...Brief Overview: In this scene of The Last Samurai, Captain Nathan Algren played by Tom Cruise is leading the Emperor's troops in a battle against the Samurai traitors he was hired to fight against. Even though Captain Algren knew his men were not properly trained for battle yet they were ordered into combat against his wishes. This led to catastrophic results after the men panicked in the face of the samurai which then led to a brutal onslaught. During this battle Algren's long time friend and fellow war hero Sergeant Gant Algen was killed causing Algen to go into a furry killing several Samurai; and was eventually spared by the samurai lord Katsumoto because Algens ferocity reminded him of a dream of his. Framing : The framing in this scene starts with a close up of Algren...
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...The Last Samurai – Traditional and Modern Economies A traditional economy is an economic system that relies on a strong social network and is based on primitive methods and tools, whereas a modern economy relies on production, exchange, distribution, and consumption of goods. In the film, The Last Samurai, western Japan fights against the rebelling Samurai who do not wish to modernize and rid of their traditions. The vast differences between a traditional and modern economy are shown throughout the film as both civilizations express different means of production, military capabilities and cultural values. The reign of Emperor Meiji was one of the most revolutionary eras in Japanese history as Japan underwent dramatic changes in its government, economy, and culture. The nation opened its doors to the west and embraced a new world of cultural influences. Japan was transformed into an agrarian society with an industrialized economy and a strict military regime. Revolutionized Japan created modern weaponry such as guns and automatic weapons that were made in industrial factories. Instead of carrying goods using horses, Japan modernized using wagons and trains which made transportation of goods more rapid and efficient. In the film, we can see the paved streets and buildings of western Japan, the use of modern clothing, and advanced military technology. Conversely, the Samurai represent a traditional economy by their use of weapons, transportation, and cultural...
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...with a man by the name of Capt. Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) laying on a floor wearing dirty garments and yelling out the name of a man that he had just killed before his capture. The Captain was captured during a fight between the Americans and the Japanese, but instead of killing the American, the Samurai leader Katsumoto (Ken Wantanobe) wanted him alive so that he could learn from his enemy's ways. The Captain was staying in Katsumoto's ex brother-in-law's house with the now widowed young lady and her children. The lady was very un-accepting of the war hero at first, because he was the man who killed her husband, but as the story grew, she, along with the rest of her Buddhist tribe grew to like the American. As the American got stronger and was given more rights by their tribe, he started to learn the art of Japanese language and symbolism. While he was learning the semantics of another culture, I noticed that he had completely forgotten his ways as an American soldier and instead, took on the way of the Samurai. As the ways of the Samurai embodied him, he grew emotionally and spiritually enough to the point of complete change of being. He was now willing to fight for the Samurais, and although they did not have all the weapons that the Americans possessed, they did have much more structure of discipline and self control. The clip ends with the American apologizing to the young lady for the slaying of her husband. She accepts, and then tells him in Japanese that they ware...
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...One Dance The song “Dance with the Devil” was written by Immortal Technique. The genre is rap and if you listen to the whole song it’s sad and can also be disturbing in some ways. Its beat is steady with piano in the back round giving effect to the sadness in this song. Songs can teach you lessons, and in “Dance with the Devil” it has a very important lesson. This song is a true story telling you a very important lesson about reality; how these situations can happen in anyone’s life, so you should always be careful and make better decisions. If you make one very bad important decision in your life, then you might just ruin it. The lead rapper in Immortal Technique is Felipe Andrew Coronel, he talks about a kid he met and basically tells the kids whole life story on how he ruined his life. He says at the beginning of the song “I once knew a man who’s real name was William, his primary concern was making a million”. William, otherwise known as Billy, wanted to be a hardcore thug like all the other people he would hang out with and make a lot of money doing it. Through out the song he talks about how William started to sell drugs to make money and eventually dropped out of school to sell weed. Williams dream of making millions blinded him and he started to turn out like one of the dirty thugs he wanted to be. Eventually William got arrested, then the songwriter says, “He built a reputation ‘cause he could hustle and steal, but got locked once and didn’t hesitate to squeal”...
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...In the late 1800s and early 1900s is the period known as imperialism. Imperialism is when a country uses another country’s resources for their own gain. Many examples can be found in The Last Samurai in the global level, local level, and personal level. Global is pertaining to the whole world. Local is pertaining to a city, town, or small district rather than an entire state or country. Personal is pertaining to own self-opinion and viewpoint. There are many ways that The Last Samurai offers lessons on a global level. At first, Nathan Algren thinks that Japanese are savages, because they have a strict policy that commanded you kill yourself if you break it. Also, he thinks that he is better than other people just because he is an American. For example, he aggressively killed several Samurai which leads to Katsumoto’s brother in law prepares to kill the wounded Nathan. But he seizes a spear from the ground and stabs Hirotaro through the throat....
