47 Ronin: Historical Accuracy 47 Ronin is a graphic novel written by Mike Richardson. The story begins in Feudal Japan during the Tokugawa Period in 1701. One of the characters in the book, Lord Asano, is traveling to Edo or current day Tokyo. This is where the head of the Tokugawa government, the Shogun, lives. Lord Asano has to fulfill his Sankin Kotai, which is when all of the Japanese daimyos have to visit and report to the Shogun (Meissner). In Edo, Lord Asano quickly realizes the corruption in the bakufu, which is the name of the Shogun’s government. Lord Asano refuses to pay a bribe to a court official named Kira, which as a result leads to him being forced to commit Seppuku, which is a ritual suicide, to restore his honor. The rest of the novel follows …show more content…
The article is found on the Marquette University History Department website. It is written by Associate Professor of Asian Studies at Marquette University, Daniel J Meissner. Meissner is an historian who specializes in East Asia, which includes Japan. The goal of the article to to inform the reader of the Sankin Kotai system. The piece describes the system, “One such system is the sankin kotai (alternate residence), which regulated, controlled, and to an extent impoverished the local daimyo” (Meissner). The audience of this piece is scholars, students, and historians wanting to learn more about the politics of Tokugawa Japan, specifically the sankin kotai. This article is written by an expert because he is historian and college professor, so this means that the article should be accurate and reliable. However, the author has the point of view of an American, so it may have some unavoidable bias, but this should not interfere with the information for the most part. This source gives accurate information by a reputable source on a specific part of the Tokugawa Japanese
In The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama, a young man is thrown from his established world, left in a new, confusing realm that holds more than meets the eye. In the midst of a violent and ferocious war between the Chinese and Japanese in mid 1937, this young man, Stephen, contracts tuberculosis, and is sent to his family’s summer house in Japan. There he meets the house’s caretaker, Matsu, a simple and reserved man who holds back all but the most necessary speech. This meeting will come to define many of Stephen’s interactions with others throughout the novel: reserved and limited. In this odd land filled with subtle secrets and unspoken uncomfortability, Stephen is prepared for a very quiet and restful period, marked with healing and growth.
This film over glorifies bushido which leads to the misconception that bushido was the representation for all of Japan. At the start of the film, the narrator said, “and yet to know the story of 47 ronin is to know the story of all Japan.” (47 Ronin) Although the legend of forty-seven ronin was often used as an example to illustrate the samurai’s ethics and code of conduct, the narrator was speaking as if
Akira Kurosaw’s Seven Samurai is a film that encompasses various ideologies in order to allow the audience to understand the lives of Japanese people during the 1600’s. The film delves deep in social issues of the roles of the people within the society, the expectations as well as the obligations within the respected castes and elements within groups of ; suffering, working together, protecting family and working for the better good of the community.
Musui’s Story is the exciting tale of a low class samurai’s life towards the end of the Tokugawa era. Although one would normally imagine a samurai to be a noble illustrious figure, Musui’s Story portrays the rather ignominious life of an unemployed samurai. Nonetheless, this primary account demonstrates the tenacity of samurai values and privileges present at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. The social status of samurai had been elevated to such a state that even someone like Musui was easily able to gain influence in everyday affairs with his privileges. Not only that, but he had retained his values as a warrior and still kept great pride for his arts in weaponry.
Although the term “revolution from above” is often used to explain the GHQ’s method of postwar reform in Japan (Dower, 1999: p.69), I argue that a similar motivation was in effect in the U.S.’s efforts to isolate all Japanese descendants in America and subject them to coerced American soci...
When the American Commodore Perry arrived and forced the Japanese to open up trading with the Americans in 1853 it caused a massive shift in the way Japan was run. The shogun could not deal with the looming threat and began a campaign of anti-foreignism “’Toi!’ (Expel the Barbarians!)” . The shogun eventually capitulated and began to allow foreign ships into Japan; this sparked the anti-foreign element, created by the shogun, to remove the shogun and reinstate the Emperor into power: “’Sonno’ (Revere the Emperor) was added to their mantra of ‘Toi’ to represent the old system where the Emperor was like a god. The Emperor took power back into his hands and renamed himself Meiji meaning “Enlightened Rule.” However, the Emperor did not expel the ‘barbarians’, instead he saw them as a method of creating a better Japan and began a campaign known as the ‘Meiji Restoration’ to modernize the nation. Japan needed to modernize because the western countries had forced the Tokugawa shogunate to sign unfair treaties that greatly favoured the western countries, notably the United States of America, Russia, Great Britain and France . One of the key events of the Meiji Restoration was the decline and fall of the samurai class in Japan. This essay intends to show the reasons for the decline of the samurai at the beginning of the Empire of Japan through the policies enacted during the Meiji Restoration. This will be shown through the military, cultural, political and social reforms enacted by the Japanese government.
