Chushingura - The 47 Ronin

Chushingura-47 Ronin is based on one of the most enduring stories in Japan, and centers on actual events that took place at the beginning of the 18C during Japan’s feudal Shogun period. This sprawling story of honor, betrayal, clan loyalty and revenge has been told and retold in hundreds of ways in Japanese books, plays, movies, television dramas, and animated series. We presented a new adaptation and translation, and performed mainly in Japanese with some English and supertitles translation throughout.

Amaterasu Za strives to bring traditional and contemporary Japanese classics to an American audience. Our first major project was an English-language adaptation of a Chikamatsu play from the Kabuki tradition – Courier of Love. Our second was a full production of two Yukio Mishima modern Noh plays Hanjo and Aoi No Ue, in Japanese. 

Because the story is so widely loved by Japanese audiences, demand in the Japanese community was very high. At the same time, this epic story and its culminating sword battle drew an English-speaking audience also and allowed us to engage and connect both these audiences. Younger audiences, too, were attracted to the production, because of the wide popularity of Manga and animation rooted in Japanese feudal-era stories. Our project was ambitious, with a large cast, many costumes, stage combat, and Edo-period wigs crafted for the production by an artisan in Japan.

We originally planned to produce Chushingura 47 Ronin in the winter of 2020, but due to the schedule impact of Coronavirus, we had to reschedule.

The show was very well received and reviewed.