| Samurai Movies (31) |
May 12, 2022
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| [Seppuku 3] In the movie of 'Ichimei', when the young ronin was forced to commit seppuku, his sword was 'takemitsu', a fake bamboo sword. 'Take' is bamboo, 'mitsu' means 'shine' but in this case it was a teasing expression, X-mitsu sounds like a name of a good sword made by a famous sword artisan. The word 'Takemitsu' is well known in this country because they appear in a lot of samurai movies and dramas. Poor samurai would go to a pawn shop and put their real swords up for collateral. In the movie, the three young samurai knew that the young ronin's sword was takemitsu but they urged him to use it, always saying he should regret his mistakes, treating a 'symbol of samurai' lightly. In samurai movies, sometimes swords play an important role. In the movie 'Mibu-gishi-den', the protagonist was deeply injured and went to his han's residence in Osaka. He asked them to let him have a rest until his wounds healed. But the karo, who used to be a close friend of his when they were children, refused. Instead, he urged him to commit seppuku, allowing him to use one of the tatami-mat rooms. He also gave him one of his two swords, a longer one, since the protagonist's sword was bent in some places after a long battle. If his memory was correct, high or middle ranking samurai had two swords with them, a long one and a short one, the short one  was called 'wakizashi'. It was a substitute for the long one in case the long sword was lost or damaged, etc. It was also supposed to be used for seppuku. But, for low ranking samurai, like this particular protagonist, they didn't have 'wakizashi'. The protagonist's sword was bent, but was not broken. He recently learned about how these types of swords, katana -- were made. Before, he vaguely knew that blacksmiths hit heated iron many times to form the shape of a katana. But, it was more than that. They hit and flattened heated iron into a sheet and then folded it, it became two layers. And, after heating it again, they would flatten it again, and folded it again, then it became four layers. This process would be repeated 15 times. It means that the number of the layers became 32,768! This is the reason that katana can't be broken easily. Recently he watched a unique samurai movie entitled 'Zan', the kanji means 'to cut'. The movie started with a scene with a red hot fire and a mass of red iron that was being hit by blacksmiths. In the next scene, in a field in a village, a young ronin and a young farmer were having a sword match with katana-shaped wooden sticks. It was in the late Edo Period. The young ronin was aiming to go to Edo to join some movement, and was now temporarily staying in the young farmer's house. The young farmer wanted to be a samurai. In Edo and Kyoto, it was anticipated that a battle between the Tokugawa Shogunate and the opposite side hans would happen soon. They were gathering soldiers, even from the farmer ranks. A middle aged ronin happened to pass by the village and saw their intensive practicing. He soon figured out that the young ronin's sword technique was unusual. He, himself, was a skillful sword master. He was going to Edo in order to join the Tokugawa Shogunate's militia, which was now gathering skillful warriors. He spoke with the young ronin about going to Edo together and he agreed to it. When they were preparing to leave for Edo, an outlaw ronin group came to the village and started to do bad things. The middle aged ronin thought that he couldn't leave this situation as is, so he went to the outlaws' temporary living place alone. He returned to town and told the villagers that he defeated almost all of the outlaws, so maybe they go away. But, they didn't. They gathered more outlaws and came back to the village and killed some farmers. The middle aged ronin and the young ronin went to the outlaws' place for a final battle. But, the young ronin had a big problem: he couldn't draw his sword because of a mental block. The movie didn't mention why and how he suffered from this, but he felt a strong resistance to kill somebody. In front of the outlaws, he took a tree branch from the road and held it ... He researched on the internet about the director. He realized he had watched another of this director's movie which was set in WWⅡ. It was a very dark movie. It was about some starving soldiers who were isolated on an island in Southeast Asia. He guessed that the director was a type of person who wanted to portray reality. (To be continued ...) |
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No.477
*artisan :職人、熟練した職人
*collateral :担保、質草
*substitute :代用品
*blacksmith :鍛冶屋
*layer :層
*temporarily :一時的に
*anticipate :予想する、期待する