Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography and portraiture - Help me find the background knowledge about the last samurai.

Help me find the background knowledge about the last samurai.

Background information: Time Pain and Sunset Warrior]

Act I: Evil is beheaded.

The story of the last samurai happened between 1876 and 1877, that is, Meiji 9 and 10. At this time, it was the period when Japan's declining samurai class launched a turbulent uprising.

As we all know, samurai used to be the privileged class in Japanese feudal history, but by the end of Edo (Tokugawa shogunate period), the samurai class began to divide and the life of the lower samurai deteriorated sharply. Many of them are not allowed to engage in agriculture and small businesses in private, and Seibee at dusk is a good portrayal of the lower samurai at that time. Repeated riots by oppressed peasants and the opening of Brigadier General Burleigh in 1853 made people see the serious crisis of the Tokugawa shogunate, which triggered the shogunate movement with the following samurai as the main body.

However, the Meiji Restoration, which ended successfully, did not give much benefit to the lower samurai who were the main force of restoration. On the contrary, the abolition of the feudal hereditary identity system of "scholar, farmer, merchant and subaltern" realized the equality of the four people to a certain extent, and also abolished the privileges once enjoyed by the samurai class. In the following years, the promulgation of "conscription order" and "prohibition of revenge order" further deprived the samurai of the necessity of existence, and the samurai who had no source of livelihood and were not very self-reliant were greatly dissatisfied with this. Finally, in March of 1876, the Meiji government issued an "order to scrap knives", which prohibited people from taking knives out of their homes. This was tantamount to completely prohibiting the rights of samurai and ending their identity. Finally, a series of samurai uprisings were triggered, such as "Kamikaze Rebellion", "Autumn Moon Rebellion" and "Didi Chuxing Rebellion" which occurred in 1877. Even Saigō Takamori, one of the three outstanding reformers, stood on the side of the turbulent warriors. Of course, these civil disturbances were finally suppressed.

This is also the background of The Last Samurai. As far as the whole history is concerned, these two years are indeed the last samurai period. Since then, the samurai class that violated the ban by force has been officially eliminated. The most vivid portrayal should be the Meiji 1 1 (1877) in February, the last swordsman passing through the streets of Tokyo with a knife: long red hair and a cross scar on his left cheek ... He stopped at the entrance of the Shengu Dojo and suddenly rumbled in his stomach.

Act II: Knife Method

To understand why the samurai rebelled in history and movies, we should not only be forced by life, but also understand the samurai's feelings about the knife. Mountain city is an inseparable life of samurai, and banning knives is tantamount to forcing them to commit suicide. Japanese samurai's affection for swords can be traced back to before the Tang Dynasty in China. At that time, the art of sword-making in Japan was deeply influenced by the culture of the Central Plains, with straight knives as the mainstay. At first, it imitated the straight sword of the Western Han Dynasty, and later it imitated tangdao, so it was called "imitation Tang broadsword". During the Heian period in Japan, the samurai class began to expand its power. Due to the need of fighting between cavalry and war horses, curved blades with hydrodynamic characteristics and suitable for chopping came into being and gradually became the mainstream. Later, the Yuan Dynasty wiped out the Ping family and established the Kamakura shogunate, which opened the Kamakura era of 150. During this period, Japanese swordsmen gradually improved their smelting methods and quenching techniques, and changed their shapes year by year. Finally, Japanese swordsmanship became independent from the influence of the Central Plains in the early Kamakura period. By the Ming Dynasty, Japanese craftsmen had surpassed China in smelting technology. When Qi Jiguang fought against Japan, it was found that the number of Japanese pirates was small, but it was often difficult for us to deal with them. Finally, I realized that the Japanese aggressors' weapons were far superior to those of the Ming army, so I bought weapons from Japan through secret channels. Even Qi Jiguang's own Dao was changed to a one-handed Dao similar to Japanese Dao, which was later commonly known as Qijia Dao, to counter the long-term border troubles of the Japanese aggressors.

