Sword Unconcealed: The Martial Legacy Of The Samurai

Kendo. Via.

It was 1877, and the samurai were in trouble. According to Stephen Burnbull's The Samurai Swordsman: Master of War, Saigo Takamori, the leader of the last great samurai rebellion against the Meiji government and the engines of change, was moving down the slope of Kumamoto Castle under heavy fire. His progress was soon impeded as he took a bullet to the groin, forcing one of his followers to carry him down the mountain. Finally, they reached a secluded gate. Turning in the direction of the imperial palace, Takamori took a knife, plunged it into his belly, and committed seppuku, honorable ritual suicide. The Satsuma Rebellion was over. So was the age of the samurai.

Fast forward to the present, where a visit to any Japanese high school reveals groups of boys and girls clad in black hakama robes, their faces masked so that they look like angry wasps. With a scream and a lunge, they drive their wooden swords against a shoulder. A neck. Searching everywhere for an opening.

This is kendo, the “way of the sword.” As David A. Hall tells us in his Encyclopedia of Japanese Martial Arts, an exhaustive work drawing on decades of study and practice, the kendo tradition almost disappeared after the death of Takamori and disenfranchisement of his samurai brethren. With the Meiji emperor passing a set of laws known as the Haitorei edicts in an effort to outlaw the use of swords, long considered an emblem of samurai status, the romantic way of the sword survived only through the modern art of kendo and the other schools that Hall outlines in his book.

Americans might be familiar with the Haitorei edicts from Japanese media, even if they have never heard the term itself. For example, many will remember the scene in The Last Samurai (not exactly a paragon of historical authenticity, but it does provide some context) where the young samurai Nobutada, played by Shin Koyamada, is stopped in the street by some police officers, who promptly relieve him of sword and topknot to his cry of “Yamero!” “Stop!” As a member of the samurai class, which for centuries enjoyed the right of sword ownership as a status symbol, being deprived of his katana and wakizashi, a smaller sword, would have been especially humiliating for Nobutada. After all, in the words of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the famous Japanese shogun of old, “the sword is the soul of the warrior.”

For all its symbolic importance, the katana was not often the weapon of choice for a samurai on the field of battle. As David Hall tells us in his encyclopedia entry on kyuba no michi, or “way of the bow and horse,” the people of the Heian (794-1185) and Kamakura (1185-1333) periods identified warriorship with one’s skill as an archer, especially while on horseback. Later centuries saw the rise of firearms and squads of foot soldiers armed with yari, or long spears. Just as books and movies like The Three Musketeers and The Princess Bride have given rise to the romantic ideal of soldiers meeting each other one on one, exchanging witticisms as much as blows while they dance the dance of swords, modern takes on samurai history give the impression that battles rested on manful thrusts and parries of the katana. In reality, swords did not enjoy widespread use as a primary weapon until Japan’s invasion by the Mongols in the thirteenth century, and even afterward, the sword generally played its greatest part off the field of battle in duels or assassinations.

Others might know Haitorei through popular anime series Rurouni Kenshin, which depicts the adventures of the titular Kenshin after he renounces the life of an assassin. Events unfold during the dawn of the Meiji era, with everything from the first steam engine to Western dress exemplifying Japan’s transition to a new age. This being the case, Kenshin’s practice of carrying his sword openly at his side, even if it is a reverse-blade sword made for disabling rather than killing, often brings him trouble while out in public. We also learn another bit of history through the character of Saito Hajime, the Dirty Harry of the Japanese police force. Not that any of the heroes and villains of the series seem to pay much regard for the sword carrying law, but as a member of the police, Saito is one of the few who does so within the boundaries of the law.

This detail accords with the historical record. Even after the passing of the last Haitorei decree, one outlawing carrying of swords for the general public, Tokyo police were allowed to carry swords in the course of their duties. In fact, Kawaji Toshiyoshi, protégé of the illustrious Saigo Takamori and founder of the first modern police force in Tokyo, advocated for including the sword as part of police training in a book called Kendo Saikoron (On the Revitalization of Kendo). David Hall expands on this history in his encyclopedia, where he tells of the 1886 creation of a standardized training curriculum for police that included elements of kendo.

It is important to note that the term kendo did not come into use until the seventeenth century, when a period of peace prompted some practitioners of martial arts to include a spiritual element in their training. In this sense, while modern kendo reflects little of the kinds of stylized katana fights seen in films like Kill Bill, and perhaps only a shadow of the martial legacy of the samurai, it certainly stays true to the spirit those same samurai were expected to represent: one of courage and discipline, and the kind of sacrifice seen on the slopes of Kumamoto.

Note: David Hall appears at Japan Society today for a Japanese martial arts demonstration, featuring several local practicing groups. 

--Andres Oliver

Be Aware Of ‘Mono No Aware’

Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees. © Geiensha Company, Toho Co., Ltd

The speed at which cherry blossom petals fall is five centimeters per second, according to the titular anime. The time to enjoy the seasonal explosion of pink and white flora from above certainly feels just as short. With an ultra-finite blooming spam, the life cycle of sakura (cherry blossoms) provides a perfect metaphor for the Japanese aesthetic concept of mono no aware.

In a similar vein of the more straightforward Latin saying memento mori, mono no aware is a wistful reminder to appreciate the ephemeral beauty that all things—blossoms, the seasons, our lives—come to pass. This awareness of the transience in everyday life originates from Motoori Norinaga, an Edo period scholar, and his literary criticism of The Tale of Genji and the venerable collection of Japanese poetry known as the Man’yoshu.

While the depiction of the profoundness and beauty of mono no aware stems from classic literature and art, it can be seen in recent media such as manga, anime and cinema. (It has caught on outside of Japan as well: Irish artist Doreen Kennedy’s 2010 photographic installation pays homage to sakura by propping up prints around a field and also attaching some of them to a growing tree.)

Japan Society’s As Cherry Blossoms Fall: Films & Scenes of Sakura film series, which starts up again this weekend after a week’s hiatus, projects mono no aware through epic, often bloodless samurai action tales, and stories of courageous, lovelorn courtesans.

Several spins on samurai lore include Hirokazu Koreeda’s Hana: The Tale of a Reluctant Samurai (April 6), a darkly humorous questioning of the role of the samurai and their bushido code of honor in the face of honorable revenge; Chushingura (April 7), one of the most famous cinematic retellings of a historical event The 47 Loyal Ronin, in which a group of samurai avenge their master’s death; Kenji Mizumi’s action-packed epic Shinsengumi Chronicles: I Want to Die a Samurai (April 7); and a nod to the Japanese salaryman, or office worker, Abacus and Sword (April 8), which eschews bloodshed for a samurai’s arithmetic skills to defend both lord and family.

Based on the popular manga, Sakuran (April 7—see the trailer below) is a lavish and vibrant period piece with gorgeous costumes and candy-colored sets. The story follows a spunky Edo-period girl, who climbs to the position of oiran (head courtesan) after failing to escape a brothel. In the bewitching horror fantasy Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees (April 8), an Edo period man takes drastic measures to prove his love for a woman he meets in an enchanted forest.

The series concludes at the April 14 j-CATION all-day culture festival with the genre favorite Killing in Yoshiwara A.K.A. Heroes of the Red-Light District. Tickets are $12/$9 Japan Society members, seniors & students, except Abacus and Sword, which is free courtesy of The Japan Foundation, and Killing in Yoshiwara, included in the $10 j-CATION admission price.



--Sean Tomizawa

The Greatest Samurai Film You've Never Seen

Geoffry O’Brien in his Criterion Film Essay notes:

In an era of Japanese filmmaking marked by such masterpieces as Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood and Masaki Kobayashi’s Harakiri, and when even the most routine samurai pictures tended to look very stylish indeed, The Sword of Doom stands out for the rigor and calligraphic pictorialism of its widescreen compositions.

