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Notes -
Morning Chestnut Problem
After two delays Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, the latest installment in Ubisoft’s hit and award-winning series, has been released.
Several months ago when the latest installment in Assassin’s Creed video game franchise was announced to have a person named “Yasuke” as a protagonist, it was in the English-speaking discourse to proclaim he is a beloved in Japan and considered an important historical figure by the Japanese and that any negative opinion of this peculiar choice was coming from gaijin. It wasn’t only the English-speaking internet masses who promoted this conjecture, a powerful member of this community and even New York Times (although as this article contained no information that wasn’t known at the time, it may have been written just to launder the Hirayama’s tweet that Yasuke was a samurai, into something citable on wikipedia) did too. Introducing one “Kazuma Hashimoto”, whose knowledge of the Japanese language is unknown, who in his twitter bio used to identify as half-Japanese, as “a Japanese consultant”, despite the fact that he belongs to the California geographical and cultural milieu, thus a very non-central example of a Japanese person! After his deception was discovered he laid low, until surfacing after the release to peddle the same distortions, speaking over a native people.—
I suspect the reason why such a person was cited, is that even gaijin working on matters related to Japan, think that the knowledge of English language is sufficient to obtain all necessary information and as “Kazuma Hashimoto” has chosen a Japanese name, but has the knowledge of English of the American he is, he is the perfect source to lend credibility to conjectures about Japan some journalist might have. If one wants a starting point for researching some topic related to Japanese people, searching for it on X, Google, or YouTube by its Japanese, not English name: “弥助” not “Yasuke”, “アサクリ” or “アサシン クリード” not “Assassin’s Creed”, “問題” not “controversy”. Doing so, one finds some comprehensive overviews of issues some Japanese have with Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. Even if you do not know Japanese, using Google Translate and Deepl on a Japanese text written by a Japanese person will get you closer to their perspective, than asking a monolingual American who got his opinion from a monolingual American who got his opinion from a monolingual American who misunderstood a bilingual westernized Japanese.—
But he is just one man. His influence would in the English-speaking be negligible, if he didn’t have fellows (1) working towards the same goal of minimizing Japanese perspectives, and interpreting them to suit their agenda, combined with the general attitude that whatever is created in Japanese, must first pass through a native English speaker in order to gain value or credibility.—
This incident makes it clear that anyone unaffected by Gell-Mann Amnesia should be wary of foreign authors writing about Japan. No matter how minor the topic, many non-Japanese writers seem to consistently prefer English sources over foreign-language ones. For example, the English Wikipedia page on Yasuke uses citations from historical fiction, non-peer-reviewed articles written by tendentious gaijin, and recent news. The reliance on news is especially strange-why should a journalist's opinion, who doesn’t have any specific expertise, be considered more important than anyone else's? One might draw a parallel to the hypothetical situation where mathematical wikipedia articles would be based not on rigorous academic papers but upon the distorted misinterpretations, such as those presented in popular science journalism. The reality is that these English-language texts, simply by virtue of being written in a familiar language, are favored over more authoritative sources. The authentic primary sources and meticulous research conducted by Japanese historians is overlooked in favor of easily accessible, yet not rigorous, English sources.— (2)
EoPs set the null hypothesis about foreign countries. Given the affinity that Americans feel towards Blacks, this naturally leads them to imagine every Black person as much greater and more important than they really were. So they write, picking and choosing among the already scant sources available in English, to craft a narrative. As it is written in English, it is considered the default, and the native experts have to prove a negative. In English, of course, you can’t expect EoP historians of other countries to learn another language.—
