Tradition Meets Punk Rock: Seppuku Pistols

I’ve always been interested in humans through history: the same people we always have been with the same ideas and varying resources. This was made apparent to me in things like the earliest known graffiti: “your mom” jokes and “Adrienne was here” etched onto a wall in ancient Pompeii. or the rebelliously fashionable guillotine earrings from post-revolution France. In South Korea, I visited a Folk art museum with traditional drummers having a blast just like any of us would do today, an art that both refined and serious history-lovers could enjoy alongside any average person. Be it art, writing, or music, humans have always been the same, in a way. Sometimes we are so removed from history, only seeing dramatic reenactments of political events, that we forget this,

but there’s one band from Japan out there keeping history punk rock! Too big to fit on a stage, these wild rockers use the whole venue to put on a show.

They fancy themselves edo-era punk rockers, giving pop-up performances around Japan (and more recently, New York). Leader Iida on the bell states, “The Edo period which ended 150 years ago had its own culture and lifestyles. Since the Meiji Restoration, however, Japan has rapidly westernized and civilized and we have lost an important part of our Japanese soul.”

While some don’t consider this punk rock, Seppuku Pistols embodies punk in the form of counter-culture, rowdiness, and rebellion. Making noise like this makes anyone punk, and doing it on one’s own terms even more so, even if those terms are anti-modernization and traditional instruments. Whether or not you agree with modernization washing away the soul of Japan, or perhaps your own country, there’s definitely a mission and a rebellion with this band.

You can learn more about Seppuku Pistols here, and look out for their documentary about their journey to America.