The story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless (became ronin) after their master was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira, who had insulted him. They avenged him by killing the court official after patiently waiting and planning for over a year. In turn, they were themselves forced to commit seppuku for committing the crime of murder, as they had known they would be—the tale being about the honorable fulfillment of revenge, especially for an honorable leader.

Seppuku (Japanese: 切腹|切腹, "stomach-cutting" or "belly slicing") is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku is also known in English as hara-kiri (腹切り|腹切り) and is written with the same kanji as seppuku but in reverse order with an okurigana. In Japanese, hara-kiri is considered a colloquial and somewhat vulgar term. The practice of committing seppuku at the death of one's master is known as oibara (追腹 or 追い腹); the ritual is similar.

Bushido, literally translated "Way of the Warrior," developed in Japan between the Heian and Tokugawa Ages (9th-12th century). It was a code and way of life for Samurai, a class of warriors similar to the medieval knights of Europe. It was influenced by Zen and Confucianism, two different schools of thought of those periods. Bushido is not unlike the chivalry and codes of the European knights. "It puts emphasis on loyalty, self sacrifice, justice, sense of shame, refined manners, purity, modesty, frugality, martial spirit, honor and affection"

The I Ching is the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. It describes an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy which is at the heart of Chinese cultural beliefs. The philosophy centers on the ideas of the dynamic balance of opposites, the evolution of events as a process, and acceptance of the inevitability of change.