Samurai Culture is in for Christmas

 A couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to spend nearly the whole month of December in Japan. I fell in love with Japanese food–not just sushi–and realized just how little I really know about Japanese history and culture.  (Sure, when I was an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin, I’d taken a class on “Japanese Literature to 1600” but that was really just hitting the highlights!)

During that time in Japan in 2009, I was even lucky enough to spend most of a day exploring Himeji castle, which is located not terribly far from Kyoto.

Coming back to the US, it took a long time for me to reconcile my own impressions of Japan with the way that culture is portrayed in America.

Last week when I stopped by Target, I noticed that several toy designers were also influenced by Japan. And while I’m no more than a tourist in Japan, I was gobsmacked by this piece of colored plastic. Partly because as far as I can tell, it looks far more like a version of a back-lot Chinese castle than it does a feudal Japanese defensive structure.

Just a few toy displays over, I was completely dismayed by the aesthetic choices behind the Samauri outfit that Barbie’s main dude Ken was wearing. Why had they put him in dreadful red satin, not in some nice cotton, linen or silk hakama or even in some decent robes?

I know that Mattel is trying to move merchandise and make a large profit, but couldn’t they make more of an effort to get their textiles just a bit closer to the era they are representing?

Sigh. Maybe I should go find my copy of The Tale of Genji that I was totally immersed in during my Freshman year at UT. I need something to serve as a palate cleaner after walking through the toy section at the discount retailer.

Ken rocking a disco-samuari look.