Ha, that's really interesting:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0100307a2.html
And I have to say that the current NHK drama "Sakamoto Ryoma" is really well done with good soundtrack and good actors.
Ha, that's really interesting:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0100307a2.html
And I have to say that the current NHK drama "Sakamoto Ryoma" is really well done with good soundtrack and good actors.
Yup, its good but also has the down side as well. They have over commercialized Ryoma which is kinda sad! The other fun thing is me and another budo friend are always amazed when we hear stuff about Shinsengumi. Basically a Tokugawa hit squad, and yet people make them
out to be good guys lol. Ironic twist of historical facts
Jeff Collier
Twisted historical facts in Budo. I'm shocked. Who would have imagined such a thing.twist of historical facts
Gusta Paulo Novak
I really really enjoyed last year's Taiga, "Tenchijin."
"Ryomaden," I haven't been able to really get into yet. From what I read about this guy he was apparently quite a firebrand, but right out of the gate in this drama they paint him as the usual self-abasing, just-wants-everybody-to-get-along typical modern Japanese folk hero. Maybe that's changed since the first two episodes, I dunno.
My wife really didn't care for the full head of hair on the character, either, and suggested that the actor probably insisted that he not have to get a samurai haircut.
Also the production quality seems way down from last year's drama.
Anyway I've got the series on record - though TV Japan and FIOS can't seem to get their acts together and I've wound up missing two episodes so far. Maybe I'll get into it later.
How's the swordwork?
It very welll could be that the Shinsengumi were a Tokugawa hit squad and the good guys. History is seldom black and white.
There was a huge influx of women into the Yagyukai during the Yagyu boom of the 70s, brought on by the Taiga drama "Haru no Sakamichi", about Yagyu Munenori. We have yet to see any effect from the current "rekijo" boom, though. One regular woman who joined before the boom (and for unrelated reasons), and one younger woman who came to batto practice for a while (might have been a "rekijo"), but she hasn't come for a while.
Major translation boo-boo in the article though. While the term for stage combat is written with the characters "satsu" and "jin" ("kill" and "person"), the compound is read tate.
Josh Reyer
Swa sceal man don, žonne he ęt guše gengan ženceš longsumne lof, na ymb his lif cearaš. - The Beowulf Poet
The full head of hair is entirely historical, as this well-known picture of Ryoma shows. He had something of a manly receding hairline, but not the sakayaki shaved forehead.
Josh Reyer
Swa sceal man don, žonne he ęt guše gengan ženceš longsumne lof, na ymb his lif cearaš. - The Beowulf Poet
Hey Josh, thanks for chiming in. Yup very true. Except some of the modern Japanese takes on it have my eyes rollen. Considering that certain memebers of Shinsengumi took part in extortion, rape, assassignating their own comrades...etc etc. Although state side, we have a tendancy of over glamorizing the mob etc so its all relative.
Jeff Collier
Ladies who are interested in Swords?
Mat Rous
Unfortunately, the rekijo tend to be interested only in the video game versions or the personifications by pretty-boy idols.
Andrew Smallacombe
Aikido Kenshinkai
JKA Tokorozawa
Now trotting over a bridge near you!