In the old days (1908 ~ the 1930s)、during the heyday of Silent Films, there was no such thing as subtitling of movies in countries like Japan (that loved western culture).
Also, as in the west, pianists or string quartets would accompany the Silent Films (Until the music started recording those soundtracks in 1923). So, how did, say, Charles Chaplin or Rudolph Valentino, become worldwide stars when people couldn't understand the silent movies? Or the cards that were inserted into the films to explain situation or dialogue?
There's no way the average Japanese could read this back then...
Heck, it would be troublesome today!... Wait a sec... You guys all read English...
Imagine if the cards said this:
Get it? They could be on the screen for 2 minutes and it wouldn't matter! Chuckle!
Outside of English speaking countries, the films were narrated and explained by what is called, "rhetorician." The Merriam Webster dictionary defines, "rhetorician," as a: "master or teacher of rhetoric; an orator." Or "an eloquent or grandiloquent writer or speaker." In Japan, these orators were called, "Benshi."
Benshi (stage left)
The Benshi would stand on the stage to the side of the screen and explain the situations in the movies and even add in character dialogue... Some of these benshi were incredible at what they did; many became superstars in their own right. In fact, these benshi were responsible for people like Chaplin or Valentino becoming famous in Japan. Many fans came to see the Benshi, not so much to see the Hollywood stars! Chaplin or Valentino or the rest were the side acts... Many people came to be entertained by the oratory of the legendary Benshi... For many people in Japan, it was the Benshi, not the Hollywood stars in the movie that was the main reason for attending the theaters back in old Japan in those days. I believe, as far as cinema and the mass media, the rhetoricians, the Benshi, were the very first in the evolution of today's voice actors.
Thirty years ago, in Tokyo's Asakusa district, there was a theater called, "Kaminari Theater" (Lightning Theater) and they used to have performances just as they were held during of the heyday of silent films: They would have evenings set up to recreate the exact experience and event of Benshi and Silent Films from the 1920s. In the old days, in Japan, going to the cinema and seeing a Benshi was a premium experience for the high-class; people would have dinner and champagne or sake while watching the Silent Films. I went often to those recreations in the 1980s. Kaminari Theater used to show these Silent Films with quartet & Benshi. When the films were over, I was so impressed, moved and inspired, I had tears in my eyes.
Benshi: Sawato Midori
If this is difficult for you to comprehend, about the Benshi, here's an example: It might be difficult to understand because it's in Japanese, but watch this lady, Sawato Midori, she is awesome. At the very start, she does the voices, of the daughter, mother, sister; then she goes on to do the voices of the samurai men who are fighting... And then flawlessly back to the narrator. Here is Sawato Midori who is probably Japan's top Benshi.... Even today! She's an incredible talent, : https://youtu.be/nAdtP6Y01bs?t
I met some executives at a silent movie company in Tokyo the other day and am attempting to arrange a showing of, perhaps, a Chaplin movie (and an old samurai movie) with a string quartet accompaniment and a Benshi for our Mt. Fuji - Atami Film & VR Festival and other Japan film festivals planned.
The events will be promoted just like the above explanation. They will be promoted as something like, "A time trip back to Japan of the 1920s." The shows might include a dinner (like the food they ate back in those days) and drinks.. Drinks from the 1920s: Salty Dog, champagne, rice wine.
After everyone is served, the main event starts: A Harold Lloyd, Chaplin or Samurai Silent film with quartet and Benshi... Everyone can experience the past and even foreigners will like it as the Samurai movies even have English subtitles in most cases movies and the Chaplin films have the dialogue and situation card inserted. I think this would be the most fantastic theatrical experience! Time trip back to the days of the Silent Movie stars, dinner, the show featuring a string quartet and the Benshi! A once in a lifetime trip to a better time and an age long gone by. Form more information about the Mt. Fuji - Atami Film Festival see: http://atamifilmfestival.org/
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For more information about Mt. Fuji Atami Film & VR Festival
This post is dedicated to Stephen David Brooks, Koji Kamibayashi, Sawato Midori, My wife, Candice Anne Marshall, Scott Hillier, Giedre Bumbulyte and Elliot Grove.
