Essay about Chushingura Chushingura

The last act is the famous "night attack" on Moronao's mansion. Aside from the early morning hour of the attack, the action is mostly fictionalized. The ronin assemble outside Moronao's mansion in two groups, wearing armor and distinctive black-and-white patterned coats for which they are famous. The pattern is an iconographical device representing the inevitable progression of night and day, symbolizing unfailing loyalty. Each ronin also wears a small wooden tag inscribed with one of the symbols of the Japanese syllabary as a means of identification. After a long series of fight scenes the ronin gain control of the compound, and begin a search for Moronao. He is eventually found cowering in a charcoal shed in his underwear, and as befitting a man of his character, he dies a coward's death. Bearing Moronao's severed head aloft in triumph, the loyal retainers set off in the dawn chill to lay this trophy on their master's grave