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The New Chushingura: The Forty-Seven Ronin
A dish best served cold...
Chushingura - The Treasury of Loyal Retainers
The revenge of the forty-seven ronin is the famous story of samurai vengeance from feudal Japan. Briefly, Lord Asano, the daimyo of Ako, tries to kill Lord Kira, the chief master of ceremonies, in the shogun's castle in Edo during a visit of imperial envoys from Kyoto. The shogun handed down the sentence of seppuku, ritual suicide, to be carried out the same evening but only for Lord Asano. Some, but not all, of Asano's retainers found the punishment unjust and vowed to deliver Lord Kira's head to the grave of their lord.
No one knows the full true story of the forty-seven ronin, but Eiji Yoshikawa weaves an exciting tale of the players on this historic stage. He tells a tale of the many players, their motivations and conflicts, and the series of events that affect Japan to this day.
An early retelling of this incident was a puppet play titled Chushingura , which is translated as The Treasury of Loyal Retainers . Eiji Yoshikawa's The New Chushingura was serially published in Hinode magazine from January 1935 to January 1937.
Chushingura - The Treasury of Loyal Retainers
The revenge of the forty-seven ronin is the famous story of samurai vengeance from feudal Japan. Briefly, Lord Asano, the daimyo of Ako, tries to kill Lord Kira, the chief master of ceremonies, in the shogun's castle in Edo during a visit of imperial envoys from Kyoto. The shogun handed down the sentence of seppuku, ritual suicide, to be carried out the same evening but only for Lord Asano. Some, but not all, of Asano's retainers found the punishment unjust and vowed to deliver Lord Kira's head to the grave of their lord.
No one knows the full true story of the forty-seven ronin, but Eiji Yoshikawa weaves an exciting tale of the players on this historic stage. He tells a tale of the many players, their motivations and conflicts, and the series of events that affect Japan to this day.
An early retelling of this incident was a puppet play titled Chushingura , which is translated as The Treasury of Loyal Retainers . Eiji Yoshikawa's The New Chushingura was serially published in Hinode magazine from January 1935 to January 1937.
- GenresJapanHistorical Fiction
742 pages, Paperback
Published August 22, 2021
49 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
Eiji Yoshikawa
539 books783 followersPen-name of Yoshikawa Hidetsugu. Yoshikawa is well-known for his work as a Japanese historical fiction novelist, and a number of re-makes have been spawned off his work.
In 1960, he received the Order of Cultural Merit.
Eiji Yoshikawa (吉川 英治, August 11, 1892 – September 7, 1962) was a Japanese historical novelist. Among his best-known novels, most are revisions of older classics. He was mainly influenced by classics such as The Tale of the Heike, Tale of Genji, Outlaws of the Marsh, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, many of which he retold in his own style. As an example, the original manuscript of Taiko is 15 volumes; Yoshikawa took up to retell it in a more accessible tone, and reduced it to only two volumes. His other books also serve similar purposes and, although most of his novels are not original works, he created a huge amount of work and a renewed interest in the past. He was awarded the Cultural Order of Merit in 1960 (the highest award for a man of letters in Japan), the Order of the Sacred Treasure and the Mainichi Art Award just before his death from cancer in 1962. He is cited as one of the best historical novelists in Japan.
In 1960, he received the Order of Cultural Merit.
Eiji Yoshikawa (吉川 英治, August 11, 1892 – September 7, 1962) was a Japanese historical novelist. Among his best-known novels, most are revisions of older classics. He was mainly influenced by classics such as The Tale of the Heike, Tale of Genji, Outlaws of the Marsh, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, many of which he retold in his own style. As an example, the original manuscript of Taiko is 15 volumes; Yoshikawa took up to retell it in a more accessible tone, and reduced it to only two volumes. His other books also serve similar purposes and, although most of his novels are not original works, he created a huge amount of work and a renewed interest in the past. He was awarded the Cultural Order of Merit in 1960 (the highest award for a man of letters in Japan), the Order of the Sacred Treasure and the Mainichi Art Award just before his death from cancer in 1962. He is cited as one of the best historical novelists in Japan.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 16, 2024
I remember watching Chūshingura: Hana no Maki, Yuki no Maki by Hiroshi Inagaki and roughly around the same time reading Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa probably close to 25 years ago now. I ate both of them up. So when I saw that there was an English translation of more books by Yoshikawa and especially this story I bought it. While the story is good and there are definitely some great parts to it one would expect from Yoshikawa having read Musashi and Taiko in translation, the one downside to this is the quality of translation for this book.
Being a translation professional myself, one of the only things I can think of is that there was no editing or proofreading step completed by an additional person. There are sentences and some passages that even after re-reading was hard or impossible to understand due to the translation. Though, not having access to the source text, I am fairly certain there are also a few spokes where there are errors. For example, there is portion of dialogue between the characters Horibe Yasubei and Takata Gunpei. Takata is addressed, but the following bit of dialogue it is written that Horibe responds. But if you follow the dialogue it becomes clear that the name was just incorrectly mixed up.
I previously mentioned reading Musashi and Taiko by Yoshikawa, where both Charles Terry and William Wilson did great jobs of translating the books, but I would also recommend the Ryoma! series written by Ryotaro Shiba and translated and edited by Paul McCarthy, Juliet Winters Carpenter, and Phyllis Birnbaum.
Due to the quality and readability of the translation, I would give this an overall 3 stars. Great story, just that the translation can use some much needed polishing for it to really shine.
Being a translation professional myself, one of the only things I can think of is that there was no editing or proofreading step completed by an additional person. There are sentences and some passages that even after re-reading was hard or impossible to understand due to the translation. Though, not having access to the source text, I am fairly certain there are also a few spokes where there are errors. For example, there is portion of dialogue between the characters Horibe Yasubei and Takata Gunpei. Takata is addressed, but the following bit of dialogue it is written that Horibe responds. But if you follow the dialogue it becomes clear that the name was just incorrectly mixed up.
I previously mentioned reading Musashi and Taiko by Yoshikawa, where both Charles Terry and William Wilson did great jobs of translating the books, but I would also recommend the Ryoma! series written by Ryotaro Shiba and translated and edited by Paul McCarthy, Juliet Winters Carpenter, and Phyllis Birnbaum.
Due to the quality and readability of the translation, I would give this an overall 3 stars. Great story, just that the translation can use some much needed polishing for it to really shine.
January 15, 2026
This book kept losing me; put it down multiple times to start/finish other books. I like the idea of shining a new light on the historic tale, but I think the translation was rough and ruined parts of it for me. Really enjoyed the last 250 pages or so. 3.2/10.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 8, 2023
At times it feels like this was translated by AI. Some passages just don’t make sense.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews