Archive for the 'Society' Category

Corn for Livestock

Published on 2008-01-28 in Society. 0 Comments

It is said the main ideal feed for livestock is based on corn, and historically, 60% of the U.S. corn crop is consumed by the livestock industry. [1] Today, the circumstances have changed. Some researchers found corn has potential as an alternative energy source and biodegradable plastic. People have set their mind out reconsidering the value of corn, it could be no longer feed to livestock if there are substitutions. Now, it is the time for claiming that farmers should not be required to follow traditional feeding standards.


Corn is not the only choice for main feed that farmers can have. According to Dan Loy, extension beef specialist, grains or bakery byproducts could be a substitute feed for corn.[2] In addition, David Funderburke, livestock nutritionist at Cape Fear Consulting says, “Sweet products, because they are high in energy, can be good for livestock.”[3] There are many food manufactures who throw away a lot of useless products every day, such as burned, or broken food products, and some manufactures have started to sell these wastes to farmers as feed. “Do anything to recycle.” Hiroshi Kika, a senior manager at Nissin Foods, says.[4] These days, manufactures are responsible to reduce wastes as much as possible in terms of concern with the environment, and they are conducting efforts to create the cleaner surroundings.


The value of corn is changing as the possibility for it to be used as an alternative energy source has been found, and supposing there are substitutions for corn as feed, farmers should be concerned about the more serious problems in their life. The environment problem is one of the most important issues that humankind faces, and corn could be a help for producing harmless products for the environment, such as biodegradable plastic and biofuel. Even though biodegradable plastic is not so hard as fossil oil based plastic, it turns into dust with the help of bacteria, and it can be used as the nutrition for growing corn. Many countries are getting started to use the alternative energy. For example, in 2006, 1.8 billion bushels were consumed to produce 4.9 billion gallons of renewable fuel in U.S.[5], Japan announced Biomass Nippon Strategy in 2002 and set the goal of using 500,000 kl of biomass energy for transportation by 2010 [6].

Through the history, corn has been farmer’s traditional feeds, and it is said corn provides essential nutrients for animals. Animals, including humans, are what they eat, and supposing humans care about their quality of food, we should care about what livestock eat as well because we are consuming them as food, and it is a ecological chain. Ideally, livestock producers like to feed their pigs and cattle a mixture consisting of about 70% corn, plus soybean meal, fat and vitamins. [7] Even though using corn as an alternative energy resource could be good for the environment, there are many other possible natural resources, such as solar, and geothermal. People need to work to grow corn, that means corn needs energy to grow, while natural resources give us a power without as much process. In favor of corn however, natural resources are not so efficient in terms of affordance and time, they need huge budgets to investigate and develop, and they take a longer span of time to construct. Speaking for the health of food, agrichemical is much more serious an issue than snacks. A lot of chemicals are used for eradicant and preservable reasons, and some agrichemical contains poisons; people would prefer to eat less healthy than poisoned food.


Historically, situations of our lives have been changed, and every time people have figured out the solution to adapt. Corn is no longer the only food for livestock, but it is also becoming the basis of our life. Some would say providing corn for livestock is wasting the ethanol resource, and others would say it is nutritionally the best. Both of these opinions have strong beliefs behind their insistence, and it would be difficult to reach an agreement. Still people should compromise at some point, as that is what people have done for centuries.

1,3,4,7. http://online.wsj.com/public/article_pri…

 http://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/li…

5. http://www.ncga.com/ethanol/main/index.a…

6. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/バイオ… (ref: http://www.biomass-asia-workshop.jp/biom…)

Sealing as Worthwhile

Published on 2008-01-27 in Society. 0 Comments

Black lovely eyes and a white furry body. Seals on the land of ice look so pure and innocent and bring out people’s motherly instinct. Who wants them to be covered with blood? Such a sentimental argument has been hiding the truth. First, people around Newfoundland or the Magdalen Islands in Canada mainly hunted the newborn babies of Harp Seals because they had beautiful yellowish-white fur called “whitecoat” that had high market value. After hunting whitecoat was prohibited in 1983 because of animal protection, the major target of hunting was switched to adult seals or beaters; seals 4 weeks old. Some people still don’t know this change and disagree with the sealing for fur industry in Canada from the perspective of animal rights. However, from some points of view, it must be said that Canada has the right to continue sealing.

