The 47 Ronin Story
...r of the daimyo, who employed the samurai. When a daimyo was killed, as Lord Asano was, and his property confiscated, all his samurai became ronin. Ronin had little status in society and often were reduced to beggars. However, if they followed their traditional code of honor and avenged the death of their lord, at least they knew they could die with honor. The book portrays not only the code of fighting and honor the samurai lived by, but also the wisdom they accumulated over centuries of leadership. For example, when Kataoka insists that the ronin attack the traitor Kira immediately, Oishi advises caution: “When in haste it is sometimes best to take a roundabout way” (p. 123). On the other hand, when it becomes clear to him that action is called for, he takes it willingly, despite the risks. This happens when he realizes the ronin are losing their spirit of unity, so he calls a meeting of them, even though he knows Kira may learn of the meeting. In traditional Japan the highest classes of society were expected to hide emotion, and be able to bear pain. Even the little daughter of Lord Asano is expected to hide her sadness when her father dies. Emotion is treated as an imposition, and the best-mannered people do not impose their feelings on others. What is true of the samurai is also true of the geisha. Both Chusaka, Oishi’s son, and the young geisha in training who is a servant to Okaru, are forced to remain still in freezing temperatures, simply to learn how to bear pain. The traditional Japanese society relegated women to a role of passivity and acceptance. The women in this book accept subservience to men as their natural role in life. Oishi’s wife, for example, is forced to accept divorce from her husband simply at his say so. She has no rights to protest it. The geisha Okaru, although she has a very high status in society, is still bought like an object when she is sent to live with Oishi. However, there are signs that the plight of women is getting recognition. The Kabuki play that Oishi witnesses portrays a woman of the nobility who leaves her husband for a commoner. Although this is unacceptable behavior for a noblewoman, the woman is not condemned. They play explains that she does this because her husband treated her cruelly, and she is portrayed in a sympathetic way in the play. The Kabuki actors portray the lives and morals of the samurai, the highest class in society. Oishi finds it shocking that lower class people would dare to pretend to be samurai, but even he has to admit that it is not bad for the common people to try to emulate the virtues of the highest classes in society. Araki, an old an honorable samurai, tells Oishi: “You and I know [the peasants] are not capable...