Now, you could say this is what people say online; maybe that is a biased sample, and perhaps only the 'antis' are vocal, while the majority loves it. A not absurd objection; one should search for objective sources. Luckily, in the case of Japan and video games, we have that: every week it is published how many physical sales of games and consoles were made there. One would expect that if, in a long-running franchise, an entry would be released this time set in Japan, it would sell better in Japan than previous entries set in foreign locales. People are narcissistic; they like being talked about and are interested in what others think of them. Ghost of Tsushima, an AC game in all but name, which was set in Japan, sold more copies in Japan than any AC game. With the added bonus of featuring the allegedly popular-in-Japan protagonist Yasuke, sales would surely increase compared to previous installments.—
Data:
Opening week physical sales in Japan for AC games and GoT, ordered chronologically:
name [platform of the best selling version] release date, opening week sales on that platform (opening week sales across all platforms)
Shadows [PS5] R7-03-20, 17701
Mirage [PS5] R5-10-06, 20407 (28436)
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut [PS5] R3-08-20, 13745 (23969)
Valhalla [PS4] R2-11-10, 45055 (49282)
Ghost of Tsushima [PS4] R2-07-17, 212915
Odyssey [PS4] H30-10-05, 50173
Origins [PS4] H29-10-27, 53716
Syndicate [PS4] H27-11-12, 39858
Rogue [PS3] H26-12-11, 19496
Unity [PS4] H26-11-20, 43838
IV: Black Flag [PS3] H25-11-28, 50032 (65910)
III [PS3] H24-11-15, 85918 (97991)
III: Liberation [PSV] H24-11-15, 22110
Revelations [PS3] H23-12-01, 40440 (47602)
Brotherhood [PS3] H22-12-09, 39198 (50964)
Bloodlines [PSP] H21-12-23, 16221
II [PS3] H21-12-03, 55789 (83874)
I [PS3] H20-01-31, 36898 (70952)
Week 2, ordered chronologically:
Shadows [PS5] R7-03-20, 5565
Mirage [PS5] R5-10-05, 3402
Mirage [PS4] R5-10-05, 1890
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut [PS4] R3-08-20, 4154
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut [PS5] R3-08-20, 3526
Valhalla [PS4] R2-11-10, 6918
Valhalla [PS5] R2-11-10, <2265
Ghost of Tsushima [PS4] R2-07-17, 53387
Sales totals after two weeks, ordered by sales totals:
Ghost of Tsushima [PS4] R2-07-17, 266302
Valhalla [PS4] R2-11-10, 51973
Mirage [PS5] R5-10-05, 23809
Shadows [PS5] R7-03-20, 23266
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut [PS5] R3-08-20, 17271
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut [PS4] R3-08-20, 14378
Mirage [PS4] R5-10-05, 9919
Valhalla [PS5] R2-11-10, >=4227&<=6491
Interpretation: It has been almost a year since details about Assassin’s Creed: Red were announced, and only slightly less since English-language game journalists started lying about the reception the game had in Japan to their English-speaking audience. The latter is blameless, for it is too much to ask the masses to actively research an issue which is at best tangential to their lives. The former is blameworthy, as a journalist which leaves the reader with a worse model of the world than he started with is worse than a monkey with a typewriter. At least chimp’s writings won’t worsen the reader’s perception of the world.—
Shadows had the second worst first week sales out of all non-re-releases of Assassin’s Creed games. Only Bloodlines on the PSP sold worse, and even that only slightly.—
This can be said to be the end of a significant phase of a scandal. Unsurprisingly, gaijin Assassin’s Creed fans who considered it big news that Shadows was for a brief moment in the top 5 games by revenue on Steam in Japan, or in the top 10 best-selling games on Amazon Japan, either ignored these Famitsu numbers from ignorance or embarrassment, or downplayed them saying gaijin games don’t sell in Japan. A statement disproven by the success of Ghost of Tsushima and Shadows‘ sales being even lower than of previous entries.—
In the interest of intellectual honesty I must also be open about evidence I discovered which goes against my thesis. There exists a website which scrapes Steam reviews by language. For Odyssey, .32% of reviews are in Japanese, Valhalla, .53% of reviews are in Japanese, Mirage, .31% of reviews are in Japanese, Shadows, .71% of reviews are in Japanese. This could imply the Assassin’s Creed audience in Japan moved to Steam, thus consumer sales do not tell the whole story.—
