The Paladin by C. J. Cherryh is not strictly Japanese but has the feel down so well it might well have been.
Fantasy set in Japan or a Japan-inspired World?
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This is common issue in all sorts of spec fic, where an author has to bring the readers up to speed on worlds & cultures they don't know anything about -- so you may find some useful examples if you broaden your focus to include books that are not about Japan but effectively handle the equivalent problem.
For example, C. J. Cherryh has written a lot of books that throw you into the deep end of immersion in an unknown (and sometimes alien) culture. A couple of good ones to start with are The Pride of Chanur and Foreigner.
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If you just want to know how to "package" the culture in a way that's appealing to westerners, I'd say keep it simple. Don't overwhelm the reader with all sorts of foreign terms and concepts that need to be explained. Try to find the common ground. What elements of Japanese culture would be familiar to westerners? Find the Japanese equivalents of western character archetypes. I think one reason samurai are so popular in the west is because they fit one of our popular archetypes--the honorable knight. We can "get" that without much explaining. Ninjas? Assassins. We get that too.
I'd suggest looking into the wako, Japanese pirates. That's another archetype westerners can relate to easily. And we haven't seen it done much, so it has the benefit of feeling fresher than samurais and ninjas.
I'd suggest looking into the wako, Japanese pirates. That's another archetype westerners can relate to easily. And we haven't seen it done much, so it has the benefit of feeling fresher than samurais and ninjas.
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The issue with this is that western views of samurai and ninja are fundamentally flawed due to bad pop-culture impressions. The idea of black-clad ninja sneaking around rooftops is ridiculous and comes from the 19th century plays were ninja had to blend in with the stage hands. Most ninja were also samurai and to blend in they did the smart move, dressed to look like any regular, common folk
Liosse de Velishaf
Banned
Something similar to consider is what romanticization of their own culture, especially with the samurai and bushido.
As far as ninja and samurai being the same, I disagree. The "ninja" were mercenaries, at first individual, and later perhaps organized into guilds or clans. Espionage was somewhat looked down on by the warrior class, due to ideals of proper samurai behavior, and no honorably employed samurai would stoop to such behavior: arson, espionage, and occasionally assassination. Perhaps some ronin might have become mercenaries or actual ninja(I use this term loosely and for its familiarity to Western audiences. These are probably more accurately termed shinobi in most cases), but they were by no means "also samurai" for the most part.
It's YA, but have you tried Zoe Marriott's Japaneseish fantasies? 'Shadows on the Moon' is set in a faux-Japan, with what looks to be lots of cultural stuff, kimonos and social mores, etc. No dragons or demons or overt fantasy, but it's not 'real' Japan. 'The Name of the Blade' is two books into a trilogy. Set in modern London afflicted by Japanese magic, it's got swords, kitsune - and not a kitsune, there's an entire kitsune kingdom, and various Japanese demons (I have completely forgotten the word for 'demon cat', but it's in there.)
I couldn't speak to the accuracy or realism, but nothing stuck out as wildly inaccurate, to the casual eye.
('Shadows on the Moon' is more of a romance, while 'Name of the Blade' is more on the horror side - but not very graphic.)
I couldn't speak to the accuracy or realism, but nothing stuck out as wildly inaccurate, to the casual eye.
('Shadows on the Moon' is more of a romance, while 'Name of the Blade' is more on the horror side - but not very graphic.)
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Best example: Hattori Hanzo, ninja and a samurai
Well I'm equating samurai here with warriors in Japan, in which case most ninja were also samurai.
The Meiji period heavily romanticised the samurai of the past when in actual fact they were not more or less honorable than European knights, sure there were some who dedicated their lives to bushido and honor, but just as many who used spying and sneaking tactics regardless of whether it was looked down on or not. History is written by the winners.
http://www.chinatownconnection.com/misconception-ninja.htm
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My thoughts exactly
(Almost) every fantasy or SF author has to face this at some point -- how to show elements -- clothing, cultural expectations, rituals -- that are not usual in the culture they are writing for. So try looking for "any fantasy that shows cultural themes that are unusual to the core audience". Which is...lots of books tbh. It' not even close to an unusual problem in SFF.
I second CJ Cherryh though. She is fab at immersion and showing different cultures without drowning the narrative.
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True, but there is still an extra layer of challenge when youre dealing with a culture that is unfamiliar to the average westerner. Traditional fantasy--fantasy set in a faux European environment--benefits a lot from the fact that most of the concepts and imagery are already familiar to westerners. Yeah, youre presenting a new culture, but its a new culture based heavily on cultures we're already familiar with, so a lot of the heavy lifting has already been done. But when youre presenting a new culture based on an unfamiliar culture youre starting from scratch and can't take anything for granted. I think thats a unique challenge.
Yes but LOTS of fantasy isn't set in faux mediaeval Europe and/or has things that are unfamiliar to a modern western audience, on its cultures or clothings (Yeah, some is but by no means all). That's, I don't know, part of the point of fantasy?
The OP mentioned an obi -- surely a sashlike piece of clothing isn't so out there as to be OMGWTF to anyone?
The methods of conveying your unfamiliar culture remain exactly the same, whether it's Japanese based or entirely fictional or based on some obscure and unknown-to-the-masses facet of European history. So there's no need to restrict a search to Japanese based fiction, only to fiction that introduces cultures unfamiliar to the core audience. Of which there is a lot. (In fact, historical fiction would be a great place to look as well)
Like I say, it's something that many/most SFF authors have to get to grips with at some point unless they are lifting their cultures wholesale from 1500s Britain or similar. Finding books that do so should be relatively easy (Caveat, it would be pretty easy here, but maybe the market/books on shelves are different in the US??).
