Joshua Barnett

Dr. Wilson
HIS. 389
10-29-15
"13 Assassins"
The movie 13 Assassins is an incredible film that shows the Edo period of Japan in
1840's. Takashi Miike, the film director, depicts the way of life that the samurai live to the
samurai ethos. Miike shows the many laws from the Tokugawa period and he also veered away
from the laws as well. Miike wanted to show how the samurai used honor, training, planning,
and fighting to take down the powerful lord in the film. Takashi also shows how the time of
peace really changed the behavior and actions of the samurai. The film shows the samurai trying
to gain honor from seppuku, fighting to the death, and more importantly trying to die an
honorable death.
The film starts off with a scene of a samurai, who is committing seppuku as his sign of
protest against the Shogun. Miike starts the scene showing the samurai sitting down as an
honorable man to show his displeasure with the Shogun's brother Lord Naritsugu promotion. The
samurai performed the ritual of seppuku in a dishonorable way according to the Tokugawa laws.
During the Tokugawa period the seppuku was supposed to be out in the open and not behind
closed doors (Ikegami, 254). Ikegami tells that the Tokogawa period is where the seppuku was
intended for samurai that had committed a crime (Ikegami, 253). Ikegami also says that the use
of seppuku for anything else beside the punishment of the samurai that it is a dishonorable thing
(253). Miike shows the pain and agony that the samurai went through in very graphic detail.
Miike shows the samurai's face throughout the whole process to show how painful seppuku

really was. Miike dedicates this part of the film to show what led this samurai to commit a
dishonorable seppuku. After Miike shows the horrific and bloody seppuku, he goes to show the
why this samurai chose to go the dishonorable way to protest.
The samurai's death was caused by Lord Naritsugu who was the half-brother of the
shogun. Lord Naritsugu did not obey any laws of the clan or the Tokugawa period. Naritsugu did
whatever he wanted to do and nobody was able to stop him from doing. The lord was very cruel
and mean to everyone that he encountered. The lord raped women when every he wanted to and
he also killed anyone that he did not like or was a threat to him. Lord Naritsugu also killed a little
boy's family right in front of him and he made the little boy suffer while he shot arrows at him.
This made a lot of the samurai's very mad because they wanted to revenge the death of their love
ones and friends. During the Tokugawa period the samurai were allowed to petition to the
shogun to be able to revenge the death of their family. The samurai were wanting to do the
honorable thing by revenging the deaths. Ikegami states that the samurai could register to kill by
writing a letter to the shogun to show their displeasure with the samurai (Ikegami, 247). The
Lord Naritsugu was in a great position because his half-brother was the shogun so he knew that
he did not have to worry about anything. In reality, the shogun would have had to supported the
other samurai so that they could have an permit to seek revenge for the lives that the lord had
taken. Miike left these laws out of the film and shows that the Justice Department took things
into their own hands.
Miike shows in his film not only does the samurai fight to protect what was theirs, they
also wanted to be morally sounded. The justice minster, Sir Doi, wanted to make sure that Lord
Naritsugu would not be promoted by the shogun. Sir Doi wanted to make sure that Lord
Naritsugu did not take the clan back to the unmoral days that the clan had been using for

hundreds of years. Doi came to Shinzamon Shimada for help since he was an samurai. The film
shows that Shinzaemon Shimada is a man of morals because he is willing to go against the
shogun's half-brother and he was a peaceful man when Sir Doi's servant found him. Shimada was
fishing with others in the sea to show that he had changed his ways of fighting everyone had a
drop of the hat. Sir Doi then comes up with the plan for Shimada to search for some samurai to
go and kill the Lord Naritsugu so that he could not destroy the clan. Sir Doi main goal was to
keep the clan right morally and peacefully. Then Shimada searches out for men of the same
morals to fight against the evil Lord Naritsugu. Shimada finds eleven samurai to fight the battle
with him. These eleven samurai show that the their are some men that still believes in doing
right. They train to go to battle against Lord Naritsugu because during this time was a peaceful
time. The samurai were not fighting as much as they use to do. The samurai were used to
fighting at a drop of an hat if they felt their honor was being questioned (Ikegami, 201). With
these eleven samurai chosen Shimada was ready to start planning their battle. Among the eleven
samurai chosen, one of them was Shimada's nephew. Shimada was very hesitant to let his
nephew be apart of the group because his nephew was a gambling man and he was a ladies man.
The nephew convinced his uncle to let him fight against the cruel lord so that he could get in
good graces with the samurai.
Miike shows the twelve samurai in a different light than when he show Lord Naritsugu
and his samurai. Miike shows that the twelve samurai were very peaceful and did not fight all the
time. Miike depicts the samurai has men that wanted to do the honorable thing instead of fighting
and killing innocent people. The samurai did not start fighting until they found the Lord
Naritsugu walking across the bridge to go to Akashi. Miike depicted Lord Naritsugu as an evil
man that did not take anything into consideration. Naritsugu would torture, kill, or rape

