This is the paperback edition (first published in 2000) of one of the most interesting of the many finely designed portfolios published by the Dutch publishing house Hotei. It is devoted to the portraits of 47 loyal masterless samurai or ronin.
Their story is well known. In 1701 there was an altercation in Edo Castle. A provincial lord, perceiving insult, drew his sword, an act considered a capital offense. He was ordered to commit suicide, leaving his samurai leaderless.
On a snowy day at the end of 1702, these ronin marched to the mansion of the man they held responsible, decapitated him and offered his head at the grave of their leader, thus completing their famous revenge.