In 1701 a feudal lord drew his sword inside the shogun's castle and was ordered to take his own life that same day. Almost two years later, forty-seven of his samurai, now masterless, stormed the house of the man they blamed by night and carried his head to their lord's grave. Twelve stops between the pine corridor of Edo Castle, the garden where Asano died, the confiscated residence by the river, Kira's mansion in Ryogoku, the temple that shut its gate on them, the bridge they crossed at dawn, the gate of Sengaku-ji, the leader who pretended to forget, the well where they washed the head, the house where they awaited their sentence, the forty-eight graves and the theatre that made them immortal. Approximate audio duration: 23 minutes.
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Los 47 ronin: la venganza más famosa de Japón y lo que dice sobre el honor
En 1701, un señor feudal desenvainó su espada dentro del castillo del shogun y fue obligado a quitarse la vida ese mismo día. Casi dos años después, cuarenta y siete de sus samuráis, ya sin amo, asaltaron de noche la casa del hombre al que culpaban y llevaron su cabeza hasta la tumba de su señor. Doce paradas entre el corredor de los pinos del castillo de Edo, el jardín donde murió Asano, la residencia confiscada junto al río, la mansión de Kira en Ryogoku, el templo que les cerró la puerta, el puente que cruzaron al amanecer, la puerta de Sengaku-ji, el jefe que fingió olvidar, el pozo donde lavaron la cabeza, la casa donde esperaron la sentencia, las cuarenta y ocho tumbas y el teatro que los volvió inmortales. Duración aproximada de audio: 23 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~23 min of audio · 20.87 km on foot (~5 h 15 min walking) · about 5 h 45 min in total
You are in the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, on the open ground where the heart of Edo Castle once stood. Look among the trees for a small stone with an inscription. It marks the site of the Matsu no Oroka, the great corridor of pines.
It was one of the longest passages in the shogun's palace, its sliding doors painted with pines and shorelines. The feudal lords, the daimyo, walked through it for the most solemn ceremonies. Drawing a blade inside the castle was forbidden on pain of death.
On 21 April 1701, during the reception of envoys from the emperor, Asano Naganori, lord of the sm…
2
Dying in Someone Else's Garden
You are in Shinbashi, among offices and traffic. Look for a stone whose inscription says that here ended the life of Asano Takumi no Kami. That was his court title.
In 1701 this ground was the Edo residence of Tamura Takeaki, lord of the Ichinoseki domain. In the hours after the attack at the castle, Asano was brought here under guard in a closed palanquin.
That same afternoon he was given his sentence: seppuku, the ritual suicide of the samurai. There was no trial and no investigation. He was thirty-four years old.
According to accounts of the time, the ceremony took place in the garden ra…
3
The House Left Without a Master
You are in Akashi-cho, near the Sumida River, beside St. Luke's International Hospital. Among the flowerbeds a stone recalls that Asano's main Edo residence stood here. The area was called Teppozu.
Every daimyo was required to keep a house in the capital and to live in it part of the year. His wife and heirs stayed in Edo permanently, almost as the shogun's hostages. This is where Aguri, Asano's wife, lived.
After Asano's death the shogunate confiscated the Ako domain and all its houses. The family line was abolished. Aguri cut her hair, became a nun under the name Yozei-in and went to live …
4
The Snowy Night at Kira's House
You are in Ryogoku, in front of a small park enclosed by a white wall with a tiled roof, like that of a samurai mansion. This is Honjo Matsuzaka-cho Park. What you see is only a tiny fraction of Kira Yoshinaka's residence.
After the attack at the castle, Kira gave up his post. In 1701 he was assigned this house in Honjo, across the Sumida River, then on the outskirts of the city. Many suspected the shogunate was moving him away on purpose, as if it did not care what might happen to him.
One night in late January 1703, on the fourteenth day of the last month of the Japanese calendar, forty-se…
5
The Temple That Shut Its Gate
You are in front of Eko-in, a Buddhist temple a few blocks from Kira's house. Today modern buildings surround it, but its history is far older than that of the ronin.
It was founded in 1657, after the great Meireki fire, which destroyed much of Edo and killed tens of thousands of people. It was built to pray for the dead no one claimed. Over the years it became a temple for all souls, including those of animals.
At dawn, after the attack, the ronin reached this gate. They carried Kira's head wrapped in cloth and were exhausted. According to tradition, they asked to come in and rest.
