The Last Samurai

The movie The Last Samurai (see Wikipedia entry too), is fiction made from real historical events. There was actually a fight by samurai against the central, newly formed government, the Satsuma Rebellion, led by Saigo Takamori, whom in the story was renamed Katsumoto. However, there were no records of Westerners fighting alongside Satsuma, so the character of Nathan Algren, played by Tom Cruise, is actually fiction. However, history has records of Westerners fighting alongside samurai, notably Jules Brunet, and even more famous, William Adams, also known as Anjin-sama (Mr Pilot, for he was a navigator). Adams was portrayed as Blackthorne in James Clavell's famous novel Shogun. Till today, Adams is still remembered in Japan, with Anjin-zuka (a town near Yokohama) named after him.

Let's not lose focus. The movie focuses a lot on the samurai concept of duty. It was duty to die for his lord. It was duty to do what he was told. It was duty to die rather than face dishonour. It was an honour to die for duty. It was an honour to die for one's lord. It was duty to assist one in dying for his lord (ie. acting as his second when another chooses to commit seppuku).

One of the things that struck me was when Tom Cruise was practising swordplay. The comment on that, in the show, was "he still looks ugly". The Japanese sense of beauty extends to all things, including one's movement. It was so in Love and Honour (Kimura Takuya's movements while carrying out his duty as food taster, Dan Rei's movements when serving dinner to Kimura). It is so in Japanese tea ceremony. And in other Japanese arts. In Japan, actions do speak louder than words. Through a person's actions (how sharp his movements are), his upbringing can be judged.

Anyone interested in learning more about the samurai and Bushido, the Way of the Samurai?