In 1900 Britain was in many respects the world’s leading nation, enjoying a large share of world trade, a dominant position in the international money market, and possessing a far flung empire supported by the world’s most powerful navy. Japan was a complete contrast, sharing with Britain only the fact that it too was a nation of islands lying off the shore of a major continent. Until the 1860s it had possessed a social and economic structure more akin to that of feudal, rather than twentieth century, Europe. By the 1990s, the positions were almost reversed. This paper sets out to examine the contrasting democratic political systems of the two nations and to explore the social and democratic consequences of the changes that have occurred.
Bushido or the way of the samurai introduces samurai as both men of culture and as warriors. The art and culture of samurai encompasses more than 800 years of Japans history as well as its creative past. From the 12th century through the modernization of Japan.
Kurosawa creates a masterpiece with the Seven Samurai. This film was created in 1954, it is a Japanese film and it has English subtitles. The Seven Samurai is a story about a small farming village in 16th century Japan that is under constant threat from traveling groups of outlaw bandits. The elders that live in the village decide to hire a defense force to protect them from these outlaws. They enlist a variety of samurai for hire and samurai are willing to work for their food. The mission of the seven samurai is to protect the village against almost impossible odds.
The Japanese had lived in isolation for over two hundred years. They had prevented any foreigners from entering or any ships to land at Japanese ports. “In 1850 they had no steam engine, no factory, or no modern firearms. And, amazing to relate, the ladies and gentlemen of Japan adopted no new fashions in wearing apparel!”
Tsuzuki, Chushichi. The Pursuit of Power in Modern Japan, 1825-1995. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Questia. Web. 28 Apr. 2011.
Though it seems that it was the Western influence that set off this revolutionary change, a more scrutinizing look into Japanese society at the time reveals that Japan was in fact on the brink of supplanting the fixed, hierarchical Tokugawa order for one that was better suited for its fast evolving, capitalistic society. As historian David Lu states, “Our people began to discover [modern civilization’s] utility and gradually and yet actively moved towards its acceptance. However, there was an old fashioned and bloated government that stood in the way of progress.” (Lu, 351). Therefore in a way we can view the intrusion of Western powers in Japan on that infamous July day in 1853 as an event that occurred during a time when Japan was ready for a world renewal, and not a direct and complete cause of modernization of Japan; in fact it was Japan’s revaluation of modernization and what it meant to be Japanese amidst strong western influences that eventually ...
In conclusion, 47 Ronin is a movie that imitates the culture and history of Samurai in Japan, Therefore the movie is related to term the general term of Orientalism and the term Orientalism that Edward Said explained in his book.
...ining power over its subjects. The Tokugawa instead took the wives and children of the shoguns semihostage in Edo to deter powerful families from taking over the Tokugawa. This is the way the Tokugawa handled the problem because they were no outsiders to Japan but they had many enemies within the state. The Tokugawa and Chinese, however, both closely maintained their contact with foreigners, especially in trade. The Chinese established the Canton system which limited the Europeans to trade in only one city and need a guild approval to trade. The Japanese solved this problem of foreign relations through directing all trade traffic to Honshu, a port city under Edo’s direct rule. This was significant because this direction of trade meant the Edo government could collect taxes on the products rather than another daimyo, drawing power and wealth away from rival families.
Our preliminary class gave a brief, yet detailed outline of major events affecting the East Asian region. Within that class, prompted by our limited geographical knowledge of Asia, we were given a fundamental explanation of the geographical locations of the various events taking place in the region. In subsequent classes, we were introduced to the major wars, political shifts, and economic interests which shaped Japan, China and Korea to what they are today. We examined the paradigm of pre-modern Japanese governance, the Shogunate, and the trained warriors which defended lord and land, Samurai. In addition, we examined the socio-economic classes of Medieval Japan, which included the Samurai, peasants, craftsmen, and the merchants. We also examined pre-1945 Japan’s policies toward foreign entities, notably the Sakoku Policy, which sought to expunge all foreign presence and commerce in an effort to protect its borders and culture. 1945, however, saw ...