There is nothing Japanese about Miriam and Martin Carrington, of west Yorkshire, England. The couple, however, did have an interest in Japanese culture, and that lead them to purchase a 'wall hanger' decorate katana for their bedroom several years ago. As far as Miriam could recall, she had never even taken it out of its scabbard.
but that all changed one night when three men broke into the couple's home while they were there and ordered them to hand over the keys to their £40,000 ($54,090.00) Audi. Martin ordered his wife to run to the bedroom and lock the door as the three men pressed in, shouting threatened and repeated orders to hand over the keys.
Miriam, however, had a different idea.
"‘I suppose I just went into crazy mode." She explained to the paper After running to the bedroom, she grabbed the weapon, held it, and ran back to confront the three men. "I held the blade towards him to stop him moving and then the silly idiot, who was wearing gloves, grabbed the blade with both hands. I then pulled it back towards me and that is when it has sliced through his hands."
The damage to the man's hand was so severe that a doctor later said that he was close to death from blood loss by the time he and his two co-conspirators got him to help. His attorney would later state that the man had completely lost feeling in several fingers, and that the cut was through several tendons and into the bones.
Miriam and Martin were exonerated of any wrong doing, and the intruders have been charged with multiple counts of criminal conduct for their attack that night.
See the full article in the Daily Mail.
The situation in Australia for actor Blake Davis, however, is less clear.
What is known is that an intruder broke into the actor's home while Blake's girlfriend was with him. In the ensuing confrontation, Blake delivered a single blow with a Katana that struck the intruder on the head. The single hit, delivered with an blade that was also razor sharp, would prove fatal, and the home intruder would later die of the resulting injury.
This is where the facts stop and the disputes begin.
Davis said that the attacked pointed a weapon at him, and then his girlfriend, a statement that the police said they were not able to cooperate with other people in the home.
Also, Davis admitted to chasing the fleeing attacker after the fatal blow was delivered, for almost 80 yards
For the prosecutors, this was evidence of criminal intent. Final arguments for the case were heard this week. Davis' defense attorneys have leaned hard on the emotions of the situation, pointing Blake's fear for the safety of his girlfriend, and the fact that he only delivered one blow with the weapon.
Prosecutors, however have argued that the Davis understood the weapon's capabilities, and that his aggressive actions, including chasing the attacker for three quarters the length of a soccer field constitutes and attack, and is not self defense.
A Judge has already ruled that the Murder accusation against Davis could not go forward, leaving the remaining charges as the Australian equivalent to manslaughter.
None the less, the Jury is still considering if Davi's actions rise to the level of criminal assault, or are, in fact truly self defense.
Analysis.
One of the interesting aspects of these two stories is the name of the weapon. Both article, written for different publications, literally half the globe apart, describe the weapon as "Samurai Swords". The reality is that the actual Samurai class used a number of weapons during their nearly millennium long existence, including multiple blades ranging from 8 inches, all the way to 50 or more.
However, no blade has more come to personify Japan than the katana sword. This is due to a number of factors, some external, some internal. After the second world war, stories of Japanese officers with katanas leading infantry charges were some of the most vivid tales to come out of the pacific theater, and were part of the reason that sword ownership, or instruction were banned outright by the american occupational government on the island for multiple years after the war.
The Second aspect of this is a cultural one that started during feudal japan, but shaped the modern nation and some of its art. To varying degrees, Japanese marshal arts have taught that the weapon was an extension of the person holding it, and that part of its purpose was to express the warrior spirit of the person. This philosophy extended into world war two, and included the institutional practice of some models of machine guns being fitted with bayonets as it was 'appropriate' for the weapon to properly express the role of the man holding it. This was the same philosophy that encouraged and reinforced the idea that officers had to hold swords (and pistols) rather than rifles for most of the war.
Following the war, however, as the shattered entertainment industry worked to rebuild itself under a newly pacified national government, the national pride and history would find a safe venue tof expression in movies, manga (comic books) and later on, TV shows. As the Japanese culture already gravitated towards more fantastical expressions of cinema than western audiences preferred, Japnese media, both live action and animated (and manga) would leave a dramatic (and somewhat inflated) impression of the classic Katana on non-Japanese consumers.
In Japan, traditionally, the swords were used as a way to express the prowess and power of the character. The weapon was capable of its many feats because of the skill of the person holding it.
However, for American, British and Canadian audiences, with a more secular worldview at the time, the message was that the characters were made powerful because of the strength and sharpness of the blade.
In this cultural mistranslation sits the roots of the Katana's near mythical status with western audiences, and why it is now almost exclusively associated with the Samurai, and why a Katana (often called a Samurai sword) is one of the first things casual students of Japanese history go for when they pull out their wallet.
His Lordship Ivo Blackhawk
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"Long Live the King!"
No comments:
Post a Comment