I was walking from Roppongi to Aoyama itchome station yesterday when I happened upon a home that looked to be at least 150 years old. That's not so unusual in a country as old as Japan. But a few minutes walk from Roppongi station? That was a bit surprising.
General Maresuke Nogi standing in front of his house in Minato ku.
You can visit this house today. It's still standing there!
I noticed the sign said that the public was welcomed (do not enter the actual home) so I walked into the grounds. It was the former residence and stables of one of the most famous Japanese in history; General Maresuke Nogi.
You can see that in the above black & white photo of General Nogi at the top of this article,
he was posing in front of the steps at the front door, standing just next to the right
General Nogi was the Japanese general who lead Japan to victory over the Russians on land in the 1904 - 1905 war that was the first war in history where an Asian country defeated a European nation. That was an event that was most probably instrumental in building Japanese nationalism and the belief, in some circles, that Japan could defeat western nations.
That war was back in the day of the Big Powers and when militarism was pretty much common practice amongst them all and you know the Japanese military were just as hard-core as the next; probably much more so. As a history geek, I've read much about that and admired General Nogi as he was able to pull off that victory over the Russians - especially since the Russians were in defensive positions - it was trench warfare - both sides had "machine-gun type" of weapons - and the Russian troops had outnumbered the Japanese 2 - 1! You know, this Big Power mentality started even before the days of Napolean and, unfortunately, in a few nations, still continuing on to this day.
House to the left and statue. Trail heading to where there used to be a well.
Who was General Nogi and what did he do? Why is he so revered in Japan? Count Nogi Maresuke was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and, later, a governor of Taiwan. He was one of the commanders during the victory over China in the war of 1894 - 1895. He was the Japanese General in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 – 1905 who defeated the Russians in a brutal war.
Satsuma Clan samurai
General Nogi thus became a national hero in Imperial Japan as a model of feudal loyalty and self-sacrifice. He would later become the example of the "dark" Japanese tradition of ritual suicide. In the Satsuma Rebellion, he lost a banner of the emperor in battle, for which he tried to atone with suicidal bravery in order to recapture it, until ordered to stop. In the Russo-Japanese War, he captured Port Arthur but he felt that he had lost too many of his soldiers (about 50,000 Japanese soldiers died along with 50,000 Russian troops in a preview of trench warfare for World War I), so General Nogi requested permission to commit suicide, which the emperor refused. These two events, as well as his desire not to outlive his master (junshi), motivated his suicide on the day of the funeral of the Emperor Meiji. For you folks living here in Tokyo, my wife says that she thinks it is because of General Nogi that an area near Roppongi is called, "Nogizaka" (Nogi hill). Makes sense.
Trail from home leading down to the garden
I looked up information on General Nogi and the home I was visiting on the "Prominent People of Minato City" webpage. Here's what it says about the home and history of General Maresuke Nogi as a prominent figure from Minato Ku:
Biography 1849-1912. Military man and army general. Maresuke Nogi was the third son of Maretsugu Nogi and served in the Boshin War and the Seinan War. After studying in Germany, he took to the field as the Brigade Commander of the 1st Infantry Regiment in the Japanese-Sino War and was the Commander of the 3rd Corps in the Russo-Japanese War.
Nogi shrine is just down the trail behind the house from the street.
Association with Minato City: From his birth to suicide, his fierce life reflected the times General Nogi, who is referred to as a military man of Meiji, was born in the manor of the daimyo Mori Kainokami of the Chofu clan in Azabu Hidakubo, Edo. His childhood name was Nakito, and he was renamed Marehito as an adult. The grounds of the manor had formerly contained the original “Ubuyu no Ido” (well), where Marehito’s father is said to have poured cold water on the young Nakito, who was crying because of the cold, but in a redevelopment of these grounds it was buried. The grounds of the manor had also contained the bronze statues of General Nogi and Urauri Tsuji, a boy who financially supported his family by selling papers on which was written fortune-telling advice, but they have been moved to the old Nogi Manor. The stone monument that for many years indicated the manor as the birthplace of General Nogi has also been moved, to Sakurazaka Park, which is south of Roppongi Hills. The old Nogi Manor and the stables, which are designated tangible cultural properties of Minato City, are In Akasaka, where Nogi spent his life from 1879. The stables consist of a valuable brick structure, and it is said that the manor was designed by Nogi himself, based on a building of the French army headquarters. Nogi Shrine was built nearby after his death, and the slope in front of the shrine was named Nogizaka. His remains rest in Aoyama Reien (Name of Cemetery).
Breath-taking beauty of old Japan and traditional gardens just 5 minutes walk from Roppongi!
The former residence and stables of General Maresuke Nogi in Minato Ku is a very nice place to visit. You can relive history and see how it was in Japan 120 years ago. As I walked back out the entrance to the huge busy street in front of the home, I could imagine what this place had been once: a small shopping street and there would have been a parade and streamers flying when Nogi returned a national hero after defeating the Russians. It was the apex, or at least one of them, of Japanese military power and something that indirectly lead to World War II. Visit yourself! See what Japan looked like 120 years ago, just a short walk from Roppongi station. Entrance is free! Information below. I think it might be a great quiet place to eat my bento lunch and enjoy the trees, the birds and nature... Right in the middle of Tokyo.
*Birthplace of General Nogi (Roppongi Hills, 6-9 Roppongi) *Old Nogi Manor and stables (Nogikoen, 8-11-32 Akasaka) *Nogi Shrine (8-11-27 Akasaka) *Tomb of Maresuke Nogi (Aoyama Reien, 2-chome Minamiaoyama) *Map (Sorry, Japanese): http://yahoo.jp/-A5tj9
"Newsweek stands strongly behind Ms. Goodman and her article. Ms. Goodman’s reporting was motivated by a search for the truth surrounding a major business story, absent any other agenda. The facts as reported point toward Mr. Nakamoto’s role in the founding of Bitcoin."
As a long time Japan resident, Japanophile, and all around half-Japanese born geek and well studied in Japanese history, I can tell you that when I read the first Newsweek article, "Discovering Nakamoto," I was fascinated too...
Until, halfway through the article, I hit one sentence...
The sentence read: "Descended from Samurai and the son of a Buddhist priest, Nakamoto was born in July 1949 in the city of Beppu, Japan, where he was brought up poor in the Buddhist tradition by his mother, Akiko."
I immediately stopped reading it right there because it lost all credibility at that point. Why? The "descended from Samurai" sentence defies belief.
In the 80s I worked under a guy named Hasegawa who was a Japanese historian. I will never forgot the day when he showed me an English textbook, written by a caucasian American, that said, "Japan's economic recovery was due to hard working Japanese. The Japanese received their work ethic from their samurai ancestors."
Hasegawa threw the book down, scoffed and said, "Ridiculous. This is western romanticist fantasy that Japanese have samurai ancestors. No one has samurai ancestors! Absurd!"
After that, I began to look into it and, indeed, the numbers of people in this country who came from families who were samurai you can count on ten toes; they are basically non-existent because most samurai were too poor to marry and, in a class society, you generally marry within your social strata. That would mean that, generally speaking, samurai who married would have married the daughters of other samurai... (They certainly wouldn't marry the peasant class which was 98% of the population.)
I already mentioned that most samurai couldn't afford to marry. (At the peak of the samurai warrior class (about 1598) there weren't a few hundred thousand of them in total...) (See: http://www.alljapan1.com/counter/index.php?cat=175)
Sure, that doesn't dispute the entire Newsweek story, but that's not my point.
