Sanada Hiroyuki was also "Doson," (the bad guy) in the recent movie "Onmyoji." Heian time period piece, pretty costumes, some bad special effects, but overall, fun stuff. The better actor is Nomura Mansai, his good counterpart, and who was also in Kurosawa's "Ran," though I don't remember him. Basically a pair of shinto-wizards mucking it up with evil spells and possessed princesses and swinging tachis. At least I presume they are shinto since they wear the funny hats, but maybe that was just Heian haute couture. They are definitly doing some fun taoist-derived divination...but what do I know? Don't miss it.
Onmyoji U.S. site
Karl Friday wrote:
Tsunetomo's lectures on samurai ideals and behavior were, in other words, roughly comparable to lectures by Ronald Reagan or G.W. Bush on cowboy ideals and behavior.
Well, since my family has been ranching since the 1800's...you have no idea how much this line cracked me up. And no, I'm not a yellow-dog democrat (independent, so everyone wants my vote). I'm just betting I've helped fix more windmills than our President has...
J. Nicolaysen
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"I value the opinion much more of a grand master then I do some English professor, anyways." Well really, who wouldn't?
We're all of us just bozos on the budo bus and there's no point in looking to us for answers regarding all the deep and important issues.--M. Skoss.