The OP mentioned an obi -- surely a sashlike piece of clothing isn't so out there as to be OMGWTF to anyone?
The methods of conveying your unfamiliar culture remain exactly the same, whether it's Japanese based or entirely fictional or based on some obscure and unknown-to-the-masses facet of European history. So there's no need to restrict a search to Japanese based fiction, only to fiction that introduces cultures unfamiliar to the core audience. Of which there is a lot. (In fact, historical fiction would be a great place to look as well)
Like I say, it's something that many/most SFF authors have to get to grips with at some point unless they are lifting their cultures wholesale from 1500s Britain or similar. Finding books that do so should be relatively easy (Caveat, it would be pretty easy here, but maybe the market/books on shelves are different in the US??).
Is it Paper Mage by Leah Cutter?
I started reading it at one point but never got that far before the book sort of got pushed to the side.
To the OP, if you're concerned about conveying Japanese culture to a Western audience, I wouldn't limit yourself just to fantasy novels. There's so much more reading material out there. (Kira-Kira does a nice job of integrating Japanese words without being overly intrusive. It's aimed at a younger audience, but you can see how the author does it. Warning: It's sad. Really sad. I couldn't finish the last few chapters.)
I also think you're not giving your audience enough credit. Fantasy readers expect to encounter the unfamiliar. It's fantasy. If you give decent context for new words and only use new words when there really is no English equivalent (a pet peeve of mine when writers do otherwise), I think you'll find readers following along more easily than you think.
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If you're willing to forgo the 'fantasy' part, have you tried James Clavell's 'Shogun'? Historic fiction, set in Japan in 1600, with the character fictionalized versions of their real-life counterparts.
I couldn't swear to it's authenticity, misrepresentation, or cultural appropriation, (and it's been years since I read it) but it was for English-speakers, by an English speaker, and a huge best-seller in it's day, so I'm guessing that managed to explain something to it's 15 million readers. See how he did it. (Actually, I suspect that a lot of it was using an 'outsider' as it's MC, allowing the reader to learn as the MC does.)
I couldn't swear to it's authenticity, misrepresentation, or cultural appropriation, (and it's been years since I read it) but it was for English-speakers, by an English speaker, and a huge best-seller in it's day, so I'm guessing that managed to explain something to it's 15 million readers. See how he did it. (Actually, I suspect that a lot of it was using an 'outsider' as it's MC, allowing the reader to learn as the MC does.)
Tales of the Otori springs to mind. However, I think that you'd be better off actually studying Japanese culture and history or reading Japanese novels/myths that have been translated into English. Or novels by Japanese authors.
Samurai is not really a title, it's a social class. The term itself is rarely used in Japan and it has a slightly different historical meaning than in the West. The Japanese term is bushi or buke.
Ninja were of much lower status than samurai. (For example, when talking to her/his lord, a ninja would not be allowed inside the house.) They were spies, not warriors, and trained in different skills. A samurai might employ ninja tactics, but would not be considered a ninja.
writer_mccall said:
Hattori Hanzo is not one person. It's a hereditary name of the head of the Hattori family. Now it is believed that only the first Hattori Hanzo was a ninja in service of shogun Ashikaga Yoshiharu. He was promoted to samurai (of the lowest ashigaru rank) and his descendants were samurai, not ninja anymore.
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Liosse de Velishaf
Banned
Bushido itself was not really a thing historically. It was a concept propagated by a book originally published in English which took many of the philosophical ideals of the samurai class that were actually quite fractured and more in line with synchronous explorations and debate and turned them into a single "way of the warrior" that never existed in the past. So you are correct insomuch as not all of the samurai class or even of the bushi themselves followed the modern conception of bushido. But you are wrong in your other claim, for the most part.
An important point to note.
It was not uncommon for someone who served well to be promoted only themselves, or have their lineage itself promoted to samurai class from a lower echelon of society. Tocotin makes a really good point here, in that the issue is much more complicated than it seems to Westerners on the surface.
I don't see much room for debate on the issue: ninja were not samurai, and the vast majority of samurai did not have origins as ninja. Certainly people use whatever tools are to hand in tough situations, but most people of the samurai class did not and would not have made common use of ninja tactics, and in fact wouldn't have known enough to do so, although they might go out in disguise or assassinate an enemy under specific and uncommon circumstances.
If people would like to have a discussion on the history of the samurai class or Japan in general, I'm all for it, as its an area of interest for me and something I studied in depth at Uni. Plus it seems like we have several people here who know quite a bit more than I do, and who I'd love to learn from. But I feel like we might be getting a bit off topic here.
As to the topic of warriors in general: "bushi" is the romanization of a term for warriors in Japan, coming from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word for the warrior class, which has a meaning roughly translatable as "one who stops the spear".
Samurai as a term originated in the name for retainers to the nobility, and essentially translates as "one who serves (the nobility)". They were minor civil servants of the 6th rank or lower under the Taiho code prior to the Heian era.
The nobility of Japan used the term "samurai" for obvious reasons, with the warrior clans themselves preferring the term "bushi".
They were considered somewhat separate terms until around the twelfth century.
In an attempt to conquer northern territories in Honshu, the Emperor appointed the first Shogun, and the northern clans were employed as soldiers. They gained power over time, eventually gaining even more influence than the actual "nobility", and eventually they formed the samurai clans.
The main signature of a member of the samurai class as opposed to a warrior of another origin (such as a ninja/shinobi) was daisho, or "big and little", a pair of swords including a katana and a companion sword. During the Edo period, only samurai could wear the swords.
Most samurai were employed as both warriors and administrators, and that's what they would be doing instead of being ninja or something equally ridiculous.