Podcasts about Genji

Harold Rogers and Sean Thor Conroe on Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Vertigo by WG Sebald, and The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. From 6.6.26 in New York City. https://www.patreon.com/c/1storypod

A big part of the court are the actual court nobles, so this episode we are taking a look at some of the ones mentioned in the Chronicles for this reign. For more, check out https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-150 Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is episode 150: Nobles of Jitou Tennou's Court   Maro donned his light blue robes and made his way to the court.  As he arrived, the sun was just peaking over the horizon, and as it bathed the court in the golden morning light the dark shadows were dispelled, leaving in their wake a colorful scene, as various court officials headed this way and that, gathering in their offices to pick up on the work that they had left unfinished the day before. As an ohotoneri, Maro was often sent to and fro between the offices of the different departments. As such, he was able to see how they worked, and he wondered to himself which department would have the best opportunity for advancement.  His family had connections over at the Department of Prisons, and it was definitely a place he could make a name for himself, especially if he attached himself to one of the newly minted magistrates.  On the other hand, the Jingikan, the Ministry for Kami Matters, had some of the most important and sought after positions.  After all, no matter what the secular administration did, when there was no rain for the fields, it was the kami to whom the court turned.  And the members of the Jingikan who helped make those ceremonies happen were known to be well rewarded for their troubles. Perhaps he would be better off taking a more modest position, such as with the Jibu-sho, the Department of Civil Administration.  It was mostly focused on the maintenance and execution of the bureaucracy, and wasn't necessarily a place to seek the limelight, but perhaps that also offered some opportunity.  Do well in one position, and who knows what that could open up to you in the long run?  Maybe one day Maro could make it up to become a Nagon, a Counsellor, or even one of the Daijin, the great ministers at the very head of the council of state.Maro almost laughed at the thought, but he didn't put it aside entirely.  After all, as impossible as it might seem now, the world was still changing, and who knew what opportunities might be waiting just around the corner?   This episode continues our look at the reign of Uno no Sarara, aka Jitou Tennou.  I would note that we have now reached the last chapter of the Nihon Shoki, which ends with the end of Uno no Sarara's reign in 697.  In this chapter, we have not quite 11 years to cover, and we've already talked about the first three of those years, which featured succession issues and a long mourning time for Uno's husband Ohoama, aka Temmu Tennou, culminating in the sudden death of her only son, the Crown Prince and heir apparent, Prince Kusakabe, in 689.  We also went over what was happening on the continent, with powerful women like Uno no Sarara either on or behind the throne in Silla and the Tang dynasty.  To quickly recap the succession issues: When Kusakabe died, tthat left the throne in a somewhat tenuous position.  There were two other male heirs that would seem to have a claim on the throne as well.  The first was Prince Takechi, who was technically Ohoama's eldest son, but the Chroniclers claim that his late mother was not sufficiently royal for him to have a serious claim.  Then there was Prince Karu, the only known son of the late Crown Prince Kusakabe, and had been born 6 years earlier, in 683, to the Crown Prince and his wife, Princess Abe.  Princess Abe was a daughter of Naka no Oe, and a half-sister to Uno no Sarara.  She was actually a year older than Kusakabe, and would continue to look after the young Prince Karu.  So, Prince Karu was only about 7 years old when his father passed away: much too young to be taking the throne, let alone a firm hand in the politics of the time.  And given the mortality statistics of the time, there is so much that could happen to him before he reached the age of majority.  And remember, there were already some questions about legitimacy, and we already discussed the fact that about 30 nobles had gathered in support of Prince Ohotsu right after Ohoama's death.  Uno no Sarara had that whole issue quashed and Prince Ohotsu had died, but it was nonetheless a stark reminder that things could change quickly. So at this point in Uno no Sarara's reign, there is a great deal of uncertainty afoot, and there are quite a few individuals named in the Chronicles who stand to benefit from sticking their fingers into politics in one way or another.  This episode, we're going to look at some of those individuals, their roles in the court, and the effect they had on Yamato.  Some of those people named are particularly interesting in that they were involved in the conspiracy with Prince Ohotsu, and would continue to be highly influential in the government.  For example, Iki no Hakatoko, Nakatomi no Omimaro, and Kose no Tayasu, and Yakuchi no Wotokashi are all name-dropped, which we'll get into more later.  It feels significant, however, that there were some 30 nobles all told, and beyond these four and the apparent ringleaders, we don't learn anyone else's names.   The importance of prominent individuals in the court has been a constant theme in the Chronicles and in this podcast, so getting to know the court is definitely important. Moreover, during this time period as we get more and more written sources from which to work from we will see more and more information on individuals.  Some of that will come from the Nihon Shoki and the records that come after—the Shoku Nihongi.  Others, however, are from sources like the Man'yoshu, where bits of biographical data are found about the authors that they mention.  There are also family diaries and later genealogies.  Some of these sources are a bit more trusted than others, especially when they were compiled centuries later and we don't exactly know what sources they, themselves, were working on.  Still, even if it isn't 100% accurate, it does give us a picture of what was going on beyond just the royal family. I think it is also helpful to understand some of the overall court dynamics.  If you are familiar with the Heian period, especially around the time of things like the Tale of Genji, you are probably well acquainted with the Fujiwara family—I'll probably need to do an entire episode just on them at some point.  Essentially, there would come a time where almost the entire court was made up either of royals or of members of the Fujiwara clan, or uji.  In fact, even that distinction wasn't really accurate as the Fujiwara family had so intermarried with the Royal family that every sovereign—every Tennou and even most of their consorts—were directly related to members of the Fujiwara.  Not only that, but members of the Fujiwara family held the position of regent—whether the sovereign was of age or not—and effectively ruled the country, with the Tennou being largely relegated to a mouthpiece with ceremonial duties.  It would get so bad that we would see the splitting of the Fujiwara uji into smaller households, and the political fights were often between members of the different households of the same family.  There is a reason that a good portion of the Heian period is sometimes called the Fujiwara period. However, now during the late Asuka period, we see something a little different.  The marriage politics of the Soga had been violently suppressed about a half century earlier, and a lot of different names flourished in the Yamato court, as youmay have noticed any time I've rattled off a bunch of names and your eyes started crossing because of it.  But that's the reality we see: there were a lot of different families, and individuals, all jockeying for influence.  And they were in a period of disruption, where lots of change was happening.  That change meant there was also a lot of potential. And I hope you don't mind if I take a quick time-out here, but so often we read history and we forget to learn lessons from it, and one overarching lesson is:  if you are a part of an organization—a company, a club, government, school, or anything like that—one thing you are going to have to deal with is change.  It comes in many forms and happens whether or not you personally agree with it. It can be destructive and it can be frightening, because we often don't know what is on the other side of it, but it also presents opportunities.  After all, if you don't know what comes next it probably means other people don't, either.  And if you can be the one to provide direction you can have a huge influence on what comes next.  And change has been a constant theme in this period of Yamato history, in so many ways.  Take the reorganization of the government as one example: they had introduced these 8 departments, which had names and were set up in various ways, but it wasn't like you had experienced people to run them as they had been on the continent.  So you had names and the forms of things, but there were a lot of people figuring out just how to actually put this new structure into practice, and leverage them to do what they were supposed to do.  In the process, there were a lot of opportunities to innovate and figure out how to do it within the cultural milieu of the archipelago.  So all of these individuals, from these various families, all had opportunities staring them in the face.  They just had to figure out how to make the best of it. Now, don't get me wrong:  Those with the money, the connections, and the influence still had a leg up, and this was still a hierarchical society, where your family dictated, to some extent, your position in society.  The introduction of individual court rank, as opposed to just the kabane that ranked uji, was pushing against that, and had already caused a reformation that flattened a lot of the previous kabane into just eight distinctions, but those distinctions still existed.  Even had they not, simple matters of inherited wealth and the value of goods produced in a family's home territory would still have provided tremendous advantages.  But there isn't an indication of the kind of large-scale consolidation of resources that we will see in later periods, such as the Fujiwara example that we were just discussing.  Oh, sure, we aren't going to see a farmer suddenly make it big at court in some kind of rags-to-riches story, but at the upper end of society we still have a lot of apparent diversity. And so, let's get to know some of these individuals that the Chronicles tell us about.  Before we do that, though, let's recap a little bit about how the court worked. Every member of the court was effectively employed by the State.  They had an official job with duties they were supposed to oversee.  In the case of lower level functionaries, they were likely expected to actually do most of the work, while at the top of the hierarchy you had nobles who were more likely decision-makers, who would approve or disapprove of the work and direct strategic resources. Those working in the court had official uniforms—the round-necked garments of the continent.  