A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Jennifer Bassett.
When Lord Asano drew his sword on Lord Kira one spring day in 1701, it began a story that is now a national legend in Japan. Lord Kira lived, but Lord Asano died, and after his death, his samurai became ronin, samurai without a master. And so began their long plan for revenge on Lord Kira. Their loyalty to their dead master made them famous, and people in Japan remember them to this day. The story of the forty-seven ronin has been told and retold for 300 years – in plays, novels, and films. A major Hollywood film was made about the forty-seven ronin in 2013.
Оглавление
Jennifer Bassett. 47 Ronin A Samurai Story from Japan
47 RONIN A Samurai Story from Japan
NOTES ABOUT SAMURAI
PEOPLE IN THIS STORY
Samurai
CHAPTER 1. The death of Asano
CHAPTER 2. The plan
CHAPTER 3. The long wait
CHAPTER 4. The attack
CHAPTER 5. The revenge
CHAPTER 6. The punishment
Sengaku-ji today
GLOSSARY
ACTIVITIES. Before Reading
ACTIVITIES. While Reading
ACTIVITIES. After Reading
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
oxford bookworms library
THE OXFORD BOOKWORMS LIBRARY GRADING AND SAMPLE EXTRACTS
Отрывок из книги
Warriors, famous fighting men in the old days in Japan. They lived by a special set of rules, the samurai code of honour (bushido in Japanese).
Samurai without a daimyo (a lord or master). In Japan today ronin are more often called roshi.
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Ritual suicide – killing yourself by cutting your stomach open with a knife. This was part of bushido, the samurai code of honour, and for samurai, it was better to commit seppuku than to live a life without honour.
A lord, a powerful ruler of a region in Japan in the old days. Daimyo often had their own armies of three or four hundred samurai to guard their castles and land.
