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Natsume Sōseki (夏目漱石)
夏目漱石, Natsume Sōseki, (9 Feb 1867 - 9 Dec 1916) was the pen name of Natsume Kinnosuke (夏目金之助). He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, and I Am a Cat.
Born in the city of Edo, Sōseki began his life as an unwanted child. He was raised by a former household servant (Shiobara Masanosuke) until the age of nine.
In 1887, Sōseki met Masaoka Shiki, who encouraged him on the path to becoming a writer. Shiki tutored him in the art of composing haiku. He began signing his poems with the name Sōseki, which is a Chinese idiom meaning "stubborn".
In 1900, Sōseki was sent from Japan to study in Great Britain. He had a miserable time in London, spending most of his days indoors reading. Despite his poverty and loneliness he developed a broad knowledge of English literature.
He returned to Japan at the end of 1902. After his return to the Empire of Japan, he became a professor of English literature at Tokyo Imperial University, (東京帝國大學, Tōkyō teikoku daigaku) where he taught literary theory and criticism.
Soseki developed the symptoms of tuberculosis from around 1904 and never fully recovered. On the suggestion of Suga Torao, he practiced Zen meditation at the Engakuji Temple in Kita Kamakura. He described this experience in "Mon" and "Yume Juya" (Ten Nights of Dreams).
In 1907 Soseki retired from his university post. He worked as the literary of editor of the Asahi Shimbun. From Kofu (1908, The Miner) onwards his tales started to have dark tones. One of his central themes was the conflict between individual needs and the demands of society and often his characters suffer from feelings guilt after acting against the wishes of their family.
Soseki was active just when Japan was opening up the world, and is quoted as saying that "loneliness is the price we have to pay for being born in this modern age, so full of freedom, independence and our own egotistical selves."
In 1984, Soseki Museum in London opened by Sammy I. Tsunematsu at 80b, The Chase Clapham London SW4 0NG.
日本の手紙
posted by Message from Japan on Sunday, May 27, 2007 1 comments
OhmyNews
OhmyNews was originally created in South Korea.
The articles are posted by citizen journalists.
This is a international version in English.
http://www.ohmynews.co.jp/ranking
This is a Japanese language version. (Japanese only)
http://english.ohmynews.com/
The contents cover a interesting aspect about Japan, if you understand Japanese.
posted by kelly on Monday, May 21, 2007 2 comments
Kobayashi Maru (小林丸)
(A replica of the Japanese-built 1613 galleon San Juan Bautista, in Ishinomaki, Japan. The Shogun already had had two smaller ships (80 and 120 tons) built for him by the English pilot William Adams.)
Kobayashi Maru is the name of a starship in a training exercise in the Star Trek fictional universe. The term also refers to any no-win scenario.
The name is Japanese, and loosely translates as 'the ship named Kobayashi', (小林, small forest). Maru (丸) means perfection or purity and is a suffix for Japanese ship names, implying a safe return always.
The word maru (丸, meaning "circle") is often attached to Japanese ship names. There are several reasons for this, here are two: -
--- Ships were thought of as floating castles, and the word referred to the defensive "circles" or maru that protected a castle.
--- Hakudo Maru, a celestial being that came to earth and taught humans how to build ships. The name maru is attached to a ship to secure celestial protection.
The first ship named this way was the Nippon Maru, flagship of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's 16th century fleet.
When the Imperial Japanese Navy (大日本帝國海軍 (Dai-Nippon Teikoku Kaigun)) was formed, the Ministry of the Navy submitted ship names to the Emperor for approval. In the early years ships were donated by the Shogunate or Japanese clans and the original clan names were kept. By World War II a system was in place for naming of ships. E.g.: -
Aircraft carriers — birds or mythical flying animals
--- Hiryū (飛龍) flying dragon
--- Junyō (隼鷹) peregrine falcon - See Japanese ship names, for more examples.
Translated names
The English translations of the Japanese warships provide some very beautiful names. There is a tendency for translations of Japanese names to be somewhat fanciful. For example, Shōkaku is often translated as "crane flying in heaven", but "flying crane" or "soaring crane" is a more accurate. Another translation is "land of divine mulberry trees" for Fusō — fuso was a Chinese name for a mythical tree that grows to the east, hence is an old poetic word for Japan.
posted by Message from Japan on Saturday, May 19, 2007 5 comments
Minka - Houses of the People
A minka home in Shirakawa village, Gifu Prefecture.
Minka (民家, “house(s) of the people”) are private houses constructed in one of several traditional Japanese building styles. In the context of the four divisions of society, minka were the dwellings of farmers, artisans, and merchants (i.e., the non-samurai castes).
Anybody who thinks Japanese all live in cramped quarters should take a look at a Minka Farmhouse. The peaked roof shelters four floors. Massive, rough-hewn dark wood beams, fitted together without nails, frame the large living and dining area.
"A lot of wisdom, good thinking and good materials went into making these homes," said architect Yoshihiro Takishita, who found his house in central Japan's Gifu prefecture, disassembled it and then restored it on the hills over Sagami Bay, south of Tokyo.
These spacious structures grace the mountain-studded, rice paddy-filled countryside, their grass thatch roofs and dark brown exteriors blending gently with the surroundings.
Interest in minka resurfaced after 1995 when the United Nations named two Japanese mountain towns (Shirakawa-go and Gokayama) world heritage sites because of their well-preserved farmhouses.
The homes are linked to their environment and the raw materials traditionally came from their surroundings. Farmhouses in snowy climates, for example, have grass-thatched roofs built into what is called a "praying hands" shape, because the steep sloped roof stops the snow from piling up.
posted by Message from Japan on Tuesday, May 08, 2007 1 comments