What would be called a "caftan" farther west.  These were based on the foreign garments popular in the Tang court and elsewhere. The color and pattern of official clothing appears to be something that goes back to early in this new continental style government, and we see suggestions of color schemes from a relatively early age.  However, in 690 we see the clearest such outline of just what everyone was wearing. As a reminder, the court rank system of the day was made up of a Princely and a Commoner system.  Princely ranks originally included two ranks of the Myo class, and four of the Jou class, each rank divided into either "Great" or "Broad", for twelve Princely ranks, though honestly we only ever really see the four Jou class of ranks in use. Below that were the ranks for the common nobles—those with family names who did not have any kind of royal claim.    For them there were six classes of rank—Shou, Jiki, Gon, Mu, Tsui, and Shin, in that order.  Each class was made up of four ranks, which were further divided into upper and broad categories, creating 48 total ranks. Your rank determined your precedence at court—where you were sat, what jobs you were allowed to take on and, most importantly, the amount of money that you could expect to receive as part of a stipend.  Naka no Oe had previously consolidated the land-holdings and asserted claim over all of it.  The taxes from the households on the land went to the government to pay the stipends of the nobles in the court, who were, ostensibly, employees of that same government.  Your rank determined what you were owed, though this could also be augmented by various edicts. So there you go: rank in the court was tied to many of the things that the elites wanted, from wealth to status and access to various opportunities. The color of official clothing followed the rank system.  So Princes of the first two ranks of the Jou class were given robes of dark purple, and the third and four ranks were given robes of bright purple, which they shared with highest class of rank of the common nobles, the Shou rank class. Below that, nobles of the Jiki class would wear robes of dark red, and those of Gon would wear dark green.  The Mu rank class, the next down, was Light Green, and then Tsui was Deep Blue and Shin was Light blue. So in order you would see robes of Dark Purple, Bright Purple, Dark Red, Dark Green, Light Green, Deep Blue, and Light Blue.  The color gave you a certain indication of where the person sat in the overall hierarchy of the court, and provided you clues as to how you should address them, who would give deference, etc.  In later centuries, we are even told that deference was given in meetings, which is to say that once a person of higher rank provided input on a topic, nobody of lower rank was able to contradict them for fear of the consequences.  So it also told you who got the last word. This then was the world that the nobles of the court inhabited.  As we've seen in previous episodes it wasn't just bureaucratic work, but also banquets, archery contests, and Buddhist congregations and sutra readings.  There were rituals, dances, and diplomatic embassies—not to mention all of the ceremonies around the death or ascension of the sovereign.  In this world, one's reputation was everything.  You wanted to be seen as good at your job, but also, just like today, people were more likely to promote and support those they knew, and so it helped to have friends.  However, there were also a limited number of top spots, and so every promotion would have likewise meant plenty of disappointed nobles who didn't get the job.  But that is enough background.  Let's take a look at some of the nobles themselves, starting with the four from the Prince Ohotsu conspiracy.   The first name in the list is perhaps the least interesting.  His name is Yakuchi no Wotokashi.  Although he was the highest ranking of the four, he is also the least mentioned in the Chronicles and elsewhere, and we know very little about him.  So we'll talk about him later on, for completeness, but for now it may be best to skip him until we have a better handle on others in the court. In contrast, we know a bit more about his co-conspirators.  In fact, we've already talked about one of them at length:  Iki no Hakatoko.  We first heard about Iki no Hakatoko when talking about the Tang dynasty, and discussed him at length in Episode 123.  He was one of the members of the embassy to the Tang dynasty back in the early 660s that got delayed on account of Tang Gaozong initiating the war against Yamato's ally Baekje.  The fact that the Nihon Shoki directly pulls from Hakatoko's work, known to us, today, as the Iki no Hakatoko Sho, makes it one of the few early named written works that we know about.  Unfortunately, it is no longer extant except for what is preserved in the Chronicles, but it is still incredible that we have essentially an eyewitness account of what happened.  He would later be one of the escort envoys for one of the Tang embassies during the reign of Naka no Oe.  That he was then embroiled in the conspiracy with Prince Ohotsu would seem to be at odds with his standing, and yet after his pardon he eventually got back into the court's good graces.  In 695, about 9 years after the incident, he was assigned as an assistant envoy to Silla.  By that point he was of Mudaini rank, which was only about 35th in the overall scheme of things.  Later on we know he would work on the famous Taiho code, which was published in 701, and enacted a couple of years later.  It was here that he worked with the famous Fujiwara no Fubito—about whom we will discuss more, later—and although he would pass away in 703, this may be how his own writings came to find their way into the Chronicles, since Fubito is said to have had a large influence on them—as he had on many of the court's projects. Overall, Iki no Hakatoko may not have been the one in charge, but we see in his life an incredible career, much of it spent on multiple voyages across the ocean, whether on an embassy or as an escort.  He likely was highly proficient in the language of the Tang court—what we typically refer to, broadly, as Middle Chinese.  He also had direct experience with the Tang court and system, and so it makes sense that he was one of those helping to build an administrative state based on that system. If we were to imagine Hakatoko in the court of the day, at least in 695, he would have likely had light green colored robes, indicating that he was of the "Mu" class of ranks.  He would have worn the black gauze cap of the court and worn white hakama, or trousers, underneath.  His long, continental style, round-necked robes—likely relatively slim, with overly long, but narrow, sleeves—would have been tied closed in the front with a braided silk cord.  He likely worn black leather boots, covered in a light lacquer to protect them from the elements, with cloth insoles and perhaps a hint of brocade along the top.  He likely kept with him a ruler, and perhaps a few slips of paper or even just wood on which to take occasional notes.  A mid-level functionary of the court. We can compare and contrast Hakatoko to two other co-conspirators:  Nakatomi no Omimaro and Kose no Tayasu. We are given neither Omimaro's rank nor Tayasu's at this time.  It is interesting that they listed after Hakatoko, who is actually listed as having "Lower Shousen" rank—an older rank that was no longer in use at this point in time.  Also, both Nakatomi and Kose were Ason level families while Iki no Hakatoko is listed as being merely "Muraji".  So it seems that the Chroniclers were probably pulling from what they could find elsewhere, although where they found that Wotokashi had Jikikwoshi rank I have no idea, as we don't have any other record for him.  And it is possible that deference to Wotokashi and Hakatoko are as much a nod to their age as anything else, though probably not by much. Of four co-conspirators mentioned here—and I'm leaving out the two who were exiled or banished, as they were clearly not hanging around the court later—Nakatomi no Omimaro and Kose no Tayasu were probably from the most established families.  Indeed, we see both of their names show up multiple times in the record, giving us a better idea of who they might have been. Of the two, the name Nakatomi probably is more likely to ring a bell, as that as the surname of the famous Nakatomi no Kamatari—as well as the later Nakatomi no Kane.   Nakatomi no Kamatari was the head of court ritual when he and Naka no Oe kicked things off with the Isshi Incident and the Taika reforms, at which point he became the "Inner Prime Minister", or Naidaijin. Much of what we know of Omimaro comes from outside of the Chronicles themselves.  For instance, we are told that he was the son of Nakatomi no Kunitari, a cousin to the famous Kamatari, at least according to the 10th century Engi Shiki.  However, we have no other records of Kunitari, and so there is more than a little doubt cast as to whether or not that was actually the case.  Similarly, we are told that Omimaro married one of Kamatari's daughters, and was eventually adopted by Kamatari. Once again, the evidence for this is pretty thin, and it is unclear to me just how adoption worked at this point.  Certainly in later periods, adoption was often a way to ensure that a family had a male heir to ensure the family's continuity, and marrying someone's daughter and being adopted into the family is an age old tradition in the archipelago and Japan more generally.  At the same time, give some thought to what we know about this period: male primogeniture was not exactly the norm, although Confucian values had definitely made inroads into court.   The family headship often went to the eldest—or most prominent—family member.  This wasn't necessarily a son and often was a brother, a nephew, or even a cousin.  We have a few famous Nakatomi at this point in time, and all I can say for certain is that they were part of the same family.  Later traditions would make things a bit more clear. Whatever his parentage, our first encounter with Omimaro appears to be in the Ohotsu conspiracy, when he was arrested and then pardoned.  He shows up again in the record just three years later, along with Kose no Tayasu, as both were made judges, along with Fujiwara no Fubito—Nakatomi no Kamatari's biological son and eventual heir. In fact, there were nine judges, or magistrates, made that year, and they are listed in rank order.  The first is Prince Takeda, said to be a great-grandson of Nunakura, aka Bidatsu Tennou.  He was Joukwoshi rank, meaning he wore bright purple court robes, sitting in the lower half of the princely ranks.  He had been quite prolific ever since 681, when he was one of the Princes called to help bring together the Chronicles.  After being made a judge, he would continue in that position, it seems, and by 708 he would become the head of the Ministry of Prisons. After him we have Haji no Nemaro, in the dark red robes of the Jiki rank class.  Though someone of rank, less is known about Nemaro.  His father is said to be Haji no Mi, who was part of the forces that set out to Yamada-dera to capture—and likely kill—Soga no Kurayamadera.  Haji no Nemaro's son is Haji no Oi, who was sent to the Tang court but returned in 684, along with several repatriated soldiers.  