Pacific Asia Museum's Exhibit The Samurai Re-Imagined is a Limited View - Page 2

Tomoe Gozen predates the Tokugawa period, presumably living between 1157 and 1247. She is mentioned in the Tale of the Heike, meaning that she was a female samurai warrior during the Genpei War (1180-1185). She served under a cousin of Minamoto Yoritomo, Minamoto Yoshinaka, who defied Yoritomo. Yoshinaka was defeated by Minamoto Yoshitsune and Minamoto Noriyori. She does appear in several anime and manga, including Usagi Yojimbo, where the character Tomoe Ame is supposed to be based on Tomoe Gozen.

Tomoe Gozen has not been proven to be a real historical figure, but if she was, she would have belonged to the Kamakura period. During that time, there was another woman who actually ruled, Masako Hojo (1156-1225). She was the wife of Minamoto no Yoritomo and the mother of the second and third shoguns. She is the only woman and the only person to have an era named specifically after her. Despite this, she is not mentioned. Bringing in the Kamakura period might have benefited viewers because some of the anime and manga draw from the muscular active figures and stances of that period of art as opposed to the more serene peaceful imagery and statues of the Heian period.

Of course, Seven Samurai and Gundan are mentioned, as well as the samurai in space. That gets you to Star Wars. Some of the children watching the video sequences didn't quite get the references. And it is confusing. The 1954 Seven Samurai, of course, brought America The Magnificient Seven in 1960, making gunslingers samurai. And actually, Kurosawa's 1958 The Hidden Fortress is considered the precursor or cinematic godfather of the 1977 Star Wars.

Here what is missing is the 2002 The Twilight Samurai (Tasogare Seibei) by Yoji Yamada, which shows the life of a low-ranking samurai. This was not a small film. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and won 12 Japanese Academy awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. The beautiful film was given good reviews by Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times.

In an interview I had with the director, he said he was tired of seeing the glamorous image of the samurai. He wanted to show the truth, a new sort of realism. Yamada wrote the screenplay based on novels by Shuhei Fujisawa.

Instead, the exhibit gives us Kill Bill, which is essentially a Chinese revenge drama set in Japan. What makes Bill and the rest of the slashers samurai?

What about the animation of Hayao Miyazaki, who often chooses a female protagonist? Certainly one expected to see something about "Princess Mononoke," but Miyazaki's animation is totally left out of this exhibit, although these anime were wildly popular in Japan and America.

Article Author: Purple Tigress

Former theater critic for the LA Weekly and Los Angeles Times . For the last five years, an editing slave at a dot-com but recently laid off. Currently an under-employed freelance writer and artist.

Visit Purple Tigress's author page — Purple Tigress's Blog