The Forty-Seven Ronin
The Vendetta in History

The first comprehensive historical study of one of the most famous events in Japanese history: the Forty-seven R?nin vendetta.

John A. Tucker (Author)

9781107096875, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 March 2018

332 pages, 36 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.6 x 1.9 cm, 0.65 kg

'Few stories from Japan are more powerful, more provocative, or more elastic than that of the heroic (or villainous) Forty-Seven R?nin. Tucker's exegesis is a masterful engagement with this classic tale, its myriad interpretations, and its various forms of social and cultural impact. With characteristic sensitivity and impressive scholarship, Tucker develops the central concept of vendetta into a force of historical richness and importance.' Chris Goto-Jones, University of Victoria, British Columbia

The Forty-Seven R?nin vendetta is one of the most famous incidents in Japanese history, but it is also one of the most misunderstood. John A. Tucker seeks to provide a credible account of the vendetta and its afterlife in history. He suggests that, when considered historically and holistically, the vendetta appears as a site of contested cultural ground, with conflicts, disagreements, and debates characterizing its three-century history far more than cultural unanimity about its values, virtues, and icons. Tucker narrates the incident as the historical event that it was, within the context of Tokugawa social, political, cultural, and spiritual history, before exploring the vendetta as conflicted cultural ground, generating a steady flow of essays, novels, plays, and ideologically driven expressions intrinsic to the course of Japanese history. This engaging, accessible study provides insights into ways in which events and debates from early modern history have continued to inform developments in modern Japan.

Introduction: vendetta overview
1. Time and place
2. Eyewitnesses to bloodshed
3. R?nin schisms
4. Laying souls to rest
5. Confucian versus Confucian debates
6. Confucian versus Confucian, round two
7. History on stage
8. Domestic, foreign, and anti-foreign reflections
9. Modern revivals
10. The vendetta through 1945
11. Domesticating the vendetta.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Asian history [HBJF]