Joushi-shachou, man of Kyoto

In Project 154, the successful crime organization Safumo *

is headed by a man referred to as Joushi-shachou *

^{(Joushi is "boss" and used in place of his name, and -shachou is his title as company president)}

because his real name is a complete secret. Even though the corporation is based in San Francisco, Joushi-shachou and his family were born in Kyoto, and some of them live there.

Joushi-shachou lives in California, but is also extremely wealthy and has a huge passion for traditional Japanese culture—to the point where he had his house designed in a traditional style inside and out, he is trained in a variety of Japanese martial arts, and he wears kimono daily *

. Basically, he applies historical reenactment to every aspect of his personal life except where impractical or inapplicable *

^{(for example, he has to get places by car, historical means of transportation are not feasible)}

.

My question is, what era of Japanese history should he take inspiration from?

edited 31st Aug '11 1:25:11 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

Off the top of my head, I would say the Heian period, which occurred around the ninth and eleventh centuries AD. It was the last period of classical Japanese history, and, from what I've read about it, was a sort of Renaissance-like era where literature, art, and many hallmarks of what we consider traditional Japanese culture emerged and flourished. The Tale Of Genji was written during this time, too.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

He's from Kyoto. The logical thing to do would be to have him emulate the Heian-kyo imperial court.

EDIT: Crosspost. Basically what said.

edited 31st Aug '11 2:14:58 PM by Specialist290

Thanks. I was thinking Edo period because it is the last period before Japan gets significantly westernized, but I wasn't entirely sure. Heian period does seem to be the way to go.

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

As the Heian period was known for being very elaborate and extravagent (and, as others have said, the time of some pretty darn famous Japanese literature), I think it fits him. In addition to the fact that his attitude, in the modern world, is somewhat impracticle in and of itself, which bears a similarity to the court in Kyoto at the time (which, icidentally, was rather...um, negligent in managing the nobles and their retainers, leading to the rise of military power focused in the Shogun, and not the emperor; I wrote a research paper on that a while back, and can send it to you if you'd like.)

After some research: Whoa, men's fashion in the Heian period was very different. Looks more like Chinese dress, which I guess is the point since the Culture originally developed from Manchuria.

He's not that impractical, the Heian qualities apply only to his personal lifestyle and how he expects people to behave within his own home. It's also a slightly modernized Heian lifestyle to make it more compatible with the present day.

If he has to go out in public, he will don a suit, and Safumo is structured like a present-day kabushiki gaisha.

edited 31st Aug '11 4:25:26 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

• nod* Mmmhmm. Trade contact had been going on for a little while, and the Chinese influence was definitely strong, as you noted.

Ah, in that case it works for him well. I thought he applied it to other things outside of his personal area of control, like business.

In that case, he's good to go. Sounds like an interesting man to meet.

Yeah, he is an interesting guy, trouble is he makes much of his wealth off of the black market and taking advantage of poor people's and illegal immigrants' misfortune. He's friends with the protagonist, but he makes money off of his misfortune too.

Safumo thrives because of a complex economical divide that resulted from analog cash being phased out and ultimately made illegal. The "family" and life-binding nature of a Japanese company only makes it worse.

It's kind of a quasi-political cyberpunk work.

edited 31st Aug '11 4:37:09 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

Well, you've successfully piqued my curiosity. Let me know when you have this finished.

This magnum opus? It'll take a long time to get this finished.

To illustrate, there has been no mention of the main premise of this work save for the brief reference to the protagonist and his "misfortune". And I've spent a long time developing the main premise too. The whole Safumo/economical schism thing is actually supposed to take a back seat to the main premise.

That's how huge and elaborate this work is.

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.