Cody Mosblech

Accuracy of Modern Representations of the Samurai in Terms of Loyalty

In recent history, there have been many instances of individuals borrowing aspects from

samurai culture and creating some form of image of the samurai, not necessarily accurately.

Despite the inaccuracies, these stereotypes continue to be used over and over, to varying degrees

and purposes. By comparing these representations of the samurai to the historical descriptions

available and looking at the context in which they were used, it is possible to deduce the general

purpose behind them, and how the samurai became so misrepresented. The samurai class is a

complex topic with many different aspects, but the following examples are best looked at in

relation to the loyalty associated with the samurai.

Loyalty is a crucial part of the samurai image. Whether in the context of historical

accounts of the samurai or the latest samurai action movie, loyalty is bound to come up

eventually. This is because loyalty became a crucial part of the samurai social structure in the

form of vassalage. Without vassalage, the samurai may not have lasted as long as they did, or at

least not with the same prestige. It is for this reason that loyalty is often the first thing to come up

when in conversation about the samurai, and for the same reason that many contemporary

scholars and artists choose to use loyalty as a key component of whatever argument they are

intending to make.

We know from historical accounts exactly how the vassalage system worked for the

samurai, and the many forms this loyalty to a master took over time. The samurai organized

themselves into a hierarchical system where the average samurai owed his allegiance to a master,

in return for land controlled by that master. The master in turn owed his allegiance to the shogun,

who allowed the daimyo to control and own the land on the condition that he would give military

assistance if needed(Ikegami 81). Of course, this situation was not always ideal, and samurai

would often switch sides to whatever side offered the most profit(Friday 341). As the feudal state

of Japan transferred into the Tokugawa era, the specifics of the vassalage system changed, but

the ultimate idea remained the same, that is the samurai owed ultimate allegiance to a master in

return for some allowance. It is in the context of this ideal relationship that the contemporary

works will be analyzed.

In Nitobe's Bushido: The Soul of Japan, Nitobe attempts to explain bushido as the moral

principles that allowed Japan to enter the modern age. What he does is take the concept of

bushido, the vague codes of the samurai, which at this point was a relatively new term even to

the Japanese, and generalize it to include the entire Japanese population. He takes advantage of

the fact that these codes have not really been written down, and at best had loose interpretations

associated with them, and in combination with certain facts about the samurai taken out of

context, attempts to make his argument. Nitobe's image of the samurai then, can be understood

through the way he pieces together his version of bushido.

Before comparing Nitobe's samurai image to historic representations, it is helpful to look

at the context in which he wrote his book. Japan had relatively recently opened up to the world,

and was suddenly experiencing foreign influence which threatened to destroy Japanese culture.

Many westerners viewed Japan as strange, and in many cases barbaric. Nitobe states that one of

his reasons for writing came when asked about the fact that Japan had no real religion. The

westerner didn't understand how Japan could teach morals without religion. Nitobe then claims

that he came to the realization that bushido was in some ways the Japanese religion. He then

goes on the make comparisons between christianity and bushido(Nitobe xi). In his writing, which

was intended for a western audience, it appears as though Nitobe is primarily trying to defend

Japan's culture, and do so in ways that will appeal to westerners. For example, the use of

references to christianity, knights, and chivalry. With this in mind, we can see why Nitobe chose

to create the specific version of bushido and image of samurai that he did.

Nitobe's ideal samurai image claims the samurai as examples of the highest form of

loyalty(Nitobe 176). From the historical accounts of the samurai mentioned earlier, we know that

this is somewhat true. The samurai were at times incredibly loyal to their masters, to the point

where they would kill themselves if the master fell in battle(Ikegami 84). How Nitobe uses this

idea though, is quite different. He claims that this loyalty is somehow extended to the entire

Japanese population, and that the result is strong Japanese nationalism. He “forgets” to mention

that samurai were only loyal to their masters because they expected some reward in return, and

that the code of the samurai was only applicable to the samurai class. The result is a twisted

version of samurai loyalty that has basis in fact, but ultimately is not accurate to the true

historical nature of the samurai.

Nitobe is not the only one to try and use the samurai to give credibility to a political

agenda. Continuing along the same vein of nationalism, Bushido or Bull by Karl Friday analyzes

how the samurai culture became so integrated in Japan's World War II efforts, despite the

samurai being outlawed only 50 years before. He discusses how the samurai image was

militarized into propaganda for the Japanese army.

