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Home , Donald Richie, Her Brother, Ikiru, Seven Samurai

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ew Japanese artists have won the this film not only shows Kurosawa’s artistic international attention and critical independence (the director constantly fought acclaim enjoyed by filmmaker with war-time censors who wanted the film teaching and F Kurosawa Akira (b. 1910). His films to show nationalistic spirit and support for interpreting the span a career of over fifty years, and the war effort), but also reveals a major whether framed as period pieces or modern theme of Kurosawa’s work: the interplay of works of dramas, explore the elusive topography of illusion and reality. The popularity of this Kurosawa akira self and society. The popularity of his films film in led to several more, some set By Jan Bardsley and has led to their wide availability on video in the past world of the warrior, such as Seven David P. Phillips with English subtitles, and stimulated many (1954), while others, such books and essays of critical interpretations. as No Regrets for Our Youth (1946) and This essay will present a brief introduction (1952), explore illusion and reality in to Kurosawa’s life and work, followed by post-war Japan, engaging the personal and plans for teaching two of his well-known political dimensions of social issues. films in the college classroom: Ikiru (To Kurosawa’s first international success, as Live), a 1952 film which offers a cynical well as his first academy award, came in the early with , a film which relates a crime through the accounts of three participants whose quite different perspec- tives on the event make the viewer wonder whether the notion of truth has any value at all. Although many know Kurosawa as the most famous Japanese director, his works have both influenced and been influenced by arts. (1954), for example, served as the model for , while (1958) greatly influenced . Kurosawa found inspiration himself in foreign works, modeling (1951) on Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Ran (1985) on King Lear, and The Idiot (1958) on Dostoevsky’s novel. As Kurosawa freely explores the western canon and Japanese culture, he both alludes to the possibility of universals in art (the grand questions) even From Ikiru (1952) look at life and its meanings in the post-war as he exploits the particular (Japanese set- Photo courtesy of Kurosawa Productions bureaucracy, and Rhapsody in August, a tings, their images and language). 1993 film that explores the nature of memo- Kurosawa never abandoned his love of ry, especially in ways that people choose to painting but has often planned for his films remember and to forget the atomic bomb- by creating illustrations and paintings. ings of Nagasaki. Perhaps no other film evinces this attention to the “painted” as well as Dreams (1990), a Kurosawa: a life in whose vivid, pre-production illustra- Though Kurosawa made his career in film, tions by Kurosawa inspired special exhibi- his earliest artistic ambitions focused on tions. Admired as much as these visual cre- painting and illustration. In 1936, forced to ations, the scripts of major Kurosawa films find a more lucrative profession, Kurosawa (Ikiru, Ran, Rashomon, Seven Samurai) found work as an assistant film director have been translated into English. trainee and succeeded so well in this form Those interested in Kurosawa himself will that he began directing entire films himself enjoy reading his Something Like an in the 1940s. His first film, Sugata Autobiography, a narrative rich with lively Sanshir ¯o, released in 1943, depicts in anecdotes about his childhood and his film Buddhist terms a young man’s spiritual and career to 1950. Yet, as film scholar James physical path to becoming a judo expert. Goodwin has observed, Kurosawa prefers to According to film historian , look forward to new work rather than back-

30 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 1, Number 2 Fall 1996 RESOURCES ESSAYS

ward to past achievements. When honored audience to admire selfless, heroic actions given suggestions for role-play situations by the Academy of Arts and Sciences in that are humanitarian and nonconformist. and questions for small-group discussions. 1990 for a lifetime of artistic achievement, The film provides material for discussions In investigating their topics, students ini- Kurosawa commented that the honor had about the role of conformity in Japanese tially examined the dynamics of such sub- come too early in his career and promised social settings, the place of the individual, jects as generational change, family, and that “I will continue to devote my entire and the fate of the iconoclast. The film also gender roles. One group, which was being to understanding this wonderful art.” introduces broader issues that have universal assigned to examine cultural and social Clearly, the sheer variety of Kurosawa’s concern, including the existential struggle of messages, chose to role-play an imagined works provides a source of endless interpre- its protagonist to find meaning in life, and scene in which the protagonist Watanabe tation. While the lesson plans offered here the humanitarian goals of individuals who tells his son why he is so disappointed with come from college-level courses in Japanese feel a basic need to help their neighbors. him. They then asked the class to identify literature, teachers working in high schools Teachers traditionally use films