Download or read book Uji no Shi written by Bruce Rimell and published by Xibalba Books. This book was released on 2022-04-27 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the late 1990s, artist and poet Bruce Rimell travelled halfway across the world to live and work in Japan. There in his new home city of Uji, just south of Kyoto, he discovered a wonderful new world of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, as well as evocative myths and folktales, beautiful rivers and forested mountains. Losing himself in this ancient landscape, where the Uji River emerges from the mountains into a picturesque cultural scene, he soon discovered the traditional Japanese artform of the 短歌 tanka, the ‘short song’ arranged in five lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables, and he began writing these brief poems to reflect upon his emotional life, and to note his personal impressions of the historical region in which he lived. After two years in the country, he decided to return home to Britain, initiating a transformative period in his life. The 短歌 tanka struck him as an appropriate way to record these changes, particularly as the medium commonly evokes traditional Japanese cultural ideas of impermanence, transience and the fleeting nature of moments in time. As he departed from Japan, and settled back slowly into British life, sorrows of a life left behind, impressions of natural beauty, and failed love affairs, are all enfolded into a collection of poems – in Japanese, but with English translations and notes – that represents an emotionally sensitive work of memory, of reminiscence, and of もののあわれ mono no aware, the ‘sigh of things’, the delicate knowledge that everything in this fleeting, floating world eventually fades and passes away.
Download or read book A Bowl for a Coin written by William Wayne Farris and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Bowl for a Coin is the first book in any language to describe and analyze the history of all Japanese teas from the plant’s introduction to the archipelago around 750 to the present day. To understand the triumph of the tea plant in Japan, William Wayne Farris begins with its cultivation and goes on to describe the myriad ways in which the herb was processed into a palatable beverage, ultimately resulting in the wide variety of teas we enjoy today. Along the way, he traces in fascinating detail the shift in tea’s status from exotic gift item from China, tied to Heian (794–1185) court ritual and medicinal uses, to tax and commodity for exchange in the 1350s, to its complete nativization in Edo (1603–1868) art and literature and its eventual place on the table of every Japanese household. Farris maintains that the increasing sophistication of Japanese agriculture after 1350 is exemplified by tea farming, which became so advanced that Meiji (1868–1912) entrepreneurs were able to export significant amounts of Japanese tea to Euro-American markets. This in turn provided the much-needed foreign capital necessary to help secure Japan a place among the world’s industrialized nations. Tea also had a hand in initiating Japan’s “industrious revolution”: From 1400, tea was being drunk in larger quantities by commoners as well as elites, and the stimulating, habit-forming beverage made it possible for laborers to apply handicraft skills in a meticulous, efficient, and prolonged manner. In addition to aiding in the protoindustrialization of Japan by 1800, tea had by that time become a central commodity in the formation of a burgeoning consumer society. The demand-pull of tea consumption necessitated even greater production into the postwar period—and this despite challenges posed to the industry by consumers’ growing taste for coffee. A Bowl for a Coin makes a convincing case for how tea—an age-old drink that continues to adapt itself to changing tastes in Japan and the world—can serve as a broad lens through which to view the development of Japanese society over many centuries.
Download or read book Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan written by Edmond Papinot and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 876 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Disaster of the Third Princess written by Royall Tyler and published by ANU E Press. This book was released on 2009-06-01 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These seven essays by the most recent English translator of The Tale of Genji emphasize three major interpretive issues. What is the place of the hero (Hikaru Genji) in the work? What story gives the narrative underlying continuity and form? And how does the closing section of the tale (especially the ten 'Uji chapters') relate to what precedes it? Written over a period of nine years, the essays suggest fresh, thought-provoking perspectives on Japan¿s greatest literary classic.
Download or read book RLE Japan Mini Set F Philosophy and Religion 4 vols written by Various Authors and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-19 with total page 1448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mini-set F: Philosophy & Religion re-issues 4 volumes originally published between 1926 and 1967. For institutional purchases for e-book sets please contact [email protected] (customers in the UK, Europe and Rest of World)
Download or read book Clans and Genealogy in Ancient Japan written by Masanobu Suzuki and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-02-03 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, there has been a noticeable and enthusiastic increase of interest in Buddhist temples and Shintō shrines in Japan. The legends of these temples and shrines are recorded in many historical manuscripts and these genealogies have such great significance that some of them have been registered as national treasures of Japan. They are indispensable to elucidate the history of these temples and shrines, in addition to the formation process of the ancient Japanese nation. This book provides a comprehensive examination of the genealogies and legends of ancient Japanese clans. It advances the study of ancient Japanese history by utilizing new analytical perspective from not only the well-known historical manuscripts relied upon by previous researchers, but also valuable genealogies and legends that previous researchers largely neglected.
