Chapter 2: The Plan

Chapter 2: The Plan

At that time, it was usually a journey of seventeen days from Edo to Ako, but Kataoka and Hayami did the journey in ten days. When they arrived at Ako Castle, they were tired, dirty, hungry, and thirsty. Oishi Yoshio, the captain of the Ako samurai, was not pleased with them. ‘Look at you!’ he said. ‘What kind of samurai are you? Dirty clothes, dirty horses…’

But Oishi forgot about that when he heard the terrible news of Lord Asano’s death.

‘And that’s not all,’ said Hayami. He pushed the hair out of his eyes. ‘The Shogun’s government is going to take Lord Asano’s castle, his land, his money - everything! Can they do that, Oishi?’

‘Yes,’ said Oishi. ‘They can. To draw a sword in the Shogun’s palace is a crime. But why did Lord Asano attack Kira? What happened? Did they fight?’

‘We don’t know,’ said Kataoka, ‘we weren’t there! But Lord Asano was angry every day because of Lord Kira.’

‘But Asano didn’t kill Kira?’ said Oishi.

‘No,’ said Hayami. ‘Kira is alive and well. People say that he just has a cut on his head.’

‘And where is Lord Asano’s body now?’ asked Oishi.

‘They’re taking it to the temple of Sengaku-ji,’ said Kataoka, ‘just outside Edo. Some of our samurai went with the body. Then they are coming back to Ako.’

During the next days, Lord Asano’s samurai made the journey down to Ako. Some of them brought news.

‘Lord Asano’s younger brother, Daigaku, is under house arrest in Edo,’ Yoshida told Oishi. Yoshida was one of the older samurai. He and Oishi were old friends.

‘Did you see Daigaku?’ asked Oishi.

‘Yes, just for two minutes. They’re going to send him away, to Hiroshima, to the Asano family there.’

Soon there were nearly three hundred of Asano’s samurai at Ako, and Oishi Yoshio called a meeting. It was a noisy, angry meeting.

Horibe was a famous swordsman. He was a fierce fighter, and a brave man, but he did not often stop to think before he spoke. He was the first to speak.

‘Lord Asano is dead because of Kira,’ he shouted to the meeting. ‘Kira is a killer. A man cannot live under the same sky as the killer of his lord. This is the code of the samurai! When do we attack Kira?’

The samurai began to talk, but Oishi held up his hand. ‘Nobody questions your honour as a samurai, Horibe. But we are not samurai now, we are ronin. We have no master, no lord. The Shogun’s government killed Lord Asano because of a crime - the crime of drawing a sword in the palace. And why did this crime happen? Because of Lord Kira. We want revenge for our lord’s death, and that means Kira must die. But he knows that, and he has many friends in the government. So we must be careful, we must be clever.’

‘Careful? Clever?’ shouted Horibe. ‘What kind of samurai are you? We must attack Lord Kira at once! In Edo, people in the streets are saying that. They know we must take revenge for Asano’s death. People want us to do that! It is the samurai way!’

‘So you want to die a dog’s death outside the palace?’ called Yoshida. ‘How many guards are there at the palace? Eh? Tell me that! Hundreds! We can’t get near Kira - he knows we want him, so he has hundreds of guards around him, day and night.’

‘The government is going to take Ako Castle away from the Asano family,’ called another samurai. ‘When the government soldiers come here, can we fight them? Can we hold Ako Castle for Daigaku? He’s the head of the Asano family now.’

Kataoka answered this question. ‘For a week, perhaps. But not longer. No, the Asano family at Ako is finished. We must leave Ako Castle and begin new lives as ronin.’

‘So what can we do?’ called Okuda, one of Horibe’s friends. ‘Tell us, Oishi! What can we do?’

‘What do you want?’ said Oishi. ‘Do you want revenge? Revenge has a price, and the price is death. We cannot hope to live after we take our revenge on Kira. We must commit seppuku - everyone of us.’

‘We are samurai!’ cried a man called Hara. ‘Death with honour is always better than a life without honour. That is the samurai code!’

Oishi smiled. ‘There are brave hearts in this room. Now go away, and think. Think about the samurai way. Where is the road to honour? Can you live under the same sky as the killer of your daimyo? Think long and carefully. Talk to your families, and come back here in three days. Or leave Ako and begin a new life.’

In the next two days many ronin left the castle. They took their families and went away, perhaps to serve a new daimyo, perhaps to work in the cities, perhaps to go hungry. The life of a ronin was not easy.

After three days Oishi called the next meeting. He and Yoshida stood at the door and watched. Horibe, Okuda, and their friends arrived first, of course. Then more came, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty… sixty-two.

Yoshida closed the doors, and Oishi began to speak.

‘You are here because you want revenge for the death of our daimyo. You are true samurai, loyal to your lord in life - and in death. We must make a league together - a league for revenge. But for now, we must be silent, we must be secret, we must wait for months, maybe years, before we can move. We cannot attack Kira now, because he and his guards are waiting for us. But when he forgets about us, then we can move. Because we, the ronin - we do not forget. We can wait a long, long time for revenge.’