No Bullshido Here-Animeigo's "Bushido: The Cruel Code Of The Samurai"

As evidenced by the recent post covering History Channel's "Samurai" special, one of the most frustrating and constant things we on the SA have to contend with are the misconceptions associated with Bushido. The idea that "All Samurai followed a chivalrous code of ethics known as 'Bushido' that emphasized honor, loyalty, and bravery unto death" has been branded onto the minds of many westerners from the time of Nitobe Inazo's book "Bushido: The Soul of Japan" to the hijinks of Tom Cruise in "The Last Samurai". We usually refer to this as "Bullshido". Therefore, it's a real pleasure to review Animeigo's recent DVD release of 1963's "Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai" (Bushido Zankoku Monogatari). Finally, a film that eschews the glorification of a code that never was and shows the dark side of just what such a system would entail!

And dark it is, in spades. During the course of the film's 123 minutes, the viewer will bear witness to murder, executions, suicide (ranging from oibara/jushi to kamikaze), rape, filicide, castration, homosexual enslavement, insanity, humiliation, corporate espionage, fetishism, and all manner of cruelty-all committed in the name of Bushido. While there's nothing all that graphic in the film (with much of the violence relatively bloodless or implied), it maintains its power from beginning to end. Director Imai Tadashi's film won the 1963 Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear Award for Best Film along with garnering a Japanese Blue Ribbon Best Actor Award for star Nakamura Kinnosuke.

The film opens with Ikura Susumu rushing to the hospital to be with his fiancee Kyoko, who has overdosed on sleeping pills. Susumu berates himself for his as yet undisclosed indiscretion in the name of loyalty that has led to this. He muses over the family records he recently discovered at a local temple that make this incident only the latest in a long chain of tragedies brought on by a culture of total obedience. While waiting for Kyoko to emerge from her coma, he runs over them in his mind...

The first vignette opens in the Keicho era with Ikura Jirozaemon Hidekiyo, having been made a ronin after Sekigahara, being employed for his skill with the spear by clan minister Hori of the Yazaki of Shinshu (Shinano Province). Hidekiyo pledges his unswaying obedience and loyalty to his lord, even unto death-starting things out with a scene typical of most jidaigeki films. Years later, the clan is taking part in pacifying the 1638 Shimabara Rebellion. When a desperate night attack is launched by the peasants against the camp of the Yazaki, the clan's lack of vigilance results in not only their buildings being destroyed by fire but also the neighboring camp of Lord Kuroda. Although Hidekiyo's spearmanship ended the assault, amends must be made to the Shogun-but what must be done?

Moving to later in the Kanei era, the action picks up with Hidekiyo's son, Sajiemon, who is a page to the old lord. Sajiemon is placed under house arrest when he offends the lord by suggesting the clan doctor be summoned when the old man falls ill. The lord moves closer and closer to death, but shows no sign of forgiving Sajiemon, placing the future of the Ikura clan in jeopardy. The fate of his wife Yasu and son Kyunosuke hangs in the balance. How to prove his loyalty to the clan and ensure that the Ikura are not once again turned out as ronin?

While the first two stories are certainly tragic enough, things begin to get REALLY nasty in the third. Here in the Genroku era, Ikura Kyutaro Tomoyuki has succeeded Sajiemon's son Masanoshin as head of the clan. He's a young student in the clan's Shoheizaka Academy who catches the eye of his lecherous lord Tanba-no-kami when he arrives to present birthday wishes. Kyutaro is ordered to report to the lord and begins to feel a growing sense of dread when one of the Lord's concubines, Lady Hagi, complains that the Lord always sends his 'pretty boys' to her to prepare. In no time at all, Kyutaro has been rudely initiated into the ways of Shudo (here referring to homosexual relations among samurai, usually between an older powerful man and a younger one of less status). While this wasn't an uncommon situation in medieval Japan and was quite acceptable by the standards of the day, it comes across strongly as enslavement and rape here (since Kyutaro isn't what you would call a willing participant, only being cowed when Tanba-no-kami tells him it's just another way to 'show your loyalty'). Things get even sleazier as the Lord 'gifts' Kyutaro with his discarded clothing-ranging from a kimono to a vest and eventually his underwear. Again, this would indeed be considered an honor by the standards of the day, but tends to leave modern audiences a bit sickened. The Lord also seems to enjoy a bit of s & m with his lovemaking, inflicting a painful bite on Kyutaro and warning him to stay away from women. Seemingly resigned to his fate, Kyutaro's world get even worse when the Lord manipulates him into being alone with Lady Hagi with rather predictable results-and the denouement to this episode will leave every male in the audience cringing and grimacing.

Now comes the most twisted and disturbing story of all-that of Shuzo, head of the Ikura family in the Tenmei era. Shuzo is the clan's most skilled swordsman and master of the "great sword of darkness", a technique that allows him to strike effectively while blindfolded. He has a seemingly wonderful life with his son Jujiro, daughter Sato, wife Maki, and friend and future son-in-law Kazuma. Although he saves his lord's life by striking down a peasant that attempts to assassinate him, Shuzo is subjected to a mind-numbing litany of injustice and humiliation at the hands of an intensely sadistic, warped, and sexually charged daimyo. This is the film's dramatic high point, and Imai pulls out all the stops. Having lost several members of his family to the lord's depravity, Shuzo is given a chance to have his 'crime' of finally getting the courage to remonstrate the lord forgiven. All he has to do is use the 'great sword of darkness' to execute two criminals. What follows is one of the most disturbing tableaus in samurai cinema, with Shuzo becoming an utterly pathetic and broken man.

Following this is an incident in the Meiji era where Ikura Shingo, a rickshaw driver and student studying for the Japanese bar, takes into his household the dispossessed, feeble minded final lord of the clan. Shingo hopes that if the lord recovers, the Emperor will make the lord part of the aristocracy, increasing the prospects for Shingo's career. However, it looks like the only thing the lord seems interested in is Shingo's fiancee Fuji. How Shingo reacts to this is possibly the most troubling scene in the film.

The sixth story is a short one, showing Susumu's older brother Osamu, a pilot in the 3rd Mitate Squad in World War II. Time is running out for Japanese forces as the Americans close in on the home islands-and it doesn't take a crystal ball to see what this will mean for Osamu.

Finally, the film comes full circle and returns to Susumu. We learn that under pressure from his boss, he has asked his fiancee Kyoko (a typist at a competing firm) to steal a budget estimate for a major construction project. Despite having misgivings (her boss is a longtime friend of her family and has treated her well), she does so and for her efforts is asked by Susumu to delay their marriage. After all, it might raise questions about how his company beat out hers for the bid. Feeling used and abandoned, she attempts suicide. Will Susumu be the Ikura that breaks the cycle of blind obedience to an uncaring 'overlord', or will he continue to be the steadfast company man?

