47 Ronin #5

[skjam]

You may have heard that there's going to be a "47 Ronin" movie starring Keanu Reeves as a mixed-race 48th ronin who got left out of the official records. This is perhaps the least of the film's liberties with the story, but still....

In the meantime, a much more faithful adaptation has been put out by Dark Horse Comics.



The tale of the forty-seven ronin is based on a real-life incident, and considered one of the classic examples of samurai honor and sacrifice. If you have not read or seen one of the adaptaions before, SPOILERS follow.

Two lords from the countryside were summoned up to visit the shogun's court in Edo in 1701. They were to work with an etiquette master, Lord Kira, to learn the proper behavior. Unfortunately, Kira was a jerk, and instead of teaching them, spent his time insulting and provoking the visitors. One lord's head retainer did some digging, found out Lord Kira was greedy, and successfully bribed him. But Lord Asano's head retainer was incompetent, so his abuse continued. Finally, Asano snapped and struck Kira.

Although this was not fatal, drawing a weapon at all in Edo Castle was a death penalty offense. Asano was ordered to commit ritual suicide, and his holdings were confiscated. His warriors were immediately made ronin (masterless samurai) and ordered by the shogun not to seek revenge.

Forty-seven of the ronin decided to seek revenge for their lord's death despite the order, led by a man named Oishi. Knowing that Kira would be expecting this, and that he had in fact requested extra bodyguards from a powerful relative, the ronin decided to lay low for a while. They went about their lives as though they had lost the will to fight back, and Oishi in particular managed to simulate a descent into shameful alcoholism.

A man from Satsuma went so far as to berate Oishi in the street and spit on him for conduct unbecoming a samurai. When Lord Kira heard that Oishi had just taken this abuse, he began to relax and sent back many of the bodyguards.

After a year, Oishi figured that Kira was off-guard, and summoned the rest of the ronin.





The attackers move to cover both the front and rear gates, and send archers to the four corners of the compound to shoot escapees. A runner is sent to the next door neighbors to explain what's going on and ask them not to interfere. Since Lord Kira was a jerk to them too, the neighbors stay away.

Oishi then sounds a drum to let the defenders know the ronin are attacking, since killing people in their sleep would be dishonorable. Combat ensues.



Lord Kira is nowhere in the house. Running out of time before officials would arrive, the ronin re-search and find a hidden passageway to an interior courtyard and toolshed. Inside, hiding under some cloth, is an odler man. He refuses to give his name, and orders the ronin to leave.



Lord Kira refuses to commit suicide, saying that he doesn't want to die. Oishi uses the same blade Lord Asano committed suicide with to behead Kira.

The ronin then parade through town towards the shrine where Lord Asano's grave is, to the plaudits of the people. (Lord Kira was really unpopular, apparently.) At the shrine, they wash the head and place it on Lord Asano's gravestone.



The shogun is placed in a difficult position. The ronin disobeyed a direct order, and the law must be upheld so as not to weaken the rule of the shogunate. On the other hand, the ronin upheld the true spirit of bushido, and their actions are wildly popular with the public. Finally, it is decided to allow the ronin to commit ritual suicide in an honorable manner. This happens, and then there is a coda which explains why there are forty-eight graves in that plot at the shrine.



The book giveaway at my blog ends tomorrow, 9/30/13! http://www.skjam.com

Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!

Comments

[skywaterblue]

I'm sort of interested in what wankery this film is going to come up with to justify a half-white ronin in 1701 Japan.

But to the scans! I loved this Stan Sakai take on this comic, it was my introduction to the legend. It's a perfect marriage of creator to project.

[jlbarnett]

make it 1801 Japan?

reading around, the Portuguese arrived there in 1543

[skywaterblue]

Yeah, but what ended up happening is that the Edo government/dictatorship ended up seeing the Portugese and Christianity/Catholicism in general as dangerous influences. So after a while, they purged the Japanese-Catholics and confined all Westerners to a couple of island ports. And then eventually they confined all trade to the Dutch, because they considered the Dutch to be pure capitalists who weren't interested in bringing seditious ideas to the islands.

They'll probably do some kind of wankery either with the time (by the time white people were allowed to roam around the islands, the samurai system was basically being dismantled) or by making him the half-white son of a geisha (even though geisha are not prostitutes per-say and the entire purpose of blocking Western traffic was to prevent the West from mingling with commoners/the culture of Japan.)

