Learning about samurai

[WCR91]

Murakami-san does not write about Samurai.

If you want to learn the true ways of the bushido warrior, watch the movie "The Last Samurai"

While the last samurai is a good movie, I think that it was stretched historically by Hollywood, and may be a bit bastardized from historical events (if any).

On a side note, I'd like to say that if you want to learn anything about Geisha, from what I've heard, Memoirs of A Geisha was incredibly unauthentic. The story was written by an American (who is not even Japanese) and there was a lot of controversy over the main woman in the movie being Chinese. Some people are kind of picky about those sorts of things, I've never seen the movie, I wouldn't know, but I heard that a lot of the things in the movie were incorrect.

However, there was a good book I read a while back with a rather long title. It was called Code of The Samurai: A Modern Translation of The Bushido Shoshinsu of Taira Shigesuke. You can get it on Amazon for $10.17, I don't know how much that costs in The Netherlands (If I'm not mistaken, that's where you said you were from) but it's definitely worth a look.

Hope that helps.

[atomsk]

"last samurai" is bs. that scientologist doesnt even know how to hold a sword. the only thing that is cut when he does a "martial arts" scene is the film. therefore that gets cut every few milliseconds
which is sad, because some of those japanese actors in that movie ARE good marial artists. like this guy: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0760796/

[Bueller_007]

"last samurai" is bs. that scientologist doesnt even know how to hold a sword. the only thing that is cut when he does a "martial arts" scene is the film. therefore that gets cut every few milliseconds
which is sad, because some of those japanese actors in that movie ARE good marial artists. like this guy: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0760796/

Is it really surprising that his character would suck at martial arts? He only lived and practised with the Japanese for one winter.

[atomsk]

Is it really surprising that his character would suck at martial arts? He only lived and practised with the Japanese for one winter.

not surprising. its a fictional character. but i was talking about the actor.

[Bueller_007]

Is it really surprising that his character would suck at martial arts? He only lived and practised with the Japanese for one winter.

not surprising. its a fictional character. but i was talking about the actor.

I fail to see what difference that makes. His character was hardly supposed to be a martial arts expert. He was a drunk in the military. Tom Cruise doesn't really need to be a master martial artist to play that character, so why does it matter that he doesn't know how to hold a sword?

[atomsk]

I fail to see what difference that makes. His character was hardly supposed to be a martial arts expert. He was a drunk in the military. Tom Cruise doesn't really need to be a master martial artist to play that character, so why does it matter that he doesn't know how to hold a sword?

so that character did not become a samurai and did not beat his teacher with the bokken?

anyway, lets stay on topic. if you want to learn about samurai then hollywood action movies are no good. this website is interesting: http://samurai-archives.com/

[Bueller_007]

I fail to see what difference that makes. His character was hardly supposed to be a martial arts expert. He was a drunk in the military. Tom Cruise doesn't really need to be a master martial artist to play that character, so why does it matter that he doesn't know how to hold a sword?

so that character did not become a samurai and did not beat his teacher with the bokken?

As I recall, he fought him about a million times and eventually he got a *draw* once. I would hardly say that makes him a samurai.

anyway, lets stay on topic. if you want to learn about samurai then hollywood action movies are no good. this website is interesting: http://samurai-archives.com/

Actually, I have no particular interest in samurai, although I agree with you that Hollywood movies would not be a good source.