Oi would assist with the Taihou code, but little more is said about him or his father. Other judges were Ohoyake no Maro, Fujiwara no Fubito—also of the Jiki class rank. Maro would go on to take a job as a jusenshi, responsible for minting coins, and Fubito would go on to reach the highest levels of government. Then there was Tahema no Sakurawi, Hodzumi no Yamamori, Nakatomi no Omimaro, Kose no Tayasu, and Ohomiwa no Yasumaro.  They were all Mudaishi rank at this point, wearing dark green.  Sakurai would go on to become the governor of Ise in 705, and then the governor of Musashi in 708.  Hodzumi no Yamamori we don't have as much information on, other than that he kept climbing the ranks, by 704 he had made Junior 5th rank, lower grade in the system that replaced the cap-ranks, and by 712 he made it to the senior fifth rank, lower grade. Ohomiwa no Yasumaro, on the other hand, would make it to the Senior 5th rank, lower grade by 707, and the upper grade by 708, when he was made the Dayu—the high minister in charge—of Settsu.  He would eventually make it into the Junior Fourth rank, upper grade, as the Minister of the Military Department, or Hyobu-sho. So this gives you an idea of the people with whom Nakatomi no Omimaro and Kose no Tayasu were rubbing elbows.  That they were made judges, responsible for justice, seems to say something as that would seem to be a powerful position.  At the same time, they are both lower ranked than the much younger Fujiwara no Fubito—but once again, he was the direct son of Nakatomi no Kamatari.  He also seems to have avoided any unpleasantness from the Jinshin no Ran as he was only 14 at the time, and though it does seem that the Nakatomi were generally knocked down a peg or two in court—thanks in large part  to the fact that Nakatomi no Kane had been one of the leaders of the Afumi court.  That and the whole thing with Prince Ohotsu may be why Omimaro was not exactly in the top ranks, but his appointments weren't nothing, either.  By 693, Omimaro would be granted the rank of Jikikwoshi, the lower fourth rank of the Jiki class.  In that entry he is recorded as Fujiwara no Omimaro.  I believe we discussed this a few episodes back, but the Fujiwara name was still new.  It had been granted to Nakatomi no Kamatari on his deathbed—or possibly even posthumously—by Naka no Oe, and to his family.  So technically that would seem to extend to the entire Nakatomi family.  And with Nakatomi no Kane having been one of the main figures on the losing side of the Jinshin no Ran, it was no doubt a savvy political move for Nakatomi courtiers to lean into the Fujiwara name, and they seem to have done just that.  It wouldn't be until later, in the reign just following this, that a new decree would straighten everything out, such that only the actual descendants of Fujiwara no Kamatari, such as Fujiwara no Fubito, would be allowed to use the Fujiwara name. Throughout this, I have focused mostly on Omimaro, but Kose no Tayasu was in the mix as well.  He, too, was made a judge and in 693 he would also be awarded the same Jikikwoshi rank.  In addition, in 689, he was made a "commissioner of good words", along with the Royal Prince Shiki and others.  This seems to be a singular position, and Aston suggests that it was their job to figure out the kind of auspicious language that should be used in the court.  What kind of language should be used by the sovereign and the courtiers in drawing up official edicts.  I imagine that they were figuring out the form to give to formal court documents as well as the kinds of titles and honorifics to use for the sovereign and the state more generally.  Of course, that is just an assumption based on Aston's understanding of what is, ultimately, a single line.  Still, it is clear that Tayasu was helping to make things happen. Tayasu would eventually go on to become the Minister of the Department of Ceremonies, the Shikibu-sho, and would later serve as a secretary to the Viceroy in Tsukushi—the Dazai Daini.  He would pass away in 710, one year before Omimaro. Before leaving Tayasu behind completely, I would like to point out his family name:  Kose.  The Kose family were one of the families granted the kabane of Ason, or Asaomi.  They had previously been known as the Kose no Omi, and had a long history in the court, claiming descent from the famous Takeuchi no Sukune, legendarily known as the first Oho-omi of Yamato.  Kose no Tokuda had been a supporter of Soga no Iruka, but after the Isshi Incident he supported Naka no Oe and eventually replace Abe no Uchimaro as Sadaijin—Minister of the Left.  Another Kose, Kose no Hito, would also rise in the government, becoming one of two Goshi-daibu made when Prince Ohotomo was appointed Dajodaijin.  The other was Ki no Ushi.  They were both in attendance and counted among the six who swore to protect and support Ohotomo, along with Nakatomi no Kane and others.  So they, too, found themselves on the wrong side of the Jinshin no Ran. In this case, however, it is unclear how much Tayasu was impacted by that.  He may have been the son of Kose no Shitano, brother to Kose no Hito, but the Kose were prolific in the court, with many people of the name.  The family would continue going through the Heian period.  Their fortunes ebbed and flowed, as did so many families, but they would eventually find themselves as Hatamoto to the Tokugawa shogun, so they never actually disappeared. Finally, let's talk about Yakuchi no Wotokashi.  As I mentioned earlier, he is actually one of the first names mentioned in the list of co-conspirators with Prince Ohotsu, suggesting that he outranked others in the group.  Indeed, he is noted as being of Jikikwoshi rank—fourth lower Jiki rank.  The bottom of the Jiki class, but that was still the third class from the top.  However, despite this, very little is actually said about him.  In fact, this is the only instance I could find of the name Yakuchi in the Nihon Shoki, at least in that spelling—there is also a Yakuchi no Uneme, but it is spelled differently and is probably not related.  It is also the only evidence of the name Wotokashi.  That means we don't even see him in the list of names being granted Ason in the first place. It is quite possible that Yakuchi was a name he took later and that he was from another family.  Indeed, there are a couple of traditions around Wotokashi that suggest he was the founder of the Yakuchi family in Shinano.  Indeed, there is a Yakuchi family that comes out of Shinano, near Adzumino.  And Shinano was one of the places that Ohoama had sent people to examine as another site for an alternative capital, and Prince Mino and others had gone to check it out.  So maybe Wotokashi headed out there—or his descendants, anyway—and decided to try and make a go of it.  Proponents of this theory also connect Wotokashi to a line descended from the Soga family, which would certainly explain his prominence.  There are others, however, who claim that the Yakuchi family out of Shinano is actually descended from the Otomo, suggesting that the similarities in the name are just coincidental, which is also possible.  Ultimately, our sources fail us here, and so we just have speculation.  It is possible that even with the pardon, Wotokashi was just never able to regain the trust of the sovereign or his position in court, and so whether he took a hike for the hinterlands or just faded from the picture it is hard to say. With that, let's take a look at just two more courtiers, and what kinds of lives and careers they had at court, at least from what we can see.  These two we've also mentioned in passing:  Fuse no Miushi—whom Aston transliterates as Miaruji—and Ohotomo no Miyuki. Fuse no Miushi and Ohotomo no Miyuki were both mentioned as performing eulogies for Ohoama, though there is more to them than just that.  We'll start with Fuse no Miushi, who is said to have been the son of none other than the Taika era Sadaijin, or Minister of the Left, Abe no Uchimaro.  You may recall that Abe no Uchimaro was the Sadaijin under Karu no Ohokimi, aka Koutoku Tennou, along with the Udaijin, Soga no Kurayamadera.  They were both supporters of Naka no Oe, though much of the Chronicles focus appeared to be more on Kurayamadera than on Uchimaro. We don't know when Miushi was born, nor when he received the name "Fuse", the name by which he is known when we first meet him in the Chronicles.  That family name only shows up two other times in the Chronicles.  Based on other sources, it seems that the Abe family was divided at some point into the Fuse and the Hikida, likely because it became too large and they needed to distinguish the different parts of the family.  It is said that Fuse no Miushi served as a retainer to Ohoama during the Jinshin no Ran.  That, along with his family connections, helped secure him a good place in the government.  By 686, we see him pronouncing the eulogy for Ohoama's funeral on behalf of the Dajokan, the Counil of State.  He was already Jikidaishi, one rank above the standard Jikikwoshi, but still clothed in the same dark red robes.  In 687, he is again pronouncing the eulogy, but this time we are told that his a Nagon, or councilor, a rather prestigious posting that would later get broken up into three different levels:  Dainagon, Chunagon, and Shonagon.  For my Heian fans out there, that last is the same Shonagon as in the name of the famous poet, author, diary-keeper, and all around queen of snark, Sei Shonagon.  By 688, pronouncing the Eulogy seems to have become an annual event for Miushi, only this time he teamed up with Ohotomo no Miyuki.  The two of them seem to have had similar careers, and would, for a time, come up together through the ranks. Ohotomo no Miyuki is said to have been born in 646, though that isn't recorded in the Nihon Shoki and comes from other sources.  The Ohotomo family goes back quite a ways, and we are told that his father was Ohotomo no Nagatoko, who served as Minister of the Right under Naka no Oe.  However, in 672, the Ohotomo, including Miyuki, sided with Ohoama in the Jinshin no ran.  In 675 he was made Tayu while Prince Kurikuma was made Director of Military Affairs.  He then drops out of the narrative until 688, when he is pronouncing the eulogy with Fuse no Miushi. Miushi would go on, two years later, to present the formal congratulations from the court to the Queen upon her ascencion to the throne, and then the following year, 691, both Miushi and Miyuki were granted the rank of Jikidaiichi, the highest rank in the Jiki class, along with 80 households to support them and their families.  This brought both of their stipends up to roughly 300 households each.  Then, in 694, they were both raised in rank again, this time to Shoukwoushi.  Only one rank up, yet they went from the top of the Jiki class to the bottom of the Shou class.  They would have gotten new robes of Bright Purple to indicate their new status, and they each had their stipends increased by the taxes of 200 households each.  At the same time, they were also acknowledged as senior members of their houses.  That means that Miushi was considered the head of the Fuse branch of the Abe family and Miyuki was now acknowledged as the head of the entire Ohotomo family. Two years after that, in 696, they were each given 80 retainers to support them.  Fuse no Miushi is actually mentioned at that time as Abe no Miushi.  That same year, we again see Fujiwara no Fubito show up, but with only 50 retainers.  