[arilou_skiff]

They actually had some limited contact with the dutch on Deshima (including prostitution)

Also, it wasn't quite as strict as that, as this guy demonstrates:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Peter_Thunberg

[skywaterblue]

I love when Real History speaks up and says nay. Thank you.

[ar_feiniel]

Yeah, despite the fact that Japan had really strict border control until the mid 1800s, there were certainly foreigners who slipped through the cracks.

William Adams is someone else who comes to mind. He became something of a 17th century version of a naturalized citizen (though it wasn't really by choice), and even had a Japanese wife and children. IIRC it had to do with the fact that Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu saw him as a resource for information about the West.

It wasn't the norm but it did happen.

[espanolbot]

Interesting, I was curious as to whether the late 19th century stuff mentioned in the Lady Snowblood manga was accurate or not, with the exact opposite of the above happened, with the Japanese government being almost overly enthusiastic about adopting western attitudes and dress.

I know that part of this has basis in reality, as the people the film the Last Samurai were based on were around that time period (though the Japanese government turned to the Germans for modernisation, not the Americans like the film states), but Snowblood suggests that things went even further than just adopting their military styles...

[skywaterblue]

Without having read it, that's broadly true. My understanding of Japanese history (from a 101 'history of the Asian nations' course in undergrad) is that they've gone through several swinging extremes of adopting foreign cultures and then violently reversing course. (Edo to Japanese Industrial Revolution to Imperial Japan to Modern Democracy to...?)

And yeah, after the Edo fell, there was this huge crazy hundred years or so of interest in wearing Western military gear and building trains and etc.

[skjam]

My best guess based on the trailer is "a wizard did it." Like I said, the least of the liberties taken.

[espanolbot]

Ah, the evil wizard assassin from the Shogun Assassin movie (there are two English dubbed versions, one that follows Lone Wolf and Cub and one that just makes up crap, like the Shogun being a wizard).

[icon_uk]

Wasn't familiar with this legend, but this is an interesting story, though it does make one long for a slightly less.. suicide-y system of retribution.

Does the coda explain that they sold the film rights so would have some bizarre bit of casting to be buried as quietly as possible?

[skjam]

It's public domain, so you can do anything you want with it. The Japanese media industry has done several takes on the material, none quite as...off...as the American movie looks to be.

Fortunately, the current Japanese jurisprudence system is considerably less suicide-happy, and the number of instant death penalty crimes has been reduced.

[leoboiko]

> You may have heard that there's going to be a "47 Ronin" movie starring Keanu Reeves as a mixed-race 48th ronin who got left out of the official records.

I have just died a little in the inside.

[skjam]

Here's an article on the subject from Racebending.com.

http://www.racebending.com/v4/featured/47-ronin-hollywood-outcast/

[leoboiko]

after taking a better look, this is so ridiculous that you can't even take it seriously enough to hate it.

but I'm still strongly irritated at Hollywood's tendency to insert white protagonists into everyone else's stories.

[glprime]

I recall being really excited when the trailer popped up a month or so ago.

"Hey, a new 47 Ronin movie; awesome! I wonder w-...

.......

....the fuck is this high fantasy shit?"

Nothing against Keanu, hope it all goes well for him, but seriously, the story as close to reality as possible has a great amount of dramatic potential already. The pandering involved in the movie production is really sad.

To the scans, this looks like a great adaptation. I remember reading a translation novel back in my college days (and rampant East Asian culture/philosophy fanaticism phase) and how strongly the tale struck me.

[skemono]

Thanks for the scans.

When I heard Hollywood was doing a 47 Ronin movie, I was suspicious. It's a marvelous story, but it is so quintessentially Japanese I don't know how it would be handled by Americans.

Then I saw the trailer. And I wanted to punch all the things.

How could they go from a lovely story about loyalty and patience, and then make some movie about how the 47 ronin (led by a [half-] white man, of course, because Asians can't be the main characters in their own stories!) save Japan from a conspiracy of evil shape-shifting demons?? ARGH.

[ar_feiniel]

I was interested in this movie until I saw the trailer, and then I was like...oh...so they're going for a kinda, like, 300 type movie.

That being said, it might not be such a bad idea (my personal tastes aside): it's not like any Hollywood adaptation was going to be accurate anyway. At least by going all out fantasy they've rendered questions about accuracy a moot point.

I know there are a lot of Chuushingura/47 Ronin adaptations in Japan, but the only one I've seen is the 40s movie by Mizoguchi. It's long and glacial but it had a good emotional payoff.