The first comprehensive historical study of one of the most famous events in Japanese history: the Forty-seven Rōnin vendetta.

John A. Tucker is a Professor of History at East Carolina University in Greenville. He has published extensively on Japanese and Chinese history, and his publications include Critical Readings on Japanese Confucianism, 4 vols. (2012), and Dao Companion to Japanese Confucian Philosophy, coedited with Chun-chieh Huang (2014).

Introduction: vendetta overview; 1. Time and place; 2. Eyewitnesses to bloodshed; 3. R¿nin schisms; 4. Laying souls to rest; 5. Confucian versus Confucian debates; 6. Confucian versus Confucian, round two; 7. History on stage; 8. Domestic, foreign, and anti-foreign reflections; 9. Modern revivals; 10. The vendetta through 1945; 11. Domesticating the vendetta.