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April 29, 2024
 

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THE LIVING PAST

Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jan 19, 2019
Toyotomi Hideyoshi: The brutality of victory
In 1590, having already subdued Kyushu and northeast Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi successfully took Osaka Castle after a three-month siege. But with opposition defeated, what happened next?
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Dec 15, 2018
The war that spawned the way of the warrior
Spectacular battle scenes, honorable deaths and tragic pathos, 'The Tale of Heike' is like Japan's very own 'Iliad.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Nov 17, 2018
'The Tale of the Heike' delivers a path for salvation
Some wars spawn myths. Some spawn epics. Some spawn both; others, neither. The 13th-century Mongol invasions of Japan spawned a myth — the "divine wind" that repulsed the invading fleet — but no epic. The 12th-century Genpei War spawned an epic — the "Heike Monogatari" ("The Tale of the Heike") — but no myth.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Oct 20, 2018
Life lessons from the master of noh Zeami
Stately, stylized noh arose from primitive, rollicking ancestors — sarugaku (monkey music) and dengaku (rural music). Two qualities in particular define it: yu016bgen (mystery) and monomane (imitation).
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Sep 15, 2018
The long struggle to become international
Eighth-century Japan was an infant civilization. Its prehistory had been long. Awakened at last, Japan drank eagerly from the source: China, then at its creative peak.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Aug 18, 2018
Heian literature: Is all fair in love and no war?
There's nothing quite like Japan's Heian Period (794-1185). Almost four centuries of peace and a governing aristocracy of culture set it apart.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Jul 14, 2018
Japan was slow to drive its pigs to the market
Ancient Japan appears to us as a land of warriors, priests, aristocrats, artists, poets, lovers, peasants — but one group is missing.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 16, 2018
Japan's gods: More benevolent than fearsome
The most violent episode in Japanese mythology is the rampage through the Sun Goddess' rice fields by her unruly brother Susano'o, the Storm God.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
May 19, 2018
Watanabe Kazan: Too open-minded for Edo
Imagine living in a 'closed country.' Japan was such for over two centuries, from the anti-Christian hysteria of the 1630s to the incursion in the 1850s of the American 'Black Ships.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Apr 14, 2018
Ando Shoeki: He who dared anger the gods
A mind like Shoeki Ando — bold, mischievous, unconventional, borderline crackpot, one might almost say — is worth probing, if only for those qualities, let alone for his ideas, which leave the mainstream so far behind that the word 'evil' has been attached to him.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Mar 17, 2018
Till death do us unite: Japan's dark tales of love
Has ever a civilized people lived in greater intimacy with death than the Japanese?
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Feb 17, 2018
Heroism and the changing state of morality
Every age breeds its own morality. One era's good is another's evil. Today's virtue is tomorrow's vice, today's wisdom tomorrow's stupidity, today's sanity tomorrow's madness.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jan 20, 2018
On the adulteration of Japan's oldest religion
Primitive Shinto is one of the loveliest religions in the world. It's beautiful in its simplicity — defenseless too, as it proved, against the nativists and nationalists who warped it into 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century xenophobia.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Dec 16, 2017
Japan's historical resistance to Christianity
Jesus and Japan go back a long way, longer than you'd think if you don't happen to know of a peculiar legend that has the Son of God sojourning — twice: once before, once after the crucifixion — in a remote mountain village in northern Aomori Prefecture.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Nov 18, 2017
Japan's shifting attitudes toward prostitution
Sex is a necessity and a pleasure; it's also a problem. It exalts some, degrades others. It generates offspring. It's dynamite. Taboos concerning it are as old as humanity. Laws regulating it predate civilization. Nowhere is the human libido absolutely unfettered. Incest is nowhere tolerated, marriage in some form, until very recently, everywhere requisite to socially sanctioned coupling.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Oct 14, 2017
Japan's 'way of the sword' baffles foreign observers
All cultures present aspects that cannot but baffle the foreign observer. For example: nothing in the native tradition equips a Japanese to grasp the concept of the blood of the crucified son of the one God washing believers clean of sin.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Sep 16, 2017
The prosaic state of ancient Confucianism
"Confucianism," says historian Hiroshi Watanabe, "is perhaps the most powerful political ideology yet conceived by the human race."
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Aug 19, 2017
Wabi lies at the heart of Japanese history
You could spend your entire life in modern Japan without ever hearing the term wabi, though no overview of Japanese history or art is complete without it. It's a beautiful word, hard to define like most beautiful words. Poverty is the heart of it, which sounds dispiriting, but there's the Zen phrase "To fill a monk's tattered robe with a cool refreshing breeze," quoted by Zen master Daisetz T. Suzuki (1870-1966) as an invitation to see poverty through Zen eyes.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jul 15, 2017
Harsh lessons learned from Zen meditation
The monk Dogen lived in dreadful times. A revolution culminating in 1185 had brought to power warriors who for centuries had served perhaps the most unwar-like aristocracy in world history, the effete but highly cultured ladies and gentlemen of the Heian Period (794-1185). Their day was done. They were swept aside. Sterner times lay ahead.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 17, 2017
Tracing the decline of a beautiful Japan
Two irreconcilable views of patriotism were given their classic expressions by two Englishmen: Lord Byron, the poet (1788-1824), and Dr. Johnson, the lexicographer and jack-of-all-literary-trades (1709-84). Byron said, "He who loves not his country can love nothing." And Johnson: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
Number of homeless in Japan hits record low
Homeless people sleep on the street in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in August 2021.
In Japan, regional revitalization fails to halt population decline
Sakiyama elementary school in Tamba, Hyogo Prefecture, in March .Over the past decade, the government has directed efforts toward policies designed to give young people incentives to base themselves in rural areas.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Ukraine is far from doomed
When comparing Ukraine’s military situation in 2024 to Europe’s in 1941, Russia’s defeat seems entirely possible.
When will Japan intervene to support the yen?
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki has reiterated the government's readiness to take an appropriate action as the yen continues to slide against the U.S. dollar.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Kyotographie's strong 12th edition shines light into the margins
Yassine Alaoui Ismaili, who goes by Yoriyas, turned to photography, shooting motion while in motion himself, after an injury forced him to give up his career as a professional breakdancer.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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