August 09, 2012
Emperor Kumazawa
The Southern Court did achieve a political victory of sorts five hundred years after the events described in Serpent of Time. After not mattering at all to anybody for centuries, early in the 20th century, the question of succession dating back to the era of the Northern and Southern Courts almost toppled the ruling Japanese government.
The controversy was created by Meiji ideologues faced with a challenge to the "official history" that the emperor was the product of direct, unbroken line that disappeared into the mists of history. This official history had itself only been invented in the mid-19th century as a means of delegitimizing the Tokugawa shogunate.
After much heated debate, the reign of the Southern Court from Go-Daigo to Go-Kameyama was accepted as legitimate, making the Northern Court of the time the pretenders.
Then during the American Occupation, a man named Hiromichi Kumazawa (along with several others) came forward with apparently authentic genealogies that "proved" he was a rightful descendant of the Southern Court. He made a splash in the media but the powers that be ignored him and he faded back into obscurity.
And thus does what was once a matter of life and death turn into trivia. Kumazawa was also a Buddhist priest. He surely understood the effervescent nature of such claims to worldly glory.
Labels: history, japan, serpent notes, serpent of time
August 02, 2012
Goodnight, sweet princess
Kala Sarpa again borrows from Shakespeare: "Or you would let flights of angels sing thee across the Sanzu River?" My sister Kate suggested the line. It comes from Hamlet: Act 5, Scene 2.
The Sanzu River (三途の川), meaning the "River of Three Crossings," is the Buddhist equivalent of the River Styx. Another parallel is the popular expression, "You can't take it with you." If you stuff your pocket with too much money, you're likely to drown in the Sanzu River.
Now cracks a noble heart. Goodnight, sweet prince;
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
The Sanzu River (三途の川), meaning the "River of Three Crossings," is the Buddhist equivalent of the River Styx. Another parallel is the popular expression, "You can't take it with you." If you stuff your pocket with too much money, you're likely to drown in the Sanzu River.
Labels: buddhism, religion, serpent notes, serpent of time
July 26, 2012
The samurai sword
The "ordinary" swords used by Ryô and Koreya would have been, at the end of the 14th century, some of the best-made weapons in the world.
Weapons technology in medieval Japan was like the cheetah, the product of a genetic bottleneck during the last ice age that left it really good at doing one thing: running fast. But at the same time, frozen in its genetic mold, unable to change until it may be too late.
For a thousand years Japan was home to the world's best swordsmiths. The Nova documentary "Secrets of the Samurai Sword" describes the advanced steel making techniques used by these medieval blacksmiths. But the technology only evolved within that "species."
When the Portuguese traders arrived in Japan in the mid-16th century, the chaos of the Warring States period had shattered the social status quo. This "punctuated equilibrium" allowed iconoclasts like Oda Nobunaga to deploy the cannon and musket to great effect.
For fifty years, Japan's gunsmiths then produced the world's best firearms. Though as soon as the Tokugawa regime was established, firearms were effectively banned. Japan's swordsmiths returned to what was by then essentially a state-sponsored antique business.
As a result, by the 19th century, Japan's military hardware was three centuries out of date. However, this dedication to the sword as an status symbol did have the advantage of making sure those reservoirs of technical talent had not languished in the meantime.
Just as during the Warring States period, the tumult of the Meiji Restoration again woke up Japanese manufacturers and entrepreneurs to the promise and possibilities of foreign technology. They made up all that lost ground almost overnight.
 |
| Courtesy Wikipedia Commons. |
Weapons technology in medieval Japan was like the cheetah, the product of a genetic bottleneck during the last ice age that left it really good at doing one thing: running fast. But at the same time, frozen in its genetic mold, unable to change until it may be too late.
For a thousand years Japan was home to the world's best swordsmiths. The Nova documentary "Secrets of the Samurai Sword" describes the advanced steel making techniques used by these medieval blacksmiths. But the technology only evolved within that "species."
When the Portuguese traders arrived in Japan in the mid-16th century, the chaos of the Warring States period had shattered the social status quo. This "punctuated equilibrium" allowed iconoclasts like Oda Nobunaga to deploy the cannon and musket to great effect.
For fifty years, Japan's gunsmiths then produced the world's best firearms. Though as soon as the Tokugawa regime was established, firearms were effectively banned. Japan's swordsmiths returned to what was by then essentially a state-sponsored antique business.
As a result, by the 19th century, Japan's military hardware was three centuries out of date. However, this dedication to the sword as an status symbol did have the advantage of making sure those reservoirs of technical talent had not languished in the meantime.
Just as during the Warring States period, the tumult of the Meiji Restoration again woke up Japanese manufacturers and entrepreneurs to the promise and possibilities of foreign technology. They made up all that lost ground almost overnight.
Labels: history, japanese culture, serpent notes, serpent of time, technology
July 12, 2012
Spic and span
Ryô pretending to be the cleaning boy is not all that anachronistic, even way back then.
One thing the campy Shogun gets right (it actually gets more things right than the horribly revisionist The Last Samurai) is that the medieval Japanese were considerably cleaner than their European counterparts.
And probably still are. In Ume-chan Sensei, despite living in bombed-out Kamata in the immediate aftermath of WWII, the family scrapes together the resources to build a crude o-furo. Priorities are priorities.
In This Old House type shows on Japanese television, the bathroom is always completely modernized, with western-style tubs (rectangular rather than square) and computerized toilets.
When it comes to keeping yourself clean, there's no sentimentality for the old-fashioned ways at home. That's what hot springs are for, and hot springs travel shows are ubiquitous on Japanese television.
But the medieval still holds sway over inanimate objects, from the ritual dusting of shrines and temples to school kids wiping down the classroom floors on their hands and knees. It builds character, you see.
More kids having tons of janitorial fun here.
One thing the campy Shogun gets right (it actually gets more things right than the horribly revisionist The Last Samurai) is that the medieval Japanese were considerably cleaner than their European counterparts.
And probably still are. In Ume-chan Sensei, despite living in bombed-out Kamata in the immediate aftermath of WWII, the family scrapes together the resources to build a crude o-furo. Priorities are priorities.
In This Old House type shows on Japanese television, the bathroom is always completely modernized, with western-style tubs (rectangular rather than square) and computerized toilets.
When it comes to keeping yourself clean, there's no sentimentality for the old-fashioned ways at home. That's what hot springs are for, and hot springs travel shows are ubiquitous on Japanese television.
But the medieval still holds sway over inanimate objects, from the ritual dusting of shrines and temples to school kids wiping down the classroom floors on their hands and knees. It builds character, you see.
 |
| Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. |
More kids having tons of janitorial fun here.
Labels: japanese culture, serpent notes, serpent of time, shogun
July 05, 2012
Names and numbers
Gorô's name means "number five (五) son (郎)." When it comes to names for Japanese boys, this formula can be used with just about any number. Here is a small sample:
Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company has a fascinating year-by-year, top-10 breakdown of all the given names registered in their databases since 1912 (Japanese only). It reveals considerable shifts in naming choices over the last century.
Between 1912 and 1923, Ichirô and Saburô consistently show up in the top ten, but not Jirô. Maybe parents got more creative with son number two. After 1923, the "number + rô" combination fell out of the top ten and never made it back in.
Ichirô, though, remains a popular name. The most famous Ichirô is Ichirô Suzuki (鈴木一朗), right fielder for the Mariners. The second character in his given name, however, is written with a slightly difference kanji that means "cheerful," not "son."
Out of the single digits, a literal reading of "number + rô" combination becomes nonsensical. It's unlikely that "Sanjûrô" is supposed to mean "number thirty son."
Names with numbers in them remain common for reasons that have more to do with the way the numbers are pronounced. The Japanese started assigned phonemes to numbers long before the telephone. The Japan Times provides a recent example:
Yakuza is the pronunciation of "8-9-3," a losing hand in a Edo period card game resembling blackjack.
The "number + daughter" convention isn't used with girls, but numbers show up in names such as Sen (1000), and the Ma (as in "Mari") prefix (10,000). In the latter case, the character is the same as the first character in Banzai (万才), meaning "long life."
The popular girl's name Nana can also be read "seven," prompting Microsoft to name its Windows 7 mascot "Nanami Madobe" (madobe means "by the window").
One given name on this side of the Pacific derived directly from a number (aside from "Seven of Nine" and "Thirteen") does spring to mind: Trinity.
01 一郎 Ichirô
02 二郎 Jirô
03 三郎 Saburô
04 四郎 Shirô
05 五郎 Gorô
06 六郎 Rokurô
07 七郎 Shichirô
08 八郎 Hachirô
09 九郎 Kurô
Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company has a fascinating year-by-year, top-10 breakdown of all the given names registered in their databases since 1912 (Japanese only). It reveals considerable shifts in naming choices over the last century.