One of the reasons is that sealing plays an important economical and social role in Canada. Now local fishermen are engaged in commercial sealing in Canada. From spring to autumn, they earn their living by fishing, for example, deep-water shrimp, herring, or cod. However they cannot do ordinary fishing in winter because the sea glaciates, so sealing become a precious source of income. They usually spend about 2 to 3 weeks for hunting. According to the detailed income in 2006 of ship A, 9 crew members hunted 680 seals over 6 days and sold their beaters for 105 US dollars a skin. The approximate income was $71,400; the ship owner got $41,412 and each member got $4,284. Sealing guarantees such amounts of regular income even in winter for only 6 days. Prohibiting sealing directly means to deprive the fishermen of the life cycle they’ve built. It offers them not only economical profits but also motivation to persevere through long winters.


In addition to the economical and social reason, the second reason to support sealing is that it also plays a culturally significant role in Canada. Seal has been hunted for 9000 years by native Canadian people such as the Maritime Archaic Indians, Early Palaeo Eskimos, Dorset, or Inuit. Sealing was their life itself. They developed special techniques for sealing and used seal fur for the sake of warmth. Also, they created the fermented food called Kiviak from seal meat, which is a one of the salted products for sustinence to pass the winter. And they even used seal oil for lighting. Nowadays, only limited countries, such as Norway or Iceland, continue sealing. Sealing in Canada is part of their cultural heritages. Supporting sealing allows people to have a cultural distinction so that the people could feel a sense of glory and sometimes it even protects them from diseases. In the 1970s, a Danish epidemiologist, Dr. Jorn Dyerberg had comparative research about eating habits of the Danish and Inuit; both ate a lot of meal. According to this survey, the Inuit had lower mortality rate from heart disease. Although heart infarction accounted for 40% of the total deaths in Denmark, only 3.6% of the Inuit even over 60 died of it. Dr. Dyerberg said one of the reasons was that the Inuit frequently had seal meat and oil containing an ingredient called DPA, which helped to refine blood and prevented Arterial Sclerosis. It is said that the contained amount is ten times as much as fish oil. So keeping cultural differences is not just for preserving the culture itself, but also for protecting a healthy human life that is suitable to the region.

Meanwhile, some animal welfare organizations assert that sealing in Canada is inhumane. They also assert that sealers skin seals alive. However, sealing in Canada is humane in the two following respects. First, Canadian sealers kill seals as humanely as possible. They have to follow 3 steps before skinning: striking, checking and bleeding. MMR (Marine Mammal Regulation) prescribed proper tools to give seals immediate death; rifles, hakapiks (traditional tool for sealing) and clubs. Then sealers must check the skulls and give a blinking reflex test to ensure unconscious death. For the final step, they have to bleed the animal to guarantee death. In this manner, seals are instantly killed and don’t feel any pain during the skinning process. Some seals may seem to be moving after being killed, but it’s a swimming reflex caused by remaining oxygen in their body. For the second point, hunting animals for living is ethically acceptable and humane to environments as long as it’s sustainable. DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) published “Facts about Seals 2006-2010” including the statistics of a survey in 2004. The population of the Northwest Atlantic harp seal was 5.82million; it’s 3 times as large as the 1970s. And the number of live births for one year was 991,400. In fact, the seal population was not endangered, instead, it was increasing as it intimidated the numbers of cod, the main provision for seals. And the commercial quota for hunting was about 360,000. Piecing together the above numbers, sealing doesn’t damage ecosystems. Instead, producing fake fur is more destructive for living things. Most artificial fibers such as nylon or acrylic are made from oil, which is a mineral resource and is finite. Especially today, oil is rapidly becoming extinct. Also, such artificial fibers are not recyclable. They would give off a noxious exhaust if burned for disposal. Needless to say, the CO2 from this would cause environmental damage. Actually, because of global warming, to which CO2 probably contributes, the ice on the sea is depleting and seals are losing their space for birthing or living. Meanwhile, if living resources are recycled, they don’t produce poisonous gas. So sealing is humane both in terms of the way of killing and environmental aspects.

To sum up, there is no reason to stop sealing in Canada. It creates economical profits. And preserving cultural habits gives people a feeling of glory and a healthy lifestyle fitting to the characteristics of the locality. Also, sealing is humane. Sealers follow the humane way of killing. And sealing itself is sustainable and kind to the global environment. Nowadays, modern society owes a lot to artificial technologies. People are rarely conscious that they are still beholden to living resources. Although the development of technologies equally provides people with convenient lives, it also makes people forget the importance of being part of a distinct cultural group and forces cultures to be uniformalized. The controversy over sealing in Canada is the one of the symbols of such a social situation. We have to have the eyes to judge the essence of a thing in a non-emotional manner before heritages of humanity are lost forever.

