Who Is Kataoka Gengoemon Takafusa (Kataoka Takafusa)?
Close attendant who saw his lord off
Kataoka Gengoemon was a personal attendant (sobayonin) who served close to Lord Asano Takumi-no-Kami and enjoyed his lord's deep trust. He is said to have been about the same age as his lord, and he later became one of the 47 Ronin.
The Tamon Denpachiro Oboegaki records that before Asano committed seppuku at the mansion of Tamura Ukyo-no-Daibu, Kataoka was allowed one last look at his lord to see him off. However, doubts have been raised about the reliability of this memoir, and it is not certain that it happened as described.
After his lord's death he joined the comrades sworn to revenge, took part in the raid, and then committed seppuku.
Episodes featuring this character3
NEWEpisode 2
385 Miles to Deliver the Worst NewsLord Asano's Seppuku and the Express Palanquin
On the very day he drew his sword inside Edo Castle, Lord Asano is ordered to commit seppuku, and he meets his end with quiet dignity. Meanwhile, Hayami and Kayano tie themselves into an express palanquin and race some 620 km to Ako in four and a half days. When Oishi Kuranosuke finally hears all of the news, he says only two words.
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 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