such as the problem they had depicted in postwar and adult education courses will also find Ikiru in the literature classroom by conduct- society, and the causes of this problem. The the use of a Kurosawa film highly effective, ing film analyses which parallel literary role-play and the following discussion either in creating a Japanese module in a analyses. Such an approach is easy for stu- helped the class to understand the mecha- world civilization or film course, or in a dents to grasp, but it does not take full nisms by which social characteristics and class devoted to Japanese culture. advantage of film as a medium. In order to egoism can supplant values such as family engage students fully, it helps to devise a cohesion and self-sacrifice. As they per- Kurosawa’s IKIRU : series of specific projects for students that formed role-plays, they started to read the role-Playing as learning help them to appreciate nuances of films film more closely, observing particular sets The film introduced in this unit, Ikiru, was which would be missed by simple analyses. of interactions and the ways in which char- produced in 1952, during an era when many Techniques that will enhance classroom acters resolve conflict, as well as techniques were questioning the nature exercises with films include cross-cultural used by the filmmaker to shape audience and direction of social change and the effect comparison, group discussion, the writing of sentiments. of bureaucratization on Japanese values. The individual essays, and group presentations When students acted out the characters in film portrays an aging bureaucrat’s using role-playing in which students Ikiru, such as the hedonistic writer Toyo and anguished search for the meaning of life use their imagination to improvise as the dying Watanabe, they experienced direct- upon learning he has terminal cancer. The they act out the roles of characters. ly the frustrations of an individual struggling protagonist in the film, Watanabe, is chief of In this unit, working with both the film against the societal pressure to conform. the Citizen’s Section at city hall. and the film script, students were divided Consequently, they were better able to identi- Watanabe’s illness helps him to realize the into small groups and assigned one of the fy the conflict within individuals who make irony of how he has sacrificed his life to following topics: the choice to rebel. Students also prepared serve a system that cares little about the (1) theme and thematic structure role-play presentations that were loosely average citizen. Exhibiting behavior that (2) character portrayal and voices based on the script. For example, one group shocks his colleagues and superiors, (3) setting and time period in my class identified social messages in this Watanabe becomes an advocate and (4) role of the viewer/reader versus film such as the suppression of individual spokesperson for a group of women role of the writer/director will and the importance of allegiance to the attempting to coax city hall into converting (5) cultural and social messages, group. As they acted out scenes from the a local drainage ditch into a playground. and Through sheer perseverance he succeeds at (6) use of imagery. convincing city hall to build the playground. Students were divided into small groups, JAN BARDSLEY is an Assistant Professor of His triumph in changing the bureaucracy is one group per topic, and were given defini- and Literature at the short-lived, for after his death his coworkers tions for each of these topics. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. revert to their narrowly defined roles. For example, for theme and thematic Her recent research on the Japanese women’s peace movement in the 1950s has included Kurosawa’s Ikiru is a richly layered film structure, students were asked to isolate the trips to Hiroshima and Nagasaki and inter- that presents several important themes about main themes of the work being analyzed. views with older Japanese peace activists early postwar life in Japan which can be They were also asked to identify the objec- there. developed for classroom discussion. First, it tives of the filmmaker, and to address other DAVID P. PHILLIPS is Assistant Professor of presents the dilemma of a society that is bur- relevant questions, including how juxtaposi- Japanese Language and Literature at Wake dened by a bureaucracy which is unyielding tion of events within the film helps the film- Forest University. He has recently co-authored an article with Nobuko Awaya entitled, and unsympathetic to the needs of the pub- maker to emphasize specific themes. For “Popular Reading: The Literary World of the lic. Students will want to examine how such character portrayal and voices, students Japanese Working Woman” in Re-imaging a system came into existence, and why it is were given questions about the type of char- Japanese Women edited by Anne Imamura and allowed to continue. Second, in telling the acters included in the film, the inclusion of published by University of California Press in story of a protagonist who is both a member stereotypes, and techniques used to develop 1996. His recently completed dissertation examines architecture, urban change, and of the bureaucratic system, and ultimately characters. After each group was given a planning in during the Meiji era. an iconoclast, Kurosawa asks his viewing written definition of its topic, they were also

