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Jidaigeki Films
is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", they are most often set during the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—''Portrait of Hell'', for example, is set during the late Heian period—and the early Meiji era is also a popular setting. ''Jidaigeki'' show the lives of the samurai, farmers, craftsmen, and merchants of their time. ''Jidaigeki'' films are sometimes referred to as chambara movies, a word meaning "sword fight", though chambara is more accurately a subgenre of ''jidaigeki''. ''Jidaigeki'' rely on an established set of dramatic conventions including the use of makeup, language, catchphrases, and plotlines. Types Many ''jidaigeki'' take place in Edo, the military capital. Others show the adventures of people wandering from place to place. The long-running television series ''Zenigata Heiji'' and ''Abarenbō Shōgun'' typify the Edo ''jidaigeki''. ''Mito K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samurai Actors
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the ''daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They had high prestige and special privileges such as wearing two swords and ''Kiri-sute gomen'' (right to kill anyone of a lower class in certain situations). They cultivated the ''bushido'' codes of martial virtues, indifference to pain, and unflinching loyalty, engaging in many local battles. Though they had predecessors in earlier military and administrative officers, the samurai truly emerged during the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1185 to 1333. They became the ruling political class, with significant power but also significant responsibility. During the 13th century, the samurai proved themselves as adept warriors against the invading Mongols. During the peaceful Edo period (1603 to 1868), they became the stewards and chamberlains of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sengoku Period
The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the Ashikaga shogunate. Various samurai warlords and Japanese clans, clans fought for control over Japan in the power vacuum, while the emerged to fight against samurai rule. The Nanban trade, arrival of Europeans in 1543 introduced the arquebus into Japanese warfare, and Japan ended its status as a Tributary system of China, tributary state of China in 1549. Oda Nobunaga dissolved the Ashikaga shogunate in 1573 and launched a war of political unification by force, including the Ishiyama Hongan-ji War, until his death in the Honnō-ji Incident in 1582. Nobunaga's successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi completed his campaign to unify Japan and consolidated his rule with numerous influential reforms. Hideyoshi launched the Japanese invasions of Korea (159 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jutte
A is a specialized weapon that was used by police in Edo period Japan (1603 – 1868). History In feudal Japan, it was a crime punishable by death to bring a sword into the ''shōgun''s palace. This law applied to almost everyone, including the palace guards. Due to this prohibition, several kinds of non-bladed weapons were carried by palace guards. The jitte proved particularly effective and evolved to become the symbol of a palace guard's exalted position. In Edo-period Japan, the jitte was a substitute for a badge, and it represented someone on official business. It was carried by all levels of police officers, including high-ranking samurai police officials and low-rank samurai law enforcement officers (called ''okappiki'' or ''doshin''). Other high-ranking samurai officials carried a jitte as a badge of office, including hotel, rice and grain inspectors (''aratame''). The jitte is the subject of the Japanese martial art of ''jittejutsu''.Serge Mol''Classical weaponry of Jap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commoner
A commoner, also known as the ''common man'', ''commoners'', the ''common people'' or the ''masses'', was in earlier use an ordinary person in a community or nation who did not have any significant social status, especially a member of neither royalty, nobility, nor any part of the aristocracy. Depending on culture and period, other elevated persons (such members of clergy) may have had higher social status in their own right, or were regarded as commoners if lacking an aristocratic background. This class overlaps with the legal class of people who have a property interest in common land, a longstanding feature of land law in England and Wales. Commoners who have rights for a particular common are typically neighbors, not the public in general. History Various states throughout history have governed, or claimed to govern, in the name of ''the common people''. In Europe, a distinct concept analogous to ''common people'' arose in the Classical civilization of ancient Rome aro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hatamoto
A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as ''gokenin.'' However, in the Edo period, ''hatamoto'' were the upper vassals of the Tokugawa house, and the ''gokenin'' were the lower vassals. There was no precise difference between the two in terms of income level, but a hatamoto had the right to an audience with the ''shōgun'', whereas gokenin did not.Ogawa, p. 43. The word ''hatamoto'' literally means "origin of the flag", with the sense of 'around the flag', it is described in Japanese as 'those who guard the flag' (on the battlefield) and is often translated into English as "bannerman". Another term for the Edo-era ''hatamoto'' was , sometimes rendered as "direct shogunal ''hatamoto''", which serves to illustrate the difference between them and the preceding generation of ''hatamoto'' who served variou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shōgun
, officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakura period, shoguns were themselves figureheads, with real power in hands of the Shikken of the Hōjō clan. The office of shogun was in practice hereditary, though over the course of the history of Japan several different clans held the position. The title was originally held by military commanders during Heian period in the eighth and ninth centuries. When Minamoto no Yoritomo gained political ascendency over Japan in 1185, the title was revived to regularize his position, making him the first shogun in the usually understood sense. The shogun's officials were collectively referred to as the ; they were the ones who carried out the actual duties of administration, while the Imperial court retained only nominal authority.Beasley, William G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tokugawa Shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 978.Nussbaum"''Edo-jidai''"at p. 167. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars of the Sengoku period following the collapse of the Ashikaga shogunate. Ieyasu became the ''shōgun,'' and the Tokugawa clan governed Japan from Edo Castle in the eastern city of Edo (Tokyo) along with the ''daimyō'' lords of the ''samurai'' class.Nussbaum"Tokugawa"at p. 976. The Tokugawa shogunate organized Japanese society under the strict Tokugawa class system and banned most foreigners under the isolationist policies of ''Sakoku'' to promote political stability. The Tokugawa shoguns governed Japan in a feudal system, with each ''daimyō'' administering a ''han'' (f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tokugawa Yoshimune
was the eighth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1716 until his abdication in 1745. He was the son of Tokugawa Mitsusada, the grandson of Tokugawa Yorinobu, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lineage Yoshimune was not the son of any former ''shōgun''. Rather, he was a member of a cadet branch of the Tokugawa clan. Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, well aware of the extinction of the Minamoto line in 1219, had realized that his direct descendants might die out, leaving the Tokugawa family at risk of extinction. Thus, while his son Tokugawa Hidetada was the second ''shōgun'', he selected three other sons to establish the ''gosanke,'' hereditary houses which would provide a ''shōgun'' if there were no male heir. The three ''gosanke'' were the Owari, Kii, and Mito branches. Yoshimune was from the branch of Kii. The founder of the Kii house was one of Tokugawa Ieyasu's sons, Tokugawa Yorinobu. Ieyasu appointed him ''daimyō ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zatoichi
is a fictional character created by Japanese novelist Kan Shimozawa. He is an itinerant blind masseur and swordsman of Japan's late Edo period (1830s and 1840s). He first appeared in the 1948 essay , part of Shimozawa's ''Futokoro Techō'' series that was serialized in the magazine ''Shōsetsu to Yomimono''. This originally minor character was drastically altered and developed for the screen by Daiei Film and actor Shintaro Katsu, becoming the subject of one of Japan's longest-running film series. A total of 26 films were made between 1962 and 1989. From 1974 to 1979, a television series was produced, starring Katsu and some of the same actors that appear in the films. Produced by Katsu Productions, 100 episodes were aired before the ''Zatoichi'' television series was cancelled. The seventeenth film of the ''Zatoichi'' series was remade in the US in 1989 by TriStar Pictures as ''Blind Fury'', starring Rutger Hauer. A 2003 film was directed by Takeshi Kitano, who also starred a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tokugawa Mitsukuni
, also known as , was a Japanese daimyo who was known for his influence in the politics of the early Edo period. He was the third son of Tokugawa Yorifusa (who in turn was the eleventh son of Tokugawa Ieyasu) and succeeded him, becoming the second daimyo of the Mito Domain. Biography Tokugawa Mitsukuni was born on July 11, 1628, in Mito Domain, Hitachi Province as the third son of Tokugawa Yorifusa, the first daimyo of Mito Domain. His father was the eleventh son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate. At the age of six, his elder brother Yorishige became valetudinarian, and Mitsukuni was chosen to succeed his father. At the age of nine, he underwent ''genpuku'' (coming-of-age ceremony). He was responsible for assembling the Mitogaku scholars to compile a huge Japanese history, ''Dai Nihonshi''. In it, Japan was depicted as a nation under the Emperor, analogous to that in Chinese dynasties. This helped the rise of nationalism in the late shogu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daimyō
were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally to the Emperor of Japan, emperor and the ''kuge''. In the term, means 'large', and stands for , meaning 'private land'. From the ''shugo'' of the Muromachi period through the Sengoku period, Sengoku to the ''daimyo'' of the Edo period, the rank had a long and varied history. The backgrounds of ''daimyo'' also varied considerably; while some ''daimyo'' clans, notably the Mōri clan, Mōri, Shimazu clan, Shimazu and Hosokawa clan, Hosokawa, were cadet branches of the Imperial family or were descended from the ''kuge'', other ''daimyo'' were promoted from the ranks of the samurai, notably during the Edo period. ''Daimyo'' often hired samurai to guard their land, and they paid the samurai in land or food as relatively few could aff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
