I don’t have it in me to be that honorable–not for two and a half years. I would have just found myself a plot of land a worked it or slept on it. Well, I wouldn’t have been a samurai in the first place.
I’ve heard of the story, but never experienced any of its iterations. This version begins with a guy named Murakami Kiken visiting the Sengaku-ji Temple to pay his respects to one of the 47, as well as to ask for forgiveness. A monk sees him and offers hospitality as Murakami looks like he’s traveled some distance to get there. Murakami’s honorable/defeatist side says that he can’t be helped; the monk then offers to hear him out. And so begins his recount of the tale.
I was studying every name mentioned thereafter to see who Murakami was supposed to be, but didn’t learn his identity until the very end. Which is fine; I knew he wasn’t one of the retainers because they were all dead, but using him was a nice way to tell the story. I enjoyed this, but this might be one of the very few books I would rather watch than read.