This is a film that carries the stamp of Director Imai from start to finish. Imai was a confirmed Marxist (except for a period during WWII where the government forced him to make propaganda films), and the 'class struggle' of Marxism is reflected not only in the virtual enslavement of the Ikura but also in the hardships and punishments handed out to farmers (being sentenced to death by bamboo saw for the crime of appealing to a minister). Imai infuses each episode with a healthy dose of melodrama, concocting scenarios so extreme that they sometimes seem more like a nightmare than something that was really happening. Imai's skills in telling the story makes it all seem natural and believable. Taking this approach clearly spells out the abuses that would have flourished under a system run under the auspices of Bushido. This is symbolically shown when the body of a character who has been backed into committing suicide is 'honored' by having a flag bearing the mon of the Tokugawa Shogun draped over his body. When loyalty is expected to be absolute, there are no recourses for those at the bottom. Any action, however innocent, can be deemed a crime by those in power. In the early 60's, this would have found an audience ready for the film's message. Japanese film in general and jidaigeki in particular were beginning to embrace fare that questioned traditional values, leading to heroes who fought the injustices of a rigid class-structured society (such as Nemuri Kyoshiro or Zatoichi). About the only complaint we had with the film is that the high point comes too early-after the episode involving Shuzo, everything else seems somewhat anti-climatic, albeit effective.

It would also seem Imai is something of a feminist. The female characters in the film are almost to a fault stronger than the men, refusing to kowtow to the whims of a warped lord and embodying the true spirit of honor. At one juncture Fuji seemingly points this out, asking Shingo 'What kind of a man are you?'. As a group, they function as the film's spiritual center and grounding, acting as a foil to the actions of the men. Even the seemingly weak and suicidal Kyoko succeeds in driving home her point to Susumu.

Star Kinnosuke, who turned in dozens of excellent samurai roles, is often overshadowed by the better known stars such as Mifune, Nakadai, Katsu, or Ichikawa, but has the role of a lifetime here. He plays all seven scions of the Ikura shown in the film, and one role even has a 'middle aged' and 'old' version. He's completely believable in every role and each character is differentiated. Hidekiyo is a grizzled war vet who takes a practical approach to everything. Kyutaro is a young 'pretty boy' who, after being defiled, croons to his lord in a high pitched falsetto. Shuzo does a 'Nakadai'-moving from brutally efficient middle-aged swordsman to a wasted shell of a man, aged well beyond his years. Shingo could be the know-it-all college kid next door. Many actors are praised for their range, but few have over the course of their career managed to show convincingly the range that Kinnosuke shows in just this one film. He deserves more attention among jidaigeki fans, and looks like he'll be getting it in Animeigo's upcoming "Musashi' boxed set.

Interestingly enough, the film comes across at times as being part of the Japanese horror tradition. This is reflected in Mayuzumi Toshiro's score, early on using a harpsichord to produce a jarring and unnerving mood. Other parts of the score sound much like the music used for other contemporary kaidan rather than that used for jidaigeki. The lighting and cinematography also tend to give characters that 'horror movie', shadowed look. A scene where a character makes an impossible request of his lover is foreshadowed by his extinguishing of a light, plunging the scene into darkness. An attractive young woman is boxed up and presented to a corrupt samurai as a 'Kyoto Doll', considered nothing more than a toy for his amusement. The sound of a simple jangling handbell associates itself with evil. Crazy skewed camera angles are used in several scenes to emphasize the horror of the moment. While there's nothing supernatural going on, approaching the film in this way helped to underscore the abuses being put on display.

Animeigo has delivered a good looking print and upholds its reputation for producing a detailed and accurate translation, complete with on screen cultural notes. They even translate the ENTIRE cast list, something rarely done in the west (but appreciated by those of us who like to 'actor spot'). The care put into this release is on display from the opening menu. Here black and white photos of the 'seven generations' emerge from the top and bottom of the screen to close like a set of jagged teeth, and the photos are slowly filled in with sickly looking colors that set the stage for the horrors to come. The extras will be of particular interest to readers of the Samurai Archives. The Samurai Archives Samurai Wiki was used as a source for many of the cultural notes (which give abundant background on all the eras the film covers). In addition, an essay on the history behind Bushido by film historian and Samurai Archives staffer Randy Schadel is included that amply illustrates how samurai behavior usually fell far short of the idealized version of Bushido. Rounding out the extras are trailers (two different ones for this film plus ones for Shinsengumi, Kon Ichikawa's 47 Ronin, Shogun Assassin, and Samurai Assassin), an image gallery, bios for Imai, Nakamura, and Mita Yoshiko (who played Kyoko and who is still active in Japanese filmmaking-she was in Battle Royale 2), and a short essay that gives the traditional view of Bushido. The extras do a solid job of complementing the film's content as well as expanding on some of the issues it brings up. Short of some of Criterion's more elaborate releases, no one does extras for jidaigeki films better than Animeigo.

In our opinion, this film should be required viewing for anyone with an interest in jidaigeki films, if only to balance the surfeit of 'noble ronin' and 'glorious samurai' films out there. It'll give even the worst 'modern sammyrai' pause to consider if following the tenets of Bushido is such a good idea after all! There's no 'bullshido' here-just excellent performances, a compelling well-told story, and a first rate package of supplements. You can order 'Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai' directly from Animeigo or at Amazon through the SA store.

Samurai Archives 10th Anniversary Interview

To commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the establishment of the Samurai Archives, we thought it would be a great idea to do an interview with one of its founders, Kitsuno (Christopher West). We then decided that we would conduct the interview, live and in the flesh in Honolulu during the Christmas holiday in Hawaii—in Duke’s Canoe Club, right off the beach in Waikiki to be exact. So, I went to Duke’s on the agreed date and time, and there was no sign of Chris. ‘It figures’, I thought, ‘The guy is never does what he says he’s going to do on time.’ So with nothing better to do, I plopped myself down at the bar with a book and a beer and started killing time. Three bottles of suds later, I felt a tap on my shoulder and I looked up and saw a guy wearing a fedora and a trench coat. Very strange attire for Hawaii, but then again, this is Hawaii and the place attracts some pretty strange people.

The man with the fedora walked up towards me and then spoke. ‘Hey Obenjo, how are you doing?’

I looked up from my book, slightly annoyed and replied, ‘Do I know you? How do you know that I am Obenjo Kusanosuke?’ The man in the fedora rolled his eyes. ‘Oh, the face paint. Yeah, I get it. You figured out who I am because of the face paint and you are probably a fan or an Obenjo hater from the SA forum, right?’

‘No. Umm. It wasn’t the face paint. It is the fact that you are at a bar reading Beasley’s Meiji Restoration. Nobody else but you would bring that massive book to Hawaii for light beach reading. And really, the Bakumatsu is such a bore. Actually anything post 1615 makes me yawn.’

This guy was really starting to annoy me. I hate people who generalize the Bakumatsu period as being boring. ‘Oh, so the book gave me a way. Hehehe. And who exactly are you?’

