A Trade: My Sword for your Gun

The Samurai Sakamoto Ryoma attended a meeting along with his comrade Ito Shinosuke with the Consul General of Britain as well as several other samurai. Following the meeting, they all stood up to shake each others hands and Ryoma followed suit.

Ryoma, extending his hand to the British official, and with a wide smile uttered with an incomprehensible pronunciation the English word "trade." As he spoke he reached for his sword, and offered it in exchange for the Smith and Wesson, at which the Englishmen naturally stepped back and drew his revolver; but as Ryoma had still not drawn his blade, the dumbfounded Briton soon realized that this smiling samurai meant no harm.

Ryoma broke out in laughter, and said, "Ito-san, ask him if he'll trade his pistol for my sword."

The Englishman declined Ryoma's offer, but was nevertheless impressed with this odd samurai who would trade what other men of the two-sworded class considered their soul for a Smith and Wesson.

Sometime later, Ryoma was presented with a gift from Takasugi Shinsaku, the founder of a corps of Loyalists from Choshu domain called the Extraordinary Corps. The gift. A Smith and Wesson revolver Model #2. Ryoma spun the cylinder, wild-eyed, like a child playing with a much longed-after toy.

"Is it loaded?" he asked. "I think so," said Takasugi. Ryoma stood up, walked over to the window. "It's funny," he said, cocking the hammer, closing one eye, and taking careful aim at the sky. "All those years we've spent practicing with the sword, when this thing is so much easier to use, and more effective too." Ryoma fired a shot. "It is loaded!" he roared. "I'm sure it will come in very useful someday."

It did come in useful as Ryoma used it to fight off would be assassins in the first attack on his life. Unfortunately it would not help him the second time he was attacked. He did not have his revolver as he had given it to his sister as a gift after seeing her for the first time in many years since he left Tosa.

Sakamoto Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai

Crazy pictures of crazy Japanese people

If you have followed or lived in Japan for a while, you have probably seen many crazy and disturbing pictures or witnessed firsthand some pretty bizarre "only in Japan" things.  Paul Hartrick over at paulhartrick.com has posted some pretty funny AND disturbing pictures of people in Japan.  Definitely some of the most hilarious and bizarre pictures I have seen yet and I have seen some pretty strange people in Japan.

The eyelash lady reminds me of some horror movie like Sadako from Ringu.

Keanu Reeves as a samurai?

It is being reported that Keanu Reeves may become a samurai in a new movie about the famous Japanese story of the 47 Ronin.  I don't know about this choice.  Keanu was ok as a "chosen one" in the Matrix movies but I don't see him as a samurai.  Couldn't they have found a more appropriate actor then he.  

What I liked about The Last Samurai or Letters from Iwo Jima was that the Japanese characters spoke Japanese.  I can't really get into historical movies about non-English speaking figures where all the characters in the movie speak English such as the new Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie where all the Germans speak English.  I assume that Keanu does not speak Japanese so the movie will be in English.

Can anybody think of some other actors that would be more appropriate for this movie?  Below is a brief description of the 47 Ronin story.  I am currently reading a book about the 5th Tokugawa Shogun Tsunayoshi.  It was during his reign that this event occurred and the book covers it so I will write more about the 47 Ronin later.

The revenge of the Forty-seven Ronin, also known as the Forty-seven Samurai,took place in Japan at the start of the eighteenth century. The tale has been described as the country's "national legend." It recounts the most famous case involving the samurai code of honor, bushidō.

The story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless (became ronin) after their daimyo (feudal lord) was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka, whose title was Kōzuke no Suke. The ronin avenged their master's honor after patiently waiting and planning for over a year to kill Kira. In turn, the ronin were themselves forced to commit seppuku — as they had known they would be — for committing the crime of murder. With little embellishment, this true story was popularized in Japanese culture as emblematic of the loyalty, sacrifice, persistence, and honor that all good people should persevere in their daily lives. The popularity of the almost mythical tale was only enhanced by rapid modernization during the Meiji era of Japanese history, when many people in Japan longed for a return to their cultural roots.

