Once the Japanese government recognized the value of sword iconography, it welcomed the increase in the representation of swords across a variety of forms of popular culture because it contributed to state interests such as promotion of industries, economic growth, and fulfilment of national pride. In fact, at a conference he referred to the fandom of. The story, however, favoured both the young officers’ ambitions in such a way as to highlight specifically the use of Japanese swords, and, due to the journalist’s desire to scoop a patriotic episode from the war, the incident was not accurately represented. Rekishi de kangaeru [Thinking with History]. The plaintiffs also proffered the “Japanese-swords-not-so-durable” defense to discredit the ostensibly fictionalized reports that had led people to believe otherwise (Association 2007: 49-50, 116, 172-173). I was born near the end of the 11th century. Communication strategists began to recognize the appeal of Japanese swords, especially among the younger generation, and began featuring the images intensively. Touken Ranbu (刀剣乱舞) an online mobile and web browser game by DMM and Nitroplus where players take the role of a saniwa (sage) who protects the flow of history alongside the Touken Danshi (Sword Boys). Okamoto Takeshi. Accessed October 1, 2019. Accessed October 1, 2019. The, works for the government, fighting against an enemy named the Historical Revisionists (. “‘Rekijo’ and Heritage Tourism: the Sengoku/Bakumatsu Boom, Localities and Networks.”, The Theory and Practice of Contents Tourism. The Yokusan Ikka manga series illustrated daily life of the Yamatos, a model family by the militaristic criteria of their time. They call me Mikazuki on account of the many patterns on my blade. This resonates with earlier multimedia efforts at bolstering national sentiment. Tokyo: Kinyōbi. That the exhibit has travelled throughout Japan—and is still occasionally open in local museums with minor updates when the anime series releases new movies, attests to the collaborative potential of Japanese swords. The 2010s boom is noteworthy for its accumulated historical events related to Japanese swords incorporated as the centerpieces for media commodities such as games, movies, anime, and manga. This essay is positioned within academic debates addressing propagandistic representations of war and history. It features handsome boys called, each a personification of a type of historic Japanese sword. The appearance of the musical actors in 2018’s, , an annual TV music show that has aired every New Year’s Eve since 1951, proved the undeniable impact of, also elicited interest in Japanese swords themselves, primarily among Japanese women, or. He comes with three different expression parts, including his standard expression, a combat expression and a playful laugh for whenever he successfully surprises someone! This does not mean that the officers did not slaughter Chinese while advancing toward Nanjing given the many reported cases of war crimes committed by the Japanese Army. “Tokubetsu ten no shashin [Pictures of Special Exhibits].” Accessed October 1, 2019. They invoked scientific grounds and other types of evidence, to insist that the officers had not actually killed as many people as was claimed in the final tally and that the episode had been fabricated by the war correspondents. His article triggered a controversy about its veracity. . The two swords have an inter-fraternal relation because they are a pair of uchigatana and wakizashi, a long and a short sword that samurai regularly carried together. This practice systematically ignores the shadow of modern Japanese history in which swords played a central role, such as the controversial wartime “contest to kill one hundred people using a sword” (. ) The aggregate of such discursive, euphoric media content has the potential to destroy people's touchpoints with reality while rewriting history in the process. Even after the Tokugawa order, Japanese swords maintained their symbolic value in society. The sword has been mobilized in contemporary Japanese media as a symbolic cultural commodity to influence consumers’ knowledge and consciousness and to condition their views of modern Japanese history. , edited by Sabine Frühstück and Anne Walthall, 68-90. Harada, Michihirō. , 165-210. “Queering War.” In Playing War: Children and the Paradoxes of Modern Militarism in Japan, 165-210. . franchise expanded to radio, records, and novels, and even encouraged amateur readers to participate in its universe by sending letters and submitting their secondary works based on the franchise. I guess you can say I'm an old man. Japanese people have been enjoying the beauty of the structural aspects of Japanese swords since premodern times: textures on the steel made by folding techniques during forging; patterns of martensite created during the cooling process; and temper patterns on the blade. Capcom insisted that the use of images from its video game, contributed to “regional revitalization” (. ) Covering much the same time frame, this essay shares an academic commitment to the critique of war glorification, focusing on the popular