Download or read book Yamamba s Mountains written by Linda C. Ehrlich and published by ATBOSH Media Ltd.. This book was released on 2019-11 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These writings are inspired by the medieval-period Japanese Noh play Yamamba, and by Ohba Minako’s short story “Smile of a Mountain Witch” which contemporizes the Yamamba legend.Yamamba (sometimes written as “Yamauba”) is an elderly figure who is alternately described as a “witch” or a “holy spirit.” The first act of the Noh play presents a priest and dancer on pilgrimage to Zenkoji Temple (literally “Temple of the Good Light”) who encounter a powerful and ambiguous figure of an old woman in the mountain. The travellers comment on the strange changes in Nature that day, with the sky suddenly darkening. By the second act, the old woman has exited and returned to reveal herself fully as Yamamba, her true self, with matted white hair and a reddened face. Yamamba is a paradoxical figure. She aids the woodsman and the weaver, but also hides the sun behind storm clouds and frightens the traveller. Stamping the ground, pointing to the center of the earth with her fan, Yamamba leans on her cane (decorated with evergreen leaves) and shares with us her journey as she traverses the mountain paths, in pain.
Download or read book Traditional Japanese Theater written by Karen Brazell and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book of its kind: a collection of the most important genres of Japanese performance--noh, kyogen, kabuki, and puppet theater--in one comprehensive, authoritative volume.
Download or read book The Book of Yokai written by Michael Dylan Foster and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2015-01-14 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monsters, ghosts, fantastic beings, and supernatural phenomena of all sorts haunt the folklore and popular culture of Japan. Broadly labeled yokai, these creatures come in infinite shapes and sizes, from tengu mountain goblins and kappa water spirits to shape-shifting foxes and long-tongued ceiling-lickers. Currently popular in anime, manga, film, and computer games, many yokai originated in local legends, folktales, and regional ghost stories. Drawing on years of research in Japan, Michael Dylan Foster unpacks the history and cultural context of yokai, tracing their roots, interpreting their meanings, and introducing people who have hunted them through the ages. In this delightful and accessible narrative, readers will explore the roles played by these mysterious beings within Japanese culture and will also learn of their abundance and variety through detailed entries, some with original illustrations, on more than fifty individual creatures. The Book of Yokai provides a lively excursion into Japanese folklore and its ever-expanding influence on global popular culture. It also invites readers to examine how people create, transmit, and collect folklore, and how they make sense of the mysteries in the world around them. By exploring yokai as a concept, we can better understand broader processes of tradition, innovation, storytelling, and individual and communal creativity.
Download or read book Yamamba written by Rebecca Copeland and published by Stone Bridge Press, Inc.. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alluring, nurturing, dangerous, and vulnerable the yamamba, or Japanese mountain witch, has intrigued audiences for centuries. What is it about the fusion of mountains with the solitary old woman that produces such an enigmatic figure? And why does she still call to us in this modern, scientific era? Co-editors Rebecca Copeland and Linda C. Ehrlich first met the yamamba in the powerful short story “The Smile of the Mountain Witch” by acclaimed woman writer Ōba Minako. The story revealed the compelling way creative women can take charge of misogynistic tropes, invert them, and use them to tell new stories of female empowerment. This unique collection represents the creative and surprising ways artists and scholars from North America and Japan have encountered the yamamba.
Download or read book The Book of Yokai Expanded Second Edition written by Michael Dylan Foster and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2024-10-22 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Significantly expanded and updated—a lively excursion into Japanese folklore and its increasing influence within global popular culture. Monsters, spirits, fantastic beings, and supernatural creatures haunt the folklore and popular culture of Japan. Broadly labeled yōkai, they appear in many forms, from tengu mountain goblins and kappa water sprites, to shape-shifting kitsune foxes and long-tongued ceiling-lickers. Popular today in anime, manga, film, and video games, many yōkai originated in local legends, folktales, and regional ghost stories. The Book of Yōkai invites readers to examine how people create, transmit, and collect folklore, and how they make sense of the mysteries in the world around them. Revised and expanded, this second edition features fifty new illustrations, including an all-new yōkai gallery of stunning color images tracing the visual history of yōkai across centuries. In clear and accessible language, Michael Dylan Foster unpacks the cultural and historical contexts of yōkai, interpreting their varied meanings and introducing people who have pursued them through the ages.
Download or read book The Religious Art of Zen Master Hakuin written by Katsuhiro Yoshizawa and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-09-07 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Religious Art of Zen Master Hakuin is a stunning volume containing many of Hakuin's finest calligraphies and paintings. Katsuhiro Yoshizawa, the leading Japanese expert on Hakuin, masterfully reveals the profound religious meaning embedded in each artwork, providing a richly detailed documentary of the life and lessons of one of Zen's most respected teachers.
