Pop culture’s obsession with the Samurai sword
Need to eviscerate a vampire deflect a bullet or defend your shack from an army of zombies? The katana is your sword of choice at least according to the movies. In recent years this elegant and lethal device has become more fetishized and iconic than virtually any other weapon save for that perennial favourite the handgun which has never been out of fashion. We’ve seen Japanese steel cut through metal bone and concrete delivering precision cuts invisible to the eye until both halves of the target finally slide apart while the swordsman poses dramatically in the background. Afterwards it’s still sharp enough to slice through a tomato. (Or am I thinking of those fancy steak knives I saw advertised on late-night television?)
Manufacturers of replica swords always include some version of the katana in their catalogues; they would never be taken seriously otherwise. Ask a sword enthusiast about the katana and you’ll get a rhapsodic monologue about honour bushido the folding process layers of steel fast-drawing sharpness and unparalleled craftsmanship. Still at the end of the day it pretty much does the same job that other sharpened bits of steel could accomplish. Why get so worked up over this particular sword? Where’s the love for the cavalry sabre rapier broadsword gladius falchion or scimitar?
We’re a culture that likes to focus on “the best” to the point that we don’t really pay much attention to second place. We’ll squeal with delight over the capabilities of an expensive katana even though a nine-dollar machete can also cut things. Once we hear that a particular blade is the best that’s the one we want. In Pulp Fiction (1994) Bruce Willis famously selects a katana as his weapon of choice from a collection of lethal devices on a pawn shop’s shelves. The katana was mythologized even further in the same director’s Kill Bill (2003-2004) in which Uma Thurman cuts down an entire army of attackers with a katana built for her by the finest sword maker on Earth. Of course we were already fans of the katana by then having seen it in action in Highlander (1986) and before that in classic Japanese films like The Seven Samurai (1954). Clearly the cult of the katana is in full swing at the moment but the general feeling is that in North America at least this enthusiasm is probably only a few decades old. So what started it? When precisely did the katana attain its mythic standing in this country?
My best guess is that it was the 1980 miniseries Shogun that thrust the weapon into the North American mainstream. The show was a huge “event” at the time leading to an unprecedented popularity in Japanese culture art and cuisine. Westerners learned a lot about feudal Japan by watching Shogun including the cultural significance of the katana which was shown as a sort of badge of authority as well as being a peerless weapon. The sword was shown to great effect not just in the narrative (a shocking decapitation is in the first episode) but also in the promotional artwork and the title sequence in which the actor’s faces appear reflected in a shining blade. The James Clavell novel upon which the miniseries is based is easily identified by the katana on the cover. Even if you forgot the story you remembered the sword.
Prior to Shogun the katana was mostly visible to Canadians in art house films such as the work of Akira Kurosawa. Afterwards it exploded into the mainstream. Ninjas who made a brief but memorable appearance in Shogun became icons themselves leading to a glut of ninja movies in the 1980s. That was also the decade in which Japanese animation began to catch on in the West.
Now years later the katana still enjoys its position as king of the swords. If the mood strikes me I can select dozens of movies and TV shows that feature this magnificent weapon or perhaps wield one myself in a video game. I know people who actually own katanas and you probably do too. Is it over-represented in our popular culture? Who cares? It’s just darn cool.