Download or read book Official Gazette English Edition written by Japan and published by . This book was released on 1947 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Library of Congress Subject Headings written by Library of Congress and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 1342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hossfeld Japanese Reader in Two Parts Elementary and Advanced written by Henry J. Weintz and published by . This book was released on 1919 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hossfeld s Japanese Reader Comprising a Graduated Series of Extracts from Leading Authors with Copious Footnotes and a Vocabulary written by Henry J. Weintz and published by . This book was released on 1915 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Historical Studies in Japan VII 1983 1987 written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 1990 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Transactions written by Asiatic Society of Japan and published by . This book was released on 1882 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan written by and published by . This book was released on 1881 with total page 764 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Zen and Material Culture written by Pamela D. Winfield and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The stereotype of Zen Buddhism as a minimalistic or even immaterial meditative tradition persists in the Euro-American cultural imagination. This volume calls attention to the vast range of "stuff" in Zen by highlighting the material abundance and iconic range of the Soto, Rinzai, and Obaku sects in Japan. Chapters on beads, bowls, buildings, staffs, statues, rags, robes, and even retail commodities in America all shed new light on overlooked items of lay and monastic practice in both historical and contemporary perspectives. Nine authors from the cognate fields of art history, religious studies, and the history of material culture analyze these "Zen matters" in all four senses of the phrase: the interdisciplinary study of Zen's matters (objects and images) ultimately speaks to larger Zen matters (ideas, ideals) that matter (in the predicate sense) to both male and female practitioners, often because such matters (economic considerations) help to ensure the cultural and institutional survival of the tradition. Zen and Material Culture expands the study of Japanese Zen Buddhism to include material inquiry as an important complement to mainly textual, institutional, or ritual studies. It also broadens the traditional purview of art history by incorporating the visual culture of everyday Zen objects and images into the canon of recognized masterpieces by elite artists. Finally, the volume extends Japanese material and visual cultural studies into new research territory by taking up Zen's rich trove of materia liturgica and supplementing the largely secular approach to studying Japanese popular culture. This groundbreaking volume will be a resource for anyone whose interests lie at the intersection of Zen art, architecture, history, ritual, tea ceremony, women's studies, and the fine line between Buddhist materiality and materialism.
Download or read book Conversations with Shotetsu written by Robert Brower and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2020-08-06 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shōtetsu monogatari was written by a disciple of Shōtetsu (1381–1459), whom many scholars regard as the last great poet of the courtly tradition. The work provides information about the practice of poetry during the 14th and 15th centuries, including anecdotes about famous poets, advice on how to treat certain standard topics, and lessons in etiquette when attending or participating in poetry contests and gatherings. But unlike the many other works of that time that stop at that level, Shōtetsu’s contributions to medieval aesthetics gained prominence, showing him as a worthy heir—both as poet and thinker—to the legacy of the great poet-critic Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241). The last project of the late Robert H. Brower, Conversations with Shôtetsu provides a translation of the complete Nihon koten bungaku taikei text, as edited by Hisamatsu Sen'ichi. Steven D. Carter has annotated the translation and provided an introduction that details Shôtetsu’s life, his place in the poetic circles of his day, and the relationship of his work to the larger poetic tradition of medieval Japan. Conversations with Shōtetsu is important reading for anyone interested in medieval Japanese literature and culture, in poetry, and in aesthetics. It provides a unique look at the literary world of late medieval Japan.