(1)Such as one Jeffrey J. Hall.(1.1) Unlike other gaijin who report on Japan, he cannot plead ignorance about. For you see one aspect of the Morning Chestnut Problem which reached even the PM of Japan was ingame destruction of shrines. Politically it started with one member of the prefectural assembly conducting an interview with the head priest of the shrine depicted in the viral video showing the African protagonist marauding through it. I noticed this interview early on, but so did Jeffrey. Ever willing to discredit indigenous people(1.2), the man who holds a position equivalent to a state senator. The next day the local politician uploaded another video, showing he brought the issue to a member of Japan's Upper House, conveniently adding English subtitles. It was the latter man who spoke a day before the games release in Japan’s Diet about this issue and to whom Ishiba, Japan’s PM replied. The attention shrine vandalism was too great to ignore and Ubisoft issued a silent Day 1 patch, which only partially limited it but continues to refence the real shrine by name, but has yet to issue a formal response to protests from the Hyougo Shrine Association.(1.3)—
(1.1)To put it in terms Americans would better understand, Jeffrey (and Kazuma, if he didn’t also pretend to be Japanese) is to Japan what people like Claas Relotius, are to the US. In that both distort the countries they proclaim to be experts about, in order to reinforce the pre-existing perpectives of their audiences.—
(1.2)This wasn’t the first time this game caught the attention of a Japanese politician. Before the events I describe above, a member of the Party to Protect the People from NHK, had asked the National Diet Library for all materials it possessed that pertain to Yasuke. Jeffrey made hay of the fact this party is a minor, non-coalition one. The politicians I describe above belong to the perpetually-in-power Jimin-tou.—
(2)The wikipedia editor most responsible for the current sorry state of the English wikipedia article on Yasuke, ‘Symphony Regalia’, was on R6-11-13 topic-banned from Yasuke for a year on English wikipedia. This sanction follows a permanent suspension of that editor on Japanese wikipedia for sockpuppeting which occured on R6-08-31. The vandalism he inflicted was fixed in the Japanese, but not in the English language article. I think this is because I think wikipedia works by establishing a consensus. Early on, before this happens, one can slant and selectively interpret and pick sources to push a POV, without restrictions. Then one can use this history as evidence that a consensus is clear. And if one is successful, this POV is determined to be the truth, indisputable unless a great number of Reliable Sources, in English of course, disagree plainly.—
Sources: https://sites.google.com/site/gamedatalibrary/, sales for week of R2-07-20 to R2-07-26, sales for week of R2-11-16 to R2-11-22, sales for week of R3-08-23 to R3-08-29, sales for week of R5-10-09 to R5-10-15, sales for week of R7-03-24 to R7-03-30
What is your overall point? What is the "Morning Chestnut Problem"? What do Japanese sources say about Yasuke that differs from English ones, specifically? How did his depiction go over in Japan?
After all those words, on a topic I do have some interest in, I feel only marginally closer to understanding any of these things. Almost all your explanations feel incomplete, and the lack of structure or things like clear thesis statements doesn't do you any favours either. Impose some structure and make sure all your thoughts actually resolve, and I could overlook the awkward prose.
Your thoughts on Wikipedia are certainly familiar ones here. What most strikes me about your first (English-language) Wikipedia link is the hypocrisy of the principles expressed there when contrasted with how they actually handle any topic relevant to the US culture war.
A short summation of what actual historical primary sources say about Yasuke:
He was brought to Japan by Portuguese Jesuits. They gifted him to Oda Nobunaga because he was fascinated by his dark skin
He was present at the Honno-Ji temple incident when Nobunaga was killed
He got returned back to the Jesuits
There are a couple of very minor other details (like Nobunaga ordering him to bathe to prove that his skin was really dark) but that's about it. In total there are maybe 20 sentences about him in primary sources. Compare this to William Adams a few decades later. Adams has far more written about him, and we even have his own diaries from his time in Japan under Tokugawa Ieyasu.
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