‘I’m Forest. Forest Seal.’

‘BS. Forest Seal is nothing but an urban legend. A character that Kitsuno invented.’

‘No, I’m really him. I am Forest Seal.’

‘Yeah, and I’m Tokugawa Ieyasu. Nice one. Who are you, really?’

Just then Kitsuno showed up, and exclaimed, ‘By God, Forest, you did come! Man, this is awesome. Hey, nice threads by the way. Aren’t you a little hot?’

‘Not hot at all, Chris. The threads suit me fine as I’m just trying to look the part of my urban legend image. Good to see you, man. You came at the right time, as I was trying to prove to Obenjo here that I am who I am. Look, I’m expecting a phone call and have another appointment. So my time here is limited. Let’s get going on this interview.’

‘Sure,’ I said. ‘Let’s move over to that table over there and let me set up my digital recorder. It will be better if we record the interview and I’ll transcribe it later.’ Wow, I thought, the urban legend is true! Forest does exist and this is going to be a great interview as I can now get both founders of the SA to speak on the record. And speaking of the record, here it is.


SA: Chris and Forest, it is a pleasure to be sitting down with you for this interview. Congratulations on the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Samurai Archives.

Christopher West (CW): Thanks, it’s awesome that we are all sitting here in Hawaii for this. Really cool, man.

Forest Seal (FW): Yeah, as Chris said, it’s cool, but time is ticking. So get on with the questions. Enough small talk.


SA: Alright then, let’s dive straight into it. What gave you the notion to go out and create an all-English-language web-based resource for Japanese history?

CW: For me, the idea for the website came from the utter lack of anything on the Internet in regards to Japanese history back in the late 90’s. Outside of Turnbull, back in those days, there really wasn’t anything in the English language published beyond the golden age of the 60’s and 70’s on Japanese military history. As of 1999, I literally owned every academia-published book in English on Japanese history, and having had been back from Japan for a few years was in a somewhat unique position to dig into Japanese sources. With that in mind, the (relative) explosion over the past five to seven years in Japanese history publishing in academia has been quite a shock, actually. When this all started, the internet was still the wild west (more so than today), and with the lack of anything related to Japanese history in English on the net, we actually believed, when we started, that we’d become both an Internet juggernaut, and even gain some notoriety. Essentially we were waiting for the Katy Couric interview that would never come…

FS: I basically approached it out of my own frustration at the lack of information in English on more esoteric matters in samurai history-the smaller figures, the lesser clans, the battles and events you knew had to be happening but weren't even mentioned in English sources. If the names 'Jinbo' or 'Mimura' or what have you happened to pop up, I was just naturally curious who those guys were. On the same token, looking at something like the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima, I knew there had to be more to modern thinking on this affair beyond the 'heroic' version of the battle copied rote and verse in Western texts. So I always wanted to know more and Chris' suggestion that we do a website coincided with that. It was kind of a motivation to make the effort. Looking back, I am not entirely sure how seriously I took the website as far as actually reaching people was concerned. My hope was that it might be of some interest to the one or two other people I assumed, statistically, had to be out there with the same sort of esoteric curiosities I had.


SA: So did you ever think the SA would still be around after 10 years?

CW: Well, that was the goal, so I figured it probably would be in one form or another. Back when we started we were using free website services, so in theory if we gave up on it, we could have left it up indefinitely on a free server. I’d have to check, but I believe the old redirect I uploaded to the last free server quite a number of years ago is still there. But that aside, I was quite—well, okay, very naïve– I just naturally assumed that a Japanese history database would catch on and be HUGE. Keep in mind that when we started, there was NOTHING on the Internet of any validity or use that covered Japanese history and even now, quantity on the net has exploded but quality is still very poor. The plan from the start was to create an ever-expanding database of Japanese history, which in theory could go on for eternity. So based on that, yeah, I figured it would still be around.

FS: I think if the question had come up as a hypothetical back in ‘99 I wouldn't have bet money on it. One can't be entirely sure if they won't be hit by a car or choke on breakfast within the next ten years. A lot has happened in the past decade-marriages, births, divorces, jobs, successes, failures, etc. That the website has lasted this long is pretty remarkable and, again, thanks mostly to Chris.


SA: And how did the idea of a need for a forum come into play?

FS: The forum was always Chris' baby and he can speak to that better than I could. But I would like to say that he was far ahead of me on the curve on that one. Looking at it now I would say that a forum for a site like this is what we in the MMO industry sometimes call 'self-refreshing end content.' A website, even a website that is frequently updated, is ultimately finite. If you read every single word you have then expended the practical value of the site and are left with a concluded experience. The forum allows the website to become in the end what it was intended to be, a beacon for a shared experience in the pursuit of a shared interest. The study of history should have as fluid and as vibrant a discussion as the history itself. I would say that the forum is the heart of the Samurai Archives at this point.

CW: At the time I think I just thought it would be a cool idea. I think my concept was to create a giant online community. I’m not sure if it has worked out the way I imagined it, though. Seems the topic of “Samurai” is a little too esoteric, inaccessible, and horribly plagued by myth, legend, and misinformation – the “typical” demographic of people interested in 16th century Japan (i.e. the samurai) is not the same demographic that is necessarily interested in anything more than the myth and martial arts of the samurai. I think our idea from the start was to create a giant community working together to create a giant Japanese history database, and the forum was supposed to be possibly the starting point for that. But HTML does not lend itself well to constant updates, and so until the SamuraiWiki came along, it was an unbelievable chore to update, which really hindered the page. The SamuraiWiki was sort of the equipment that we needed 10 years ago to really kick what we wanted to do into action.

SA: What was it really like in those early days? Did you have to fight for members? After all, there were other Japanese history forums that had active memberships back then. I remember that even Total War had one in the wake of the release of the PC game, Shogun.

FS: Looking back I'm not entirely sure what we were hoping for or could have hoped for. Chris wanted to do it and I was pretty leery. I'd already seen a few of those forums go down in flames and really wasn't sure I wanted that kind of trouble. And if I had known any better I probably wouldn't have touched it. But luckily youthful stupidity prevailed and I got on board. Of course, that first forum went down pretty much as I had feared: war broke out, much violence ensued, and in the end the ladies-in-waiting were stabbing themselves as the castle fell. But it was a learning experience. It defined pretty much how I approached the forums afterwards, which was basically to let them do their own thing. Of course Chris' active participation allowed me to do that. If I didn't see plumes of smoke on the horizon I was happy. But a lot boils down to luck as far as just happening to have the right people show up. In this the Citadel has been enormously fortunate.

