The Forty-Seven Rōnin Avenge Their Lord in Edo

In the spring of 1701, Asano Naganori, the young daimyō of the Akō Domain, was stationed at Edo Castle to help receive imperial envoys. Protocol required guidance from Kira Yoshinaka, a senior shogunate official. Relations between the two men soured rapidly, driven by reasons that sources give variously as unpaid gifts or too little deference toward Kira. The friction culminated in the castle's Matsu no Ōrōka corridor, where Asano drew a dagger and wounded Kira in the face. Drawing weapons inside the shōgun's residence was strictly forbidden, and the shogunate ordered Asano to commit seppuku that very day. His estate was confiscated, his family line stripped of standing, and his samurai retainers were cast adrift as leaderless rōnin.

The disaster fell squarely upon Asano's principal counsellor, Ōishi Kuranosuke Yoshio. Rather than resisting, Ōishi complied with the shogunate's mandate to surrender Akō Castle peacefully, while quietly evaluating his options. Retainers debated whether to seek a legal reinstatement of the Asano house through Naganori's younger brother, Nagahiro, or to mount a violent vendetta. Ōishi initially prioritized the diplomatic route. However, in the summer of 1702, the bakufu placed Nagahiro under house arrest, terminating any realistic prospect of restoration. Soon afterward, Ōishi resolved to strike Kira directly. Over the subsequent months of preparation, several former retainers withdrew, leaving a dedicated core of forty-seven men.