The story of the 47 Ronin
At the end of '800, a Belgian lawyer asked a Japanese diplomat and scholar in the schools of the country if the Japan had provided religious instruction. The scholar said that such an instruction was not given. Then, the Belgian lawyer, surprised and somewhat indignant, asked how it was possible to teach young people moral education in the absence of a school teaching of religion. The Japanese scholar was shocked and, at the time, had no answer.
This confusion is understandable because, in Japan, ethics and morals were learned directly from the environment: through family education, the relationships with others, working life, the major parties, public ceremonies and important heritage of legends, myths, epics and heroic deeds of their ancestors. These include a very important role was played by the behavior deemed to be specimens of some historical characters, whose adventures have left their imprint in people's consciousness. Thus, the Japanese scholar we mentioned, after analyzing their moral notions, could reasonably be maintained that "I found I absorbed them like the air we breathe, thanks to the Bushido."
The story that perhaps best of all was able to embody the Japanese ethical values and to transmit to the young is one of the 47 Ronin (literally, men of the waves) a group of samurai who, having lost its master, had decided to avenge the honor or in case of failure, to kill himself. If you take away, in fact, a samurai's lord, he will feel lost, bereft of any reference and no sense of its existence, as numerous examples attest, even recent ones. Among these is the case of Marshal Nogi, who had fought and won the Tsarist Russia: in 1912, the death of Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito), he killed himself, justifying his act in his will with the example of loyalty of the 47 ronin against his lord, because "a samurai does not serve two masters."
The importance of this story, told very well by the French scholar Soulie de Morant, one of the men who most contributed to publicizing the Far East to the West in the early decades of the twentieth century is that it is a true choral recitation, characterized by the behavior of various heroic figures of the society of the time: the feudal lords, samurai, indomitable mothers, wives samples, young brave, faithful servants. From this history it is clear a code of general behavior permeated the so-called Yamato Damashii (Spirit of Japan), where they formed entire generation of Japanese. Most of the materials reported by Soulie de Morant comes from the narrative that would be done by the one Ronin been alive, Terasaki Kichiemon, a young man who was going to find in the last days of his life and that he would put in writing The words of the samurai.
The story
One day in 1698, during the visit of an imperial envoy to Tokyo, the Shogun appointed two of the most important daimyo, Asano Naganori, Prince of En-ya, and Kamei, Prince of Hori, receive and escort the guest. As usual, both would have to provide to the Minister of Rites, Kira, some precious gifts for the imperial envoy. Asano, fine writer, poet, perfectionist, a man of noble character, presented gifts refined, while the Prince of Hori, who knew the avid Kira, a parvenu spirit narrow, rough, but brought gifts of great pecuniary value. Kira liked especially the gifts of Kamei and not at those of Asano, who began to treat it as rude. During rehearsals of the ceremony, as Asano i ran flawlessly as required, Kira complimented Kamei, sarcastically criticizing the performance of Asano. The game lasted too long, he brought the wrath of the latter, who draws his sword to kill Kira tried for his insolence and derision to which he had been. But the shot went blank, wounding the minister only laterally, and the intervention of a faithful servant of Kira, promptly killed by Asano, allowed the Minister to escape the vengeance of indignation prince. Leaving the palace he was prepared to attack and conquer the lands of dignitary.
The consequences of such an act, however, are conceivable: the shogun imposed, in fact, for Asano, who had tried to kill a minister within the Palace, taking his own life, while his estate was confiscated, the jailed brother and the clan of En-ya missing. Asano, Prince of En-ya, you then gave the death, helped in this by his peers, the Daymi ūkio Tamura-no-daifu, and his samurai, called by the governor of the fortress of En-ya, had to make a decision on what to do after the death of their master. The governor, Oishi, freed the samurai of their commitment to the gentleman, now deceased: they were free to live as they wanted, also serve other lords. The response of these two hundred samurai was unanimous: "A samurai does not serve only one master! We have sworn to follow our master in the life and death. Our duty is to die with him. " In the end, Oishi came to the following decision: "avenge our lord is our duty. And that's what I propose. Swear not to retreat before any danger to kill Kira and her family. If not we will be able within a year, will mean that the company is not possible. We will meet then at the door of the fortress - those, at least, that have survived the fighting - and we give death, showing our allegiance. " Therefore prepared to sign an oath in blood and distributed the wealth among the samurai of the clan there. But the next day, only about one third of the samurai came to an affidavit, showing how many had preferred to follow other paths. Abandoned the fort, on the advice of their leaders, the samurai were dispersed, some disguised so as not to arouse suspicion, and prepared to implement the plan. The young
Kichiemon Terasaki, transvestism as a merchant, meanwhile, ran from door to door, gathering information and acting as a liaison between the various samurai. Impetuous character, often did not understand the meaning and significance of the behavior of its leaders, or the other conspirators, but as time passed, he began to sense that all was not by chance, as also explained in the essay Mototochi Hara, the man of En-ya clan who had worked on the education of his samurai. In fact, to avoid arousing suspicion, the samurai of the clan were dedicated to other activities, but all these to make them come into contact with the atmosphere of the palace of the minister, or had so debauched fake it no longer constitutes any danger for fear Kira.
