The above furnishes the material for the seventh and ninth acts of the play. Oishi’s mistress, Okaru, appears in the play as Hayano Kanpei’s wife and Teraoka Heiyemon’s sister, and so connects her story with the death of Kanpei in the sixth act and with the night-attack in the eleventh. It makes her of more interest than if she only remained a mistress whom Oishi brought home to conceal his true designs. The seventh act also reveals Oishi as a man of great loyalty, who conceals his plot under cover of dissipation. It is an act which shows him in his true character and one that calls for fine acting on the part of the player who assumes the role of the hero. THE SUICIDE OF SANPEI. All the loyal retainers, after their great hardships and perseverance, succeeded in carrying out their object at last; but there was one who died before the revenge was taken. His name was Kayano Sanpei Shigezane, who appears in the play as Hayano Kanpei. He was the second son of Kayano Shigetoshi, a retainer of Oshima Dewa-no-Kami; and when he was twelve years old, he was, at Dewa-no-Kami’s recommendation, taken into Takumi-no-Kami’s service as page. When Takumi-no-Kami was condemned to death for the attack in the Palace, Sanpei was in the mansion in Yedo; and immediately the sentence was passed, he left with another retainer for Ako, where he arrived in four days and a half and reported to Oishi. After the surrender of the castle and dispersal of the retainers, Sanpei returned to his native village to mourn for his mother who had lately died. As his village was only about thirty miles from Yamashina, he went often to see Oishi and consulted him on the revenge. In the following winter, he ashed his father’s permission to proceed to Yedo and seek a new situation; but his father refused as he was sure, he said, that Sanpei was going to take revenge upon his lord’s enemy, and added that such an act on Sanpei’s part might implicate not only his own family, but even bring trouble upon Oshima Dewa-no-Kami, which he could not allow as he was no less loyal to his lord than Sanpei was to his. Then, Sanpei asked him to sever their relation of father and son; but this also his father refused, saying that nothing worthy could be done by one who cut off natural ties. Sanpei could do nothing; and seeing that he could not revenge his lord’s death, he resolved to die and apologise to his lord in the other world. On the fourteenth of the first month in the following year, he sent a letter to Oishi and before daybreak next day, he killed himself while the family were asleep. His father, fearing that the Ako retainers’ plot would be discovered if his son’s death became known, had his body secretly buried in a neighbouring hill. Sanpei was twenty-six years old at the time of his death. He was perhaps over-hasty in rushing to his death; but the principles of Bushido left him no choice; a man of knightly spirit could do nothing but die under the circumstances.