Editing Forty-seven rōnin (section)

==In the arts==
{{Main|Chūshingura}}
[[File:Oishi Yoshio Gishi Seppuku No Zu Painting.png|thumb|Painting of [[Ōishi Yoshio]] committing seppuku]]
The tragedy of the forty-seven rōnin has been one of the most popular themes in Japanese art and has lately even begun to make its way into Western art.

Immediately following the event, there were mixed feelings among the intelligentsia about whether such vengeance had been appropriate. Many agreed that, given their master's last wishes, the ''rōnin'' had done the right thing, but were undecided about whether such a vengeful wish was proper. Over time, however, the story became a symbol of loyalty to one's master and later, of loyalty to the emperor. Once this happened, the story flourished as a subject of drama, storytelling, and visual art.

===Plays===
The incident immediately inspired a succession of ''[[kabuki]]'' and ''[[bunraku]]'' plays; the first, ''The Night Attack at Dawn by the Soga'', appeared only two weeks after the ronin died. It was shut down by the authorities, but many others soon followed, initially in [[Osaka]] and [[Kyoto]], farther away from the shogunal capital. Some even took the story as far as [[Manila]], to spread the story to the rest of Asia.

The most successful of the adaptations was a ''[[bunraku]]'' [[puppet]] play called ''[[Kanadehon Chūshingura]]'' (now simply called ''Chūshingura'', or "Treasury of Loyal Retainers"), written in 1748 by Takeda Izumo and two associates; it was later adapted into a ''kabuki'' play, which is still one of Japan's most popular.

In the play, to avoid the attention of the censors, the events are transferred into the distant past, to the 14th century reign of ''shōgun'' [[Ashikaga Takauji]]. Asano became En'ya Hangan Takasada, Kira became [[Kō no Moronao]] and Ōishi became Ōboshi Yuranosuke Yoshio; the names of the rest of the ''rōnin'' were disguised to varying degrees. The play contains a number of plot twists that do not reflect the real story: Moronao tries to seduce En'ya's wife, and one of the ''rōnin'' dies before the attack because of a conflict between family and warrior loyalty (another possible cause of the confusion between forty-six and forty-seven).

===Opera===
The story was turned into an opera, ''Chūshingura'', by [[Shigeaki Saegusa]] in 1997.{{Citation needed|date=August 2018}}

===Cinema and television===
The play has been made into a movie at least six times in Japan,<ref name="child2007">{{Cite web |last=Child |first=Ben |date=2008-12-09 |title=Keanu Reeves to play Japanese samurai in 47 Ronin |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/dec/09/keanu-reeves-47-ronin |access-date=2024-07-15 |website=The Guardian |language=en-GB}}</ref> the earliest starring [[Onoe Matsunosuke]]. The film's release date is questioned, but placed between 1910 and 1917. It has been aired on the Jidaigeki Senmon Channel (Japan) with accompanying ''[[benshi]]'' narration. In 1941, the Japanese military commissioned director [[Kenji Mizoguchi]], who would later direct ''[[Ugetsu]]'' after the war, to make ''[[The 47 Ronin (1941 film)|Genroku Chūshingura]]''. They wanted a ferocious morale booster based on the familiar ''rekishi geki'' ("historical drama") of ''The Loyal 47 Ronin''. Instead, Mizoguchi chose for his source ''Mayama Chūshingura'', a cerebral play dealing with the story. The film was a commercial failure, having been released in Japan one week before the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]]. The Japanese military and most audiences found the first part to be too serious, but the studio and Mizoguchi both regarded it as so important that Part Two was put into production, despite lukewarm reception to Part One. The film wasn't shown in America until the 1970s.<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0297/02077.html | title = Movies | newspaper = Chicago Reader | access-date = 8 May 2007 | archive-date = 15 May 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080515203025/http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0297/02077.html | url-status = dead }}</ref>

The 1958 version, ''[[The_Loyal_47_Ronin_(1958_film)|The Loyal 47 Ronin]]'', was directed by Kunio Watanabe.

The 1962 film version directed by [[Hiroshi Inagaki]], ''[[Chushingura: Hana no Maki, Yuki no Maki|Chūshingura]]'', is most familiar to Western audiences.<ref name="child2007" /> In it, [[Toshirō Mifune]] appears in a supporting role as spearman Tawaraboshi Genba. Mifune was to revisit the story several times in his career. In 1971 he appeared in the 52-part television series ''[[Daichūshingura]]'' as Ōishi, while in 1978 he appeared as Lord Tsuchiya in the epic ''[[Swords of Vengeance]]'' (''Akō-jō danzetsu'').

