Seamus O'Sensei here, oh seekers after enlightenment. I have been reading a history of Japan recently, and a thought has occurred to me. Where are the ninjas? I've got as far as the Tokugawa Bakufu and so far not a whisper of a ninja. Have they been airbrushed out of history? Or is it merely an example of their much vaunted skills in the art of concealment?
Ninjas are a crucial part of world history and it's a crying shame not to have this recognised. I believe it was Batman who acquired his powers after being bitten by a radioactive ninja. Speaking for myself, it was in the Year of the Attenuated Wombat that I first went to Japan, acting as a bodyguard at the court of the Geranium Throne. The Japanese for 'bodyguard' is Yojimbo, as in the famous film. And also the famous TV show about a masterless light aircraft playing two rival air traffic controllers against each other: 'Yojimbo & the Jet Set' I believe that one was called.
Now it's a little-known fact that whoever is supposed to be the ruler of Japan at any given time is in fact anything but. The power behind the Imperial Throne at that point was one Fujiwara something-or-other, a royal advisor whose efforts to marry his daughters off to successive emperors meant that he had become his own great-grandson.
The power behind the power behind the throne was the Shogun, Rikkardu Kambulin. He had escaped from a prison in order to train as a doctor and musketeer before eventually rising to the rank of Shogun. The power behind the power behind the power behind the throne was the previous emperor, Mohito, who had retired to a monastery in order to run things from behind the scenes. And the power behind him was... well, it was the current emperor. So there was something agreeably cyclical about the whole thing. Which may be why it eventually spiralled out of control...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment