The embodiment of the
spirit of bushido in Japanese anime
Nowadays, the Japanese anime are getting more and
more people's attention and have its own international influence, there are
statistics show that 60% of the global broadcast animation programs are
produced by Japan. In the early times of the Japanese animation history, the creator
like to use fighting and bloody scene such explosion to make the shock effects,
so as to show the cruelty of the war. In the mature times of the Japanese
animation history, the animation creator preference for the cherry, blossoms, snow,
and forest such detailed descriptions from the natural scenery, they use
scenery to show the expression of the traditional culture. Television animation
in this period, appeared many animation works which are using historical
material and traditional culture as the theme to show the Japanese national
culture.
Including such famous works as the Basilisk which is
the subject of ninjitsu, and the Rurouni Kenshin, which is the subject of Japanese
kendo, the Naruto, which is the subject of ninja culture, etc. These works are
different on the theme selection and culture expressions, but its core content
is aimed at carrying forward the culture of Japanese bushido. Among them, Nobuhiri
Watsuki and his original anime Rurouni Kenshin, in the story, he use for
reference from the real people in Japanese history, and it reflects the
Japanese kendo to carry forward the brave, tough, teamwork and such national
consciousness. Scholars have the following comments on the work of ethnic
culture: Japanese is a depressed nation, they appreciate the brilliant beauty of
the cherry blossom, at the same time they also advocates the cruelty of kendo.
Bushido spirit as the core part of the Japanese national spirit, are repeated
by most of the animation works. Therefore, study on the bushido spirit in
Japanese anime is really necessary to have a truly understanding of Japanese
anime. First of all, let's explore the bushido and bushido spirit in Japanese
culture.
As is known to us, the Mikado idea,
the family-country view and Bushido are three big characteristics of
the Japanese nationalism. During these three items, the bushido is
what the Japanese value most. The meaning of bushido, include sincerity, righteousness,
brave, politeness, such core concepts. Inazo Nitobe (1862 to 1933), the famous Japanese
ideologist, education experts, and international political activist, he points
out in his famous book Bushido that bushido is a kind of ethical system, the samurai
spirit is just like the cherry blossoms, is inherent to the Japanese land. So
as the samurai spirit which comes from the feudal system, even if it's the matrix
is no longer exists, but it still illuminates the moral way for us. The meaning
of bushido that is said by Inazo Nitobe includes the following aspects: justice
or Buddhist; courage, the bold and the spirit of patience; benevolence,
compassion; etiquette, honesty and sincerity; honor; loyalty; self-control;
suicide and revenge; knife, the soul of a warrior.
The bushido spirit is extended from the bushido
class to other Japanese samurai class, and gradually become the Japanese soul,
become a national spirit and national ethics. By the self-identification from a
samurai class system of ethical to the whole national identity, it is a process
of historical development. Bushido spirit is such a kind of cultural identity; it
is the deep psychological of Japanese nation. Bushido spirit is a contradiction
system of the ethics spirit.
The Japanese
respect the bushido spirit, the spirit of fight for the emperor is the essence
of bushido spirit. In the classic Japanese anime Saint seiya, although the
story is taken from the Greek mythology, but the fighters who fight to defend
Athena, is clearly the counterpart of the Japanese samurai, though they were
wearing armor, and holding the sacristy, but the spirit of underneath is fully
the bushido spirit. Such as the serial cartoon Naruto, each ninja will to run
out of them in order to protect his dream or people, they will fight till the
end of the battle, the due diligence and fearless spirit of bushido reflected
everywhere. When Japan surrendered at
the end of World War, a
few Japanese committed the happy dispatch. What those soldiers do is
the expression of the bushido spirit, and they are valued as the hero of
Japanese.
Another manifestation of bushido is the team spirit.
It is different from the American’ personal heroism, Japanese anime works
attaches great importance to the team cooperation spirit. Almost in every anime,
the main character has a tacit cooperation with his team, the team members have
his own great personality when he in company with the foil character, and has a
complete character and story. For example the Xiangbei basketball team in the
Slam Dunk, the main character without controversy is Sakuragi Hanamichi, but as
a primary supporting character, Rukawa Kaede, Haruko Akagi, and the cherry wood
legion, these characters composed the Slam Dunk legions of two team basketball
teammates and friendship. Let’s look at another example, the soldiers of the Sailor
Moon; the Lin, turtle immortals, Kiki in the Dragon ball, etc.
Ruth Benedict in his Chrysanthemum and the Sword
put forward a profound criticism to bushido spirit. Loyalty and honor, suicide
and contradictory psychology have a contradiction. Christopher has a summary
for the Japanese spirit is contradiction. Benedict, in the first chapter of the
Chrysanthemum and the Sword wrote: Japanese was extremely
aggressive and very moderate; love of both fighting and beauty; proud,
self-esteem and courteous; stubborn and weak, volatile; tame and are reluctant
to being at the mercy; loyalty and easy to defect; brave and cowardly; conservative
but have a warm welcome to new lifestyles; they pay more attention to others perception
for their own behavior, but when other people have not realizes their misdeeds,
they will be conquered by the evil; their army have the thorough training, but
again with a rejectionist.
