Island Vibes, Island Life

The Pacific Trust sent representatives to Disney with authentic textile samples that would have been present in ancient Polynesia. Two major materials, tapa and pandanus, are the basis for most costumes in the film.

“Because the materials are natural, they tend to be more structured than a fabric. How they move on people, and how they move when wet is different and it’s important to get those things right. For Moana’s costume I knew she was an adventurer, a voyager, and the costume had to reflect that. I added a slit to the front of her skirt, which ended up working technically as well. We work very closely to the animation department and the simulation team. Whatever outfit she wears needs to be historically correct, it needs to have materials that are accurate to the history, and it has to allow movement.” 

The Māori indigenous people of New Zealand have tattooed their faces for centuries. The marks are called 'tā moko', and are etched with 'uhi' chisels instead of needles to leave grooves along with the ink. The pigment used was soot obtained from burning kahikatea, or white pine, sometimes mixed with kauri gum or soot from the oily koromiko (hebe) shrub. The true form is sacred, unique to each person. Tā moko reflects an individual's whakapapa (ancestry) and personal history. In earlier times, it was an important signifier of social rank, knowledge, skill and eligibility to marry.Traditionally, men received Mataora on their face - as a symbol of nobility. As māori believe the head is the most sacred part of the body, facial tattoos have special significance

Yamamoto Yaeko - Heroic defender of Aizu

If you want to read about another heroine of this battle, you can check out my article on Nakano Takeko.

In autumn 1868 the domain of Aizu, Japan, was under attack by the imperial troops. Women within the castle actively took part in the defense. 

They prepared ammunition, cooked meals, nursed the wounded, but also risked their lives in extinguishing the fires and rushed to cover the enemy canon balls with wet mats before they exploded. Young girls also collected the enemy ammunition for the defenders to reuse it. A 60 years old woman went out of the castle to retrieve food, but encountered an enemy soldier on the way. She stabbed him with her dagger and safely went back to the castle. A female bodyguard unit also protected Matsudaira Teruhime, the lord’s sister.

Some of them also fought. A contemporary witness depicts them as ready to don their white kimono and fight naginata  in hand. An observer also said that they shared all the men’s burden, took on watches and shouldered a rifle if needed.

Among them was Yamamoto Yaeko (1845-1932), who distinguished herself through her leadership and her skills with firearms, though she wasn’t the only woman to use  them in the defense. She was the daughter of an artillery instructor and her brother Kakuma had taught her to use firearms. She was particularly competent, being able to use recent models like the Spencer rifle and had also learned to fight with a naginata. 

On October 8, Yaeko began to take part in night sorties. She had asked another female defender, Takagi Tokio, to cut her hair short like a male samurai. Armed with her Spencer rifle, she was dressed like a man and had two swords at her belt. She also commanded the men in charge of one of the cannons and didn’t abandon her post, even as cannon balls rained on the castle.

In spite of this fierce resistance, Aizu surrender on November 5, 1868. In an ultimate gesture of defiance, Teruhime ordered the women to clean the whole castle in order to humiliate the enemy as soon as they would set a foot in it and to show that the Aizu spirit was still unbroken. 

When the castle fell, Yaeko was made prisoner with the men. After being freed, she divorced from her first husband went to Kyoto to find her brother Kakuma. There, she met and married Nijima Jô, converted to Christianity and helped him to found Doshisha university. She later became a nurse for the Red Cross and served as such during the Russo-Japanese war in 1905. Another woman who fought in Aizu’s defense, Yamakawa Futaba, also became a promoter of women’s education.

(Yamamoto Yaeko in her later years, c.1929)

Today, a statue of Yamamoto Yaeko can be seen in Aizu. There’s also a TV-show based on her life: Yae no Sakura. 

Here’s the link to my Ko-Fi if you want to support me.

Bibliography:

Shiba Gorô, Remembering Aizu: the testament of Shiba Gorô

“Samurai warrior queens” documentary

Nakano Takeko - The swan song of samurai warrior women

In 1868, Japan was facing drastic political changes. The arrival of American ships in 1853 forced a country who had been closed to foreigners for the last two centuries to open. This led a to movement of distrust toward the Tokugawa shogunate  and culminated in the restoration of the emperor’s power.

Some clans and domains didn’t accept this situation and stayed loyal to the shogunate. Such was the case with the Matsudaira of Aizu. In autumn 1868,  Aizu came under attack by the imperial troops. Aizu was a conservative domain, its warriors strictly followed the samurai traditions. The women were trained with the naginata and to knew how to use a dagger for ritual suicide or self-defense. 

When the imperial troops arrived, some women decided to commit suicide, taking with them their children or elderly relatives to avoid being a burden for the defenders or fearing capture. A woman named Kawahara Asako beheaded her daughter and stepmother before taking her naginata to fight against the invaders. She survived her first sortie and was ultimately forced to withdraw to the castle.

Other women decided to fight, and one of them was Nakano Takeko (1847-1868). Takeko was 22 when the battle began. The daughter of an Aizu councilor, she excelled in martial arts, poetry and calligraphy. On October 8, the alarm bell rang as the enemy managed to enter the town. Takeko immediately joined, with her mother, Kôko, and her 16 years old sister Masako (also sometimes called Yûko), a group made of men and women to fight the intruders.

The defenders, however, decided to close the castle gates and the three women found themselves blocked outside. They decided to join the outpost were the Aizu soldiers were stationed and were joined on the way by other women. Each of them had decided to cut their hair like a male samurai. They wore a white headband and a hakama. They had two swords at their belts and were armed with a naginata.

Between 20 and 30 women ultimately joined was later called the joshigun or “women’s unit”. Takeko went to the leader of a squad of Aizu soldiers and asked to be allowed to fight. He refused at first, arguing that if the enemy saw women among the Aizu soldiers, they would think that the domain was on the verge of defeat. Takeko then threatened to commit suicide if she wasn’t allowed to fight. She and the other women were placed under commander Furuya who ultimately accepted their demand.

The next day, the Aizu forces and the joshigun, attacked the imperial troops at Yanagi bridge, hoping to break through and go back to the castle. The women were unafraid, even if they had to charge at men equipped with firearms. When the enemies saw that they were women, they gave at first the order to capture them alive. 

Takeko killed 5 or 6 men with her naginata, but was shot in the head and/or in the heart and died. Her younger sister didn’t want Takeko’s head to be taken by the enemy as a trophy. She thus tried to cut it, but couldn’t do it and asked an Aizu soldier for help. Masako managed to bring her sister’s head to Hokkai-ji temple where it was buried.

On October 13, the surviving women arrived to the castle with Hirata Kochô as their leader. They kept fighting and force some of them participated in the defense as sharpshooters. 

Masako was among the members of the joshigun who survived the castle’s fall. She went afterward went to Hakkodate, Hokkaido. 

Today, Takeko’s naginata is kept at Hokkai-ji. A statue as been erected in her honor in the town of Aizu. Each year, young women play the role of the jôshigun at the Aizu festival.

Takeko’s death poem, that she had tied to her naginata, was: 

“I would not dare to count myself among all the famous warriors - even though I share the same brave heart”.

She was among the last samurai warrior women. Women took arms during the 1877 Satsuma rebellion to prevent the samurai status’ and privileges from being abolished, but to no avail.

Here’s the link to my Ko-Fi if you want to support me.

Sources: 

Shiba Gorô, Remembering Aizu: the testament of Shiba Gorô

“Samurai warrior queens” documentary 

Wright Diana E., “Female combatants and Japan’s Meiji restauration: the case of Aizu “