aesthetics of Japanese swords in transmedia content. Edward Zwick's, (2003) was a positive depiction of the virtue and loyalty of a declining samurai. During the invasions of the Korean peninsula, mainland China via Manchuria, South East Asia, and the Pacific Islands in the first half of the twentieth century, Imperial Japan mobilized propaganda to enforce its ideology and consolidate its totalitarian regime. Brasor, Philip. Contrary to the post-WWII approach of the manga industry, several versions of Yokusan Ikka were drawn by multiple artists and published by various magazines. Has access to all long-ranged troops. In the 1930s, when ultra-nationalism heightened, the Japanese army used Japanese swords with Japanese (rather than western) mountings (Sakai 2011: 304-306; Watanabe and Sumi 2014: 90-91). The Japanese sword, which functioned to indicate social class in the Edo period, was transformed into an icon signifying the state's legitimacy during Japan's modernization. Nogawa Motokazu. In order to meet increasing demand, a workshop was built to produce Japanese swords for military use within the Imperial Shrine of Yasukuni, which was built in 1869 to commemorate those who died in service to the Meiji government (Kishida 1998: 33-34; Watanabe and Sumi 2014: 91). The Yokusan Ikka franchise expanded to radio, records, and novels, and even encouraged amateur readers to participate in its universe by sending letters and submitting their secondary works based on the franchise. For seven years, between the end of the war in 1945 and the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1952, Japan was under the control of the General Headquarters, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (GHQ/SCAP). The popular images of the historical past used by these contemporary political parties suggest that popular culture is always susceptible to being exploited by political power because of the fundamental malleability of images and signs. The Watetsu Caucus, consisting of conservative politicians, claims to preserve and promote watetsu steel and to support traditional sword culture that was deemed to be in a precarious situation (MEXT 2018). Made in the Heian era, I've been passed from owner to owner … Attacks become significantly more powerful during night battles. Heshikiri was forged by a swordsmith named Heshikiri Kunishige in the year 1312. Touken Ranbu – Sword Stats . Accessed October 1, 2019. Ōnuki Emiko. The change generated controversy. The sword carried a particular ethno-nationalist message. For example, responding to and taking advantage of the Japanese sword and samurai boom among the younger generation, in 2018, Diet members of the LDP formed a group called Watetsu, is a specially made steel for Japanese swords. See more ideas about touken ranbu mikazuki, touken ranbu, great sword. Seki no Magoroku: Mishima Yukio, sono shi no himitsu [Seki no Magoroku: Mishima Yukio, the Secret of His Death] Tokyo: Kappa Books. The aesthetic space associated with Japanese swords necessarily elevates specific historical events over others, facilitating the crimes of the past to fade from the collective consciousness. “Inside the Evangelion and Japanese Sword Exhibit.” Anime News Network. Today's Japanese sword craze functions as a transmedia symbol to attract people's attention and reinforces national identity among people, much in the same vein as Yokusan Ikka did during WWII. Accessed September 10, 2020. Research Faculty of Media and Communication, Hokkaido University: 21-26. The critics found JGSDF's explanation of the design unacceptable, stating that there is no reason to use an image of Japanese swords to represent the defense-oriented policy of Japan in the 21. century. Horikawa Kunihiro calls Izuminokami Kanesada “Kane-san”, as though he is speaking to his older brother. Kohki Watabe is an assistant professor at University of Tsukuba, Japan, and a visiting assistant professor at Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, Egypt. The debate over the truthfulness of the contest to kill one hundred people with a single sword has not waned, which is attested to by the debates on historical revisionism in recent decades. He also works on contemporary Japanese visual media and popular culture. Utilizing Popular Culture for Regional Growth, Seki no Magoroku: Mishima Yukio, sono shi no himitsu, Frühstück, Sabine. Has no access to long-ranged troops and has smallest access to troop types along with yari. Due to the response triggered by Sengoku Basara, Capcom proactively promoted the popular game series to improve its public image by permitting the use of the characters to local governments. Tsurumaru is one of the oldest Touken Ranbu swords by his initial year of creation (as a sword), only surpassed by a small handful of others. In 2014, the Sankei Shimbun, an ultra-right paper, defined its revisionist activities as a “war over history” (rekishi sen) and enhanced its campaign by insisting that China, Korea, and the Asahi Shimbun were fabricating the war crimes of Imperial Japan to degrade Japan’s reputation in the international community (The Sankei Shimbun 2014; Yamaguchi 2020). , which