The Monster Island Film Vault Posts

Episode 22 was beset by many-a-peril during its production, both in front of the mics and behind the scenes. It was late for our Patreon Patrons, but we did manage to get it published on time. We’re a stubborn and determined lot.

That being said, I have more notes on this than I usually do—mostly because Marchand was copy-and-pasting stuff from his research as opposed to writing paraphrases. I’ve spoken with him about this and convinced him it would be better for everyone involved—especially the Tourists on the show—to do that less from now on. He agreed.

So, after some copious editing, here are my notes.

• Nathan, goofball that you are, you didn’t set up your new microphone correctly, which is why the episode doesn’t sound as good as it normally does. Live and learn. And research your mic next time!
• There has actually been more kaiju films where the suit actor’s eyes could be seen than you think. I’m surprised Nathan forgot to mention these. Besides Daimajin and War of the Gargantuas, there was King Kong (1976) (how could he forget that?), Yeti: Giant of the 2oth Century (unfortunately for everyone besides Travis from Kaiju Weekly), and if you want to count him, the Snowman from Half Human. The Babylonian Demon from Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare has a suit actor whose eyes can be seen. I was also told if you pause Ebirah, Horror of the Deep at the right spot when Godzilla rips off the crustacean’s claw, you can seen Haruo Nakajima’s eyes, although that’s a filmmaking mistake.
• Haniwa weren’t so much guardians as they were grave markers and boundary markers, and later were believed to house the spirit of the deceased. Read more here.
• Moses pleads for Israel in Exodus 32:11-14.
• It’s pronounced, “Samanosuke,” Nathan. And Joe. Man, this name is a tongue twister for us Americans.
• You don’t believe I have a lightsaber, huh? Just wait. Also, Disney can have it—when the Mouse pulls from my cold, dead fingers!
• The line from Firefly Nathan was trying to remember was said by Captain Mal: “If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake, you’ll be facing me, and you’ll be armed.”
• Joe and Joy are going to start saying, “You wants to take Teddy to see Gamera?” as a euphemism for a walk.
• Nathan says, “Fascinating,” a lot in this episode. Is he Spock?
• He also says, “Interesting,” a lot. Expand your vocabulary!
• It wasn’t the Onin War you referenced in episode 13, Nathan, it was the Genpei War.
• Joe didn’t say it was Portuguese missionaries, Nathan. He said it was Catholic missionaries.
• Dainichi is the central deity worshipped in esoteric Buddhism. You can read more about him here.

Here’s Nathan’s overabundance of leftover notes.

The Film

• Eyeball at beginning is meant to symbolize Daimjain contentedly watching events.
• I didn’t remember the scene of the kid being chased by the forest spirits. The hand was just a tree branch. What’s with the quick cuts of animals? Was this real?
• The princess is pale, unlike the others. (Old timey view of feminine beauty. I preferred tanned girls, myself. –Jimmy)
• The bullets don’t hurt Daimajin. Chains cannot hold Daimajin. Daimajin controls the elements, like fire.

