Word: samurais
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...their own cultural superiority despite repeated European humiliations, the Japanese decided early to learn the barbarians' ways. They sent inquiring envoys abroad and hired many foreign experts. Some of the lessons were basic. The Meiji rulers abolished feudalism in 1871, and all fiefs reverted to the Emperor. The samurai, warriors who had formed a ruling caste under the shogunate, were pensioned off. They were forbidden to carry swords or even to wear their traditional topknots. When the samurai rose in revolt, they were suppressed by new armies of conscripts (whom the French were training). With conscription came the French...
...difference between the Chinese and Japanese ideals of exalted beauty: the former based on symmetry and minute gradations of fixed etiquette, the latter on irregularity and "natural" grace. Sen No Rikyu (1521-91), greatest of the tea masters, established chanoyu as a kind of psychic enclave in which warlord, samurai, priest and scholar could shed the burdens of rank and power by refreshing themselves at the well of nature. A developed Japanese form of Rousseau's "natural man," living in harmony with a world he has not made, is to be found in the teahouse and the culture...
...beauty of calm understatement; not just perfection, but perfection emphasized by some slight flaw. It means both flair and simplicity. Yasumo Kuroko, Sony's chief product designer, offers a definition: "It's the just so of the swerve of a pagoda or the sword of a samurai...
Indeed, the police box, or koban, is an integral feature of Japanese existence. It traces its origin to the network of bansho (checkpoints) set up by samurai who protected the populace in feudal times. Today, throughout Japan, there are 15,600 boxes (actually tiny one-room offices set up on street corners), each serving about 10,000 residents. Tokyo alone has 1,244 and considers them so crucial to the public welfare that they are staffed by 15,000 officers, one-third of the city's police force. In addition to their traditional duties of patrolling neighborhoods and apprehending...
...free rhythm, was downgraded during the drive toward Westernization. But it remains popular, especially with older people and in the provinces, and is preserved in the Noh, Bunraku and Kabuki theaters. "We never had a national traditional music," says Toyama. "It was strictly apportioned by classes: the courts, the samurai, the merchants each had their own. But everyone can participate in the Western system." Although some composers like Toru Takemitsu have lately attempted to synthesize traditional music with Western styles, the two forms remain worlds apart, with little overlap in audience...