Spirit of the Samurai
I suppose I became a modern Samurai through the experience of my father's death. My father belonged to the old school of Samurai philosophy -- a way of life that I despised for one reason - he committed ritual suicide known to the Samurai as Seppuku, or Hara-kiri. I remember the day that he died. It was cold and very early in the morning when he came to me and told me about the ways of the Samurai. He told me about honor and a life dedicated towards a morality of perfection; a way of life that had the highest moral goals in attempting to achieve a perfect state of being and living. He also told me at length about the ancient Samurai who valued the warrior's aggression as much as kindness and compassion. I was a bit confused by his lecture. After all, I had…...
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Bibliography
Seppuku - Ritual Suicide. Retrieved November 21, 2004. Web site:
This film is distinguished from the average samurai film by the director's "masterful handling of cinematic technique," in which he captures the essence of a scene in a mere few moments with a series of glances rather than dialogue and special effects.
Moreover, Kurosawa creates a moral complexity of good and evil, creating sympathy for both the samurai and the farmers, and although the samurai are portrayed as heroic while the farmers are weak, he "also points out that heroic deeds are not always performed for noble reasons, and that there are different kinds of heroism." Kurosawa creates a "delicate juxtaposition between the samurais' graceful art of combat and the barbaric reality of war."
At the end, Kambei, the leader of this small group of samurai, realizes that the farmers, although weak, are the lucky ones, for they are at one with nature, "participating in the timeless ritual of life, death,…...
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Works Cited
Arnold, Gary. "Seven Samurai Still Gritty and Great at 50." World and I. October 01
2004. Retrieved October 08, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web sit.
Fall of the Samurai: From the Tokugawa to Early Modern Japan
Fall of The Samurai: From The Tokugawa Era to Early Modern Japan
Japanese samurai are counted among the world's most popular military forces; they emerged in pre-medieval times and were active from the seventh to late nineteenth century. The samurai were initially employed as mercenaries, but quickly evolved to become the Japanese Empire's chief military force; before long, they transformed, in effect, into Japan's ruling class. While the transition of the samurai from leading ordinary military lives to being embroiled in inter-clan intrigues and elite political events was relatively rapid, their military-influenced moral principles and core values remained intact throughout. Their improved sense of devoted spirituality and integrity were, in fact, so well-known that they became the inspiration for great stories of courage, which resound even now with readers. This odd balance of deadly effective military strength with gentlemanly, noble behavior…...
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References
Gordon, A. (2008). A modern history of Japan: From Tokugawa times to the present. Princeton, NJ: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic.
Hane, M., & Perez, L. G. (2009).Modern Japan: A historical survey. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
James, DH (2010).The rise and fall of the Japanese empire. London: Routledge.
McLaren, W. W. (2013). Political history of Japan during the Meiji era. London: Routledge.
The war is driven by the modern military which has abandoned its warrior ethic and now fights with guns -- a theme repeated in The Last Samurai. Again Funakoshi represents this position. He tells the Japanese military captain, "Who I challenge to Kung Fu and what I do is no business of the military. . . . I am not a politician." The distinction between colonial imperialism and true warrior ethic is pronounced. The military captain is disappointed in Akutagawa's failure to destroy the rival sect, and kills him, although he has the true spirit of the Samurai about honest fights and honor. The military leader can only say, "To best serve the Japanese emperor, you'd better forget what is right or wrong." This highlights the contrast between new imperialist might, technology, and economic power and the old warrior system.
The symbolic struggle between national identities is epitomized in the…...
Nutrition, Rituals, Spirituality, And Health Care Practices of the Samurai Culture, As Depicted ithin the Movie The Last Samurai
According to Tom Stovall and Dustin Granger, "The ancient Samurai, Miyamoto Musashi wrote in his "Book of Five Rings,": "It will be difficult for you to succeed unless you look at things on a large scale'" (PharmaCafe). Similarly, within the movie The Last Samurai (2003), director Edward Zwick shows various ways in which the Japanese Samurai of the late 19th century looked at and holistically practice nutrition; prayer, war, and death rituals; spirituality, and health care practices, all on a scale with nature. These holistic practices, in turn, promoted the Samurai's own inner harmony: mentally, physically, and spiritually. For example, The Last Samurai depicted various nutritional practices, prayer, pre-war, death and other rituals; attitudes about spirituality and the meaning of life, and medicinal philosophies and practices within the Samurai culture. All of…...
