THOUGHTS FROM A TAKAYAMA ROOFTOP: Some thoughts by Aoi Tokugawa-sensei on Japanese Thought, Samurai, and Bushido.

Some thoughts by Aoi Tokugawa-sensei on

Japanese Thought, Samurai, and Bushido.

I think of history as a series of lines, not dots. Many of the small things, the small day-to-day things that occurred maybe be regarded as dots, for example a fire, a storm, a flood; but not the major events (a war, a coup, a regime change, etc.). These things are connected to other events of the past with a straight line. The same can be said of the history of thought.

The evolution of thought definitely occurs at the various turning points in the history.
It does not pop into the mind as if God’s own voice. In order for thought to spread through society, it requires a background that people can accept. For example:

Why didn’t European Chivalry take root in Japan?
Why didn’t Islam religion take root in Japan?

I have never seen a Japanese who perform prayers five times in a day and abstain from food, nor do we accept Muslim dogma. Why?Because we Japanese have no background, no history which would permit us to accept it.

The “background” I mention could be anything from a shared history (and shared experiences) to a shared culture (shared thought, aesthetics, character). It could possibly extend to a shared DNA:Japanese DNA inherited from our ancestors – the ancient Japanese.Much of what we are is carried in our DNA; however, this is not something unique to Japanese but common to all the people in the world. No one completely understands the evolution of DNA or how national and social characteristics are passed along, but it would seem that they are. It is part of what makes a Japanese, Japanese, and all Japanese thinking, our viewpoint of the world and ourselves come, in part, from it.

Why do Japanese love Sakura? Because we are Japanese. That is all that needs to be said.

Samurai and Kamikaze pilots must have seen their life in Sakura.Yet, there are people who think that the Sakura is an icon of militarism. Certainly there is a relationship between Sakura and militarism: it is true so I won’t try to deny it. However, for the majority, when we see Sakura, everyone senses its beauty. No one thinks, “Oh! Militarism has blossomed. Oh! Sakura is terrible!”

What I want to discuss in this blog, in the future, is Japanese thought. But do not be too concerned, as I will not harp on the matter of DNA as I mentioned briefly above – it is too difficult a topic for most people, including myself.

The thought has form but no form; we cannot touch it or hold it, but the form reveals itself in human’s behavior.

When it comes to the Japanese thought, the first thing that comes to mind is Bushido.

“Loyality” exists in Bushido thinking as a major principle. Did every samurai obey it? The answer is no. The actual, historical samurai is different from the popular image of samurai (cool and gentlemanly); an image we receive from movies and literature. Because the historical samurai is different from the “pop” samurai, some are inclined to say that Loyalty was a quality that didn’t exist in samurai.

They felt hunger, they felt pain when a sword cut them; and to die, was terrible. Some of them hated even the thought of hari-kiri: “No, no, I don’t want to die that way!”
The existence of such samurai is to be expected, because they were human beings: not supermen. A few were even brats; yet aside from them, we can see the form of Loyalty in the good, ethical behavior of the samurai.

Thanks to Nitobe Inazo and his book on Bushido and the film The LastSamurai, I think everyone has a bit of knowledge now about Bushido and the Hagakure. However, few seem to know about Shido, which is vastly different from Bushido as described by Nitobe or in theHagakure.

Shido was born as Japan became peaceful society during the Edo Period, parented by such men as Soko Yamaga, Sorai Ogyu who were Confucians. How is Shido different from Bushido? Let me show you a bit of the difference through example.

In the film The Last Samurai, there are lines of dialog that clearly illustrate Shido. In one of the last scenes of the film, after the death of Katsumoto (Ken Wtanabe) in battle against the government forces lead by the Meiji Era oligarch, Omura; the central character Algren (Tom Cruise) has an audience with Emperor Meiji and presents him with Katsumoto’s sword.

“Tell me how he (Katsumoto) died,” said the Emperor.

“I will tell you how he lived,” answered Algren.

Here then, in these two lines,is the difference between Bushido and Shido, layed out for us. How to die is Bushido. How to live is Shido. It is said that Bushido is the philosophy of death; Shido is the philosophy of life.

There are those who regard Shido (those who even know of it) as the opposite extreme of Bushido; yet, I disagree. Bushido and Shido are bound together by the same core of thought: To die with honor, one must live with honor. As one lives honorably, one may then die honorably, just as the cherry blossom (Sakura).

There were many samurai who based their lives on the principles of Shido; such as Byako-tai, the men of the Shinsengumi, the 47 Ronin.In simple terms, they were the personification of loyalty and products of loyalty.

Later, I will tell you of the 47-Ronin and through their thoughts and behavior, I believe we will be able to see and better understand Japanese thought and Shido. We might even talk more about Japanese DNA!

*There are many terms in the Japanese language and thus in Japanese history which are difficult to translate into English. I will use the Japanese words and then attempt to explain their meanings and concepts to the reader. Also, please bear in mind that this is not an academic paper, but simply my thoughts, my blog, so I will write it in my own, humble style.

壬生義士伝 MIBU GISHI DEN: An In-depth Review

壬生義士伝 Mibu Gishi Den

(English Title: When The Last Sword is Drawn)

Winner “Best Film” Japanese Academy Awards

Winner “Best Actor” Japanese Academy Awards

Winner “Best Supporting Actor” Japanese Academy Awards

Director:

Yojiro Takita

Writers:

Jiro Asada (story)

Takehiro Nakajima

Release Date:18 January 2003 (Japan)

Late one Tokyo night in the winter of 1899, as Dr Ono Chiaki (Takehiro Murata) and his wife are packing to move their small medical clinic to Manchuria, they are visited by an elderly man with an ill grandson. Amidst the chaos of packing crates and boxes, the man, Saito Hajime (Koich Sato), spots an old photograph of a samurai, Yoshimura Kanichiro (Kiichi Nakai), whom he recognizes from some thirty years earlier. The photo triggers in both Ono and Saito a series of complex memories of Yoshimura as the incarnation of the samurai's heroic code at a time when such a code was fast becoming an irrelevant detail of history.

Along with Yamada Yoji’s superior The Twilight Samurai (2002) and Edward Zwick's entertaining The Last Samurai (2003), Takita Yojiro’s “When the Last Sword is Drawn” or “Mibu Gishi Den”, set in the same period, forms part of a growing body of revisionist literary and cinematic works that re-examine samurai values in their death throes - in much the same way that revisionist westerns like Sam Peckinpah's 'The Wild Bunch' (1969) and Clint Eastwood's 'Unforgiven' (1992) reexamined the rapidly vanishing ideology of the cowboy. In Takita's film, Yoshimura is depicted at the outset as a deeply unconventional samurai - clownish, obsessed with money, unconcerned with saving face, and always valuing wife and children over clan, life over death. The more traditional Saito's first recollections of Yoshimura are as "the man I hated most", "an awful country samurai bragging about home and family" - and his first impulse upon meeting him was to kill him on the spot. "What kind of samurai is that?" becomes a recurring question.

The younger Ono, on the other hand, who as a boy lived in the same provincial town as Yoshimura, remembers him more sympathetically as "strong and gentle", a wise teacher and a skilled swordsman who deserted the local clan and sought work in Kyoto for the Shinshengumi (a special police force of the late Tokugawa Period) to prevent his family from starving to death. As Saito and Ono begin to share drinks and memories privately with the audience, their view of the man in the photo starts to shift subtly, and the narrative that they weave together

transforms a mercenary buffoon, and the shabbily pointless end that he meets, into a heroic example of samurai virtues whose crowning glory is an act of extraordinary self-sacrifice.

The cinematography is excellent and while the editing has a few “bumps” the story moves well and draws the viewer in. The dialog and acting is straightforward with no “tricks” in the characters or plot, thus making it a thoroughly enjoyable movie. There are, within the film, scenes of great violence and brutality (one of the reasons we watch Samurai films ne) but there are also scenes of great dedication, love and compassion, as well as futility, which will bring tears to the eyes of even the most jaded viewer.

Commentary:

NAKAI KIICHI (Yoshimura)

“The Shinsengumi provides a historical background. As I understand it, love toward friends and family is the main theme of the film. In this modern society, when you say, “stick to our conscience”; I wonder what is meant by “conscience” and wonder if people actually do have a conscience. I realized that in this society, how other people perceive you is more important. It seems really important how you see yourself within this society, but actually, how you want to live should be more important than what others think of you.

“You must have your own philosophy on life. In my role as Yoshimura…he sticks to his own way. This might be for his family because he loves his family and wants to protect them. It is not because he should protect them but because he wants to.I hope through this film, people could see the importance of having their own principles. For the young generation and for my own generation, it is necessary to find and stick to our own philosophy for the future of Japanese society.

SATO KOICHI (SAITO HAJIME)

“I understand the samurai spirit to be like the soul of young boys who have difficulty accepting societal rules. The film describes the conflict which Yoshimura has to face between his samurai spirit and his responsibilities towards his family…this is the matter of conflict which Yoshimura has to face. First he tries to refuse accepting the societal rules but gradually compromises to survive as a real man.”

TAKITA YOJIRO (DIRECTOR)

Question: What was the “trigger “ for making the film?
“I was asked by the producers…I was reading the novel for awhile when it was serialized in a magazine. Then I read the whole story again before making the film. It was amazing. I t made me cry…thinking that I had become hold…but I doubt if there is anyone who would not cry. I am sure everyone would.

Question: What is the most important part of the film?
“That’s it. I believe this film is not only about the Shinsengumi. Even in today’s society, men like Yoshimura absolutely exist. This film is refreshing because it makes us aware that men like Yoshimura exist and are needed in our society.

“It is difficult to explain conscience but I was really attracted to his spirit…if you read the novel you would realize what I realized. I realized I could ask myself “could I live according to my own conscience?”

“I am glad I knew about this novel. It gave me a good chance to think about my job and my role as a film director.

ASADA JIRO (AUTHOR)

“People have pride. Because of this pride the samurai tried to hide what they really felt. This, I think, made them heroes…but Yoshimura was different. He was honest. If he didn’t have money he would say so. He made money by killing people to support his family. He didn’t care about his pride or social status.

“I tried to imagine what he was like and I created his character in my head. I created the “ideal” man. In real life, it might be impossible to find such a man as a husband and as a father. When I think of him it tells me how I should live, as a man, as a husband, and as a father even though I created him myself.

“I wanted to write a story about the least heroic Shinsengumi. For me the worst and the least heroic samurai is the coolest one.

“What are our real responsibilities or duties as a human being? That is what I wanted to convey to readers. In this modern society, although people may already know what they really should do, most are unable to do it because there are so many temptations. At Any time and in any kind of society, what is important for us is the same. I wanted to describe people who do the right thing.

“Another important thing in the story is the love for his [Yoshimura] for his home province. It is one of the main themes of the story. I feel that in the whole world it is only the Japanese people who do not appreciate tat we are Japanese. We have become half-American. In the story, I describe Yoshimura’s love for the province of Morioka. However, what I aimed for is to remind readers of their hometown…or even, in a broader sense, of Japan.”

(c) 2007 Hayato Tokugawa http://360.yahoo.com/tokugawahayato