This October, the Kabukiza is anticipating the 300th anniversary of the famous act of revenge accomplished by 47 ronin (masterless samurai) on Dec. 14, 1702 by staging one of kabuki's most celebrated dramas, "Kanadehon Chushingura (The Forty-seven Loyal Retainers)." Selections from this epic work are being presented in two parts, Acts I, III and IV in the afternoon and Acts V, VI, VII and XI in the evening.
"Chushingura" is based on the well-known incidents that took place in Edo in 1701 and 1702. On March 14, 1701, Daimyo Asano of Ako, in the southwest of present-day Hyogo Prefecture, was ordered to commit seppuku for attempting to kill the shogun's head steward, Kira Kozukenosuke, in Edo Castle, after being cruelly insulted by him. Twenty-one months after their lord's death, Asano's 47 former retainers broke into Kira's residence at Ryogoku and avenged their master by beheading Kira. The ronin, in turn, committed seppuku two months later by order of the shogun.
The ronin were so admired that their deeds were dramatized for the bunraku and kabuki stages during the first half of the 18th century. The "definitive" version was that written by Takeda Izumo and collaborators in 1748, which was adapted for the Kabuki stage the following year.