“My ancestors have ruled Japan for two thousand years, and for all that time we have slept. During my sleep, I have dreamed: I dreamed of a unified Japan, of a country strong, and independent, and modern. And now we are awake. We have railroads and cannon, western clothing. But we cannot forget who we are, or where we come from.”
- The Emperor Meiji, The Last Samurai
I find the Meiji and Taishou periods (1868-1926) endlessly fascinating. In the space of just a few decades, Japan went from an isolated, primitive backwater to a fully industrialized nation. If you watch Steel Angel Kurumi or The Daughter of Twenty Faces, you’ll see Japan’s equivalent to the Roaring Twenties, with fashionable “mogals” and other modern-minded city people mingling with steam trains… And yet the fathers and grandfathers of this classy generation were horse-riding samurai. It’s just a wonderful, evocative time.
So I’ve found myself increasingly bothered by what The Last Samurai seems to say about that part of Japanese history. What the movie tells us is that modernity, in the hands of the Japanese, is false and dangerous: The spirit of industry is a fat, scheming middleman in a western suit; it’s a haphazard military killing off true warriors with foreign-made gatling guns. Meanwhile, we’re asked to value the backwardness of old Japan—a quality that left the Japanese vulnerable to white conquerors—which the film recasts as the lost virtue of “honor.”
A westerner is forever changed by his exposure to a traditional village, to the point where we’re supposed to believe that he is more Japanese than some of the natives. And, they conclude, isn’t it so sad that the Japanese killed off what was left of their REAL culture by trying to beat the West at their own game? Frankly, from that perspective, it looks like an Orientalist crock.
While I can’t say that this summer’s Taishou Yakyuu Musume is in any way a deliberate response to The Last Samurai, for a simple otaku show its take on modernity is remarkably more nuanced. Koume, our heroine, literally resides in a cultural halfway house, going to school in a kimono and coming home to help out at a western-style restaurant. Her classmate Akiko lives a more westernized life, but the social expectations thrust upon her are still quintessentially Japanese.
Baseball, the great western sport, brings people together and makes them better than they were alone. As a team, Koume and the other girls are strong enough to compete with high school boys and take down burglars. Instead of inspiring mass mechanization of violence as in Last Samurai, modernity in Taishou Yakyuu Musume realizes a level of personal fulfillment for girls in a way that would not have been possible before. I am completely down with that.
Ishigaki Tamaki is my favorite character. The attraction is ineffable but true.
September 12, 2009 at 5:02 pm
The Last Samurai was definitely a movingly horrible film. Like deeply, deeply bad. Cinematic imperialism.
I had kept up with Taishou Yakyuu only because it was kind of cute and I thought it worked pretty well as a period piece, but I like your idea of it as an anti-Last Samurai. It definitely is an interesting look at the way Japan assimilates outside ideas. The way the girls’ clothes are mixed between kimonos and sailor uniforms is great because while at that point it was a demonstration of the conflict between tradition and modernization, the viewer knows that sailor fuku have actually become a very Japanese thing. Where Last Samurai suggested that Western ideas were somehow too much for the Japanese to handle and were corrupting them, the uniform is proof (admittedly a pretty small example) of the way the country can assimilate elements from other cultures and make them their own in a healthy way.
That said I’m not a fan of the way the show tries to make Koume’s arranged marriage seem cute and innocent. Having your spouse and basically the rest of your life planned out by your father is a shitty way to live, and one that’s never gone away in many parts of the world. I guess that’s kind of a separate issue though. I’ll probably stick with the series just to hear Akiko bust out the “watakushi”s, the formal speech patterns are fun to listen to for some reason.
September 13, 2009 at 4:27 am
I feel Mai Nakahara’s performance is slipping slightly, getting a little too deep. But I do love Akiko’s way of speaking.
About half of Taisho Yakyuu Musume makes great listening practice for Japanese. The other half is in keigo, and after thirty seconds of that I throw up my hands and give up.
September 12, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Oooh, finally a post that convinces me to watch Taishou Yakyuu Musume.
September 13, 2009 at 1:02 am
It seems rather ignored on the blogosphere, which is a shame. I hope you enjoy it.
September 12, 2009 at 7:07 pm
A great look at how this show is in a great piece of history. I definitely found the first episode hilarious and intriguing because of these very direct impacts of east-versus-west influence on the average person. I love the way we have some girls in school in kimonos and some in uniforms, and the classrooms still have old-school sliding bamboo doors.
This is a great show, but it’s just a little too slow for me to try watching weekly.
September 13, 2009 at 1:00 am
I’ve been watching it in three-episode spurts, myself, but that’s mainly a consequence of my schedule. Do consider marathoning it when the time comes, though. Unlike in other shows, the girls truly suck at baseball, and their development into a real team is a delight to see.
March 17, 2011 at 10:38 pm
this is the stupidest thing EVER!