New Wave vs. New Rave

Published on 2008-01-24 in Fashion, Music and Society. 0 Comments

A movement is always happening. Today, it is called a “New Rave” movement. The term New Rave is heavily inspired by the old 80’s movement known as New Wave, so the two movements are often compared. The New Wave movement occurred in England, the United States, Germany, and also in Japan, and it affected many other countries. Both of the movement s– New Wave and New Rave – first described the music scene, but soon or later it came to describe the whole culture. There are some similarities and also differences between New Wave and New Rave movement, from the point of view of fashion, music, and social effects.


There are slight differences in fashion between New Wave and New Rave, but the common concept is “to be distinguished”. Every kid wants to stand out in the a disco or club. The New Wave movement overturned the stereotype, and more preposterous styling was popular. The trend started with no-colored monotone. Then the style called “futuristic”; represented by the techno cut, androgyny and unisex fashion. On the other hand, even though the concept is same, New Ravers love color. Club kids are filled with neon, fluorescent colors. Just as techno cut hair and androgyny were the important elements for New Wavers, face- painting is it for the New Ravers. Pink and yellow fluorescent colors were popularized by the New Ravers, and it is spilling over into major brands. Now the New Rave movement is a source of inspirations for fashion designer; the neon colors and showy patterned clothes have started to appear on the runway. Even Time Magazine’s style section reported that New Rave is the next big trend. Although the New Wave fashion trends were a big topic, but they were never admired by society; whereas the New Rave trends are.


Blondie/NewWave Klaxons/NewRaveThe words New Wave and New Rave were originally created to refer to genres of music. New Wave music was initially marketed as more mixed with other genres, such as funk, rock-n-roll, reggae, and ska. The New Wave bands, such as New Order, The Cure, Kraftwerk, and more were born to resist rock-n-roll, which was the main current since the 1970s. They took in electronica sounds such as drum machines and synthesizers. On the other hand, New Rave is a style of music fusing elements of electronic, disco, punk, and New Wave music. It is characterized by its strong tendency towards rock music. Even though both genres are a mixture of many kinds of music, they resemble each other in this way; “rock based electronic music”.


2012 OlympicBoth of the movements have some social phenomena. The New Wave movement first happened in England, gradually spreading especially to Australia and Japan. The New Wave movement gave a chance to expand Gay culture, because fashion got freer. Also it caused a video revolution. By this New Wave movement, music video added a whole new dimension to music as a visual art form; it changed the whole idea of the music video. Likewise it effected design too. The term New Wave has meaning for design field, specifically the typography that actively defied the strict grid-based design; the representative is Wolfgang Weingart. However New Rave movement has only been happening since 2006, when it started in England. At first the term New Rave shows the special genre of music, but now it is being used for fashion, and art. New Rave was not only responsible for pouring the idea of Fluorescence into the world of fashion; this trend also invoked some strange visual phenomena in recent music videos and designs. The society was surprised by the new logo for the 2012 London Olympic, because it is a very colorful alternative, just like New Rave.

In conclusion, New Wave and New Rave is partly similar and partly different in the aspect of fashion, music and social effect. There has always been various kinds of movements happening in society. Now it is New Rave movement. Back in 70s, it was New Wave movement. Even though the time is very different, they are somehow similar. As time goes on, sometimes the similar movement might come full circle, like New Wave and New Rave.

Design for Smoking

Published on 2007-05-30 in Design, Highlights, KIDI, New York, Product, Society and Trips. 5 Comments

Designing a package or a product related to smoking is getting more difficult and important especially today.


Governments in many countries manage to reduce the number of smokers by restricting a visual advertisement of tobacco. For example, a tobacco package should have “Health Warning” by words or pictures. For example, the package in EU countries must be labeled with both warning sentences (like “Smoking kills” “Tobacco smoke can harm your children”) and a picture associated with bad results occurred by smoking. And these warnings should occupy 30~40% of the package. In Australia, the percentage is 90%. In Japan, the restriction for tobacco package is more moderate. It doesn’t have to have a picture for warning. It related to the fact that The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan is not responsible for smoking problem, but Department of the Treasury is, which is also the top shareholder of Japan Tobacco Inc. The money issue is more involved in smoking problem in Japan.