CW: I do remember Forest was pretty much against the idea of the forum, although I think the reasoning was more along the lines of “why bother?” than anything else. I really wanted to build up the “community” aspect of the website, and basically just thought it would be “cool” to have a forum, and so set one up with Delphi Forums, as well as the Yahoo group. I don’t think we ever really actively recruited for the forum, but people did seem to show up and the quality was very high considering the utter lack of available English sources when we started. It wasn’t without its difficulties, and the “Great Heisei Purge” of 2000 or 2001 almost killed the forum, but apparently some peasants took up in the ashes of the castle and we were able to rebuild. Like Forest said, it was a learning experience in more ways than one.


Let’s explore the roots of your interest in Japanese history? What was it that got you hooked?

FS: I don't think there was any one thing but rather just a collection of impressions and curiosities developed as a child that added up as I got older to a general interest. Why Japanese and not Ottoman history or even ancient Greek military history? I really couldn't say.

CW: For me, it was very gradual. I read James Clavell’s Shogun in the summer of 1992 in 5 days, cover to cover. And, as fate would have it, the entire miniseries aired on USA Network literally over the next week. I was absolutely hooked on the myth. At that point, I made the decision that I was going to Japan. Nothing was going to stop me, and somehow, I pulled it off. Living in Japan was my first giant lesson that the myths of the Samurai were very much myths. It really brought reality home to me.

When I was going to school in Japan, my interest in Japanese history still hadn’t really materialized; my focus was basically just the language. Well, that and all of the craziness that is Japan. It was about 1997 when my interest really started to kick in during a history seminar I took in college. I wrote a paper on Oda Nobunaga’s unification of Japan, and started building my library. It was also at this very time that I used the Internet for the first time as a research tool, and found that there was next to nothing there on the samurai.

Go on, please continue.

CW: In high school I knew next to nothing about Japanese history aside from James Clavell’s “Shogun”, samurai, Akira Kurosawa movies, and my involvement in the martial arts – normally a lethal combination. My entire concept of Japanese history was basically that there were honorable samurai, and the country was cut off from the rest of the world, and then Commodore Perry opened the country. Not much more than that. But Japan has changed so much over the past one thousand years that each era would probably hardly be recognizable to the previous or the next. There is a lot there, and that is what got me interested. My guess is that the average Joe who has heard about Japanese history probably has a misconception that is some twisted combination of the Sengoku and Edo period, and that is sort of where I started. I think the first history book I read was “Warrior Rule in Japan”, and my notes from that book would eventually be the foundation of my first few bits of information on the S-A website. That was followed by Sansom’s histories, and then I went on from there. As for the “allure”, it would have to be the epic scope and larger than life personalities that border on the mythic.


SA: While the SA is open to every epoch of Japanese history up through the Meiji period, your personal focus seems to be on the Sengoku period. Do you think this may have prevented a wider development in the publication of articles and posts dedicated to other periods? In other words, do you think that at least in the early stages of the SA’s life that it was perhaps too Sengoku-centric? Are there any other periods of Japanese history in which you have a special interest? Why?

FS: I think we were always aware we were going Sengoku-heavy and knew it wasn't ideal given the supposed scope of the page. But really, when we set out, we had no idea what we were getting into. A thousand years is a lot of ground to cover and honestly, we barely had the time to do what we did. My main focus after a while became the biographical dictionary and this was of course a Sengoku period work. So a lot of Sengoku stuff that ended up on the page spun off from my working on that. I started to address the imbalance at one point but real life matters overtook my attentions and I never really got back to it. I would say, without hesitation, that the articles composed by the friends of the Archives addressing these less-well-covered periods are far superior to anything I could have done. And this is more or less in keeping with my position on the Archives: I really just helped build the castle and hoped for worthies to come and use their expertise for the benefit of others. Happily, this has happened.

CW: I guess at the start that was where my interests lay, and I had a pretty narrow view – Heian seemed too esoteric and Edo too uneventful and boring. My whole concept of the page was that it was a database of information, and that we’d just keep on adding information year after year, and it would eventually balance out. Now, with the SamuraiWiki, there is a better balance I think.
Recently I’ve found that the Bakumatsu period is as interesting and eventful as the Sengoku period, even though it lasted only a fraction as long. During times of civil strife, the best and worst seem to appear out of the masses and make history. This goes for the Sengoku Daimyo, the personalities of the Bakumatsu, as well as the generals of the US Civil War, and makes for interesting history.


SA: Which persona from Japanese history do you find the most interesting and why?

FS: I don't really think I found any particular figure more interesting than any other in the end. The life of Nanbu Nobunao was as interesting to me as that of Takeda Shingen or Minamoto Yoshitsune. Of course the articles and bits dealing with Takeda Shingen on the page are going to be more extensive than that of Nobunao because Shingen loomed pretty large in history and there's a relative wealth of information on him. But I'd find a book on the life of Nobunao as interesting as one on Shingen.

CW: I’ve always found the little known people to be interesting. The random anecdotes that survived about relative nobodies fighting in the daimyo armies always captured my interest. Full biographies of people like Kani Saizo, Kanematsu Masayoshi, and other samurai who lived long lives serving various Daimyo would probably be as interesting, if not more so, than the actual Daimyo they served – unfortunately, that sort of information was lost to time long ago, if it ever existed in the first place. In theory, a Samurai born at the right time and living long enough could find themselves having served all three of the “unifiers” and battling all the way from Okehazama to Sekigahara. Unfortunately, unlike the US Civil War, low level samurai didn’t seem to keep detailed journals, so the best we can do is turn to fiction to imagine what it might have been like for these low level Samurai.


SA: Who are your favorite historians? Who has had the biggest influence on you?

CW: In the realm of Japanese history I’ve always liked Paul Varley - he tended to tackle the areas that had traditionally been ignored – warfare and Muromachi era Japan. I also found Kenneth Alan Grossberg’s “Japan’s Renaissance” fascinating and very readable. Unfortunately, as far as I know, that was his only history book. Sansom, and his “History of Japan” series is also a must-read, and very well written, although probably getting a little dated. In the big picture of “historians”, I’ve always been a fan of narrative histories, and have great respect for Gerald Astor, the father of the genre. Books like A Blood Dimmed Tide were the blueprints from which I think books by Stephen Ambrose and John Keegan, two more favorites of mine, came. They bring history to life with narrative, and the books read like novels and are always interesting. This is the type of thing I’d like to see develop in the area of Japanese history.


At this point, Forest received a call on his cell phone, and then after listening attentively for a minute, his eyes went wide and then narrowed into two reptilian slits. He sighed and then angrily sneered into the phone, ‘It’s a go-ahead. Take ‘em down!’ And with that, he stood up, knocking his chair back, threw down his fedora and removed his trench coat. Chris and I looked at Forest in shock and at the Bronze Age ancient Greek battle armor he was wearing and then looked at each other with our jaws agape. Forest then started sprinting towards the beach and into the water. Just then, an ancient Theban war galley rowed into view, and similarly clad men wearing battle helmets with plumes on them reached over and plucked Forest from the ocean. Once firmly planted on deck, Forest yelled something about being sorry, but he had an appointment and we vaguely heard the words ‘siege’ and ‘Peloponnesia’.
Still slack jawed, Chris and I looked at our beer bottles to see what we were really drinking and then gazed out towards the ocean where the Greek war galley was becoming a smaller dot on the horizon. It was decided that the interview would go on, minus Forest.


