Description

The fifth print appearing in Volume 4 of Gishi taikan, edited by Fukumoto Nichinan. 

The stealthy figure holding a spear in this print is Yoshida Chūzaemon 吉田忠左衛門, chief advisor to Ōishi Kuranosuke 大石内蔵助, who, on this snowy evening of December 14, 1703, is reconnoitering Kira's mansion in Honjo, an eastern suburb of Edo, just before the attack begins. The "elderly people" in the print's title references the sixty-four year old Yoshida Chūzaemon and his fellow righteous samurai, sixty-one year old, Onodera Jūnai 小野寺十内, a key senior leader of the group, both of whom were assigned to the rear gate detachment during the attack on the Kira mansion resulting in Kira's assassination.

As summarized by historian John A. Tucker, "En route to Kira's residence, the rōnin were instructed to proceed at an ordinary pace, in small groups of two or three, heading toward the front or rear gates of Kira's mansion. They had been strategically divvied up, with half making entry through the front gate, led by Ōishi, and the other half through the rear, led by Ōishi's son Chikara and a senior rōnin, Yoshida Chūzaemon. Ōishi further divided each group into interior attack forces and peripheral guard forces, thus coordinating duties as systematically as possible for military efficiency. Sketches of the compound were reportedly provided to expedite the search."[1]

Fukumoto's commentary (see below) on this print provide details of the fighting these two men engaged in at Kira's rear gate.

[1]  [The] Forty-Seven Rōnin: The Vendetta in History, John A. Tucker, Cambridge University Press, 2018, p. 85.

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