Akira Kurosawa Seven Samurai - Essay Example

Seven Samurai Akira Kurosawa Seven Samurai is a complex film rooted in 1600s Japanese history. Themovie informs more concerning Japanese culture and class system. The ultimate theme is the issue of warfare for the society to protect itself from violence. This paper will shed light on the theme of war in relation to the movie Seven Samurai. For many years, haji plays a central role to construct the identity of the Japanese samurai as the class rules the country from the medieval period until late 1800s. The samurai collectively define themselves as a people that now shame and can risk their lives to defend their honor. The concept of shame and honor helps to construct the collective identity of the samurai that differentiate the category of warriors from the rest of Japanese society. The pre-modern Japanese samurai is an elite male culture expressed by a constellation of words that includes honor, pride, and face. The samurai culture derives its vitality from close connections between honor, dignity, and individuality to express the lexicon of shame. The internal emotional dynamics of the samurai attach to the sociopolitical roles of individual members. The transformation of samurai culture is a long-term result of their changing relationship with the Japanese state. In the film, samurai joins hands with the peasants to chase away the bandits that steal their harvest as well as harassing their families. As bandits represent a threat, samurai are up to the challenge to provide security for the society. The film elucidate that samurai were warrior class from the lower nobility in historic Japan that compare with the medieval knights in Europe. Traditional samurai recount heroic deeds concerning bravery and loyalty. The Japanese society in post Second World War the Samurai are not a service of a superior lord and decide to defend farmers while working in a democratic environment. The vassal samurai have their income largely derive their income from hereditary stipends, collecting disputes, administrators of domains, and adjudicated disputes. Primary loyalties of the vassal samurai direct toward their masters since they organize themselves in a pyramidal structure of stratified hierarchies. The film illustrates that samurai have a disciplined and rightful attitude with the following characteristics honesty, a straightforward mind, and simplicity in external appearance, maintain a courteous and disciplined bearing, keep promises without fail, looking out for each other especially during hardships, respect for superiors and juniors alike. Courteous deportment, consideration for others, sincerity, and consistent behavior is a crucial criteria of the virtue of the samurai men. The virtuous sociability is to uphold the inner strength that resides in the individual’s dignity. According to Seven Samurai, war is the force that gives our life meaning. Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is an annihilating melodrama that depicts warfare. Samurai is a multilayered culture during the medieval period. Samurai are self-equipped mounted warriors with their own landed properties, power, violence, and autonomy to become inextricably connects in the warriors’ sense of honor. Samurai are a people that do not depict cowardice in the battlefield since that would stain a warrior’s name. Accepting shame without fighting back can decrease samurai’s independence and the power of self-determination. As a result, the samurai are hypersensitive concerning horrific reputation. They tend to address any issue of honor decisively using physical terms. The samurai honor culture relates to other social classes since honor is at the core of the samurai collective identity. The aristocracy of the Japanese imperial court looks down on soldiers. The disdain leads to the emergence of a class of military specialists in the late ancient world called samurai. The samurai define themselves as men risk their lives to defend their good name. Samurai fashioned with elegance in the conquest of spilling blood due to vague abstraction. In the ancient world, death and blood are sources of dangerous pollution. As military specialists, samurai ran the risk of contamination in their horrific culture. The notion of honor is an implication that killing took place on the battlefield in an honorable action instead of defilement. Samurai’s celebration of honor is a mechanism to enhance their status to the detriment of other classes. During the medieval period, samurai do not equate honor with a reputation for military might with horrific actions perceived to reflect their dignity. The aspect of the honor culture comes to the fore, as they become the ruling class in post World War II Japan to overcome influence of the court aristocracy. Samurai demonstrate their willingness to die for the sake of honor. The introduction of seppuku or self-willed death is a ritualistic embodiment when they think they can lose war other than accepts shame of defeat Samurai cannot accept shame of being taken captivity and that led them to testify their autonomy through complete body control in the last phase of life. Samurai develop a sense of honor and glory combined with moral autonomy, dignity, and self-esteem demonstrated through violence. The custom of self-willed death appears as an exotic ritual that aspires for dignity and autonomy. The establishment of stable Tokugawa alters the political institution in the context of the samurai culture. Samurai were personally in-charge of the land properties. Later on, they move to larger cities to serve the political elite in government bureaucracies. The pax Tokugawa turns samurai role as warriors to a pure nominal function as states defined samurai as the ruling class. Various measures were put place to tame honorific violence among the samurai. In the film one can observe that samurai knows shame to represent moral consciousness in the mirror of an internalized and the voice of an imagined community of honor. In this sense, culture of honor among the samurai connects with the aspirations of individuals to a large community. Samurai originates historically as a class of medieval mounted warriors. The logic of shame serves as a stimulus for social change to indicate that shame in the samurai culture as a link between social institutions and personal strategies. An individual samurai had to consider different political and institutional structures that define and label shame in their lives to make a point of honor. A samurai is not a simple passive consumer to accept codes of shame and honor. Samurai has to make strategic decisions not to incur shame once his samurai hood is under test. The ability to decide for oneself and defend one’s honor is a crucial component of samurai’s code of shame. In the medieval period, battlefield is an approved ground to test a samurai’s honor since fighting requires swift independent action. In a modern army, combatant has to obey orders from superiors in a prescribed chain of command, while in the medieval era samurai place premium on individual bravery and use of strategic actions. In peacetime or wartime, samurai is aware of the need to defend their honor for that reason they defend their honor by strategic displays of courage and initiative. The film depicts instances when an individual samurai had to demonstrate that he could defend his honor through proud and decisive actions. A samurai could refocus and redefine the notion of shame through words and deeds. Samurai live in a perilous time of banditry that requires them to remain ready to fight bravely and conquer the enemy to demonstrate honor and avoid shame. The enlist honor culture of the samurai was predicated on the belief that the criteria defining honorific identity belonged to each individual samurai and not the entire society. The strategic redefinition of shame cites the possibility of moral autonomy to enlist honor culture. The individualistic strand in the samurai’s code of honor fosters a sense of moral pride that sustains their devotion to official duties. The Tokugawa system contains within itself a tension between samurai ideal of a bold individual with bureaucratic ethos that favor cooperation among large groups of disciplined individuals. An internalized definition of honor on the traditional samurai people depicts an image of brave men foundational support comes from spirit de corps and personal self-esteem. Authorities and Confucian scholars immerse themselves in traditional samurai honor culture. The author stresses that military honor culture for the samurai is not a craving for glory since it is impossible for the samurai to aspire to a glorious reputation in the medieval style under a regime that places premium on smooth and orderly functioning. Additionally promotion to higher ranks in the ladder of bureaucracy is difficult since Tokugawa system has a limited range of possible promotions based on hereditary house rankings. Works Cited Seven Samurai. Perf. Tushiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tshshima. Toho (Japan), 1954. DVD. Read More