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film, this group asked the class to guess fied the conformist nature of the bureaucra- individual, they move beyond assumed cul- which scene depicted which of these issues. cy, but took the analysis too far by assuming tural superiority. Equally important is the Such close attention to the film through role- that people in Japanese society are not integration of exercises which allow stu- playing enabled students to go far beyond ever allowed to have individual values. The dents to develop cross-cultural comparisons simplistic, one-dimensional readings. student wrote: and to involve themselves directly with the Exercises to construct cross-cultural com- In Japanese society, people were material. The end product of these exercises parison helped to clarify differences in so concerned with what was is a cross-cultural framework which students Japanese and American value systems, and expected of them. Rather than use in evolving their own approach to inter- provided a starting point for exploring the have an individual set of ideals and pretation and analysis of Japanese and idea of ethnocentric bias. Students in one values, the Japanese were usually American cultures. By giving students the cross-cultural exercise were asked how affiliated with a specific group, and methodological skills to become classroom American and Japanese viewers might inter- this group determined the ideals ethnographers and to conduct their own pret differently the individualistic behavior and values of each member. analyses, we empower them to both chal- Watanabe exhibits upon deciding he will Watanabe was part of this group lenge their initial assumptions and to see give meaning to the end of his life by get- until he realized he no longer literary and cultural interpretation as an ting a children’s playground built. Whereas wanted to belong to it. ongoing process. Americans would likely see his behavior as There are some pedagogical drawbacks altruistic, brave, and justifiable, the other when film is perceived not as live drama, RHAPSODY IN AUGUST characters in Ikiru construe it as being ego- but as an all-encompassing representation of The most controversial discussions arising in tistical, inappropriate and defiant of authori- the culture that the students are investigat- my class, “Introduction to Japanese ty. This exercise also helped students to ing. Students find it easy to assume an eth- Literature,” focus on the representation of understand Kurosawa’s message: because of nocentric stance, judging characters and the tragedies of World War II, specifically its unswerving emphasis on conformity, implicitly suggesting American cultural the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Japanese bureaucracy does not have the superiority. They also generate assumptions Nagasaki. Through viewing Kurosawa’s flexibility to allow individuals to deviate based on their own biases. 1993 film, Rhapsody in August, and reading creatively from their assigned roles. Using The linear framework of cultural develop- Oe¯ Kenzabur¯o’s anthology of A-bomb fic- its cross-cultural framework, the class devel- ment that many students have internalized tion, The Crazy Iris, we encounter very dif- oped a greater contextual appreciation of the leads to assumptions that all cultures are at ferent interpretations of this tragedy. As we dynamics of Japanese behavior. various points along the same continuum of discuss our reactions to these works and con- Further, through attention to the use of social advancement. The image which Ikiru sider them not only in artistic terms, but also imagery in Ikiru, students could also appreci- presents of a bureaucratic culture that sup- in light of other commemorative and politi- ate film as an art form which has many struc- pressed all individual expression left the cal projects, we wrestle with these questions: tural devices that parallel the organization of students imagining that all office workers in How do “private” and “public” memory novels, and that shape the audience’s emo- 1950s Japan, with few exceptions, were influence each other? How does one give tional and intellectual responses. Just as the automatons. It is important to point out to artistic voice or image to horrors on the scale author manipulates the interaction of charac- classes that the popularity of the film with of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? In what terms ters in time and place and shapes the setting, Japanese audiences suggests that the does the reader/viewer analyze and evaluate the filmmaker uses film as a medium for Japanese respect individuals who are ideal- such work as art? Because Rhapsody in employing speech, sound, and image towards istic and who have the courage to challenge August provides both light, comic moments a similar end. By linking their discoveries authority figures. Other sources presenting and movingly sorrowful ones, it displays a about imagery to symbolism and social con- people with diverse viewpoints and values, range of moods and ideas ripe for discussing structs, students were able to embellish their such as Kenzabur¯o Oe’s¯ A Personal Matter, these broad yet complex questions. In discussion of the world which Kurosawa has which portrays an individual’s rebellion describing my approach to Rhapsody, I will constructed within the film. against societal norms, help students to give a brief plot summary, some key infor- Students who are studying a foreign cul- realize that it would be misleading to reach mation about current tensions regarding