Read "The Insulting Master of Etiquette Kôtsuké no Suké" by Jorge Luis Borges online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The infamous subject of this tale is the insulting master of etiquette Kira Kôtsuké no Suké, the unfortunate court official who brought on the degradation and death of the lord of the castle of Akô and later refused to perform hara-kiri (which, as a nobleman, was his duty) when menaced by the vengeance he deserved. He is a man worthy of the thanks of all humankind, for he awakened keen loyalties and provided the necessary black occasion for an immortal undertaking. A hundred or so novels, studies, doctoral dissertations, and operas commemorate the deed to say nothing of the effusions in porcelain, spangled lapis lazuli, and lacquer work. The story is served even by the versatile silver screen, since ‘The Learned History of the Forty-seven Retainers' such is its name is the Japanese film's most frequently recurring inspiration. The painstakingly documented renown which these burning attentions confirm is something more than justified it strikes any person at once as just.
I follow A. B. Mitford's account, which, in leaving out distracting intrusions of local colour, is more concerned with the glorious episode's whole narrative sweep. These missing Oriental touches lead me to suspect that we are dealing with a version straight from the Japanese.