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...and living quarters of the Samurai warriors as Source 15 states that during the Edo period, the Samurai were required to reside in large castle-towns that were surrounded by more castles. The Imperial Emperor did insist that the Samurai rid themselves of their swords and armour but had not yet repossessed the homes of the Samurai (Source 17). However, the film depicts the Samurai’s living quarters as temporary and fragile as if the Samurai had been accustomed to a humble way of life (Source 2). This was completely misconstrued on behalf of the director and set designers of the film because in actuality, the Samurai class had been a class of vast wealth and were committed to the Daimyo as secret...
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...Samurai and Knights: Were The Similarities Greater Than The Differences? Samurai and knights were warriors who fought for their lords. The important idea is that from roughly 1000 to 1600 AD in Japan and Europe, samurai horsemen and knight horsemen were the muscle and soul of the warrior class. After studying the documents, I feel that the similarities were not greater than the differences. Even though they lives so far apart the samurai and knights did share some similarities. For instance, they both had a great love and devotion to poetry. Samurai learned/studied poetry in school, and some knights made their living reciting poetry to an audience (Document C). Another example is that samurai and knights both fought on horseback. In the...
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...Assignmen2: Samurai Culture in Japan GVPT 280 The Samurai culture of Japan The Samurai culture was seen for the first time during the 12th century during the first military dictatorship. They last until 1868 when they were disbanded. The word samurai translates to “those who serve”. In the beginning, samurai was armed guards for wealthy land owners. Over the years the samurai developed into what we know of them today. An elite military group. To become a samurai, it started at an early age. They was taught and lived by a code of honor, it was called bushido or “way of the warrior. There are 7 virtues of the bushido. The virtues were morality, courage, benevolence, respect, honesty, honor and loyalty. They was taught in a very strict way. They was taught swordsmanship, horsemanship, archery and martial arts. They was taught to know suffering, not to want wealth or praise, taught it is better to die then dishonor one’s self and most of all obey his master or lord. The samurai was well educated in reading and writing. Some samurais became business men and politicians throughout their history. The samurai had their own religion which was called Zen Buddhism. Zen Buddhism is coming to enlightenment through mediation. True Zen is coming face to face with one’s self. It was also tried into their teachings at early ages. The most iconic items of the samurai was their swords and their armor. A samurai carried...
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...The Satsuma rebellion was a revolt of Satsuma ex-samurai against the Meiji government from January 29 to September 24, 1877, 9 years into the Meiji Era. It was the last, and the most serious, of a series of armed uprisings against the new government. Although the Satsuma Domain had been one of the key players in the Meiji Restoration, and although many men from Satsuma had risen to influential positions in the new Meiji government, there was growing dissatisfaction with the direction the country was taking. The modernization of the country meant the abolition of the privileged social status of the samurai class, and had undermined their financial position. The very rapid and massive changes to Japanese culture, language, dress and society appeared to many samurai to be a betrayal. Saigō Takamori, one of the senior Satsuma leaders in the Meiji government who had supported the reforms in the beginning, was especially concerned about growing political corruption. Saigo offered to go to korea and spur a war. A war would not only spur the strengthening of Japan's military, but would restore to the samurai their reason to be. When the plan was rejected, Saigō resigned from all of his government positions in protest and returned to his hometown of Kagoshima, as did many other Satsuma ex-samurai in the military and police forces. To help support and employ these men, in 1874 Saigō established a private academy in Kagoshima. Word of Saigō’s academies was greeted with considerable concern...
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...A knight, cowboy, and a samurai were not just fighters, but also warriors that followed an unwritten code of conduct. A samurai a japanese warrior that is described in many tales their code of chivalry. The origin of the “The Tales of the Heike” was believed to be written down by priests as a collection of stories. The text is a reflection of the conflict between two clans the Genji and the Heike. The Heike clan holds all the power at the beginning but by the final blow the Genji clan defeats the Heike clan. The story not only show the struggle between the two clans, but also represents the code of Bushido that samurai’s followed in life. The text “The Tales of the Heike” gives examples of Samurai that abides to “The Bushido Code: The Eight Virtues of the Samurai.” Four of those virtues practiced in the text are rectitude, benevolence, loyalty, courage. Rectitude deciding one’s way of conduct without wavering like choosing to fight or dying. A...
