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The Tale of the 47 Ronin The revenge of the forty-seven rōnin, also known as the Akō incident or Akō vendetta, is an 18th-century historical event in Japan in which a band of rōnin avenged the death of their master. The incident has since become legendary.  Forty-six warriors stealthily crept up to the mansion and scaled the walls. A drum sounded in the night, "boom, boom-boom." The ronin launched their attack. The tale of the 47 Ronin is one of the most famous in Japanese history, and it is a true story. During the Tokugawa era in Japan , the country was ruled by the shogun , or highest military official, in the name of the emperor. Under him were a number of regional lords, the daimyo , each of whom employed a contingent of samurai warriors. All of these military elites were expected to follow the code of bushido --the "way of the warrior." Among the demands of bushido were loyalty to one's mas...

The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei These ultimate spiritual athletes redefine the term “ultrarunner”   If you commit to nothing ,  you 're  distracted by everything . Every possible  distraction  is rendered unimportant. -Anonymous It is March. It is midnight. Snow still covers the trails of Mount Hiei, which lies just northeast of the ancient city of Kyoto, in central west of Tokyo Japan. Kakudo Suzuki, an aspiring Japanese Buddhist spiritual athlete or gyoja , attends an hour-long service in the Buddha Hall. He sips a bowl of miso soup and chews on a couple of rice balls. Then he dresses. His outfit is pure white—the color of death—the same things he would be dressed in at his own funeral. It is cotton and consists of a short kimono undershirt, pants, hand and leg covers, a long outer robe and a priest’s outer vestments. He wraps a white “cord of dea...

Mental Floss Here’s What You Need to Know About the New Coronavirus ...