Period, yes, but
fun too

Historical atlas
Prehistory
Mesopotamia
Egypt
Greece
Rome
Middle Ages
Renaissance
Industrial age
Victorian times
Depression
WWII
Cold war
Information age
Future
King's mistress

Home

Stumble It!
 

Go to Intro 1. Epic heroes 2. Modern Sagas 3. Medieval Mysteries 4. A sense of justice

5. The influence of Japan on modern medievalism

Western culture is generally very busy admiring itself (and granted, it has a lot to be proud of), but there has been, since Marco Polo, a large interest, sometimes a profound longing for orientalism. This current has taken various forms: for instance, the Chinese and Japanese painters influenced the Impressionists; one cannot overstate the importance of Hokusai and Hiroshige for modern painting. The above engraving did belong to Monet and is now in the Giverny museum.

The second half of the 20th century has seen a large Japanese influence on many aspects of western culture, not just bonsai, futons and tattoos. This influence comprised people afraid of Japan and people who admired Japan: both sides are shown in the movie Rising Sun (1993) starring Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes. The early 90ies were indeed characterized here by some anti-Japanese and even racist feelings, as evidenced by the themes of many wrestling-sumo fights. This period seems to have ended. A large admiration for the Samurai, their austerity and their sense of honor remains. If you want to know more, there is A History of Japan to 1334 by George Sansom.

The Japanese medieval period has had an enormous success. After medieval Britain, medieval Japan comes first in historical movies, both from Japanese and American directors. A large part of this influence is due to the genius of Akira Kurosawa.

Rashomon (1950)Director: Akira Kurosawa introduced Japanese themes to western audiences. In the movie, people give contradictory accounts of the murder of a Samurai. That is per se very original. This subjective interpretation of events made later (1957-1960) the success of British writer Lawrence Durell for the tetralogy The Alexandria Quartet (each book gave a different point of view of the same events).

Gate of Hell (1953) Director: Teinsuke Kinugasa
In the 12th century, a samurai falls in love with a married woman. This movie was highly praised both at Cannes Festival and in the USA.

The Seven Samurai (1954) Director: Akira Kurosawa tells the story of poor peasants who hire samurai to protect their crop against bandits. It is said to have deeply influenced American cinema.

Yojimbo (1962) Director: Akira Kurosawa is on the theme of the solitary hero against power and corruption.

This photo of one of the last samurai was taken by Nadar and belongs to the University of Tokyo (source: blog 1337g33k.wordpress.com)

The Samurai Trilogy (1967) Hiroshi Inagaki had a large success with this saga telling the story of 17th-century samurai Musashi Miyamoto (portrayed by Toshiro Mifune). The style of these films is very different from Kurosawa: nobody loves both directors equally. It is a bit like the difference between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones: nobody liked them equally either. It all depends if you are more introverted or extroverted, and it depends on style.

Ran (1985), Director: Akira Kurosawa the most epic of Kurosawa's movies exploits a very shakespearean theme of jealousy and evil separating the three sons of of a prince in the 16th century.

Tonko or The Silk Road (1992) Director: Junya Sato sino-japanese story of battles on the silk road with a forbidden love. Japanese writer Yasushi Inoue collaborated to the screenplay shortly before he died.

The Last Samurai (2003) with Ken Watanabe and Tom Cruise displays samurai warriors of the19th century fighting for tradition against westernization. The movie is not equally appreciated in both countries.

Try the best of real bookstores if you dislike virtual ones: