Gishi-sai

The Gishi-sai is a memorial event held every December 14th at Sengaku-ji Temple in Minato Ward, Tokyo. At Sengaku-ji, which holds the graves of the 47 Akō rōnin famed from "Chūshingura," a memorial service is conducted in connection with the day of the raid to honor the virtue of the loyal retainers and console their spirits—a winter tradition of Tokyo.

Sengaku-ji is the temple where lord Asano Takumi-no-Kami and the 47 samurai, including Ōishi Kuranosuke who carried out the revenge, are laid to rest. After the raid on December 14th, 1702 (lunar calendar), the retainers reported it before their lord's grave and were later ordered to commit seppuku and buried at this site. Since then, Sengaku-ji has drawn many worshippers as a sacred site associated with Chūshingura. Whereas the "Akō Gishi Festival" in Akō, Hyōgo Prefecture, is a grand commemorative festival in the rōnin's home region, Sengaku-ji's Gishi-sai has the character of a solemn memorial before the graves where the retainers actually rest.

On the day of the Gishi-sai, a "Gishi procession" of people costumed as the 47 samurai parades the surrounding area, while the smoke of incense rises ceaselessly before the graves, and many worshippers visiting from across the country join their hands before the rōnin's graves. With stalls also lining the area, it sees its greatest bustle of the year. The reverence for the retainers who upheld loyalty to their lord remains deeply engraved in people's hearts even more than 300 years later, and the Gishi-sai is an important event coloring December in Tokyo, conveying that sentiment to the present.