Rōnin

Uh, so thanks Timo for being here.

No Ronins left behind, okay? We, we, we don't leave any Ronins behind.

That's number one.

Num- especially ones that are investing in the movement.

Great to have you here.

Just a few opening remarks here.

So, uh, good morning Ronins and prospective Ronins.

Okay? There, there's, there's only two types of people.

My tribal chief.

I'm the Ronin.

I am a masterless samurai.

I serve no one.

Now, I want this to be a point where I point out if anybody hasn't listened to the soundtrack of The Last Samurai, it's incredible.

And the titles for each Track, you know, A Way of Life, Spectres in the Fog, which is obviously this part, Taken, where he's taken, A Hard Teacher, To Know My Enemy, Idle's End, Idle's End, sorry, Idle's End, Safe Passage, Ronin, Red Warrior, The Way of the Sword, and A Small Measure of Peace, which we'll get to.

Yeah, it's it.

It's a great film.

Like, I think that's...

I'm gonna make Ronin.

Yeah, right.

Like, clearly, he's got

Also that.

[laughs] I don't know wh- I can't, I, you know, I don't even remember what happened in Rōnin, but I, I remember being a little unimpressed.

Maybe I need to watch it again.

Maybe I was too young.

Straw hats.

The Ronin.

Straw hats.

Yeah.

The Ronin.

Ri- uh, Ronin.

Yeah, so Ryuzo, the Ronin.

Yeah.

And upon Asano's death, all of his samurai faced a decision.

They could either honorably commit suicide themselves or live a life of shame at the very bottom of the social ladder as Ronin, or masterless samurai.

But Asano's chief samurai, a man named Oishi Yoshio, came up with a secret third option.

The samurai would surrender their rank and privileges and hide in plain sight as Ronin while plotting revenge against Kira, the man who had forced their master's death.

14 months after Asano's suicide, Oishi led a 47-man two-pronged assault on Kira's residence in Edo.

Retellings typically have the second team led by Oishi's 15-year-old son, Chikara, who was one of the 47 Ronin, but historically, he was probably just a member of the B team rather than the leader.

The 47 Ronin attacked in the night, found Kira, killed him, and laid his decapitated head on Asano's tomb.

And this caused a bit of a problem for the shogun.

So thank you, Christelle and Timo.

And of course, you know, any other people that want to co-host that are official Ronin's active members, you guys always have a place, you know, you have priority.

So, but thank you, Jason, for being a Ronin.

I really appreciate it.

The movement continues.

Many times.

And the important thing is just that you don't stop, okay? You do whatever it takes.

That's the Ronin way.