"History is a 'practical tool' for the present. Reaching younger generations through film adaptations" by Michifumi Isoda

Historian Michifumi Isoda continues to offer insightful perspectives across various media, spotlighting not only figures on history's main stage but also those who worked behind the scenes. We spoke with him about the significance and meaning of studying history, as well as his original work, the film "My Lord, It's Interest!"

There is much to learn from ordinary people

When students ask me, "Why study history?" I often respond, "When you break up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, don't you wonder why it ended?" You reflect on past words and actions, thinking that might have been the cause. Viewed at the national level, this is national history; at the global level, it becomes world history and human history. We usually live within very narrow perspectives, but studying history allows us to transcend time and space, gaining a broader understanding. The most important thing is to see how humanity has dealt with challenges across time and space in the past.

But some people say history isn't useful. Why? Because most of the history written in textbooks is the history of powerful figures who led extraordinary lives. The ones who become the subjects of dramas and movies are always lords and above. It makes sense to say comparing ourselves to such people isn't helpful.

I believe the history that truly offers hints to us living ordinary lives is the history depicting the lives of common people. How did those without power attempt to solve problems when they suffered due to the circumstances of their times? Even if their solutions failed, through their ways of life and human stories, we can gain an objective view of ourselves and hints for how to live.

History and Science & Technology, Past and Future: Unbiased Media Communication

History focused on ordinary people continues to be researched under names like "people's history," yet it remains largely unknown to the general public. Amidst this, my book The Samurai's Household Accounts (2003), which focused on lower-ranking feudal samurai, was adapted into a film ten years later. Now, a film featuring peasants, a class even lower than the samurai, as its protagonists, "My Lord, It's Interest!" (based on the original work: The Selfless Japanese, 2012), has recently been released. I have been quite intentionally involved in these adaptations, treating them as projects I'm creating alongside others. My aim is for as many people as possible, especially younger generations, to learn about the lives of people in the past who shared the same circumstances as us ordinary people today. The market for historical information dissemination, even in popular paperbacks aimed at the general public, is only around 10,000 to 30,000 copies. When it becomes a TV program, the audience expands dramatically. If it becomes a film, including subsequent TV broadcasts and DVDs, it can reach 3 to 5 million people.

Can history truly serve as a mirror for our own lives? After much contemplation, I arrived at a narrative approach that consistently focuses on the struggles and hardships of ordinary people, and the use of film to widely disseminate this perspective and encourage reflection.

However, I do harbor some concerns about the recent history boom. For instance, when I was a child, science was a major theme in manga and anime, solving the world's problems through invention and technology. In contrast, many popular works today are set in classical Japan or China, featuring battles fought with very physical methods, without high-tech means. While these are fine, it's also true that I feel today's children shouldn't be spending all their time just watching history.

Around 1700, during the Edo period, Japan certainly shone brightly on the world stage. This is evident from the population ratio: 30 million Japanese out of a global population of 600 million, a full 5%. Today, that ratio is 2%, and projections suggest it could drop to 0.5% by 2100. If young people become captivated only by that past brilliance, it feels like the nation is beginning to age.

What's truly valuable is for young people to be interested in both history and science and technology, in both the past and the future. Shouldn't the media also strive for such unbiased reporting?

Now is the time to consider what "public" truly means

In the film "My Lord, It's Interest!", the owner of a sake brewery and farmers living in a small post town of the Sendai domain come up with a secret plan: not only to resist having their taxes seized, but to "lend a large sum to the domain and collect interest". I first encountered this story when someone who had seen the film "The Samurai's Household Accounts" emailed me saying, "There's such a wonderful true story in my hometown too."

As I began researching, I found abundant historical records. Reading them, I wept and wept at their sense of responsibility toward future generations—their willingness to sacrifice their personal wealth to protect their town. I wanted people living in this era, where the concept of the public sphere is wavering, to think deeply about what "the public good" truly means and what it takes to build a society where everyone can live well. With the goal of adapting it into a film, I compiled this story into a book.

Then, something happened that made me realize: Japanese people aren't so bad after all. They can resonate with and respond to these values. After publication, connections between people moved by the book spread like dominoes, eventually reaching director Yoshihiro Nakamura. The ancient documents left behind by ordinary people in Tohoku transcended time and space to connect with the present. This is how the film came to be, and it seems likely that even more people will resonate with it and be moved. Men throwing down large sums of money, prepared to go bankrupt, to save a post town. The Japanese sensibility that can be moved by such a story is a spiritual asset of society. I want to cherish it.

History is often discussed in terms of likes and dislikes, but I see it as a practical tool. It's an essential amino acid, indispensable for life. Today, the power dynamics and economic conditions of nations are changing dramatically, and existing values are shifting. Just as the victors of the Warring States period weren't the strong like Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, or Shingen, but the Mikawa samurai who helped each other without hesitation, in times of upheaval, "mutual aid" is both the key and the barrier to survival. I hope that "many Japanese people will empathize with this public spirit."