If I may be allowed to preach for a moment, the website intervention
is not just about the accuracy of pop culture info on the samurai. It
makes two very serious points:
1) This popularization of the samurai is in the political context of a
"US hegemonic push to remilitarize Japan" in the eighth year of an
unending American war against Asia.
2) Samurai glorification must be viewed in the larger discourse of
orientalism. (See section "Say 'Konnichiwa' to Samurai Soft Power")
The excellent link to a brief youtube presentation on orientalism is
well worth the ten minutes. I was struck by Said's description of
Napoleon's conquest of Egypt -- not only did he bring massive
firepower, he brought a large team of scientists and intellectuals to
construct the culture of the conquered -- shades of Ruth Benedict et
al.
Ross Bender
http://rossbender.org
On Sep 1, 11:06 am, "Philip C. Brown" <
brown...@humanities.osu.edu>
wrote:
> One problem with English-language writing about samurai is that much of it takes place in the absence of writing about wars in studies of pre-modern Japan. The omission is so great that despite extensive surveys of English language scholarship, British author Alan Macfarlane wrote in Savage Wars of Peace, that unlike England, Japan did not suffer from major wars in the sixteenth century! If a serious scholar who is not a Japan specialist can miss the degree to which there was widespred warfare by reading The Cambridge History of Japan and many, many other works by first-rank scholars, we have a serious problem that goes beyond pop culture.
>
> On the pop culture front: With idealized writings like Budoshoshinshu, and Hagakure, etc. readily available, but not similarly extensive writings on the way major battles unfolded -- who ran away, who switched sides to change the tide of battle, etc. -- or material on how most samurai lived (despite the wonderful exception of Musui's Story), countering idealized popular images is a tough task, the efforts of Conlon, Farris, Friday and Hurst, etc. notwithstanding. Many of my students either don't have the patience to read these authors or, if they do, they accept selectively what confirms their predispositions.
>
> Phil Brown
>
> ________________________________
> From:
pm...@googlegroups.com [
pm...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of James Guthrie [
rcg...@hotmail.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 8:11 AM
> To:
pm...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: [PMJS] Re: Lord, It's the Samurai
>
> The "we" to which I refered was the everyman's notion of the samurai, the popular imagination. Ask most laymen what they know about samurai and the word loyal inevitably comes up. When one looks at the books that largely laid the foundation for the samurai in the modern popular imagination: Nitobe's "Bushido," and Yamamoto's "Hagakure," loyalty is prominently spoken of, however misplaced the nation may be. The fact that popular Japanese writers had to "take issue" with this notion illustrates my point.
>
> Best,
>
> James Guthrie
>
> ________________________________
> Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:04:57 -0400
> Subject: [PMJS] Re: Lord, It's the Samurai
> From:
robindg...@gmail.com
> To:
pm...@googlegroups.com
>
> Re. the "ironically" I do do not know who the "we" is that celebrates samurai loyalty, for even popular japanese writers on business and history such as Sakaya Taichi took issue with the myth of loyalty in mass media magazines in the 1990's.
>
> Still, as far as samurai in the Tokugawa go, i think Golownin made it clear that there was something good to be said for them.
>
> Sorry, still have not visited that website!On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 10:46 PM, James Guthrie <
rcg...@hotmail.com<mailto:
rcg...@hotmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Anatoliy does make a good point in saying we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater with regards to the samurai but his e-mail also raised some toughts I felt compared to share. It is interesting that we seem to have historically juxtaposed the "best" aspects of samurai from two very different era, into one modern idea of what a samurai was in the popular imagination. On the one hand, we celebrate the martial valor and loyalty of the Kamakura/Muromachi/Sengoku samurai and on the other, we exalt the scholar warrior of the Tokugawa era. Ironically enough though, the vaunted samurai loyalty of pre-Tokugawa times is/was in many ways a myth as many of the important battles of that time were decided by a last minute betrayal. Additionally, while there were many notable scholarly warriors during the Tokugawa period, I think one would find that what made these men notable was that they were not the norm. Did the samurai as a class have positive traits that helped Japan grow and develop? Certainly. However, I believe that the modern myth of the samurai has done Japan as much harm as it has good.
>
> BTW, while we're looking at the sources of blame for the modern myth of the samurai, one can't overlook the Japanese historical scholars of the late 19th century. In their zeal to connect Japan to the West, they sought to associate the samurai with the knights of Europe. I believe that in doing so they played a prominent role in the modern romanticization of the samurai. I believe Thomas Conlan wrote a good article on this a few years ago, though I don't know if he ever had it published.
>
> Best,
>
> James Guthrie
>
> ________________________________
> Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 08:38:48 +0900
> Subject: [PMJS] Re: Lord, It's the Samurai
> From:
aans...@gmail.com<mailto:
aans...@gmail.com>
> To:
pm...@googlegroups.com<mailto:
pm...@googlegroups.com>
>
> While it is true that the image of the bushi is greatly distorted, it is important not to run to extremes and create another distorted image in an attempt to undermine it. This website seems to underemphasize intellectual diversity of the Japanese warrior class, and attribute to it characteristics and motives which would be applicable only to particular groups or individuals at particular periods. In any event, it is necessary to distinguish clearly between the bushi culture of the pre-Tokugawa ages and that of the Great Tokugawa Peace.
>
> Anatoliy Anshin
>
> On 9/1/09, Ross Bender <
ross.ben...@gmail.com<mailto:
ross.ben...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> Hats off to the creators of this brilliant website, timed to coincide with yet another art show glorifying the samurai, this time at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.
>
>
http://www.asiansart.org/samurai1.html
>
> The presentation raises in harrowing detail the ethical questions involved in the collaboration of scholars in our field with the mystical magical samurai ethos -- some of my best friends and teachers have written samurai books, but I feel it's time to say enough already.
>
> When I began studies in Japanese history, people always assumed I was studying Zen. Then they wanted to know all about the samurai and ninja turtles. Then it was the geishas. Nowadays it's anime, manga and Japanese pop art in general. Faugh!
>
> Wish we could go back to the good old days when Japan's chief cultural export was Zen, although I'd rather when introducing myself at cocktail parties have the first excited query be "Oh, so do you know all about that fascinating Shoku Nihongi?."
>
> --
> Ross Benderhttp://
rossbender.org<
http://rossbender.org/>