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Kira mansion Conquest Admiral Ako clan Leader in the lead Oishi Kuranosuke
Who was Oishi Kuranosuke?
Oishi Kuranosuke Yoshio was the chief retainer of the Ako domain. When his lord, Asano Naganori, was ordered to commit seppuku after drawing his sword against Kira Kozuke-no-suke inside Edo Castle, the domain was abolished and its samurai became masterless ronin. Oishi spent almost two years preparing in secret, then led forty-seven of them in a night raid on Kira’s mansion in Edo.
The raid and its aftermath
The ronin took Kira’s head and carried it to Sengakuji temple, where they laid it on their lord’s grave. They then gave themselves up. The shogunate judged that they had acted with loyalty but had broken the law, and allowed them to die by seppuku rather than be executed as criminals. All of them are buried at Sengakuji.
Why the story endures
The episode became the basis of Chushingura, retold endlessly in kabuki, puppet theatre, novels and film. It endures because it sits on a genuine conflict: duty to one’s lord against duty to the law. Oishi is remembered less as a swordsman than as a planner who kept forty-seven men silent for two years.
Visiting the statue
The bronze statue of Oishi stands in the grounds of Sengakuji temple in Takanawa, Minato Ward, Tokyo, a few minutes from Sengakuji Station. The graves of the forty-seven ronin are in the same precinct, and incense is still offered there every day.
[Oishi Kuranosuke Bronze statue location access]
Takanawa 2-11-1 Minato ward, Tokyo metropolitan area 108-0074
[Oishi Kuronosuke’s bronze map]