Fubito would eventually rise to the top of the court food chain, but at this point, it was still in the hands of courtiers like Fuse no Abe no Miushi and Ohotomo no Miyuki. Fuse no Miushi would go on to have an incredible career.  He would become Dainagon and eventually he would become the Udaijin, the Minister of the Right, one of the highest positions anyone could hope to achieve at court. Ohotomo no Miyuki would not make it quite so far.  Like Miushi, he made it to Dainagon, but he died in the first month of 701, just 55 years old.  He had made it to the third rank, and he was posthumously granted the title of Udaijin—the position was vacant at the time—and granted second rank.  His colleague, Abe no Miushi, would go on to take the position only four months later and serve for a couple of years before passing away himself. These two would have worked closely together throughout their careers, and the fact that they were raised in rank and position on similar timelines suggests to me that they ran together in very close circles.  They would have been working in similar positions, at the same levels of the government.  They would have been going to the same parties and partaking in the same banquets and entertainments.   They were no doubt rivals, in a sense, but also equals.  Both families would go on, even as the Fujiwara clan came to dominate the politics of the era, the Ohotomo and Abe would continue to hold power in the court during the Nara period, though eventually it would decline.  The Ohotomo would eventually become just the Tomo, to avoid conflicting with the name of a slater sovereign, and the main house would eventually decline, though branch families would continue to claim descent from the Ohotomo into to the Edo period. The Abe would continue, similarly pushing against the Fujiwara.  The most famous Abe was probably Abe no Seimei, who became known for his skills as an Onmyouji, or master of Yin-yang divination and magic.  The Tsuchimikado branch of the Abe family would continue that tradition, and it would come to largely define the main branch of the family. I hope that gives a bit of an idea of what was going on in the court and the kinds of careers that people were looking at and what was happening.  We cannot get into every single person, but I'm going to try and note some of the more prominent courtiers and what they were doing.  It isn't always clear from the Chronicles what was going on between the various houses, but one can largely assume that the court was highly political.  Different factions were vying for power and position.  Sitting atop all of it, Uno no Sarara would have to perform her own kind of balancing act, doling out rewards and punishments as necessary, and ensuring to place the right people in positions of power and authority.  On the one hand, that ambition was a motivating factor, keeping the people of the court focused on the tasks at hand and ensuring that the court was running smoothly.  On the other hand, too much power in the hands of any one individual could cause them to get ideas that they should have even more.  The main bulwark against this was everyone else in the system—the checks and balances were literally the other court nobles, who weren't going to just let someone  take power unless there was something in it for them as well.  More on that as we watch this reign unfold. But for now, thank you so much for listening and downloading the podcast.  If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

This week, we chat with poet Naoko Fujimoto, a senior editor at RHINO Poetry. She stopped by the AWM the other week to discuss the work of translation, her poetry process, and her forthcoming book titled: of Women: 20 Japanese Female Poets / 20 Waka Poems, a collection of translated Japanese waka-poems, including text collage and haibun-style discourses on translation. This conversation originally took place April 28, 2026 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. We hope you enjoy entering the Mind of a Writer. AWM PODCAST NETWORK HUB More about of Women: of Women is a collection of translations of Japanese waka-poems from the seventh century to the twelfth century, featuring twenty female poets from this period, when Japanese women's literature flourished. This book includes poems by famous writers from the era, such as Sei Shonagon (The Pillow Book) and Murasaki Shikibu (The Tale of Genji), and introduces some lesser-known female poets as well. Waka compacts much information in a short form: words with double meanings, unfamiliar phrases, habits foreign to non-Japanese speakers, and hidden historical backgrounds. Direct translations would fail to capture the author's full intent, so of Women takes several approaches to capture the original sensory images, including text collage and haibun, short essays that provide historical context and introduce the author before each waka. NAOKO FUJIMOTO was born and raised in Nagoya, Japan, and studied at Nanzan Junior College. She was an exchange student and received a BA and MA from Indiana University. She is the author of the poetry collections We Face The Tremendous Meat On The Teppan, Where I Was Born, and Glyph:Graphic Poetry=Trans. Sensory, as well as four chapbooks. She is associate and translation editor of RHINO and translation editor of Tupelo Quarterly. She organizes an online community at Working On Gallery and is a Bread Loaf Translation full scholarship recipient and the 2023 Visiting Teaching Artist at the Poetry Foundation.

Nuestra colaboradora, María Zaragoza nos lleva al Japón de la etapa Heian (S.XI) para descubrir a Murasaki Shikibu, autora del relato “Genji monogatari”, considerado por los expertos como la primera novela de la historia de la literatura. Antes, recibimos al catedrático de Historia Contemporánea Julián Casanova, Miguel Casanova y Carles Esquembre para hablar de "España partida en dos", una novela gráfica que resume a través de la ficción los principales episodios de la Guerra Civil. Viajamos también hasta Londres con nuestro corresponsal Guillaume Bontoux para asistir a la inauguración del Victoria&Albert East Museum. Por último, Agnès Batllé nos acerca al Teatro del Liceo donde mañana debuta el tenor vasco Xabier Anduaga con Werther de Massenet.Escuchar audio

Our round 6 preview with Sowie and a deep dive into Genji's coaching, the Storm's issues, Panthers potential weakness and much more.Bet It Out With Neds. Visit: https://www.neds.com.au/Prices and odds subject to change.You win some. You lose more. Get your exclusive NordVPN deal plus 4 months extra here → https://nordvpn.com/rugbyguruIt's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

durée : 00:38:49 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Philippe Garbit - Dans "Microfilms", un entretien réalisé en 1988 avec le cinéaste portugais Paulo Rocha pour son film "Les Montagnes de La Lune", d'après "Le Roman de Genji", grand classique japonais. - réalisation : Virginie Mourthé

The Tale of Genji is often listed as the world's first novel, but there are naysayers. Is it a novel? Is it the first? That's highly contentious, but whatever you decide, Lady Murasaki Shikibu wrote this classic a very long time ago, and it is a masterpiece. Visit the ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. It's Women's History Month! I'm running bonus episodes all month, plus a prize drawing for free Her Half of History merch. To get in the drawing, you can Sign up as a supporter on my ⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon page⁠⁠ (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=83998235). If you're already a supporter on Patreon, bump up your membership. Her Highness level members get ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and polls. Make a one-time donation on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Me a Coffee⁠. Leave me a rating or review on your favorite podcast app and email me a screenshot of it. (I need the email for this method because it doesn't send me any contact info.) No matter which method you choose, your support helps me keep bring the stories of past women into the present. Join ⁠⁠Into History⁠⁠ for a community of ad-free history podcasts plus bonus content. Visit ⁠⁠Evergreen Podcasts⁠⁠ to listen to more great shows. Follow me on ⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠ as Her Half of History. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ahead of her new book What's So Great About the Great Books? coming out in April, Naomi Kanakia and I talked about literature from Herodotus to Tony Tulathimutte. We touched on Chaucer, Anglo-Saxon poetry, Scott Alexander, Shakespeare, William James, Helen deWitt, Marx and Engels, Walter Scott, Les Miserables, Jhootha Sach, the Mahabharata, and more. Naomi also talked about some of her working habits and the history and future of the Great Books movement. Naomi, of course, writes Woman of Letters here on Substack.TranscriptHenry Oliver: Today, I am talking with Naomi Kanakia. Naomi is a novelist, a literary critic, and most importantly she writes a Substack called Woman of Letters, and she has a new book coming out, What's So Great About the Great Books? Naomi, welcome.Naomi Kanakia: Thanks for having me on.Oliver: How is the internet changing the way that literature gets discussed and criticized, and what is that going to mean for the future of the Great Books?Kanakia: How is the internet changing it? I can really speak to only how it has changed it for me. I started off as a writer of young adult novels and science fiction, and there's these very active online fan cultures for those two things.I was reading the Great Books all through that time. I started in 2010 through today. In the 2010s, it really felt like there was not a lot of online discussion of classic literature. Maybe that was just me and I wasn't finding it, but it didn't necessarily feel like there was that community.I think because there are so many strong, public-facing institutions that discuss classic literature, like the NYRB, London Review of Books, a lot of journals, and universities, too. But now on Substack, there are a number of blogs—yours, mine, a number of other ones—that are devoted to classic literature. All of those have these commenters, a community of commenters. I also follow bloggers who have relatively small followings who are reading Tolstoy, reading Middlemarch, reading even much more esoteric things.I know that for me, becoming involved in this online culture has given me much more of an awareness that there are many people who are reading the classics on their own. I think that was always true, but now it does feel like it's more of a community.Oliver: We are recording this the day after the Washington Post book section has been removed. You don't see some sort of relationship between the way these literary institutions are changing online and the way the Great Books are going to be conceived of in the future? Because the Great Books came out of a an old-fashioned, saving-the-institutions kind of radical approach to university education. We're now moving into a world where all those old things seem to be going.Kanakia: Yes. I agree. The Great Books began in the University of Chicago and Columbia University. If you look into the history of the movement, it really was about university education and the idea that you would have a common core and all