JAPANESE SWORD - Swords of the 47 Ronin

SWORDS OF THE 47 RONIN
by
Albert Yamanaka

This material is taken from a private communication to Ron Hartmann by the late Albert Yamanaka,
author of the Nihonto Newsletter. It is published here with the permission of Ron Hartmann.

The three great Adauchi in Japanese history are; the Soga Brother's revenge of their father's death (early Kamakura Period); the Shiju Hichi (47) Shi (Ronin) revenge of their Lord Asano Takumi no Kami and the Iga Ueno Kagiya Adauchi by Watanabe Kazuma with the aid of Araki Mataemon against Kawai Matagoro and his supporters.

"Adauchi" is interpreted as 'vendetta' in most Japanese-Western dictionaries, however there seems to be a silent difference between the Italian vendetta and the Japanese adauchi. Adauchi in almost all cases involve someone in the immediate family, though cases such as the 47 Ronin did occur from time to time.

Every year, about the beginning of December, there is a large play-up of the adauchi of the 47 Ronin of their Lord Asano. The 47 Ronin lead by Oishi successfully avenged their master's grudge against Kira Kozuke no Suke on the 14th of December in Genroku 15 (1702). On this day, many many people flock to the Sengakuji Temple to offer and burn incense before the tombs of the 47. So much so that the entire temple area seems like it is encased in fog.

Early in the days of the establishment of the Edo Tokugawa Shogunate, it issued an edict for the rule in carrying of katana and this ruled that the length of the katana be under 2 shaku 3 sun 5 bu and the wakizashi under 2 shaku. The following list we give here are the katana, wakizashi and yari carried by the 47 Ronin on the night of December 14th of 1702 when they broke into the estate of Kira. It can be noted that most of the swords used by the avengers are extremely long, much longer than the presecribed length allowed.

Since the samurai of the Kira estate were known to carry swords of the prescribed length, the 47 purposely used longer blades which are to their advantage. However, in the case of the yari, they used the very short ones, te yari, much to their advantage in fighting within the closed confines of an estate. It is also noted that some of the men are very old aged whereas the length of the swords they used are quite long and makes one wonder how they managed to hold and fight with these long swords for such a long time, for when they finally found Kira and beheaded him, it was supposed to have been daybreak.

THE 47 RONIN AND THEIR SWORDS

Note: the numbers in parenthesis after the sword smith's name refer to the Kanji tables on this site. Thus Norinaga (1,2) refers to the first Kanji for Nori and the second Kanji for Naga. The information is given in the sequence: name of ronin; age; katana mei and length; wakizashi mei and length; other weapons carried. Only 33 warriors are documented.

OISHI KURANOSUKE YOSHIKATSU, age 45
katana mei: Norinaga (1,2), length 2 shaku 8 sun
wakizashi mei: Norinaga (1,2), length 2 shaku
te yari

YOSHIDA CHUZAEMON KANESUKE, age 64
katana attribution: Shimada (1,x), length 2 shaku 2 sun
wakizashi mei: Hiromitsu (3,1), length 1 shaku 1 sun
naga yari (long yari)

HARA SOEMON MOTOTOKI, age 56
katana mei: Hirohuni (3,1), length 2 shaku 9 sun
wakizashi mei: Kunisuke (1,2), length 2 shaku
te yari

KATAOKA GENGOEMON TAKAFUSA, age 37
katana mei: Kunimitsu (2,1), length 2 shaku 7 sun
wakizashi mei: Kunishige (1,2), length unknown
te yari

MASE KYUDAIU MASAAKI, age 63
katana mei: Michitaka (1,2), length 2 shaku 1 sun
wakizashi mei: Yoshitsuna (1,2), length 2 shaku
bow and arrow

ONODERA JYUNAI HIDEKAZU, age 61
katana mei: Michinaga (1,2), length 2 shaku 9 sun
wakizashi mei: Kunisuke (2,2), length 1 shaku 9 sun
te yari

HAZAMA KIHEI MITSUNOBU, age 65
katana mei: mumei (unsigned), lenght 2 shaku 9 sun
wakizashi mei: Teruhiro (2,2), length 2 shaku 1 sun

ISOGAI JYUROZEMON MASAHISA, age 25
katana mei: Mitsumori (1,1), length 2 shaku 9 sun
wakizashi mei: Kunimune (2,1), length 2 shaku
te yari

HORIBEI YAHYOE AKIZANE, age 77
katana mei: mumei, length 3 shaku
wakizashi: none
naginata