translates to “wild dance of curved and straight swords,” is an online browser-based video game that was released in 2015. Players form combat teams and send them into battle in scenes embellished with sound and animation. This version of historical revisionism, which does not outright deny the shadows of Japanese history but allows consumers to immerse themselves in selected positive images of the past, is at the core of the Japanese sword boom in popular culture and the utilization of sword imagery in public and governmental discourse in the 21st century. This may be more obvious in the Kill Bill series set in contemporary America, in which Japanese swords are simply trendy icons, but it is also applicable to The Last Samurai, which projects an idealized image of samurai and bushido on Japanese history. Has slowest growth rates and will not do significant damage until much later levels. The emblematic power of Japanese swords was used to enhance imperialist nationalism, and the material beauty of swords played a key role in guaranteeing the teleological construction of the history of Japan. Each type of sword varies in power, speed, and range. “’Rekishisen’ no tanjō to tenkai [The Birth and Development of the ‘War over History’].” In 2016. June 1, 2015. The critics found JGSDF's explanation of the design unacceptable, stating that there is no reason to use an image of Japanese swords to represent the defense-oriented policy of Japan in the 21st century. Below, I argue that the current sword boom is a symptom of a post-WWII Japanese society that institutionally ignores the practical and actual use of Japanese swords as weapons and instead treats them as aesthetic objects that symbolize certain ethno-nationalist values. The popular images of the historical past used by these contemporary political parties suggest that popular culture is always susceptible to being exploited by political power because of the fundamental malleability of images and signs. Harking back to samurai is a common mode of drawing on associations of masculine strength and integrity without addressing bloodshed. However, attacks weaken during night battles. The individuals concerned with the Watetsu Caucus, JGSDF’s emblem, and Capcom’s “regional revitalization” campaign were not necessarily dyed-in-the-wool conservatives or nationalists. Neither Touken Ranbu nor the “Cool Japan Policy” were the origin of the sword boom; rather, both are outcomes or expressions of the post-WWII aestheticization and transformation of Japanese swords into a popular “cool” symbol. The term historical revisionism is typically used to criticize neo-nationalist/right-wing activists who support the non-apologetic diplomatic attitudes of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as evidenced in Prime Minister Koizumi’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in 2001. Taken together, these trends represent a fascination with the trope of the sword: some representations are historically grounded while others are radically decontextualized; some media and messages lean towards nationalistic nostalgia while others invest decidedly new meaning and affect to this cultural icon. “Database consumption”—a mode that prioritizes playing with symbols in the cultural lexicon rather than trying to portray the world in realist narratives—in Touken Ranbu operates as follows: When players meet prescribed conditions, such as sending two different swords (via Touken Danshi(s)) that were owned by a single historical figure to a specific battlefield also associated with that figure, the Touken Danshi characters discuss the personage in a conversation, which pops up on screen. As the vice-commander of Shinsengumi, the special police force organized by the Tokugawa, Hijikata continued to fight against the Meiji government even after the Boshin war (1868-69) and was killed in battle in Hakodate. For example, the wording on Capcom's website in its promotion of local initiatives was similar to the language and logic found in governmental documents for the “Cool Japan” strategy. The aesthetic space associated with Japanese swords necessarily elevates specific historical events over others, facilitating the crimes of the past to fade from the collective consciousness. I am not suggesting that the ideological tendency behind the choice indicates that the players align with neo-nationalist/right-wing ideology. Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. As the vice-commander of, , the special police force organized by the Tokugawa, Hijikata continued to fight against the Meiji government even after the Boshin war (1868-69) and was killed in battle in Hakodate. Another collaboration between the public and private sectors that prominently featured swords in popular media was the Bizen Osafune Japanese Sword Museum in Okayama, which planned special exhibitions featuring various anime and video games. 