Popular Culture and the Samurai

Samurai’s have always been a staple in our pop culture. TV shows, movies, cartoons and video games. The samurai always had a katana with them making them a little stereotypical. But the sword is the epitome of the samurai. Even in Japan there are cartoons about samurais. The premise of most samurai’s movies or cartoons, the samurai meets the bad guys and in the end the samurai always wins.

The first book about samurai’s was called Shogun by James Clavell. It is set in feudal Japan in the year 1600 and the book is purely fictional. The Shogun was the first book in a long line of literary works about samurai’s. The samurai’s films and westerns do share a lot of similarities in their stories, each has influenced each other. If you have ever watched a western and a samurai movie you will note the similarities.

There are many movies that have been based on the samurai, for example, Abarembo Shogun, Battle of Shiroyama, The Last Samurai, and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. The most popular movie is Kill Bill by director Quentin Tarintino. That movie was popular all over the world. The samurais have appeared in many Japanese comics called manga and in many anime’s.

The reason why the samurai is so widely used in pop culture is because the samurai represents the warrior that deep inside everyone wants to be. They want to be able to fight like a true samurai. The samurai represents respect and strength as well. Samurai’s have even appeared in video games, where you get to be the samurai and defeat the bad guys with the Katana.