Download or read book The Kojiki written by Basil Hall Chamberlain and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the mass of Japanese literature, which lies before us as the result of nearly twelve centuries of book-making, the most important Monument is the work entitled "Ko-ji-ki"1 or "Records of Ancient Matters," which was completed in A. D. 712. It is the most important because it has preserved for us more faithfully than any other book the mythology, the manners, the language, and the traditional history of Ancient Japan. Indeed it is the earliest authentic connected literary product of that large division of the human race which, has been variously denominated Turanian, Scythian and Altaic, and it even precedes by at least a century the most ancient extant literary compositions of non-Aryan India. Soon after the date of its compilation, most of the salient features of distinctive Japanese nationality were buried under a superincumbent mass of Chinese culture, and it is to these "Records" and to a very small number of other ancient works, such as the poems of the "Collection of a Myriad Leaves" and the Shintō Rituals, that the investigator must look, if he would not at every step be misled in attributing originality to modern customs and ideas, which have simply been borrowed wholesale from the neighbouring continent. It is of course not pretended that even these "Records" are untouched by Chinese influence: that influence is patent in the very characters with which the text is written. But the influence is less, and of another kind. If in the traditions preserved and in the customs alluded to we detect the Early Japanese in the act of borrowing from China and perhaps even from India, there is at least on our author's part no ostentatious decking out in Chinese trappings of what he believed to be original matter, after the fashion of the writers who immediately succeeded him. It is true that this abstinence on his part makes his compilation less pleasant to the ordinary native taste than that of subsequent historians, who put fine Chinese phrases into the mouths of emperors and heroes supposed to have lived before the time when .intercourse with China began. But the European student, who reads all such books, not as a pastime but in order to search for facts, will prefer the more genuine composition. It is also accorded the first place by the most learned of the native literati. Of late years this paramount importance of the "Records of Ancient Matters" to investigators of Japanese subjects generally has become well-known to European scholars; and even versions of a few passages are to be found scattered through the pages of their writings. Thus Mr. Aston has given us, in the Chrestomathy appended to his "Grammar of the Japanese Written Language," a couple of interesting extracts; Mr. Satow has illustrated by occasional extracts his elaborate papers on the Shintō Rituals printed in these "Transactions," and a remarkable essay by Mr. Kempermann published in the Fourth Number of the "Mittheilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Natur und Völkerkunde Ostasiens," though containing no actual translations, bases on the account given in the "Records" some conjectures regarding the origines of Japanese civilization which are fully substantiated by more minute research. All that has yet appeared in any European language does not, however, amount to one-twentieth part of the whole, and the most erroneous views of the style and scope of the book and its contents have found their way into popular works on Japan. It is hoped that the true nature of the book, and also the true nature of the traditions, customs, and ideas of the Early Japanese, will be made clearer by the present translation the object of which is to give the entire work in a continuous English version, and thus to furnish the European student with a text to quote from, or at least to use as a guide in consulting the original. The only object aimed at has been a rigid and literal conformity with the Japanese text. Fortunately for this endeavour (though less fortunately for the student), one of the difficulties which often beset the translator of an Oriental classic is absent in the present case. There is no beauty of style, to preserve some trace of which he may be tempted to sacrifice a certain amount of accuracy. The "Records" sound queer and bald in Japanese, as will be noticed further on, and it is therefore right, even from a stylistic point of view, that they should sound bald and queer in English. The only portions of the text which, from obvious reasons, refuse to lend themselves to translation into English after this fashion are the indecent portions. But it has been thought that there could be no objection to rendering them into Latin,—Latin as rigidly literal as is the English of the greater part.
Download or read book Reveries Dreams Refractions written by Bruce Rimell and published by Xibalba Books. This book was released on 2022-08-10 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2021, British artist Bruce Rimell realised that he had also been a poet for much longer than he had been an artist, and decided to bring this other creative practice into the foreground. Delving through his many collections of poetry, he began to publish the best as part of a small series of books. However, some of his unpublished collections were of much lower quality, yet contained within them what he felt were occasional shards of beautiful light. He decided to gather these disparate poems into a single volume of assorted works. This retrospective book is the result, mapping the transformations of Bruce's poetic voice over nearly thirty years, from formative and youthful compositions into the confident, eclectic, and eccentric poet with a mythical edge that he is now. The diverse collection ranges from satirical to magical, playful to visionary. Longform psychedelic texts sit alongside quick bursts of poetic inspiration, while poems which accompanied artworks, along with random social media compositions, all add their unique voices to the throng of the anthology. ‘Reveries, Dreams, Refractions’ is an unconventional volume charting a course across decades of a poet's inner life. Come and see...!