undergraduates would read these books. The idea that the Great Books were for the ordinary person was really an afterthought, at least for Mortimer Adler and those original Great Books guys. Now, the Great Books in the university have had a resurgence that we can discuss, but I do think there's a lot more life and vitality in the kind of public-facing humanities than there has been.I talked to Irina Dumitrescu, who writes for TLS (The Times Literary Supplement), LRB (The London Review of Books), a lot of these places, and she also said the same thing—that a lot of these journals are going into podcasts, and they're noticing a huge interest in the humanities and in the classics even at the same time as big institutions are really scaling back on those things. Humanities majors are dropping, classics majors are getting cut, book coverage at major periodicals is going down. It does seem like there are signals that are conflicting. I don't really know totally what to make of it. I do think there is some relation between those two things.Ted Gioia on Substack is always talking about how culture is stagnant, basically, and one of the symptoms of that is that “back list” really outsells “front list” for books. Even in 2010, 50 percent of the books that were sold were front-list titles, books that had been released in the last 18 months. Now it's something like only 35 percent of books or something like that are front-list titles. These could be completely wrong, but there's been a trend.I think the decrease in interest in front-list books is really what drives the loss of these book-review pages because they mostly review front-list books. So, I think that does imply that there's a lot of interest in old books. That's what our stagnant culture means.Oliver: Why do you think your own blog is popular with the rationalists?Kanakia: I don't know for certain. There was a story I wrote that was a joke. There are all these pop nonfiction books that aim to prove something that seems counterintuitive, so I wrote a parody of one of those where I aim to prove that reading is bad for you. This book has many scientific studies that show the more you read, the worse it is because it makes you very rigid.Scott Alexander, who is the archrationalist, really liked that, and he added me to his blog roll. Because of that, I got a thousand rationalist subscribers. I have found that rationalists at least somewhat interested in the classics. I think they are definitely interested in enduring sources of value. I've observed a fair amount of interest.Oliver: How much of a lay reader are you really? Because you read scholarship and critics and you can just quote John Gilroy in the middle of a piece or something.Kanakia: Yeah. That is a good question. I have definitely gotten more interested in secondary literature. In my book, I really talk about being a lay reader and personally having a nonacademic approach to literature. I do think that, over 15 years of being a lay reader, I have developed a lot of knowledge.I've also learned the kind of secondary literature that is really important. I think having historical context adds a lot and is invaluable. Right now I'm rereading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. When I first read it in 2010, I hardly knew anything about French history. I was even talking online with someone about how most people who read Les Miserables think it's set in the French Revolution. That's basically because Americans don't really know anything about French history.Everything makes just a lot more sense the more you know about the time because it was written for people in it. For people in 1860s France, who knew everything about their own recent history, that really adds a lot to it. I still don't tend to go that much into interpretive literature, literature that tries to do readings of the stories or tell me the meaning of the stories. I feel like I haven't really gotten that much out of that.Oliver: How long have you been learning Anglo-Saxon?Kanakia: I went through a big Anglo-Saxon phase. That was in 2010. It started because I started reading The Canterbury Tales in Middle English. There is a great app online called General Prologue created by one of your countrymen, Terry Richardson [NB it is Terry Jones], who loved Middle English. In this app, he recites the Middle English of the General Prologue. I started listening to this app, and I thought, I just really love the rhythms and the sounds of Middle English. And it's quite easy to learn. So then, I got really into that.And then I thought, but what about Anglo-Saxon? I'm very bad at languages. I studied Latin for seven years in middle school and high school. I never really got very far, but I thought, Anglo-Saxon has to be the easiest foreign language you can learn, right? So, I got into it.I cannot sight read Anglo-Saxon, but I really got into Anglo-Saxon poetry. I really liked the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Most people probably would not like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle because it's very repetitive, but that makes it great if you're a language learner because every entry is in this very repetitive structure. I just felt such a connection. I get in trouble when I say this kind of stuff, because I'm never quiet sure if it's 100 percent true. But it's certainly one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Europe. It's just so much older than most of the other medieval literature I've read. And it just was such a window into a different part of history I never knew about.Oliver: And you particularly like “The Dream of the Rood”?Kanakia: Yeah, “The Dream of the Rood” is my favorite Anglo-Saxon poem. “The Dream of the Rood” is a poem that is told from the point of view of Christ's cross. A man is having a dream. In this dream he encounters Christ's cross, and Christ's cross starts reciting to him basically the story of the crucifixion. At the end, the cross is buried. I don't know, it was just so haunting and powerful. Yeah, it was one of my favorites.Oliver: Why do you think Byron is a better poet than Alexander Pope?Kanakia: This is an argument I cannot get into. I think this is coming up because T. S. Eliot felt that Alexander Pope was a great poet because he really exemplified the spirit of the age. I don't know. I've tried to read Pope. It just doesn't do it for me. Whereas with Byron, I read Don Juan and found it entertaining. I enjoyed it. Then, his lyric poetry is just more entertaining to read. With Alexander Pope, I'm learning a lot about what kind of poetry people wrote in the 18th century, but the joy is not there.Oliver: Okay. Can we do a quick fire round where I say the name of a book and you just say what you think of it, whatever you think of it?Kanakia: Sure.Oliver: Okay. The Odyssey.Kanakia: The Odyssey. Oh, I love The Odyssey. It has a very strange structure, where it starts with Telemachus and then there's this flashback in the middle of it. It is much more readable than The Iliad; I'll say that.Oliver: Herodotus.Kanakia: Herodotus is wild. Going into Herodotus, I really thought it was about the Persian war, which it is, but it's mostly a general overview of everything that Herodotus knew, about anything. It's been a long time since I read it. I really appreciate the voice of Herodotus, how human it is, and the accumulation of facts. It was great.Oliver: I love the first half actually. The bit about the Persian war I'm less interested in, but the first half I think is fantastic. I particularly love the Egypt book.Kanakia: Oh yeah, the Egypt book is really good.Oliver: All those like giant beetles that are made of fire or whatever; I can't remember the details, but it's completely…Kanakia: The Greeks are also so fascinated by Egypt. They go down there like what is going on out there? Then, most of what we know about Egypt comes from this Hellenistic period, when the Greeks went to Egypt. Our Egyptian kings list comes from the Hellenistic period where some scholar decided to sort out what everybody was up to and put it all into order. That's why we have such an orderly story about Egypt. That's the story that the Greeks tried to tell themselves.Oliver: Marcus Aurelius.Kanakia: Marcus Aurelius. When I first read The Meditations, which I loved, obviously, I thought, “being the Roman emperor cannot be this hard.” It really was a black pill moment because I thought, “if the emperor of Rome is so unhappy, maybe human power really doesn't do it.”Knowing more about Marcus Aurelius, he did have quite a difficult life. He was at war for most of his—just stuck in the region in Germany for ages. He had various troubles, but yeah, it really was very stoic. It was, oh, I just have to do my duty. Very “heavy is the head that wears the crown” kind of stuff. I thought, “okay, I guess being Roman emperor is not so great.”Oliver: Omar Khayyam.Kanakia: Omar Khayyam. Okay, I've only read The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald, which I loved, but I cannot formulate a strong opinion right now.Oliver: As You Like It.Kanakia: No opinions.Oliver: Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson.Kanakia: Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. I do have an opinion about this, which is that they should make a redacted version of Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. I normally am not a big believer in abridgements because I feel like whatever is there is there. But, Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, first of all, has a long portion before Boswell even meets Johnson. That portion drags; it's not that great. Then it has all these like letters that Johnson wrote, which also are not that great. What's really good is when Boswell just reports everything Johnson ever said, which is about half the book. You get a sense of Johnson's conversation and his personality, and that is very gripping. I've definitely thought that with a different presentation, this could still be popular. People would still read this.Oliver: The Communist Manifesto.Kanakia: The Communist Manifesto. It's very stirring. I love The Communist Manifesto. It has very haunting, powerful lines. I won't try to quote from it because I'll misquote them.Oliver: But it is remarkably well written.Kanakia: Oh yeah, it is a great work of literature.Oliver: Yeah.Kanakia: I read Capital [Das Kapital], which is not a great work of literature, and I would venture to say that it is not necessarily worth reading. It really feels like Marx's reputation is built on other political writings like The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and works like that, which really seem to have a lot more meat on the bone than Capital.Oliver: Pragmatism by William James.Kanakia: Pragmatism. I mean, I've mentioned that in my book. I love William James in general. I think William James was writing in this 19th-century environment where it seemed like some form of skepticism was the only rational solution. You couldn't have any source of value, and he really tried to cut through that with Pragmatism and was like, let's just believe the things that are good to believe. It is definitely at least useful to think, although someone else can always argue with you about what is useful to believe. But, as a personal guide for belief, I think it is still useful.Oliver: Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw.Kanakia: No strong opinions. It