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| Japan has rekindled it's love for the samurai, Weekly Playboy (2/18) says, adding that bushido is back on young trendsetter's lips -- literally. "Samurai" has become a watchword for hot in Japan in recent months, with samurai movies drawing fans into theaters, video games featuring swashbuckling sword wielders racing off shelves, comics devoted to stories of feudal-era heroes selling like hot cakes and a new magazine devoted to bushido ("the way of the warrior") coming out at the start of the year. But people aren't just talking about samurai, the men's weekly says, they're also talking like samurai, using an archaic form of Japanese like the warriors of old: language that would sound something akin to Shakespeare for English speakers. "Over the past year I've noticed an incredible increase in the number of people who go around using samurai language. I'd say about 10 percent of all our customers speak like samurai," Nonoko, a waitress at Akihabara maid caf? Royal Milk, tells Weekly Playboy. Nonoko says the samurai-speakers not only use the archaic language, but also frequently adopt the stoic demeanor widely associated with the martial life. "Samurai are supposed to be strong, quiet types, right? So they sit there with their arms folded, saying nothing. After about an hour, they'll come over and pay, handing out their cash without showing their wallets. A modern wallet wouldn't match their image. The otaku girls in (the Tokyo shopping district of) Akihabara really like these guys." They're not the only ones. A group on the mixi SNS dedicated to using samurai Japanese is rapidly gaining followers. So is Monjiro, another website where users input ordinary Japanese and can have it automatically transferred into a version of the language that the samurai of yore would have used. Shrink Yu Yuki sees the trend as people returning to their roots. "We're seeing the active adoption of 'wa' (Japaneseness), which has been going on in Akihabara and other places for a few years now. More characters appearing in Akihabara are wearing Japanese-style garments, Japanese style items are becoming hits and more men and women have taken to wearing kimono. These things have accompanied the booming interest in the Japanese language. People are discovering that the charms of 'wa' are not just in objects, but also in the language itself," Yuki tells Weekly Playboy. "People are using samurai language, discovering how much fun it can be and getting hooked to it. Because it's a language that is limited to use among friends, it also helps to create a bond. Using samurai Japanese is fun. From a psychological viewpoint, it's a manifestation of craving for intimacy. They want to belong to a group and are satisfying their need to have like-minded others around them." Nobijin, author of "Tsukatte Mitai Bushi no Nihongo (Having a Go Speaking Samurai Japanese),' is not at all surprised by the development. "I guess samurai Japanese is undergoing a boom because young people have started to realize that it's totally uncool to blow your top over nothing. Samurai Japanese conjures up images of good manners, generosity, patience and being cool, calm and collected. Throwing a tantrum or losing your cool or something like that is totally at the opposite end of the spectrum to these traits. Putting it simply, samurai Japanese is all about giving the impression of grinning and bearing it," the samurai Japanese expert tells Weekly Playboy. "Take for example the case where you've got money problems, but don't want to show that to anyone, or when you're really seething mad at something but react by pretending to be really calm. It's the idea of doing what you can to protect your honor by showing that you're in control of your urges even if it means you're going to be dealt some kind of blow. I guess young people have started to see this attitude as being kinda cool." (By Ryann Connell) |