Forty-seven Ronin of Ako

The Forty-seven Ronin were samurai retainers of the Ako domain who, in 1703, avenged the forced seppuku of their lord, Asano Naganori, by killing the court official Kira Yoshinaka, after which they surrendered and were themselves ordered to commit seppuku. Their story, rooted in the Confucian and samurai ideals of loyalty and duty, became a foundational narrative in Japanese national memory, commemorated at Sengaku-ji temple in Tokyo where they and their lord are enshrined and honored. They are venerated less as deities in a religious sense and more as ancestral exemplars of fidelity and sacrifice, remembered through ongoing rites, festivals, and cultural retellings such as Chushingura.