Wow, it has been almost 2 years since my last blog post. A lot has changed since then...but the focus of this post is on a certain person/couple that I feel compelled to write about. About a month ago, I began to watch a show called "Yae no Sakura", it's a historical Japanese drama that takes place during the transition to the Meiji period, it is 50 episodes long. I have watched quite a few Korean and Japanese dramas for the past year, and this one stands out for me, head and shoulders above the rest.
The story revolves around a lady by the name of Yamamoto Yae, she is a real historical figure in Japan, and the drama is surprisingly accurate (at least, when I compare it to what wikipedia and other websites tell me about this amazing woman).
To give a quick summary, Yae is from the Aizu clan, who is loyal to the Tokugawa, the ruling clan that the Shogun (head of Japan) is from. Unfortunately, there was a rebellion against the Shogun, and the Aizu clan, despite having kept peace in Kyoto during the turmoil (under the Shogun's command), were branded as rebels to the new government. The head of Aizu, Lord Katamori repeatedly tried to surrender, but the conditions for surrender were too harsh for the clan to accept, and they ended up going to war with the new government. However, Aizu's technology was too out-dated and their allies betrayed them one-by-one, and eventually the people of Aizu were cornered in their own castle. After a month long siege, they finally surrendered. Countless people have died, including women and children, and their town was burned to the ground. Afterwards, the people were scattered, and the Aizu clan ceased to exist.
Yae was an usual woman for her time. She grew up in a family of gunslingers, and learned to handle a gun, despite being a woman. There was opposition from her father, but after seeing her passion he finally relented and allowed her to learn. She was quite skillful and as a result, she led a rifle squad to defend the castle during the siege. But there have been a lot of skillful female warriors in history. To me, what makes her remarkable is what she chose to do with her life after seeing her hometown destroyed. Her father, younger brother, and husband also all died because of the war.
After the war, the show depicts her struggling with hatred and anger, which is a completely rational response to what had happened to her. But what I was not expecting, was for God to come in and heal her soul. That's right, the God of Israel. Interestingly, her older brother (who was also her mentor) encouraged her to read the New Testament, because he himself found a way to overcome his grief and hatred through discovering Christianity. Let's pause for a moment here. Her brother is a very educated man, he was well read in Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, and English texts. I find it intriguing that to him, only the Christian worldview was able to offer him peace as he grappled (and everyone else from Aizu) with why their clan was destroyed.
Back to Yae, she eventually got baptized, and got married to a pastor by the name of Niijima Joe, who returned to Japan after studying in America to start a Christian school. He also believed it was only through Christianity that the scars from the revolution could be healed. So despite much pushback from the government and the people (Christianity was viewed with hostility in Japan), he was able to start Doshisha, which will eventually become Japan's top university. To this day, not only does it offer classes in the different sciences and social studies, it also offers theology. Yae taught at the Doshisha girls' school, convinced that for wars to be avoided and for the betterment of the country, women must also be educated the same as men.
The show, surprisingly, held Christianity in a positive light, yet it wasn't hitting people over the head with a Bible. Many mature questions were asked, and not all Christians in the show were great people. One of the moments in the show that really resonated with me was when a female student from the Satsuma clan enrolled in class at the Doshisha, wanting to learn about Christianity. The Satsuma clan was part of the new government army that helped crush Aizu. This student hated Yae and did not want to be taught by her because it was later discovered that it was Yae who shot and killed her father during the war. They were eventually reconciled, and in one of the scenes, Yae says she didn't realize the magnitude of the sin she had commited wielding a rifle until after she saw the pain in the student's eyes, and the student responded with "Is there anyone who hasn't sinned?". Such a subtle reference to one of the key ideas in the Bible :)
I never would have imagined that a Japanese drama would be one of the best productions I've ever seen at showcasing Christian ideas, it's enough to make someone who was searching for answers about dealing with hatred and grief to at least become curious about Christianity, while still being very entertaining and dealing with a multitude of opinions and perspectives about leadership, war, education, and feminism. I think what makes it work is it doesn't only show Christian ideas, there's many characters with different morals and values, much like in reality. You see the consequences of the path they choose to take but the show remains quite neutral about who is 'right' and who is 'wrong'. The viewer is left to decide on their own who they agree with and who they do not.