Also, most major cities provide some kind of regulation on smoking in public. It’s not surprising to prohibit smoking in public buildings, restaurants or cafés. In Tokyo, Japan, even smoking in the street is not permitted in some area. According to this serious situation for smoking, it seems that ashtrays in public are beginning to look like a part of surrounding environment. The picture is of an ashtray in the street in NY. It doesn’t look like an ashtray but some architectural stuff. It has just little two holes. So people don’t have to see dirty cigarette butt and smoke doesn’t spread. It’s important to contrive ways for smoker and non-smoker to live comfortable as well as regulate smoking.

Designing a tobacco package or a public ashtray is of course for protecting people’s health or keeping the city clean, but also they are the devices for the governments of each countries or cities to show and appeal how serious they wrestle with smoking problem.

The Effects of Eating McDonald’s In Japan

Published on 2007-02-10 in Society. 0 Comments

Obesity, poor diet and poor eating habits are problems that result from eating at McDonald’s in Japan.
Imagine the menu that is displayed in a McDonald’s store. There are pictures of hamburgers, French fries, drinks and desserts and they look good. However, customers can’t find any calories of them in the menu. They always eat McDonald’s without knowledge of their calories. If one sees the McDonald’s site, he will be amazed that each menu has higher calories than thought. The adult’s recommended caloric intake is about 1200-2000 kcal a day. French fries M size has about 420 kcal and a double cheeseburger has 453 kcal. As far as BIGMAC concerned, it has 508kcal. If one takes a BIGMAC set for lunch, he takes about half of a day’s calories on only lunch. However, he also has to take breakfast and dinner, so the total calories will be over the ideal calories.
Thus McDonald’s gives us the factor of obesity. Also, one will realize the balance of nutrition on the site. Every hamburger lacks vitamin and it consists of the carbohydrate, sugar and protein. Of course French Fries have no vegetables and are a completely carbohydrates. About cholesterol, the average of it in a day is 210-239mg, however, depending on the hamburger, there is over the 200mg. The highest is the sausage egg Mc muffin that has 252mg, and others are almost more than 50mg.Therefore, it is hard to say that McDonald’s offers us well-balanced diet.
Finally, we have poor eating habits from McDonald’s. When one walks on the road, he will absolutely come across McDonald’s. There are about 3800 McDonald’s in Japan and everyone has eaten at least one time. Because of the cheapness, various people from children to adults go to McDonald’s. Because of the original taste, People become to want to eat in McDonald’s. Because of the fastness, a lot of busy people visit to McDonald’s. We are repeating to eat Mac although it is known that McDonald’s is bad for health. It is becoming a kind of a social phenomenon. Now is the time that even mothers let their children eat McDonald’s.
In conclusion, these negative effects of eating at McDonald’s have Japanese people consider about what their dietary life should be and recognize their behavior for eating habits.

Character Design in Japan

Published on 2007-01-31 in Communication, Design, Illustration and Society. 0 Comments

Ayuko Watanabe

Design can tell us a lot about the country of their origin. You can learn especially from elements such as colour, shape and material because these elements are so fundamental and tend to show the source of inspiration. Even if you observe just one particular category of design you can see elements of the country’s characteristic. Character design with its huge market in Japan reflect its culture. They are evaluated as art, and integrated to contemporary art. Such characters even as that become popular among young girls in all over the world, took strong influence from traditional values.


One of the most popular characters “Hello Kitty” tells us about Japanese emotional communication. Hello Kitty is a female cat with cute ribbon. She has no mouth, whiskers, or tail, so ovbiously she doesn’t have elements that real cats have, and because she doesn’t have such realistic elements there’s no expression on her face. This design is strongly connected to mask culture in Japan. Traditionally Japanese people say a beautiful woman is “a woman whose face is as expressionless as a Noh mask”. When you look at Geisya, their faces are all white painted with extremely small lips and they all have almond eyes. Their face has make up which easy to break so they can’t express their emotion. Hello Kitty, Pokemon, Gundum, Ultra-man, are the popstars for characters that are representative Japan. They have simple face, yet we can image hidden emotion, or what’s going on when we see them. Japanese people tend to feel less explanation is elegance and sometimes it express more. We see this idea here and there, now and past. It is not too much say that this idea is the very original that qualifies the characters them for very Japanese.


Creativity in Japan is characterized by simplicity and lack of overt expression. The Japanese garden is one of example. In the West, garden almost always include flowers, trees and lawn which people like to keep organized. They cut, limited or shape itself is controlld. We can say western gardens are an art form with nature as its pallette which we then enjoy visually. On the other hand, in Japanese there is a type of Japanese garden that basically just has rocks and sand. We call it “Kare-San-Sui” which means dry landscape garden. Rocks are usually used for representing something concrete, such as cranes, turtles, and mountains. Sand is basically used for representing water, for example lake, river or sea. The interesting point of Japanese garden is that every elements in space has a hidden meaning. So, the viewer not only just observe but they are force to think with their imagination.

