This research deals with the representation of the samurai swords in Japanese film, manga, and anime as a visual and narrative device which mediates power, ethics, memory, and identity. Rather than considering the sword as a historical entity merely, the study theorizes it as part of a cultural and media apparatus which organizes meaning across forms and periods. Underpinning Michel Foucault’s concept of the Dispositif (apparatus), the research argues that the sword functions within a network of discourses, visual conventions, and power relations beyond any single text or meaning. Through a close analysis of Kurosawa’s samurai film Seven Samurai, Nobuhiro Watsuki’s manga/film Rurouni Kenshin, and Koyoharu Gotouge’s manga/anime Demon Slayer, this paper looks into the evolving re/presentations of the samurai sword which reflects a broader shift in Japanese popular visual culture from cinematic realism to transmedial, postmodern mythmaking. Drawing on semiotic frameworks of Roland Barthes and Charles Sanders Peirce, the analysis of the media contents argues how the sword functions at diverse levels including as an iconic representation of historical weapons, as an index of social status and warrior identities, and as a symbol of cultural and ideological meanings about power, honor, and national essence. Employing Deleuze’s concepts of movement-image and time-image, this study posits samurai sword as visual and ideological dispositif which is embedded within a realist aesthetic marked by long takes, spatial continuity, and choreographed corporeality, grounding violence in ethical consequence in cinema and in stylized manga graphic and temporal fragmentation in digital anime.

Authors:
Md Towfique E Elahi, North South University, Bangladesh
Hideki Kuwajima, Hiroshima University, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Elahi is working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Media, Communication, and Journalism (MCJ) at North South University (NSU), Bangladesh.

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