Between 1912 and 1923, Ichirô and Saburô consistently show up in the top ten, but not Jirô. Maybe parents got more creative with son number two. After 1923, the "number + rô" combination fell out of the top ten and never made it back in.
Ichirô, though, remains a popular name. The most famous Ichirô is Ichirô Suzuki (鈴木一朗), right fielder for the Mariners. The second character in his given name, however, is written with a slightly difference kanji that means "cheerful," not "son."
Out of the single digits, a literal reading of "number + rô" combination becomes nonsensical. It's unlikely that "Sanjûrô" is supposed to mean "number thirty son."
10 十郎 Jûrô
30 三十郎 Sanjûrô
50 五十郎 Isorô
Names with numbers in them remain common for reasons that have more to do with the way the numbers are pronounced. The Japanese started assigned phonemes to numbers long before the telephone. The Japan Times provides a recent example:
The height of Tokyo Skytree--634 meters--has symbolic meaning for the area known long ago as Musashi, covering Tokyo and parts of Saitama and Kanagawa, because the figure's syllables can stand for 6 ("mu"), 3 ("sa") and 4 ("shi").
Yakuza is the pronunciation of "8-9-3," a losing hand in a Edo period card game resembling blackjack.
The "number + daughter" convention isn't used with girls, but numbers show up in names such as Sen (1000), and the Ma (as in "Mari") prefix (10,000). In the latter case, the character is the same as the first character in Banzai (万才), meaning "long life."
The popular girl's name Nana can also be read "seven," prompting Microsoft to name its Windows 7 mascot "Nanami Madobe" (madobe means "by the window").
One given name on this side of the Pacific derived directly from a number (aside from "Seven of Nine" and "Thirteen") does spring to mind: Trinity.
Labels: japanese culture, language, serpent notes, serpent of time, yakuza
June 28, 2012
Pragmatic asceticism
"Not all Buddhist orders banned the eating of meat." By pitching a campfire in front of the Konpon Dai-to and frying a fish, Koreya is being rude but not necessarily sacrilegious.
After arriving in Japan in the 6th century, Buddhism fully integrated itself into Japanese culture, producing sects and doctrines unique to Japan and Japanese pragmatism. Two notable practical "exceptions" to the rules are clerical marriage and the eating of meat.
Meiji period reforms legally allowed Buddhist monks and nuns to marry. This decree was resisted by the "renunciate orders." However, Buddhist priests do marry, and the reforms brought into the open what was already going on, such as temple appointments being passed from father to son.
This willingness to bend the letter of the law to practical realities also shows up in the eating of meat. Strict vegetarianism is rare among Japanese Buddhists, not to mention the general population.
Japanese respect vegetarianism more as a concept than in actual practice. The word is an imported English cognate, to start with. A "vegetarian menu" is one sans big chunks of beef, not one guaranteed to contain no animal products, especially pork or fish in the dashi, or soup stock.
This is a country, after all, that still hunts whales.
(Though I think mostly because it's a way to assert its national prerogatives, the same reason Japan, China, and South Korea constantly squabble over lumps of barren volcanic rock in the middle of the ocean. I'm pretty sure that if everybody just ignored them, they'd give it up.)
After arriving in Japan in the 6th century, Buddhism fully integrated itself into Japanese culture, producing sects and doctrines unique to Japan and Japanese pragmatism. Two notable practical "exceptions" to the rules are clerical marriage and the eating of meat.
Meiji period reforms legally allowed Buddhist monks and nuns to marry. This decree was resisted by the "renunciate orders." However, Buddhist priests do marry, and the reforms brought into the open what was already going on, such as temple appointments being passed from father to son.
This willingness to bend the letter of the law to practical realities also shows up in the eating of meat. Strict vegetarianism is rare among Japanese Buddhists, not to mention the general population.
Japanese respect vegetarianism more as a concept than in actual practice. The word is an imported English cognate, to start with. A "vegetarian menu" is one sans big chunks of beef, not one guaranteed to contain no animal products, especially pork or fish in the dashi, or soup stock.
This is a country, after all, that still hunts whales.
(Though I think mostly because it's a way to assert its national prerogatives, the same reason Japan, China, and South Korea constantly squabble over lumps of barren volcanic rock in the middle of the ocean. I'm pretty sure that if everybody just ignored them, they'd give it up.)
