Rurouni Kenshin

A hero is someone who fights for what he believes , a person who cares about people, someone who wants to change the world.

Rurouni Kenshin using one of his secrets attacks. (google)

My name is Luis Eduardo Salinas Huerta, I am 13 years old and I am a student at Columbia School.

In the eleventh year of the Meiji Era (1878), a vagabond swordsman is found wandering the streets of Tokyo. A strange man, he carries a reverse-bladed sword and has an x-shaped scar on this cheek. He wants only to be left alone. Nobles call him an assassin, but peasants call him Ruroni Kenshin a true hero.

Rurouni Kenshin is set in the Meiji Era, which began in 1868. It was a time of great change and grant insecurity for Japan. The political and economic events of the era play an important part in the Kenshin story. Before the Meiji Restoration, which gave rise to the Meiji Era, Japan had been ruled bye the Shogun for over two hundred years. After the Battle of Sekigahara, conveniently held in 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu infield Japan and declared himself Shogun, the ruler of the nation. The Emperor was retained, but his power and status were merely symbolic. The government system Tokugawa installed was essentially a blanket over the existing local government. Local lords, called daimyos, could do as they pleased, as long as they conformed to the Shogunate’s polices and wishes. This loose system of government was obviously not ideal, and after some two hundred years, the foundation for the Shogunate had become unstable.

At the beginning of the Tokugawa period (1600-1858), there were essentially three classes in Japan’s hierarchy> nobles, samurai, and peasants. The nobles made the rules. Samurai enforced them, and the peasants follow them. However the peasants were also responsible for the producing enough food to feed all three classes. The Meiji Era also marked the eliminations of the samurai class. With no feudal lord the serve anymore and many of the samurai joined the army of local law enforced offices. Others attempted to become bureaucrats in the newly-formed government. They were also forbidden to carry sword anymore, something they had done since before the Tokugawa period.

Kenshin is no longer fighting for the Ishin, ( the clan that Kenshin was in when he was a 14-18 year old) but for himself. He does not want to fight at all, and will only do it to defend himself or those he cares about. He is no longer interest in political power struggle and squabbles that were once a part of his past. Yet for a while he is a plagued both by those who would have him join the Meiji government and by those who would exact their revenge for his past actions. Sometimes it seems that Kenshin will never find peace in Meiji Japan.

Family and friends (1878) (google)

I consider him a hero because he is the only person I know that fought for what he believes. In the past Rurouni Kenshin fight with some friends of his and try to chance political laws. He killed as many people as he can, but some years later he appears in a small village in Japan. Everyone thought that he was going to kill everyone, but he didn’t. Many people try to kill him, but Kenshin's skills were superior. Some special thing he did while fighting vs. some conquers of Japan. Many people consider Rurouni Kenshin as a hero because he saved Japan on many occasions.

So finally he fights for what he believes, he didn’t get what he wanted, but he fights for the country he loves without any reward. That’s what a hero is. Someone who stand for what he believes and never gives up. A hero may act, fight, paint, sing, but something special about them is that they never give up, they stand for what they like and loves and continue their quest.