Realistically speaking, it doesn't compute... The odds of this guy, Nakamoto, being the Bitcoin brain AND having samurai ancestors would be akin to, say, Steve Jobs being directly descended from George Washington or Benjamin Franklin... Or even worse odds than that as most of the samurai disappeared 400+ years ago. Yeah, I know... It's anal-retentive (I'm that way often)...But stuff like that bothers me... That this is in this article throws into question the entire credibility of the source of this information for this story. It sounds like the fantasy script for a samurai anime about Japan, where the good guy, a "Son-of-samurai," against all odds, fights the bad guys... What? Is this the script for next Disney produced Star-Wars movie? Then when people say this is Newsweek article is "investigative reporting" I roll my eyes... Yes, I do have a problem with that... This sounds more like hype, promotion or simply trying to sell magazines (by the way, that issue of Newsweek was its triumphant return to the news racks....)
You can't make this shit up!.... Well, I take that back... You actually can!
I think this is just another farce that works to discredit Bitcoin... Not that it needs help in that department with recent news.... I also think this will make Newsweek and print media even more of a laughing stock than it already is.
This samurai business makes me extremely skeptical of this entire story.
The inventor of Bitcoin, being one guy, and actually Japanese with samurai ancestors is too fantastic to be true.... Hell, if he is a Japanese, he has a higher chance of being a relative to the inventor of Poke-Mon than having "samurai ancestors." ----------
Here's the final sword fight of Orochi, a obscure 1925 samurai film by forgotten director Buntaro Futagawa featuring star Tsumasaburo Bando.
It story concern a unlucky samurai who fall from grace due to various misunderstandings and tries to save his reputation. It's ending makes it different than what we are used to.
It's interesting how it feels like they're trying to capture a wild animal. The whole village is there, scared to death of a single, desperate and crazy-acting man. The battle ends when he kills someone in the crowd. Viewed as a monster by everybody, it is actually the first time he kill someone and can't take it.
Japanese films of the 1920s are almost nonexistent these days due to earthquake, fire and other hazards which have destroyed much of Japan's silent legacy. Orochi is a very rare kind which survived in complete form to these days.
Though it is not exactly a masterpiece (but it is very enjoyable) it's historical importance and uniqueness status can't be overstated; it's a rare chance to enjoy a certain kind of cinema.
The voice you hear is a benshi, a traditional silent film narrator of Japan. This track was recorded for the Digital Meme's DVD release. Thanks to them, this film now can be viewed anywhere in the world.
Happy Thanksgiving! May the rest of this year see you and yours healthy and prosperous!
My son and daughter along with two friends (Ko & Takashi) visiting us for turkey in 2010
Yesterday, I posted about how messed up the Japanese economy was in "Japan is Collapsing." The response to that article was amazing. Thank you... Too bad the article contents are true. Interestingly, just two nights ago I had dinner with some high ranking executives from Germany's biggest television network. They were in Japan on a fact-finding mission and had visited several Japanese corporations who told them all sorts of nonsense stories (spin) about Japan. The most ridiculous one was given to them by a spokesman from either Nissan or Docomo (they couldn't recall which company told them - Jet lag and all). The spokesman told them something along the lines of, "The Japanese work so hard because of their samurai ancestors." I was asked by several of the visiting German delegation if this statement was true. I told them it was "...total and complete bullsh*t!" Actually, I've heard this "samurai ancestors" romanticist nonsense before. It's not true at all. Folks, there might be only a handful of people in Japan who have "samurai ancestors." 95% of all Japanese have peasant-class ancestors and the other 5% or so have merchant class ancestory. The samurai were low-class paid killers and "worked" (if you call it that) for money killing people or being body guards. Their only dedication, generally speaking, was to whoever paid them the most. That certainly doesn't translate into long and hard hours sitting at a desk all through the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s that most Japanese dedicated during the so-called Japanese economic miracle. And a big reason that Japan is messed up today is that she doesn't have the people with the leadership qualities like she used to and her people don't work hard and dedicate the long hours like they used to. For more on that subject please refer to: Why Korea Beats Japan:
"...the biggest problem for Japanese companies versus Korean companies in manufacturing may not be simply issues with design and ease of use, but it has a lot to do with corporate culture in Japan.