I see a lot of traditional logic in Japanese character design. In most cases, we only see their look and recognize them as the object to admire. However when I take a fresh look at them, I found they can be analyzed with traditional influence just like historical fine art.

Can We Get New Color in Japan?

Published on 2007-01-29 in Communication, Design and Society. 0 Comments
Recently I chose a table cloth for my room, and I picked up one made in Sweden. Its beautiful color attracted me, and I thought, “Why don’t we make this color in Japan?” I discovered although color is defined by the geography and culture, it is also defined industry. Color is strongly affected by light including sunlight and doesn’t exist by itself without light. Countries located near the equator get a good dose of sunlight. Its sunlight has a reddish glare so red and yellow colors look beautiful. For instance, the national flag of countries near the equator like Cambodia or Peru tend to consist of red or yellow colors. In contrast, in countries like Sweden, which is located in far from equator, sunlight is bluish, so they prefer blue. These geographical differences affect us when we design with color. For example, after moving to Arles, south of France, Van Gogh painted with a very bright yellow like a Cafe Terrace at Night, painted in 1888. The sunlight of south France let him draw with more bright color than when he lived in Netherlands.
However designers and artist are strongly influenced by other elements, and can create their own color ‘systems’. A woman who has particular good sense of color is Michiyo Yasuda. She has worked with Hayao Miyazaki, creator of movies such as Prince Mononoke and Sprited Away, as a planner of color for his works for over 40 years. She plans the colors such as skin of characters, eyes, clothes and cars. Even if it is the same character and situation, she chooses different color of skin between the face’s front and side, considering a variety of situations such as its emotion, gender, culture, material and effect on film. Her sensitive work contributes to the original mild tone of Miyazaki’s works. Also, one of the great Japanese graphic designers, Ikko Tanaka, had a special talent for color. When he found an interesting color while he was walking outside, he was later able to match it precisely with a color chip. This ability was cultivated when he worked at spinning company. As there was no digital tools when he was working in 1950’s, to reproduce the small textile sample imported from French to original wide pattern, he mixed thousands paints over and over. Then he was able to deconstruct the color. Conversely his experience in young age after the World War 2 affected him, too. He used to tell the anecdote of not being able to forget the impression of spectacular pink of imitation flower in a gray warehouse while at school after the war. (Following picture is his collection of the piece of color papers in his drawer)
Finally, the situation surrounding color is effected by industry. I once found a very beautiful paper coated by red, called ‘Plike’, meaning from ‘plastic-like’. It’s not made in Japan, but made in Italy. The reasons why Japanese company can’t produce such a red color is its cost. However the root of the matter seems to the different way of thinking for producing.Japanese industry has high skill and technology, but compared with Europe companies, they doesn’t try to think of another way of use of their product. For example, the textile industry in Japan manufacture carbon fiber over 70% of the world’s, the most-advanced material, but it is used in many more ways in Europe than in Japan itself. Europe tends to use new technology in broader range of fields. Their producing ranges not only apparel but also motor sports or public projects. This more varied use leads to the active development of new markets, consumption and new colors.
Color appears when the light, your eyes and your brain get together. But before you open your eyes, image the situation you want. It may bring you new color. And before you close your eyes, memorize your emotion affected by color. It also may bring new one some day. Though color is defined by geography, culture and industry, colors in your mind have no limitation.

Summer City Chigasaki

Published on 2007-01-29 in Entertainment and Society. 0 Comments

posterChigasaki city is located on the south coast of Kanagawa prefecture. From Tokyo, it is about 60 kilometers. Shonan area in the city is touching to Sagami bay. And this coastline ranges about 20 kilometers from east to west. There is Route 134 along the sea. On a clear day, you can see Mt. Fuji driving along the route.


into seaChigasaki has a beach called ‘’Southern Beach’’, which was named after famous ‘’Southern All Stars’’. It is a pop-music group. The band leader Keisuke Kuwata is from Chigasaki. In summer 2000, their first home town concert took place in Chigasaki for 3 days. It was organized by its local people at a local hall, and all the idea was started from their petitions to the city. These 3 days were the most exciting days in the city in some years. After this legendary concert, the beach has been called ‘’Southern Beach’’.


childrenAlso there is ‘Hamaori’ festival at the beach every year. In the early morning on July 20th, Sea Memorial Day, a lot of people carrying portable shrines, walk toward the beach. There are about 30 portable shrines. The festival used to be wild and rough. Men drove portable shrine into the sea. It caused much damage to the portable shrines, as a result, it needed a lot of money for their repair. So in recent years, it’s changed. No men no portable shrine goes into the sea any more. Then more women and children can participate now. Summer starts with this festival in Chigasaki.