September 12, 2009 at 7:17 pm
While I enjoyed The Last Samurai quite a bit, I think it ultimately tells the viewer more about Western culture than that of Japan. I actually don’t think the story is really about West vs. East. To my mind it is more about the dangers of unchecked modernization, and forgetting one’s roots in the process – modernization is shown corrupting everyone, not just the Japanese. To emphasize the value of traditional ways, the samurai are idealized to an absurd extent. Of course, Tom Cruise’s character becoming “more Japanese than the natives” is ridiculous, and does hurt the movie I think.
Of course, those of us who know anything about history can see how the traditional samurai values led Japan to embark on its own course of military imperialism that was just as bad as the worst conquests made by Westerners.
The movie that stands as the antithesis of The Last Samurai’s depiction of bushido to me (and one of my favorite movies ever) is Seppuku by Masaki Kobayashi (marketed in the US as Hara-Kiri). This film depicts ‘traditional values’ being bureaucratized and inflexibly enforced, and the tragedy that results. It is also a surprisingly Western film (to my mind, anyways), in that it is based on the theme of one man going against the system that we like so much.
In responce to The Fin’s point about arranged marriage, I would like to point out that, in theory at least, they probably aren’t always a bad thing. Sure, you probably won’t ‘love’ the person you’re married to, but if your parents took your needs into consideration (and aren’t just looking for the most politically/economically advantageous union) then they would pick someone you can at least get along with. In societies where lives were shorter and people had to marry soon to live a productive life, this was probably better than relying on the uncertainties of teen romance to decide on a mate. Of course, abuse does occur in many – maybe even most – arranged marriages, and I certainly don’t want one, but when we look at the state of marriage in the modern US, with its astronomically high divorce rate and many instances of abuse and neglect within families, I think it becomes understandable how some societies might prefer to rely on older methods.
September 13, 2009 at 12:57 am
You have a point. I’m sure the filmmakers were aiming more for a message about advancement versus simple human goodness, which is itself a very American sentiment. And I can’t deny the fact that the Japanese still ate up the movie like birthday cake, postcolonial criticism be damned. I think everyone’s suffering a bit of future shock these days.
September 12, 2009 at 11:42 pm
It’s hard for me to make a connection because I haven’t seen The Last Samurai, so perhaps I’m missing the point when I say that the idea behind what they say is kind of appropriate, considering the simple fact that it’s Japan. East Asian countries tend to be highly nationalistic, almost to a fault. I’m sure the same can be said of all cultures, to some extent, especially considering the period in time.
At the end of the day, though, globalization makes everything go by much smoother, and nobody has the right to complain. But then again, what do I know? I’m just a pig-faced American capitalist.
September 13, 2009 at 12:52 am
It’s more the fact that we’re given this message about Japan in a movie made by America: The country that was absolutely DYING to take them over in the 19th century and would have succeeded if it weren’t for the Meiji modernization movement. “Japanese spirit, western technology” saved the country from becoming another French Indochina or India during the Raj, so it’s kind of bad when Tom Cruise wants to trash it in favor of katanas and bushido. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, but that doesn’t stop the film from being deeply problematic.
You’re right though, about globalism. I find it pretty spiffy myself.
September 13, 2009 at 3:33 am
An excellent post! I’ve always thought that there was an overemphasis on the past that never was in most attempts at period pieces and it’s refreshing to see a show that focuses more on the modernization concept.
It’s always irritated me whenever a show tries to pass off a feudal system as something that’s more desirable because people lived with honor despite all evidence pointing to the contrary.
September 13, 2009 at 4:48 am
Thanks for reading. There was a news post somewhere (you can find it on AnimeNano) about a recent surge of popular interest in samurai and the Sengoku era. One person was quoted as saying something about today’s politicians being corrupt and self-centered, unlike the samurai who fought for justice. Which of course is total nonsense, especially from Japanese people who should know their history. But the power of a myth is strong indeed.
September 13, 2009 at 4:14 am
Ian K said more than I could, and more politely too. But again, yeah, Last Samurai is a film for Americans, not Japanese. Taishou Yakyuu Musume is for Japanese otaku, and not …much else. It suffers too from some simplification and idealization, but in that case I think it may be better to laugh it off as something adorable and cute. It’s not serious business after all.
September 13, 2009 at 4:40 am
Certainly, it is a film for Americans. The fact that it became wildly popular in Japan is incidental. But the message it sends about modernity in general is almost obscured by the very clear initial message it sends about the Japanese doing western things: “They were better off before they tried to change.”
I definitely feel some yearning in Taishou Yakyuu Musume, in that usual “oh, weren’t the good old days nice, when people were polite and kind to one another” brand of nostalgia. But I find it less problematic overall, and as you say, it’s cute. Thanks for your insight– If you don’t mind, I’ll go ahead and check out your blog.