Toku Topics

Sengoku Period

• “The beginning of the Sengoku period witnessed the Onin War (1467-1477 CE) which destroyed Heiankyo. The fighting that followed over the next century would eventually reduce the warlords to only a few hundred in number as the country was effectively carved up into princedoms.” (https://www.ancient.eu/Sengoku_Period/)
• “The Ashikaga Shogunate (1338-1573 CE) held control of the central part of Japan, and the bureaucracy at the capital was relatively efficient, but the outer provinces were left semi-independent as local warlords or daimyo ruled their own lands how they saw fit. Local officials and estate managers such as the jito found it much more difficult to secure the taxes the state was due from landlords who now had no fear of any government reprisals.” (https://www.ancient.eu/Sengoku_Period/)
• “In the absence of a strong central government…the rule of law was very often replaced by the rule of force. The more powerful lords absorbed the lands of their weaker rivals and became known as sengoku daimyo. The warlords then passed on their position of strength to their male heir and so the position of daimyo became hereditary unless challenged by ambitious subordinate commanders. The wealth of the daimyo came from commerce, trade, and taxes imposed on those peasants who farmed on their estates. Daimyo may have been a law unto themselves but many of them did formulate law codes to better regulate the sometimes thousands of people under their command.” (https://www.ancient.eu/Sengoku_Period/)
• “The Warring States period kicked off with the Onin War (Onin No Ran, 1467-1477 CE). This civil war – its name derives from the year period – broke out because of the bitter rivalry between the Hosokawa and Yamana family groups. By the end of the decade, though, the fighting had sucked in most of the influential clans of Japan. The conflict revolved around each side backing a different candidate for the position of shogun – a particularly pointless debate since shoguns, like the emperors, no longer had any real power. Rather, the war is seen by historians as merely a result of the overly aggressive warlords of Japan being rather too keen to put their samurai to some use – good or bad. Even when the war ended in 1477 CE there was no victor and no resolution to the inherent militarism that fractured Japan for the next century as warlords fought each other with no one in particular ever achieving any dominance.” (https://www.ancient.eu/Sengoku_Period/)
• “The Onin War had sorted out who were the weak and the strong daimyo, who thus became much fewer in number (by 1600 CE there would be only about 250 of them in all of Japan).” (https://www.ancient.eu/Sengoku_Period/)
• “The upheaval resulted in the further weakening of central authority, and throughout Japan, regional lords, called daimyōs, rose to fill the vacuum. In the course of this power shift, well-established clans such as the Takeda and the Imagawa, who had ruled under the authority of both the Kamakura and Muromachi bakufu, were able to expand their spheres of influence. There were many, however, whose positions eroded and were eventually usurped by more capable underlings.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sengoku_period)
• “As a result of the constant threat of war and pillage in this period, castles were built with much greater frequency than previously in towns, at mountain passes, along vital roads, and on larger estates. The latter type, which could take the form of fortified mansions, was known as yashiki; Ichijodani (base of the Asakura family) and the moated Tsutsujigasaki (of the Takeda family) were excellent examples of this building trend. Some castles, such as Omi-Hachiman near Lake Biwa, caused an entire town to later spring up around them, the jokomachi. … Constructed on large stone bases, the wooden superstructures included walls, towers, and gates, which had narrow windows for archers and from which hung boulders on ropes, ready to be dropped on any attackers.” (https://www.ancient.eu/Sengoku_Period/)
• “As trade with Ming China grew, the economy developed, and the use of money became widespread as markets and commercial cities appeared. Combined with developments in agriculture and small-scale trading, this led to the desire for greater local autonomy throughout all levels of the social hierarchy. As early as the beginning of the 15th century, the suffering caused by earthquakes and famines often served to trigger armed uprisings by farmers weary of debt and taxes.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sengoku_period)
• “Towns and cities became larger, with many having a population of over 30,000, thanks to a boom in international trade (daimyo wanted foreign luxury goods like Ming porcelain to demonstrate their status), weekly markets, and the development of trade guilds. Measures, weights, and currencies were standardized in many domains to facilitate trade. Meanwhile, the fortunes of the many Buddhist temples scattered across Japan plummeted as no longer backed by the state they could not so easily extract contributions from local communities.” (https://www.ancient.eu/Sengoku_Period/)
• “The Ashikaga Shogunate would be terminated by the warlord Oda Nobunaga (l. 1534-1582 CE) who finally brought some stability to central Japan. Oda Nobunaga had expanded his territory gradually through the 1550/60s CE from his base at Nagoya Castle as he defeated all comers thanks to his martial skills and innovative use of firearms. The Warring States period comes to an end with the seizure of Heiankyo by Nobunaga in 1568 CE. The warlord then exiled the last Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, in 1573 CE. The unification of the country would continue under Nobunaga’s immediate successors, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598 CE) and Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616 CE).” (https://www.ancient.eu/Sengoku_Period/)
• “The Sengoku period ended when Toyotomi loyalists were defeated at the Siege of Osaka in 1615.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sengoku_period)

