EA 190 Week 5 outline

EA 190 Week 5 Outline

Videos on Kurosawa's style:

Kurosawa and Geometric Style (by Tony Chou)

Frame by frame analysis of the Arrow Scene

I. Neo-Confucianism and the Development of Bushido (Way of the Warrior)

A. New-Confucianism as it was practiced in Japan in the Edo period (1602-1868) focused on appropriate hierarchcial relationships between those stationed above and below

1. Below: practices loyalty, respect, absolute obedience

2. Above: practices benvelolent leadership

B. Governs all relationships: parent/child, husband/wife, lord-master/retainer, ruler/subjects

C. In Edo period, the Tokugawa family takes control of the country

1. used Neo-Confucianism to rationalize four permanent classes:

a. Warriors
b. Farmers
c. Artisans
d. Merchants

Samurai are forced to choose between owning land etc. and being samurai. In a time of peace, they are turned into paid bureacrats, no longer are true warriors. This makes the lower-ranking samurai dependent on the Tokugawa government and keeps them from developing an independent power-base.

2. Problem with this model: In China the top class is the literati-intelligentsia, but in Japan replaced by Samurai, for obvious reasons. But how to justify the samurai at the top in the absence of war?

3. Solution: development of the Way of the Warrior (Bushido), based on Neo-Confucianism. Warriors are held to a higher level of ethics, and this is what justifies their status at the top. Very useful for the Tokugawa to stress loyalty to a superior as the ultimate value!

4. In a time where war is no longer available to change your status, honor and loyalty become everything. But what were medieval samurai like -- of the kind that we see in Throne of Blood and Ran?

a. If we read medieval tales about samurai, we can see that although the basics of the samurai values are there (loyalty, bravery, death in battle) warriors will not follow those values if it means they are likely to improve their situation/status.

Examples from Tales of the Heike (a fictionalized history of the civil war between the Heike/Taira and Genji/Minamoto warrior clans, 1180-85)

1) In Edo period stories, it is typical for a retainer to substitute his own son for the son of his superior (the ultimate sacrfice for loyalty). This never happens in Tale of Heike. The key reason for why the Heike lose the Battle of Dan no Ura (their final battle against the Genji) is that the Genji capture a Heike general's son. In order to save his son, he switches sides to the Genji, and brings with him the Heike's secret defense plans.

2) At the Battle of Dan no Ura, a sea battle, when it becomes clear that the Heike are going to lose, anyone who is not actually family member of the Heike clan switches sides, by the simple expedient of moving their boats to the other side. The Heike are outnumbered and defeated.

b. So in the context of actual medieval battles, loyalty to a superior --the greatest value for Bushido -- is not considered as important as keeping your family intact, and being on the winning side.

D. In the 20th century, the "traditional" values of the samurai warrior, especially unquestioning loyalty and obedience to a superior, were taught to all levels of society, and used to encourage absolute, unquestioning obedience to Imperial Japanese ideology, including worship of the Emperor.

E. How is Kurosawa likely to have viewed these "traditional" samurai values in the early post-war period? How does he present them in Throne of Blood? Are there any good samurai in Throne of Blood?

II. Hag versus Weird Sisters

MESSAGEBOARD FORUM DISCUSSION: Compare the hag in Throne of Blood to the Weird Sisters in Macbeth. Is the Hag/Forest Crone in Throne of Blood unambiguously evil in the same way as the Weird Sisters? Why or why not? Do you think she has more responsibility or less responsiblity for Washizu's actions compared to the Weird Sisters and Macbeth? Cite scenes and pg. #s to support your points.

DISCUSSION Questions (answer these in writing):

1. Compare the prophecies and images that the Weird Sisters present to Macbeth, versus the prophecies and images that that Hag of the Forest presents to Washizu. How are they similar? How different? Does equivocation/doubling still play a role? How do Macbeth and Washizu interpret those prophecies? Where do each of them go wrong?

Video 2:00 (opening scene with hag)

Video: 1:24 (Washizu returns to see hag)

A. Comment by Kurosawa on his choice of the old hag from the play Kurozuka

"[She] is a monster who occasionally eats a human being. I realized that if I were to search for an image that resembles the witch of the West, nothing exists in Japan other than this."

1. Not true: Takiyasha, the (fictional) sorceress sister of the (historical) 10th century rebel Taira no Masakado, is probably the closest thing to a witch with black magic powers who is trying to intervene politically. She appears in a number of Kabuki plays about Masakado's rebellion:

images

Why wouldn't Kurosawa use her? What is it about the Kurozuka and Yamamba figures that Kurosawa prefers?

