Tokyo Weekender August 2017

HONDA
An entrepreneurial giant, Soichiro
18SOICHIRO
Honda overcame many obstacles,
including opposition from the government, to
build one of the biggest automotive companies
in the world. He was a maverick who went
against the Ministry of International Trade and
Industry (MITI) when they tried to ban new car
makers in the country. The first Japanese firm
to manufacture automobiles in America, Honda
proved very popular overseas.
MIURA
Earlier this season 50-year-old
17KAZUYOSHI
Kazuyoshi Miura became the oldest
competitive goal scorer in the history
of professional football. The man known
affectionately as “King Kazu” left school at the
age of 15 so he could become a footballer in
Brazil. He played for a number of clubs there
including Pelé’s former side, Santos. He was
also the first Japanese player to sign for an
Italian club.
SHOIN
“To consider oneself different
16YOSHIDA
from ordinary men is wrong, but
it’s right to hope that one will not remain like
ordinary men.” A distinguished samurai of
great intellect, Yoshida Shoin was anything
but ordinary. Many of the students at his iconic
private school Shoka Sonjuku – including
heroic figure Takasugi Shinsaku and Japan’s
first prime minister Ito Hirobumi – played
instrumental roles in the Meiji Restoration.
MICHIKO
Eldest daughter of a wealthy flour
15EMPRESS
miller, Michiko Shoda became the
first commoner to marry into the imperial
family when she wed Crown Prince Akihito
in January 1959. She was reportedly ill-treated
by mother-in-law Empress Nagako and her
courtiers, and was rumored to have suffered
a nervous breakdown because of the stress.
Seen as a dutiful wife and loving mother, she
has earned the respect of the Japanese people.
TEZUKA
Dubbed the “god of manga” and
14OSAMU
“father of anime,” Osamu Tezuka
was a phenomenal artist and storyteller who
created more than 700 volumes of work,
including Black Jack, Kimba the White Lion
and, most famously, Astro Boy. The man who
introduced big-eyed characters to manga
was also qualified to practice medicine. In
1965, he turned down an offer from Stanley
Kubrick to be his art director for 2001: A
Space Odyssey.
AKIHITO
Known as “the people’s emperor,”
Akihito has, for the past three
13EMPEROR
decades, tried to modernize the imperial
family, bringing them closer to the public. Not
afraid to upset nationalists, he has regularly
expressed his remorse for Japan’s actions during
WWII, acknowledged his ancestors’ Korean
roots and in 1992 became the first Japanese
monarch to visit mainland China. He’s recently
been given permission to abdicate the throne.
SHIRASU
A principled man who loved his
12JIRO
country, Jiro Shirasu earned
the respect of a nation in December 1945.
Commissioned to deliver a Christmas present
from Emperor Hirohito to General Douglas
MacArthur, he was told to put it on the
floor by the latter. Shirasu reprimanded the
general for his lack of respect and demanded
he put it on a table. MacArthur wasn’t used to
being spoken to like that, but duly obliged.
FUKUZAWA
Founder of the newspaper Jiji
11YUKICHI
Shinpo and Keio University (Japan’s
first private university), Yukichi Fukuzawa
was a progressive thinker who challenged
the notion that all people had a fixed role in a
hierarchical society. He encouraged people to
think for themselves through his philosophy
of dokuritsu-jison (independence and selfrespect),
which was a revolutionary concept at
the time. He is the face of the ¥10,000 note.
KUROSAWA
Described by Steven Spielberg
10AKIRA
as “the pictorial Shakespeare of
our time,” Akira Kurosawa was the one of
the most influential directors of the 20th
century. George Lucas borrowed ideas from
his 1958 classic Hidden Forest for Star Wars,
while The Magnificent Seven and A Fistful of
Dollars were effectively remakes of Seven
Samurai and Yojimbo. “Let me say it simply,”
said Martin Scorsese, “Kurosawa was my
master.”
9EMPEROR HIROHITO
Japan’s longest reigning monarch,
Emperor Hirohito presided over the
most tumultuous period in modern Japanese
history. For some historians, he was an active
war leader who escaped justice after WWII,
while others viewed him as a powerless figurehead
who warned that the attack on Pearl
Harbor would be “self-destructive.” After
the war Hirohito renounced his divinity and
helped to rebuild Japan’s diplomatic image
abroad.
8PRINCE SHOTOKU
Regarded as “the father of Japanese
Buddhism,” Shōtoku Taishi was appointed
regent by his aunt, Empress Suiko in
593. Influenced by Confucian principles he reportedly
authored the 17-article constitution,
established a centralized government, opened
relations with China, and was allegedly the
first person to coin the name Nihon. Some
scholars, including Chubu University professor
Oyama Seiichi, have expressed doubt with
regards to the prince’s historicity.
7HAYAO MIYAZAKI
Director of some of the most imaginative
animated films ever made, Hayao
Miyazki has a godlike status in Japan. His
most popular smash hits include Howl’s
Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, Ponyo and
Spirited Away – the highest grossing movie
in Japanese history. It won an Oscar for Best
Animated feature in 2002, but the co-founder
of Studio Ghibli didn’t turn up to receive the
award in protest o
the war in Iraq.
6ODA NOBUNAGA
Viewed as both a hero and villain, Oda
Nobunaga was so ruthless he had his
maid executed after she left a stem of fruit
on his floor. The first of Japan’s great three
unifiers, Nobunaga was the man that laid
the foundations for Toyotomi Hideyoshi and
Tokugawa Ieyasu. Known as the “Demon
Daimyo,” he managed to consolidate the majority
of what had been a fractured country.
TOKYO WEEKENDER | AUGUST 2017 | 33