A few weeks ago I went to the Sengakuji Temple, which is famous for the story of the 47 Ronin. On Sunday I went to two festivals celebrating the story.

First of all I went to Ryogoku which is where Kira, the man who ordered the death of Asano lived. It was very busy and lots of people were there to pray in the shrine. The local mayor was also there. I also tried a traditional dish with vegetables and meat in that sumo wrestlers eat called chanko nabe. There was also some traditional Japanese drum playing.

I also had my photograph taken with some men dressed as Oishi and Kira. Apparently I'm dressed as Horibe Yasubei, who is a famous member of the 47 Ronin.

Afterwards, I went to the festival in Sengakuji, which is the shrine for the 47 Ronin, who avenged the death of their master Asano by killing Kira.

This was also very busy and there were lots of stalls selling a variety of food and trinkets.

You can see all of the photos here.

After this I went to Ueno to see the Pablo Picasso exhibition at the Royal Museum.
The exhibition included 184 works taken from the Picasso Museum in Paris, which have been displayed for the first time in Japan. The works date from 1914-1925, which is seen as being his classical period, when he returned to doing realistic, traditional pictures.

You can see some of Picasso's work at this website.
This website is also very good and provides a biography.