http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20071119-00000056-san-bus_all

Interesting Japanese parallel to the reporting problems that I see in the USA. Here, the Sankei describes (gloatingly?) American society as basically on the verge of falling apart over this bad loan thing. They’ve picked up statistics that I consider extreme and are clearly using a level of fear mongering that I’ve seldom (never?) seen them use in Japanese cases. I guess that talking about how the grass is so much browner on the other side of the fence is a really good way to package international stories….

Ace – I did hear that NHK is going to do it – the description of why Shiba never wanted it done came up in reporting on just that very thing.

馬鹿が戦車でやってくる I have not seen. Must hit it next time I go to Japan (probably in April).

“Fujisawa chose the jidaigeki genre since that is established and popular entertainment.Anyway,Sataka argument is Fujisawa’s protagonists are always low ranking Samurai,and no vice-shogun,like Tokugawa Mitsukuni and that make Fujisawa more closer to the people…..”

I’d argue that Fujisawa employed “everyman” (or woman) characters because of their allegorical power in evoking what he say as the core of Japaneseness / Japanese tradition (and not in a bad way). The Coen Brothers (“Fargo”, “The Big Lebowski” and the now-playing brilliant “No Country For Old Men”) have been doing same thing flawlessly for America lately.

Shiba hesitant in visualization:
That’s reasons why Shiba chose to have the poet,Masaoka Shiki into the story along with all the military strategists,Akiyama bro. Ofcourse Masaoka too was from Iyo and that matches the narrative intended to follow the path of the youth from small rural province finding bigger newer world. Masaoka was also influenced heavily by the freedom and people’s right movement and became war correspondent in Sino-Japanese war and that too fits into the story of Japanese modernisation of era.
Anyway,I did not use the term,”conservative”as bat term either.

BTW, NHK is now filming 坂の上の雲 into mini-series.You believe that? It seems to be NHK is going to add Natsume Soseki as a central character for the precise reson in above. OK,Shiki was certainly a mentor of Soseki,and he did teach in Iyo,and “Bocchan” is definitly a tourist asset for Matusyama.But the timeline is slightly different.I predict this will cause major criticism from the fans of original novel.

Fujisawa chose the jidaigeki genre since that is established and popular entertainment.Anyway,Sataka argument is Fujisawa’s protagonists are always low ranking Samurai,and no vice-shogun,like Tokugawa Mitsukuni and that make Fujisawa more closer to the people…..

Yamada Yoji is JCP’s favourite film maker for years. Have you ever seen ”馬鹿が戦車でやってくる”？ Great film.His choice of Fujisawa as the triology actually strengthened “Fujisawa=Liberal”view. Ofcourse Oshima Nagisa also chosed Shiba in his “Gohatto”.So like you’ve said the political labels is not the you’ve said the political labels is not the wisest choice. Critic Skikawa Natsuo,who is a big fan of both writer is pretty much a conservative guy”Longing for the pasｔ”is the right word to describe his literatual motivation).

As for Fujisawa – it may be unavoidable to mention family, duty, etc. if you are writing about the Edo period, but Fujisawa did not need to write about the Edo period in the first place. There was a choice there. I’m not saying that it was a bad choice, I love Fujisawa’s writing (prose and themes) and I think that Tasogare Seibei is a masterpiece film (I’ve actually gotten quite into Yamada Yoji over the past year or so). However, it is a pattern of expression that is trying to find nobility in Japan’s traditions while the liberal / left approach, I believe, was to sweep it away (I’d point to lefty filmmaker number one Imai’s Bushido Zankoku Monogatari and the body of filmmaking and writing like it). Once again, nothing wrong with being a conservative in this way. However, I do think that these themes point to Fujisawa’s fundamental conservative orientation / longing for the past. On the most abstract level, Fujisawa’s body of work bears striking similarity to Mito Komon (certainly conservative) – “good” vs. “bad” elements of Edo society coming up against one another with the “good” side of tradition winning out. Of course, Fujisawa’s work has thousands of times more nuance than Mito Komon does, but if you boil down the themes, I think that there are some major similarities.

I also can’t help but think of Shiba’s total glorification of Sakamoto Ryoma. His total rejection of samurai society and move toward radical resistance is not the type of theme that beckons to typical conservatives. 坂の上の雲 is like a conservative funhouse BUT I did read recently that Shiba was hesitant to have it made into a film or TV series because he was afraid that it would be misunderstood and used to glorify war. In any case, with figures this obviously complicated, perhaps using simple “liberal” and “conservative” labels is not the wisest choice….

M-BONE:

Shiba had spoken certain things after the Gulf war.But the concept of”Shinryaku”has been with him for all through his life,in that he never changed.
Anyway,afterall the man started his career as the Sankei reporter and had column right before his death,It is natural to includ him among the conservative circle.

I agree about Fujisawa.But then again “family,duty,etc” was the social ethic unavoidable in mentioning if you are writing a novel that has setting in the feudal days. And Fujisawa used imaginary “Han”of Unasaka as the settings of his stories and many of his characters has little or nothing to change national history. While Shiba,not all,but most of his popular books are focused on people(whether it’s real or imaginary) who did something “big” and became “big in Japan”.

Fujisawa’s 私 has conservative elements – Tasogare Seibei focuses on the family man, duty, etc. it is a “good Japanese” vs. bad superiors – a critical theme but one that leads to an imagined perfect order (by having readers think about the good side of bushido in place of the bad) rather than a total overthrow. I see a similar pattern in Shiba’s “Sakamoto Ryoma vs. the world” narrative.

M-Bone:
Shiba VS Fujisawa angle was proclaimed by leftist critic Sataka Makoto,in his book”司馬遼太郎と藤沢周平、歴史と人間をどう読むか”. According to Sataka,Shiba is a writer who boasts “hero-worshipping”while Fujisawa is a writer of “down-to-earth-individual-oriented”. Not that I agree with him completely(or any matter with Sataka),But I can understand what he tries to say.Shiba writes “公” more and Fujisawa has tendency on　”私”element than Shiba.Conservative bibliographer Tanizawa Eiichi has written a book called　”司馬遼太郎エッセンス”.Reading that I thought Shiba is definitely more than just a “cultural conservative”.I remember Shiba talked about war crimes commited by Japanese Imperial Army on one occasion and he had said “When I was in Shandong province as a cadet,I ‘ve heard none of such atrocities”.thus according to Shiba,war crimes commited by Imperial army are fabrication.Since that I have harbored some distrust on this man.That was strengthened when I find out his book on Mongolia was full of WTF description.

Mulboyne:
There has been some series of essays from JPL on Japan Times.
http://www15.ocn.ne.jp/~hosa2/85geron1.html

You might like to get wound up by a piece Lehmann wrote two years ago in reply to Bill Emmott. The exchange was part of a dialogue for DK Matai’s Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance which I don’t think has been published anywhere. It’s too long to put here but I posted it on the FG Forums – I’ve replace letters with asterisks in the URL so you’ll need to put them back to load the page.

http://www.f**kedgaijin.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15473

The page also has a link to Emmott’s original piece.