Photo by Tianshu Liu on Unsplash

Samurai Film and Literature:ENG 4910 and 5910 NOTES > Yojimbo Karmic Impacts

Bodhisattvas: The Vow of Liberation

ONLINE Winter Intersession 2017–18 > 20 SAMURAI DAYS Dec 18, 2017 to Jan 07, 2018

It starts with love. . .

[embed]

[embed]

In Buddhism, when one is in trouble, one can call on a Bodhisattva to help. Samurai often find themselves in trouble. Similar to saints in Catholicism,

bodhisattvas have become quite popular to the people of Japan. A bodhisattva is a being who will not reach nirvana until all humans have reached nirvana. They vow to sacrifice their own freedom for the liberation of others. Often ghosts or supernatural beings are lost entities needing help.

Ksitigarbha

Ksitigarbha (Jizo), the protector of children, is a Buddhist bodhisattva, a figure of importance who tries to save demons in hell. Keep in mind Hell is less a place and more a state of mind. Evil is not so much wrong, but misguided state of being. In the Lone Wolf and Cub series, this protector becomes important.

Warrior Koans of Jizo

The samurai Koresada entered the main hall at Kenchô-ji and prayed to the Jizo of a Thousand Forms there. Then he asked the monk in charge of the hall, “Of these thousand forms of Jizo, which is the very first Jizo?” The monk said, “In the mind of the man before me are thousand thoughts and ten thousand fantasies. Which of these is the very first?”

The samurai was silent. The monk then said, “Of the thousand forms of Jizo, the very first Jizo is the

Buddha-lord who is always using those thousand forms.” The warrior asked, “Who is this Buddha-lord?” The monk suddenly caught him and twisted his nose. The samurai’s mind immediately opened.

Testing question: Which is the very first Jizo out of the ten thousand forms of Jizo?

— http://www.zendust.org/jizo/jizobodhisattva.htm

Other popular bodhisattvas

• Avalokitesvara, Guan Yin (Kannon), usually a female, represents compassion for women and children, can hear the pains of the masses.
• Manjusri, bodhisattva of wisdom, has a flaming sword in his right hand that cuts through ignorance.
• Samantabhadra, bodhisattva of meditation, is associated with the Lotus Sutra.

The Ronin with No Name: Genre Hybridity

Yojimbo and Fistful of Dollars

Samurai films borrow from other genres and other genres borrow from samurai films. Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo

(1962), Toshio Mifune as the ronin with no name, was loosely based on Red Harvest (1929) by Dashiell Hammett about gangsters. This film became Sergio Leone’s Per un pugno di dollari (A Fistful of Dollars 1964), a western starring Clint Eastwood as the name with no name.

Hero

Jet Li starred as Nameless in Zhang Yimou’s Ying xiong (Hero 2002) which was loosely based on Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950).

Star Wars

The science fiction classic, Star Wars (1977), was based on Kurosawa’s Kakushi-toride no san-akunin (Hidden Fortress 1958). Also Siu lam juk kau (Shaolin Soccer 2001) was loosely based on Kurosawa’s Shinin no samurai (Seven Samurai 1954).

Photo by Daniel Cheung on Unsplash

Help if you can. . .

[embed]Donate to Help Wayne Stein with Medical Bills, organized by . . "Samurai Stein is facing his greatest opponent yet: an enemy that invades from within. But thi... . . needs your…www.gofundme.com