One of the forty-seven. Mimura Jirōemon was among the rōnin who waited, plotted, and struck on that snow-covered night in 1703. When their lord was forced to commit seppuku after drawing his sword in the shogun's palace, forty-seven of his retainers refused to accept it as the end. They spent two years living in carefully constructed disgrace while secretly planning their revenge. Jirōemon was one of them, bound by oath to restore their master's honor no matter the cost.

Yoshitoshi captures him in dynamic motion - wielding a long spear with both hands, arrows scattered at his feet, his body coiled with focused energy. He wears a green vest over black robes, patterned armor sleeves protecting his arms, his expression intense and determined. Those fallen arrows suggest combat already underway, enemy fire that failed to stop him. His stance is low and aggressive, the spear positioned for a devastating strike. This is a warrior in his element, decades of training compressed into one critical night.

This is from Yoshitoshi's 1869 series depicting each of the forty-seven rōnin individually. The Chūshingura story obsessed Japanese audiences because it asked an impossible question: what do you owe to honor when the law says let it go? Jirōemon and his brothers answered with steel, knowing they'd die for it.

This is Mimura Jirōemon Fujiwara no Kanetsune (三村次郎右衛門藤原包常), from the series Seichū gishi meimei gaden (誠忠義士銘々画傳, Biographies of Loyal Retainers of Chushingura) 1869.

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年, 1839-1892)