Ōishi Yoshio


Ōishi Yoshio was the chamberlain of the Akō Domain in Harima Province, Japan. He is known as the leader of the Forty-seven Rōnin in their 1702 vendetta and thus the hero of the Chūshingura. He is often referred to by his title, Ōishi Kuranosuke.

Biography

He served Asano Naganori as the head chamberlain for the Asano estate, supervising the daily running of the castle and the samurai. Due to the Tokugawa rules which required all the daimyō to spend every other year in Edo the chamberlain was a very important man and the de facto ruler of the estate when the daimyō was away. Having attained this office at a rather young age, he is said to have had the implicit trust of his lord.
When Asano committed seppuku as punishment for his failed attempt to kill Kira Yoshinaka in Edo castle and the Tokugawa shogunate abolished the house of Asano in Akō, Ōishi was in Akō and managed all its administrative issues. He persuaded other samurai to vacate the castle to the agents of the Shogunate. During the next two years many people wondered what Oishi would do as he had a reputation as an honorable and capable man.
He attempted to get the permission to re-establish the house of Asano but failed. He then began a careful plot to kill Lord Kira but to throw off suspicion spent time in the geisha houses of Kyoto. This type of ruse is referred to as
In January 1703 he, with 46 other Akō rōnin, attacked Kira at his residence in the Honjo neighborhood of Edo. Kira was killed and decapitated. After Ōishi dispatched Terasaka Kichiemon to inform Asano's widow Yōzeiin of the deed, he and the remaining 45 rōnin went to Sengaku-ji in Shinagawa where Naganori was buried and there they were arrested.
He and the other rōnin were ordered to commit seppuku. Since it was an honorable sentence rather than merely decapitation, everyone accepted this sentence as an honor.

Legacy

After death, Oishi became famous as the example of ideal samurai behavior. His ultimate goal of reestablishment of the Asano clan was realized as the Tokugawa shogunate did restore some lands to the Asano clan. Oishi was related to the Asano clan by blood, as several generations prior, an Oishi man married a daughter of the Asano.
In the famous kabuki play Kanadehon Chūshingura, Yoshio is known as Ōboshi Yuranosuke.