The Appropriation and Reinvention of Japanese Culture in Western Games-Taking Ghost of Tsushima as an Example

This paper explores how Ghost of Tsushima reconfigures the translation of Japanese culture through its gameplay mechanics and visual aesthetics. Combining cultural and game analysis, it delves into the game’s binary-oppositional mechanics, examining them within a framework that engages with both 13th-century Japanese history and global popular culture’s imaginings of Bushido. The analysis shows that the game deliberately projected the samurai ethics (such as the moral principle of “loyalty and courage”) that was systematized in the Edo era into the Kamakura shogunate period, where the mature bushido theory was not yet formed. Through the struggle between the traditional samurai identity and the role of “war ghost”, the game created a strong narrative tension, which made players around the world quickly empathize and accept this cultural symbol. On the visual level, it constructs Japanese images in line with Oriental aesthetics with cherry blossoms, maple trees, shrines and other elements, and further strengthens cultural recognition. However, its romanticised treatment of cultural symbols risks oversimplifying historical complexities. This study contends that whilst commercially successful, the work exhibits historical shortcomings.