Who Is Oboshi Yuranosuke (in the later play) (Oboshi Yurasuke)?

Oboshi Yuranosuke is a character in Kanadehon Chushingura, the classic play for bunraku puppet theater and kabuki, created as a stand-in for Oishi Kuranosuke. His name is also written Yurasuke.

Kanadehon Chushingura was first staged in Osaka in Kan'en 1 (1748), more than forty years after the raid. Because real events could not be put on stage as they were, the story was moved back to the Muromachi period and the characters were renamed. Yuranosuke is the chief retainer of Enya Hangan (Asano). After surrendering the castle, in Act Seven he pretends to be drunk at the Ichiriki teahouse in Gion to hide his true aims from the enemy.

The line “Osokarishi Yuranosuke” (“Yuranosuke, you are too late”), spoken as he rushes to Hangan's seppuku, is still sometimes used in Japanese to mean “too late to make a difference.”