Join us for The 47 Ronin Project, a year-long exploration of the original Kabuki version of the popular tale. Study one or two acts or explore the entire epic. The JETAANC and San Mateo Kabuki Clubs are teaming up to bring you classes focusing on two different celebrated productions of the complete epic on film. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to study this masterpiece of Japanese theatre!
The 47 Ronin Project
Forty-seven samurai. One epic vendetta.
The evil Lord Morono tries to seduce the wife of the noble Lord Hangan but she rejects him outright. Full of rage and spite, Morono goads Hangan into committing a crime that results in his execution. Left without their master, can Hangan’s loyal 47 samurai retainers overcome all odds to avenge his death and restore his honor?
Made into more than 90 film versions—including one coming out next year with Keanu Reeves—the epic revenge tale of The 47 Ronin (Chushingura) is one of the most popular Japanese stories of all time. (synopsis) Join us as we explore on film the Kabuki theatre saga that started it all. Each act advances the overall saga but also stands alone as a self-contained story, so choose the acts you like or study the entire epic! Two great chances to study this legendary epic in the Bay Area:
San Francisco at Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC)
- Act I, The Helmet Selection at Hachiman Shrine - February 26
- Act II*, The Palace of Wakasanosuke and Act III, The Pine Room in the Shogun’s Palace – April 29
- Act IV, Enya Hangan’s Harakiri - May 27
- Travel Scene, The Bridegroom’s Journey - June 10
- Act V, The Musket Shots on the Yamazaki Highway and Act VI, Kampei’s Suicide – July 8
- Act VII, The Ichiriki Teahouse at Gion – August 12
- Act VIII*, The Bride’s Journey and Act IX, The Retreat at Yamashina – October 14
- Act X*, The Loyalty of Amakawaya Gihei and Act XI, The Attack on Morono’s Mansion – November 18
Classes begin at 2pm. In Japanese with English subtitles.
*Bunraku puppet theater version
Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC)
1840 Sutter Street, San Francisco (map)
(415) 567-5505; communications@jetaanc.org
San Mateo Japanese American Community Center (SMJACC)
- Act I, The Helmet Selection at Hachiman Shrine – February 5
- Act II*, The Palace of Momoi Wakasanosuke – March 4
- Act III, The Pine Room in the Shogun’s Palace – April 1
- Act IV, Enya Hangan’s Harakiri and the Rear Gate of the Mansion – May 6
- Travel Scene, The Bridegroom’s Journey – June 3
- Act V, The Musket Shots on the Yamazaki Highway and Act VI, Kampei’s Suicide – July 1
- Act VII, The Ichiriki Teahouse at Gion – August 5
- Act VIII, The Bride’s Journey – September 2
- Act IX, The Retreat at Yamashina – October 7
- Act X, The Loyalty of Amakawaya Gihei – November 4
- Act XI, The Attack on Moronao’s Mansion – December 2
Classes begin at 1:30pm. In Japanese with English synopsis provided.
*Bunraku puppet theater version
San Mateo Japanese American Community Center (SMJACC)
415 S. Claremont Street, San Mateo (near CalTrain) (map)
(650) 341-5872; communications@jetaanc.org
What is Kabuki theatre? Click here for a good introduction. What is Bunraku theatre? Click here for a good introduction.
Schedule subject to change; check back here for updates or join our mailing list here to receive notification. Sponsored by JETAANC Kabuki Club, JCCCNC, and SMJACC Kabuki Club.
Related Links and Resources
The popular story of the 47 Ronin was based on a true story about 47 samurai who avenged their master under similar circumstances, known as the “Ako Incident.” Explore the story and the history that inspired it in the following links and resources:
Websites
- Synopsis of the Kabuki version of The 47 Ronin
- Synopsis of the Kabuki version with large format photos of famous scenes
- A brief account of the Ako Incident
- Bito Masahide’s critical examination of the Ako Incident, probably the best summary and introduction of the historical basis of The 47 Ronin
- The 47 Ronin Wikipedia page
- Website devoted to the Ako Incident
- Website about The 47 Ronin, created by Columbia University Professor Henry Smith – much information about the many versions of the story in various media throughout history
- Summary of Mitford’s famous re-telling of the Ako Incident
- Mitford’s re-telling of the Ako Incident (electronic version)
- Ako’s Forty-Seven Samurai - website created by students at Ako High School; contains the story of the 47 Ronin and many local photos
- Many more links and resources related to Kabuki, Bunraku, and other Japanese performing arts are listed on JETAANC Kabuki Club’s Resources and Links page
Books
- Chushingura: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers – Donald Keene’s famous translation of the bunraku version, the text of which Kabuki borrowed almost wholesale
- The Revenge of the 47 Ronin – Edo 1703, Stephen Turnbull
- The 47 Ronin Story – novelization of the story
- Chushingura: Studies in Kabuki and the Puppet Theater – collection of essays, as well as an English-language Kabuki adaptation of the play used by the University of Hawaii in their production of The 47 Ronin in the late 1970s.
