ASAKUSA Underground > <7 Samurais> Experience
Do you know a Japanese black & white classic called <Seven Samurais>?
The film was made by Akira Kurosawa, one of the most influential figures in the history of the movies and a spiritual mentor to George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
It is the story about a farmer's son who wanted to be a samurai and died in the battle to protect a small village against a group of villains.
The role was excellently played by Toshiro Mifune.
The word "samurai" fascinates many people living both inside and outside Japan.
Some even want to be a samurai although their origins have nothing to do with the warrior / bureaucrat in medieval Japan.
Here, I am not talking about an Occidental businessman looking for insights in "The Book of Five Rings" by Miyamoto Musashi.
I am talking about Japanese peasants who wanted to be samurais after the collapse of Tokugawa Shogun government in 1868.
Some of the people outside Japan think all the Japanese used to be samurais, as some of the Japanese themselves want to believe.
It is not true at all.
According to the statistics done in 1873, the samurais constituted merely about 6 per cent of Japan's entire population.
A funny thing is that the great majority of the Japanese started behaving like a samurai since the end of the samurai era.
They didn't wear a sword because it had become illegal, but took up a family name, which the peasants didn't have before.
Above all, they copied samurai's code of honour, which is hugely influenced by Confucianism.
Traditionally, the spiritual back-bone of the provincial peasants has been animism with the tastes of happy Shintoism and sad Buddhism. (Shintoism takes care of a marriage and Buddhism a funeral, for example)
Confucianism was too academic because it was an official study material for samurais' sons.
Zen was too meta-physical and conceptual to comprehend.
Men and women in a country village innocently worshiped the magic of fertility and gently cherished the acts of libido with smile and shyness.
Unlike Toshiro Mifune's wanna-be samurai in the film, modern Japanese have survived wars and economic battles.
They have come to sincerely believe that they are truly moral beings, like samurais.
The promiscuity in a provincial village has not changed, but they have learned to cover it up.
At the end of the film, the samurais were beaten. The peasants won.
So did they in the real history of the social evolution in Japan, it seems.
Is it really a win when you can successfully hide what you naturally are and wear a civilized moral mask?
Visit <Boso no Mura> historical park near Narita, where you can walk about in the medieval streets meticulously reconstructed.
It is like the open-air sets for <7 samurai> shooting.
They have a samurai's house, a merchant's house, and a peasant's house among others.
Touch those houses and feel the difference between the classes.
And you may understand why the wanna-be samurai wanted to be a real one even though he was risking his life.
On some weekends, they have the demonstrations of their traditional craftworks and, if you are lucky, you can try on samurai armours.
[Reference in Japanese]
-Boso no Mura 房総のむら (can be translated as “A village in Chiba Peninsula”)
http://www.chiba-muse.or.jp/MURA/
The site has a page for English-speakers.
It has the English instruction about how to get to the historic park.
http://www.chiba-muse.or.jp/MURA/english/english-information.html
There are some interesting videos on YouTube.
-Traditional dancing in Boso no Mura
-A Kurosawaresque water mill
A site with plenty of beautiful photos at Boso no Mura
http://pht.so-net.ne.jp/photo/cannavar/images/1748732
Those sites are not too difficult for non-Japanese speakers to visit.
See interesting images and feel the world of <7 Samurais>
Why don’t you leave Tokyo for Narita a day earlier than your departure and spend a day near Narita.
Visiting Boso no Mura is an option. Paying a visit to Shinsho-ji temple is another, probably.
The temple is one of the most important temples and attracts millions of people on New Year’s holiday, which is sitting just next to the airport.
Without hustle, you can pay 2,700 yen at Backpackers Fuji, secure your bed for the tranquil night, and damp your baggage in the corner of the hotel.
Now you are free.
Free for the last bit of your adventure in Japan.
Most tourists ignore the richness of Narita, but you will not.
The last day in Japan might give you the fondest memory of your trip in a Far East wonderland.
