Lecture 9 Loyalty and Honor Q: What are the 3-4 notions of loyalty present in 47 Ronin (readings)? - there’s the Confucian sense of relationships that require loyalty - master-vassal relationship (two types: loyalty to the house, and “samurai loyalty” – loyalty to your immediate lord - loyalty to the shogun (societal implications) ichibun: (shame) hitomae: (reputation) In 47 Ronin, there was the Incident | Waiting Period | Attack and Judgment Issues surrounding the Incident of Asano attacking Kira: - disobeying shogun - poor swordsmanship (for not successfully killing Kira) - Kira is a coward; should he have been punished? Waiting period: - ronin had different ideas about how to restore Asano’s honor Attack and Judgment: - controversy over whether the samurai deserved death - why didn’t the ronin commit seppuku immediately? Opportunism? The shogun banned this story! Q: Who do you side with in this story? - You can understand both sides of the story (both the shogun and the ronin); but from his modern viewpoint, killing someone over an insult is ridiculous Q: Why didn’t the shogun execute the ronin like common criminals? - might have created unrest - does not fit with their status, and this is a very ordered society (Tokugawa) Three different ways of the warriors can be categorized broadly as such: Kamakura Period | Muramachi Period | Tokugawa Period Categorize what we’ve read/watched into each: Kamakura: - Heike - Kwaidan - Some pre-Heike readings Muramachi: - Seven Samurai - Throne of Blood- Zen (begins) Tokugawa: - “Bushido” (Yamaga Soko) - Zen (cont’d) - Hagakure - 47 Ronin [screening of the rest of 47
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