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...usually compare history and another subject, but Alan Gratz has used the two books to create a struggle. That is another element that I like most books. Another different quality is that he has added a sense of confusion to Toyo. In most books, you see a slight view of confusion but in this book Toyo is confused about the society of Japan and why must his dad commit seppuku. Samurai Shortstop is in third person omniscient because the narrator goes into the characters thoughts and feelings. The narrator basically knows everything that is happening in the story. Page 156 Toyo pushed aside his clothes – “ It is time for class” said Futoshi Analysis II – Themes: What are the book’s themes? Prove the importance of these themes with examples from the novel. One theme in Samurai shortstop is the theme of challenging the status quo. Throughout the book, Toyo had been taught Bushido, the way of the warrior to understand his Uncles Koji’s death. One scene where he was confused was when Fuji (Yoshiko Fujimura) had told him that his family was not from samurai class and that Besuboru (Baseball) is not a Samurai game but everyone who had played Sumo...
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...the late 400 the conditions that led to the development of feudalism in western europe and japan were that the roman empire fell then divided among weak kingdoms. Were the samurai and knights similarities greater than differences? The similarities between samurai and knights were greater, than the differences. This can be shown by looking at three areas social problems, training and armor, and code of honor, life, and death. The first area of important similarities was social problems. According to Document A social order in feudal Japan and Europe were very similar. In Japan they had emperor, shogun, daimyo, samurai, peasant farmers, Artisans, trade people, and merchants. The social order in...
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...A knight, cowboy, and a samurai were not just fighters, but also warriors that followed an unwritten code of conduct. A Japanese warrior who follows a code of chivalry is a Samurai. The origin of “The Tales of the Heike” was believed to be written down by priests as a collection of stories. The text is a reflection of the conflict between two clans the Genji and the Heike. The Heike clan holds all the power at the beginning, but by the final blow the Genji clan defeats the Heike clan. The story not only shows the struggle between the two clans, but also represents the code of Bushido that a Samurai followed in life. The text “The Tales of the Heike” gives examples of a Samurai that abides to “The Bushido Code: The Eight Virtues of the Samurai.” Four of those virtues practiced in the text are rectitude, benevolence, loyalty, courage....
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...the Samurai by Taira Shigesuke and The Methods of the Ssu-Ma (author unknown) both focus a lot on a sort of “code” for warriors during warfare. My question is what is the best way to raise troops? These two readings explain different answers to my question, but to answer it myself I would say the best way to raise troops would be to not focus solely on things such as strength or marksmanship, but to focus also on the mindset of a troop and how to pull through in times of difficulty and how to respect warfare and their unit and how to face fear and overcome obstacles. Taira Shigesuke writes about how, first and foremost, a warrior should consider it his first concern to keep death in mind at all times. But you don’t just have a duty to the military; you have to fulfill your loyalty to your family as well. Unlike the warrior ways described in the Ssu-Ma, Samurai warriors focused day and night on their duties as a warrior, whether they were a farmer, or merchant, etc. They always carried a sword with them as to always be prepared and keep death in mind at all times. Education was not important early on, and even 12 and 13 year olds were learning martial arts instead of focusing on becoming literate. Their sole focus was the way of a warrior. Now, however, those born in the present era focus on literature and reading and writing from the time they are seven or eight in times of peace. A big difference between the Ssu-Ma and the code of the Samurai is how much the Samurai focus...
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...Samurai Warrior Few countries have a warrior tradition as long and exciting as Japan. It is a tradition found in the Samurai, the loyal and self-sacrificing knight of ancient Japan. The Samurai is a valiant warrior who can both appreciate the beauty of nature in that of a rose blossom but will also kill or die for his master in an instant. This well-rounded warrior was the ruling class of Japan for almost seven hundred years. He fought for control of his country and to keep Japan free from outside influences. (Turnbull 1) This aristocratic warrior class arose during the 12th century wars between the Taira and Minamoto clans and was consolidated in the Tokugawa period. Samurai were privileged to wear two swords, and at one time had the right to cut down any commoner who offended them. They cultivated the martial virtues, indifference to pain or death, and unfailing loyalty to their overlords. Samurai were the dominant group in Japan. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, the samurai were removed from direct control of the villages, moved into the domain castle towns, and given government stipends. They were encouraged to take up bureaucratic posts. The Hagakure, has been dubbed the book of the samurai. It was written after a century of peace around 1716. It came to be the guide of samurai ethics until the end of the feudal period. Its short passages reflect and outline the qualities that make a samurai. Yamamoto Tsunetomo expresses in the hagakure the framework and mindset of being...
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