Aspects of Past Teaching

Relating the real story of tradition to the fable of Lady Snowblood

The Inclination for Tradition - separating notions of tradition and revenge

While conversations centered around the concepts portrayed in Lady Snowblood tend to lean towards the morality of revenge, I believe there is a much deeper meaning that longs to be gleaned from the films subsequent imagery. That being the idea of tradition, and more importantly how we perceive it.

The novel of recent discussion which also centers around this concept is Daughters of the Samurai by Janice P. Nimura. The book follows five Japanese girls and their quest to the United States to learn of its culture and return home. The entire piece itself becoming a commentary on ideas of old traditions, past generations, and how we ourselves perceive them both. As one reporter puts it in the book, "Their mission is to be educated here [the U.S.], and to return to Japan to assist in rearing female wallflowers to adorn the court of Mikado" (pg.93).

More or less their mission became a quest to improve the old traditions, as opposed to going their for cynical reasons. What the girls more or less find though changes their perspective on many things. As it says one section, "In Samurai families, Discipline was the guiding spirit: even in sleep, girls were expected to fold their bodies into the curved letter Ku, while their brothers were free to sprawl across their futons." As it goes on to say, "In America the girls slept in 4 legged beds...no one scolded them to keep their legs together" (pg.94).

To a Far Extent - Critiques of past learnings

What this begins to show them that not only were their past concepts of tradition shown to be vastly different, but to some very far extent, almost wrong (or difficult). Coming to America showed them that not all of their traditions were always beneficial. While this bed example from the text may be slightly tenuous, there are countless other examples such as when the girls first tried American cloths, food, and so on.

One could make the argument that this too is the message conveyed in Lady Snowblood. While the film to some is arguably more campy in tone, under the surface it still lays the ground work for conversations on the idea of having to follow a tradition or idea established by past ancestors. She is constantly labeled a "creature of the netherworld" by older people due to the circumstances of her upbringing, and dismissed by many. She also lives her life dedicated to following a quest laid out by her mother despite whether she believes its a good cause or not. While the concept of whether or not her morality might be in check is a more common debate, one could make the argument that these two sources might not be as different as some first may have thought.