Download or read book Transformation of Tradition and Culture written by Miho Tsukamoto and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2018-02-07 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book Transformation of Tradition and Culture is a work of comparative literary research and culture investigation. The book studies world literatures from the USA, the DR, Mexico, Spain, Portuguese, and Japan; US cultures such as the Barbie doll; Mexican mural studies; Japanese subcultures, manga, anime, movies, and food culture; media study; and women in society. It is a book of an authors experiences, culture, and historical footsteps with people from all over the world. Sharing ones own culture with people from different cultural backgrounds is vital for everyone to learn about their own culture, languages, society, economy, politics, and customs.
Download or read book The Legacy of the Goddess written by Rachel S. McCoppin and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2023-04-10 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is often assumed that the female characters found in popular folk and fairy tales are little more than inconsequential stereotypes--mostly serving as hapless victims in need of rescue, boring one-dimensional princesses, or egotistical and conniving villains. This book presents more fully-realized portraits of these female characters and the ways in which they actually represent bold and powerful connections to the goddesses of classic mythic narratives. The rich legacy of female goddesses, shamans, queens, and priestesses is in fact preserved and celebrated through these more modern representations, whether as brides who can transform into animals, wise old women who live alone in the deep wilderness, strong warrior maidens, or witches who can conquer and command the elements of nature. In contemplating this revised analysis of female characters within global folktales and fairy tales, readers can see that the goddesses of old have never truly been forgotten.
Download or read book Imagination without Borders written by Laura Hein and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2020-06-01 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tomiyama Taeko, a Japanese visual artist born in 1921, is changing the way World War II is remembered in Japan, Asia, and the world. Her work deals with complicated moral and emotional issues of empire and war responsibility that cannot be summed up in simple slogans, which makes it compelling for more than just its considerable beauty. Japanese today are still grappling with the effects of World War II, and, largely because of the inconsistent and ambivalent actions of the government, they are widely seen as resistant to accepting responsibility for their nation’s violent actions against others during the decades of colonialism and war. Yet some individuals, such as Tomiyama, have produced nuanced and reflective commentaries on those experiences, and on the difficulty of disentangling herself from the priorities of the nation despite her lifelong political dissent. Tomiyama’s sophisticated visual commentary on Japan’s history—and on the global history in which Asia is embedded—provides a compelling guide through the difficult terrain of modern historical remembrance, in a distinctively Japanese voice.
Download or read book e and Beyond written by Stephen Snyder and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1999-04-01 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are the works of contemporary Japanese novelists, as Nobel Prize winner Oe Kenzaburo has observed, "mere reflections of the vast consumer culture of Tokyo and the subcultures of the world at large"? Or do they contain their own critical components, albeit in altered form? Oe and Beyond surveys the accomplishments of Oe and other writers of the postwar generation while looking further to examine the literary parameters of the "Post-Oe" generation. Despite the unprecedented availability today of the work of many of these writers in excellent English translations, some twenty years have passed since a collection of critical essays has appeared to guide the interested reader through the fascinating world of contemporary Japanese fiction. Oe and Beyond is a sampling of the best research and thinking on the current generation of Japanese writers being done in English. The essays in this volume explore such subjects as the continuing resonances of the atomic bombings; the notion of "transnational subjects"; the question of the "de-canonization" (as well as the "re-canonization") of writers; the construction (and deconstruction) of gender models; the quest for spirituality amid contemporary Japanese consumer affluence; post-modernity and Japanese "infantilism"; the intertwining connections between history, myth-making, and discrimination; and apocalyptic visions of fin de siecle Japan. Contributors pursue various methodological and theoretical approaches to reveal the breadth of scholarship on modern Japanese literature. The essays reflect some of the latest thinking, both Western and Japanese, on such topics as subjectivity, gender, history, modernity, and the postmodern. Oe and Beyond includes essays on Endo Shusaku, Hayashi Kyoko, Kanai Mieko, Kurahashi Yumiko, Murakami Haruki, Murakami Ryu, Nakagami Kenji, Oe Kenzaburo, Ohba Minako, Shimada Masahiko, Takahashi Takako, and Yoshimoto Banana. Contributors: Davinder L. Bhowmik, Philip Gabriel, Van C. Gessel, Adrienne Hurley, Susan J. Napier, Sharalyn Orbaugh, Jay Rubin, Atsuko Sakaki, Ann Sherif, Stephen Snyder, Mark Williams, Eve Zimmerman.
Download or read book The Snow Woman and Other Yokai Stories from Japan written by Noboru Wada and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2024-04-16 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An extraordinary collection of Japanese folk tales, many in English for the first time! This book contains 79 stories from the Japanese collection Tales from Shinshu, compiled and edited by award-winning author Noboru Wada. It features traditional tales of yokai, ghosts, mountain witches, demons and apparitions frequently sighted in and around the mountainous Shinshu region in central Japan, such as: The Legend of the Snow Woman: A beautiful woman appears at Minokichi's door one night in a snowstorm. They marry and live happily, until one day her terrible secret is revealed. Kappa Taro: A legendary yokai terrifies villagers by luring them into a pond, where they drown. Can Suwa Yorito, famed for his strength, successfully challenge this terrifying demon? The Yamamba Witch's Daughter: Who would ever dream of marrying a mountain witch? Can the Yamamba's daughter find the love and happiness she seeks? These stories have been passed down for generations from grandparents to their grandchildren, sitting around the hearth on cold and snowy winter nights. They are well-known throughout Japan and are believed by the inhabitants of Shinshu to have actually occurred in the distant past!