the ture for the first time have a tendency to conclusions based on an interpretation of atomic bomb “memorials,” and specific simplify their understanding of social struc- one source. The film can be a starting point ideas for directing class discussion. ture, and to assume that all members of a for a longer unit that includes one or more The plot of Rhapsody centers on one sum- culture act in the same way. Historical per- works of literature in which students explore mer vacation in which four young, very spectives in film and literature can easily varying aspects of social phenomena. urban cousins stay with their elderly grand- reinforce such a mistaken impression. This Given adequate exposure to different con- mother Kané in Nagasaki. Kané (Sachiko problem gets compounded when students temporaneous aspects of Japanese culture, Murase) lives in an old farmhouse in a vil- take only one work of literature, or one film students discover that multiple interpreta- lage nestled beneath lush mountains. such as Ikiru, and make overgeneralizations tions of culture exist. Once students start to Impatient with this bucolic life, her grand- about an entire historical period or about investigate the culture-specific advantages children rudely complain about their grand- socio-cultural patterns. For example, one to social behaviors, such as the ways in mother’s refusal to bring either a television student writing about Ikiru correctly identi- which Japanese society is supportive of the set or a washing machine into her life, and

32 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 1, Number 2 Fall 1996 RESOURCES ESSAYS

whine about her old-fashioned cooking. Over their vacation, however, the young people become curious about their grand- mother’s life, prodding her fading memory for the local fairy stories, family legends, and for the story of her husband’s death on August 9, 1945. As they learn more about the bomb, the children become disgusted with their par- ents’ joy at learning they have a rich Japanese-American relative Clark (Richard Gere). The four parents plead with the grandmother to join two of them on vacation in Hawaii and meet her long-lost, dying, and now very rich, older brother. As this interna- tional family story comes together, Clark surprises everyone by coming to Japan to learn more about his great-uncle’s death by the bomb and to express his sorrow to the grandmother. As Clark and the grandmother sit together, gazing at the moon, a powerful symbol of enlightenment in Buddhism, it From Rhapsody in August (1993) seems tensions in both familial and national Photo courtesey of Kurosawa Productions histories have been neatly resolved. of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and But Kurosawa does not leave things quite Nagasaki, as Rhapsody in August so clearly so comfortably. In the final scene of the shows, time has by no means healed all film, we see the whole family running after wounds. Victims of the bombs continue to the grandmother, who has fled outside in a suffer emotionally and physically from their terrible thunderstorm. Somehow the storm exposure to radiation. In both Japan and the has provoked the grandmother’s memories U.S., heated debate arises over every com- of the bomb, sending her reeling back to the memorative gesture: recall the U.S. deci- terrors of August 9, 1945. Having lost her sions in 1995 to abandon plans for an A- sense of the present, the grandmother runs bomb stamp and for a Smithsonian exhibit toward Nagasaki as if to find her husband. that seriously questioned the morality of this Kurosawa lingers a long time on this final U.S. act. Similarly in Japan, groups have scene of the young people running with all argued about whether or not to institute spe- their might after their terrified grandmother. cial welfare programs for the A-bomb vic- The audience soon hears the voices of chil- tims and how to interpret this tragedy in dren innocently singing as we continue to their textbooks. Many Japanese want a for- watch the grandchildren running. One feels mal apology from the U.S., just as other as if the children are no longer simply pas- Asian countries have demanded an apology sive repositories of their grandmother’s from Japan for its own wartime aggressions. memories but have actually inserted them- I next tell students that against this back- selves in that memory, feeling the fear she ground of competing memories and contested feels. Making a strong statement at the end interpretations stands the most fearful of his film, Kurosawa implies that memo- response of all: the possibility of completely ries, especially those of the A-bomb, must forgetting. According to a 1995 Gallup Poll, not remain within the realm of personal, 22% of Americans know almost nothing past experience but should also serve as about these atomic weapons, and 35% do not a map to what lies ahead, haunting these know that the first was dropped on Hiroshima children as premonition, “some scary tale of (New York Times 3/1/95: A15). While this the future.” level of ignorance of the bombs does not exist After students have seen Rhapsody in in Japan, Rhapsody, too, portrays these August in a screening session and read the events as quite removed from the conscious- Oe¯ selections, we have a 75 minute discus- ness of young Japanese. As one teenager in sion period. I begin by emphasizing that, the film says, “It always seemed like some while 1995 marked the fiftieth anniversary scary fairy tale to us, not quite real.”

