When looking at butsujos, they remind me of monks and nuns pre-temple days. As a Buddhist I’ve been exposed to females who are obsessed with Buddha and Bodhisattva statues. Even my mom and sisters are butsujos according to the definition provided above. Since both Shintoism and Buddhism teach to respect the spiritual world, especially when it comes to the two main figure heads of the religions themselves, this is probably where this obsession started. If we look to feudal Japan even, with temples and detailed statues were highly respected, especially towards a miko. This practice is actually seen all around the world though, so it’s not that strange to me. There are people who collect statues of Jesus and Virgin Mary and Ala in other religions as well.
As far as rekijo women go, I see their idealization of a historical figure the same as American fan girls who obsess over Harry Potter and Twilight. Since so many Japanese men are turning into soshokukei danshi, the women are now looking towards males who have more masculine traits. Thus, these strong historical samurai spirited males come into play. Before the soshoukukei danshi days, Japanese men, especially in history were usually tough and held honor as a man high. Japanese women now are attracted to those traits that have slowly been lost through the years.

The major thing that i see with this rise in history and especially that of historic leaders is that many modern Japanese women tend to be attracted to very strong and “honorable” men, and those traits seem to be less prominant in today’s society because of the herbivorous men. This seems to be driving these women to search for men that they can look up to in the past rather than in their society today. i think that with the economic situation in Japan at the moment they may not feel that their political leaders hold any of the qualities they look for either. American society does not seem to be like this nearly as much, but i believe that it is because women are in search of diffrent sorts of men. It seems like in America women are interested in not only carnivorous men but herbivorous ones as well and there is an even balance that prevents them from looking into the past for a good male figure.

Rekijo and butsujo stuck me as very strange when I first read about this and I couldn’t figure out why. In the United States, we have people who are obsessed with history, of course. We have people, who may or may not necessarily be religious-minded people, who happen to be fascinated with religious imagery and symbology. There are tones of them. So what was so weird to me about this case in Japan? Then it hit me- unless something is a recreational hobby, we don’t group people based on these kinds of interests. Perhaps this is simply a cultural difference, or perhaps things like religion and history are considered too… intellectual (?) in the United States and not worth the attention. Maybe there are not enough people interested in these things to grab the media attention. Most of them seem to be intellectuals.

Another thing that I found very interesting (but didn’t know quite what to make of it) was the gender distinction here. As the “jo” suggests, these are women, entirely (if the media is portraying the situation accurately). Are there really no men? No “rekidan”? No “butsudan”? Maybe these interests are considered feminine. Maybe it’s a fad among women. Surely there are academic-types and researchers of these subjects who are men. Is this a difference between populist interest and academic/professional interest? Or is this gender profiling on the media’s part?

This is an interesting take on women in Japan. It is a rather foreign concept for women not to be able to study history regardless of what it is for Americans. The fact that they have started to adventure into politics and war is awesome in my opinion. Women are beginning to venture out and break their stereotype in Japan.
I wander if this is in accordance to the men becoming more feminine and less aggressive. Women are finding different ways to fulfill this void in society. It is interesting thought that it was inspired by a video game. This shows the role of technology in society and how it influences it.

I guess this whole pheromone all start from a video game. More specifically, it is possible to say that women become interested in history because the images and creation of the ideal, strong, and brave man. With the rise of the Herbivorous boys and women needs for a strong and mature man, it does seem surprising the realize that women would look else where for the ideal man, either through history or video games. Men, too, sometimes look for the ideal and beautiful woman, but i think only through the virtual world. With our modern technology, we can create anything through virtual reality and change our understandings of what we want. In this case, women began their interests in history through a video game.
Overall, I think the video game, Basara or Devil Kings in U.S., is a great game. I kind of hoping that the sequel of the game Basara would make it to the U.S., but it was unpopular. If anyone has the chance to play the game, play it, and enjoy.

I can see why women are getting into these games and history so much. For starters, most of the women who fit these descriptions started off as bloggers who were interested in Manga, and anime. The pull toward these games are based off the character designs. The men are all shamelessly handsome and outgoing, spewing testosterone with every step they take, and their all portrayed as manly carnivorous men. A stark contrast to the men in Japan now, who are mostly herbivorous. These character personalities are very appealing to women and since the characters are all so darn pretty, well its a huge draw in.
This initial Draw in gets them interested in history and eventually they get so interested they become huge history buffs. And these games kept on coming out. there are so many of these types of games out, not surprised really at the outcome.
I love Dynasty warriors (chinese game but same basic premise), Devil Kings, Samurai Warriors, etc etc
When i consider the situation, that would probably never happen here in america. Abe Lincoln’s Extreme Emancipating probably wouldnt sell well… or Custards last stand…i can make a million more bad game names >_>;;

I guess I’m more surprised by the women turning to historical figures than the wish-fulfilment aspect of it. After all, so many Japanese men are turning to fantastical women, so it’s somewhat fitting that women should do the same (y’know, equality and all that). Whether it’s healthy is another matter, entirely.

In a sense, I’m more likely to get behind the rekijo and butsujo than I am the poor boys who want to have “fulfilling” relationships with anime/manga/game characters. At least the former presumably gain some knowledge of history in the process, though I’d be foolish to believe this guaranteed. In some ways, it almost seems like a conscious backlash to the way men embrace the coquettish, increasingly non-threatening females who have appeared in Japanese pop art, by looking to these historical males who, if here and now, could be considered draconian at best, mass murdering tyrants at worst.

I suspect there’s even a whitewashing effect, based on popularity, like how the shinsengumi can be idolized despite their differences from the Gestapo or KGB being minimal. Hell, even the KGB gets whitewashed, if you like them enough. That kind of partiality can warp any potential historical knowledge into some perverse kind of historical fiction, if perspective isn’t maintained.

Either way, all of this does nothing to fix the widening gap between men and women in the aging Japanese society.