Eleventh Act of the "Chushingura": The Loyal Retainers Assemble at Ryogoku Bridge
Artist
Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川 国芳
(Japanese, 1797–1861)
Date1827–1830
Mediumwoodblock print; ink and color on paper
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineHarriet B. Bancroft Fund
Object number2002.39
Label TextThe Forty-Seven Loyal Ronin
The popular Kabuki theatre play "The Treasury of the Loyal Retainers" (Kanadehon Chushingura; 1748), raised the public's awareness of the plight of the increasingly dispossessed samurai class. The eleven-act play, written by Takeda Izumi II and Namiki Sosuke, memorialized a true-life vendetta, the so-called "Ako incident" (Ako jiken) which occurred in 1701-3.
In the third month 1701, the Master of Court Ceremony, Kira Yoshinaka, and the feudal lord Asano Takumi no Kami Naganori (1667-1701) from Ako city in Harima Province had been asked by the Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi to receive imperial ambassadors making an official New Year's visit to Edo. Since Asano had failed to bribe Kira to teach him the correct protocol for the ceremony, the latter ridiculed Asano in public. Asano lost his temper and slightly wounded Kira on the forehead with his short sword (wakizashi). Such an action within the palace grounds was a capital offense and the Shogun ordered Asano to commit ritual suicide and his domain confiscated.
Forty-seven of Asano's ronin-master-less and disbanded samurai-secretly planned to avenge their master's death in accordance with the values of loyalty and honor advocated by Bushido, "The Way of the Warrior". After twenty-two months of feigned indifference, intrigue and self-sacrifice, they launched an attack on Kira's mansion on the night of January 30, 1703.
These prints depict the main characters and climactic moments of the vendetta. Strict government censorship forbade the portrayal of persons or events related to the Tokugawa shogunate. Playwrights and print-artists therefore had to use alternate names. The greedy and power-hungry Kira Kozuke-no-suke Yoshinaka, (1641-1703) was given the name of the fourteenth century Ashikaga general Ko no Moronao. The formal-dress, wide-sleeved upper garment (daimon) is therefore decorated with Moronao's paulownia crest (no. 2).
Similarly the leader of the forty-seven samurai Oishi Kuranosuke Yoshio (1659-1703), Asano's Chief Counselor, was instead called Oboshi Yuranosuke Yoshio. He is shown seated on a camp stool holding the military drum that he used to signal the attack. The drum is inscribed with an abbreviated version of the famous proverb: "One's lord's life is heavier than a thousand mountains. One's own life is lighter than a hair." (no. 3)
The triptych shows the forty-seven retainers assembling at Ryogoku Bridge spanning the Sumida River in Edo. They carry lanterns with the character "chu" meaning "loyalty" or "devotion," and wear headbands, armor and black capes with a white dog's-tooth pattern, familiar from Kabuki plays. Oishi can however be located in the left panel; he wears a green cape decorated with his double-comma crest over his outfit. As samurai the men wear two swords and most are also equipped with other weapons: bows, halberds, spears, mallets, ropes and axes. (no. 1)
The Night Attack
The forty-seven loyal ronin broke into Kira Yoshinaka's mansion north-east of Ryogoku Bridge in Matsuzaka, Honjo ward, on the snowy, moonlit night of January 30, 1703. Scaling the walls with ladders, the ronin break open the protective shutters of the mansion. Once inside they fight Kira's retainers (nos. 4-7). Munenori, who fell into the pond of the central garden, wrings out his clothes. Masatatsu raises his sword and closes his eyes to protect himself from a hurled charcoal brazier and its spilling ashes. Looking for Kira in the bedrooms, the seventeen-year old Norikane grabs a lantern decorated with a bird and morning glories.
The ronin finally discovered Kira hiding in a coal- and wood-shed, dressed in a sleeping-robe (no. 8). Kira refused to commit seppuku and when he swung his sword at the ronin, Oishi and his men killed and beheaded the villain with the dagger which Lord Asano had used for his seppuku. The ronin then marched with Kira's head to their master Asano's grave at Sengaku-ji. There they burned incense, repeated their vows of loyalty, bowed and placed the washed dagger and head on the tomb-asking Lord Asano's spirit to accept their offerings.
The abbot of the temple returned Kira's head in a box to his mansion and the ronin sent a report of their deed to the Shogun. Vengeance on behalf of superiors-in the past a means to preserve social order-was still greatly admired; it was however outlawed under the Tokugawa government. The ronin were arrested but were treated to a lavish dinner and comfortable beds.
Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, aware of growing public empathy for the ronin and their samurai spirit, would have spared their lives but his grand chamberlain and chief of intelligence, Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu (1658-1714), and the Buddhist authority, the Abbot of Ueno, insisted that the shogun had to enforce the law. To show his lenient personal stance, the shogun offered the ronin the privilege of committing seppuku instead of being executed. Seppuku (commonly known as hara-kiri or "stomach-cutting") was a ritual form of suicide which had to be performed with a calm and dignified demeanor. The "righteous samurai" (gishi) died proud and happy about their accomplishment "for a higher morality." They were also grateful for their honorable death, which normally was not permitted for ronin. The retainers were buried next to their master at Sengaku-ji; their graves can still be seen there today.
The Yanagisawa-clan 'flower-diamond' (ishimochi hanabishi) crest on the helmet of the Worcester Art Museum's armor suggests the possibility that it could have been made for the Shogun's grand chamberlain Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu or for one of his sons who moved to Koriyama in Yamato province (near Nara). Notes:Samurai SpiritProvenanceIsrael Goldman, London, UKOn View
Not on view
Utagawa Kunisada I 歌川 国貞 (Toyokuni III 三代 豊国)
about 1845