The Japanese government, similarly to Nitobe, picked out facts that were convenient for

the message they were trying to send, placing them out of context. In terms of loyalty, the leaders

took examples of complete devotion in the samurai, most specifically vassals dying to protect

their masters, and drew parallels with Japanese soldiers dying to protect their homeland. The

Japanese government took the ideals of the former warrior class of Japan, and tried to twist them

to be relevant to the new Japanese army, reinventing them as a Japanese military tradition(Friday

341).

While the leaders of Japan weren't lying about samurai having ideals of loyalty, they, like

Nitobe, leave out the part where samurai were only in it for personal gain. Friday also points out

in his analysis that the idea of complete loyalty doesn't even originate in the samurai class, but

rather confucianism, and therefore has nothing to do with military tradition in the Japanese

context. He also points out that the government was trying to validate their ideas by drawing

conclusions based on the codes of the samurai. The same codes that have already been

mentioned to be vague and informal. He states “It is no more accurate to infer from the writings

of lawmakers and moral philosophers that medieval samurai were shining examples of fealty

than it is to draw conclusions about the sexual behavior of twentieth century Georgians from the

state laws of sodomy.”, perfectly explaining the illogical use of samurai by the Japanese

government(Friday 342). The misrepresentation of samurai has not been limited to the political

spectrum, but extends into the realm of entertainment as well.

Kill Bill was released in 2003, directed by Quentin Tarantino. The movie is centered

around an assassin, who is thought to be murdered at her wedding, but ends up surviving and

taking revenge. The movie is a cross between a western cowboy film and Japanese samurai film,

using the katana as a symbol of samurai status. Although Tarantino is clearly feeding off many

Japanese stereotypes throughout the movie, it can be classified as a samurai film, if not only

because of the sword involved. In analyzing Kill Bill, it is also helpful to look at the writings of

David Desser in his book Reframing Japanese Cinema: Authorship, Genre, History as he

analyzes Japanese cinema in general, including the samurai film category.

According to the categories of samurai film described by Desser, Kill Bill fits nicely into

the sword film subcategory of samurai film, also known as chambara. The sword film category

in general is said to be very similar to western style gangster and cowboy films, partially due to

the introduction of western cinema in Japan, and Kill Bill is a prime example of these styles

blending(Desser 156). Although the hero of Kill Bill is never directly referred to as a samurai,

but the image of samurai Kill Bill presents can be inferred from similarities between the

protagonist of Kill Bill and the typical Japanese sword film hero. As Desser states, the hired gun

is a popular choice of protagonist character in Japanese sword film, and the hero of Kill Bill's job

as an assassin fits perfectly(Desser 156). Desser also says that the hero is typically bound by

justice or morals, despite being an outlaw. Kill Bill's hero fits this as well, shown in a scene

where she refuses to kill her target in front of her child. The third similarity that should be

mentioned is the samurai sword. This detail is the core of any argument for Kill Bill being a

samurai film. The protagonist of Kill Bill wields a samurai sword, very skillfully, and is therefore

a samurai. In summary, the Kill Bill representation of a samurai is a lone gun for hire, with an

unusual sense of justice and honor.

In comparison to the historical image of samurai, Tarantino and sword films in general

have taken loyalty in almost the opposite direction of Nitobe. The samurai in these films still

have strong loyalty, but to themselves. While this stays true to the fact that samurai were

primarily in it for personal gain, it omits half the idea, the master. The reason for this is probably

to keep interest levels in the movie high, as it was intended for a western audience used to the

types of protagonists offered by gangster films. Entertainment in Japan is not immune to

distortions of the samurai either.

Baseball was introduced to Japan when it finally opened its borders, and has since

become incredibly popular, specifically high school baseball. It was banned for a short time due

to it being considered a distracting western idea, but was finally reinstated when the supporters

of Japanese baseball convinced the government that it was actually very similar to bushido, and

therefore supported Japanese culture, which went along nicely with how the government was

using bushido at the time. How the samurai became used in baseball is very similar to how

bushido became used in the military, and can be further looked at by analyzing Thomas

Blackwood's article Bushido Baseball.

In his article, Blackwood details the general history of baseball in Japan, and ultimately

shows that baseball in Japan was influenced more by American sports ideals than bushido.