whenever he wanted to. He did not abide by the rules because he knew that his brother would
take up for him. With Naritsugu knowing this he done as he pleased and he knew that Hanbei
and his samurai would do what he had to do to protect him. Hanbei was depicted as a person that
did not like what Lord Naritsugu was doing but he knew that it was important for him to be an
honorable man to serve his master. Hanbei was very loyal and was honorable to stand by his
master when he was doing unmoral things.
Shimada also trained his men to think about their honorable death. Shimada knew that
each samurai knew that was all that samurai thought about was dying for something that was
honorable in Japan. In chapter fourteen of Ikegami book, he talks about how the samurai are
supposed to want and think about dying an honorable death so that he would be a very successful
samurai. The samurai took Shimada's words to heart because they started training and planning
on how to kill Lord Naritsugu. Shimada made his men train with their swords and with their
bows. Shimada knew that it would take these two weapons to bring down Niritsugu and his men.
The samurai would train and think constantly on dying an honorable death to bring down a very
cruel man. Shimada's plan to instill into his samurai to die an honorable death would help the
men when they go to battle.
Sir Doi and Shimada had to plan a very detailed fight to be able to kill Lord Naritsugu.
Doi and Shimada knew that Lord Naritsugu had several different ways that he could take to get
to the town of Akashi. The two men had to put a very detailed plan together to make sure that
Naritsugu and his men would have to make their way into their setup. Shinzaemon was always
thinking day and night on where the 13 samurai's would finally get their hands on the man that
has caused so much heartache to the clan. Finally after days of waiting and growing weary,
Shimada picks the town of Ochiai to fight Lord Niritsugu and his men. The samurai for Shimada

show resilience because they were dedicated to work and train for this cause. The samurai then
start planning on different stations to fight the lord with their bows. They set places that had
plenty of arrows to fight the seventy men of the lord. While the men were fortifying the city,
Shimada was asking a minor lord to help him fight the lord. Shimada was very fortunate for the
minor lord to have been a victim to the cruelties of Lord Niritsugu. The minor lords' daughter in
law had been raped and his son had been killed by the ruthless lord. Shimada was very thankful
for the minor lords help with trying to bring down the psychopath of Niritsugu. After the minor
lord stopped the men of Lord Niritsugu, he then committed seppuku which was very common for
the lords to do after their family had been killed.
Hanbei caught on that Shimada had orchestrated the minor lord to not let them pass
through on their road. Hanbei then called for some more men to come and help the seventy men
that were with them. Lord Naritsugu and Hanbei waited for the men and they went to Ochiai.
Shimada and his twelve samurai were waiting for their time of revenge. The samurai got into
place to bring revenge on the evil man. When Lord Naritsugu went into the town he was blocked
in because of the careful planning of Shimada and Sir Doi. The thirteen samurai were resilient
because they killed every man slowly but surely. The thirteen samurai had eleven men to die an
honorable death by standing up against Lord Naritsugu. The two victors for the 13 samurai had
killed every man there in the town of Ochiai.
In conclusion, Miike did an excellent job of showing the samurai as men of honor. Miike
showed that the men were also very resilient because they put in the hard work to kill the vicious
lord. The samurai also showed that they wanted to die an honorable death and eleven were able
to achieve this goal. The film also showed the seppuku being practice the honorable and

dishonorable way. Miike also showed that the samurai wanted to live by the codes and laws that
they wanted to follow to be honorable samurai.