That kind of story doesn’t exist in the history books though
Edie said.
Huh, what do you mean?
Before the establishment of the hierarchy of samurai, or even before the monopoly of warriors, there was no difference between a warrior and a farmer. That’s how Japan saw it especially during the war era
Those who were farmers become soldiers in a war halfway through the warring states. There are no permanent soldiers in the war as the war continues after all
Margo-san said.
There are weapons in the farmer’s village, and most farmers have been in battles too. They can’t let the field warriors just take them out one-sidedly, and there’s also a network with the neighboring villages, and so they take down the band of thieves together. And that’s why there are large scale uprising, see? The Kaga uprising was done by people who have been ruled by the country for nearly a hundred years Nei talked about Nobunaga’s ambition of unifying the country
Seriously?
In the first place, if field warriors do exist, the lord there would send their soldiers to crush them down. Even in a war-like era, it would be tedious to have a field warrior group in your area. They don’t help to plow the land and yet they come to rob the crops That’s true.
However, why am I receiving Japan history lessons from two Americans?
That’s the biggest problem, a field warrior attacking the village, and the samurai hired by the village are basically the same guys. They have no master to serve, and so they don’t have a place to return to. They don’t have their land to defend, relying only on their skills, they roam the country looking suspicious. It just happened that the field warriors attacked a village, and the seven samurai who were wandering around the highway saw it But, the seven samurai are righteous a kind-hearted people, and the field warriors were the bad guys. They were classified distinctly
Do you understand what that means?
Margo-san asks me.
No, I don’t get it. I couldn’t possibly know
What it means that it’s a historical play based on the events in the past, but the characters were written in modern style
Modern style.
The film Seven Samurai was filmed in 1955. It’s still during the post-war turmoil, and they say that Japan’s economy is getting better after the war, but that wasn’t the case. It was in 1965 where the economic depression happened Just after the Korean war ended
With the end emergency demands during the war, you’ll reach recession. Following that, the favorable economy called the economic boom of the mid50’s happened, and a recession right after that
It goes up and down, and Japan recovers little by little
I see.
I mean. Why do I not know this even though I’m Japanese?
And so, returning to the topic, a year after the Seven Samurai was made, the first Godzilla was created, at least you know what’s the metaphor of Godzilla, don’t you?
What’s a metaphor?
Sorry, I’m an idiot.
It means a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract 1
Now I don’t get it even further.
Metaphor doesn’t show direct comparison but instead reminds you of the meaning behind similarities. You know how Godzilla fires of radioactive breath, right?
Oh, is that saying that it’s an atomic bomb?
Hearing that comparison, I now get it.
Yes. It was during the time when there were repeated atomic bomb experiments on the pacific island. Godzilla is the metaphor of nuclear bombs. And as for the other one
Margo-san said.
It’s also a metaphor of the bombing of Tokyo
The bombing of Tokyo?
Godzilla first landed in Tokyo, destroyed the city of Ginza along with Harumi, either way, it overlaps with the area burned out during the Tokyo bombing. Furthermore, Godzilla’s assault stopped right in front of the current JR track. The bombing didn’t affect from that point onwards. The Sanshin building wasn’t existing until a few years ago I see.
Although it’s been almost ten years after the war, no, it’s precisely because it was at that time. The memories of the flame during the bombing of Tokyo was still vivid. The bomber dropping the bombs from high altitude, and Godzilla’s flames destroying the city makes an overlapping image I see.
The Seven Samurai is the same. It’s about the Samurai who don’t have a master and now loitering the highways, it’s a metaphor for the Japanese father who came back exhausted after losing the war
And that’s why even if it was a historical drama, the characters feel modern.
The self-governing ability of Japan is still incomplete, and the common people felt that they couldn’t rely on the government or the police, they don’t ask the lords to take measure against the field warriors, but the villagers themselves hire the samurai. Furthermore, for the fathers who lost the war and returned home, fighting for the villagers is a new way to gain an identity. I will offer myself for the sake of the revival of our country is what they imagine themselves looking like Identity.
That means, from their current point of view, the seven samurai and the field warriors have both lost their masters, and they are dangerous to the public. They’re unemployed, have weapons, and have a good combat ability. However, when the seven warriors were first released, the field warriors were metaphoric as nothing but evil among the commoners. Therefore, they think that it’s okay for the samurai of justice to kill them. They didn’t think that field warrior might have parents or children, maybe, his side has a compelling reason to attack the village. Their metaphor is the evil after all Right. The farmers of the real warring states period had the power to defend themselves, but the commoners of the era when ‘Seven Samurai’ was created felt that there’s no one who protects them. Therefore, they don’t question the idea of the samurai protecting them. They didn’t even think of getting weapons and fighting against the field warriors before relying on the samurai or other people Now that you mentioned it. Why?
I asked Margo-san.
Let me tell you this again, field warriors nor samurai exist in the history of Japan
In short, they’re only a metaphorical image
That’s.
The field warrior has become a metaphor for those who harm the ordinary folks, and the samurai is a metaphor for those who came back from the war and came to revive devastated Japan. It’s purely a metaphorical image, and so it can’t be beaten unless it’s another metaphorical image O-Okay.
In this case, the villagers are nothing but ordinary people who feel uneasy about society and the government, but the image is too real, and so the image of pure evil from the field warriors stands strong
i see.
Therefore, the ‘seven samurai’ film was widely accepted by the audience at that time. Naturally, it’s also interesting to watch it now, but if you watch it with the mindset of the modern person, you’ll feel the contradiction The samurai fight and give up their lives for the people of the village even if there are no rewards, the reason being that they carry their ideals and aspirations of people of that day. They’re humans, but they were set as something ALPHA, different from ordinary humans. That’s the hero nature Therefore, if you watch it now, you’d feel contradiction about the behavior of the characters and the story development. The senses of the people making and watching it are different
Edie said.
We’ve gone through a lot of detours but let’s go with the reason why I talked about this. You see, I’ve always thought about the Yakuza
Margo-san.
You see, the Yakuza in the movies are really low, they used to help people a lot in the past though
I don’t know about that though
As expected, Edie doesn’t know much about Yakuza movies.