Labels: buddhism, japanese culture, religion, serpent notes, serpent of time
June 21, 2012
Medieval timekeeping
Timekeeping in Japan during the Middle Ages was based on the Chinese "lunisolar" system and the Chinese zodiac. Calendrical years also moved through a cycle of 10 "Heavenly Stems" and 12 "Earthly Branches." This is where the "year of the [zodiac sign]" convention comes from.
The zodiac was also used in hourly timekeeping.
Intercalary or leap months were necessary to make the solstices line up. When Japan switched the Gregorian calendar early in the Meiji period, a whole month was lopped off to accommodate the change (the date jumped from November to January). The months were simply numbered one through twelve.
Vestiges of this switch are still found in the date of the Obon holiday, Japan's main summer festival. Obon is "officially" celebrated on the 15th of August (according to the old lunar calendar), but in the Tokyo region it is often celebrated on the 15th of July (the adjusted solar date).
The zodiac was also used in hourly timekeeping.
Intercalary or leap months were necessary to make the solstices line up. When Japan switched the Gregorian calendar early in the Meiji period, a whole month was lopped off to accommodate the change (the date jumped from November to January). The months were simply numbered one through twelve.
Vestiges of this switch are still found in the date of the Obon holiday, Japan's main summer festival. Obon is "officially" celebrated on the 15th of August (according to the old lunar calendar), but in the Tokyo region it is often celebrated on the 15th of July (the adjusted solar date).
Labels: japanese culture, science, serpent notes, serpent of time
June 14, 2012
Convenience stores
The convenience store (konbini) in Japan operates in a different retail niche, and has quite a different image, than the "Kwik-E-Mart" flavor of its U.S. counterparts.
7-Eleven is owned by Tokyo-based Seven & I Holdings, the fifth largest retailer in the world (it also runs the Denny's franchise in Japan). In Japan, 7-Eleven appeals to urban, upmarket sensibilities.
Convenience stores have ATMs, sell bus tickets, process utility bill payments, and provide package delivery and postal services. And, of course, stock high quality Japanese "fast food" like onigiri.
7-Eleven is owned by Tokyo-based Seven & I Holdings, the fifth largest retailer in the world (it also runs the Denny's franchise in Japan). In Japan, 7-Eleven appeals to urban, upmarket sensibilities.
Convenience stores have ATMs, sell bus tickets, process utility bill payments, and provide package delivery and postal services. And, of course, stock high quality Japanese "fast food" like onigiri.
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| Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. |
Labels: economics, food, japan, serpent notes, serpent of time
June 07, 2012
Off the beaten track
I also describe the trip from Kudoyama to Mt. Kôya on the Nankai Kôya line in chapter 2 of The Path of Dreams:
[Connor] skipped his stop and rode the Midosuji to the end of the line. At Nakamozu he transferred to the Nankai and continued south. Past Nakamozu the metropolis ended. Past Sayama the suburbs ended. The sleeper communities appeared farther and farther apart, tiny villages tucked into the corners of the terraced mountain valleys.
Heading south out of Osaka is like cruising north from New York City on the Taconic State Parkway. In twenty minutes or less, you can venture out of Tomorrowland and find yourself smack dab in the Middle of Nowhere.
The remoteness of these rural train stations is a testament to Japan's population density, 130 million people crammed into the same area as California, and then squeezed all the more into the Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka/Kyoto megalopolises. It's a near-perfect power law distribution.
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| Courtesy Wikimedia Commons |
The Nankai Kôya line is blessed by having a great big city at one end and a great big tourist attraction at the other. Many rural lines are far less fortunate, and have the bad habit of turning into gaping money pits.
Labels: economics, japan, serpent notes, serpent of time
May 31, 2012
A yen for yen
As late as 1871, when the new Meiji government replaced the Edo period mon-based currency with the yen, 1 yen was defined as .78 ounces of silver or 1.5 grams of gold.
Rapid currency devaluation caused by fluctuations in the price of silver led to Japan going on the gold standard in 1873 and defining the yen as equal to 50 U.S. cents.
After the hyperinflation of WWII, the yen was pegged at 360 yen to the dollar. The U.S. abandoned the gold standard in 1971. The yen was allowed to float in 1973. Today the yen has risen in value to 80 yen to the dollar, a troubling "success" in export-driven Japan.