Frankly speaking, from what I've seen, Korean companies will continue to beat Japanese companies for the long foreseeable future. There's no way out. Why? Because inside a Korean company, there are no factions fighting for position like what goes on at a Japanese company. Also, Japan doesn't have the leadership it once had; there are no more good leaders, definitely in politics and there is a terrible shortage in business in Japan too.
My Samsung friend put it this way,
"At a Korean company everyone is on the same bus and we are all going the same way. At a Japanese company, the leaders have a very difficult time getting everyone pointed in the same direction."
He's absolutely right.
At a Japanese company groups are struggling within, and against each other, to gain power. At Korean companies, I think they feel it is "Korea versus the world!"
When I worked as an executive at a major Japanese TV station subsidiary, I saw a consistent in-fighting between three or four factions for power. When faction "A" would come to power, the other factions seemed to not put in their best effort. In fact, I saw times when the other factions would actually drag their feet and become a hindrance to the efforts of the group in power.
It was infuriating to me as a foreigner who wasn't inside of any group to see people protecting their friends and their position as the number one work priority rather than the success of the company business or the project.
It seems to me that the success of the project would automatically protect one's position. But no! These folks wanted success for sure, but only if their group was the one in power when that success occurred.
I saw this same problem at a Sony subsidiary, another TV network I worked at in the mid 80s ~ early 90s; and you can readily see this same problem in Japanese politics anytime anywhere.
I was, and am still to this day, astounded at the immaturity of some of these people."
I wrote that article at the end of September. It's been only two months but I only see things getting worse. Also the other night, the COO of the German television network told me that he still thought Sony was a great corporation. I told him,
"You do know that Sony lost a billion dollars last year?"
He said nothing and drank his wine. Sorry to burst his balloon.
The agency slapped a speculative rating on each firm, pointing to their weak balance sheets and declining position in the global electronics sector.
Fitch said it cut Panasonic by two notches to BB, while it slashed Sony's rating by three notches to BB-, with both firms given a negative outlook.
"The downgrade reflects Panasonic's weakened competitiveness in its core businesses, particularly in TVs and panels, as well as weak cash generation from operations," Fitch said in a statement.
"It also reflects the agency's view that the company's financial profile is not likely to show a material improvement in the short to medium term."
Fitch also cast doubt on Sony's prospects, saying a "meaningful recovery will be slow, given the company's loss of technology leadership in key products, high competition, weak economic conditions in developed markets and the strong yen".
Panasonic was also downgraded to one level above junk by Moody's earlier this week.
I just wonder what took them so long to downgrade these companies... All they had to do was to go and check out and talk and work with the people I do and they'd have known 5 years ago that Sony was headed for the trash-can. Heck, when Sony unveiled their MP3 player that was to compete with the iPod years ago and called it the "Walkman" you knew they were out of good leadership and good ideas. Look for Sony to be emblematic of the rise and fall of Japan's economic miracle. ------- This morning, I also received a mail from my good friend Mish Shedlock and he wrote that I could reprint his entire blog post about Japan (that I referred to yesterday) in full and I wish to do so here. Mish has the most wonderful insights and I find his blog to be a "Must Read" everyday. I think you should too!
Japan's grand experiment of decades-long QE coupled with Keynesian foolishness is about to take one last gigantic leap forward before it plunges straight off the cliff into a massive currency crisis.
For years, proponents of aggressive monetary policy have offered this unusual piece of advice as a way to end Japan’s deflationary slump and invigorate the economy. Print lots of money, they said. Keep interest rates at zero. Convince the market that Japan will allow inflation for a while.
Japan’s central bankers long scoffed at such recklessness, which they feared would ignite runaway inflation. But now, the bank’s hand could be forced by an unlikely alliance of economists and lawmakers who have argued for Japan to take more monetary action after more than a decade of weak growth and depressed prices.
Championing their cause is the former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who is favored to return to the top job after nationwide elections next month. Otherwise deeply conservative, Mr. Abe surprised even his own supporters by calling for the Bank of Japan to be much bolder in tackling deflation, the damaging fall in prices, profits and wages that has choked Japan’s economy for 15 years.
