Sun, Dec 31, 2000 page1

• Gory samurai tale still playing well throughout Japan

  • AP
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  It has endured for 300 years as a New Year's favorite in Japan: A bloody tale of bravery, loyalty and selflessness that features 47 samurai who avenge their leader's death by beheading an evil lord -- and then pay for the deed by committing ritual suicide.

  Retold over the centuries in kabuki plays, woodblock prints and movies and remembered each year on Dec. 14, the tale is as much a part of winter holidays in Japan as the Nutcracker or Handel's Messiah is in the West.

  "They did what they had to do despite the potential for great personal loss," said Shosei Iwanaga, 33, a monk at Tokyo's Sengakuji Temple, where the 47 "ronin" and their lord, Asano Naganori, are entombed.

  Today, thousands visit the temple throughout December and the New Year's holidays to pray before the stone tablets that mark the warriors' tombs.

  Vendors sell sticks of incense and talismans, and a sign marks the well where the samurai supposedly washed the blood off Lord Kira's severed head after storming his mansion on a cold winter's night.

  The temple holds a festival between Dec. 13 and Dec. 14 in which people dressed as the 47 samurai parade through Tokyo, and monks conduct a ceremony for the public at the warriors' grave site.

  The tale embodies dearly held traditional warrior ethics that are still revered today: obedience, loyalty and a selfless attention to hierarchy, duty and the rule of law.

  "The story is immortal for the Japanese," said Jiro Fujiyoshi, a spokesman for broadcaster Television Tokyo, which in the past has shown a 12-hour movie-version of the tale on New Year's Day. "Even if you already know how it goes, when you watch, there's just something you feel."

  The tale -- known widely as Chushingura, the name of a kabuki play about the incident -- would be moving in any culture.

  The band of retainers believed Kira had intentionally provoked their master while he was visiting the shogun in Tokyo, then called Edo. Angered by Kira's taunts, Asano is believed to have drawn his sword and attacked him in the shogun's castle, a crime punishable by death.

  The reputedly pure-hearted Asano obeyed the rule of law and committed ritual suicide. A small group of his retainers took revenge in 1703, and presented Kira's head before their master's grave before taking their own lives.

  Not all Japanese New Year traditions are as grim.

  Another annual attraction is the nationally televised Red and White Song Contest, a gaudy New Year's Eve sing-off featuring dozens of stars, with the men's White Team competing against the women's Red Team.

  Still, New Year, the most important holiday on Japan's calendar, remains a time for family, friends and time-honored activities such as visiting shrines and temples or sending out New Year's greeting cards.

  As in many countries, New Year's in Japan is also about resolutions and fresh starts. For some, it's a chance to adopt the warrior spirit embodied by the famous 47 samurai.

  "If you have no money, you vow to make some. If you are weak, you vow to get stronger and beat down your enemies," said Katsutaro Kawai, a vendor of dried fish in Tokyo's Tsukiji Fish Market. "At the New Year, you've got to have goals."
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