In 1871, the Japanese government issued 1 yen gold coins and 1 yen bank notes. In 2012, 1 yen is worth about 1.3 cents, and one yen coins are stamped out of aluminum.
Rapid currency devaluation caused by fluctuations in the price of silver led to Japan going on the gold standard in 1873 and defining the yen as equal to 50 U.S. cents.
After the hyperinflation of WWII, the yen was pegged at 360 yen to the dollar. The U.S. abandoned the gold standard in 1971. The yen was allowed to float in 1973. Today the yen has risen in value to 80 yen to the dollar, a troubling "success" in export-driven Japan.
In 1871, the Japanese government issued 1 yen gold coins and 1 yen bank notes. In 2012, 1 yen is worth about 1.3 cents, and one yen coins are stamped out of aluminum.
Labels: economics, serpent notes, serpent of time
May 24, 2012
Down on the farm
Ryô and Kuwada find themselves back in present-day Kudoyama (population: 4,827). Towns like this survive on the tourist trade, or as sleeper communities within commuting distance of larger cities like Osaka, Nara, and Wakayama.
Japan's farm-based rural communities are in far more dire straits.
The 1947 land reforms during the Occupation strengthened the agricultural sector and quashed a nascent communist movement by turning hundreds of thousands of tenant farmers into land owners and small businessmen. But it has since become an economic albatross.
The Japanese government shovels out farm subsidies 100 times (on a per capita basis) as generous as the U.S. government, forcing consumers to pay ten times the world market price for rice alone. Despite this largess, observes Kazuhito Yamashita, over the past 50 years,
And it's not keeping 'em down on the farm either. As Amy Chavez puts it,
Japan needs another land reform movement as profound as the one in 1947. The current system encourages enormous inefficiencies and is ruinously expensive. Unfortunately, as in the United States (to saying nothing of Europe), no politician dares to antagonize that voting block.
So it's not going to get fixed it until it's thoroughly broken and we're all broke.
Japan's farm-based rural communities are in far more dire straits.
The 1947 land reforms during the Occupation strengthened the agricultural sector and quashed a nascent communist movement by turning hundreds of thousands of tenant farmers into land owners and small businessmen. But it has since become an economic albatross.
The Japanese government shovels out farm subsidies 100 times (on a per capita basis) as generous as the U.S. government, forcing consumers to pay ten times the world market price for rice alone. Despite this largess, observes Kazuhito Yamashita, over the past 50 years,
the share of agricultural output in gross domestic product dropped from 9 percent to 1 percent, the food self-sufficiency ratio from 79 percent to 41 percent, and agricultural land from 6.09 million hectares to 4.63 million hectares.
And it's not keeping 'em down on the farm either. As Amy Chavez puts it,
In all my years living in Japan's countryside, I've never seen any significant return to the rice fields. Most people are lucky to make it back to their ancestral home once a year for O-bon on a 300 kph bullet train.
Japan needs another land reform movement as profound as the one in 1947. The current system encourages enormous inefficiencies and is ruinously expensive. Unfortunately, as in the United States (to saying nothing of Europe), no politician dares to antagonize that voting block.
So it's not going to get fixed it until it's thoroughly broken and we're all broke.
Labels: economics, food, japan, politics, serpent notes, serpent of time
May 17, 2012
Foot soldiers
The soldiers Ryô encounters in Serpent of Time are mostly ashigaru.
Ashigaru were originally tenant farmers recruited (or "volunteered") for service by the land owners. As local conflicts expanded into full-scale wars, they became the "regulars" in the clan armies, with the samurai forming the officer corps.
Though during the social upheavals of the Warring States period, these class distinctions often broke down.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a peasant ashigaru under the command of Oda Nobunaga. He rose through the ranks to become generalissimo of the country, though he was denied the title of shogun because of his commoner roots.
Oda Nobunaga was the first warlord to realize that firearms in the hands of large numbers of ashigaru could turn the best samurai into cannon fodder, and successfully executed large-scale battlefield maneuvers.
But realizing that the "great equalizer" was inimical to feudal order, once the Tokugawa shogunate solidified its rule in the early 17th century, the ashigaru were made lower-class samurai and systematically disarmed.
Under the world's most successful gun control regime, firearms were banned and weapons technology was frozen in place. Specialty steel making continued apace, forging swords that were rarely used (despite what you see in samurai movies).
As a result, following Commodore Perry's arrival two hundred years later, Japan found itself grossly outgunned, facing off with 16th century cannon and matchlocks against state-of-the-art British, French and American warships.