was a long time ago that I read Major Barbara.Oliver: Tell me what you like about James Fenimore Cooper.Kanakia: James Fenimore Cooper. Oh, this is great. I have basically a list of Great Books that I want to read, but four or five years ago, I thought, “what's in all the other books that I know the names of but that are not reputed, are not the kind of books you still read?”That was when I read Walter Scott, who I really love. And I just started reading all kinds of books that were kind of well known but have kind of fallen into literary disfavor. In almost every case, I felt like I got a lot out of these books. So, nowadays when I approach any realm of literature, I always look for those books.In 19th-century American literature, the biggest no-longer-read book is The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, which was America's first bestseller. He was the first American novelist that had a high reputation in Europe. The Last of the Mohicans is kind of a historical romance, à la Walter Scott, but much more tightly written and much more tightly plotted.Cooper has written five novels, the Leatherstocking Tales, that are all centered around this very virtuous, rough-hewn frontiersman, Natty Bumppo. He has his best friend, Chingachgook, who is the last of the Mohicans. He's the last of his tribe. And the two of these guys are basically very sad and stoic. Chingachgook is distanced from his tribe. Chingachgook has a tribe of Native Americans that he hates—I want to say it's the Huron. He's always like, “they're the bad ones,” and he's always fighting them. Then, Natty Bumppo doesn't really love settled civilization. He's not precisely at war with it, but he does not like the settlers. They're kind of stuck in the middle. They have various adventures, and I just thought it was so haunting and powerful.I've been reading a lot of other 19th-century American literature, and virtually none of it treats Native Americans with this kind of respect. There's a lot of diversity in the Native American characters; there's really an attempt to show how their society works and the various ways that leadership and chiefship works among them. There's this very haunting moment in The Last of the Mohicans, where this aged chief, Tamenund, comes out and starts speaking. This is a chief who, in American mythology, was famous for being a friend to the white people. But, James Fenimore Cooper writing in the 1820s has Tamenund come out at 80 years old and say, “we have to fight; we have to fight the white people. That's our only option.” It was just such a powerful moment and such a powerful book.I was really, really enthused. I read all of these Leatherstocking Tales. It was also a very strange experience to read these books that are generally supposed to be very turgid and boring, and then I read them and was like, “I understand. I'm so transported.” I understand exactly why readers in the 1820s loved this.Oliver: Which Walter Scott books do you like?Kanakia: I love all the Walter Scott books I've read, but the one I liked best was Kenilworth. Have you ever read Kenilworth?Oliver: I don't know that one.Kanakia: Yeah, it's about Elizabeth I, who had a romantic relationship with one of her courtiers.Oliver: The Earl of Essex?Kanakia: Yeah. She really thought they were going to get married, but then it turned out he was secretly married. Basically, I guess the implication is that he killed his wife in order to marry Queen Elizabeth I. It's a novel all about him and that situation, and it just felt very tightly plotted. I really enjoyed it.Oliver: What did you think of Rejection?Kanakia: Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte? Initially when I read this book, I enjoyed it, but I was like, “life cannot possibly be this sad.” It's five or six stories about these people who just have nothing going on. Their lives are so miserable, they can't find anyone to sleep with, and they're just doomed to be alone forever. I was like, “life can't be this bad.” But now thinking back over it, it is one of the most memorable books I've read in the last year. It really sticks with you. I feel like my opinion of this book has gone up a lot in retrospect.Oliver: How antisemitic is the House of Mirth?Kanakia: That is a hotly debated question, which I mentioned in my book. I think there has been a good case made that Edith Wharton, the author of House of Mirth, who was from an old New York family, was herself fairly antisemitic and did not personally like Jewish people. What she portrays in this book is that this old New York society also was highly suspicious of Jewish people and was organized to keep Jewish people out.In this book there is a rich Jewish man, Simon Rosedale, and there's a poor woman, Lily Bart. Lily Bart's main thing is whether she's going to marry the poor guy, Lawrence Selden, or the rich guy, Percy Gryce. She can't choose. She doesn't want to be poor, but she also is always bored by the rich guys. Meanwhile, through the whole book, there's Simon Rosedale, who's always like, “you should marry me.” He's the rich Jewish guy. He's like, “you should marry me. I will give you lots of money. You can do whatever you want.”Everybody else kind of just sees her as a woman and as a wife; he really sees her as an ally in his social climbing. That's his main motivation. The book is relatively clear that he has a kind of respect for her that nobody else does. Then, over the course of the book, she also gains a lot more respect for him. Basically, late in the book, she decides to marry him, but she has fallen a lot in the world. He's like, “that particular deal is not available anymore,” but he does offer her another deal that—although she finds it not to her taste—is still pretty good.He basically is like, “I'll give you some money, you'll figure out how to rehabilitate your reputation, and later down the line, we can figure something out.” So, I think with a great author like Edith Wharton, there's power in these portrayals. I felt it hard to come away from it feeling like the book is like a really antisemitic book.Oliver: Now, you note that the Great Books movement started out as something quite socially aspirational. Do you think it's still like that?Kanakia: I do think so. Yeah. For me, that's 100 percent what it was because I majored in econ. I always felt kind of inadequate as a writer against people who had majored in English. Then I started off as a science fiction writer, young adult writer, and I was like, “I'm going to read all these Great Books and then I'll have read the books that everybody else has read.” In my mind, that's also what it was—that there was some upper crust or literary society that was reading all these Great Books.That's really what did it. I do think there's still an element of aspiration to it because it's a club that you can join, that anyone can join. It's very straightforward to be a Great Books reader, and so I think there's still something there. I think because the Great Books movement has such a democratic quality to it, it actually doesn't get you to the top socially, which has always been the true, always been the case. But, that's okay. As long as you end up higher than where you started, that's fine.Oliver: What makes a book great?Kanakia: I talk about it this in the book, and I go through many different authors' conceptions of what makes a book great or what constitutes a classic. I don't know that anyone has come up with a really satisfying answer. The Horatian formulation from Horace—that a book is great or an author is great if it has lasted for a hundred years—is the one that seems to be the most accurate. Like, any book that's still being read a hundred years after it was written has a greatness.I do think that T. S. Eliott's formulation—that a civilization at its height produces certain literature and that literature partakes of the greatness of the civilization and summarizes the greatness of the civilization—does seem to have some kind of truth to it.But it's hard, right? Because the greatest French novel is In Search of Lost Time, but I don't know that anyone would say that the France in the 1920s was at its height. It's not a prescriptive thing, but it does seem like the way we read many of these Great Books, like Moby Dick, it feels like you're like communing with the entire society that produced it. So, maybe there's something there.Oliver: Now, you've used a list from Clifton Fadiman.Kanakia: Yes.Oliver: Rather than from Mortimer Adler or Harold Bloom or several others. Why this list?Kanakia: Well, the best reason is that it's actually the list I've just been using for the last 15 years. I went to a science fiction convention in 2009, Readercon, and at this science fiction convention was Michael Dirda, who was a Washington Post book critic. He had recently come out with his book, Classics for Pleasure, which I also bought and liked. But he said that the list he had always used was this Clifton Fadiman book. And so when I decided to start reading the Great Books, I went and got that book. I have perused many other lists over time, but that was always the list that seemed best to me.It seemed to have like the best mix. There's considerable variation amongst these lists, but there's also a lot of overlap. So any of these lists is going to have Dickens on it, and Tolstoy, and stuff like that. So really, you're just thinking about, “aside from Dickens and Tolstoy and George Eliot and Walt Whitman and all these people, who are the other 50 authors that you're going be reading?”The Mortimer Adler list is very heavy on philosophy. It has Plotinus on it. It has all these scientific works. I don't know, it didn't speak to me as much. Whereas, this Clifton Fadiman and John Major list has all these Eastern works on it. It has The Tale of Genji, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Story of the Stone, and that just spoke to me a little bit more.Oliver: What modern books will be on a future Great Books list, whether it's from someone alive or someone since the war.Kanakia: Have you ever heard of Robert Caro?Oliver: Sure.Kanakia: Yeah. I think his Lyndon Johnson books are great books. They have changed the field of biography. They're so complete, they seem to summarize an entire era, epoch. They're highly rated, but I feel like they're underrated as literature.What else? I was actually a little bit surprised in this Clifton Fadiman-John Major book, which came out in 1999, that there are not more African Americans in their list. Like, Invisible Man definitely seemed like a huge missed work. You know, it's hard. You would definitely want a book that has undergone enough critical evaluation that people are pretty certain that it is great. A lot of things that are more recent have not undergone that evaluation yet, but Invisible Man has, as have some works by Martin Luther King.Oliver: What about The Autobiography of Malcolm X?Kanakia: I would have to reread. I feel like it hasn't been evaluated much as a literary document.Oliver: Helen DeWitt?Kanakia: It's hard to say. It's so idiosyncratic, The Last Samurai, but it is certainly one of the best novels of the last 25 years.Oliver: Yeah.Kanakia: It is hard to say, because there's nothing else quite like it. But I would love if The Last Samurai was on a list like this; that would be amazing.Oliver: If someone wants to try the Great Books, but they think that those sort of classic 