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Essay on samurais
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The jidaigeki samurai film genre has been through a significant change in the pre World War II and post World War II periods. Due to the social circumstances, the earlier samurai films were more dramatic, with more dialogue than action. Post World War II films diverted towards action based, producing more violent characters with darker themes. The samurai is usually seen as a physically or psychologically damaged fighter, with dramatization of death and violence. In addition, the protagonists are solitary figures who try to avoid fights and conceal their abilities rather than exhibit them to the enemy. However, films from both periods also deal with a similar social issue of the samurai class and the dramatization of various scenes. The differences and commonalities between the samurai films with traditional values and the films that challenge those values will be analyzed clearly in the film trilogy: Samurai I, II and, III by Hiroshi Inagaki and Yojimbo by Akira Kurosawa. The contrasts and commonalities of the two films are in the protagonists’ appearance, personality, sword skill, their relationship with others, cinematography, politics, and themes.
Samurai trilogy follows the life span of Takezo or
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Even though he gives advice to the young samurai, he can’t follow his own zen-like guidance. As an audience, we have an added level of awareness that Sanjuro is acutely aware of his own alienation; yet, he couldn’t resolve it, making this ironic. The primary trait is his decisiveness, for example, he deliberately set up plans to reveal his skills and used it to raise his price, not just doing things randomly. Thus, he is far from the typical good heroic character since he is not taking the moral high ground. He withdraws from fights and kills men who have no chance in the
In the ancient Japanese culture, one great aspect was on how they emphasized on the intrinsic themes of loyalty and honor. They had fierce warriors known as samurai’s. A samurai was a traditional warrior who would protect and be loyal to their masters no matter what. They were known to be skilled soldiers, benevolent men, self-sacrifice, sense of shame, along with other major characteristics that embodied them as a samurai. While this class of warrior no longer exist today, the remembrance of a samurai is present in the minds of the characters in the novel, The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama. Tsukiyama does a fascinating piece of work by really elaborating and describing the great attributes that Matsu possess of a true samurai. In the
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.
The Last Samurai (Zwick, 2003) begins its tale in the year of 1876 in which the samurai and the soldiers of Japan (henceforth referenced to as soldiers) are fighting for two separate things. The soldiers fight because they are ordered to. While the samurai under direct control of Katsumoto who is the chief samurai still fights
The Samurai is often confused with the ninja but they are not the same thing. To be a samurai you had to be born into a Samurai family and were trained highly. The Samurai’s job was to serve the shog...
Throughout History, there have been many different groups or events that are still widely known today. Groups of people such as the Indians or Vikings are popular groups which are referenced constantly in today’s society. However, none of these groups is more known or referenced than the Japanese Samurai. Originating in 646 AD, these Japanese warriors developed from a loose organization of farmers to the dominant social class in Feudal Japan. Along with their dominant military and political standing, the samurai brought with them a unique code or moral belief that became the core of Samurai culture. Because of this, the Samurai and their principles still affect modern day Japanese society with social customs today deriving directly and indirectly from the beliefs of the Samurai.
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 warrior, known as the samurai, has played a significant role in Japan's history and culture throughout the centuries. Their ancestors can be traced back to as far as can be remembered. Some stories have become mysterious legends handed down over the centuries. In this report you will learn who the samurai were, their origins as we know them, how they lived and fought and their evolution to today. It will be clear why the samurai stand out as one of the most famous group of warriors of all times.
Samurai have played a big part in Japans history. There have been supreme samurai or Shoguns whose rule shaped Japan in early times. These shoguns ruled in different eras or periods. There are three main periods concerning the samurai usage. They are the Kamakura, Ashikaga and the Tokugawa period. The samurai were introduced as a part of the government in the Kamakura period.
Samurais take the #1 spot for their combat adroitness, they were the champions in the fields of battles. Samurais were not only skilled warriors of battle, moreover they were influential leaders for their armies. The only weapons and armor the samurais took into battle were only two swords, leather plated armor, a helmet, and bow with proper training. Unlike other nations, anyone could become a samurai, no one was obligated to stay with families or to continue jobs their parents did. One of the biggest things samurais followed was there code of conduct, called Bushido “the way of the warrior.” Along with other individuals with authority, samurais had much authority as well; They had to keep peasants in check, check up on the harvests, and most importantly, keep their Daimyo(Lord) save from invaders at all costs. When disrespecting or showing cowardness to their Daimyo, it lead to bringing great shame and dishonor to the samurais whole family. When samurais become dishonorable they often end up leaving and becoming a ronin. Ronin’s were mainly mercenaries that carried out assassinations, spy missions, and sabotage. Although samurais have already come to an end, many still worship their fallen ancestors, some still study the basic practices of samurais to always keep a basic understanding of the training they went through. Along with well skilled warriors, some showed their level of skill not on the battlefield, rather on a piece of
The Last Samurai is a film that is often used to teach history in classes. The last Samurai represents the end of an era. The film does a good job of teaching many parts of Japanese History. This movie teaches us about the way of the Samurai, and their beliefs and traditions. The movie also expresses what life was like during the Meiji Restoration. You can see in the movie that technology started to advance, gradually decreasing the amount of Samurais. The Satsuma Rebellion, which lasted for 6 months, was shown in the movie as a battle between tradition and modernisation. Even though this film is not entirely accurate, it has some key historical events which are good for learning about this historic period.
Louis, Thomas and Thomas Ito. Samurai: The Code of Warrior. New York: Sterling Publishing, 2008.
In comparison, tone of medieval age Japanese literature becomes more intense, realistic, and darker in scope as focus shifts more to the lives and interests of people outside of court. In particular, the warrior class contributed a lot to Japanese literature during the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, because of the increase in civil wars and shift in political power. This is clearly evident in the works of gunki monogatari, especially “Heike Monogatari,” because the tales depict inelegant things that were not to be mentioned in Heian period literature, such as blood and gore.
The film takes place shortly after the civil war and on the brink of the gilded age with Nathan Algren being the hero. Algren is hired due to his experience in fighting Native Americans. It is apparent throughout the film that Algren is troubled by the atrocities that he and his fellow Americans committed towards the indigenous. Thus being the fight that witnesses the pure evils of America. The Samurai are similar to the Native Americans in several ways. They both have simple ways of life, and they both were fearless in battle. During the gilded age, men and America grew to be concerned on becoming industrialized and a dominate world power. There, the need for world domination, money and power caused for greed and ruthlessness to overpower the vicinity of, what was once glorious America. The Americans during this time, were known as one of the greatest armies, due to the fact that they had overcome adversity and fierce adversaries from their past. Their ability to do so came from their innovations in technolo...
There are many historical aspects of the Japanese, but the most interesting is the history of the Samurai. In Japans history war played a large role in the country. Controlling clans fought for parts of the land and overall control of the country. These clans were powerful families that resided in the country and who all wanted power and control of Japan for themselves. The families that would be in control were known as Shoguns. These shoguns would have warriors that fought for them if any of the other clan families would try to attack him in order to overthrow him and take his power from him. The Samurai followed a code that developed from Chinese beliefs when in battle. The Samurais code was known as the Bushido. This code was also known as “The Way of The Warrior” which was the main belief s...