In escalating remarks over the last week, Mr. Abe has said that he will press the Bank of Japan to act on government orders if his Liberal Democratic Party wins the Dec. 16 election and even rewrite Japanese law to reduce the bank’s independence.
In a speech in Tokyo on Thursday, Mr. Abe said he would call for the Bank of Japan to set an inflation target of 2 to 3 percent, far above its current goal of about 1 percent, with an explicit commitment to “unlimited monetary easing” — an open-endedness that has caused jitters among some economists. The bank’s benchmark interest rate should be brought back to zero percent from 0.1 percent, Mr. Abe added.
He went even further over the weekend, saying in the southern city of Kumamoto that he would consider having the bank buy construction bonds directly from the government to finance public works and force money into the economy, according to local news reports. That raises concerns, however, the bank may be called on to bankroll unrestrained spending on more roads and bridges that Japan does not need.
Economists cite several missteps by the central bank that have entrenched Japan’s deflationary mind-set and made consumers and businesses wary that the bank’s policies will stick. In early 1999, as the country’s economic woes deepened, the bank lowered a benchmark interest rate to virtually zero and said it would keep rates at zero until deflationary concerns disappeared. But an economic uptick in mid-2000 caused the bank to raise that rate to 0.25 percent despite protests from the government that the move was premature.
Monetarist Mush
Anyone who thinks an interest rate hike from 0% to .1% or even .25% has much influence on economic growth has "monetarist mush" for brains. Seriously.
The NYT does not name the economists, but I have no doubt they exist. Highly respected (for no reason) Richard Koo is one of them.
I have written about Koo on numerous occasions. From Japan's decade long experiment resulting in public debt of a 1,000,000,000,000,000 yen (a quadrillion yen), Koo reckons Japan failed to defeat deflation because it did not do enough!
Japan is in a crisis alright, and it was entirely self-made, by politicians listening to clueless economists all begging Japan to do something.
One Thing Worse
Central banks are bad enough on their own, but history shows that one thing worse than central banks acting on their own is central banks acting under control of politicians.
Committing to a little inflation will push stock prices higher, while a weaker yen will bolster Japan’s exporters and strengthen corporate balance sheets. Incomes will rise, fueling consumption and raising tax revenue for the government, said Kozo Yamamoto, a lawmaker of Mr. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party. “Basically, it’s what the Bank of Japan should have been doing for the past 15 years,” he said. “A few percent of inflation is nothing to be worried about.”
US Populist Position
It's not just Japan loaded up with populist fools. The US has its share of them as well.
For example, Ellen Brown wants to end the Fed and put California politicians (state politicians in general) in charge of printing money to support "growth" as well as union causes.
As I have said, the one thing worse than having a Fed in charge of monetary policy is having politicians in charge of monetary printing!
Inflation will not raise consumption. People do not stop buying things just because prices are falling. Computers are proof enough. Prices of computers and electronic goods have been falling for decades, yet every year the volume of merchandise sold reaches skyward.
History suggests people buy things when they need to or want to not just because prices are rising. Government interference and tax breaks can shift demand forward by a few months (for no real economic benefit of course). There is only so much room to store things.
How much food or clothing can you store? Will you buy a coat you do not need, just because prices are going up? US QE Example
Take a look at the US.
QE has put a floor (for now) on asset prices but it has not done a damn thing for wages.
I come in at about the 3:00 mark, but the first few minutes of Lauren are entertaining as usual.
Average Hourly Earnings vs. CPI
Average hourly earnings has been falling for years and lagging CPI inflation since September 2009. Simply put real wages have been declining. Add in increases in state taxes and the average Joe has been hammered pretty badly.
If inflation and QE forces wages and hiring up, then why didn't it?
The fear for Japan should be rising interest rates not deflation. If interest rates rise a mere 2%, interest on the national debt will consume 100% of government revenues.
When that happens a currency crisis awaits. I have long stated a currency crisis would happen far sooner in Japan than the US, and I believe we are about to find that out soon enough.
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Read more at Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.jp/2012/11/doorsteps-of-currency-crisis-economic.html
