I have posted before on the unpublished supplement Tetsubo. I expressed the commonly held view that the world it presented did not capture the feeling of Warhammer. However, it got me thinking about what a Warhammer Nippon setting should have looked like.
As Graeme Davis has noted, the Warhammer Nippon setting was influenced by “the 80s fad for all things Japanese”. As a first step to construct Warhammer‘s Nippon, it is probably worth while to understand the context of that fad.
The Japanese fad of the 1980s was preceded by a surge in interest in Hong Kong martial arts movies, especially those made by Bruce Lee (in 1971-1973). It led to mainstream TV shows such as Kung Fu (1972). By the mid 1970s it was so pervasive that martial arts featured in a James Bond movie (The Man with the Golden Gun, 1974) and a number-one single (‘Kung Fu Fighting’, 1974). Many of the ideas from this fad, especially the itinerant martial artist, found their way into western conceptions of historical Japan.
The zeitgeist
In the late 1970s and early 1980s interest shifted further east to Japan itself. Japan’s economic rise was probably a factor in this. There was interest in Akira Kurosawa’s films, such as Seven Samurai (1954), Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985), set in the Sengoku period. Most famously The Hidden Fortress (1958) was a significant influence on Star Wars (1977). James Clavell’s book Shogun (1975), based on the Tokugawa shogunate and the story of William Adams, became a bestseller and was made into a popular TV miniseries (1980).
The fad also extended to RPGs. The first far eastern RPG was Bushido (1978). This was set in semi-historical Japan. It wisely sacrificed historical accuracy for familiarity and blended the Sengoku period and Tokugawa shogunate along with some elements from Hong Kong movies. It firmly established the archetypes for far eastern RPGs. Its character classes comprised Bushi (a warrior in the chanbara style, including samurai and ronin), Budoka (a martial artist based on Hong Kong movies), Shugenja (wizard), Gakusho (priest, Buddhist or Shintoist), Yakuza (rogue) and Ninja (assassin). It had a magic system based on the five Chinese elements: fire, water, earth, metal and wood. It also included a short bestiary of fantastic creatures from Japanese folklore.
Bandwagon, anyone?
The two main fantasy RPGs of the time also explored far eastern settings. Oriental Adventures (1985) was published for AD&D, and Land of Ninja (1986) for RuneQuest. I have not read the latter, but I am familar with Oriental Adventures. It departed little from the conventions set by Bushido.
There were other examples. The Fighting Fantasy gamebook Talisman of Death (1984) and the Way of the Tiger series (1985-1987) featured Mark Smith’s Orb setting, which had strong Asian influences.
By 1986, when WFRP1 was released, a far eastern setting must have seemed a necessity for any fantasy RPG.
The next post will look at how Nippon was described in Warhammer.
Title art by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.
AWESOME LIES 
A great post as always.
For me personally, the eye of the storm was 1979-80. As you rightly point out, interest in Chinese and Japanese settings had been building since the first Bruce Lee movies, but Kagemusha in the cinemas and Shogun on TV formed a kind of critical mass. I got the first edition of Bushido around then, but only played it around 1982 when a college friend got the second edition.
Also on my radar at the time were Eric van Lustbader’s novel The Ninja (1980) and the first few books in his Asian-fantasy Sunset Warrior series. Blade Runner’s (1982) iconic visuals had many Asian influences, too. Frank Miller’s Ronin comic series came out in 1983-4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles first appeared as an edgy indie comic in 1984: the same year, Usagi Yojimbo appealed to a similar audience.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) was another product of the growing fascination with Japan outside of fantasy, as was Black Rain (1989). Pat Morita was dispensing wisdom in The Karate Kid (1984) and Lee Van Cleef appeared as a ninja-trained Westerner in the short-lived 1984 TV series The Master. Japan was the name of a popular band, and New Romantics everywhere were sporting t-shirts (and occasionally headbands) adorned with rising-sun symbols and Japanese characters.
I could go on: Japanese imagery was everywhere. Even looking back, it’s hard to credit just how much of it there was, and how it affected popular culture at every level.
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Many thanks for the extra detail. I can’t believe I forgot to mention The Karate Kid!
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Oh, and let’s not forget music. I already mentioned Japan the band, but the “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence” soundtrack with Riuichi Sakamoto’s haunting sound, was very popular, and Alphaville’s “Big in Japan” and the Vapors’ “Turning Japanese” both charted and got a lot of airplay.
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Another Asian influence I should have mentioned is the TV series Monkey:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_(TV_series)
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Growing up at this time, I have some memories of how prevalent Japanese things and themed things were. It really was inescapable. Even though I was too young to really watch things like Shogun on TV, I was still aware of it and massively impressed by the images of samurai, both fully armoured and in normal clothing. I vividly recall some scenes and the dramatic war fans used. Even Blue Peter made a special summer trip to Japan (where Peter Duncan became a movie samurai) and Monkey was regular, if incomprehensible to me, viewing, whilst my older brother had a bottle of Hi Karate aftershave. It certainly had an influence on me and my interests as a boy.
Fighting Fantasy also featured the book Sword of the Samurai set in a version of Nippon on Titan (the main FF world) though oddly not as an island, as I recall. It had an additional Honour characteristic, I think.
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AD&D Oriental adventures was in fact a lot written by Fançois Marcela Froideval, who was quite a specialist of medieval Japan.
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