Does the life of a samurai appeal to you?

• November 6, 2009
• Author: Emmie

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• Filed under:
  • Around The Horn

11 Comments

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1. Emmie - 11/06/2009 at 4:57 pm

   I used Google translate, so Japanese readers, please excuse any translation errors.
2. beverly - 11/06/2009 at 7:08 pm

   Well, the description sounded gross, but if turning into a samurai meant I get to turn into one of those cute balls of color you drew… I would do it. I’d be an immortal and noble blot of yellow.
3. Simon Tsui - 11/06/2009 at 7:44 pm

   I lol’d. I love the little foods drawing too.
4. Roger - 11/07/2009 at 5:49 pm

   the life of a samurai is a desirable one,

   as long as all sharp objects are outlawed
5. Philip - 11/08/2009 at 2:05 am

   As long as I get to hang with Tom Cruise. He’s a samurai, right?
6. the Stealth M.C. - 11/09/2009 at 6:44 am

   If you haven’t, you should read the Hagakure (Hidden Leaves) by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, a conservative samurai from the 18th century. One of the most hardcore things I’ve ever read (and an inspiration for Jarmush’s excelelnt Ghost Dog). The cartoon above is not an exaggeration: true believers committed seppuku for everything. They’re crazy, those Japanese, yet adorable.
7. Emmie - 11/09/2009 at 9:44 am

   Thanks, Simon & Bev. : D

   Stealth, I am SO INTO that book. That’s where I got the “debilitating stomach pains” example. I read it b/c I was doing research for this comic, and so many of the paragraphs in there have major meat. I wanted to quote the entire book but refrained.

   After I finished reading all the seppuku and boiling-people-in-soy-sauce sections of the book, I flipped through the pages and read more of the gentle philosophical stuff. I thought that it’d be easier for me to make fun of samurai, or judge their harsh ways, but their world was so well-constructed that I kept going, hm, ok, I see, yes, right, I suppose that makes some sense . .

   i’ll have to check out Ghost Dog sometime. have you read any other samurai books that you recommend?
8. DarrellKuni - 11/09/2009 at 1:37 pm

   Spe of samurainess my last name is samurai. Really.

   Always thought dad’s side were farmers, and they were. Okayama-ken area, rural. Sis went to old temple in Jpn, looked up records and the Kuni name was given to two bros for their service to shogun dude.

   Lower peeps had no last name in them days. Dang.
9. DarrellKuni - 11/09/2009 at 3:32 pm

   to answer the ques, no way. Too much honor. Your lord screws the pooch and everyone has to slice a kidney.

   In old Jpn I’d be the village fisherman. that’s the life, fishing all day for work.
10. MacLu - 11/10/2009 at 6:18 pm

    Gross, yes. But I would not mind watching Tom Cruise or David Beckham commit seppuku.
11. Emmie - 11/19/2009 at 12:01 am

    Darrell, that’s some serious lineage you’ve got going on.

    Speaking of Tom Cruise-azy, for some reason now I want to watch The Last Samurai. I doubt I will. but I am curious.