Famous Historical Figures of Japan

[AoshiShinomori]

It is a japan forum after all and I suddenly realized that aside from all the wonderful anime and manga threads there seems to be precious little about japanese history. So I figured it would be best to start out a thread on the historical figures of japan so we can keep adding to them whenever we have information. Doing this not only brings the actual figures to light, it also fills in the history of Japan based on the biography of these figures.

I'm choosing to start with an old historical figure from the Heian era. His name was Sugaware no Michizane and he was very famous for his poetry. However, his story stands as testimony on how being a scholar or professor could still lead you to the highest echelons of politics.

Sugawara no Michizane:

Sugawara no Michizane was born on March 26, 903 (yes that's just a three digit year! I can't believe it either ^_^)

His entire family were a bunch of scholars. Starting from his grandfather, his family served the court in teaching and other scholarly activities. His dad in fact began a school and taught special classes for the entrance examination to the national school etc.

Talented young Sugawara aced his exams and got right into national school and continuing in the family tradition, he joined the court as a scholar upon completion of his studies. As a scholar in court he also took on thepost of a government official.

Sugawara was skilled in Chinese and oftentimes used this skill to aid diplomatic negotiations with the foreign embassies of China. Aside from this Sugawara also ran the school his father founded. This not only shows his proclivity for academics but also stands to reason that his family was close knit and served together. He was eventually appointed Monjo Hakushi, the highest professorial office at the university. This was a tremendous achievement and regardless of which era it was in, the fact that he got this post only means that he could pull a good few strings. Monjo Hakushi, although it sounds like a ninjutsu attack, was actually the highest office achievable by a historian equivalent pretty much to getting a Nobel prize.

Like all stories however, once you go all the way to the top, there's only one way left to go.... DOWN!... and that's exactly what happened to Sugawara as well. He lost favor in the court and was, so to speak, "demoted" to be governor of a province. Kinda makes you wonder how high he must have been if an act of stepping down still landed him as a governor . Obviously though, this means that he lost his office as a professor. No mention has been made as to whether he continued to participate and run the private school his family started during this period.

Power is as addictive as wine and Sugawara kept his eyes open for any other opportunity to regain the favour that he had lost. As fate would have it, such an opportunity presented itself when a political conflict arose between Emperor Uda and Fujiwara no Mototsune. Sugawara gave his advice to Mototsune and gained his favor resulting in him being called back to Kyoto.

Later in his life, he was appointed ambassador to China ...but get this... he ended up supporting the abolishment (removal) of such offices altogether (especially to China). Historians believe this move against his own office was motivated by the decline of the Tang Dynasty.

Truth however might actually point to a bigger irony in matters. As it turns out most japanese of that era were very literate in written chinese but had little to no knowledge of spoken chinese!!!! Michizane, as the nominated ambassador to China, couldn't very well ask for an interpretor when holding such an office .

Having regained grace however, Sugawara rose to high positions of the imperial court under the grace of the Emperor. History however, has a strange way of repeating itself so in 901 he fell into a trap of his rival Tokihira and was "demoted yet again" to a minor official of Dazaifu.

That was sugwara's last fall and after his death, plague and drought spread and sons of Emperor Daigo died in quick succession. The Imperial Palace's Great Audience Hall (shishinden) was struck repeatedly by lightning, and the city experienced weeks of rainstorms and floods. If not for the absence of 70mm film, this could well have been the making of the film "mummy" . Brendon Fraiser however seemed to have this written into his fate so these calamities were blamed on the dead Sugawara and his "torrential" rage (if you'll pardon the pun ).

In an attempt to pacify his raging soul, a shrine was built to honour him called Kitano Tenmangu in Kyoto. As with all skunky officials, they posthumously restored his title and office, and gave him a clean slate just when he couldn't use it anymore ^^. What followed was nothing short of apotheficiation and Sugawara was worshipped as Tenjin-sama, or kami of scholarship. Today many Shinto shrines in Japan are dedicated to him.

Incidentally the office of the ambassador to china was abolished as well and was attributed to "persuasive reasoning" from Sugawara (a.k.a all-hell-broke-lose-after-he-died ).... and that concludes the story of our first historical figure of Japan.

