Tales of Old Japan - Maybe You Like It

"His wife, Man, aged 38.
"His son, Gennosuké, aged 13.
"His son, Sôhei, aged 10.
"His son, Kihachi, aged 7."
The eldest daughter of Sôgorô, named Hatsu, nineteen years of age,
was married to a man named Jiuyémon, in the village of Hakamura, in
Shitachi, beyond the river, in the territory of Matsudaira Matsu no Kami
(the Prince of Sendai). His second daughter, whose name was Saki, sixteen
years of age, was married to one Tôjiurô, chief of a village on the
property of my lord Naitô Geki. No punishment was decreed against
these two women.
The six elders who had accompanied Sôgorô were told that although
by good rights they had merited death, yet by the special clemency of
their lord their lives would be spared, but that they were condemned to
banishment. Their wives and children would not be attainted, and their
property would be spared. The six men were banished to Oshima, in the
province of Idzu.
Sôgorô heard his sentence with pure courage.
The six men were banished; but three of them lived to be pardoned on
the occasion of the death of the Shogun, Prince Genyuin, 76 and returned
to their country.
According to the above decision, the taxes were remitted; and men
and women, young and old, rejoiced over the advantage that had been
gained for them by Sôgorô and by the six elders, and there was not one
that did not mourn for their fate.
When the officers of the several villages left the Court-house, one
Zembei, the chief of the village of Sakato, told the others that he had
some important subjects to speak to them upon, and begged them to
meet him in the temple called Fukushôin. Every man having consented,
and the hundred and thirty-six men having assembled at the temple,
Zembei addressed them as follows:—
"The success of our petition, in obtaining the reduction of our taxes to
the same amount as was levied by our former lord, is owing to Master
Sôgorô, who has thus thrown away his life for us. He and his wife and
children are now to suffer as criminals for the sake of the one hundred
and thirty-six villages. That such a thing should take place before our
very eyes seems to me not to be borne. What say you, my masters?"
76.The name assigned after death to Iyétsuna, the fourth of the dynasty of Tokugawa,
who died on the 8th day of the 5th month of the year A.D. 1680.
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