It was one of those Sputnik moments, and Japan responded by scouring the world for the latest technology, eventually building a navy that in 1905 thoroughly thrashed the Russians with both superior tactics and weaponry.
Ashigaru were originally tenant farmers recruited (or "volunteered") for service by the land owners. As local conflicts expanded into full-scale wars, they became the "regulars" in the clan armies, with the samurai forming the officer corps.
Though during the social upheavals of the Warring States period, these class distinctions often broke down.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a peasant ashigaru under the command of Oda Nobunaga. He rose through the ranks to become generalissimo of the country, though he was denied the title of shogun because of his commoner roots.
Oda Nobunaga was the first warlord to realize that firearms in the hands of large numbers of ashigaru could turn the best samurai into cannon fodder, and successfully executed large-scale battlefield maneuvers.
But realizing that the "great equalizer" was inimical to feudal order, once the Tokugawa shogunate solidified its rule in the early 17th century, the ashigaru were made lower-class samurai and systematically disarmed.
Under the world's most successful gun control regime, firearms were banned and weapons technology was frozen in place. Specialty steel making continued apace, forging swords that were rarely used (despite what you see in samurai movies).
As a result, following Commodore Perry's arrival two hundred years later, Japan found itself grossly outgunned, facing off with 16th century cannon and matchlocks against state-of-the-art British, French and American warships.
It was one of those Sputnik moments, and Japan responded by scouring the world for the latest technology, eventually building a navy that in 1905 thoroughly thrashed the Russians with both superior tactics and weaponry.
Labels: history, japan, serpent notes, serpent of time, technology
May 10, 2012
Wanted posters
Below are facsimiles of Edo period wanted posters on display in the Toei Kyoto Studio Park (English). You can take a virtual tour of the jidaigeki (historical movie) sets here.
These are working sets. Like Hollywood westerns, the jidaigeki has fallen in popularity, though NHK makes at least two television series a year, and now then one of its commercial competitors comes up with a truly inventive series like Jin.
These are working sets. Like Hollywood westerns, the jidaigeki has fallen in popularity, though NHK makes at least two television series a year, and now then one of its commercial competitors comes up with a truly inventive series like Jin.
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| Courtesy Nelson Cunnington. |
Labels: history, japan, japanese tv, movies, serpent notes, serpent of time
May 07, 2012
Japan's wicked witch
Japan's Empress Himiko can be compared to King Arthur, a historical character that exists more firmly in folklore than in actual history. Unlike Arthur, Himiko is depicted as more of a Merlin, less the tragic hero than the dissolute villainess.
Himiko ruled the Yamatai Kingdom during the second and third centuries. She was erased from the earliest Japanese histories, Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720), but is repeatedly mentioned in contemporary Chinese dynastic records.
The Chinese histories suggest why later regimes wanted to pretend she didn't exist or greatly downplay her standing:
Then a woman named Himiko appeared. Remaining unmarried, she occupied herself with magic and sorcery and bewitched the populace. Thereupon they placed her on the throne. She kept one thousand female attendants, but few people saw her.
The "keyhole" (kofun) burial mounds associated with the era also reflect Korean influences on the Yamatai court that the Nara and Heian courts might have wanted to expunge for political reasons (she does seem the King John sort).
Like Camelot, the geographical location of the Yamatai Kingdom is hotly debated in Japanese archeology, with new theories cropping up on a regular basis.
Labels: history, japan, magic, serpent notes, serpent of time
May 03, 2012
Foxes and raccoons
Buckwheat noodles with deep-fried tofu strips simmered in a hot broth are known as kitsune (fox) soba in the Tokyo area and tanuki (raccoon) soba in the Osaka area.
The kitsune and tanuki often pair up in Japanese folk and fairy tales, with the fox as the Dean Martin character (the cool hipster) and the tanuki as Jerry Lewis (the comic relief).
A good example is Studio Ghibli's Pom Poko, which has a bunch of bumbling raccoons trying to save their land from a housing development. They don't get a lot done until a smooth-talking fox shows up.
Pom Poko is also the only Disney flick that includes a running joke about a rather particular part of the male anatomy. Tanuki are well-endowed down there, making them symbols of fertility and wealth.
Usually depicted sporting a straw hat, carrying a bottle of booze in one hand and the Edo period version of a checkbook in the other, they're always ready to either get down to business or party hearty.