Stay tuned for more historical figures and feel free to post any more that you might know about

[samokan]

Sakamoto Ryoma

Yoshida Shoin

[Absutoth]

Amakusa Shirō - Catholic Martyr Shimabara Rebellion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[ShibaInu]

Originally Posted by Absutoth

Amakusa Shirō - Catholic Martyr Shimabara Rebellion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

x

Shougo Amakusa, a villain-hero in Samurai X anime series was partly based on this actual Amakusa Shirō character.

[KeithDas]

i whould like to learn more about japanese sword smiths. Mostly just masamune, forgive me if i spelt that incorrectly. I have always been greatly interested in japanese history, i love to find out everything i can. Im very fond of blacksmithing in general i find that nowadays its a dying trade.

[AoshiShinomori]

Originally Posted by samokan

Sakamoto Ryoma

Yoshida Shoin

Sammyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Long time no see! It's so good to have you back here

I just started going through some of the articles here. That was a very interesting piece about Ryoma Sakamoto. Funny how it practically matches the "kenichi" anime . Given how he starts out getting bullied by others at school and then enrolls into fencing school and becomes a master swordsman sounded very exciting.

And there was also that part about Kaishu Katsu where he first tried to assasinate him but then ended up working for him after hearing his side of the story. That entire arc was actually part of the Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X) anime where Kenshin plays the part of the asassin !!!!! It just amazes me how much of Japans history is actually captured within anime like Samurai X...

Great going sammy! Keep up the good work!

[AoshiShinomori]

Since someone has particularly asked, I'm typing in some stuff about Masamune. Most of the information is from Wiki but typing it out gives it a personal touch instead of just a link so here goes...

Masamune Okazaki , also known as Goro Nyudo Masamune (Priest Goro Masamune) was pretty much japans most famous swordsmith. Much mystery remains around his life and until today no valid date has been arrived at for his birth. The general consensus is that he created swords in the 14th century from 1290 to 1350'ish.

As is known japanese katanas are broadly classified as Katana's, wakizashi's and tanto's (large, medium and small swords). Masamune's speciality lay within the Katana and Tanto. Together these were called daisho and the tanto was used for close hand to hand combat while the katana's reach was a little longer.

The interesting part was that Masamune gained fame in an era when steel was generally impure and where refining it took a lot of ingenius effort. Another interesting fact was that Masamune practically perfected the art of embedding crystals in the swod making it glitter. This art was called Nie. His sword making style is specially known for a distinctive grey lines on the leading edge (called chikei) and also lightning like streaking along the blade (called Kinsuji). He did most of his smithery study under Shintogo Kunimitsu.

Masamune's best works were signed with his name. The Honjo Masamune which was the sword of the tokugawa shogunate passed down the generations is probably the most famous Masamune work.

Signed works of Masamune are rare. The examples "Fudo Masamune", "Kyogoku Masamune", and "Daikoku Masamune" are accepted as his genuine works. His swords are the most frequently cited among those listed in the Kyôho Meibutsu Cho, a catalogue of excellent swords in the collections of feudal lords, edited during the Kyoho era by the Hon'ami family of sword appraisers and polishers. The catalogue was created on the orders of the Tokugawa Yoshimune of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1714 and consists of three books. The first book known as the Nihon Sansaku is a list of the three greatest sword smiths in the eyes of Toyotomi Hideyoshi including Etchu Matsukura Go Umanosuke Yoshihiro, Awataguchi Toshiro Yoshimitsu, and lists 41 blades by Goro Nyudo Masamune. Funny part is Masamune has more swords in that book than the other two put together!!! Talk about master smith eh?

[KeithDas]

That was very cool thank you<>

[koaku]

maybe a stupid question but did Takezo Kensei really exist?lol

[Debezo]

Originally Posted by koaku

maybe a stupid question but did Takezo Kensei really exist?lol

maybe, Takezo Kensei is based on Musashi Miyamoto.
Musashi is a most famous swordsman in Japan.
Takezo is a kun-yomi of 武蔵[Musashi].(Kun-yomi is japanese reading of Kanji)
Kensei means sword-saint, Musashi's famous title.