According to Blackwood, there were two main schools of thought when it came to Japanese

baseball, one with an emphasis on winning, and the other with an emphasis on fair play, both

claiming to be based on bushido(Blackwood 18). Blackwood argues that this conflict between

meanings comes from the ambiguity of the term bushido itself. In terms of loyalty, Blackwood

says that loyalty was indeed a characteristic of Japanese baseball players, but that it came from

the player's association to the school which the baseball team was associated with, which was

based on western schools that emphasized a “spartan” atmosphere(Blackwood 5).

Therefore, we can see that similar to how Nitobe and the Japanese government shaped

bushido to be convenient to their agenda, the institution of baseball in Japan came up with its

own idea of bushido to give verity to their ideas. The primary difference in this example is that

these ideals were already inherent in the school's associated with the baseball, bushido was

assigned to these values to give them deeper meaning outside the realm of athletics, where with

Nitobe and the Japanese military bushido was used to encourage those values. The reason for

baseball's sudden use of bushido is clearly laid out by Blackwood as due to the government

attacking baseball on the grounds that it interfered with Japanese nationalism. Supporters of

baseball needed a way to validate baseball in their society, and bushido provided an attractive

solution(Blackwood 12).

Finally, and most unexpectedly, representations of the samurai have been used in relation

to business strategies. Cameron Hurst discusses this in his article, Samurai on Wall Street. In his

article, Hurst talks about the recent use of the writings of a samurai to write guide books. The

writers of these books have taken the swordsmanship written about by the samurai and loosely

interpreted them as metaphors techniques to live life in general. They take this idea further to

apply to business strategies as well. What these authors give the impression of, according to

Hurst, is that “Japanese are modern-day samurai in suits”(Hurst). These business guide writers

form an image of the samurai similar to the others already mentioned, including virtues such as

loyalty. What sets the business image of the samurai apart from the others is that these writers

actually emphasize the warrior aspect, as opposed to simply forgetting to mention it. They in fact

encourage business people to try and have the mindset of a warrior, with the values of a samurai.

The loyalty in this case being to the company.

Where the writers go wrong with this comparison is in trying to apply a mindset that was

relevant when violence was an everyday occurrence, and trying to apply it to a relatively much

tamer group of people. Hurst refutes this with several similar points already mentioned in this

essay, that the facts were simply not entirely true(Hurst). Yes, the samurai were loyal sometimes,

but they were by no means a devoted class, and therefore are poor examples of how business

people should behave. Interestingly though, the modern business person is similar to the samurai

regarding loyalty in an unintended way, and that is in the expectation of reward. Business people,

while maybe loyal to their company for a short while, typically will leave for a job elsewhere if

they can get better pay or a higher position, since the point of business is to keep moving up.

Although this may not be what the authors of these guide books intended, it is perhaps the way in

which they remain most true to the original samurai image.

From these examples, it is clear that the samurai image has been exploited quite a bit in

recent times, with individuals cherry picking facts and taking ideas out of context, in order to

create a representation that is convenient for their personal agenda, whether to motivate an army

or sell more books. These representations, while misguided and not truly relevant to modern

times, do have some basis in truth. Because of this and how vague and complex the samurai class

is when considering its whole history, it has been easy for these images to be accepted by society.

It is for this reason that the samurai continue to be inaccurately represented even today.

Bibliography

Blackwood, Thomas. “Bushido Baseball? Thee 'Fathers' and the Invention of a Tradition.” Social Science Japan: 1-18. September, 2008.

Desser, David. Reframing Japanese cinema: authorship, genre, history.. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1992. Print.

Friday, Karl. “Bushido or Bull.” The History Teacher v. 27 no. 3: 339-349. May, 1994.

Hurst, G. Cameron. "SAMURAI ON WALL STREET: MiyamotoMusashi and the Search for Success." InYo: Samurai on Wall Street: Hurst. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://ejmas.com/jalt/jaltart_Hurst_0101.htm>.

Ikegami, Eiko. The taming of the samurai: honorific individualism and the making of modern Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995. Print.

Kill Bill. Dir. Quentin Tarantino. Perf. Uma Thurman. Buena Vista Home Entertainment [distributor], 2003. HD-DVD.

Nitobe, Inazō. Bushido: the soul of Japan : an exposition of Japanese thought. Rev. and enl. ed. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1969. Print.