<7 Samurais> Experience
Do you know a Japanese black & white classic called <Seven Samurais>?
The film was made by Akira Kurosawa, one of the most influential figures in the history of the movies and a spiritual mentor to George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
It is the story about a farmer's son who wanted to be a samurai and died in the battle to protect a small village against a group of villains.
The role was excellently played by Toshiro Mifune.
The word "samurai" fascinates many people living both inside and outside Japan.
Some even want to be a samurai although their origins have nothing to do with the warrior / bureaucrat in medieval Japan.
Here, I am not talking about an Occidental businessman looking for insights in "The Book of Five Rings" by Miyamoto Musashi.
I am talking about Japanese peasants who wanted to be samurais after the collapse of Tokugawa Shogun government in 1868.
Some of the people outside Japan think all the Japanese used to be samurais, as some of the Japanese themselves want to believe.
It is not true at all.
According to the statistics done in 1873, the samurais constituted merely about 6 per cent of Japan's entire population.
A funny thing is that the great majority of the Japanese started behaving like a samurai since the end of the samurai era.
They didn't wear a sword because it had become illegal, but took up a family name, which the peasants didn't have before.
Above all, they copied samurai's code of honour, which is hugely influenced by Confucianism.
Traditionally, the spiritual back-bone of the provincial peasants has been animism with the tastes of happy Shintoism and sad Buddhism. (Shintoism takes care of a marriage and Buddhism a funeral, for example)
Confucianism was too academic because it was an official study material for samurais' sons.
Zen was too meta-physical and conceptual to comprehend.
Men and women in a country village innocently worshiped the magic of fertility and gently cherished the acts of libido with smile and shyness.
Unlike Toshiro Mifune's wanna-be samurai in the film, modern Japanese have survived wars and economic battles.
They have come to sincerely believe that they are truly moral beings, like samurais.
The promiscuity in a provincial village has not changed, but they have learned to cover it up.
At the end of the film, the samurais were beaten. The peasants won.
So did they in the real history of the social evolution in Japan, it seems.
Is it really a win when you can successfully hide what you naturally are and wear a civilized moral mask?
Visit <Boso no Mura> historical park near Narita, where you can walk about in the medieval streets meticulously reconstructed.
It is like the open-air sets for <7 samurai> shooting.
They have a samurai's house, a merchant's house, and a peasant's house among others.
Touch those houses and feel the difference between the classes.
And you may understand why the wanna-be samurai wanted to be a real one even though he was risking his life.
On some weekends, they have the demonstrations of their traditional craftworks and, if you are lucky, you can try on samurai armours.
[Reference in Japanese]
-Boso no Mura 房総のむら (can be translated as “A village in Chiba Peninsula”)
http://www.chiba-muse.or.jp/MURA/
The site has a page for English-speakers.
It has the English instruction about how to get to the historic park.
http://www.chiba-muse.or.jp/MURA/english/english-information.html
There are some interesting videos on YouTube.
-Traditional dancing in Boso no Mura
-A Kurosawaresque water mill
A site with plenty of beautiful photos at Boso no Mura
http://pht.so-net.ne.jp/photo/cannavar/images/1748732
Those sites are not too difficult for non-Japanese speakers to visit.
See interesting images and feel the world of <7 Samurais>
Why don’t you leave Tokyo for Narita a day earlier than your departure and spend a day near Narita.
Visiting Boso no Mura is an option. Paying a visit to Shinsho-ji temple is another, probably.
The temple is one of the most important temples and attracts millions of people on New Year’s holiday, which is sitting just next to the airport.
Without hustle, you can pay 2,700 yen at Backpackers Fuji, secure your bed for the tranquil night, and damp your baggage in the corner of the hotel.
Now you are free.
Free for the last bit of your adventure in Japan.
Most tourists ignore the richness of Narita, but you will not.
The last day in Japan might give you the fondest memory of your trip in a Far East wonderland.