Despite the fact that my eyes start bleeding whenever I look at a computer screen, I humbly accept the duty of adding another post to Secret Garden.
We will continue with today’s theme, wading through the blood-washed world of the Samurai. However, now we shall put aside the weeping wives and gushing veins and sheath our
gory appetites to better appreciate the secret lives of the samurai as it may be. We will now look at those aspects of the Samurai you probably never learned about from your language teacher. Today, we go Where Swordplay Meets rock’n'roll.
As I was saying in my post on Samurai Fiction, there is a whole sub-culture in Visual Kei and theme rock that is something like a cosmic coming-together of two great aspects of Japanese culture: hard rock and hakama. It’s rather obvious, really… Although I made it up, hah, we can refer to it as “Samu Pan” (samurai punk). Remember how I was saying that I believe Kabuki to be Visual Kei’s ancestor? Actually, the truth is, the samurai have been rocking out for a long time. Probably since the introduction of the electric-guitar in the 16th century when the Buddhist Monk Sei Tsun was found off-shore in Osaka Bay, meditating on a Marshall amplifier… then the clever Japanese invented something cool to plug into it to amuse the Shogun…
Don’t believe me? Check this stuff out…
The video you just watched was the song Returner ~ Yami no Shuuen.
It is a mouth-watering display of pure Samurai-rock. In the Samurai-rock sub-culture, there is a sort of hierarchy built not unlike the societies of historic Japan.
Here, at the front of it all is Gackt in his favorite role: evil war-lord. He sets a high-standard for Samurai-rock, and uses it when he goes out and gets his armies pumped for battle. Didn’t your Japanese teacher ever tell you that Uesegi Kenshin was a rock-idol?
Next up are the cronies. There are the people, like Gackt who go out and conquer,
and then there are the young ones in training who stay home.
LM.C- Chemical King Twoon
I’m a fan of LM.C, but honestly…the only thing they conquer is the salon.
These guys are definitely still in training. Samurai Boy de Penicillin.
Neither Pencillin or LM.C have really done much for the Samurai-rock culture, but being relatively respectable bands, they would have failed if they didn’t add to it somehow. Death before dishonor and all that.
Rocking out since 1600
Now we’ll dust off our hakama and leave the men’s territory for a bit. This stuff is a little closer to “Kabuki rock”. I also call this “what the women would be at home doing if they were actually handsome young men just pretending to be women.” D dress up in fantastical, girly, gothic kimono ensembles and rock out from time to time. Apparently vocalist ASAGI is quite the avid reader, and has an interest in old historical stuff. Rumor has it some of his songs, including the one in the video, Ouka Saki Some ni Keri are written in an “old fashioned” “literary” style that utlizes dated aspects of Japanese language.
Sei...Shona...gon?
Now we can tip the hat again to “Japanese samurai guitarist” Miyavi.
What some people, the Samurai rockers for example, do for a hobby, some people do for a living. Yup, with as bad a reputation as the first punk groups, the ninja are still at it with a vengeance. Where there is kabuki rock and Samurai rock, there is also a dose of Ninjutsu!
Sometimes these guys chill out....
And these people… ninja-rock…because we weren’t already majorly convoluted. Onmyouza~ Kouga Ninpouchou; this is the opening
...and let the ninja rock out!
theme to the amazing anime series Basilisk. Onmyouza is important to this topic because they are some very core theme-rock; they sing about historical subjects, Japanese mythology, et all. They perform exclusively in traditional-ish kimono/hakama style outfits (with a fantasy twist), and Kuro Neko sings in a style that is reminiscent of enka and kabuki vocals. Onmyouza isn’t particularly well-known, but they are an important band in the ‘other-facets’ of Visual culture.
It exists, I’m telling you.
And our last video is something of an “honorable mention”….
This guy knows exactly what I’m talkin’ about…
