died in 1747, his grave was placed with the other 46 before the tomb of their master, Lord Asano.  

The graves of the 47 Loyal Samurai of Ako and their master are still on the grounds of the Sengaku-ji Buddhist temple.  Note: there is no effect applied to the door with the dharma wheel below - the picture simply came out that way

What you see above is basically the entrance to the temple and to the area what looked like the area where the monks live.  

The grave site is approached along this beautiful corridor.  

As you walk up the corridor, you see a flame burning ahead of you.  That fire is tended by a Japanese man who sells incense sticks to those who have come to honor these mighty dead.  Once you have made your small purchase, he puts the incense into the flames and lights all the sticks for you.  You are free to place them wherever you wish.

My group chose to honor all those buried there so we went from grave to grave placing incense sticks as we went.  

There are other sites at this location.  The rock where the blood of Lord Kira fell, the well where his head was washed before presentation to their master's grave, etc.  But, to me, the picture that stands out in these photos is this one: 

You will notice that there is a fellow up a ladder next to that tree.  He was up there, trimming this beautiful natural sculpture, with nothing but a pair of hand clippers.  As I looked around, I noted that all the groundsmen that I saw were carrying belts with nothing but hand tools in them.  Unlike the U.S., where such a monument would likely be 'cared for' by individuals with power tools and their concomitant noise, it seems that the Japanese wanted to be certain that this memorial was treated with the respect it deserved.

It is hard to describe the atmosphere of this last place that we visited.  There is an air of melancholy because of all those deaths and the necessity for this bloodshed but there is also a deep feeling of harmony because those deaths were honorable and they have been honored consistently for the past 300 + years.  I think that the 47 Loyal Samurai of Ako are resting in peace knowing that they did what they set out to do.