September 13, 2009 at 7:43 am
lol, that last sentence sounds somehow dangerous to me XD
September 14, 2009 at 2:08 am
Someone else brought up a point about Last Samurai irt Japan’s perspective–it also could be seen as a piece where “the past was better than the present” and before all this modernization and western influences taking over its culture. I am paraphrasing his statements but from a certain perspective the two may very well look the same from the same, Japanese-centric perspective.
September 13, 2009 at 12:41 pm
I haven’t seen Taishou Yakyuu Musume yet, although I might look into it (the autumn season doesn’t have much that’s caught my interest so far). The Last Samurai was an entertaining film purely as a cool-looking but ultimately mindless Hollywood blockbuster type. It wasn’t one I would rush out to buy on DVD, but it was at least watchable (I expected glaring historical inaccuracies in the vein of U571 before I even sat down in the cinema!).
If it’s a more true-to-life depiction of the era you’re after, the Twilight Samurai is excellent. The story is fantastic and it’s a much more convincing examination of the issues faced by people of the time.
September 13, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Just read the plot of Twilight Samurai. It does indeed sound very true to life; I’ll definitely look for it. Thanks for the heads-up.
September 14, 2009 at 2:53 am
I was in a class that discussed the complete inaccuracies of The Last Samurai (and to an even greater extent, Memoirs of a Geisha), and I agree that it was romanticized fiction. I have to admit its entertainment value if one chooses to ignore all faults.
I’ve been enjoying Taishou so far, it turned out be a better series than I expected. I feel as if there is an underlying tug between old Japan and the West throughout the show. Maybe it’s the contrasts we’re always presented. There are girls in kimonos vs. girls in uniforms and even Koume’s parents try to preserve Japanese traditions (the marriage thing, wearing a kimono) even as they run a Western business. Even the girls are fighting the old impression that the girls place is the “home” and not as equal athletes with men.
If I remember from my studies correctly the modernization of Japan was something that actually was seen as hopeful and prideful, like Japan arriving on the world stage. The Japanese (at least some) were awed at the West and the wonders they got as they modernized. While the Last Samurai did portray this as horrible, the impression from Taishou is the opposite.
September 14, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Oh goodness gracious, don’t even get me started on Memoirs of a Geisha…
I got through the newest episode of Taishou Yakyuu Musume right after I wrote this entry, and I agree. It admittedly started slow, but it seems to have really found its sweet spot with the last few episodes.
September 14, 2009 at 7:35 am
“But we cannot forget who we are, or where we come from.”
You must take your place in the Circle of Li- oh whoops, wrong film.
Jesting aside, though, I’ve really been enjoying Taishou Yakyuu Musume, and that’s in large part to it’s focus on this pivotal period in Japanese history, and especially the changing role of women in society.
I’ll second the Twilight Samurai recommendation, btw. It’s good stuff.
September 14, 2009 at 12:20 pm
I really feel like I’ve brought the fans out of the woodwork with this one… Are we all just enjoying watching it so much that we aren’t writing about it? That, I think, would be a truly grand twist.
September 15, 2009 at 10:38 am
Wow, Patrick. This was very interesting to read. My ancestors were real samurai so I have fun reading different people’s point of view when speaking about the subject. My mother’s grandmother is the daughter of a samurai who told stories to my young mother of life at those times. Of course, my mother wouldn’t understand. She was way too young and the world was different than it was back then. However, looking back at those memories, my mother is truly grateful to her grandmother who passed on the stories of life back then. We live in completely different worlds and generations but one thing we pass on in our family are the memories. Taishou Yakyuu Musume really caught my attention. I’d really like to watch it. It reminds me of my great-grandmother who lived to see this happen. (Well, I don’t know about the whole baseball thing… possibly? Haha. But you know what I mean).
September 15, 2009 at 10:45 am
… I hope you don’t think I’m weird or ignorant for telling you my background and stuff. I guess my great-grandmother’s pride passed on to me -_-
September 15, 2009 at 12:57 pm
It’s fine. Thanks for reading.
September 19, 2009 at 3:42 pm
“Ishigaki Tamaki is my favorite character. The attraction is ineffable but true.”
Glad to see another fan of her. \o
September 20, 2009 at 12:24 am
[...] For more info, check out 2DT’s great write-up about the series. [...]
January 13, 2011 at 9:24 am
[...] Gosick is supposed to be taking place at the same time as Taisho Yakyuu Musume. I’ve sung its praises before, but it bears mentioning that TYM has some interesting and authentic period dressing: School [...]
June 2, 2011 at 3:51 am
“Her classmate Akiko lives a more westernized life, but the social expectations thrust upon her are still quintessentially Japanese.”
Akiko for me is the perfect person to showcase this transitional time, and she’s part of the reason that TYM is such a subtle, but compelling portrayal of a modernizing Japan. Besides the obvious westernized clothing/ housing, she is part of(and perhaps at the forefront of) a generational change that breaks old social attitudes. And her more conservative parents help to highlight her views even more.
As opposed to Last Samurai, western influence is seen as very positive thing, and Akiko chases the best things a modernizing Japan has to offer.