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This introduction leads to our first discus- tion of what kind of artistic representation atomic bombings of Hiroshima and sion question, “What does Kurosawa say students see as most effective. Do we find Nagasaki wrought incredible devastation, about the nature of memory itself?” In the the more abstract work or the more repre- the victims there were not the only ones ensuing discussion, students point to scenes sentational art evocative of the tragedy of who suffered in the war nor the only ones which show “forgetting” and “remember- war? Here, students can recall the surreal who wish to preserve memory of their suf- ing.” Though also linked to some harsh way in which Kurosawa represents the fering. The “Comfort Women,” the Chinese, realities, the film’s lighter moments revolve atomic bomb in Rhapsody as an enormous Korean and other women forced into sexual around both the grandmother’s inability to eye which fills the whole sky and leaves a slavery by the Japanese troops, for one remember all her siblings’ names, and her mushroom cloud in its wake. How does this example, have had a very difficult time get- recollections of local legend and family love compare to graphic newsreel footage of the ting the Japanese government to even scandal. Considering these scenes encour- bomb’s destruction we see in films such as acknowledge their story, let alone make ages students to think about the role memo- Alain Resnais’ 1959 some restitution. While the grandmother in ry plays in the development of a sense of or, its horrific recreation in Imamura Rhapsody says that “both the Americans and self: who would any of us be without our Sh¯ohei’s 1989 Black Rain? Are such graph- the Japanese” did “bad things” and that this memories? Further, this makes us think ic or surreal depictions more powerful in was all “the fault of war,” one might well about how memory creates a sense of famil- stirring our emotions than Kurosawa’s own ask if Kurosawa does not encourage all ial history and belonging. Such scenes pre- 1955 film I Live in Fear which focuses on our focus on war’s destruction to center sent memory as something fragile and easily one man’s naked fear of another atomic too completely on Nagasaki, and all war lost, something we have to make a special attack? We might also ask how the symbolic crimes to be too easily explained by the n effort to preserve. representation of the bomb in Rhapsody adage “war is bad.” Focusing on this need to preserve a sense compares with the abstract paintings of the personal dimension of major histori- described in “The Colorless Paintings” by cal events, we discuss how private and Sata Ineko, or the more graphic “Fireflies” BIBLIOGRAPHY shared experiences combine to create public by Ota¯ Y¯oko in the Oe¯ anthology. As students Chang, K.W., ed. Kurosawa: Perceptions on Life, memory. We see the most intimate sharing offer their ideas on what they find effective An Anthology of Essays. Honolulu: Honolulu of memory occur in the scene in which the and why, I point out the emerging, and per- Academy of Arts, 1991. grandmother and one of her elderly friends, haps differing, criteria they are building for Ernes, Patricia. : A Guide to also a widow, sit in silent “conversation,” viewing art of a politically-charged nature References and Resources. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1979. remembering the tragedies they suffered on and the various values this exercise Goodwin, James, ed. Perspectives on Akira August 9, 1945. Kurosawa depicts another reveals.While this part of our discussion has Kurosawa. Toronto: G.K. Hall, 1994. act of remembering, both highly personal portrayed memory as fragile and in need of Herbert, Bob. “A Nation of Nitwits.” The New York and public, in a scene in which older people active preservation, we next briefly turn to Times, 1 March, 1995, Sec.A, p. 15. lay wreaths at the charred playground equip- memory as something extremely powerful, Hibbett, Howard, ed. Contemporary Japanese ment in a schoolyard where their former something which cannot be extinguished Literature. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1977. classmates had been killed in the atomic despite one’s effort. Here, we recall the Kurosawa, Akira. Something Like an blast. It is also here in the playground, a set- grandmother’s descriptions of as Autobiography. Trans. by A. Bock. New York: Vintage, 1983. ting strongly associated with childhood so plagued with memories of the atomic eye ———. Ikiru. New York: Ungar Publishing Co., innocence, that the grandchildren, and later that he went mad. We also remember the 1988. Clark, experience the full impact of the hor- way in which that same atomic eye has fixed Mellen, Joan. The Waves at Genji’s Door: Japan ror of the bomb’s destruction. An interna- in the grandmother’s memory and how easi- Through Its Cinema. New York: Pantheon, 1976. tionally-tinged memorial takes place when ly she slips back into its terrors during the Oe,¯ Kenzabur¯o. A Personal Matter. Trans. by John Clark attends a Buddhist service for the thunderstorm. Thinking about these scenes Nathan. New York: Grove Press Inc., 1969. Nagasaki bomb victims, and also when the raises the question: “Where do we locate ———, ed. The Crazy Iris and Other Stories of the film shows sculptures dedicated to peace in memory—in our past, our present, or in our Atomic Aftermath. New York: Grove Press, 1985. the Nagasaki Peace Park. In discussion of future?” How much of our own memories, Richie, Donald. The Films of Akira Kurosawa. these scenes, we consider the need people even if not as traumatic as the grandmoth- Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. feel for public observance of war tragedies er’s, affect our everyday lives and determine Sato, Tadao. Currents in Japanese Cinema. and the role art can play here. Showing pho- our actions in the future? How much control Trans. by G. Barrett. Tokyo: Kodansha tographs of our own memorials such as the do we exert over them? I do not intend these International, 1972. (very different) Vietnam and Iwo Jima mon- questions to elicit immediate answers from uments in Washington, D.C., for example, the students, but to make them think about leads to a comparison of these works with another aspect of memory as Kurosawa pre- the sculptures shown in Rhapsody, and pro- sents it in Rhapsody. vokes argument about just what values such Finally, our discussion of this film must monuments ought to teach. also consider what it does not say, and what Talking about the kinds of sculptures dedi- the teenagers do not learn from their cated as memorials also leads to the ques- Nagasaki summer. While certainly the

34 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 1, Number 2 Fall 1996