The Guardian in 2005 published an obituary in honor of Director Kihachi Okamoto recalling him as “one of the least known of [Japanese] postwar directors in the west” despite being one of the “leading exponents” of the “most celebrated genre [of films] to come out of Japan.” Calling the neglect as “unwarranted”, the obituary highlighted the The Sword of Doom (1966) as one such movie that “gained a following” and “is still highly regarded.”

Incidentally, Wendell Jamieson of The New York Times recently recounted his long time fascination with Japanese movies depicting swordfights. Sword of Doom not only happens to be Jamieson’s favorite but one that his Kendo teacher Noboru Kataoka holds in high regards “as the greatest sword fight film of them all.” Jamieson portrays the action in the movie as follows:

Nakadai’s fluid and catlike movements seem hardly human — his maniacal grin adds another level of malevolence — but are almost balletic in their elegance. He completes his strokes with graceful upward arcs even after they have done their damage.

If the beautifully captured art of sword fighting have profoundly captivated many, the Zen-like portrayal of the human condition depicted through the protagonist of the film, Ryunosuke, remains yet another source of fascination. O’Brien, brings to our attention the juxtaposition of opposites in Ryunosuke:

Ryunosuke is at once hero and villain, demon and potential bodhisattva, and Tatsuya Nakadai’s stunning performance incarnates perfectly the paradox at the heart of the character: Does he act or is he acted upon? In what sense does he choose his destiny? He seems at times the spectator of his own destructive course, alternately anguished or blackly amused but essentially powerless to change what happens.

Similarly, Bruce Edgar’s take on Sword of Doom encapsulates wonderfully the portrayal of contradictions and Zen-ness in the film:

His Ryunosuke (“a man from hell,” as one character puts it) is one of the screen’s more memorable psychopaths, a passive-aggressive whose bloodlust is portrayed with dead calm, revealed by the tiniest motion of an eye, the trace of a smile, or the tense position of his body as he ponders killing.

Tonight, Japan Society concludes its Zen & Its Opposite: Essential (& Turbulent) Japanese Art House film series with the [sold-out] screening of Sword of Doom at 7:30pm. The movie illustrates the Realm of the Asuras or the realm of anger, jealousy, and constant war in the “Six Planes of Existence”- a Buddhist concept commonly referred as “Six Paths” or (Rokudō or Rokudō-rinne) in Japan—within “the realm of Birth and Death” (Samsara).

Directed by Kihachi Okamoto, Sword of Doom is based on the novel Daibosatsu Toge or The Pass of the Great Buddha by Kaizan Nakazato which first appeared as a newspaper serial in 1913. After being published for forty-one volumes spanning three decades, the novel was left incomplete due to author’s death. Okamoto, on the other hand, has had direct experience of war being drafted at the age of 19 as a student at Meiji University. His encounter with war and violence is said to have influenced his film making career deeply. After coming back from the war in 1947, Okamoto joined the Toho studios and worked with several directors until his directorial debut came in 1958 working on melodramas. Later, he specialized in action films and joined Toei to become the “undisputed star of Toei’s ninkyo eiga yakuza films.”

A.T.

Katana To Kitchen Knife: The Samurai Origins Of Japan's Unparalleled Cutlery

Japanese knives: cuts above the rest. Via.

The Japanese sword, or katana, was considered an inseparable accessory of the samurai warrior class. Today the sword is almost never used for its intended purpose, but the design and composition that made samurai’s katana so feared on the battlefield is now being used to give chefs extremely high quality knives in kitchens across the world.

Why the shift from katana to kitchen knife? According to the professionals at New York's Gohan Society, after World War II General MacArthur banned Japanese sword making, forcing the skilled artisans who had honed this craft for centuries to look towards the world of professional cooking for clientele. Japanese cuisine is often marked by clean flavors and preciosity. The sword makers sought to elevate their craft to help Japanese chefs achieve an extraordinary level in their cooking. Their work has paid off as Japanese knives and Japanese cuisine are highly regarded across the world.

