(Voice actor) Mr.David Radtke

On March 1701, Takuminokami Asano, the lord of the Banshu-Ako domain, was serving the role of entertaining the Imperial envoy at Edo castle. Kozukenosuke Kira was his mentor. However, there was a grudge between the two for which the reason is unknown. Yosobei Kajikawa was a hatamoto (direct vassal of the shogun) and was appointed to serve the shogun’s wife in the inner palace. His job could be described as the liaison between the inner palace and the Tokugawa regime. On March 14th, Yosobei was appointed to be involved with the Imperial envoy as the aid to the wife of shogun, Tsunayoshi Tokugawa. And on that day, when he went to Edo castle as scheduled, he heard that the time was moved ahead of schedule for the Imperial envoy’s convenience. So he searched for Kozukenosuke Kira to ask about the details of the change. On his way, Yosobei met Takuminokami Asano. The only exchange made was Yosobei greeting him and Takuminokami greeting him back. Yosobei must have not thought that Takuminokami was consumed with a thought. After a while, Yosobei found Kozukenosuke. Yosobei had a tea server relay his message that he wanted to confirm something with Kozukenosuke. Kozukenosuke nodded and came his way. Yosobei approached Kozukenosuke as well. Yosobei faced Kozukenosuke at the Matsu no Roka (literally the corridor of pine trees) and confirmed the details of the change. Then, someone attacked Kozukenosuke with a sword saying, “do you remember the grudge?” Kozukenosuke tried to get away, but he was cut about 2 more times and was injured. Yosobei was surprised that the attacker was Takuminokami, who he greeted earlier. He automatically grabbed Takuminokami and stopped him. Other samurais came as well and took away Takuminokami’s sword. Meanwhile, Kozukenosuke was taken to a doctor. Takuminokami said “samurai’s compassion, please let me finish him” but was denied. This is the story of sword incident of the Edo castle Matsu no Roka. This incident is the beginning of the 47 Ronin, and later, led to the attack on Kira mansion by Kuranosuke Oishi. Now, Yosobei Kajikawa recorded how the Matsu no Roka sword incident went down in “Kajikawa Diary.” Enjoy the story of Yosobei Kajikawa, one of the important figures in 47 Ronin, who said the classic line, “Sir Takumikami Asano, you are in the palace!”