Seven Samurai

Photo Courtesy Tamamushi



When one thinks of entertainment in Japan, most immediately think of the glamorous bright lights of downtown Tokyo or the booming business of anime and manga. I however would like to touch upon the classics of Japanese entertainment. In the west, we have our western classics with cowboys and indians. However, because of Japans original and old past, their so called “cowboys” of old are the ancient samurai. These movies used to be popular in Japan among all ages when anime was still in its infancy. Some of the most popular samurai movies even won international acclaim. The movie I would like to delve deeper into is called Seven Samurai. While I am nowhere close to being an experienced viewer of the samurai classics, I’ve heard that this movie used to be the equivalent of a good John Wayne back home.
In fact, if this movie were dissected into only its elemental parts of plot and characters, it is almost exactly the same as certain cowboy movies like Tombstone. The plot goes something like this. A village/town falls helpless and victim to the enemy. The heroes come in and save the people by killing off the bad guys. While every good movie including Seven Samurai has the good and bad guys along with a meandering love story, it is not these similarities that I am so much interested in. I would like to answer questions like what makes this Japanese movie unique to the culture of Japan?
The main point that sticks out in my mind is the underlying reason for why most of the samurai enlisted to help the poor farmers. It was self evident that the samurai fought not to do it for the fame or for the money but because it was honorable and just. This can be seen when the first samurai, Kambei decides to fight after seeing the terrible state of the farmers in hunger and shame. Thus it is enforced in the viewers mind the lesson that it is more important to do what is right than what one might gain in material fortune.
The second interesting point that this movie brings up is respect. Throughout the movie, there is an obvious hierarchy between the samurai, farmers and women. In some parts, the samurai kick around the farmers like stray dogs in the street. In addition, great respect is shown when talking to elders such as the old man that leads the village. Today in Japan, while there is still a level of respect shown to elders (for instance polite form of speaking versus plain form), this level of respect is slowly declining as new generations are born. The book I am currently reading titled, “As I see it” by Konosuke Matsushita touches on this very point. Matsushita states, “I am saddened by the lessening of respect as the years go by.”
Lastly, one cannot ignore the costume and props that are unique to Japan. Everything from the armor and swords down to the war flag that was made by Kikuchiyo is unique to Japanese culture of the 16th century. I once heard that the reason for flags to be worn in times of war were so that the generals commanding the war would be able to see those that were fighting especially well or committing acts of heroism. Although neither flag nor armor were used during fighting in the movie, they both had their key roles in the storyline.
After viewing some important distinctions that help keep movies like Seven Samurai unique to classical Japanese entertainment compared to western classics, we find that important elements are always present. These can be materialistic like the weapons and clothing or present only in actions and relations among characters like honor and respect.




Photo Courtesy benkyoshin.blogspot.com

Suehiro-cho

Skyline of Osaka from the neighborhood of Suehiro-cho





My neighborhood lies in the city of Neyagawa. From what I can gather, my new neighborhood named Suehiro-cho is a quiet, middle-upper class residential area. There are approximately 200 residences including small shops, which run along the main road coming up from the closest Keihan station called Korien. There are also a couple apartment buildings, a catholic church and a preschool. My experience has been limited, however I have seen what I consider to be a great neighborhood. In the morning, I walk by the preschool a couple minutes before school starts. At this time, I see all of the mothers in the area either walking or biking their little ones to school. All of the little kids are dressed in the cutest uniforms with red backpacks and straw hats. Every student also has a thermos draped over their shoulder for what I assume to contain either hot tea or their favorite lunch drink. Once I saw a father taking his child to school. He was acting very awkward as all of the mothers were socializing together and it seemed like he knew he was out of place.

I have also had the opportunity to meet a couple of other neighbors. Down the street from our house lives an older woman in a tiny little house. I was told that she has been single her whole life and that she teaches dance in her home. When meeting with her, even though I couldn’t understand the language she was speaking I could still tell that she was genuine and loving. Down the street another 20 steps by the main road lives a couple that owns a store/shanty selling rice. My host mother told me that since the economy has been down, they have been struggling to make ends meet. To help out a little, my host mother gives them all of the tabs from the cans of beer that my host father drinks (which is 6 per night).

Fortunately, the house that I live in with the Aoyagi’s is at the highest point in elevation in the neighborhood. This provides for some great views of downtown Osaka as well as the sunsets. I used to consider my home city of Salt Lake to be pretty big, but it pales in comparison to the greater Osaka area. One can travel hours on the trains and never see country.

Other important markers near Suehiro-cho are the Shinto shrine and the Buddhist temple. While I am as uneducated as it gets when it comes to their main religion of Buddhism, I can still see how important their rituals and traditions are to them. It is common to see a kind of hand washing station at the front of every shrine to make sure at least your hands are clean before entering. There is also usually a place for one to write their wishes on a paper to leave at the shrine. At this neighborhood shrine, there were origami cranes bunched by the thousand left by people hoping for good fortune.



Cranes at a shinto shrine

Bikes, Buses, Trains Oh My!

My first impressions of Japan are mainly related to the differences between the Japanese culture and my own in the U.S. This is the reason I have chosen to take a picture of the Japanese public transportation system. Back home, everyone and their dog drives when they need to go somewhere farther than their front porch. Some might ask how a country such as Japan evolved to nurture the public transportation system and let it grow into a full fledged spider-web of interconnecting railways and bus lines when the U.S. never did. I think the answer lies in landmass. Because Japan is so small, it has come to realize that it needs to maximize its area for building. This in turn causes the roads to shrink. As population increases and roads shrink, the only solution is to create a mass transportation system that takes up little room but transports many people. The U.S. has so much area that especially in the west, it has room to build far apart. Roads can stay large and because of larger roads and longer distances, cars are a much more convenient and faster form of transportation.
This major difference in our cultures has proven for many an adventure for me in the last 2 weeks. Just this last weekend, I fell asleep on the train from Kyoto to Hirakata and almost ended up in Nara. Another time I was coming back from Kyoto, I thought I would be sneaky by catching an express to Hirakata-Shi and then take a train back a couple stops to Makino. This would have been a good idea had I not gotten on the wrong train coming back and ended up on a totally different line going a different direction.

You didn't fill it out correctly

I could honestly talk about the differences between Japan and my home country for hours but one of the main differences is the collectivistic nature of the Japanese versus the individualistic culture of the U.S. In the book, “In Mixed Company” by Rothwell, he says, “Collectivist cultures require a level of conformity and restrictive rules that are unacceptable to most Americans.” To me, this is a bit of an understatement. From before I even set foot on Japanese soil, I was given a form to fill out and turn into declarations. When arriving at school, I was given an orientation packet, which contained a cornucopia of colored forms for this and that. The application I especially loved was the one for alien registration. After arriving at the city hall, you wait in line to fill out a form to apply for the registration, then you wait in another line to fill out a form to waive the large fee that is usually paid by non-students. Don't forget to come back 2 days later to pay 300 yen for the card and then wait another 3 weeks to come back and get the card.
Paper forms aren’t even the beginning. For instance, the collectivist culture requires sacrificing of ones own wants compared to that of the group, company or family. A great example of this is played out everyday when I walk to school. Along the way I pass a man who's only job is to spray dirt off of a construction road that leads to a new apartment complex being erected. Day in and day out whether departing or arriving from school, I see him diligently hosing off the road. However, the way he does it is what is different than one in the U.S. He takes as much care in getting dirt off of the road as a brain surgeon might when extracting a tumor from a patients precious cranium.