Chushingura

This essay was originally published as a gallery guide for an exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art (August 3 - September 24, 1986). It was written by Alan Atkinson who was then intern in the department of prints and drawings. Chushingura: Revenge of the 47 Samurai On the snowy night of January 30, 1703, in an incident known as the Ako vendetta, forty-six samurai burst into the mansion of the man responsible for the death of their former master, Asano …

…master's needless death. During the Tokugawa era (1600-1868) there was a ban on the depiction in art or the dramatization on stage of current historical events using the actual names of the nobility involved. Therefore, the theatrical version of the Ako vendetta was set in the days of the fourteenth-century shogun Takauiji; Asano, Kira, and Oishi became Enya, Moronao, and Oboshi, and the setting of the play was changed from Edo to Kamakura. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**