SA: That was, ummm…strange…to say the least. Where were we? Oh, yeah. Turnbull. The author Stephen Turnbull is often much maligned in the SA Citadel forums and elsewhere. What do you really feel about his work? Is he doing the community a service with his numerous and frequent publications about samurai?

CW: Not really sure. It feeds the “I’m an honorable modern samurai” crowd probably just as much as it gets people interested who might actually want to get to the real history.


SA: But to clarify, you don’t have a problem per say with “pop” Japanese history, or do you? How would you classify the Samurai Archives?

CW: I have a problem with fake history and bad history for the sole benefit of either one martial art or another or to capitalize on the general lack of knowledge to pander to the “I’m a modern Samurai, and all Samurai were honorable” people.


SA: As an amateur historian, how do you feel about the current state of pre-modern Japanese studies in the world of academia?

CW: Compared to 10 years ago, it seems to be exploding in interesting directions. I’d really love to see high-profile military historians enter the mix though. Rice counting, cultural examinations, and such have their place, but I’d love to see military history. After all, the 16th century was essentially 100 years of warfare, and Japan is like a microcosm – it’s like world war in a bottle – so much happened, and there is so much documentation that has survived. It would be great to see.


What kept you from pursuing a post-graduate PMJS degree?

CW: In my case, time, timing, and money. I.E. “real life”.


SA: You and Forest both share a great passion for Japanese history and genuinely seem interested in trying to impart your knowledge, but what about writing? Have you two ever seriously tried to collaborate on writing a book?

CW: We did, actually, but the scope was so ridiculously huge and real life kept getting in the way anyway, so the end result was the “Sengoku Biographical Dictionary” you see on the website.


SA: If you were to write a book, what would topic or persona would you want to focus on?

CW: I’d prefer to avoid the ones that have been over killed – Nobunaga, Ieyasu, Hideyoshi, etc. And find someone who is lesser known but with sufficient documentation to actually put a book together.


SA: Swinging the focus back onto the Samurai Archives, what has been the most rewarding experience you’ve had over the past ten years with running the site and forum? What’s been your biggest frustration?

CW: It’s been pretty neat seeing it change and evolve over the years. The biggest frustration without a doubt is plagiarism by Wikipedia. Because Wikipedia moderators are so impotent and indecisive, getting plagiarized content removed has been a nightmare of epic proportions. Wikipedia is fine, but I despise with a passion anyone who either plagiarizes, or who is in a position to stop it but doesn’t, and if Wikipedia disappeared forever, I’d be pretty happy.


SA: What have been some of the more memorable threads or discussion groups that you, as Shogun, were particularly happy with because of scholarly content?

CW: The discussion groups. We gotta bring that back.


SA: Is there anything you think the SA can do to keep its more knowledgeable members motivated and active? How can we stop membership attrition?

CW: I think for the most part all we can rely on is self-motivation. Everyone has a life (well, at least I assume so), and there is only so much one can do to garner interest when in the long run, it comes down to personal interest and intrinsic motivation.


SA: Looking at the SA in the near to mid terms, what can members and as well as casual visitors expect to see?

CW: Well, eventually the plan is to create an entire new section of interviews and reviews based on the blog, and we’ll see what else. I try not to set schedules, since I rarely make them.


SA: Well, I think we’ll end it on that note. It’s been a fun but rather strange experience.

CW: Yeah, I’d say so!

Samurai Archives Interview With Historian Thomas D. Conlan

Dr. Thomas Conlan is an Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies at Bowdoin College. He received a BA in History and Japanese at the University of Michigan in 1986, a PhD in History from Stanford in 1998, and attended Kyoto University from 1995 to 1997 on a PhD Program. Dr. Conlan has written the groundbreaking books "In Little Need of Divine Intervention", "State of War", and "Weapons & Fighting Techniques of the Samurai Warrior AD 1200-1877". In addition, he has written articles on Japanese history (as well as done book reviews) for many notable works as the Harvard Journal Of Asiatic Studies, Monumenta Nipponica, and The Origins of Japan's Medieval World. He's also appeared as a guest expert on History Channel specials involving samurai, as well as helping put together acclaimed websites featuring in-depth examinations of two important Japanese documents/works of art-the Mongol Invasion Scrolls and the Heiji Disturbance scroll. Dr. Conlan was kind enough to take time from his busy schedule to speak to the Samurai Archives, and we think you'll find what he has to say to be as thought provoking as his books.


Thanks to forum members Dash and JLBadgley for submitting questions, and Obenjo, Kitsuno, and Ashigaru for their input.


SA: Where did your interest in Japanese history first begin, and why is it that you've chosen to dedicate your career to this pursuit? What period are you most personally fond of, and why?


TC: I first remember reading a book about the samurai when I was in junior high school (one of Turnbull's books). That first got me interested in Japan, and while I was attending Harvard Summer School, I decided to devote my life to studying Japan. Sounds corny, but it is true. As a sign of my promise, I used all of the money I had saved that summer to buy an ivory netsuke of a man carrying a monkey in a sack. (I still have that netsuke).


I feel fortunate that I have been able to learn under so many great professors at the University of Michigan and Stanford, for they have helped me along this career. I don't have a good reason for why I have dedicated my career to this save that I continue to find Japanese history interesting. I love the fourteenth century, for the sources are unparalleled, and there is a refreshing honesty to the documents. The precision of the documents also amazes me. When I first read a battle report describing wounds, and saw notations by a battle administrator describing them as "deep" and "shallow." I knew that through such records, I could reconstruct how men were wounded, and thereupon understand how wars were fought in the fourteenth century. It was a September day in 1992 that I knew that I would write about the wars of the fourteenth century for my Ph.D. dissertation (this became State of War).


SA: “In Little Need of Divine Intervention” was your first book and brought new insights to the Mongol Invasions of 1274 and 1281, using the reward petition scrolls (Moko Shurai Ekotoba, commonly known as the ‘Mongol Invasion Scrolls’) of Takezaki Suenaga as its focus. This was fascinating both for its examination of what the scrolls tell us about the invasions as well as the history, changes, and variant copies made of the scrolls themselves. How was the central point of the book (that the ‘kamikaze’ was only the exclamation point on a set of failed invasions rather than the major cause of them) received both in the west and Japan? Did the lack of access to the original scrolls (held by the Imperial Household Agency) cause any difficulties in your research?


TC: I often think of In Little Need as my second book, as I wrote it after I had completed State of War. It came out of my classes at Bowdoin, for as I was teaching a freshman seminar at Bowdoin on the "Wars of the Samurai" in the fall of 1998. I was amazed that the Suenaga account had not been translated, so I set about doing it.