There's so much more I can say about the show, and about Niijima Joe and Yae, but it's really hard deciding how to share it all in an organized fashion so I will stop here. Perhaps I will post again after I finish the show...
The story revolves around a lady by the name of Yamamoto Yae, she is a real historical figure in Japan, and the drama is surprisingly accurate (at least, when I compare it to what wikipedia and other websites tell me about this amazing woman).
To give a quick summary, Yae is from the Aizu clan, who is loyal to the Tokugawa, the ruling clan that the Shogun (head of Japan) is from. Unfortunately, there was a rebellion against the Shogun, and the Aizu clan, despite having kept peace in Kyoto during the turmoil (under the Shogun's command), were branded as rebels to the new government. The head of Aizu, Lord Katamori repeatedly tried to surrender, but the conditions for surrender were too harsh for the clan to accept, and they ended up going to war with the new government. However, Aizu's technology was too out-dated and their allies betrayed them one-by-one, and eventually the people of Aizu were cornered in their own castle. After a month long siege, they finally surrendered. Countless people have died, including women and children, and their town was burned to the ground. Afterwards, the people were scattered, and the Aizu clan ceased to exist.
Yae was an usual woman for her time. She grew up in a family of gunslingers, and learned to handle a gun, despite being a woman. There was opposition from her father, but after seeing her passion he finally relented and allowed her to learn. She was quite skillful and as a result, she led a rifle squad to defend the castle during the siege. But there have been a lot of skillful female warriors in history. To me, what makes her remarkable is what she chose to do with her life after seeing her hometown destroyed. Her father, younger brother, and husband also all died because of the war.
After the war, the show depicts her struggling with hatred and anger, which is a completely rational response to what had happened to her. But what I was not expecting, was for God to come in and heal her soul. That's right, the God of Israel. Interestingly, her older brother (who was also her mentor) encouraged her to read the New Testament, because he himself found a way to overcome his grief and hatred through discovering Christianity. Let's pause for a moment here. Her brother is a very educated man, he was well read in Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, and English texts. I find it intriguing that to him, only the Christian worldview was able to offer him peace as he grappled (and everyone else from Aizu) with why their clan was destroyed.
Back to Yae, she eventually got baptized, and got married to a pastor by the name of Niijima Joe, who returned to Japan after studying in America to start a Christian school. He also believed it was only through Christianity that the scars from the revolution could be healed. So despite much pushback from the government and the people (Christianity was viewed with hostility in Japan), he was able to start Doshisha, which will eventually become Japan's top university. To this day, not only does it offer classes in the different sciences and social studies, it also offers theology. Yae taught at the Doshisha girls' school, convinced that for wars to be avoided and for the betterment of the country, women must also be educated the same as men.
The show, surprisingly, held Christianity in a positive light, yet it wasn't hitting people over the head with a Bible. Many mature questions were asked, and not all Christians in the show were great people. One of the moments in the show that really resonated with me was when a female student from the Satsuma clan enrolled in class at the Doshisha, wanting to learn about Christianity. The Satsuma clan was part of the new government army that helped crush Aizu. This student hated Yae and did not want to be taught by her because it was later discovered that it was Yae who shot and killed her father during the war. They were eventually reconciled, and in one of the scenes, Yae says she didn't realize the magnitude of the sin she had commited wielding a rifle until after she saw the pain in the student's eyes, and the student responded with "Is there anyone who hasn't sinned?". Such a subtle reference to one of the key ideas in the Bible :)
I never would have imagined that a Japanese drama would be one of the best productions I've ever seen at showcasing Christian ideas, it's enough to make someone who was searching for answers about dealing with hatred and grief to at least become curious about Christianity, while still being very entertaining and dealing with a multitude of opinions and perspectives about leadership, war, education, and feminism. I think what makes it work is it doesn't only show Christian ideas, there's many characters with different morals and values, much like in reality. You see the consequences of the path they choose to take but the show remains quite neutral about who is 'right' and who is 'wrong'. The viewer is left to decide on their own who they agree with and who they do not.
There's so much more I can say about the show, and about Niijima Joe and Yae, but it's really hard deciding how to share it all in an organized fashion so I will stop here. Perhaps I will post again after I finish the show...
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