WIT Life #55: 侍への憧れ
Anecdote Article, Japan Trends, Reviews, Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life 
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Translator/Interpreter/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together w
ith her own observations.
Last night I attended the North American premiere of Goemon, a movie portraying this titular folk hero who was known as the Robin Hood of Japan. It takes place during the Warring States period, and some prominent historical figures who appear are Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. It is interesting to see Eguchi Yosuke, usually seen in lighter fare such as dramas, as the title character of legendary ninja bandit Ishikawa Goemon. Hirosue Ryoko, another drama veteran, is featured in the role of Princess Chacha whom Goemon spent his early years protecting. The movie’s plot is almost entirely fictional, and displays many dazzling special effects in a CGI-enhanced fantasy setting. The director, Kiriya Kazuaki, hails from my JET hometown of Kumamoto and is the former husband of Utada Hikaru.
During the course of the film, Goemon’s attendant talks of his aspirations to become a samurai and steadily working his way up to achieve this recognition. As the title of this post (samurai e no agokare or “longing for samurai“) suggests, the appeal of samurai has not been lost in this modern day and age. Recently various media have been picking up on a samurai boom in Japan, especially among women. A Chopsticks article I translated earlier this year discusses this phenomenon, and the trend even got press in the Economist last month. As the latter article suggests, this craze among women might be due to the increase in 草食男子 (soushoku danshi), herbivorous men “who eschew the typical male trappings of cars and big salaries, and may prefer shopping and fashion to sex.” While it certainly sounds like something is brewing, I wonder if this is an example of the media blowing up something small to create a buzz. I will have to do some field research during my next trip to Japan!
Speaking of samurai, the second and final NY screening of Takayuki Tanaka’s documentary Samurai Umpires will take place on Tuesday, November 10th, and it WILL include subtitles for the Japanese portions. Attendance is free, but a donation is being requested to cover the cost of programs. See www.samuraiumpires.jp for details.
On the topic of baseball, congrats to the Yankees for capturing their 27th World Series and to Matsui Hideki for becoming the first Asian MVP! It will be interesting to see how this affects his contract negotiations…
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