I was able to view many of the copies of the scrolls while in Japan (2000), and also visit Suenaga's lands and the walls where the Japanese defeated the Mongols in Northern Kyushu. I also had the opportunity to view the important scenes of the original, which is held by the Imperial Household Agency, during a museum exhibit. At that time, I saw two scenes from the originals--1) where Suenaga is being shot off his horse, with the exploding 'teppo' nearby, and 2) where Suenaga, with his ersatz shin-guard helmet falling off his head, is decapitating an enemy sailor. And such excellent photographs exist of the originals from recent exhibits that it is possible to view the scrolls pretty well.


I have been happy with the reception that my book has received. Japanese archaeologists at Takashima, who are excavating the remains of the Mongol fleet, had agreed with my assertion that the Mongol fleet was of a relatively small size; and also my revision of the invasions have influenced the narratives of books in fields outside of the discipline of history. Richard Bowring's The Religious Traditions of Japan (Cambridge 2005), for example, accepts my characterization of the invasions, which is gratifying. Reflecting on the reception, I was surprised that the sources pertaining to the invasions have not been more rigorously analyzed, or that these scrolls were not translated earlier.


SA: In conjunction with the book, a website was put together that allowed viewers to browse and compare side-by-side the different versions of the scrolls, noting the changes and additions made to each version along with other features of note. Later, a similar website was created for the Heiji Disturbance Scroll (chronicling the Heiji No Ran of 1159). This gave readers the chance to see rather than just read about the important features of these documents/works of art, and is a fine example of how the rapidly developing electronic technology field has aided the study of history. Do you believe that the computer age and the attendant ease of procuring copies of source documents has been one of the major driving factors behind the excellent work, new theories, and other advancements in Japanese history made in the last ten years?


TC: I do not know if changes in scholarship were caused by the new technology, but certainly this new technology enables some obscure sources to be better appreciated. We remain in the early stages of appreciating all that can be done on the web.

I believe that the web allows for scrolls and other sources that are not reproduced in a book format to be viewed in a manner approximating the experience of seeing the original. The Mongol scrolls website grew out of a need to scan images for publication in In Little Need of Divine Intervention. It was Peter Schilling, of Bowdoin, who first suggested that we build a site to see the scrolls. It took us several years to do, but fortunately, technology improved, and computers could handle larger images more easily. The Heiji scrolls represent our latest reproduction of the scrolls. I graciously received digital images from the MFA and Kevin Travers designed this excellent site.

SA: “State Of War” centered around the warriors of the 14th century (notable for the destruction of the Hojo regents/Kamakura Bakufu, the Kenmu Restoration, and the subsequent Nanbokucho wars) and how they conducted the art of war. Period accounts and war tales (‘monogatari’) are used to build a model of battle that seemed to be mostly skirmishes where the majority of injuries (around 75%) were received from projectiles (the majority of these being arrows in this time frame). Massed cavalry charges or dense infantry formations were rarely seen. Given the unreliability of many accounts, letters, quasi-official documents like the Azuma Kagami, and monogatari (ranging from ridiculously high estimates of troop strengths to the discounting of the role of lower status warriors), how difficult was it to separate fact from fiction to arrive at a workable model?


TC: It is best to use documents, literary sources, geography and archaeology in tandem to get a sense of a past age. Literary sources can be very illuminating. They just must be used with care and treated with skepticism.I find that literary sources are most useful in their details as to how certain weapons are used, and least useful in their characterizations of specific individuals (who can be easily idealized or demonized), or, for that matter, for their estimates of the size of armies. . People are very poor at estimating the size of large groups. Most accounts overestimate the size of armies by a factor of at least 10. Chronicles such as the Taiheiki use numbers as metaphors and there is no clear consistency. At the same time, a careful read can prove illuminating. Accounts of the Jokyu War provide fantastically large estimates of troops (over 180,000) but at times, refer (more accurately) to armies consisting of hundreds or 1,800 men, which strikes me as plausible.


A fictional account can be used as a historical source. A novel for example, could provide insight into what it was like to ride a bus for someone who knew nothing about them; the same can be the case for details about weapons usage in medieval texts. Exploration of textual variants can prove insightful. I have discovered a roster of the names of the Kamakura warriors who were wounded, killed, or who captured or killed enemies in 1221. This roster (which has not been translated) proves very insightful, and could very well be a copy of an actual list provided to Kamakura after the 1221 conflict. So it is important when studying an age to be aware of all sources; the more primary documents one reads, the better it is to deeply understand an age.


SA: One of the more interesting sections of “State Of War” is the chapter “Sacred War”, which among other things examines the influence of Buddhism, Shinto, and superstition on the warriors of the 14th century (both in a military and political sense). Was the financial, military, and administrative support given by gokenin and samurai to temples and shrines (and vice versa) born out of true belief, or was it largely political expediency?


TC: I am glad that this chapter is of interest. It is one of my favorite ones in the book, and has become the basis for my next monograph.

We cannot know the actual motives of anyone, but all actions seem to suggest that warriors and courtiers believed that various prayers and maledictions determined victory in military endeavors. My most recent research explores how Shingon priests proved to be the most politically powerful men of the fourteenth century. They were responsible for the fighting to continue, and they first enforced the notion that warriors should be loyal to their 'lord'.


SA: Your newest book, “Weapons & Fighting Techniques of the Samurai Warrior 1200-1877” is a lavishly illustrated volume that seems to be aimed at a general readership. How was the experience of writing this book different from your first two?


TC: The short deadlines differed greatly from my previous research, where I could pretty much work at my pace. I received much help in securing permission for photos, and also was able to work with a team of illustrators, so the book came out quite quickly, and not several years as I was used to. I found it hardest to not be able to include footnotes. I compensated wherever possible by mentioning the name of the sources that I used in the narrative. I think it is important to provide information that can be verfied. I included all my sources in the bibliography, but I would prefer having footnotes.


SA: The new book also does to the battle of Nagashino what ‘Divine Intervention’ did to the Mongol Invasions-reappraising the course of the battle using not only primary documentation but also period painted screens, recent excavations, and a survey of the battlefield terrain. What led you to discount the embellished Edo period accounts of the battle and present such a dramatically changed version? Did you find the extremely small number (nine to date) of bullets recovered from the site of the battlefield surprising?


TC: In 2005, I had the opportunity to walk the Nagashino battlefield and in doing so, and seeing where bullets had been discovered, I realized that common characterizations of the battle were wrong.


As a result of this visit, I explored sources about the battle, which have conveniently been published in a volume of the Aichi kenshi (prefectural history of Aichi). This compendium of sources contains all surviving accounts and documents pertaining to the battle, and also reproduces the oldest surviving screens depicting the battles (unfortunately I could not get an image of this reproduced in "Weapons and Fighting Techniques.") My Nagashino narrative represents my first foray into reconstructing this battle; I may do a more extended account in the future.


