The Last Samurai

Miss Lewis said, ‘I think we’ve talked enough for one day. Stephen, I want you to think very carefully about what has been said.’

I said I would think about it very carefully.

If I ever have a son and he wants to leave school I will let him because I will remember what it is like.

We went home and Sibylla walked up and down.

‘What shall I do?’ she said. ‘What shall I do?’

I said, ‘Maybe I should just study at home.’

Sibylla said, ‘Hmm.’ She said, ‘Let us consult Mr. Richie,’ and she gave me another page about Sugata Sanshiro to read.

The hero is a man actively engaged in becoming himself—never a very reassuring sight. The villain, on the other hand, has already become something. Everything about Tsukigata suggests that he has arrived. There is not a wasted gesture, not an uncalculated movement. He has found what is to his advantage and acts accordingly. Sugata, by comparison, is all thumbs.

Kurosawa’s preference is the preference we all have for the formed man. In the ordinary film this man would be the hero. But he is not and, despite his admiration, Kurosawa has told us why. One of the attributes of all of his heroes, beginning with Sugata, is that they are all unformed in just this way. For this reason, all of his pictures are about education—the education of the hero.

After this superb battle … one might expect the picture to end with some kind of statement that he has at last grownup, that he has arrived, that he has become something—the great judo champion. This would be the logical Western conclusion to a film about the education of a hero.

Kurosawa, however, has seen that this cannot be true. A hero who actually becomes is tantamount to a villain—for this was the only tangible aspect of the villain’s villainy. To suggest that peace, contentment, happiness, follows a single battle, no matter how important, is literally untrue—and it would limit Sugata precisely because of the limitations suggested in the words “happiness” or “judo champion.”

I asked, ‘Is that enough?’

Sibylla said, ‘That’s enough. What do you think it all means?’

I thought if I get this right I don’t have to go to school. I’ve got to get this right. I looked at the page to stall for time.

I said, ‘It means that it is literally untrue to suggest that peace, contentment, happiness, follows a single battle, no matter how important, and that a hero who actually becomes is tantamount to a villain.’

Sibylla said, ‘A hero who actually becomes what?’

I said, ‘Becomes a villain?’

Sibylla said, ‘Oh what shall I do?’

I said, ‘Becomes himself?’

Sibylla said, ‘What shall I DO?’

I said, ‘Becomes a great judo champion?’

Sibylla said, ‘What shall I DO?’

I said, ‘Becomes happy! Becomes content! Becomes a hero! Becomes something!!!!’

Sibylla said, ‘WHAT shall I DO?’

I thought about 10 years in school and I said, ‘I think what it’s really saying is that you can’t understand something until you go through it. You think you know what something is about and that’s why you do it but then when you do it you realise it’s about something else. What it’s saying is that that’s why it’s important to study judo.’

Sibylla said, ‘JUDO! Why there’s a judo club just up the road! So you COULD study judo COULDN’T you.’

To tell the truth I think I would rather study tae kwon do, but I said, ‘Yes.’

Sibylla said, ‘It does not solve everything but at least it solves one thing. You will meet other children your age in a structured and moral environment and strive to achieve satori. It would not be actually wrong for me to teach you at home.’

She walked up and down. I could see something was bothering her.

I said, ‘I promise not to ask any questions.’

Sibylla kept walking up and down.

I said, ‘I think it solves everything.’

iv

If we fought with real swords I would kill you

1

Trying to feel sorry for Lord Leighton

The man was almost dead.

He should not have been moved after the accident, but they were short of supplies. They had been travelling now for ten days, stopping only to rest the dogs and to snatch a quick mouthful of pemmican.

Now they were down to their last dog. They had eaten Wolf two days before. Soon it would be Dixie’s turn. But without a dog …