Samurai Champloo: Edo Japan, Hip-hop, and the Outcast

Since I’ve already talked a little about the Sengoku period and the Meiji period, I wanted to venture in between these two eras and talk about the Edo period. Begun by Ieyasu Tokugawa, the final of the three great unifiers of Japan, the Tokugawa period saw Japan through two centuries of peace. It was a time of strict social hierarchy, flourishing arts, and isolation from the rest of the world (with the exception of highly regulated trade kept within Nagasaki). This period is the setting of Shinichirō Watanabe’s critically acclaimed anime series Samurai Champloo (2004).

Much like Watanabe’s previous broadcast anime Cowboy Bebop (1998), Champloo is a vibrant blend of styles: Bebop combines jazzy American movie influences with science fiction, whereas Champloo presents samurai action mixed with hip-hop culture. Graffiti art combines with calligraphy, thieves and crooks are portrayed very “gangsta,” and break-dance moves can be seen in many of the fight scenes.

Mugen in a promotional image

However, the show does more than just create a visual blend of samurai and hip-hop culture, but also presents a vision of early modern Japan that is filled with oppressed minorities, subcultures, and other “others” that struggle to find their place in the world. The main characters are perfect examples of this: Mugen is a vagrant from the Ryūkyū islands, a place dominated by Japan but not considered part of Japan proper. Jin is a rōnin, a samurai with no master, because he is unable to find anyone worthy of his services. Fū is in a situation similar to these two, but I don’t want to spoil the details for anyone who hasn’t seen the show.

There are plenty of other minorities, groups and subcultures who are unaccepted by mainstream society for any number of reasons, including homosexuals, foreigners, mobsters, Ainu fugitives, hidden Christians, and others. The show even gives shout-outs to subcultures that only exist in modern times, such as the punk/goth movement.

An Edo-Japanese room that has just been "tagged."

Arguably the hip-hop element of the show is most strongly reflected through the music, but there is more to it than that. Hip-hop and rap music written by African-American artists often expresses the hardships of growing up in undeveloped neighborhoods with lots of crime and oppression, and this spirit is reflected in the characters of Champloo. The show is an acknowledgment of all the groups in both feudal and contemporary Japan that are not accepted by mainstream society because they do not conform to a certain Japanese identity that is expected of them.

Sources: Paul E. Dunscomb, “Images of What Never was to Suggest what Might Be: Japanese Popular Culture and Japaneseness” in The Dynamics of Cultural Counterpoint in Asian Studies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai_Champloo.