47 Ronin by John Allyn

"47 Ronin" by John Allyn. This book is published by Tuttle publishing in 2012 and has 256 pages.

Feudal Japan, Year 1701. Lord Asano of Ako refuses to give bribe to Kira, Master of ceremonies in Shogun's court in Edo (Tokyo). Kira insults him and Asano draws sword and slashes at him. He has committed cardinal sin of drawing sword in Shogun's court. He is compelled to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). His Samurai fighters decide to take revenge.

What will they do? Can they fight the might of Shogun? Is Kira dead? Is the vengeance honourable?

Oishi, chief retainer of Lord Asano, decides to take revenge on Kira for the loss of prestige and property of House of Asano. He and his follower Samurai wait for one year and make everyone believe that they have accepted fate and are not going to cause trouble and then mount an attack to realize their revenge. This is a fictionalized account of an actual historical event. It is not known what insult by Kira insinuated Lord Asano to draw sword. The book, however, provides the fictionalized answer.

The story is narrated in an interesting manner. Old time Japan is effectively created. Geisha culture, Samurai, Ronin, Honour, family name etc is depicted very well. Characterization is good. Oishi is the balanced personality, Hara and Oribe are the hot headed ones, Karaoka has faith in Oishi, Geisha is in love with Oishi, Kira is malevolent with power and afraid after retirement. It's a relatively short story to make a novel. Author has done well to do it.

Ronin is a man (a fighter, a samurai) without a master, generally past his prime. In short leaderless samurai, without station or prestige. Swordsman without a cause to serve.

There are differing opinions about this attack. Foreword says the attack was a cowardly act of revenge that was portrayed and later accepted as act of honour. Samurai were facing identity crisis in the peace time and this attack provided the much needed rallying point. This attack thus became emblematic of loyalty, sacrifice, persistence and honour.

In short it's a fictionalized account of a historical event and is a very famous story of Japanese vendetta.

A good book. Recommend reading.