neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Xi. He was aided in this venture by the presence of refugee Chinese
academics among the writers of his ‘Mito School’. Fleeing the collapse of the Ming dynasty in
mainland China, they brought an emphasis on moral education through history, and the framing of
the History of Japan was to exert an influence long after Mitsukuni’s death. The Shōgun, as all
acknowledged, had been the de facto ruler of Japan since at least the time of Oda Nobunaga,
Nobody had ruled Japan at all during the great civil wars, but previously authority had resided in
earlier Shōguns. The History of Japan, while acknowledging the participation of various samurai in
the formation of the Japanese state, clung resolutely to a Chinese model, asserting the idea that it
was the Emperor who was always in ultimate control, and that the actions of his samurai were
always undertaken out of loyalty to his wishes. This, of course, was by no means the first time that
anyone had claimed this - it had been a popular rallying cry for centuries.
The History of Japan begins in 660 BC with the creation myths of the Japanese state, and
concerned itself chiefly with the two millennia that followed, ending its main narrative with the
resolution of the ‘two emperors’ problem in 1392.
Nevertheless the History of Japan, commissioned under the auspices of a member of the
Tokugawa family, and hence presumed approved by the Shōgun himself, was to become an
important book in the curriculum of future generations of samurai. Over the following decades, its
assertions gnawed at the ties that bound the warrior class in allegiance to the Tokugawa. If one read
between the lines of the History of Japan, as increasing numbers of unhappy samurai were wont to
do, then there was more to the emperor than lip service to an impoverished aristocracy in Kyōto.
Instead, the emperor was a viable, potent force in Japanese politics, a Figure to whom all swore
loyalty. Essentially, the History of Japan reminded the samurai that there was a higher power than
the shōgun himself, and that should the Shōgun ever fail in his duties, it was incumbent on samurai
to assert their loyalty to the Emperor by defying his barbarian-suppressing generalissimo. This idea,
however, was more than a century in coming. Loyalty to the emperor was a long-term, strategic
matter for samurai thought; in day-to-day life, there was the more tactical question of staying alive
and jockeying for position.
The year of Mitsukuni’s death saw one of the defining events of eighteenth-century Japan,
the infamous vendetta of the ‘Forty-Seven Rōnin’. As part of the endless rounds of ceremonial and
courtesy calls of the Tokugawa period, Asano Naganori, the young feudal lord of the Ako domain
was ordered to entertain envoys in Edo who had freshly arrived from Kyōto - still the official capital.
As part of the preparations, he was instructed by Kira Yoshinaka, one of the Shōgun’s high-ranking
officials. The men do not appear to have hit it off, and, reading between the lines, Kira was expecting
substantial bribes and honoraria from Asano, even though it was his job to instruct him. Whatever
the nature of the tensions between them, Kira had mastered the art of the snide comment, and
seems to have made one allusion too many about Asano’s country origins. On 21 April 1701, under a
covered walkway at one of the Shōgun’s mansions, Kira pushed too far, and an enraged Asano drew
his short sword and knifed him in the face (or shoulder, depending on the source).
The wound was minor and the brawling men were soon separated by guards, but the
damage was done. Regardless of claims of the right of samurai to defend their honour, drawing a
weapon within the Shōgun’s palace was a capital offence. Asano was ordered to commit seppuku,
his lands were forfeit, and his followers were outcasts - rōnin. When the news reached Asano’s
castellan Ōishi Yoshio, Ōishi obediently shut down the castle, disbanded the soldiers, and handed
the keys and manifests to the new lord appointed by the Shōgunate. Where once there might have
been war, the Tokugawa rule was supreme, and a lord could be unseated by simple decree.
However, while Ōishi had done his duty to the Shōgun by obeying orders, he was also
determined to do his duty by the wronged lord Asano. In the company of several dozen fellow
retainers (traditionally forty-seven, but possibly more), he plotted his revenge against Kira. Over the
two years that followed, Ōishi gave every appearance of being a discredited samurai. He was seen in
Kyōto brothels, he was publicly drunk, and he was conspicuously on the Tokugawa-era scrapheap. In
a move that has often been cited as an indicator of his true nobility, he even divorced his wife and