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.