Japanese History and Media

Japanese History has become more and more popular in popular culture both inside and outside of Japan. Japanese History is all over the media, even in some places we wouldn't expect them to be such as their highly trained rescue teams.This can be seen in the Sendai area’s rescue team mascot that is based off of their warlord from the early 1600’s Date Masamune. Japanese History is everywhere in Japanese society and culture and can sometimes be found outside of Japan thanks to social media.

This is a picture of  the city Sendai's mascot. It is a rice ball dressed as the lord Date Masamune. Found off of google search.

Social media has helped to spread knowledge about Japanese History through people telling others to look at or watch Japanese History movies, books, comic books and video games. People are also encouraged to learn more about history through music videos. These often end up being extremely romanticized version of true events which can be seen as bad by older generations but it does what it is meant to do and teaches the important facts of large battles. Even though the events are romanticized some of them are true to the facts when it comes to things like the number of soldiers lost, the people involved, tactics used in battle and especially who won and who lost. These are the main points that one would normally learn about so they are the details that are right usually. 

 Here is another example of Date Masamune as a Mascot, this time with his wife and retainers. They are the official mascots of Sendai Castle. Credits for this piece of art go to masamunerevolution.deviantart.com

The mediums used to spread the knowledge through Society, as I have already mentioned, are many. Everything from visual to audio mediums are used to tell people fictional and non-fictional stories about History. These mediums are sold and seen all over the consumer market and people take to them very quickly. People often look to the warlords of their area and buy merchandise related to those warlords or families. People from those areas grow up hearing about these warlords and these warlords become the heroes of their childhood. Because of this people often feel more inclined to buy things related to Japanese history and learn more about their country’s history. History has been utilized as a tool to sell more products which is good and bad. It has encouraged people to think about their history but some people feel it taints the history of their country. Either way it is undeniable that it has become a good marketing scheme in Japan and has been heavily taken advantage of.

Popular Japanese musician Gackt dressed in a somewhat traditional samurai type outfit on the cover of one of his albums. He has also appeared in some live action dramas dressed as famous warlords. Picture taken off google search.

Personally I think it is a good thing. It raises peoples awareness of History and I find Japan's History to be very interesting. But I can understand why other people would not be happy about it. Still it is unavoidable and many products and a lot of media has chosen to embrace the often redesigned historical figures and their great battles.

Battle of Agrigentum

As this most probably will be the last post to go up, I thought I would turn this time to one of the victories of the Romans, the Battle of Agrigentum, which happened in 261 B.C.

This battle was fought between the forces of the Republic of Rome and Carthage. According to Adrian Goldsworthy, the Romans numbered at around 40,000 men and were led by the consuls Lucius Postumius Megellus and Quintus Mamilius Vitulus, while the other side was led by Hannibal Gisco and consisted of around 50,000 men, many of them gathered from outside the city walls of Agrigentum. When they realized that Hannibal did not want to fight them outside the city walls, the Romans decided to set up camp a mile outside the city walls and gathered up the crops that were there.Hannibal made his move while the Romans were harvesting the crops. Fleeing, the Romans retreated back to their camp, where they were able to keep another group from attacking their camp. This first encounter made Hannibal realize he could not afford to lose anymore men, while the Romans acknowledged they had underestimated the enemy.

The consuls decided on a new strategy: cut off Agrigentum from the world and blockade it in order to starve the residents and make them give up. This caused a five month long stalemate during which time Agrigentum began to run low on supplies, which caused Hannibal to send to Carthage for help, who sent a relief headed by Hanno, who was believed to have been Hannibal’s son (John Francis Lazenby, Adrian Goldsworthy).

Hanno captured the Romans’ only supply provider at Herbesos, which caused shortages that led to diseases and deprivation. Further encounters would extend the siege for another two months, bringing the Romans closer to starvation and causing the consuls to offer the other side to do battle. At first, Hanno refused, but when Hannibal sent desperate pleas saying the city was on the verge of starvation, he had no choice but to agree (John Francis Lazenby).

The battle ended with the Carthaginians being defeated; they lost 3000 infantry, 200 cavalry, and 4000 of them were taken prisoner. On the other hand, the Romans lost 1200 men (the number would be at around 30,000, but this high number counts for the whole siege, not just the battle).

Marshall McLuhan once said: “The medium is the message”. My understanding of this sentence is that, instead of writing out a message, one would use a symbol or perhaps an action in order to convey said message. So, in the case of the Battle of Agrigentum and its aftermath (the Romans sold the entire population into slavery), could the message have been that the victor will do what they want to the defeated? In that case, I can only wonder if the message was meant for the people of the time, or maybe if it was meant for us in an attempt to teach future generations about their era. When Rome sold the entire population into slavery, it made things difficult for her because any cities that could have been friendly with her ended up hardening themselves. As for those among us who love history of any kind, we would have seen that similar things had perhaps happened quite often and so it would not have as much of an impact as it did back then, though it might serve as a basis for many ideas…

Warring States: Far or Close?

Historical figures are everywhere around us whether we notice them or not. Sometimes we see them and we know exactly who it is. Other times we see them and have no idea who it is. Still these people have made names for themselves and we can see them today in various representations. Both in art and in media, we can see them today. We have no real way of knowing what they were really like but we have an idea of them through their recorded actions and the art that has made them modern.

The Japanese were very committed to recording events and information. This commitment allowed us to know a lot about the warlords that ruled during the Warring States period. Along with the records of their actions they also left behind some art for us to remember them by. This art is anything from armour and pictures to buildings and cities. These memoirs that they left behind bring them so close to the people of Japan. When you go to Japan you can see for yourself these reminders of the powerful warlords that once ruled Japan. You can see how far each Warlord’s influence spread through the emblems embedded into their architecture that mark their territory of influence. You can find hundreds of family crests of the powerful feudal lords all over Japan.

However these are not the only ways in which the powerful warlords are remembered. They are also remembered through modern media. Many of these warlords have live action television dramas dedicated to them. And even more often they have cameo appearances in cartoons, books and comic books. Some of these depictions are accurate and some of them are extremely romanticized.

This is Akechi Mitsuhide. The Sengoku Musou version.

One of the more common Media representations of these historical figures is actually through video games. Two of the more well known video game series that famously deal with this time period are Koei's Sengoku Musou series and Capcom's Sengoku Basara series. Both of these series have had at least one game translated into English. The English version of Sengoku Musou being Samurai Warriors and the English version for Sengoku Basara being Devil Kings. Of the two Sengoku Musou was the more down to earth tale of events. The characters wear clothing that is very similar to the clothing of the time and their weapons were somewhat more conventional. This has made it very popular and brings in more fans of the original history. Sengoku Basara however chose to ignore most of this and went off to romanticize these historical figures to an extreme level. The characters are a lot more unbelievable but that was always part of the appeal.

This is Akechi Mitsuhide. The Sengoku Basara Version.

These portrayals end up doing one of two things. They either made the characters more believable or they made them very foreign. By making the characters appeal to the younger generations, they brought these characters closer to us. But at the same time they made them see farther away. They became less real. It stopped being a history lesson and became more of a fantasy story. However it was a noble effort to try and bring people a better understanding of Japanese history. The Sengoku Musous series was actually quite accurate with quite a few of the events that happen such as large betrayals and alliances.

Although these extreme portrayals make it difficult to really connect with the historical figures it is always nice to have a more interesting look at how these places may have been 400 years ago.

Battle of the Allia

Long time, no posted. Last time I posted I talked about the Greeks, so this time I thought I would to the Romans. However, instead of talking about them being victorious, I will talk about their defeat at the hands of the Gaul, so without further ado…

The Battle of the Allia involved the first invasion of Rome by the Celts. It was fought near the river of the same name in 387 B.C, and it ended in a Roman defeat.

According to Ellis, author of The Celts: A History, before the battle happened, the Senones, the Celtic band in question,settled outside the city of Clausium. This upset the citizens, who called upon Rome for help, who in turn sent in three ambassadors to talk things over. When it did not work out, the Clausians decided to force the Senones to leave. It is said the Romans broke an oath of neutrality by siding with the Clausians. In the conflict, Quintus Fabius, one of the ambassadors, killed a Gaelic chieftain.

Livy notes that, afterwards, when the Celts sent their own ambassador to Rome to demand justice in the form of the surrender of the murderer, they were enraged to find that not only would there be no justice, but that the ones who should be punished were rewarded instead by being given higher ranks. In the end, the Celts marched on Rome to take revenge.

Now, one would think that, with the Romans numbering 24,000 and the Celts being half that number, the Romans would win (Elis, Celts And Roman: The Celts in Italy). However, due to having the best equipped people in the center of the formation, and those with lesser quality equipment on the sides, it ended with a center massacre, and the survivors fled either to Veii or to Rome.

Meanwhile, citizens of Rome barricaded themselves on Capitoline Hill. Although the Senones tried a direct assault, they were unsuccessful due to quick thinking and a straight-on charge from the Romans, and as a result lost many of their numbers. Also, the rest of the city was plundered, and nearly all of the records were lost. An epidemic broke out among the Celts, which was likely due to them not being adequately prepared for a siege (reason being they did not bury the dead). The siege ended when the Romans negotiated to pay 1000 pounds of gold to the other side. The defeat did bring about two good things: the construction of the Servian Wall to protect the city and the restructuring of the military (exchanged Greek phalanx for something furnished with better armor and weapons.) (Livy, V. 48)

Weighing of Gold- ancienthistory.about.com

According to Will Straw, when it comes to communication, speed is an important factor and is seen as a fundamental value, a goal, and an end in itself. Media scholar Todd Gitlin says this: “never have so many communicated so much, on so many screens, through so many channels, absorbing so many hours of irreplaceable human attention”, talking about the number of ways we obtain information (books, magazines, internet, television) and also how the media of today is more adaptable to mobility (Mp3 on our ears when we go out, reading newspapers on the bus, updating our Facebook status wherever there is an available connection, and so on). Also, if a natural disaster happens in an area of a country, people can stay connected and thus reassure themselves that everything will be alright. If speed is such an important aspect of communication, as in the faster we receive the information the better, then how important was this concept when the Romans sent a runner to request aid when some of them were trapped at Veii? No matter how fast he must have gone, he is still a human being, and thus limited by the terrain around him, not to mention his own body. But I cannot help but wonder, what would happen if the Ancient Romans could send emails and text messages the same way we could, or at least in a similar fashion? For one, they could send messages and receive replies faster than with using a human, although I imagine if they were sending a message to the Senate asking for help, they would probably wait awhile for a reply. For another, rebellions and assassination plots would be put down faster, easier to track down and all; although they could just as easily be developed and concealed. I wonder what their MSN screen name would be....

 It was the first defeat of the Romans at the hands of the Celts, but it would not be the last. Don’t believe me? Just ask Asterix….