Download or read book Japanese Yokai Handbook written by Masami Kinoshita and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2023-10-17 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is your ultimate guide to Japan's scariest creatures! Yokai come in every imaginable shape and form—from frightening ghosts and cruel demons to cute fairies and enchanted animals. They can be evil monsters, harmless tricksters or prophets of doom, depending on their inclination. This book profiles 100 of the most fascinating Yokai, including: Tengu: A powerful Yokai that often takes human form with wings and a large nose who lives in mountains and forests Kappa: A deadly Yokai that lives near rivers and drags passersby into the water to drown Peroritaro: A grotesque Yokai that looks like blubbering child and has an appetite for greedy children Baku: A monstrous Yokai with an elephant's head, a bear's body, a rhino's eyes, an ox's tail and a tiger's legs that aids humans by devouring their nightmares And many more! Yokai expert Masami Kinoshita has been documenting Yokai in folklore, and in real life, for many years. This book presents her most interesting findings and has over 175 full-color illustrations that vividly depict the appearances of these weird creatures. No matter their origins, each Yokai has a strange and wonderful story that is sure to amaze you!
Download or read book The Woman s Hand written by Paul Gordon Schalow and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume has a dual purpose. It aims to define the state of Japanese literary studies in the field of women's writing and to present cross-cultural interpretations of Japanese material of relevance to contemporary work in gender studies and comparative literature.
Download or read book Facets Of Buddhism written by Shotaro Iida and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author presents a selection of papers written over the last twenty or so years, spanning the period from early research into the then nearly unknown Madhyamika writer Bhavaviveka or Bhavya, amongst Tibetan refugees in India, up to the recent past where there interests have, perhaps, somewhat broadened to include comparative religion. The author has moe or less left the essays in their original form and has introduced some consistency in the citing of the names of Japanese scholars in order to aid the English speaking reader unfamiliar with Japanese.
Download or read book A Sense of the Whole written by Mark Gonnerman and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2015-06-09 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1997, Mark Gonnerman organized a yearlong research workshop on Gary Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End at the Stanford Humanities Center. Members of what came to be known among faculty, students, and diverse community members as the Mountains & Rivers Workshop met regularly to read and discuss Snyder's epic poem. Here the poem served as a commons that turned the multiversity into a university once again, if only for a moment. The Workshop invited writers, teachers and scholars from Northern California and Japan to speak on various aspects of Snyder's great accomplishment. This book captures the excitement of these gatherings and invites readers to enter the poem through essays and talks by David Abram, Wendell Berry, Carl Bielefeldt, Tim Dean, Jim Dodge, Robert Hass, Stephanie Kaza, Julia Martin, Michael McClure, Nanao Sakaki, and Katsunori Yamazato. It includes an interview with Gary Snyder, appendices, and other resources for further study. Snyder once introduced a reading of this work with reference to whitewater rapids, saying most of his writing is like a Class III run where you will do just fine on your own, but that Mountains and Rivers is more like Class V: if you're going to make it to take–out, you need a guide. As a collection of commentaries and background readings, this companion volume enhances each reader's ability to find their way into and through an adventurous and engaging work of art.
Download or read book Gender is Fair Game written by Michiko N. Wilson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-07-23 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a critical study of the major novels and short stories of Minako Oba (1930-) the undisputed leader in the resurgence of women writers in Japan. Oba is a postmodernist, rethinking gender and culture, encompassing the theme of female Bildungsroman, and drawing on marinated memories.
Download or read book Teaching Ritual written by Catherine Bell and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-05-11 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a great deal of interest in bringing a better appreciation of ritual into religious studies classes, but many teachers are uncertain how to go about doing this. Religious studies faculty know how to teach texts, but they are often unprepared to teach something for which the meaning lies in the doing. How much doing should a class do? How does the teacher talk about religious concepts that exist in practical relationships, not textual descriptions? These practical issues also give rise to theoretical questions. Giving more attention to ritual effectively suggests a reinterpretation of religion itselfless focused on what people have thought and written, and more focused on how they order their universe. Much of the useful analysis of ritual derives from anthropological and sociological premises, which are often foreign to religious studies faculty and are seen by some as theologically problematic. This is the first resource to address the issues specific to teaching this subject. A stellar cast of contributors, who teach ritual in a wide variety of courses and settings, explain what has worked for them in the classroom, what hasn't, and what they've learned from experience. Their voices range from personal to formal, and their topics from Japanese theatre to using field trips. The result is a thoughtful guide for teachers who are new to the subject as well as experienced ones looking for fresh angles and approaches.
