A Samurai wakes

The strangest thing; (forgive typos - getting used to one of those shaped MS keyboards) and was reminded by Meemalee's latest blog entry of how much I have loved and been perplexed by things Japanese all my life. My father hated the Japanese with an absolute passion - understandable one of his friends died in a Japanese PoW camp. I don't need to expand on that, I hope. My next peripheral encounter was with a biology teacher, a really nice man who had the misfortune to teach in a Secondary Modern who loved to torment teachers. One of the things I am proudest of in my life is that I found out his background (tortured in a Japanese PoW camp where his nerves were destroyed by three years of captivity) and managed to persuade even the nastiest of the members of my class to leave him alone. And yet, and yet, I could not believe that a race that could produce Hokusai could be all monsters...

Some years later I read Clavell, who managed to get into the way of life; and that lead to Jessica Salmondsen and Tomoe Gozen, Cherryh (who is so influenced by Japanese culture), and finally to Ghost in the Shell - oh Ghods and that unlocks the key to the Japanese soul I think - the Manga to some extent, which is so fatalistic and so expectant of disaster, but which like Origa's stunning initial theme (goose bumps here - playing it now), gives the lie to the character which is, I think, controlled passion. The music for the manga is brilliant.

The control is everything and the concentration on it is so at the heart of their soul that almost everything else is either a disguise or rebellion. My bro was a very high-ranking officer in a Japanese bank and I worked with another Japanese bank for a short while - they are absolutely immersed in control structures. But they worship those who can find new paradigm for that control. They will follow and look within their culture for those to follow. When social structures break down, they look for individuals and the credos they put forward. But they also love? respect? the breakaway individual, the ronin*, the loner and outsider who provides a different perspective.

*And the resonance of Japanese ideas and culture is filtering into our own; try the switching perspectives in the eponymous film - stunning performances by all the cast, but for me Robert de Niro's best film and also the film which made me realise what an excellent actor Jean Reno is. Gods - I even recognise the steps outside the cafe. The picture is courtesy of Invisible Paris - a blog which I wish I'd found before I went there!

Thanks MiMi, a really valuable capsule of a post...

Damn, damn, damn - I've gone and bought the sound track to Ghost in the Shell II - at nearly £30 - I must be mad... time to get plastered so I can't type.