Who Is Horibe Yahei Akizane?
Oldest of the 47 Ronin
Horibe Yahei was a senior retainer of the Asano house of Ako and the adoptive father of Horibe Yasubei. At the time of the raid he was about 77 by the traditional Japanese count, the oldest of the 47 Ronin.
Hearing of the Takadanobaba duel, he saw promise in Nakayama Yasubei, then a ronin, and took him in as his daughter's husband and heir. After his lord's incident, he supported the attack despite his age and joined it alongside his son Yasubei.
After the raid he was placed in the custody of the Hosokawa family and committed seppuku.
Episodes featuring this character5
NEWEpisode 5
He Was Late Once. He Won't Wait AgainHoribe Yasubei and the Duel at Takadanobaba
Years ago, the swordsman Horibe Yasubei arrived too late to save the man who raised him in a duel. Now he pushes Oishi, the chief retainer who keeps telling everyone to wait, to strike Kira down as soon as possible. When Kira moves house and retires, Yasubei sees his chance. He storms into Yamashina, and in front of Oishi, his hand goes to his sword.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 9
We Broke In. His Bed Was Still Warm.The Raid on Kira's Mansion
On a snowy night in the twelfth month of Genroku 15, the ronin, after nearly two years of patient waiting, gather in Honjo. Before dawn they storm Kira's mansion from two sides, the front gate and the back gate. They show every courtesy to the neighbors and watch a young retainer die defending his lord. But when they burst into the bedchamber, all they find is a bed that is still warm.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 10
Their Enemy Was Shivering in the DarkThe Raid on Kira's Mansion
Dawn is closing in, and Lord Kira Kozuke-no-Suke Yoshinaka is still nowhere to be found. In a dark charcoal shed behind the kitchen, the ronin find only a frail old man in a white nightrobe, trembling. When the hunt that lasted a year and nine months finally ends, nobody cheers. There are only quiet tears.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 11
They Had the Head. They Didn't Run.The March to Sengaku-ji
The raid is over. With the head of their enemy, Lord Kira, raised on a spear, the ronin march through the snowy streets of Edo to the grave of their late lord. Along the way, one foot soldier, a dried persimmon from a comrade tucked in his robe, quietly slips out of the line. At the grave, Oishi weeps for the first time.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 12
47 Ronin. Only 46 Graves.The Seppuku of the 47 Ronin and Sengaku-ji
After the raid, the forty-six ronin are placed in the custody of four daimyo houses. At the Hosokawa mansion, Horiuchi Den'emon listens to their stories and is eventually entrusted with a letter from Oishi Kuranosuke to his son Chikara. On a spring day the verdict arrives: seppuku. At the graves of Sengaku-ji, the aged storyteller Terasaka Kichiemon finishes his tale, and the story passes on to the stage as the curtain rises on Kanadehon Chushingura.
19 pages