On November 9, Japan Society partners with the Gohan Society to host Chef Says: Japanese Knives are the BEST, in which James Beard Award-winning chef and avid collector of Japanese knives, Michael Romano discusses his love for Japanese cutlery. Romano, from the multiple award-winning Union Square Café in New York City and Tokyo (check out his great essay "Diary of an American Chef in Tokyo"), advocates Japanese knives for their strength, durability and sharpness. He also talks about how Japanese cuisine has influenced his own cooking style and how that influence is currently reflected by his restaurant’s menu where there are a number of selections tailored for the Japanese palette.

The discussion at 6:30 pm, and concludes with a knife-sharpening demonstration and reception. Tickets are $12 for the general public and $8 for Japan Society members, seniors, and students.

T.D.

Across The Divide, 150 Years of Cross-Culture Lotion Provides An Ocean Of Motion

Hip-hoppers in Japan. Image via UCLA Asia Institute.

Whether it's food, pop music or the landscape of our lives, a curious cultural hybrid of Japanese and American culture exists in all walks--a fact particularly astounding because the U.S. and Japan have only been open to each other since 1860.

In Fusion in Motion: 150 Years of Japan-America Integration, Japan Society’s Lectures Program brings together a dynamically disparate posse of specialists to explore cultural cross-pollination. The panel features Theodore C. Bestor, one of Havard's top anthropology professors (his Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of the World, has been called "one the best books recently published on Japan"); Ian Condry, who jives on media and cultural studies at MIT, and quite literally wrote the book on Japanese hip-hop; and Marc Peter Keane, a master landscape architect and author of many books on Japanese garden design.

The panel celebrates the 150th anniversary of the first Japanese delegation to the United States, marking the beginning of modern bilateral U.S.-Japan diplomatic relations. At this time business and diplomatic engagement took root and cultural exchange flourished. Fusion in Motion examines the fruits of these exchanges from three areas that have been particularly influenced by the cross-flow of ideas and techniques: music, food and landscape architecture.

The program is co-presented with the Museum of the City of New York, which, in late June, presents a mélange of historical artifacts from samurai visiting New York during the period! 

N.O., S.J.

News Blast

Copyright © 2010 AFP

Tokyo samurai women punish fat with sword workout

Japan's ancient samurai swords were once used to slice apart enemies, but in a new fitness craze they serve to slash away at extra pounds and cut down on modern-day stress instead. "Cut down!", a sword-wielding instructor shouted during a recent "Samurai Camp" gym session in Tokyo as a squad of sweat-drenched women warriors followed suit, slashing the air with their shiny blades. "Put your right foot forward, cut down straight, thrust out your chest, no bending of the back," the instructor yelled to the sound of a techno dance beat and swooshing weapons. "Punish the extra fat with this!" To avoid turning the health workout into a bloodbath, the swords are made of wood and urethane foam, but the determination of the participants is steely: the goal is to shed five kilograms (11 pounds) in about a month.

U.S. transport chief test-rides Japan magnetic train

The U.S. transport chief took a test ride Tuesday on Japan's super-fast magnetic train, a contender for President Barack Obama's multi-billion-dollar national high speed railway project. Japan is up against China, France, Germany and other bidders as it seeks to sell its Shinkansen bullet and magnetic train systems for the American rail plan, which is backed by 13 billion dollars in public funding. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he looked forward to "the thrill of a lifetime" as he boarded the train for a 500 kilometre (310 mile) per hour ride at the Yamanashi Maglev Test Line near Mount Fuji.

One-on-one counselors to be introduced to support jobless people  

The government decided Tuesday to introduce counselors to support those who are unemployed over a long duration one-on-one in fiscal 2011. At a meeting to tackle the unemployment issue, Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan said, "It is necessary to support needy persons individually and continuously." The government plans to allocate the costs for the program in the fiscal 2011 national budget. The counselors are expected to help unemployed people find jobs and accommodation.