Christianity Comes to Japan

• “The Portuguese land on Tanegashima, becoming the first Europeans to arrive in Japan, and introduce the harquebus into Japanese warfare.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sengoku_period)
• “In 1543 the first Europeans arrived in Japan. Two (maybe three) Portuguese merchants aboard a Chinese ship were blown off course and forced to land on the island of Tanegashima, just south of Kyushu. Only six years later, the first Christian missionary came to Japan. What followed was, what some historians call, Japan’s ‘Christian century.’ Despite 100 years of Christian dominance, today only about 1% of the Japanese population is Christian. … Those first Portuguese men to arrive at Tanegashima also brought the first guns to Japan. Today’s article will focus on the sixteenth century, during which time guns and Christianity were often entwined. Both had a heavy impact on Kyushu and Japan at large during this period, known as the Warring States period (sengoku jidai), a century where central authority in Japan had lost its sway and samurai clans vied for dominance.” (https://www.tofugu.com/japan/history-of-christianity/)
• “The Shimazu family who ruled Satsuma also controlled Tanegashima, the island where the first Europeans had landed. The Shimazu had been impressed by European firearms and were quick to reproduce them. So, when Xavier arrived they respectfully welcomed him, curious to see what he might have brought along. They gave him permission to speak to their subjects and, through translators, they began to preach. Xavier and his Spanish colleagues began studying Japanese, and soon were attempting the occasional sermon in Japanese, transliterated into the Roman alphabet for them. For the most part, Xavier and European missionaries who followed were quite impressed with the Japanese people.” (https://www.tofugu.com/japan/history-of-christianity/)
• Ten months after Xavier’s arrival, the Shimazu changed their stance towards the Christians, prohibiting proselytizing and further conversions. This was probably prompted by the landing of a Portuguese ship at Hirado, in northern Kyushu and outside of Shimazu territory, which dashed Shimazu hopes of securing European trade through the missionaries. … (he went several journeys and preached, winning some converts).” (https://www.tofugu.com/japan/history-of-christianity/)
• “Nobunaga never converted, and it doesn’t seem that he ever believed in the Christian message, but he certainly had no love for Buddhist institutions either. A number had been thorns in his side. He burned the great temple complex on Mt. Hiei, killing roughly 25,000, and spent eleven years fighting the ikko-ikki, a type of militant Buddhist group. … Unfortunately…in 1582 Nobunaga was betrayed by one of his generals, and chose to kill himself rather than be captured. … Nobunaga had been a source of hope for the Jesuits, and with his death there were even harder times ahead for the Christian mission in Japan.” (https://www.tofugu.com/japan/history-of-christianity/)
• “Just before leaving Japan in 1551, Francis Xavier met with Otomo Sorin (1530-1587), lord of Bungo (in eastern Kyushu). … In 1578, he converted to Christianity, taking the name Francisco in honor of Xavier. Actually, a marital problem led to his conversion. Sorin had married a woman in 1550, who was staunch in her traditional religious beliefs and shared a contentious relationship with the Jesuits. She is known only as Jezebel, the name the Jesuits used to refer to her. In 1578, Sorin became ill, which the priest Luis Frois claimed was Jezebel’s fault. He was nursed by one of her ladies-in-waiting, with whom he fell in love. Sorin had his new paramour spirited away to a seaside villa where they were free to hear Christian instruction. First, she converted, taking the name Julia. Later Sorin also converted. They soon married, and Jezebel, as a pagan, was no object. To many observers Sorin’s behavior was scandalous, but to the Jesuits he was a hero. Sorin’s happiness did not last long.” (https://www.tofugu.com/japan/history-of-christianity/)
• “…in 1582, (Sorin) and two other Christian lords sponsored the first official Japanese embassy to Europe. The embassy was the brainchild of Italian Jesuit, Allesandro Valignano (1539-1606), who had been preaching in Japan for three years. The Tensho Embassy (named after the reign-name of the time) consisted of four Japanese converts. … The embassy arrived in Lisbon in 1584, and from there went on to Rome. During their European tour, they met several kings and two successive popes. In Rome, one of the converts was made an honorary citizen. They returned to Japan in 1590, after which Valignano ordained them as the first Japanese Jesuit fathers.” (https://www.tofugu.com/japan/history-of-christianity/)
• “Crucifixion was introduced into Japan during the Sengoku period (1467–1573), after a 350-year period with no capital punishment.[116] It is believed to have been suggested to the Japanese by the introduction of Christianity into the region,[116] although similar types of punishment had been used as early as the Kamakura period. Known in Japanese as haritsuke (磔), crucifixion was used in Japan before and during the Tokugawa Shogunate. Several related crucifixion techniques were used. Petra Schmidt, in “Capital Punishment in Japan”, writes:[117] ‘Execution by crucifixion included, first of all, hikimawashi (i.e, being paraded about town on horseback); then the unfortunate was tied to a cross made from one vertical and two horizontal poles. The cross was raised, the convict speared several times from two sides, and eventually killed with a final thrust through the throat. The corpse was left on the cross for three days. If one condemned to crucifixion died in prison, his body was pickled and the punishment executed on the dead body. Under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the great 16th-century unifiers, crucifixion upside down (i.e, sakasaharitsuke) was frequently used. Water crucifixion (mizuharitsuke) awaited mostly Christians: a cross was raised at low tide; when the high tide came, the convict was submerged under water up to the head, prolonging death for many days.’ Crucifixion was used as a punishment for prisoners of war during World War II. Ringer Edwards, an Australian prisoner of war, was crucified for killing cattle, along with two others. He survived 63 hours before being let down.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion#Japan)
