Japanese Culture in New York - Chopsticks NY

Young Women Go Crazy Over Samurai Warriors

Samurai related goods are sold at Jidai-Ya (www.jidai-ya.com). The most popular items include:
stickers embossed with a samurai’s family crest, face powder sheets and cell phone straps embossed with samurai figures

A “samurai warrior” boom surges in Japan these days.  To give some background on this phenomenon, from the 15th century to the early 17th century Japan was engaged in a period of civil war.  These samurai warriors were feudal lords who came from various regions of Japan to struggle for supremacy over the country.  The most famous ones were Nobunaga Oda (1534-1582), Shingen Takeda (1521-1573), Kenshin Uesugi (1530-1578), Masamune Date (1567-1636) and Ieyasu Tokugawa (1542-1616) who ended this civil war period and established Tokugawa Shogunate.  In order to govern their respective areas they had the combined qualities of political power, economic policy skills and diplomatic strength in regard to other regions, making them images of the perfect leader.

In Japan, the sales of statues modeled after samurai warriors have increased rapidly,
thanks to the sengoku busho boom.  The statues are also available
in the U.S. through J-Life International (www.jlifeinternational.com).

Students learn about samurai warriors in history textbooks, they are portrayed as heroes in historical dramas and the numerous episodes recounting their exploits are filled with morals.  Originally the biggest fans of stories about these men who lived during this dramatic era were middle-aged businessmen, but recently their popularity has spread to women in their 20s and 30s, and this fan demographic is surging.  Jidaiya, specialty shops with historical era themes, had a customer base of middle-aged men when they opened two and a half years ago, but a year ago they started to see growth in young female customers.  They now say that close to 40% of their customers are these women.

The reason this boom erupted among young women was video games.  It is said that the extremely good looking central characters of historical action games captured women’s hearts.  In the popular historical action game Basara, you can pick the character you want to fight with from pre-set samurai warriors such as Masamune Date and Yukimura Sanada.  All of the characters who appear were actual samurai warriors.  The company, Capcom, that created this series, has seen its sales soar this past year.  There are also plans to air an anime television program based on this game in April.

The historical simulation game such as “Nobunaga’s Ambition” has soldiers, battlegrounds, organization-building and feudal state management, elements that are related to business strategy and stimulate men’s minds.  However, this time the game is appealing to women on a whole other level.  As to why there is now a samurai warrior boom, these men have a unifying force and symbolize “strength,” perhaps making up for a charm that is lacking in modern Japanese men.  Experts have analyzed these women and found that they are seeking a fantasy involving aspects out of their reach.

This boom’s momentum is showing no signs of weakening.  Sales of action figures modeled on samurai warriors that began this year are going strong, and the amount of female tourists who are visiting places around Japan associated with these men is steadily increasing.  The 2009 NHK Taiga drama*, an annual television program that runs for a year and is faithful to history, is based on the life of civil war period general Kanetsugu Naoe.  In assembling a cast of handsome actors for the lead roles, NHK seems to hope to expand its female viewership.  Local public organizations are particularly interested in this boom, to the point where historical episodes that actually occurred in certain regions are being billed as a way to lure tourists.  For the time being, all eyes are eagerly awaiting to see what the next development in this samurai warrior boom is.

——- Reported by Noriko Komura and translated by Stacy Smith

*The Taiga drama “Tenchijin” is being shown on TV Japan as the schedule listed below.
Main character Naoe is played by popular young actor Satoshi Tsumabuki.

[Winter time schedule]
First run: 8:05 pm (ET) on Sundays
Re-run: 1:15am (ET) on Mondays
The English subtitled version: 7:03pm (ET) on Saturdays
[Summer time schedule]
First run: 7:18 pm (ET) on Sundays [5:15 pm (ET) after April 4th]
Re-run: 1:10am (ET) on Mondays
The English subtitled version: 7:19pm (ET) on Saturdays