The tem…
6
The Bridge at Dawn
You are on Eitai Bridge, crossing the Sumida River. The blue steel bridge beneath your feet dates from 1926, but there was a wooden bridge here from 1698, built to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of the shogun Tsunayoshi.
The ronin crossed it the morning after the attack. They walked in file with their spears, some of them wounded, through a city just waking up. They avoided the streets where the great lords lived so as not to provoke a clash.
They feared reprisal. Kira's son had been adopted into the powerful Uesugi family and was lord of the Yonezawa domain. If the Uesugi sent out their sa…
7
The Gate of Sengaku-ji
You are in Takanawa, in front of the main gate of Sengaku-ji temple. It is a Zen Buddhist temple, with a great wooden gate dating from 1832. Notice the incense stalls along the path: almost every visitor comes for the same reason.
The temple was founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1612, near Edo Castle. A fire destroyed it in 1641 and it was rebuilt here in Takanawa with the help of several daimyo families. One of them was the Asano. That is why it was the family's funerary temple.
The ronin came up this road the morning after the attack, still carrying Kira's head. They had done what they had swo…
8
The Leader Who Pretended to Forget
You are in front of the bronze statue of a standing samurai holding a paper scroll. This is Oishi Kuranosuke Yoshio, Asano's chief retainer at Ako and the man who organised the revenge.
When the news arrived, Oishi did not rush off to take revenge. He handed Ako Castle over to the shogun's envoys without resistance. Then he tried something more prudent: to have the shogunate allow Asano's younger brother, Daigaku, to inherit and save the family.
For more than a year he waited for that answer. In Edo, a group of impatient ronin led by Horibe Yasubei pressed him to strike at once. Oishi held t…
9
The Well Where They Washed the Head
You are beside a small stone well on the path to the graves. It is called Kubiarai-ido, the head-washing well. It is one of the most photographed corners of the temple and also one of the strangest.
Here, according to the temple's tradition, the ronin washed Kira's head before presenting it. They could not offer it to their lord covered in blood and mud after the long walk.
Then they carried it to Asano's grave and placed it before the tomb. They announced to him that his enemy was dead. For them it closed the grudge their lord had been unable to finish.
What happened next is less well know…
10
The Sentence at the Hosokawa House
You are on a quiet residential street in Takanawa, in front of a small closed enclosure with trees and a stone. The Edo residence of the Hosokawa, lords of Kumamoto, stood here. This is where Oishi died.
The forty-six ronin who surrendered were divided among four houses: seventeen with the Hosokawa, Oishi among them; ten with the Matsudaira; ten with the Mori; and nine with the Mizuno. The Mori house stood where Roppongi Hills rises today.
One was missing. Terasaka Kichiemon, the only low-ranking member, left the group after the attack, probably sent by Oishi to carry the news. He lived to t…
11
The Forty-Eight Graves
You are in the ronin cemetery. Rows of small stone markers, all alike, and incense smoke rising almost without pause. Buy a bundle at the entrance and leave it, as everyone does.
After the seppuku, the bodies were brought here and buried beside their lord. Asano lies in his own tomb, near that of his wife Aguri, the nun Yozei-in, who died in 1714. The ronin graves are grouped according to the house where each man died.
Oishi's grave is in a corner, under a small roof. His son Chikara's is with the Matsudaira group, on the other side. Father and son died on the same day, in different houses.
…
12
From the Temple to the Stage
You are in front of the memorial hall of the Ako ronin, inside the temple grounds. It holds objects from the period and a room of wooden statues of each of the men, with their faces and ages, from the youngest to the oldest.
Only days after the ronin died, the first plays about them appeared. The shogunate banned staging recent events involving the samurai class. Authors had to disguise the story.
In 1748 Kanadehon Chushingura, the treasury of loyal retainers, opened in Osaka as a puppet play. That same year it moved to kabuki. It set the story in the fourteenth century and changed the names…
How long does the "The 47 Ronin: Japan's Most Famous Revenge and What It Says About Honour" audio tour take?
It has about 23 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 20.87 km walking route (~5 h 15 min on foot). Plan roughly 5 h 45 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Corridor of Pines" (coordinates 35.6856, 139.757). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Tokyo and pick "The 47 Ronin: Japan's Most Famous Revenge and What It Says About Honour". No account required to start.
