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MIA held a walking tour on March 12, 2016.
Here is a comment from Chair, Executive Committee (MIA member) who organized this exciting program.
“Walking Tour of the 47 Ronin”
We had a walking tour in 2016 where we re-traced the historical path taken on foot by the 47 Ako Ronins during the fateful day of March 14th. It was the first time we guide from the Minato-ku voluntary tour guide Society to lead us. Unfortunately, the weather was quite cold and cloudy, all day long. Nonetheless, we had 38 participants including 17 foreigners from all over the world that day. A brief explanation of this tour was given at Sakura Park which was near of the starting point of Shimbashi SL Square.
The tale of the 47 loyal Ronin tells the story of a group of samurai who were left leaderless (Ronin) after their Daimyo Asano was compelled to commit ritual suicide (Seppuku) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka. On December 14, 1702, the remaining group of 47 Ronin under their leader, Kuranosuke Oishi finally succeeded in avenging Daimyo Asano’s honor and death by killing Kira.
During the tour, we visited the place where Asano committed suicide (Seppuku). Asano drew his sword on himself in the Edo Castle at a place which is now known as “The Pine Gallery Incident”, the day of March 14th almost 315 years ago. We then visited the site of the former residence of Daimyo Mouri where the 47 Ronin were hosted. Following that, we toured the residence of Daimyo Matsudaira, Mizuno and Hosokawa. The residence of Mouri is located at Roppongi Hills and is now a part of the Italian embassy. But, there are neither memorials nor indications of the historical residence. At the last segment of this tour, we visited the temple (Sengakuji) where the graves of the 47 Ronins are located at. Some foreigners who joined the tour told me that they watched the Hollywood movie that was based on this historical tale. I was also glad to have met foreigners who had also participated on a previous tour. We finally managed to complete this 9 kilo meters course on that day in spite of such cold weather.