Kurozuka/Adachigahara images

Throne of Blood, first Hag

image

2. Why one instead of three?

3. What visual elements does Kurosawa borrow and transform? What metaphorical meanings might they have in the movie that they do not have in the original Noh?

a. Hut she lives in

b. Spinning wheel (how does the meaning change between the Noh play and the movie?)

c. Pile of bones and corpses

d. In second half, Ashura warriors

COMPARE PROPHECIES

Macbeth Act 1 Scene 3

Speak, if you can: what are you?
First Witch	All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!	50
Second Witch	All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!
Third Witch	All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!
BANQUO	Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear
	Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth,
	Are ye fantastical, or that indeed	55
	Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
	You greet with present grace and great prediction
	Of noble having and of royal hope,
	That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not.
	If you can look into the seeds of time,	60
	And say which grain will grow and which will not,
	Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
	Your favours nor your hate.
First Witch	Hail!
Second Witch	Hail!	65
Third Witch	Hail!
First Witch	Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
Second Witch	Not so happy, yet much happier.
Third Witch	Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:
	So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!	70
First Witch	Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

Throne of Blood (video 2:00)

Hag in her first appearance chants a long, very Buddhist intro:

あさましやあさましや
などて人の世に生をうけ
虫のいのちの細細と
身を苦しむる愚かさよ

Subtitles:
Strange is the world.
Why should men receive life in this world?
Men's lives are as meaningless as the lives of insects.
The terrible folly of such suffering.

Alternative translation:
How miserable, miserable!
Why do humans, born into this world
their lives as transient as insects,
[experience] the folly of such [needless] suffering!

Compare these lines by the old woman in the Noh play Kurozuka (The Black Mound, AKA Adachigahara):

〈黒塚〉（第五段、クドキグリ）
あさましや
人界に生を受けながら
かゝる憂き世に明け暮らし
身を苦しむる悲しさよ　

「謡曲集　下」岩波、371頁

How miserable!
To be born in human form and yet,
destined to live in this transient/wretched world.
The sorrow of such [needless] suffering!
Trans. Carolyn Morley (modified)

So Buddhist language clearly related to Kurozuka.

The hag continues:

あさましやあさましや
花の命は短くて
やがて腐肉となるものを

Subtitles:
A man lives but as briefly as a flower
destined all too soon
to decay into the stink of flesh.

Alternative:
Ah miserable, miserable!
[Humans], their life as brief as blossoms,
swiftly turn to putrid, decaying flesh.

それ人間のなりわいは
五慾の炎に身をこがし
五濁の水に身をさらし
業の上は業を積み

Vocabulary:
五慾 goyoku: the Five Desires. Either five desires associated with the five senses, or desire for wealth, sex, food and drink, fame/power, and sleep.
五濁 gojōku: the Five Pollutions/Impurities/Defilements that mark the Age of the Degenerate Dharma (J. mappō, the ten-thousand year period in which Buddha's teaching can no longer be understood or practiced). In Japan mappō was believed to have begun in 1152 or 1158 .

The Five Defilements are defined as:

1) Defilement of period (because natural disasters and social chaos arise in this period);
2) Defilement of views (because wrong views arise);
3) Defilement of evil passions (because passions become more intense);
4) Defilement of sentient beings (because people are mentally and physically weak, they reject the Buddha's moral teaching and the law of causality/karma, and therefore suffer greatly);
5) Defilement of life (because man's life-span is shortened)

業 gō: karma. Any act (mental, physical, or verbal) creates effects (karma) that keep us tied to the cycle of reincarnation. Both good and evil acts create karma; however, evil acts will keep us tied to lower realms of reincarnation, such as the Ashura (warrior) Hell.

Subtitles:
Humanity strives all its days
to sear its flesh in the flames of base desire,
exposing itself to the fate's five calamities,
heaping karma upon karma.

Alternative:
So what do humans do?
They burn themselves in the flames of the Five Desires;
they bath themselves in the water of the Five Defilements;
piling up karma upon karma.

迷いの果てに行きつけば
腐肉破れて花と咲き
悪臭かえて香を放つ
面白の人の命
おもしろや　おもしろや

Subtitles:
All that awaits man at the end of his travails
is the stench of rotting flesh,
yet that will blossom into a flower,
its foul odor rendered into sweet perfume.
Oh fascinating the life of man,
Oh fascinating.

Alternative:
When one reaches the end of this deluded wandering [i.e. this life],
decaying flesh turns to blossoms,
offensive odor turns to perfume;
How fascinating the life of humans,
how fascinating, how fascinating!

QUESTION: How does this last stanza seem to contradict what comes before?

Only after the long Buddhist meditation on human transience, does the Hag turn to prophecies:

Hag: Washizu Taketoki, Head of the First Fort, Lord of the North Castle from this evening, Lord of the Kumunosu Castle hereafter.

Hag: General Miki Yoshiaki, head of the second fort, head of the First Fort from this evening.

Miki; What of my future wealth and rank?

Hag: your fortune is lesser and greater than General Washizu's.Your son is to be Lord of Kumonosu Castle hereafter.

QUESTION: How does the hag's extended Buddhist meditation on the futility of human desire in the face of transience affect our understanding of the prophecy?