Hot Springs in Kanazawa

Published on 2007-01-29 in Society. 0 Comments
Hot springs, it gives contentment for Japanese people. There are about 2700 hot springs in Japan. In Europe, hot springs are used as medical care, but in Japan, they are enjoyed from children to old people as pleasure. Hot springs water has different kinds of color, for example, white, red, and yellow, but generally it’s transparent. Also, it has some good effects, for neuralgia, twist, appetite depression and so on. There is a strong connection between watercolor and the effect. So people visit good hot springs for their purposes. Hot springs makes us happy with both body and heart.
                      Ishikawa is one of the hot springs prefectures in Japan. About 13 sources of hot springs we have, almost the color of water is transparent and good for skin. Yuwaku is located in mountainside of Kanazawa. There are a lot of Japanese-style inns. According to the legend, Yuwaku hot spring was found by an egret more than 1300 years ago. This hot spring water works well on muscular rheumatism, chronic dermatitis and so on. People can drink hot spring water, too. It makes us beautiful from inside body. When you go to Yuwaku, I recommend ‘Yuraku’. It’s my favorite public spa. There is a sauna bath, called ‘Utaseyu’ that is an open-air bath like a waterfall. Disabilities can take a bath with sitting on a wheelchair. So if you have difficulties in walking, you can enjoy taking a bath without concerns.
                              Other hot springs are located in suburb of Kanazawa. They have 3 kinds of sources of hot springs, they are scattered like dots. Fukadani is one of them. The water color is brown. There are 3 types of hot springs water. The water is good for neuralgia, diabetes, atopy and so on. Saigawa hot springs is located near Sai River. It is especially good for smooth skin. Kyokusui hot springs is located near Yuwaku hot springs, and this is one of my favorite hot springs too. An open-air bath doesn’t have any fences, and we can see a starry sky and snow falling. People can enjoy taking bath in a countrified atmosphere. Why don’t you start looking for a hot springs for yourself?

Samurai

Published on 2007-01-29 in Highlights, History and Society. 0 Comments

Samurai was Japanese traditional warriors who lived from the 10th century to the 19th century. Samurai were famous for their proud attitude and their high sense of responsibility. The basic word means people who always carry a sword had high technique in using sword and serve lord. The origin of the word samurai came from the Japanese word, meaning ‘serve’. At first, their status was really low, but later, the status rose and the word came to refer only to warriors who serve people in a high position.


It is the most important thing to serve and protect masters even if this means losing their lives. Samurai who has lost their master from ruin, wars or the mater’s desire were called Ronin, ”master-less samurai”. Since they were master less, it meant they were no longer a Samurai. There is a famous story about samurai called Forty- seven Ronin. After their master was made to commit a suicide, they in turn killed the person who was responsible. Later, all 47 of these Ronin in turn committed a suicide. This story is famous in Japan because it encapsulates the ideal of samurai to serve masters.


Samurai has their own philosophy called ‘Bushido’, which means the way of warriors. One of the most well known rules of Bushido is ‘Seppuku’. The rule is used if you have done something wrong to your group, you have to pay it back or take responsibility by committing a suicide in a specific way. The other situation is when you are about to be captured from enemy; they committed a suicide, rather than to be captured and suffer dishonor.

Samurai used crossbows and arrows, but as warriors, swords especially took a significant role. Swords were so valuable that they often named them. To wear sword was one of the privileges, which classify samurai into their classes. There is a story about samurai who had forgotten his swords. The man, who had been a great singer, was promoted to be a samurai, in turn. However, it was really difficult for him to be a samurai, and one time he has forgotten his swords at a castle. People made fun of him and he quit to be a samurai. The sword represents the personal honor of samurai and so it never left samurai’s side.


People from all over the world have a certain image of samurai, as we look at the movies about samurai today. Warriors who have high sense of responsibility to serve masters, wearing swords, traditional way of dressing and so on. Maybe the reason why samurai sprit is famous in all over the world is the reputable great warriors who never regret to lose life for their honor.