WHO: Japan's life expectancy longest at 83 years

Japan and San Marino in Europe have the world's longest life expectancy at 83 years, according to the World Health Organization. On Monday, the U.N. body released World Health Statistics 2010, which is based on surveys conducted in 2008 and covers 193 WHO member countries. By gender, Japanese women boast the longest average life expectancy at 86 years, followed by France, Andorra and Monaco at 85 years. Japanese men were ranked 4th at 79 years, following San Marino at 81 years, and Iceland and Switzerland at 80 years.

Tokyo matchmaking services getting more diverse

Matchmaking services in Tokyo now come in a variety of forms -- even one aimed at bringing together cat lovers. So-called "cat cafe" Nyafe Melange in Tokyo's Ebisu district, where cuddly cats are on hand to be petted, is hosting lessons for singles on photographing their favorite animal. "There are many people who are getting bored of the ordinary style of matchmaking events, in which men go around the seats to talk to women," said Kazumi Nokajima, organizer of the event for cat lovers.

The Poles of Japanese Film

One thing I love about Japanese film is that it can be classic, elegant, and dignified or it can be garish, spastic, and barely clinging to any semblance of sanity.

This month we're bringing you both ends of the spectrum!

© Kadokawa Pictures, Inc.

First, on May 14th we're giving you the epitome of the matatabi (samurai gambler) movie: Lone Wolf Isazo, one of Raizo Ichikawa’s most spectacular performances.

Employing flashbacks within flashbacks and a brooding romantic style poised somewhere between Budd Boetticher and early Sergio Leone, director Kazuo Ikehiro charts Isazo’s descent from chivalrous naïf to vengeance-obsessed cynical wanderer, giving a definitive chronicle of the loneliness of the long-distance wanderer.

© Kadokawa Pictures, Inc.

Immediately after Lone Wolf Isazo, we're showing The Devil's Temple.

In this little known Kenji Misumi masterpiece, an abandoned temple nestled in the mountains is the scene of a fateful encounter between a Buddhist monk, two women in love with the same man, and a fallen samurai (Shintaro Katsu, at his most ferocious). As destinies collide: it appears that not just the lives of the quartet are at stake, but their very souls. Hell awaits!

Both films are the finale of the our Monthly Classic Series, The Double Edged Sword: The Chambara Films of Shintaro Katsu & Raizo Ichikawa.

© RoboGeisha Film Partners 2009

Then, on May 18th we're throwing RoboGeisha at you!

From the demented imagination of director Noboru Iguchi (Machine Girl) and special effects savant Yoshihiro Nishimura (Tokyo Gore Police) comes this brain-blasting vision of the future of genre cinema which defies description, sanity and good taste.

The evil, Tea Party-esque Kageno Corporation wants to return Japan to more traditional values and the weapons in their arsenal include their massive Geisha Army, two supernatural bikini-clad assassins and a plan to detonate a nuclear device on Mt. Fuji. But that's not enough! They're so evil that they also recruit two sisters and turn them into....RoboGeisha! However, RoboGeisha have uncontrollable hearts and it's not long before one of them begins to wonder if there's more to life than being a kimono-clad, robotic killing machine.

The screen swarms with nutso concepts like acid breast milk, butt swords and fried shrimp weapons while peekaboo sexiness and goofy ultra-violence are the order of the day. One part Japanese schoolgirl melodrama, one part grindhouse swordplay, one part open-plains chambara and one part Daimajin-esque, city-stomping "suitmation," RoboGeisha might just be the one cult movie to rule them all.

Might want to get your tickets for this one online before the crowds snatch up all the seats!

Saturday Double Feature

Saturday, March 20th

Zatoichi On the Road: Fighting Journey

座頭市喧嘩旅 (Zatoichi kenka-tabi)

5 PM

Also known as Zatoichi and the Scoundrels. In chapter five of the Blind Swordsman saga, Zatoichi encounters a dying man who asks him to deliver the maiden O-Mitsu to her family. Feeling honor-bound to fulfill the request, the cane sword-wielding masseur goes on a perilous journey and soon finds himself between a rock and a hard place as rival gangs compete to kidnap his beautiful protégée for a ransom. There will be blood indeed!