The kitsune and tanuki often pair up in Japanese folk and fairy tales, with the fox as the Dean Martin character (the cool hipster) and the tanuki as Jerry Lewis (the comic relief).
A good example is Studio Ghibli's Pom Poko, which has a bunch of bumbling raccoons trying to save their land from a housing development. They don't get a lot done until a smooth-talking fox shows up.
Pom Poko is also the only Disney flick that includes a running joke about a rather particular part of the male anatomy. Tanuki are well-endowed down there, making them symbols of fertility and wealth.
Usually depicted sporting a straw hat, carrying a bottle of booze in one hand and the Edo period version of a checkbook in the other, they're always ready to either get down to business or party hearty.
Labels: anime, japanese culture, serpent notes, serpent of time, studio ghibli
April 26, 2012
All aboard
An interesting detail in the 1908 map I used to chart Ryô's escape from Sakai is the railroad running along the Kino River. A mere fifty years after Commodore Perry presented the Japanese government with a scale model steam train, rail lines covered all the routes of the Edo Period highways, including spurs reaching into relatively outlying areas such as the Kii Peninsula.
In the century since, train technology in Japan went from the model 2-4-0 tank locomotive:
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| Courtesy Tony Hisgett. |
to this:
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| Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. |
Japanese embraced the train as enthusiastically as Americans did the automobile. Even today, every roll-out of a new Shinkansen model is given the red carpet treatment. A big reason is that the population distribution, density, and geography are perfect fits for rail. A single north-south line neatly intersects every major city in Japan without a single detour.
Japan National Railways decommissioned the last steam engine at the Oiwake switching yard in Hokkaido on March 2, 1976. As in the U.S., steam engines still carry tourist on reserved routes.
Labels: history, japan, serpent notes, serpent of time, shinkansen
April 19, 2012
The road to romaji
The "characters on the signposts along the road written in an unknown script" are romaji, or literally, Japanese written with "Roman characters."
Marco Polo arrived in China around 1275. "Japan" evolved from the Chinese pronunciation of "Nippon." But Europeans didn't set foot in Japan until the Portuguese established a successful arms trade in 1543 (smack dab in the middle of a civil war).
The Jesuit priest Francis Xavier reached Japan in 1549. The Jesuits initially made significant strides thanks in large part to the warlord Oda Nobunaga, who was fascinated by all things European and got on very badly with the Buddhists.
Japan's Catholic community fared much worse under Nobunaga's successor, and were eventually outlawed by the Tokugawa shoguns (for reasons more political than theological). Very limited trading rights were thereafter granted to the Protestant Dutch.
Until the 19th century, anything of European origins (especially medicine) was called "Dutch learning" (rangaku). The men sent out to meet Commodore Perry's black ships spoke Dutch, which required a Japanese-Dutch-English intermediary.
Dutch was clearly on the way out, and bilingual English speakers like John Manjiro (whose adventurous life belongs squarely in the "you couldn't make it up" category) became the shogunate's chief translators.
The most common system of romaji used today, known as "Hepburn," was first formulated in the 1880s by James Curtis Hepburn, a doctor and lexicographer.
The "official" romaji system is Kunrei-shiki, though even the Japanese government prefers Hepburn, which conforms very closely to the most common phonemes associated with the Latin alphabet (unlike Chinese pinyin, for example).
Kunrei-shiki is useful for linguists who want to exactly represent how inflections and conjugations are expressed in the underlying kana. Unfortunately, it's needlessly confusing to everybody else.
Marco Polo arrived in China around 1275. "Japan" evolved from the Chinese pronunciation of "Nippon." But Europeans didn't set foot in Japan until the Portuguese established a successful arms trade in 1543 (smack dab in the middle of a civil war).
The Jesuit priest Francis Xavier reached Japan in 1549. The Jesuits initially made significant strides thanks in large part to the warlord Oda Nobunaga, who was fascinated by all things European and got on very badly with the Buddhists.
Japan's Catholic community fared much worse under Nobunaga's successor, and were eventually outlawed by the Tokugawa shoguns (for reasons more political than theological). Very limited trading rights were thereafter granted to the Protestant Dutch.
Until the 19th century, anything of European origins (especially medicine) was called "Dutch learning" (rangaku). The men sent out to meet Commodore Perry's black ships spoke Dutch, which required a Japanese-Dutch-English intermediary.
