Forty-Seven Ronin Avenge Their Lord

December 14, 1702

On a snowy Edo night, forty-seven masterless samurai stormed the mansion of Kira Yoshinaka and took his head to lay on the grave of their disgraced lord, Asano. The shogunate ordered them to commit seppuku with honor intact. Their story became Japan's most enduring parable of loyalty. Kabuki playwrights dramatized it within weeks, and the tale has never left the Japanese imagination.