Scar Yosaburo

切られ与三郎 (Kirare Yosaburo)

7 PM

In Scar Yosaburo, a band of yakuza ruffians mutilate the face of an actor after he is caught with the gang boss’s mistress. A misty, moonlit tale from the Kabuki repertoire and a stirring classic of the most artful category of samurai films, zankoku jidai-geki ("cruel historicals").

Kyogen: Traditional Comic Theater

Three hundred years before Jonathan Swift, satire thrived in the form of kyogen, the Japanese comedic theater. Kyogen, literally “mad words,” originated during the samurai era and features humorous stories of daily life laced with biting social satire directed against the samurai class that was the main audience for the plays. Led by Yamamoto Noritoshi—designated as an Intangible Cultural Asset by the Japanese government—Yamamoto Kyogen will offer Japan Society two kyogen comedies:

Shido Hogaku (Stop in Your Tracks): The classic kyogen tale of a master-servant relationship turned on its head. A servant is sent by his callous master on a shameful errand, and, in his spite, the servant vows to get his revenge. Hijinks ensue as the two engage in a riotous reversal of station, with the servant getting the last laugh.

Tsukimi Zato (Moon-viewing Blind Man): A farce in which a blind man meets a passerby on the road while enjoying a full moon and quickly becomes the object of a cruel trick perpetrated by the stranger.

You can watch a performance of Shido Hogaku here. Like in the video, Yamamoto Kyogen will be in Japanese at Japan Society, but English subtitles will be provided!

Friday, March 26, 7:30 PM   |   Saturday, March 27, 7:30 PM    |   Sunday, March 28, 2 PM

Destiny's Son (斬る)

Showing at Japan Society on Friday, February 19th

"Destiny's Son is like a haiku.  Lyrical, minimalist, a true gem."
- Patrick Galloway, Stray Dogs & Lone Wolves

In Kenji Misumi’s breakthrough film, Ichikawa seeks revenge and redemption after his family is murdered by a rival clan. An astonishing, dreamlike samurai film written by Kaneto Shindo, Destiny’s Son is a demonic masterpiece: designed with quasi-expressionist artistry, awash with surreal landscapes, and subsumed in an otherworldly beauty that fuses Zen and sword.

Check Out the Trailer

Part of the Monthly Classics Series:
The Double Edged Sword: The Chambara Films of Shintaro Katsu & Raizo Ichikawa

Notes from the Gallery

Goodbye Serizawa! We'll miss you!

Today, the exhibit is getting deconstructed. Loud bangs and outrageous crashes have been emanating from the 2nd floor all morning. All the noise keeps ricocheting up the staircase. If for some unfortunate reason, you couldn't make the fabulous Serizawa exhibit, you can always check out some of the pieces on our online gallery. It's sad to hear it go.

But in order to create, one must first destroy, right? Our next exhibit looks super cool! Its official title is: Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters: Japanese Prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi from the Arthur R. Miller Collection and it's going to run from March 12th to June 13th.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi's vivid scenes from history and legend, wildly popular 150 years ago, are a major influence on the work of today's manga and anime artists. This exhibition features over 100 dramatic depictions of giant spiders, skeletons and toads; Chinese ruffians; women warriors; haggard ghosts; and desperate samurai combat.

I. Can't. Wait.

Since all of February is going to be dedicated to putting together the new exhibit, there will definitely be more posts about Utagawa through the coming weeks.

Here's your first sneak peak:

The Double-Edged Sword: The Chambara Films of Shintaro Katsu and Raizo Ichikawa

With the centennial of director Akira Kurosawa’s birth coming up, 2010 will be the year of sword fighting films (chambara) at Japan Society!
The film series starts next month. Check out which films we’re going to feature!