Historian Looks At Anime: Blue Eye Samurai

But it might help viewers of Blue Eye Samurai to know that during the preceding so-called Christian Century (1540 to 1630), the Japanese authorities had – with varying degrees of enthusiasm – accommodated a large number of foreign traders and pirates who were resident in Japan and active in Japanese waters. We can presume the four renegades are the remnants of these pirates – including Blue Eye Samurai's main antagonist, the evil Abijah Fowler (voiced by Kenneth Branagh).

In the Edo period, women were expected to be subservient – but not weak. As the series depicts, women presented themselves as characteristically beautiful, with elaborate hair styles, makeup and clothing. They were supposed to be educated and compliant.

Mizu is particularly burdened by many of the stereotypes of Japanese society. Not only is she a woman, but she is of mixed heritage, something which is repeatedly referred to as being“less than human” or“impure”. She has to conceal her difference in a masculine disguise.

This is reminiscent of the fate of the children of William Adams , a 17th-century English sailor who became an honorary samurai. They disappeared from historical record after 1635. The series captures the covert presence of any person of mixed European and Japanese heritage during this time.

The life of the upper classes and the choices open to them are depicted in accurate detail in the portrayal of Akemi (Brenda Song) and her family.

Although called a“princess” (perhaps for clarity to western audiences unfamiliar with Japan's royal hierarchies) her status is more that of a“lady”, as she is not of royal blood. Her father (Patrick Gallagher) is a self-made lord. Nonetheless, as the Japanese emperor's role was essentially ceremonial in this period, power did lie with feudal lords such as her father. It is accurate to suggest, as the show does, that he would gain higher social status by marrying off Akemi to a member of the ruling shogun's family.

The strong willed“princess” Akemi excels at many of the fine arts and courtly practices as was expected of a woman of their class. This includes tea ceremony , Renku poetry , flower arrangement, painting, dancing and the game of go .

We follow her as she deploys these skills to achieve independence in a patriarchal society, including resorting to becoming a geisha – which required skills similar to those possessed by women of the ruling classes. Although the proposition is initially repulsive to her, in the end she accepts that marriage to the new shogun's brother, rather than to her childhood sweetheart Taigen (Darren Barnet), will permit her an active role in the shogunate's court.

Some people in Edo-period Japan lived outside expected gender roles, including geisha. They could run their own businesses, and the life offered women a level of independence unknown to the other classes, as demonstrated by the character of Madame Kaji (Ming-Na Wen).

The vivid violence in Blue Eye Samurai suggests that life in the unified Edo Japan was a lot less peaceful than reality.

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Due to the long Edo period's economic and political stability , the role of a samurai as a warrior had become reduced to a largely ceremonial one. Sword skills were demonstrated in stylized duels and challenges over honor, rather than on the battlefield.

The hostility between Mizu and Taigen is plausibly founded on the latter's perceived loss of honor after losing their duel. However, a storyline suggesting that Abijah Fowler will succeed in usurping the shogun because he has access to firearms, which would trump the Japanese weapons of swords and spears, is a little disingenuous.

In reality, there were gunsmiths in Japan producing guns throughout the Edo period, and for a century before this story is set. As guns required less skill to wield than the sword or the bow, they were seen by some samurai as contrary to their values . The sword was simply the more practical weapon in the average small-scale Edo-period conflicts.

Despite diverging from some of the history, overall The Blue Eye Samurai is an enjoyable, fairly accurate and visually sumptuous tale of Edo-era Japan.

Ruth Starr is a lecturer in the history of Japanese art and architecture at Trinity College Dublin .

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

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