GET REAL ABOUT JAPAN

• History of Japan
• Incidents of Real Samurai Lives
• Yakuza & the Underground Samuraihood
• Kamikaze, the Flying Samurai
• Ainu, the Forgotten Natives of Japan
• The Shield Society
• The Japanese Self-Defense Forces
• Ukiyo: the Fleeting World, the Floating World, the Samurai's view of Life (Death)
• Meanings of the Japanese Flowers & the Samurai Flowers
• Yamabushi, the Japanese Demon-Slayers (For Real)
• History of Japanese Portrait Paintings
• What Has Always Been Mistaken For 'Japanese Toys & Decorations'
• Japanese Folklore, Crafts & Geisha
• Meanings of Japanese Names, Nicknames & Titles
• Origins, Formation & Mistakes About Japanese Names
• History of Japanese Clothes
• Kimono Culture
• Structure of Japanese Feudal Society
• Rulers of Japan since 660 B.C. until today
• Shoguns for Dummies
• The Japanese Greatest Warrior Clans
• Cities of Japanese Warlords
• Weird Snapshots & Strange Truths About Japan: Superstitions, Foxes, 'Voodoo', Shamans, Shogunal Food, Samurai Ghosts, etc.
• Origins of Japanese Music, Songs, Dramas & Dance

• Samurai Blog (Updated Everyday)
• Samurai is identical with swords, right? WRONG.
• Japanese Swords, Swordsmanship, Swordsmaking & Swordsplay
• Historically-Correct Samurai Armors
• Authentic Swords of Japanese Warlords
• Samurai Weapons
• Japanese Spaces, Interior Design & Architecture
• Japanese Warlords' Money
• Japanese 16th century Warlords
• How a Japanese Warlord Got His Army
• Management of a Warlord's Household
• Japanese Samurai Wars
• Origins of Samurai Habits
• Maps of All Japanese Provinces, Warlords & Battles
• Premodern Japan: Real-Life in Emperor Meiji's World
• Many traditions that we assume to be Japanese are actually imported from China: kanji, Buddhism, ikebana, bonsai, tea ceremony, and so on -- even sushi and Shinto. No kidding.

Zatoichi, the optically-challenged masseur/gambler/swordsman, played by Kitano 'Beat' Takeshi -- his Zatoichi is quiet, smart, introspective, calm; very much different from the stereotypical Zatoichi that was always garrulous, grumpy, shallow and kind of pervertedly mischievous.

To the Japanese movielovers, the issue of who's the actor to play the role of Zatoichi in 2004 is equal with the chirps around who's gonna play James Bond next. For the entire course of 35 years, only one actor played Zatoichi, and he is now R.I.P. That Kitano decided to take up the challenge itself needed a lot more guts than you might have thought.

And guess what -- he makes it.

Twisting the cliche: Not only that Kitano hires tapdancers to do this movie's ending; but he doesn't just let them rest all the way to it. For the first time ever in Japanese moviewatching you'll see farmers rehearsing the dance they will perform later in the harvest feast.

In other movies, all of a sudden they'll just dance like pro's while we never know how and when and where they (even whether they ever) practiced before.

The set is the Tokugawa era (click here for history and pictures). That means somewhere in 18th or 19th century. If you wonder why everybody wears bleak colors and the same stripes, ask the Tokugawa shoguns; they even officially regulated what to wear and how to wear it, for every social class of the Japanese people during their reign until 1868. (Click here for what happened afterwards).

Merchants, no matter how rich, were not allowed to wear silk. Colorful clothing was forbidden from being accessed by everybody except the shogunal family members, warlords, and imperial family.

The irony is that Tokugawas and even imperial noblepersons wore the same sombre-colored stripes after they saw the 'commoners' wearing them all the time. The fashion-savvy among the nobles thought it was the latest trend.

You can tell it is the Tokugawa era by looking at the women's hairdo: that 'ginko leaf' chignon is characteristic of the era.

The thick and stiff wide cloth belt around every woman's waist is also a testimony of the Tokugawa shogunate's years.

Tight trousers are worn by men of the working class; but even among the people of this class those who aspire to easy life wear tight kimonos like Shinkichi, imitating the exceedingly effeminate warrior-class or samurai under the Tokugawa regime.

And the bartenders know everyone.....

TOKUGAWA FASHION

Whenever you see a movie in which the women dress and do their hair like these, then the time is the Tokugawa clan's reign -- between 1600 and 1868.

(Those are clickable pix.)

Click here for a complete history of Japanese clothes, the trend-setters, and see the differences of every era compared to another.