I find it best to treat Edo accounts and narratives with skepticism, because they tended to be ahistorial thinkers who projected the ideals and assumptions of their age onto a very different Japanese past.


Takeda Katsuyori was not so stupid as he appears in the film Kagemusha. He attempted to encircle the Tokugawa forces opposing him and was tricked into doing so by a Tokugawa commander opposing him. Trickery accounted for the decisive nature of the encounter more than guns per se.


The small number of bullets does not surprise me, as this area was intensively tilled in the Tokugawa era, and the bullets, if discovered by peasants, were probably melted down for their metal. In addition, I believe the number of gunners was less than has commonly assumed--perhaps only 1000 or so.


SA: Much of what is accepted as truth regarding pre-modern Japanese battles (both in English and in popular Japanese publications such as Rekishi Gunzou) comes from the histories of these events written in the 1890’s by the Japanese General Staff ("Nihon Senshi"). These works were written with the agenda of giving Japan an impressive documented military history to present to western eyes. Recent evidence indicates that battles promoted in these histories as major events were in fact rather minor actions. Using Tedorigawa (1577) as an example, it is written up as a major set piece battle involving tens of thousands of troops. However, the scant real evidence on it shows a minor rear guard action involving a small skirmish between a thousand or so troops. With this in mind, how reliable should these volumes (and many other earlier Edo period histories) be considered?


TC: I do not consider them to be very reliable. Far better to critically analyze surviving primary sources. OK to read these sources and use them as a guide to surviving sources, but best not to let them cloud your understanding of the past.


SA: One of the common threads running through your works is stripping the veneer from samurai warfare. Rather than being shining paragons of honorable behavior, samurai are shown (in their own documents and words) to be rather self serving and ruthless. Running from battle, abandoning comrades, switching sides, striking from ambush, setting fires, and looting are the norms rather than the exceptions. Bushido was an idealized version of samurai behavior that as you have pointed out was largely a fallacy and surely not followed as a general ‘code of conduct’ throughout Japanese history. While this question might be more appropriate for a behavioral psychologist, why do you believe the concept of ‘bushido’ exerts such a strong pull on so many self-styled ‘Modern Samurai’? Why in particular bushido, when other outdated warrior codes from other cultures have been left behind in the pages of history?


TC: I characterize what I do as essentially humanizing the samurai and showing that they could be brave, cowardly, or self-serving. One sees the whole range of behavior in their actions. War was in a strange sort of way a very human event and those who fought and survived had to maintain a healthy dose of pragmatism.


Bushido represents an ideal--a remarkable cultural formulation--that is very much alive today. The reason for this stems not from Tokugawa thinkers, who tried to formulate a justification for warriors to exist in a time of peace, but the work of Nitobe Inazo. Nitobe defined Bushido in such as way as to make it understandable in European/American context. Thanks to Nitobe, Bushido became a component of Western cultural consciousness. Bushido represents a moral code not tied to any religion--Chivalry without Christianity-- which accounts for its appeal, I believe.


SA: What are the biggest challenges you face in producing something? Is it the research, the writing, or the actual act of publishing?


TC: Finding the time to research, write and revise a project.


SA: Many acquire an interest in Japanese history through the avenues of anime, manga, martial arts, video games, and Japanese films. Do you see such sources of ‘pop culture’ history as an opportunity to foster a serious interest in Japanese studies, or a hurdle to be overcome?


TC: By all means, they are a good avenue into study; I think that they represent a good gateway into more serious study. If you intend to engage in serious study, then learn Japanese.


SA: What advice do you have for students of Japanese history? For those who wish to pursue a career in the field, what universities would you recommend?


TC: It is important to come from the universities with the best reputation--Princeton, Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley, University of Michigan, Columbia. Many institutions are strong in modern Japanese history, but for premodern instruction, there are fewer specialists. Joan Piggott at USC, Hitomi Tonomura at Michigan, and Andrew Goble at Oregon are great scholars taking on graduate students.


SA: Whose work among the current crop of historians impresses you the most? What other books would you recommend to our board members, either in English or Japanese?


TC: I could write a long list but for historians that come to mind right now, I like Dani Botsman's work on crime and punishment in Tokugawa Japan, the writings of Karen Wigen of Stanford, Mark Ravina's work on Saigo Takamori and local lordship in Tokugawa Japan, and Karl Friday's recent work on Taira Masakado.


SA: Your faculty listing on Bowdoin University’s website lists several articles and projects you are currently working on. What other works might you have in progress you can tell us about?


TC: In addition to those articles, I have completed an account of Medieval Japanese Warfare, 1200-1550, which will be published in the Cambridge History of War, a new multivolume series that I think readers of the forum will be interested in. This will not come out for a few years. I also continue working on my next monograph, about the political importance of Shingon, and how Shingon Buddhists of the fourteenth century were able to create emperors and the symbols of office, and enforce the notion of loyalty to a lord. I am polishing my manuscript, called From Sovereign to Symbol: Regalia, Ritual and the Struggle for Secrecy in Fourteenth Century Japan.


SA: We'll be looking forward to those! Thank you, Dr. Conlan, for an informative and entertaining interview-it's been a pleasure.

Maeda Keiji, Stephen Hayes, and The Last Samurai: Pop Culture’s Impact On Historical Studies

One of the best features of the Samurai Archives Citadel is that it’s designed to be inclusive. Virtually anyone with an interest in pre-20th century Japanese history can fit in comfortably there. There are a lot of sites that take up positions at either end of the spectrum-ranging from hardcore academic lists such as PMJS (Pre-Modern Japanese Studies) to historically bereft video game, martial arts, and movie boards. The Citadel can accommodate the members of both. This lets the members with a greater degree of historical knowledge have a place to enjoy themselves with off-the-wall topics, while allowing ‘entry level historians’ a venue to get a firm grounding in ‘real’ history. The dual nature of the Citadel is reflected by the Samurai Wiki (an online source which is recommended to students by many University professors and high school teachers) and the 10 Common Samurai Misconceptions, a section which all new members are encouraged to read. As might be imagined, occasionally the newer members put forth arguments and positions that they support with baggage from their initial interests-be it video games, manga, anime, chambara, martial arts, or half-baked philosophy books. Usually, these musings fall into one of several pop culture categories:

1. The Modern Sammyrai-would be modern day followers of Bushido and the tenets of the Hagakure, pledging to live their lives by the way of the sword in an honorable manner.
2. Ninjer-see above, but substitute ‘ninja’ for ‘samurai’. These people believe the outrageous claims and false histories given by such ‘masters’ as Ashida Kim and Stephen Hayes.
3. Christian Sammyrai-those who place an inordinately large focus on Christian Samurai, and greatly overestimate the impact they had on Sengoku Japan.
4. Gamers-whether tabletop or video, gamers sometimes display an obsessive need to have everything neatly categorized, and show blind faith in the historical accuracy of their favorite pastimes. This can be seen most readily in the person of Maeda Keiji, a very minor samurai whose major claim to fame was being related to Maeda Toshiie-but a character that is regarded by many gamers as being one of the most significant figures of the age due to being portrayed as such in the ‘Sengoku Musou’ video game series.
5. Manga, Anime, and Other Fiction-much like video gamers, they can get too caught up in fictional worlds and believe that these works truly present things the way they were. The Shinsengumi (a group which is fascinating on its own merits) is a favorite topic for wild enhancement and crazy speculation.
6. Jidai-geki programming-a particularly virulent strain of misinformation-situations, objects, and personages glimpsed in chambara films and period dramas are quoted as facts when discussing historical events. The television miniseries ‘James Clavell’s Shogun’ and the film ‘The Last Samurai’ are likely the most notorious examples of this.

