Chapter 6: The Punishment

Chapter 6: The Punishment

The Asano family graves were next to the temple at Sengaku-ji, and it was a ten-kilometre walk there from Kira’s mansion. The ronin were afraid of attack from the Uesugi guards, so they kept away from Edo Palace and walked on the eastern side of the Sumida River until the Eitai bridge. Then they crossed the river. Oishi sent two of the ronin to Edo Palace, to take the news of the ronins’ revenge to the government.

In the first light of day more and more people came out into the streets - talking and whispering about the killing of Lord Kira and the revenge of the forty-seven ronin. The news ran like fire through the city.

And the people liked the news. ‘What brave men!’ they said. ‘What loyal samurai! These ronin waited nearly two years to take their revenge! That is the samurai code! They are true samurai, like in the old days.’

The ronin passed Zojo-ji temple, and began to climb the hill to Sengaku-ji. When they arrived at the temple, they washed Lord Kira’s head in the well (you can see the well to this day at Sengaku-ji).

Then, slowly and carefully, Oishi placed the head in front of Lord Asano’s grave. The forty-six ronin kneeled before the grave, and Oishi spoke these words: ‘For many years, Lord Asano, we served you, we ate your food, we lived in your castle. You tried to kill your enemy, but you lost your life. We could not live under the same sky as your enemy. Last night we finished your work, and took revenge for your death.

‘Young and old, we, the ronin of Ako, are your loyal servants. We serve you, by sword and by spear, in life and in death.’

For two days Kira’s head lay on Lord Asano’s grave at Sengaku-ji. Then the temple priests took it away and sent it back to his family.

The Shogun’s officers arrested the forty-six ronin and took them to the mansions of four different daimyo. There, the ronin waited to hear their punishment. Oishi, with sixteen of his men, went to the Hosokawa mansion near Sengaku-ji. To honour them, 1,400 samurai walked with them through the snowy streets, and the people of the city watched.

Now came a difficult time for the Shogun and the government. Killing was a crime, and in those days the punishment for that crime was to cut off the head. But a death like that was a death without honour.

Many people said this: ‘The ronin are good samurai - brave men, loyal to their master. They were right to kill Kira and to take revenge for their lord’s death. They followed the samurai code of honour, so they must have a samurai death.’

But other people thought differently, and said this: ‘Lord Asano attacked Lord Kira in the palace, and Asano died because of this crime. Lord Kira did not kill him, so there was no need for revenge. This was not a revenge killing, and the ronin are just killers. So they must die a killer’s death.’

The government could not agree on the punishment. For weeks they talked and argued, asked this person and that person, talked and argued again. The ronin waited quietly in the four daimyo houses. They waited for death, one way or another.

At last, one day in March 1703, many weeks after the death of Kira, the order came from the Shogun’s palace. The ronin must die, but because of their loyalty to their lord, they could die the samurai death. They could commit seppuku and keep their honour as samurai.

That same day, in the four daimyo mansions, the ronin got ready for death. One by one, in the courtyards of the mansions, the forty-six ronin committed seppuku. Their bodies were put in graves at Sengaku-ji temple, close to their master, Lord Asano Naganori.

The forty-seventh ronin, Terasaka, arrived back from Hiroshima after the death of the other ronin. He went at once to Edo Palace, and asked for the same death as the other ronin. But he was a young man, and the Shogun felt sorry for him. So Terasaka did not commit seppuku. He lived to the great age of eighty-three, but when he died, he wanted to be with the other ronin. So his grave is the forty-seventh grave at Sengaku-ji.

Sengaku-ji today

Three hundred years later, people in Japan are still talking and arguing about the story of the Forty-Seven Ronin. Every year, on December 14, there is a festival at the Sengaku-ji temple to remember Lord Asano’s death and the revenge of his brave, loyal ronin. Thousands of people come every year to this festival. The way of the samurai is not forgotten.