13 Assassins real story: the real Lord Naritsugu died at 25 of 'illness' — and the one complaint on his record isn't murder
Miike's film ends by telling you the tyrant's death was officially recorded as illness. Follow that name into the archive and you get three different men, one of whom was almost certainly not a tyrant at all.
Takashi Miike's film closes with a title card explaining how the killing was written up afterward. Chase that name through the record and the paperwork turns out to be the most accurate thing about it.
The 2010 film, a remake of Eiichi Kudo's 1963 original with a screenplay by Daisuke Tengan, is set in 1844. Lord Matsudaira Naritsugu, played by Goro Inagaki, is the Shogun's half-brother, ruler of Akashi Domain, untouchable because of the relation, and about to be promoted onto the shogunate council. Twelve samurai and a hunter kill him in a rebuilt village. The epilogue notes his death was officially attributed to illness, and that the shogunate fell 23 years later.
The name belongs to someone the record finds dull
Matsudaira Naritsugu — written 松平斉韶 — was real. He was the second son of Matsudaira Naokuni, became the 7th lord of Akashi Domain in 1816 at the age of 13, and retired in 1840 at around 37. The Japanese-language record contains no anecdotes that would qualify him as a tyrant of any description. The 2010 film's own novelization renamed the character.
The man an English search sends you to
Search the name in English and you land on a different person entirely: Matsudaira Naritsugu written 松平斉承, the 14th lord of Fukui Domain, born 5 March 1811 and dead on 27 July 1835 at the domain's Edo residence, at 25, "possibly due to illness." He had married Asahime, a daughter of Shogun Tokugawa Ienari, in 1819. He left no heir.
His record does contain grievances. They are fiscal:
- 1827 — a five-year austerity program to rebuild the domain's finances.
- 1829 — an order to cut the domain's retainers to half their number over seven years.
- Throughout — he kept up the household spending of his father and grandfather, and rebuilt the palace at Fukui Castle, while rice prices climbed and smallpox went through the domain.
Halving your samurai payroll while renovating your castle is the sort of thing that generates complaints. It is not what the film is about. The English Wikipedia entry for this man nevertheless names him as the villain of both 13 Assassins films.
Read more: 13 Assassins ending: Koyata took a blade through the neck, so how is he alive in the final scene?
The lord the story is actually built on
The figure behind the legend is the next man in the chair at Akashi: Matsudaira Narikoto, 松平斉宣, 1824 to 1844. He was a son of the 11th shogun Tokugawa Ienari, which made him half-brother to the 12th shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi — and younger than his own nephew, the future 13th shogun Iesada. In 1840 he was installed as 8th lord of Akashi over the sitting heir. Akashi's assessment rose from 60,000 to 80,000 koku on his arrival, and he then pushed for 100,000-koku standing, which left the domain keeping up the appearances of 100,000 on the revenue of 80,000.
He died in 1844 of serious illness, aged 20, without an heir. The film is set in 1844.
The one story on his record
There is exactly one atrocity attached to him, and it comes from a single source: Kōshi Yawa, the essay collection of the daimyo Matsuura Seizan. A three-year-old child crossed his procession as it passed through Owari territory. His retainers seized the child and executed it at their lodging, over the objections of the villagers. Owari then barred Akashi processions from its roads, and Akashi's samurai afterward traveled in plain clothes carrying a single sword.
Owari Domain's records contain no corroboration. Neither do Akashi's. Neither do the local ones.
A variant in which a hunter named Genai assassinates him has no documentary basis at all.
So the tally is this: one lord whose name the films borrowed and whose record is empty, one lord the English-language trail leads to who died at 25 with a payroll dispute on file, and one lord who fits the story, who died the year the film is set, of illness, at 20 — with a single uncorroborated anecdote behind the whole legend.
For the record: the film cost $6 million, premiered at Venice on 9 September 2010, took $17.5 million worldwide, and holds 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.