Of course, this doesn’t mean just because a person reads manga, watches samurai movies, practices Japanese martial arts, or plays video games that they can’t also have a solid base in historical knowledge-many of the most well versed Citadel members have a major interest in these fields. However, when some nonsensical thread shows up authored by a person who will defend their position to the death, it usually sprouts from one of the pop culture influences listed above-usually leaving the regular members wondering if having an inclusive site is a such a great idea after all. This begs the question-does pop culture have a valid role in aiding the study of history? Specifically, does popular entertainment bring any value to the field of pre-20th century Japanese history?
There’s a strong precedent of pop culture coloring the world of Japanese history. Many would be surprised to learn that much of what we accept as Japanese history in the West is actually pop culture. Edo period playwrights, novelists, musicians, and artists all produced fanciful works that over time became accepted as the truth. Early Western historians drew heavily on these sources and presented them as fact. Perhaps the best example of this is the story of The 47 Ronin, where virtually everything one can read on the subject in the West is based on a puppet play, kabuki drama, or novel. Only in the last five years or so have Western scholars taken a serious look at the event, disregarding secondary sources and attempting to reconstruct the event with contemporary accounts. The state of modern scholarship in the West is excellent-with copying machines, faxes, and the internet all aiding in making primary sources and rare documents readily available to scholars all over the world. However, general histories and surveys still rely primarily on decades old work. The majority of popular samurai author Stephen Turnbull’s works have been based on secondary Edo period manuscripts that discuss Sengoku and earlier events (to his credit, Turnbull’s research has become increasingly involved as better sources have become more accessible). Even in Japan, works produced for the general public such as the Rekishi Gunzou series rely heavily on Edo and Meiji period works for their information-and that information can be as misleading and false as anything found in the mythical war tales of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Here, it becomes obvious that pop culture was ingrained into Japanese history long before Western historians took an interest in it.
Moving along to modern pop culture, there are rare examples of it that actually do interject a learning element into their presentations. In the yearly NHK Taiga dramas, there are short segments at the beginning and end of the presentations giving historical background to the goings-on. A popular subgenre of video gaming that is beginning to show up in Japan involves historical quiz programs that are presented in the form of a game (there are current efforts touching on the Sengoku and Edo eras and beyond, with an emphasis on the arts, politics, and personalities). Video game publisher Koei (Sengoku Musou, Nobunaga No Yabou, Kessen, etc) is known for including extensive historical dictionaries, factual biographies, period artwork, and other features that are designed to show gamers the historical truth behind the fantasy. The video game Yoshitsune Eiyuden Shura has a huge historical section that would easily be the equal of any introductory college text. Many movie releases on DVD have extras on the discs that delve into the events or time period that the film covers (although many times these are also sensationalized and somewhat inaccurate accounts, such as the extras on The Last Samurai DVD). Animeigo’s Samurai Cinema label included historical liner notes with VHS releases, which now are included on the DVD itself. Some manga and anime releases follow these examples as well. Tabletop gaming (or computer simulations) is perhaps the most serious source of historical information among popular entertainment. Some releases are more along the lines of simulations than actual games. They feature meticulously researched maps, unit counters, and rules that cover practically every facet of period warfare. I t could be argued that playing one of these efforts would teach more about the nature of samurai warfare on a tactical level (including the importance and difficulties of command and supply) than would a book covering the same subject. Note that we’re not talking efforts such as Samurai Swords (Milton Bradley) or Shogun: Total War (Electronic Arts), both of which feature healthy doses of fantasy to make for a more exciting gameplay experience. Rather, we’re talking more about products like GMT’s RAN game, the Takeda series of PC games, and any number of Japanese tabletop simulations such as those published in Game Journal and Command Magazine Japan. One interesting facet of this historical element embedded in pop culture is that many Japanese products that are translated into English ‘lose’ this element. Koei games released in the United States routinely do not include the historical dictionaries. Taiga dramas many times drop the ending historical bumpers. This may be because it is believed that the users of these products overseas are only interested in the entertainment value and will have no real interest in Japanese history, or as a cost cutting/revenue producing measure (not having to pay for someone to translate the dictionary, or using the time gained from cutting the bumpers for extra commercials).
So it seems that there is a minimal learning value imbedded in many sources of ‘samurai pop culture’. However, I believe their real value lies in instilling a desire to learn more about Japanese history and culture. For all the misconceptions, falsehoods, and brutal misuse of the Japanese language in James Clavell’s Shogun (either the novel or miniseries), it has probably been more influential in turning Westerners towards a serious study of Japanese history than any other work. The Last Samurai, an excellent action film which is rife with historical inaccuracies, has had a similar effect. Martial arts, anime, manga, video games-at some point, most every user of these will become curious and want to learn more about the truths that lie behind them. While many don’t like the answers they find and prefer to remain with their dearly held illusions (usually martial artists that can’t believe their dojo doesn’t really have a 1000 year old history, or that the ninja techniques they use have all been invented in the last 20 years), others go on to develop a solid grounding in many areas of Japanese history-be it political, military, cultural, or economic. Films, games, and other works of fiction are also excellent jumping off points, introducing new avenues to explore and questions to be answered. The planned ‘Samurai 101’ forum on the Samurai Archives hopes to help many of the curiosity seekers and newbie historians along as they make the transition from fantasy to serious study.
There is a place for pop culture in the world of academia. Used correctly, these fonts of entertainment can not only impart rudimentary facts and information but also help guide their users to more involved and appropriate sources. Rather than incurring scorn and ridicule, they should be seen as a tool in stimulating an interest in Japanese history. Judging from the fact that there are far, far more people involved in the study of Chinese history than Japanese, this can only serve to bring some much needed fresh blood into the field. While it can be frustrating for long-time forum members to see neophytes extol the virtues of Bushido, haggle over who would win in a fight (samurai vs. ninja/knight/professional wrestler/etc), or claim to be harboring centuries old ninja secrets, just remember: we all had to start somewhere, and it was probably at a point just as ridiculous. Now you’ll have to excuse me-I’m going for Izumo Okuni’s 5th weapon in Sengoku Musou, and that fringed parasol is proving to be tough to get…