Example most striking was that the governor Oishi: separated from his wife, he had squandered their property with prostitutes and he was always drunk to the point that began to be despised by his own peers and subordinates, some of whom wanted to kill him for betraying the oath. But it was all a fiction, as revealed when the same Oishi, some later, finally came time to take up arms against Kira to avenge their lord: "Many of you have thought of killing myself ... that their devotion is always enhanced ! If you have a crafty enemy, a leader must try to deceive even his warriors. If you can not to fall into his error, he can not succeed in any of his tricks. Kira, believing a debauched, has ceased to be alert. Today, he believes that we have renounced our oaths. E 'lost'.
Even the abandonment of the bride was just a tactic, as evidenced in the letter he wrote her passionate Oishi before the fight: to confess their love, reveals that "loyalty to our lord I had to sever the bond of our union (...). No further action could convince our enemy of my degradation more than to leave a wife like you. "
finally came the moment of revenge, which met in secret, the samurai remained, in all 47 including the head, after receiving final instructions were prepared to attack. Divided into three groups, found themselves in three different inns, close to Kira's mansion, where he ate a last meal, encouraged by composing poems. Then leave the inn, they headed for the palace, where they managed to enter. Catching everyone by surprise, they were right guard, killed the heir to Kira and found, finally, the minister, who refused to fight and that he had hidden in a secret underground tunnel. Discovered, had not the courage to kill himself with the dagger that was offered by Oishi (the same as it had had to kill the prince of En-ya) and was therefore killed by them.
Revenge was performed and the various court nobles and daimyo were competing to host and honor the samurai who had fulfilled their duty in respect of its master. Then, the Shogun's Council condemned them to death, but gave them the opportunity to practice seppuku, given the honorable purpose of their action. Only the young Kichiemon was kept alive to deliver offers to his companions dead and to pass on the story for posterity.
A code of conduct based on Bushido
This heroic world, where mothers take their own lives to prevent their children, thinking of them do not fulfill their duty, or where their wives, if they remain alive to enable children to grow up, grow them in the spirit of the Way of the Warrior , recalling the heroism of her husband, max, samples, stories, are a real treat of ethics to guide people's behavior. In addition, those who followed these teachings, because conscious of the rapid flow of things in the world, he also knew to appreciate the beauty of his surroundings, as reflected by the words of the young Kichiemon that, like any samurai, knew how to combine love weapons also one for the beauty of nature in particular: "If, on the one hand, my passion made me take an immense pleasure in the handling of weapons, my mind was not for this less sensitive to the beauty of the moonlight, to the splendors spring, the melancholy of autumn waters. Beyond the seductive nature of love was what I wanted really (...). Now, on a day that smelled of spring, I got permission to go and admire the landscape of the countryside disturbing awakening. Since dawn, under the open sky, I left town and went back slowly a warm valley of West hills. The flowering peach - pink fog that covered the campaign - their scent impregnated the air. Drunk of the sun, numb with happiness, walking without haste ... "
Soulie de Morant's work, excellently translated into Italian, in addition to being a fascinating story, full of pages of great beauty, with a plot almost thriller, is without doubt one of the most important keys to decipher the ethical world of traditional Japan. (1)
1) Review the work G. Soulié de Morant, The history of the 47 Ronin, Luni Editrice, Milano 2002 (Arts of the East, July-August 2005)
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