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Sentenced to suicide seems the same as sentenced to execution. You’re just as dead if you hold the blade as if someone else does. But, honor or some shit, which the samurai were awfully uptight about. Except these guys were no longer samurai. They were rōnin (wandering samurai with no lord or master). Forty-seven of them. And 46 were made to take their own lives for their act of vengeance.
--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: February 4, 1703--
The story has been glamorized since then, including a godawful movie with Keanu Reeves, so who the fuck knows what’s actually true. Here is my best shot. Below the head honcho, called a shōgun, were the daimyōs. In 1701 a daimyō named Asano was coming to visit the shōgun and needed to be instructed in court etiquette by some powerful official named Kira. So the story goes, Kira was an arrogant cockwipe and behaved like a total dick to Asano. After a time, Asano had enough and said fuck this guy and drew his dagger and stabbed Kira in his stupid face. It wasn’t much of a wound, but drawing a weapon in the shōgun’s residence was a big-time “you need to die” no-no.
Asano was made to do ritual suicide called seppuku, his property confiscated, his family ruined, his subjects left without a lord. Forty-seven of his samurai, who were now rōnin, decided they needed to get some good old sharpened-steel revenge on that Kira fucknuckle, even though the shōgun said listen I know the guy is a douche but NO revenge, k?
Kira knew he was in danger and made sure he was always well protected. The rōnin plotted for almost two years, and then revenged the shit out of Kira’s ass. Late in 1702 they attacked his palace, killing and wounding many while Kira hid like a little chicken shit. But they found him, chopped off his head, and laid the head before the tomb of their dead master as a tribute.
Terasaka, the lowest ranked among the rōnin, was sent off to be a messenger to say their revenge was complete while the other 46 turned themselves in to the authorities. The people considered them heroes and pleaded for them to be spared, but the shōgun said nope they defied me so they gotta die. On February 4, 1703, the 46 rōnin were made to engage in seppuku. Terasaka was spared on account of his youth and lived to be 87. Upon his death he was buried with his 46 comrades.
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It's such a weird story. It endures for no particularly good reason. There are other adaptations made in Japan about it too. They were glorified for their loyalty to their lord, but they were wrong to disobey the orders of the Shogun, knowing that they would be sentenced to seppuku if they were successful or die in battle if they were not. And their daimyo was also a pill for not being able to control his anger, even if Kira was a douche canoe. Asano knew the consequences of his actions too. But yeah, let's all celebrate all these idiots for doing the thing they knew was wrong. I never understood it.