I'm afraid this is related to people's good maintenance and production technology of swords. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, bronze weapons were the best in the world, and there were many amazing works after entering the Iron Age. Our country and people have the habit of being buried with the tomb, so there are few steel weapons handed down from generation to generation, and the ancient bronze weapon smelting method has been lost forever because of the lack of records. On the other hand, in Japan, they rarely have the habit of being buried with the sword, and they are diligent in maintaining the sword. In addition, they also systematically sorted out the forging methods of various departments. The genealogy is as accurate as a dictionary and can be consulted quickly. Long-term and systematic accumulation and exploration eventually led to the rapid development of technology.

Back to Japanese Dao itself, according to its shape and length, it can be divided into Tai Dao, Da Dao, Threat Dao and Short Dao. Too big knife and broadsword are more than 60 cm long, and those whose knife length is between 30 cm and 60 cm are called "threat difference" (also called middle knife, Gotha ruler, etc. ), while those under 30 cm are called short knives (sometimes a knife is attached to the scabbard of short knives). The standard Tatsu Yamashiro collocation configuration should be a knife and a threat collocation, both of which are inserted at the same side of the waist with the blade facing upwards (hence the so-called "drawing knife"). A good mountain city, first of all, is uniquely designed for the owner, and the length of the knife is directly proportional to the height of the person; Secondly, the smelting of mountain city depends on luck to a certain extent, and it needs to be heated at high temperature and repeatedly broken. In particular, in order to make the cutting edge sharper, it is necessary to use more than two kinds of steel to sharpen it like a razor. Sometimes, a hammer can't pass, which may make the final finished knife useless. Third, the mountain city is composed of a blade and dozens of knife parts, which combines the cooperation of carpenters, metalworkers and painters. The negligence of one link may also cause the deformity of the whole mountain city. Therefore, it is almost impossible to meet such a master of shaking hands in the mountain city, which is why ordinary warriors are extremely reluctant to give up.

Act III: Knife Dance

Finally, let's talk about the swordsmanship of Japanese samurai (also known as (ancient) kendo), which also has an evolution process. At the beginning, after the Yuan Dynasty founded the Kamakura shogunate era with martial arts spirit, the knife method prevailed. After the mid-Muromachi period, it was even more troubled times. Not only samurai, but also ordinary people are competing to practice martial arts, so kendo is becoming more and more popular. The kendo hall for teaching knife skills began to be established, and the knife skills were gradually systematized. From then on, a clear genre name appeared. In Muromachi era, kendo was called "the art of war", but in Japanese history, Mr. Musashi Miyamoto (1584- 1645) called fencing or fencing as "the small art of war", but called it "the great art of war" as the general art of war. He personally initiated the "two-knife flow" attack and never gave up. With the shape of Japanese mountain city, it is most suitable for chopping, so the knife method that attaches importance to chopping like "Flying Heaven and Imperial Sword Flow" is most suitable; However, due to the unique smelting technology of Japanese knives, the mountain city has six sides and six arcs, which can intersect at the tip, and the sharpness of the tip can be imagined. Therefore, the samurai knife method can also take into account the function of puncture. For example, the "three-tooth process" of natural flow management is an exaggerated version of puncture. Judging from the trailer, it is obvious that Cruise has not mastered such advanced technology. Even if his "two-knife flow" is developed, it is estimated that it is not as good as the authentic ancient knife flow. However, his "one-knife flow" technique is quite different, and he is quite famous for beheading Hanjiro Nakamura at the end of the curtain. I wonder if there is any connection between Katsumoto and Nakamura.

In addition, it should be noted that the Meiji period shown in the film is also the period when modern kendo began to sprout, and real substitutes for knives such as wooden knives and bamboo swords began to appear. In the film, the children in samurai village practice with wooden knives, and so does Cruise in the beginner stage. Because it was practice, and there was no protective gear at that time, the knife method only sought its shape, and the attack closest to the opponent's body was the best. Although the lethality of the wooden knife is not as good as that of the real knife, the master's full blow is enough to make people lie down for half a day. In the film, Cruz was cut in the neck with a tail-wood knife, and he was able to get up and continue to soak up widows. This can only be said to be the care of the director.