Official

After that, I visited Ako Castle, which is a castle lover, and looked around Oishi built-in assistant and Akaho clansman, and the territory of Soko Yamaga, a military scholar who influenced Yoshida Shoin.

Then visit Ako-Oishi Shrine, the hometown of Chushingura where the Gishi Historical Museum is located.
On both sides of the approach, there are 47 stone statues of the main gate Corps (right side) and the back gate (left side)!
I've seen the 47-gishi statue so far, but this stone statue is especially wonderful!
One of the most impressive things was that these stone statues reflect the clothes and belongings at the time of the defeat.

It is interesting and I want to take a closer look at each person, but due to the limited time, Yasubee Horibe and Shinroku Hazama, which have related historical sites in Chuo-ku, and the stone statue of Oishi built-in assistant, a leader of Yoshiko Ako. I tried it.
According to the reference, Yasubee Horibe, who was in charge of cutting in the mansion, had a long sword, a wild sword, and Shinroku Hazama, who was in charge of Nagaya Prevention, had a half bow.
Certainly, you can see a long sword in the stone statue of Yasubee Horibe.

I forgot to check the back of the stone statue of Shinroku Hazama with a half bow, but what I noticed when I saw the stone statue of the 47th Gishi was that everyone was dressed similarly. That is.
I was worried and picked up related literature in the regional archives of the Kyobashi Library, and found that it was interesting.
If you are familiar with Ako Gishi and Chushingura, you may already know, but they fought in a uniform fire costume!

The costumes are black hoods, bowls, small sleeves, belts with armor chains, lower belts, white cloth on the cuffs as signs to avoid defeating each other, crotch, leg ties, and sandals.
Although it is a weapon, it seems that he was free to choose and bring it according to his specialty.

It's very interesting to wear something like a team uniform in modern times and enter the game.
But why was it a fire costume instead of a cool armor helmet?

The appearance of Oishi built-in assistant sounding a signal drum has been adopted for the design of the fire hydrant manhole cover in Ako City.

According to the Cultural Digital Library, fire extinguishing is a symbol of the police function of public power, and it was possible to enter and exit the gates of forbidden, public, and samurai without guidance.
For this reason, as a late-night compulsory search and house search for the Kira family, they impersonated a fire extinguisher so that they could not be suspicious and pretend to be seen. I thought so much!

Just as the Kabuto-cho and Kayabacho Machikado Exhibition Hall had a lot of exhibits related to fire extinguishing, fire extinguishing was indispensable in the Edo period, when it was said that "fighting and fire were Edo no Hana".
Hiroshige Utagawa, who grew up as an ukiyo-e artist, was actually born in a fire extinguisher house.
If you are interested in the role of fire extinguishing, clothes, and interesting tips, please also see "Chuo-ku in the history of firefighting (Part 1)" and "Chuo-ku in the history of firefighting (Part 2)".

How was it? Did you know the costume situation of Ako Yoshishi and became interested in them little by little?
For such people, I would like to introduce Ako Gishi related spots that can be visited in Chuo-ku.
On December 14, why don't you think about the events 320 years ago and explore history in Chuo-ku?

The site of Takumi Asanouchi's residence
Address: 1 (partial), 10, 11 districts, Akashi-cho, Chuo-ku
The place that was the Edo-kami residence of the Asano family of Akaho feudal lord.
It is reported that the lawyers who achieved their true spirit passed this area on the way to Sengakuji Temple, the Bodaiji Temple of the Asano family.

Horibe Yasubei Takeyuki Monument
Address: 1-4, Hacchobori, Chuo-ku
Yasubee Horibe is a child of retainer Nakayama of the Mizoguchi family of Shibata clan in Echigo country.
After his father who became a ronin died, he came out to Edo and made a name for swordsmanship.
It is said that he had a residence in Kyobashi Nagatani-cho (currently Ginza 1-chome).

Shinroku Hazama Peace pagoda
Address: 3-15-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku (Tsukiji Honganji precinct)
He knew that his father and brother were joining the revenge union, and decided to join in the defeat.
There is a legend that he tied Kaneko to a spear and threw it into the fence of Tsukiji Honganji as his own memorial service on the way to Sengakuji and lifted it to Sengakuji Temple.

[First Excursion Series] Ako Gishi learning from wooden statues and Japanese sweets
[The 24th Excursion Series] Follow the footsteps of Yasubee Horibe
You can also see the oldest Japanese movie in existence! The 120th anniversary of the birth of Japanese movies "Meiji Japan as seen in video"

[References]
Chushingura, Volume 1, Volume 1, Ako City, Hyogo Prefecture, 1989.
Shunsuke Kanno, "Chushingura fell in love with Edo kid-Approaching the real and fiction of Ako Yoshishi", Shogakukan, 2013.
Hirofumi Yamamoto, "The Japanese History of the Loser 15 Akaho Incident and Forty-six", Hirofumi Kikkawa, 2013.
Hirofumi Yamamoto "Introduction to Chushingura from Zero Knowledge" Gentosha, 2014.
Hirofumi Yamamoto, "Lecture by Professor of University of Tokyo, Chushingura" Tsunogawa Shinsho, 2017.

[Reference Website]
“Fire in Edo: Relationship between Chushingura and Fire” https://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/dglib/contents/learn/edc21/yomoyama/y5/yo3.html (viewed on December 11, 2022).