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Works Cited
The Last Samurai. With Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe. Dir. Edward Zwick.
Warner Brothers. 2003.
Stovall, Tom, and Dustin Grainger. PharmaCafe. Retrieved May 24, 2005,
movie industry in America has been controlled by some of the monolithic companies which not only provided a place for making the movies, but also made the movies themselves and then distributed it throughout the entire country. These are movie companies and their entire image revolved around the number of participants of their films. People who wanted to see the movies being made had to go to the studios in order to see them. They made movies in a profitable manner for the sake of the studios, but placed the entire industry under their control and dominated over it. The discussion here is about some of those famous studios inclusive of that of names like Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Culver, RKO, Paramount Studios, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Universal Studios, Raleigh Studio, Hollywood Center Studio, Sunset Gower Studio, Ren-Mar Studios, Charlie Chaplin Studios and now, Manhattan Beach…...
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"What better way to annoy the Hollywood liberals than to remind them every single day that
Scott McCloud
Because Scott McCloud's focus is exclusively on comics as an art form, his discussion of Japanese comics in chapter 2 -- while interesting -- does not draw some obvious connections between the style and method of Japanese comics and other forms of art. This is what seems most interesting and obvious to me. McCloud discusses the rise of the "masking" style in Japanese comics -- this involves a use of "iconic" (or heavily stylized) central characters acting out the drama of the comic in front of a backdrop which is more realistic. As McCloud notes, this device -- rather than being artistically disjunctive -- "allows readers to MASK themselves in a character and safely enter a sensually stimulating world" (43). In the case of Japanese comics, McCloud notes that readers in Japan have more recently "developed a taste for flashy, photorealistic art" which leads to a further refinement of…...
The course of true love never did run smooth according to the Bard of Avon. Certainly any relationship involving at least two people must allow for at least a good chance of turbulence. But surely true love might indeed run smoothly within the pages of a novel or the rolls of an epic? ell, yes, if that were what the author wanted and (at least as importantly) what the audience wants and expects. But the idea of love that we as humans in different eras and different places often seem most content to embrace as we follow fictional lovers is one in which there is confusion and angst. Fictional lovers are often those who do not know their own minds about what will make them happy and must be forced by fate and the gods to acknowledge the love simmering within them.
This paper examines the…...
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Works Cited
Caddeau, Patrick. Appraising Genji: Literary Criticism and Cultural Anxiety in the Age of the Last Samurai. New York: SUNY, 2006.
The Mahabharata. New York: Penguin Press, 2003.
Murasaki. The Tale of Genji. New York: Everyman's Library, 1993.
Shirane, Haruo. (ed.) Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600. New York: Columbia UP, 2007.
The British Empire gained significant land share within North America through its conquests and emigration. From the founding of Jamestown to the growth of the greater New England region, the North American territories represented a significant portion of the British Empire. Following the Seven Years War, England won the entire territory of New France and doubled the territory possession within North America. Although from a trade perspective North America was not the furtive economic zone that Britain originally envisioned, it did become a several exporter of tobacco, cotton and rice to the British Empire, as well as naval material and furs from the northern region. The American Revolution affected the British Empire in several different ways, it proved to be a symbolic blow the largest empire of the European Continent, and it provided a model for liberation and freedom throughout the rest of the colonial territories. The American Revolution…...
Contemporaneous with relocating the capital from Edo to Tokyo was the drawing up of the 'Memorandum on Reform of the Imperial Palace' in which Article 1 states that the emperor would 'deign to hear about all political matters' in the front throne room adding that 'women are to be prohibited from entering the front throne room' 11.
Yoshii Tomozane, enior ecretary for Court Affairs peremptorily dismissed all court ladies, after which a rare few were reselected for appointment. In his dairy, he noted: 'this morning, the court ladies were dismissed in their entirety… the power of women already lasting for centuries has been erased in a single day. My delight knows no bounds." 12.
In this way the power of the 'hens' was removed from the 'Enlightened regime' of Meiji rule and suppressed throughout the country. Acquiring and reinforcing the…...