Old School Haikyo

I found these cool haikyo photos from here.

They are from an old school somewhere in the Kanto area. What is interesting are some of the objects that were left behind long ago.

A pair of shoes and other items.

Appears to be tablets of medication.

An old record player.

A microscope oddly placed on an old bed.

A music amplifier.

An old projector.

U.S. is no Japan

At least when it comes to the current economic problems faced by the United States when compared to Japan's economic crisis during the Lost Decade of the 1990's.  This is according to economist Carl Weinberg. 

I have heard this comparison before and they are similar.  Both Japan and the United States had massive real estate bubbles.  I believe Japan's was more in the commercial sector while in the USA, it was based in the residential real estate sector.  They both spread to the financial sector resulting in massive losses and failures in the banking and financial industry.

But what I have also heard and read several times recently, and repeated by Mr. Weinberg, is that how Japan and the United States dealt with their economic and banking problem was and is quite different.  Below are some quotes from Mr. Weinberg that explains the differences in how Japan and the US dealt with the crisis.

"What happened in Japan was a more serious crippling of its banking sector followed by inept policies aimed at covering up imbalances in the system, not addressing them," Mr. Weinberg wrote. "Policy makers today are doing the right thing, which is to bridge the credit crunch and to rehabilitate the institutions. Today's episode will be long — longer by far than a normal downturn — but it will not be catastrophic."

The Japanese  banks were sitting on a mountain of non-performing loans that was as big as GDP, Mr. Weinberg wrote. They couldn't write off the loans or they would go bust. The government provided new accounting rules instead of new capital to support the system. Banks couldn't lend, borrowers couldn't get any money.

"In the current financial crisis, bank problems are being addressed by both generous liquidity to keep them afloat and public and private capital injections to speed up the healing of balance sheets," he added. Borrowers remain generally creditworthy and there is important fiscal stimulus coming on stream which Japan did not get around to until well into the collapse.

"The enormous insolvencies and policy errors Japan endured in the 1990s are not being repeated, so we do not see many parallels between them and what everyone is experiencing today," he said. 

The problems in the US are bad, worse than in decades.  But they probably won't be as bad as what happened in Japan and it will be nowhere near as bad as it was in the Great Depression.  People and the media need to stop throwing around the big D word because it is not going to happen and only creates more fear.  But of course fear is what sells newspapers.

About Nikko - The Ishidorii

The Ishidorii is a stone torii gate that was originally dedicated in 1618. It is 9 meters tall and the pillars at the base have a diameter of 3.6 meters. The Ishidorii is considered one of the three best stone torii gates in Japan. It is the biggest among the stone-made torii gates from the Edo period. The other two gates are located at the Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto and the Hachimangu Shrine in Kamakura.

Emperor Gomizunoo (1596-1680) wrote "Tosho-daigongen" (Divine designation of Ieyasu Tokugawa) which is on the frame on the upper part of the Ishidorii. The main material for the gate is granite which was produced in Fukuoka prefecture. The gate is made up of 15 pieces of the stone material. Each piece is connected by an axle, and the crossmembers have cavities to reduce the weight. The gate also was designed with earthquake resistant features. The joint of the cross members slipped during a 1949 earthquake but they shifted back into place during subsequent aftershocks. (Nikko Tourist Association)

This is a pretty impressive gate. It is at the top of a long series of wide steps which are at the top end of a short dirt road within the Toshogu temple complex. In 2004, I attended the annual 1000 Samurai Procession Festival. I was at the bottom end of the road looking back up towards the Ishidorii. The 1000 samurai bagan their procession near the gate and proceeded down the road. This event occurred on a Sunday. On Saturday, there was a demonstration where horse-mounted samurai road full-speed up the road without using their hands to guide the horse. They were using both of their hands to fire a bow and arrow at targets as they flew by at full speed. They guided their horses with their legs. (Previous post on this festival).