Dutch was clearly on the way out, and bilingual English speakers like John Manjiro (whose adventurous life belongs squarely in the "you couldn't make it up" category) became the shogunate's chief translators.
The most common system of romaji used today, known as "Hepburn," was first formulated in the 1880s by James Curtis Hepburn, a doctor and lexicographer.
The "official" romaji system is Kunrei-shiki, though even the Japanese government prefers Hepburn, which conforms very closely to the most common phonemes associated with the Latin alphabet (unlike Chinese pinyin, for example).
Kunrei-shiki is useful for linguists who want to exactly represent how inflections and conjugations are expressed in the underlying kana. Unfortunately, it's needlessly confusing to everybody else.
Labels: buddhism, japan, japanese, language, serpent notes, serpent of time
April 12, 2012
Kii Kamiya
Kii Kamiya station is marked on Gendô's map as Kamiya.
The "Kii" dates to the abolition of the provinces and the consolidation of the prefectures (from 72 to 47) in 1871 and 1888.
The large number of provinces during the Edo Period was a deliberate divide-and-conquer strategy by the Tokugawa regime. Badly-behaving governors risked having their domains whittled down and given to their rivals.
Kii Province (紀伊国) was largely replaced by Wakayama Prefecture. The "Ki/i" (紀伊) name lives on in the Kii Peninsula, Kinokuniya Bookstore, and as a prefix attached to dozens of other geographical and place names.
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| Courtesy Wikimedia Commons |
The "Kii" dates to the abolition of the provinces and the consolidation of the prefectures (from 72 to 47) in 1871 and 1888.
The large number of provinces during the Edo Period was a deliberate divide-and-conquer strategy by the Tokugawa regime. Badly-behaving governors risked having their domains whittled down and given to their rivals.
Kii Province (紀伊国) was largely replaced by Wakayama Prefecture. The "Ki/i" (紀伊) name lives on in the Kii Peninsula, Kinokuniya Bookstore, and as a prefix attached to dozens of other geographical and place names.
Labels: japan, language, serpent notes, serpent of time
April 09, 2012
Revenge of the trees
As a recent NHK documentary pointed out, one of the ironies of modern Japan is that it's more heavily forested now than at any time in the past 400 years, despite having four times the population density of California.
A burst of castle building during the Warring States period of the late 16th century, and the fuel and construction demands of oil-starved Japan during and after WWII, led to widespread deforestation and destructive hillside erosion.
The Tokugawa shogunate launched reclamation efforts in the 17th century, and significantly pruned the number of allowed castles. Similar programs following the devastation of WWII met with remarkable success.
Then foreign lumber imports priced domestic producers out of the market. Now untended tree farms, mostly comprised of Japanese cedar, are the problem.
The unharvested trees crowd out themselves and other species, causing the erosion they were supposed to prevent. The whole country is allergic to cedar pollen, which descends from the mountains like a horror movie monster.
And we all thought Japan was going to be destroyed by Godzilla. Maybe the trees will save Japan by giving Godzilla a bad case of hay fever.
A burst of castle building during the Warring States period of the late 16th century, and the fuel and construction demands of oil-starved Japan during and after WWII, led to widespread deforestation and destructive hillside erosion.
The Tokugawa shogunate launched reclamation efforts in the 17th century, and significantly pruned the number of allowed castles. Similar programs following the devastation of WWII met with remarkable success.
Then foreign lumber imports priced domestic producers out of the market. Now untended tree farms, mostly comprised of Japanese cedar, are the problem.
The unharvested trees crowd out themselves and other species, causing the erosion they were supposed to prevent. The whole country is allergic to cedar pollen, which descends from the mountains like a horror movie monster.
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| Courtesy Andy Heatwole |
And we all thought Japan was going to be destroyed by Godzilla. Maybe the trees will save Japan by giving Godzilla a bad case of hay fever.
Labels: environmentalism, japan, serpent notes, serpent of time
April 05, 2012
Benzaiten
Benzaiten is the Japanese name for the the Hindu goddess Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, music, arts and science, one of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune (七福神).
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| Courtesy Wikimedia Commons |
Benzaiten is often shortened to Benten, and is commonly affixed to places (geographical features) and things (shrines, stores, restaurants, hotels), though not so much people.
Chikubu Island at the northern end of Lake Biwa is home to Hôgon-ji temple, devoted to the worship of Benzaiten (弁才天).
Labels: japanese culture, religion, serpent notes, serpent of time