In real history, Japan had many periods with their own distinct politics, mindsets, and manner of dress. But in Hollywood, Japanese history is pretty much one long indistinct period filled with pagodas and geishas in strangely easy-to-remove kimonos, where Samurai and Ninja roamed the land chopping each other up with katana and shuriken at the slightest provocation. This is the land David Plath called Jawpen -- "this place of which so many Westerners have jawed and penned", a country "made up of traditional Japanese parts ... invented and assembled here in the West for domestic consumption."