Who Is Kayano Sanpei Shigezane (Kayano Shigezane)?
The “48th ronin,” who died before the raid
Kayano Sanpei was a young retainer of the Asano house and one of the first express messengers to carry news of his lord's sword attack to Ako. He joined the vow of revenge but took his own life before the raid.
On the day of the incident, he and Hayami Tozaemon rode express palanquins from Edo to Ako, covering about 620 km (some 385 miles) in roughly four and a half days. He then joined the vow with Oishi and the others, but his father, Shichirozaemon, urged him to take service with a hatamoto family the Kayano had ties to and opposed his part in the revenge. Torn between his vow to his comrades and his duty to his father, Sanpei killed himself in Kayano Village in Settsu Province on the 14th day of the first month of Genroku 15, the monthly anniversary of his lord's death.
His death poem has come down to us: “Hare yuku ya / higoro kokoro no / hanagumori” (“Now it clears, the cloudy blossom sky that long hung over my heart”). The character Hayano Kanpei in the play Kanadehon Chushingura is said to be based on Sanpei, but Kanpei's love story and his seppuku over a misunderstanding are fiction.
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 6
The 48th Ronin Who Should Have Been ThereKayano Sanpei
Sanpei, one of the riders who carried word of their lord's death, returns to his home village. There he is trapped between his vow to his comrades and his duty to his father, who has promised him to the family that once gave Sanpei his start. He tries to slip away and can't. The episode follows him to the morning of his lord's monthly memorial day, when he leaves behind a single haiku, and then to how his story lived on in the theater.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 7
Take Back Your Oath, and Walk Away AliveThe Maruyama Conference and the Returned Oaths
The last hope of restoring their late lord's house is gone, and in Maruyama, Kyoto, Oishi decides to strike down Lord Kira. First, though, he hands back the sworn oaths. Some comrades accept theirs and leave. Others throw them back and stay. Terasaka, the foot soldier who carried the box of oaths for the two messengers, is finally handed the last sheet: his own.
19 pages