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| Picture by Ohishi |
21p
Under such conditions some people were speaking ill
of Kuranosuke. "We have heard of a warehouse of big boulders, when
we
watched it carefully we found it is full of Kirazu".
Kirazu is Okara(tofu refuse), which is the dregs of beans that make
tofu. This amounted to a complaint against Kuranosuke and his pawns for
not
committing hara-kiri. They said "The big boulders will be of Sushi,
he
has eaten the rice of Ako completely".
There was hopeful news from Araki Juzaemon a superintendent officer
who had returned to Edo and told the wish of Kuranosuke and his pawns
and other people who had been asked to campaign to the Shogunate. But,
even after that, their two
desires of restoring the Asano family and a penalty for Kozukenosuke were
unlikely to be accepted by the Shogunate.
Kozukenosuke's offer that he wanted to resign as the leader of an
aristocracy was accepted on the 26th March. However he remained in
his residence. There was a rumor that he would let Kira-
Yoshichika, an adopted son, succeed to his post and go to Yonezawa.
Meanwhile, Horibe who was in Edo for the purpose of
revenge wrote again and again to Kuranosuke asking him to coming to
Edo quickly and give advice.
But, at this time Kuranosuke, who stayed in Yamashina said repeatedly to
Horibe
"we should follow Chikara, and do whatever he has in mind until we
know of
his safety".
Horibe wrote a letter on August 19th, saying. "Our leader Takuminokami
kept his pride in exchange for his irreplaceable life and his ancestral
estate." Kuranosuke seemed to protect his life by putting the blame
on
Chikara. He overlooked our leader's enemy and said that we
should have protected Chikara. Takuminokami was popular
among the people of Edo. It was often said that "his family has flourished
from
generation to generation. So he must have had faithful samurais and
never overlooked his enemies."
Kuranosuke sent Hara-Soemon to Edo to keep Horibe's calm, but on the
contrary he agreed with cHoribe and was eager for revenge.
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