Forty-seven Ronin

The tale of the Forty-Seven Ronin (also known as the Forty-Seven Samurai, the Ak? vendetta, or in Japanese as the "ak? r?shi" (???? Ak? Masterless Samurai)?or the "genroku ak? jiken" (?????? Genroku Ak? Incident)) is a prototypical Japanese story. Described by one noted Japan scholar as the country's "national legend" http://www.columbia.edu/~hds2/chushinguranew/kanadehon/Index.htm, it recounts the most famous case involving the samurai code of honor, bushido, and vividly expresses a significant part of the traditional Japanese world-view.

Further reading

• A. B. Mitford (Lord Redesdale), Tales of Old Japan (1871; reprinted Charles E. Tuttle, 1982) - a classic even without story of the Ronin
• John Allyn, The Forty-Seven Ronin Story (Charles E. Tuttle, 1981)
• Hiroaki Sato, Legends of the Samurai (Overlook Press, 1995) - contains a number of original documents, including a fascinating account by an eyewitness to the arrest, trial and execution of Asano
• William Theodore De Bary, Donald Keene, Ryusaku Tsunoda, "Sources of Japanese Tradition" (Columbia University, 1960), 2d Ed., Chapter 31
• Frederick V. Dickens, Chushingura, or The Loyal League (1876; reprinted Glasgow, 1930)
• Donald Keene, Chushingura: A Puppet Play (Columbia University, 1971)
• Basil Steward, Subjects Portrayed in Japanese Colour-Prints (1922, reprinted Dover, 1979) - has seven chapters on the history of the depiction of the Ronin in prints
• B. W. Robinson, Kuniyoshi: The Warrior Prints (Cornell University, 1982) - lists all the Kuniyoshi Ronin prints
• David R. Weinberg, Alfred H. Marks, Kuniyoshi: The Faithful Samurai (Hotei, Leiden, 2000) - large illustrations of all of Kuniyoshi's most famous Ronin series, along with translations of the lengthy biographical notes on each of the Ronin printed on each print