• “Added to the fear of foreign conquest, one of the biggest concerns that Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu had always had with Christianity was the matter of loyalty. For a Christian samurai, did allegiance to the shogun or the pope take precedence? In 1612 there was a bribery scandal, involving a daimyo and a member of Ieyasu’s council, both Christians. This showed that ties between the faithful might be stronger than those to the central authority. In addition, at the execution of a Christian, a priest told the crowd that obedience to the Church should trump obedience to their daimyo. …Then in 1614 he issued the ‘Statement on the Expulsion of the Bataren,’ in which accusations against the priests were leveled. They were commanded to leave the country at once, and Japanese converts were ordered to renounce their faith. Most missionaries left the country, but some continued to operate in secret. Those who were caught were executed. Anti-Christian measures became even harsher under the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, who took power in 1623. It’s estimated that in 1612 there were approximately 300,000 Christians in Japan, but by 1625 there were half that or fewer.” (https://www.tofugu.com/japan/history-of-christianity/)
• “The Tokugawa shogunate had begun to persecute Christians, largely out of a fear that Christianity would subvert the order and hierarchy that they had struggled for so long to create and maintain. In 1614, Tokugawa Ieyasu issued a proclamation expelling Catholic missionaries from Japan. Japanese Christians were forced to go underground, becoming known as Hidden Christians (kakure kirishitan). Under successive shoguns, persecution intensified. The final straw was to come in 1637, when a revolt broke out in Kyushu.” (https://www.tofugu.com/japan/history-of-christianity/)
• “The Shimabara Peninsula lies on the western part of Kyushu, somewhat out of the way. … The life of a Japanese peasant was generally filled with a good deal of suffering. It wasn’t unusual for a lord to treat them poorly. Yet, Matsukura Shigemasa (the new lord as of 1610) was exceptionally cruel. He taxed everything, even births and deaths, and didn’t take kindly to those who couldn’t pay. Being thrown into a water-filled prison was perhaps the best one could hope for. His most notorious punishment was called the raincoat dance (mino odori), so named because the victim, wearing a straw raincoat, was doused in oil and set on fire, causing them to dance about. Sometimes the family members of those who failed to pay were taken hostage or punished as well. In 1637, when one of Shigemasa’s men assaulted a farmer’s pregnant wife the people finally snapped.”
• “This led to a rebellion that holed up in Hara Castle, which was defensible despite the peasants only using farming tools since weapons were illegal for them.” 
• “This young man was Amakusa Shiro (c. 1621-1638). Born on one of the Amakusa Islands, he was the son of a former Konishi clan retainer (the family’s Christian head, Konishi Yukinaga was killed for picking the wrong side at Sekigahara). He studied with Jesuits in Nagasaki, and according to local lore, made a name for himself preaching equality and dignity for the poor on the island of Oyano. Little else is known about him, but during the rebellion his followers began to think he was the one foretold years earlier by Father Marco Ferraro, a priest who worked in the area before being expelled. He said that, ‘After 25 years a child of God will appear and save the people.’” (https://www.tofugu.com/japan/history-of-christianity/)
• “The rebels were able to hold out for a surprisingly long time. However, as the winter months wore on, hunger took its toll and the defenses were breached. The victors spent three days slaughtering the rebels. An estimated total of 37,000 were killed, including Amakusa Shiro, and as John Dougill points out, ‘It’s invidious to play the numbers game when it concerns the dead, but the number killed at Shimabara is almost identical to the 39,000 who died in the Nagasaki atomic bomb.’ 10,000 heads were staked up around the castle, and 3,300 were sent to Nagasaki for the same treatment: a clear warning to the people.” (https://www.tofugu.com/japan/history-of-christianity/)
• Following the Shimabara Rebellion, the Tokugawa took the final step in guarding the country against foreign subversion by expelling all Europeans from Japan and banning their reentry on pain of death. The one exception to this was the tiny island of Dejima, just off Nagasaki’s coast, where an extremely limited number of Dutch ships were allowed to dock and trade. (https://www.tofugu.com/japan/history-of-christianity/)

If you read all of this, you’re my hero(es).

Join us next week when Nathan analyzes a film with one of the most beautiful ships ever constructed: Atragon. Maybe I’ll tell the story of how I took that ship for a joyride in my younger days. (Oh wait, I already did on Kaiju Weekly). Then the Metters return next month for part two of the “Daimajin Days” to discuss Return of Daimajin. I’ll be keeping my foil handy in case Joy tries starting anything with me. 😛

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