Sorta OT: Highlight of today

Ah, the wonderful Japanese literature class, with the professor who
dislikes samurai...

Today, I read one of my favorite poems from Matsuo Basho: Summer
Grass/All that remains/of warriors' dreams. I told the teacher that
this was the first Basho poem I'd read, and knowing my pro-samurai
stance, he laughed and said, "Ah, so this is what got you started!"
And I was like, "What, with Basho or samurai?" and then, a guy I
hardly know, said "Freak" from the other side of the classroom. We
stared each other down for so long that the teacher had to step in...

What is up with these people? Why do they hate samurai so much? I
realize they weren't _all_ wonderful-- I mean, people like Kato
Kiyomasa were good generals, but brutal and utterly heartless-- but
that doesn't mean that ALL samurai were bad, right? It's like Victor
Harris said in the conclusion of his biography of Miyamoto Musashi--
"The aim of this cruel, headstrong man was evidently most humble and
honest." These people were warriors-- it was their business to fight.
But ultimately, all most of them really wanted was to acheive true
strength, to bring stability (and consequently, peace) to the realm,
and also to better themselves in the knolwedge of both literary and
martial arts-- after all, like Lord Hojo Soun said:

"Hold literary skills in your left hand, martial skills in your right.
This is the law from ancient times. Never neglect it."

Any thoughts?

--M.

Shimazu Masayoshi wrote:

>What is up with these people? Why do they hate samurai so much?
>

It might very well be because their perceptions of who and what samurai
were are based on all the cheezy movie/video game depictions they've
seen much like your professor's impression that the WWII kamikaze pilots
are his version of samurai..

--
Barbara Sheridan

http://www.barbarasheridan.net

> What is up with these people? Why do they hate samurai so much?

Because they don't understand that samurai are ~people~ and people are
all different and unique not all evil not all good...they only see
stereotypes. Close-mindedness is very common in the academic setting,
wait I should add
close-mindedness+advanced degree= stubborn people who hand out your grades