Bushido is a peculiar flower in the soil of Japanese
culture, bushido spirit is also full of contradiction, and they value promise and
undervalue the life and the death. The Seppuku of the bushido is considered as
willing to die, but blind to die is not recognized. Bushido is advocating force
in itself, but for the samurai itself, the elegant chess, tea ceremony, flowers
and poems are necessary training. Bushido is one of the real power that to
promote the sustainable development of Japanese; bushido is also a special kind
of deep cultural psychology in the development of Japanese nation; bushido
spirit of loyalty, concept of home and countries are worshiped and admired by
the Japanese people, and gradually become the national characteristic of the
deep cultural psychology.
The Japanese bushido is composed of a set of core
values, including integrity and justice, courage, kindness, polite, honest, earnestly,
honor, loyalty and self-discipline. Perseverance is also an important content
of bushido; include two different kinds of responsibility. The training and
education of bushido are mainly follow three principles: wisdom, kindness and
courage, In the Japanese anime, a large number of heroes (including individual
and group) who emerged in order to save the world or others, their values is a
mercy for the weak, and stick to what they think of the truth, they continuously
hone their will, resist the temptation of from greed, and loyal to his team. In
the fight against evil, they showed boundless wisdom and courage at the same
time.
Take the Peace
Maker Kurogane as an example, in the late shogunate era; it is a time of
disordered. Ichimura Tetsunosuke, is a teenager who great motivational to join
the new group. The story revolves around the clue, his parents were killed by
the person who called peacemaker, and iron aid only with Calvin o brother lived
alone "in revenge he chose new from group, Ichimura Tetsunosuke can only kept
each other alive with Chen. In order to revenge for his parents he chooses to
join the Shinsengumi. After he
joined the Shinsengumi, he experienced
the death of his friend, witnessed the cruel reality, and he urgently hope to
get a strong force. In the end, he revenge for his father, but the people
turned to a ghost in the moment of killing others.
Shinsengumi
has set of strict rules: first, go against the way of the warrior is forbidden;
two, prohibited from the organizations is forbidden; three, change the strategy
easily is forbidden; four, it is strictly prohibited at random to handle
litigation; five, it is strictly prohibited to fight privately. The one who act
against the above one should seppuku. From the five rules we can see, the Shinsengumi itself have the absolute
respect to bushido, it showed the absolute loyalty to the host, the host also
shielded with absolute trust to retainers, it is a good interpretation of the
samurai class of master-slave ethics. This concept was built in its long-term campaign
with daily life, and influenced by the Chinese Confucianism, and then evolved
into the spirit of bushido.
The literary works which promote the bushido spirit
is very prevail over the Edo
period, one of the most influential work is The Legends
of Eight Knights in Nansousatomi which is finished in the late
eighteenth century. The eight warrior who are called the eight dogs are respectively
symbolized the loyalty, personal
loyalty, filial piety, love
toward young, wisdom, righteousness and the politeness these eight warrior
characters. They are brave, teamwork, consistent to enemies; they can sweep
away all obstacles and always success. The routine has been followed by
juvenile. The bushido spirit has always been the foundation of Japanese, this
spirit have been through the center in the Naruto and Hunter.
In the Naruto, Kakashi’s initial teaching, is in
training Naruto and their team cooperation ability, and the ability to fight in
their subsequent process, plays an immeasurable role; in the Hunter, even such
a villain groups is a collective organization of will, therefore, have team
spirit is also another symbol of Japanese as the cherry blossom on the Mount
Fuji. If the team spirit embodies the bushido then the personal loyalty,
embodies the righteousness and reasonable, the bushido ask for the warrior should
believe in the heroism without himself.
Japanese emphasize collective heroism, and they also
appreciate the personal heroism. There is no contradiction between them two. Historically,
the Japanese nation always worship the strong, and imitate the strong, the
final purpose is to surpass the strong. The survival of the fittest, of course,
is called the principle of the survival of Japanese society. The ideas have
permeated in all aspects of social life, so the Japanese anime naturally has
inherited the idea. Many types of anime are adapting his stories for television;
the show is also doing well. The audiences love this type of film because they can identify
easily and feel connected to the characters and their stories, many of
which appeared earlier in Japanese anime form.
Japanese anime penetrate the spirit of bushido together
with teamwork and cooperation into the works, the young man seem
to adore the
codes of loyalty and friendship by which the
samurai lived, and these infiltrate into the inner of teenagers. so, there
is no doubt that all the good anime productions can not only meet the
demand of children's entertainment, and also contains the profound life wisdom
and philosophy, it can serves as a powerful motivating force
for all of us, it can be accepted both by the young and the
old, maybe that’s why the Japanese anime are so popular all over the world.
Reference:
[1] The online anime http://www.17kk.net
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[2] The anime forum http://www.aikeai.en bs
[3] The anime forum
http://foru,n.ikL,nlt;n.neu
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>映画史》,東京:有文社,1977
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[6],[Japan]成毛真:《新世代匕:才、久知07打、亡60 心得》,東京:文春木只,2000
[7] Allen C.Hansen,USIA: Public Diplomacy in the Computer
Age, NewYork:Praeger,1989.
[8] Helen McCarthy,TTze
Anime!Movie-hy-Movie Guide to Japanesen Animation .Woodstock:Overlook P,1999.
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