Elven Samurai...

[Graf]

mutters about getting a sharper knife to cut hairs finer

As far as how they found out, don't forget that the Tokugawa Shogunate did leave two cities open to trade and foreign legations, on the south coast of Honshu.

Interesting. I recall the dutch having access to a single, very small island off the coast of a lesser port city. It had big doors on either side of a single well guarded bridge. The dutch weren't allowed to leave though later a few medical men would get partial access to make some copies of texts.
But its been some while since I took a history course and this is really off topic now.

However, whatever the original motivation, the policy did encourage a de-facto racist attitude.

You're right I suppose. I think that tossing the term racism around every time some group of people have a bunch of strange sterotypes about another group of people kind of weakens the effect but if you define it broadly enough then any preconceved notion about someone based on their race (no matter where it comes from or how little exposure the person holding the prejudice has been exposed to the subject of their sterotype) can be called racism.

In so far as the average Japanese person had no contact with Western people or their culture in any way (and given that Western itself is so broad as to be a sort of meaningless term) you can certainly say that the had some perposterious notions about non-Japanese.

I guess I tend to make a sharp division in my mind between the sort of ignorance of non-Japanese possessed by the average citizen during the Tokugawa period and the attitude of the average citizen during the 30s and early 40s.
(random plug: the War without Mercy by Dower, is a good look @ racism & the way it was used by leaders on both sides of the pacific during WWII http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...r=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/104-0204504-5459901?v=glance)

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

Graf:

Sounds like we're both suffering a bit from "I'm not sure I remember!"

However, the details that you list lead me to believe that you have studied the period more closely than I and so I defer to your memory.

There's loads more that I'd kinda like to say on the subject of racism but I think the Thread Police are already hunting me down for hijacking. Perhaps another time.

 

[Utrecht]

Whithout delving to deeply into the does xenophobia beget racism debate ( happen to think that it does - there are simply to many historical analogs to ignore). Further, We have to remember that we are looking at middle-aged societies with out 21st century "enlightened" eyes - so what may seem extreme to us today would be accepted then.


I happen to think that Elves (and Dwarves) would make a great samurai culture - probable something very similar to the Cranes in Rogukan. (Draves incidently would be a great crab clan)

This culture would be slightly more chaotic than traditional samuria cultures with more individual freedoms, but still controlled by very tight (ancestoral) codes of behavior - thus everything up to this boundry is acceptable - outside the boundy and you bring dishonor upon yourself and your family.

It would favor the arts, perhaps being a patron of promising underclass artists and be a little more in touch with nature (model this with strong ties to a Shinto-like religion) than your average Asian-flavored culture.

I am sure that I can come up with more....but well work awaits