CHIKAMATSU KANROKU YUKISHIGE, age 34
katana mei: Mitsuyoshi (2,2), length 2 shaku
wakizashi mei: unknown, length unknown
long yari

TOMIMORI SUKEEMON MASAYORI, age 34
katana mei: Tomokuni (2,1), length 2 shaku 8 sun
wakizashi mei: Mitsushige (1,2), length unknown
long yari

SHIOTA MATANOJYO TAKANORI, age 35
katana mei: Kunihisa (1,1), length 2 shaku 4 sun
wakizashi mei: Kunihisa (1,1), length 1 shaku 6 sun

HAYAMI TOZAEMON MITSUTAKA, age 42
katana mei: Hiromitsu (3,1), length 2 shaku 7 sun
wakizashi mei: unknown, length unknown
bow and arrow

AKABANE GENZO SHIGEKATA, age 35
katana mei: mumei, length unknown
wakizashi mei: unknown, length unknown

OKUDA MAGODAIU SHIGEMORI, age 57
katana mei: Kunitaka (1,2), length 2 shaku 4 sun
wakizashi mei: unknown, length 1 shaku 6 sun

YADA GOROEMON SUKETAKA, age 29
katana mei: Kunisuke (1,2), length 2 shaku
wakizashi mei: mumei, length 1 shaku 6 sun

OISHI SEZAEMON NOBUKIYO, age 29
katana mei: mumei, length 2 shaku 9 sun
wakizashi mei: mumei, length 1 shaku 9 sun
long yari

OISHI SHIKARA YOSHIKANE, age 16
katana mei: Tomokuni (2,1), length 2 shaku 2 sun plus
wakizashi mei: Hiroshige (3,2), length 1 shaku 1 sun
short yari

HORIBE YASUBEI TAKETSUNE, age 34
katana mei: Kanekuni (2,1), lenght 2 shaku 8 sun
wakizashi mei: mumei, length unknown

NAKAMURA KANSUKE MASATOKI, age ?
katana mei: Nagakuni (1,1), length 2 shaku 4 sun
wakizashi mei: mumei, length unknown
long yari

SUGANOYA HANNOJYO MASATOSHI, age 44
katana mei: Michinaga (1,2), length 2 shaku 8 sun
wakizashi mei: mumei, length unknown

FUWA KAZUEMON MASATANE, age 34
katana mei: Norimitsu (1,1), length unknown
wakizashi mei: Norimitsu (1,1), length unknown

KIMURA OKAUEMON SADAYUKI, age 46
katana mei: Norimitsu (1,1), length 2 shaku 6 sun
wakizashi mei: mumei, length 2 shaku 1 sun

OHIBA SABUROBYOE MITSUTADA, age 51
katana mei: Yasutaka (1,2), length 2 shaku 4 sun
wakizashi mei: Yasutaka (1,2), length 2 shaku
bow and arrow

OKANO KINUEMON KANEHIDE, age 24
katana mei: Tomohisa (2,1), length 2 shaku 4 sun
wakizashi mei: Michinaga (1,2), length unknown
jyumonji yari

KAIGA YAZAEMON TOMONOBU, age 54
katana mei: mumei, length unknown
wakizashi mei: mumei, length unknown

OTAKA GENGO TADAO, age 32
katana mei: Tomohisa (2,1), length 2 shaku 6 sun
wakizashi mei: Masakuni (5,1), length 9 sun 5 bu

OKAJIMA YASOUEMON TSUNEKI, age 38
katana mei: Tomokuni (2,2), length 2 shaku 8 sun
wakizashi mei: Tomokuni (2,2), length 1 shaku 4 sun

YOSHIDA SAWAUEMON KANESADA, age 29
katana attribution: Mizuta, length 2 shaku 9 sun
wakizashi attribution: Mizuta, length 1 shaku 8 sun
long yari

TAKEBAYASHI TADAHICHI TAKASHIGE, age 32
katana mei: Hirokuni (1,1), length 2 shaku
wakizashi attribution: Mizuta, length 1 shaku 6 sun
long yari

KURAHASHI DENSUKE TAKEYUKI, age 34
katana mei: Hirokuni (1,2), length 2 shaku 8 sun
wakizashi mei: mumei. length 2 shaku

HAZAMA SHINROKURO MITSUKAZE, age 24
katana mei: Kunisuke (2,2), length 2 shaku 2 sun
wakizashi mei: Kunisuke (2,2), length unknown
te yari

MURAMATSU KIHEI HIDENAO, agae 62
katana mei: Kuninaga (1,1), length 2 shaku 8 sun
wakizashi mei: Samuhiro (?,1), length 2 shaku 4 sun
long yari