- Revenge Drama in European Renaissance and Japanese Theater – contains five essays on Chushingura in Eastern and Western culture
- Chushingura and the Floating World: The Representation of Kanadehon Chushingura in Ukiyo-e Prints
- Bushido: The Warrior’s Code - Inazo Nitobe’s classic account of the samurai code, which motivates so many of the characters and their actions in Chushingura
- The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture - Ruth Benedict’s classic anthropological work sets out many of the ethical categories that are in effect in Chushingura. Though very much a work of its time, many of the “patterns” Benedict discusses may still be considered fruitfully as “Ideal Types” in the sense that the sociologist Max Weber used the term.
Articles
- Bito Masahide’s critical examination of the Ako Incident, probably the best summary and introduction of the historical basis of The 47 Ronin
- “The Capacity of Chūshingura,” Henry Smith
- “Confucian Perspectives on the Akō Revenge: Law and Moral Agency,” James McMullen
- “A Chūshingura Palimpsest: Young Motoori Norinaga Hears the Story of the Akō Rōnin from a Buddhist Priest,” Federico Marcon and Henry Smith
- “Singing Tales of the Gishi: Naniwabushi and the Forty-seven Rōnin in Late Meiji Japan,” Hyōdō Hiromi and Henry Smith
- “Parting in the Snow at Nanbuzaka (Nanbuzaka yuki no wakare),” Tōchūken Kumoemon
- “The Media and Politics of Japanese Popular History: The Case of the Akō Gishi,” Henry Smith
- “Chūshingura in the 1980s: Rethinking the Story of the Forty-Seven Rōnin,” Henry Smith
- “The Trouble with Terasaka: The Forty-Seventh Ronin and the Chushingura Imagination” Henry Smith
- “The Classical Spectacle: Chushingura and Two Postwar Versions” – an analysis and comparison of Inagaki’s and Fukasaku’s film versions
- “Genroku Chushingura” – an analysis of Mizoguchi’s film version, an attempt to hew closer to the historical events of the Ako Incident, based on the work of Mayama Seika, who wrote a Kabuki version. The film features many actors from the Zenshinza Kabuki troupe.
- “Genroku Chushingura and the Primacy of Perception,” D. William Davis – another analysis of Mizoguchi’s film version.
- “Chushingura Act 6” – translation of Act 6 of the Kabuki version, with an introduction to 47 Ronin
- Yukio Mishima’s account of the first time he saw The 47 Ronin, at age 13 in 1938, the first Kabuki play he ever saw. Later in the essay Mishima talks about Faubion Bowers’s role in lifting the ban on the play after WWII. (This account explains how Bowers did it. See also James Brandon’s “Myth and Reality: A Story of Kabuki during American Censorship, 1945-1949,” pp. 72-73.) The 47 Ronin also happened to be the first Kabuki play that Bowers had seen, in 1940, sparking his life-long passion for Kabuki and preparing him for his role as a decisive agent in saving Kabuki from oblivion after the war. The great Uzaemon XV starred in both of these pre-war productions that inspired these two young, impressionable men, who incidentally came to know each other during the Occupation.
- Story of the missing pine tree at the first performance of 47 Ronin allowed by the Occupation after WWII in 1947. The Occupation authorities had previously banned the play out of concern about the feudal content and theme of revenge. The fact that the bunraku theater produced the play without intervention in Kansai in 1946 shows the relatively little attention the Occupation was paying to the puppet theater in contrast to Kabuki.
- Discussion of Chushingura on film, focusing on the early cinema icon, Bando Tsumasaburo
Visual Arts
- Hiroshige’s woodblock prints of the 47 Ronin
- Yoshitoshi’s famous woodblock prints of the 47 Ronin (1860)
Videos
- Short video documentary about the 47 Ronin
- Video of the graves of the 47 Ronin at Sengakuji Temple, near Tokyo
- Video excerpts from University of Hawaii’s English-language Kabuki production
- Video excerpts from Children’s Kabuki production
- Trailer for Ichikawa Kon’s film version
- Trailer for Fukasaku’s film version
- The raid on Kira’s mansion in Inagaki’s film version
- The raid on Kira’s mansion in Watanabe’s film version
- Mizoguchi’s film version Genroku Chushingura, an attempt to hew closer to the historical events of the Ako Incident, based on the work of Mayama Seika, who wrote a Kabuki version in the 1930s. The film features many actors from the Zenshinza Kabuki troupe.
- Trailer for “Salaryman Chushingura” film version
- Trailer for “Wan Wan Chushingura (Doggy 47 Ronin)” animated film version
- Video of 47 Ronin Festival at Sengakuji Temple in the Shinagawa area of Tokyo