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Sources
Adler, Philip. World Civilizations. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth / Thomson, 2008
De Vos, George & Wagatsuma, Hiroshi, "Value Attitudes Towards Role Behavior of Women in Two Japanese Villages," American Anthropologist, 63, (1961).
Hastings, S.A. "Gender and Sexuality in Modern Japan" a Companion to Japanese History, Blackwell Pub., 2007
Hendry, Joy, Understanding Japanese Society. London: Routledge, 1991.
Akutagawa uses perspectivism in his story In a Grove here the main focus is on the incident that is being investigated by the high police commissioner. Here Takehiko is found murdered and the police highly suspect Tajomaru "The man that I arrested? He is a notorious brigand called Tajomaru." Tajomaru, confesses to the murder and gives a detailed description of the occurrence of the incident he began with agreeing and the "…when I disposed of him, I went to his woman and asked her to come and see him… (6)" then "...I was about to run away from the grove, leaving the woman behind in tears, when she frantically clung to my arm…"(6) and finally "…Then a furious desire to kill him seized me.(6)" As much as this appears to be an easy case to solve, matters get complicated when the wife of the slain Samurai testifies. She confesses to…...
Living standards were poor in the overcrowded cities and "the emergence of political parties caused disputes with the emperor and his ministers, leading to frequent elections and political assassinations. Many intellectuals worried about the loss of identity in a changing world; others were concerned at lack of economic opportunities for the enlarged educated class" (Chapter 33, Pearson, 2009).
The Chinese government, however, had a much larger territory to govern, and far more internal strife with which to cope. It was weakened by the Opium ars with the est, which had left it carved into spheres of influence. It also had to pay interest on loans it had incurred fighting the war. Cheap, manufactured foreign goods put many local tradesmen out of business. The sheer expanse of China made it difficult for the ruling Qing Dynasty to control the different provinces in the country, much less create a system of unified…...
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Works Cited
"Chapter 33: Russia and Japan: Industrialization Outside the West." Pearson Education.
Some of my customers only pay me in rice. Sometimes, in the winter, I wish for warmth and warmer quilt for the cold nights, but winter does not last long here, and so, it is not such a big worry as others in my life.
In addition, I worry about the government, and their policy that seems to be leading toward cutting my country off from the rest of the world. We have enjoyed prosperity and new ideas through the Jesuits and others who have come to live and trade with us, and it seems that the government is going to ban foreigners, and even ban us Japanese from leaving our island. This worries me, because I fear that trade and our economy will suffer, and the government does not seem to have a way to resolve the issue. I know it is not wise to question our wise leaders,…...
McDonald's Corporation
This is an attempt to study the history and development of one of the great institutions of United States and a part of the images of the country that has spread in the whole world. As is well-known, the dominance of the world by United States came after the Second World War when the traditional leaders of United Kingdom and Germany lost their predominant positions due to the destructions of the war, and the impact of change in economic order due to the freedom of many countries. This was the freedom of the colonies and United States had been one of the first colonies to be free, and the former colony became the leader, along with Russia which was the pathfinder of the failed social and economic structure of communism. It was a contest between the two to prove the relative superiority of the two systems, and the old…...
McDonald's keep thinking up good deals for their customers nowadays due to the drop in sales and reduction of margins that the company is facing, and one of that is to provide extra benefits to their customers, and this is often achieved by increasing the quantity served by just adding item quantities at a very low price.
Fascinating Mcfacts about McDonald's International. The Times November 11, 1996
Confucianism is one of the major factors that influenced gender views and perception in traditional East Asia, particularly in relation to the treatment of women in these societies. Confucianism is primarily a teaching that was brought by Confucius, a philosopher, political figure, and educator. The teachings of Confucius formed the foundation of education in the traditional societies in East Asia, especially in China, Korea, and Japan. Confucius teachings affected many things in these societies including fixing gender roles between women and men. Based on these teachings, which influenced nearly every facet of life in the conventional Korean, Japanese and Chinese societies, placed women at a disadvantaged position. The teachings contributed to the development of a patriarchal environment in these societies, which worked to the disadvantaged of women. This paper examines how women exerted power and influence in a patriarchal environment in these three societies and what it teaches us about…...
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