2. Second appearance of Weird sisters to Macbeth versus second appearance of Hag to Washizu

Weird sisters

MACBETH	I conjure you, by that which you profess,	50
	Howe'er you come to know it, answer me:
	Though you untie the winds and let them fight
	Against the churches; though the yesty waves
	Confound and swallow navigation up;
	Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down;
	Though castles topple on their warders' heads;
	Though palaces and pyramids do slope
	Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure
	Of nature's germens tumble all together,
	Even till destruction sicken; answer me	60
	To what I ask you.
First Witch	Speak.
Second Witch	Demand.
Third Witch	We'll answer.
First Witch	Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths,
	Or from our masters?
MACBETH	Call 'em; let me see 'em.
First Witch	Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten
	Her nine farrow; grease that's sweaten
	From the murderer's gibbet throw
	Into the flame.
ALL	Come, high or low;
	Thyself and office deftly show!
[Thunder. First Apparition: an armed Head]
MACBETH	Tell me, thou unknown power,--
First Witch	He knows thy thought:
	Hear his speech, but say thou nought.	70
First Apparition	Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff;
	Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.
[Descends]
MACBETH	Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks;
	Thou hast harp'd my fear aright: but one
	word more,--
First Witch	He will not be commanded: here's another,
	More potent than the first.
[Thunder. Second Apparition: A bloody Child]
Second Apparition	Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!
MACBETH	Had I three ears, I'ld hear thee.
Second Apparition	Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
	The power of man, for none of woman born	80
	Shall harm Macbeth.
[Descends]
MACBETH	Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee?
	But yet I'll make assurance double sure,
	And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live;
	That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies,
	And sleep in spite of thunder.
[ Thunder. Third Apparition: a Child crowned, with a tree in his hand ]
	What is this
	That rises like the issue of a king,
	And wears upon his baby-brow the round
	And top of sovereignty?
ALL	Listen, but speak not to't.
Third Apparition	Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care	90
	Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are:
	Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until
	Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
	Shall come against him.
[Descends]
MACBETH	That will never be
	Who can impress the forest, bid the tree
	Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements! good!
	Rebellion's head, rise never till the wood
	Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth
	Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath
	To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart	100
	Throbs to know one thing: tell me, if your art
	Can tell so much: shall Banquo's issue ever
	Reign in this kingdom?
ALL	Seek to know no more.
MACBETH	I will be satisfied: deny me this,
	And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know.
	Why sinks that cauldron? and what noise is this?
[Hautboys]
First Witch	Show!
Second Witch	Show!
Third Witch	Show!
ALL	Show his eyes, and grieve his heart;	110
	Come like shadows, so depart!
[ A show of Eight Kings, the last with a glass in his hand; GHOST OF BANQUO following ]
MACBETH	Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo: down!
	Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls. And thy hair,
	Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first.
	A third is like the former. Filthy hags!
	Why do you show me this? A fourth! Start, eyes!
	What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?
	Another yet! A seventh! I'll see no more:
	And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass
	Which shows me many more; and some I see	120
	That two-fold balls and treble scepters carry:
	Horrible sight! Now, I see, 'tis true;
	For the blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me,
	And points at them for his.
[Apparitions vanish]
	What, is this so?

Second appearance of Hag in Throne of Blood (video 1:24)

image (now looks much more like the mountain crone/deity Yamamba)

Washizu: If you have the power of prophecy, tell me Washizu Taketoki's forture in war.

Hag: Calm yourself. You will not lose a battle until Kumote (Spider Leg) Forest advances on Kumonosu (Spiderweb) Castle.

Then three phantom (Ashura) warriors encourage him to be as demonic as he wants, pile up a mountain of corpses, and make blood flow like a river.

images

images from Yashima of warrior ghost

Selection of clips; first one is final battle from Atsumori

Character Comparison (choose ONE of the following to analyze)

1. Macbeth versus Washizu

Questions to consider:

a. How does changing Tzuzuki Kuniharu's and Banquo's characters, and eliminating the Macduff subplot, affect our understanding of Washizu's actions? Is he now more or less culpable/responsible than Macbeth?

b. Washizu clearly does not have Macbeth's way with rhetorical imagery (it would not have been out of line for a samurai in this period to be an excellent poet and even dabble in Noh theater composition, but Kurosawa does not go in that direction). But does he still have a vivid imagination? How does Kurosawa convey this?

c. Competing ideals of manhood are an important theme in Macbeth. How is manhood represented in Throne of Blood? What is the implicit standard? How does Washizu measure up?

d. Anything else you think is important!

2. Lady Macbeth versus Asaji

Questions to consider:

a. How is Asaji's relationship with Washizu different from Lady Macbeth's relationship with her husband? How is that relationship conveyed visually?

b. How do plot changes (Asaji's pregnancy, the character of Tsuzuki Kuniharu etc) affect our understanding of her character? How does this affect our sympathy?

c. How is Asaji related (visually and aurally) to the uncanny old Hag of the Forest? How does this compare with the relationship of Lady Macbeth and the Weird Sisters? Again, how does this affect our understanding/sympathy for her?

d. Compare the sleepwalking scene with the mad scene in Throne of Blood.

e. Anything else you think is important!