Many Japanese television shows, including single programs, short series, single seasons, and even year-long series such as ''Daichūshingura'' and the more recent NHK [[Taiga drama]] ''Genroku Ryōran'', recount the events. Among both films and television programs, some are quite faithful to the ''Chūshingura'', while others incorporate unrelated material or alter details. In addition, ''[[gaiden]]'' dramatize events and characters not in the ''Chūshingura''. [[Kon Ichikawa]] directed [[47 Ronin (1994 film)|another version]] in 1994. In 2004, [[Kōsei Saitō|Mitsumasa Saitō]] directed a nine-episode mini-series starring [[Ken Matsudaira]], who had also starred in a 1999 49-episode TV series of the ''Chūshingura'' entitled ''Genroku Ryōran''. In [[Hirokazu Koreeda]]'s 2006 film ''[[Hana (film)|Hana yori mo nao]]'', the story was used as a backdrop, with one of the ronin being a neighbour of the protagonists.

In the 1998 film [[Ronin (film)]], Robert De Niro's character is told the story by a mysterious Frenchman who is creating an intricately detailed miniature diorama of its original setting. Though the film takes the name from the 'masterless' samurai of Japan, it has nothing to do with the actual events of the forty-seven ronin.

A comedic adaptation was presented in a 2002 episode of the Canadian television series ''[[History Bites]]'' titled "Samurai Goodfellas", mingling the story with elements from ''[[The Godfather (film series)|The Godfather]]'' film series.

Most recently, it was made into a 2013 American movie titled ''[[47 Ronin (2013 film)|47 Ronin]]'', starring [[Keanu Reeves]], and then again into a more stylized 2015 version titled ''[[Last Knights]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nypost.com/2015/04/01/freeman-owen-casualties-of-bloody-bad-last-knights/ |title=Freeman, Owen casualties of bloody bad 'Last Knights'|first=Sara|last=Stewart|date=1 April 2015}}</ref>

===Woodblock prints===
The forty-seven rōnin is one of the most popular themes in Japanese [[woodblock printing|woodblock prints]], or ''[[ukiyo-e]]'' and many well-known artists have made prints portraying either the original events, scenes from the play, or the actors. One book{{which|date=March 2022}} on subjects depicted in woodblock prints devotes no fewer than seven chapters to the history of the appearance of this theme in woodblocks. Among the artists who produced prints on this subject are [[Utamaro]], [[Utagawa Toyokuni III|Toyokuni]], [[Hokusai]], [[Kunisada]], [[Hiroshige]], and [[Tsukioka Yoshitoshi|Yoshitoshi]].<ref>Forbes, Andrew; Henley, David (2012). ''Forty-Seven Ronin: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Edition''. Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti Books. ASIN: B00ADQGLB8</ref> However, probably the most widely known woodblocks in the genre are those of [[Utagawa Kuniyoshi|Kuniyoshi]], who produced at least eleven separate complete series on this subject, along with more than twenty [[triptych]]s.

===Literature===
* The earliest known account of the Akō incident in the West was published in 1822 in [[Isaac Titsingh]]'s posthumously-published book ''Illustrations of Japan''.{{sfn|Titsingh|2006|p=91}}
* The first book of the juvenile Samurai Mystery series by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, ''The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn'' (2005), weaves the kabuki play ''The Forty-Seven Ronin'' into the plot. 
* The incident is the subject of [[Jorge Luis Borges]]' short story "The Uncivil Teacher of Court Etiquette Kôtsuké no Suké", included in the 1935 collection ''[[A Universal History of Infamy]]''.
* The legend of the forty-seven rōnin was adapted into two [[Graphic novel|graphic novels]] published by [[Dark Horse Comics]]. The first is ''47 Ronin'', a 2014 faithful retelling written by [[Mike Richardson (publisher)|Mike Richardson]] and illustrated by [[Stan Sakai]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Richardson |first=Mike |date=March 12, 2014 |title=''47 Ronin'' |publisher=Dark Horse Comics |url=https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/21-375/47-Ronin-HC}}</ref> The second Dark Horse Comics adaption is ''Seppuku'', the second part of [[Víctor Santos (author)|Víctor Santos]]' 2017 graphic novel ''Rashomon: A Commissioner Heigo Kobayashi Case'', which also adapts "[[In a Grove]]", the [[Ryūnosuke Akutagawa]] short story the 1950 film ''[[Rashomon]]'' is based on.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Santos |first=Víctor |date=October 18, 2017 |title=''Rashomon: A Commissioner Heigo Kobayashi Case'' |publisher=Dark Horse Comics |url=https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/28-126/Rashomon-A-Commissioner-Heigo-Kobayashi-Case-HC}}</ref>