2007. Accessed April 10, 2020. In recent decades, the enthusiasm for Japanese sword and samurai imagery expanded from hardcore male enthusiasts to the wider public, including female fans in the video game world, prompting a variety of commercial, public, and cultural sector collaborations. In fact, swords were not necessarily the primary weapon for warriors from the Kamakura period (1185-1333) to the Sengoku period (1467-1590), the most turbulent time in Japanese history, as stone slings, arrows, spears, and naginata (a pole weapon with a single-edge blade) were more effective and safer weapons on the battlefield (Kaku 2016: 72-75). Their history-related tourism is a version of the anime-themed tourism seichi-junrei (pilgrimage) (Okamoto 2018), both of which can be categorized as “contents tourism” (Alexander 2017), and received interest from companies and local government agencies trying to revitalize the areas. As a historical ideological icon, swords have been used to signify class in the Edo period (1603-1868) and to justify the Japanese Empire’s expansion into Asia during the Asia-Pacific War (1931-1945). Alexander, Lucy. Fight your way across a variety of battlefields in this sword-raising simulation game. In this way, the symbolism of the beauty and strength of Japanese swords was proactively used to advocate the ultranationalist regime. “. Accessed October 1, 2019. Popular culture, both in Japan and in the wider context, during the 1990s to the 2000s, found the Japanese sword a “cool” icon and prop useful in action and combat scenes, which are a key entertainment feature in visual media. In pointing out that the Yokusan Ikka was a war-time example of media mix, Ōtsuka warns that popular culture can facilitate the rallying of favour for a specific ideological regime (Ōtsuka 2018: 18-184). Figure 12. Only swords made using traditional methods by a certified swordsmith were approved (. Kill Bill detached Japanese swords from Japanese national history and used them as an ahistorical sign of contemporary Asian “coolness.”. However, the original usage of the word is inverted in. The time of swords ended with the Tokugawa order; therefore, many popular references to samurai and Japanese swords depict times before the Meiji era (1868-1912), which followed the Edo period. 1973. Maeda Toushirou is one of the many Awataguchi siblings residing within the citadel in Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru. This, however, is not limited to the LDP. 2018. This essay underscores the varied and complex ramifications of contemporary depictions of the Japanese sword, and, as an extension to that, the samurai as cultural symbols in Japan, during the first two decades of the 21st century. 2017. ” March 1, 2018. 2015. 2018. When the Meiji government formed a modern military force, the army provided western sabers rather than Japanese swords to its soldiers; however, the achievements of the squad equipped with Japanese swords during the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877 led to some skilled soldiers bringing Japanese swords with western mountings to later battlefields (Watanabe and Sumi 20014: 90). Capcom. Although the phrase sounds prudent on face value, it signals that he may be concerned about the feelings of the neo-nationalist/right-wing. However, right-wing sympathizers impressed by militaristic icons do not account for the majority of people. Tokyo: Yūzankaku. The two officers, both second lieutenants, were responsible for commanding their artillery units, it is therefore unlikely that they could have engaged in sufficient hand-to-hand combat to kill more than 100 soldiers each. Arguably, the most notable example of this phenomenon is a video game called, and its transmedia franchise. In fact, swords were not necessarily the primary weapon for warriors from the Kamakura period (1185-1333) to the Sengoku period (1467-1590), the most turbulent time in Japanese history, as stone slings, arrows, spears, and, (a pole weapon with a single-edge blade) were more effective and safer weapons on the battlefield (Kaku 2016: 72-75). This aestheticization of Japanese swords underpins the collaboration of various actors in the sword boom of the 2010s. (Capcom). Commercializing the Sword in the 21st Century. “Nihon no otoko yo, tamerauna [Don’t Hesitate, Japanese Men].” June 4, 2007. Deals a decent amount of damage, and has slower growth rates but higher maximum stats than wakizashi. Edward Zwick's The Last Samurai (2003) was a positive depiction of the virtue and loyalty of a declining samurai. Swords have base stats for both their base and Toku forms. Below I examine. However, the sanitized, wholesome sword imagery lowers resistance to participation in the reification of a deeply ambiguous symbol, thus potentially making participants more receptive to nationalistic discourse. The wholesome and, at the surface-level, non-ideological nature of sword imagery enabled governmental and public actors to participate in its aesthetic universe, which was not free from patriotic and nationalistic dogma. The Sword Museum's most successful partnership was its collaboration with. The diverse material included a video featuring then Prime Minister Abe Shinzō and a young BMX rider, a fashion magazine article highlighting current trends, and other content utilizing youth-oriented images. The Imperial Shrine of Yasukuni was thought to be a holy place, where the souls of Japanese soldiers who died in battle were brought and would appear in the form of cherry blossoms to the eyes of the living (Dower 2012: 65-80; Onuki 2003: 169-201). The lack of reference to Seki no Magoroku is notable, moreover, because it was a mass-produced sword brand that spanned from the Muromachi to the Edo periods and has been extremely popular in and central to Japanese sword history. Jul 6, 2018 - My name is Mikazuki Munechika. 