The forty-seven ronin story

the long version

Japan was a country in turmoil at the beginning of the 18th century. It was a time of pageantry and corruption in the Shogun's court. Because the merchant class was rising in power, it was also the beginning of the end of privilege for the professional warriors, or samurai, who felt their loss keenly, especially since they held the business of money-making in contempt. In the midst of such bewildering change, eruptions of violence were not unknown. In 1701 in Edo, in a moment of anger and frustration, Lord Asano of Ako lashed out at a corrupt court official and set in motion a chain of events that terminated in one of the bloodiest vendettas in Japan's feudal history. These events shocked the country and brought the Shogun himself to a legal and moral impasse. When it was over, Japan had a new set of heroes--the forty-seven ronin, or ex-samurai, of Ako.--From publisher description.