Into the Rising Sun 5

   ‘The Japanese have a high opinion of themselves because they think no 
    other nation can compare with them as regards weapons and valour, 
    and so they look down on all foreigners. They greatly prize and value 
    their arms, and prefer to have good weapons, decorated with gold and 
    silver, more than anything else in the world... Never in my life have I 
    met people who rely so much on their arms.’ 
                                                                      St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552)

The era of the samurai may have fallen over Seneca’s Cliff, but the code of honour and discipline and morality they embodied would endure. 
I looked out at what they had become, down the aisle of our carriage. Salarymen warriors, standing or sitting, were glued to their screens, or unconscious- distracted or dead. The standing ones had a dilemma- hold on to their briefcases and cell phone illuminations, or hang on to a strap or a bar so they wouldn’t fall. Most tried to balance without support, paralyzed by the prospect of missing a single tweet in the twilight. Some wore sterilized surgical masks, and some of those looked very samurai. In the old days, instead of surfing the web, they wrote on their iron war fans. The weaponry, from samurai to sararīman, had changed.
Early samurai were archers, fighting on foot or horseback with yumi long bows. An asymmetric composite bow of bamboo, wood, rattan and leather, it had an range of 330 feet, usually fired from behind a large mobile wooden tate shield, but also could be used from horseback, because of its shape. Swords were for finishing off wounded enemies. The Mongol invasions taught the samurai to make more use of swords and naginata curve-bladed poles and yari spears. Warriors wore two swords, together called daisho, ‘big and small.’ The katana was a curved blade over two feet long, and used for slashing, and the wakizashi, between one to two feet, was for stabbing. In the late 16th century, non-samurai were forbidden to wear the daisho.
There were also hardwood staff weapons, clubs and truncheons, and vicious kusari chain weapons, ending in weights or scythes.
Arms and tactics continued to evolve quickly.  As inexpensive organized ashigaru foot troop movements began to overwhelm efforts of individual bravery, the spear displaced the naginata. Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s mounted warriors, the ‘Seven Spears of Shizugatake,’ completely decimated his opponent’s sword-armed samurai in the Battle of Shizugatake. The appearance of the tanegashima Japanese matchlock during the Warring States period finished off the long bow. Its use had been easily taught, en masse, to the new peasant armies. By the end of the 16th century, there were more firearms in Japan than in many European nations but, once the quarter millennium of the Tokugawa shogunate was firmly established, firearm production ceased with the peace. 
Cannons became part of the samurai armory in the 1570s, often mounted in castles or on ships, and used predominantly as anti-personnel weapons. The technology of the first kunikuzushi swivel-breech loaders, nicknamed the ‘province destroyers,’ improved over the next fifty years, from firing shot of ten random ounces to eighteen accurate pounds.
Samurai wore full lamellar body-armor in battle. Early yoroi protection was made from small individual iron or leather kozane scales, bound together into small strips, coated with lacquer, and laced together with silk or leather to form a complete set of dō chest armor. In the 1500s, due to the advent of firearms, the need for additional protection brought Tosei-gusoku iron plate armor.  But samurai armor, unlike that worn by European knights, was designed first for mobility. The right hand was often left without an armored sleeve to allow maximum movement. The US Army based its first modern flak jacket on samurai armor. 
The strangest and most convoluted component was the kabuto, the riveted metal horned helmet, faceplate, and Darth Vader neck guard, which defended against arrows and swords coming from all angles. Many helmets also featured ornaments and attachable pieces, including a mustachioed demonic mengu mask, which protected the face and frightened the enemy. When the Satsuma Rebellion was crushed, the last samurai were replaced by a national conscription army, and their armor by uniforms.
Down the aisle of public transport narcolepsy, was my modern army of samurai salarymen, their uniforms uniform in full sartorial stylish splendor. It was all the fault of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, our second giant samurai who had emerged from the Warring State era of Japanese history. Hideyoshi instituted group punishments for crimes. Anyone who committed an offence could be guaranteed that their whole family, their neighbours, and the head of the community would be severely walloped. Japanese society became tight and rigid, and strangers were unwelcome, because they posed a real risk to the community for any wrongdoing. I could still feel the harmonic resonance. When the emperor started wearing a swallowtail coat instead of a kimono, suits became symbols of Japanese political power and wealth. The standard salaryman uniform of the Aoyama Trading black suit, worn to a worn-out shine, provided safety both in its legacy of collective feudal clan anonymity, and the sharp projection of competence in contract and commerce. The suit means business.
But it also means that the men in black suffer in the summer heat. This was made worse by the government that, in 2005, enacted their ‘Cool Biz,’ campaign. In an effort to reduce national energy consumption, office thermostats were set no less than 28 degrees Celsius (82.4F), and employees were encouraged not to wear jackets and ties in order to better bear the heat waves. While it caught on government offices, the feudal propriety of the business environment was less accepting of a more relaxed dress code. Instead, Japanese chindōgu innovative instinct produced cooling gel inserts, infrared-blocking fabrics, and even air-conditioned suits, with an inflation vent in the side that could balloon you into a clown. 
The comatose salaryman samurai uniform is accessorized with scuffed black lace-up dress shoes, a fraying black briefcase, an unobtrusive silver watch, glasses, an unconvincing sporting comb over haircut, and a ¥100 tie, in any colour but black. While black is the colour of experience (karate belts for example), it is also the colour of death and sorrow, which is why black ties are traditionally only worn for funerals. Underneath it all is a crisp white shirt, which he may have bought at the private manga cafe in the morning