2016. However, as the title of the series, "The Illusion of the Nanking Massacre" suggests, these arguments sought to deny not merely the improbable tale of the single sword but the entire allegation of misconduct by the Imperial Japanese Army, that is, the Nanjing Massacre. Ōwaki Hidekazu. In this way, the link among Japanese, samurai spirit, and swords was fostered. In that sense, the emblem conveys a dual message: it expresses the sanitized “coolness” of Japanese swords, while appealing to nationalists’ fetishization of Japan’s “honor.”. Has higher mobility than tachi, but slower growth rates. Neither the Japanese government nor business were able to fully grasp the potential of the symbolic value of the Japanese sword image. should rule the country, and that all Japanese people were his subjects. This aestheticization of Japanese swords underpins the collaboration of various actors in the sword boom of the 2010s. Although the increased use of sword imagery in the media does not directly signal the rebirth of militarism in Japan, sword imagery is visibly shaping political discourse in the current political climate. Newspapers reported that the two officers intended to engage in another bet, this time with the goal of killing 150. . 2017. However, as discussed in the court proceedings, post-war research and accounts by officers revealed that Japanese officers committed war crimes by killing surrendered Chinese soldiers and civilians with Japanese swords (Honda, Hoshi, and Watanabe 2009: 142-167; Association 2007: 109-130, 135-195). Has the highest natural survival but low mobility like ootachi. Oakland: University of California Press. Kuni no kūru japan senryaku no saishin jyōkyō [The Most Recent Situation of Cool Japan Strategy of Japanese Government]. Rekishi sen: Asahi Shimbun ga sekai ni maita “ianhu” no uso wo utsu [War over History: Beating the Lie of “Comfort Women” Spread to the World by the Asahi Shimbun]. https://touken-ranbu.fandom.com/wiki/Sword_Types?oldid=189797. Much of the game’s attraction comes from its visuals and the voices of the Touken Danshi dubbed by male anime voice actors. JGSDF claims that the blade and scabbard, however, represent strength and a love of peace, respectively, as the design places the scabbard in front of the blade, signifying that JGSDF, the last fortress of national defense, fights only in cases of national crisis (JGSDF, Enburemu). shinario tantou Shibamura Yuri ga kataru kyarakuta settei toha [Character Development Told by Yuri Shibamura, the Scenario Writer of. Japanese Swords Tell History and Culture [Nihontou ga kataru rekishi to bunka] Tokyo: Yūzankaku. 2018. The malleability of Japanese sword images, which made these public-private collaborations possible, was also a precondition for their mobilization by the Japanese government and associated political forces in the 2010s. The, manga series illustrated daily life of the Yamatos, a model family by the militaristic criteria of their time. For example, Harada Michihiro, a sword enthusiast who wrote several books on the subject in the pre-WWII era, attributed the dual nature of Japanese swords as a weapon and an aesthetic object to the Japanese traditions of beauty and aestheticism (Harada 1935: 3-17; Harada 1940: 3-7). 2005. According to Sugawa-Shimada (2015), the reki-jo phenomenon was brought to light in the mid-2000s when media began to recognize the popularity of the Sengoku and Bakumatsu periods among young women. One such example is. This form of revisionism became even more pronounced in the second and later Abe administrations (2012-2020) through the appointment of neo-nationalist/right-wing politicians to responsible posts, including Inada Tomomi, who was the attorney of the plaintiffs in the aforementioned lawsuit (Nogawa 2016: 18-19). Instead, Japanese swords came to be regarded primarily as aesthetic and symbolic objects, which continues today. Morrissy, Kim. The Watetsu Caucus, consisting of conservative politicians, claims to preserve and promote. The disclaimer commonly inserted within TV programs, movies, and anime – “This is a work of fiction and has nothing to do with real people, names, or groups”—self-actualizes. Shinjidai no makuake [An Opening of a New Era]. 2018. As the Heisei era gave way to the Reiwa era in May 2019, the LDP launched a new PR campaign targeting youth. It was in the 17th century, during the Tokugawa Shogunate, that Japanese society embedded the symbolic value of swords into its social order with a set of laws that regulated the possession and carrying of swords according to the occasion and the owner’s class (Owaki 2018: 72-117; Sakai 2011: 299-302).
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