19th-century novels are too difficult—because they're long and the sentences are weird or whatever—what else should they do? Where else should they start?Kanakia: Well, it depends on what they're into, or it depends on their personality type. I think like there are people who like very, very difficult literature. There are people who are very into James Joyce and Proust. I think for some people the cost-benefit is better. If they're going to be pouring over some book for a long time, they would prefer if it was overtly difficult.If they're not like that, then I would say, there are many Great Books that are more accessible. Hemingway is a good one and Grapes of Wrath is wonderful. The 19th-century American books tend to be written in a very different register than the English books. If you read Moby Dick, it feels like it's written in a completely different language than Charles Dickens, even though they're writing essentially at the same time.Oliver: Is there too much Freud on the list that you've used?Kanakia: Maybe. I know that Interpretation of Dreams is on that list, which I've tried to read and have decided life is too short. I didn't really buy it, but I have read a fair amount of Freud. My impression of Freud was always that I would read Freud and somehow it would just seem completely fanciful or far out, like wouldn't ring true. But then when I started reading Freud, it was more the opposite. I was like, oh yeah, this seems very, very true.Like this battle between like the id and the ego and the super ego, and this feeling that like the psyche is at war with itself. Human beings really desire to be singular and exceptional, but then you're constantly under assault by the reality principle, which is that you're insignificant. That all seemed completely true. But then he tries to cure this somehow, which does not seem a curable problem. And he also situates the problem in some early sexual development, which also did not necessarily ring true. But no, I wouldn't say there's too much. Freud is a lot of fun. People should read Freud.Oliver: Which of the Great Books have you really not liked?Kanakia: I do get asked this quite a bit. I would say the Great Book that I really felt like—at least in translation—was not that rewarding in an unabridged version was Don Quixote. Because at least half the length of Don Quixote is these like interpolated novellas that are really long and tedious. I felt Don Quixote was a big slog. But maybe someday I'll go back and reread it and love it. Who knows?Oliver: Now you wrote that the question of biography is totally divorced from the question of what art is and how it operates. What do you think of George Orwell's supposition that if Shakespeare came back tomorrow, and we found out he used to rape children that we should—we would not say, you know, it's fine to carry on to doing that because he might write another King Lear.Kanakia: Well, if we discovered that Shakespeare was raping children, he should go to prison for that. No. It's totally divorced in both senses. You don't get any credit in the court of law because you are the writer of King Lear. If I murdered someone and then I was hauled in front of a judge and they were like, oh, Naomi's a genius, I wouldn't get off for murder. Nor should I get off for murder.So in terms of like whether we would punish Shakespeare for his crime of raping children, I don't think King Lear should count at all, but it's never used that way. It's never should someone go to prison or not for their crimes, because they're a genius. It's always used the other way, which is should we read King Lear knowing that the author raped children, but I also feel like that is immaterial. If you read King Lear, you're not enabling someone to rape children.Oliver: There's an almost endless amount of discussion these days about the Great Books and education and the value of the humanities, and what's the future of it all. What is your short opinion on that?Kanakia: My short opinion is that the Great Books at least are going to be fine. The Great Books will continue to be read, and they would even survive the university. All these books predate the university and they will survive the university. I feel like the university has stewarded literature in its own way for a while now and has made certain choices in that stewardship. I think if that stewardship was given up to more voluntary associations that had less financial support, then I think the choices would probably be very different. But I still think the greatest works would survive.Oliver: Now this is a quote from the book: “I am glad that reactionaries love the Great Books. They've invited a Trojan horse into their own camp.” Tell us what you mean by that.Kanakia: Let's say you believed in Christian theocracy, that you thought America should be organized on explicitly Christian principles. And because you believe in Christian theocracy, you organize a school that teaches the Great Books. Many of these schools that are Christian schools that have Great Books programs will also teach Nietzsche. They definitely put some kind of spin on Nietzsche. But they will teach anti-Christ, and that is a counterpoint to Christian morality and Christian theology. There are many things that you'll read in the Great Books that are corrosive to various kinds of certainties.If someone who I think is bad starts educating themselves in the Great Books, I don't think that the Great Books are going to make them worse from my perspective. So it's good.Oliver: How did reading the Mahabharata change you?Kanakia: Oh yeah, so the Mahabharata is a Hindu epic from, let's say, the first century AD. I'm Indian and most Indians are familiar with the basic outline of the Mahabharata story because it's told in various retellings, and there's a TV serial that my parents would rent from the Indian store growing up and we would watch it tape by tape. So I'm very familiar with it. Like there's never been a time I have not known this story.But I was also familiar with the idea that there is a written version in Sanskrit that's extremely long. It is 10 times as long as the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. This Mahabharata story is not that long. I've read a version of it that's about 800 pages long. So how could something that's 10 times this long be the same? A new unabridged translation came out 10 years ago. So I started reading it, and it basically contains the entire Sanskrit Vedic worldview in it.I had never been exposed to this very coherently laid-out version of what I would call Hindu cosmology and ethics. Hindus don't really get taught those things in a very organized way. The book is basically about dharma, the principle of rightness and how this principle of rightness orders the universe and how it basically results in everybody getting their just deserts in various ways. As I was reading the book, I was like, this seems very true that there is some cosmic rebalancing here, and that everything does turn out more or less the way it should, which is not something that I can defend on a rational level.But just reading the book, it just made me feel like, yes, that is true. There is justice, the universe is organized by justice. It took me about a year to read the whole thing. I started waking up at 5:00 a.m. and reading for an hour each morning, and it just was a really magical, profound experience that brought me a lot closer to my grandmother's religious beliefs.Oliver: Is it ever possible to persuade someone with arguments that they should read literature, or is it just something that they have to have an inclination toward and then follow someone's example? Because I feel like we have so many columns and op-eds and “books are good because of X reason, and it's very important because of Y reason.” And like, who cares? No one cares. If you are persuaded, you take all that very seriously and you argue about what exactly are the precise reasons we should say. And if you're not persuaded, you don't even know this is happening.And what really persuades you is like, oh, Naomi sounds pretty compelling about the Mahabharata. That sounds cool. I'll try that. It's much more of a temperamental, feelingsy kind of thing. Is it possible to argue people into thinking about this differently? Or should we just be doing what we do and setting an example and hoping that people will follow.Kanakia: As to whether it's possible or not, I do not know. But I do think these columns are too ambitious. A thousand-word column and the imagined audience for this column is somebody who doesn't read books at all, who doesn't care about literature at all. And then in a thousand-word column, you're going to persuade them to care about literature. This is no good. It's so unnecessary.Whereas there's a much broader range of people who love to read books, but have never picked up Moby Dick or have never picked up Middlemarch, or who like maybe loved Middlemarch, but never thought maybe I should then go on and read Jane Austen and George Eliot.I think trying to shift people from “I don't read books at all; reading books is not something I do,” to being a Great Books card-carrying lover of literature is a lot. I really aim for a much lower result than that, which is to whatever extent people are interested in literature, they should pursue that interest. And as the rationalists would say, there's a lot of alpha in that; there's a lot to be gained from converting people who are somewhat interested into people who are very interested.Oliver: If there was a more widespread practice of humanism in education and the general culture, would that make America into a more liberal country in any way?Kanakia: What do you mean by humanism?Oliver: You know, the old-fashioned liberal arts approach, the revival of the literary journal culture, the sort of depolitical approach to literature, the way things used to be, as it were.Kanakia: It couldn't hurt. It couldn't hurt is my answer to that question.Oliver: Okay.Kanakia: What you're describing is basically the way I was educated. I went to Catholic school in DC at St. Anselm's Abbey School, in Northeast, DC, grade school. Highly recommend sending your little boys there. No complaints about the school. They talked about humanism all the time and all these civic virtues. I thought it was great. I don't know what people in other schools learn, but I really feel like it was a superior way of teaching.Now, you know, it was Catholic school, so a lot of people who graduated from my school are conservatives and don't really have the beliefs that I have, but that's okay.Oliver: Tell us about your reading habits.Kanakia: I read mostly ebooks. I really love ebooks because you can make the type bigger. I just read all the time. They vary. I don't wake up at 5:00 a.m. to read anymore. Sometimes if I feel like I'm not reading enough—because I write this blog, and the blog doesn't get written unless I'm reading. That's the engine, and so sometimes I set aside a day each week to read. But generally, the reading mostly takes care of itself.What I tend to get is very into a particular thing, and then I'll start reading more and more in that area. Recently, I was reading a lot of New Yorker stories. So I started reading more and more of these storywriters that have been published in the New Yorker and old anthologies of New Yorker stories. And then eventually I am done. I'm tired. It's time to move on.Oliver: But do you read several books at once? Do you make notes? Do you abandon books? How many hours a day do you read?Kanakia: Hours a day: Because my e-reader keeps these stats, I'd say 15 or 20 hours a week of reading. Nowadays because I write for the blog, I often think as I'm reading how I would frame a post about this. So I look for quotes, like what quote I would look at. I take different kinds of notes. I'll make more notes if I'm more confused by what is going on. Especially with nonfiction books, I'll try sometimes to make notes just to iron out what exactly I think is happening or what I think the argument is. But no, not much of a note taker.Oliver: What will you read next?Kanakia: What will I read next? Well, I've been thinking about getting back into Indian literature. Right now I'm reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. But there's an Indian novel called Jhootha Sach, which is a partition novel that is originally in Hindi. And it's also a thousand pages long, and is frequently compared to Les Miserables and War and Peace. So I'm thinking about tackling that finally.Oliver: Naomi Kanakia, thank you very much.Kanakia: Thanks for having me. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk

Reginald Jackson's inspiring new book takes a transdisciplinary approach to rethinking how we read, how we pay attention, and why that matters deeply in shaping how we understand the past, live in the present, and imagine possible futures. Textures of Mourning: Calligraphy, Mortality, and The Tale of Genji Scrolls (University of Michigan Press, 2018) explores the relationship between reading, dying, and mourning across three central texts: the Heian period The Tale of Genji; the twelfth century Illustrated Handscrolls of the Tale of Genji (or, Genji Scrolls); and the twenty-first century Resurrected Genji Scrolls exhibition. The book's analysis pivots on some key questions, including: “How does the desire to observe dying bodies potentially damage them?”; and “how do these deteriorating bodies in turn alter the texture of linguistic and visual representation?” The book addresses these questions while helping readers understand and appreciate calligraphy as a “kinetic medium” through which we might “chart the shifting contours of mortality's link to legibility between terrains of written text and painted image.” In tracing Genji's decompositional aesthetics across the four major parts of the book – Dying, Decomposing, Mourning, Resurrecting – Jackson's writing simultaneously helps us to understand how mourning can itself be a kind of reading (and how “dwelling with the dead” can be a critical practice) at the same time that his writing becomes itself a form of mourning. As he reminds us in the book, mourning is not simply about experiencing loss: it can also be a resource for thriving. Textures of Mourning demonstrates what that might look like both when studying the medieval past, and when using it as a resource to inform the contemporary present and its many forms of violence. Ranging across art history, Japanese studies, and performance studies, this is a movingly and gorgeously composed book that should serve as a model for what transdisciplinary scholarship can be, and a reminder of the importance of performing and supporting more work that dances across disciplinary boundaries. Carla Nappi is the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh. You can learn more about her and her work here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/japanese-studies

La historia de Genji es una novela extensa y compleja que combina elementos de la narrativa romántica, la poesía y la crónica histórica. La obra está dividida en 54 capítulos y sigue la vida del príncipe Genji, así como la de sus descendientes, en el contexto de la corte imperial de Heian (actual Kioto). Murasaki Shikibu utiliza un estilo narrativo lírico y detallado, lleno de descripciones de la naturaleza, las emociones humanas y las complejidades de la vida cortesana. La obra es notable por su profundidad psicológica y su exploración de temas como el amor, la pérdida, la ambición y el paso del tiempo."Crónicas Lunares di Sun" es un podcast cultural presentado por Irving Sun, que abarca una variedad de temas, desde la literatura y análisis de libros hasta discusiones sobre actualidad y personajes históricos. Se difunde en múltiples plataformas como Ivoox, Apple Podcast, Spotify y YouTube, donde también ofrece contenido en video, incluyendo reflexiones sobre temas como la meditación y la filosofía teosófica. Los episodios exploran textos y conceptos complejos, buscando fomentar la reflexión y el autoconocimiento entre su audiencia, los "Lunares", quienes pueden interactuar y apoyar el programa a través de comentarios, redes sociales y donaciones. AVISO LEGAL: Los cuentos, poemas, fragmentos de novelas, ensayos y todo contenido literario que aparece en Crónicas Lunares di Sun podrían estar protegidos por derecho de autor (copyright). Si por alguna razón los propietarios no están conformes con el uso de ellos por favor escribirnos al correo electrónico cronicaslunares.sun@hotmail.com y nos encargaremos de borrarlo inmediatamente. Si te gusta lo que escuchas y deseas apoyarnos puedes dejar tu donación en PayPal, ahí nos encuentras como @IrvingSun  https://paypal.me/IrvingSun?country.x=MX&locale.x=es_XC  Síguenos en:  Telegram: Crónicas Lunares di Sun  ⁠Crónicas Lunares di Sun - YouTube⁠ ⁠https://t.me/joinchat/QFjDxu9fqR8uf3eR⁠  ⁠https://www.facebook.com/cronicalunar/?modal=admin_todo_tour⁠  ⁠Crónicas Lunares (@cronicaslunares.sun) • Fotos y videos de Instagram⁠  ⁠https://twitter.com/isun_g1⁠  ⁠https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9lODVmOWY0L3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz⁠  ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/4x2gFdKw3FeoaAORteQomp⁠  https://mx.ivoox.com/es/s_p2_759303_1.html⁠ https://tunein.com/user/gnivrinavi/favorites⁠ ORTOLARRY:  - NORTE 9 #175 ESQ. OTE 164. COLONIA MOCTEZUMA SEGUNDA SECCION. CDMX - NORTE 17# 211-A COLONIA MOCTEZUMA SEGUNDA SECCION C.P 15530 ALCALDIA VENUSTIANO  Teléfonos: 5557860648, 5524158512. Whatsapp: 5561075125 

In Part 2 of our discussion on Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, editor Dennis Washburn returns to discuss the importance of the colors of the Norton Library edition, the ways the text spoke to him during his translation process, and the self-evaluation that occurs through reading something unfamiliar. (P. S. Hi, Shonda Rhimes! Please, please, please work your magic with an adaptation ofThe Tale of Genji!) Dennis Washburn is the Burlington northern Foundation professor of Asian studies at Dartmouth College. He holds a Ph.D. in Japanese Language and Literature from Yale University and has authored and edited studies on a range of literary and cultural topics. These include: The Dilemma of the Modern in Japanese Fiction; Translating Mount Fuji: Modern Japanese Fiction and the Ethics of Identity; and The Affect of Difference: Representations of Race in East Asian Empire. In addition to his scholarly publications, he has translated several works of Japanese fiction, including Yokomitsu Riichi's Shanghai, Tsushima Tsushima Tuko's Laughing Wolf, and Mizukami Tsutomu's The Temple of the Wild Geese, for which he was awarded the US-Japan Friendship Commission Prize. In 2004 he was awarded the Japan Foreign Minister's citation for promoting cross-cultural understanding.To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of The Tale of Genji, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393427912.Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social. 

In Part 1 of our discussion on Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, we welcome editor Dennis Washburn to discuss the life and times of Murasaki Shikibu, the process of abridging The Tale of Genji for the Norton Library edition, and the novel's celebration and satire of courtly life. Dennis Washburn is the Burlington northern Foundation professor of Asian studies at Dartmouth College. He holds a Ph.D. in Japanese Language and Literature from Yale University and has authored and edited studies on a range of literary and cultural topics. These include: The Dilemma of the Modern in Japanese Fiction; Translating Mount Fuji: Modern Japanese Fiction and the Ethics of Identity; and The Affect of Difference: Representations of Race in East Asian Empire. In addition to his scholarly publications, he has translated several works of Japanese fiction, including Yokomitsu Riichi's Shanghai, Tsushima Tsushima Tuko's Laughing Wolf, and Mizukami Tsutomu's The Temple of the Wild Geese, for which he was awarded the US-Japan Friendship Commission Prize. In 2004 he was awarded the Japan Foreign Minister's citation for promoting cross-cultural understanding.To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of The Tale of Genji, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393427912. Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social. 

Written over two thousand years apart, the first-ever novel - written by a Japanese courtier - and the Torah's story of Joseph converge on the same unsettling question: how should power be used? Drawing on The Tale of Genji and Parshat Vayigash, Rabbi Dunner explores influence beneath the throne, the danger of unchecked authority, and why true leadership is revealed not by domination, but by restraint.

This week, Damian Flanagan explores the complex history of the Japanese masterpiece The Tale of Genji; and Miranda France on the eventful life and enduring work of Miguel de Cervantes.'The Tale of Genji', by Murasaki Shikibu'El Verano de Cervantes', by Antonio Muñoz Molina'El Cautivo', directed by Alejandro AmenábarProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's time to step outside your literary neighborhood! This episode is a celebration of the human spirit as seen through the lens of world literature. Host Danny takes you on a tour across the globe, sharing ideas and excerpts from diverse works to highlight two incredible truths: that our core human experiences are strikingly similar, and that our cultural expressions of them are endlessly fascinating. From the magical realism of Latin America to the postcolonial voices of Africa, this journey will expand your world and your reading list. In this episode, we'll take a tour of: Asia:Explore the tension between tradition and modernity with Japan's The Tale of Genji and the surrealism of Haruki Murakami, and witness the resilience of the human spirit in China's To Live. Latin America:Dive into the world of Magical Realism with Colombia's Gabriel García Márquez and explore the feminist family sagas of Chile's Isabel Allende. Africa:Understand the power of the oral tradition and the legacy of colonialism through Nigeria's foundational novel Things Fall Apart and the intimate feminism of Senegal's So Long a Letter. The Middle East & Europe:Glimpse the mystical poetry of Rumi, the sprawling social realism of Egypt's Naguib Mahfouz, and see how these traditions are in constant conversation. To unlock full access to all our episodes, consider becoming a premium subscriber on Apple Podcasts or Patreon. And don't forget to visit englishpluspodcast.com for even more content, including articles, in-depth studies, and our brand-new audio series and courses now available in our Patreon Shop!

Focusing on the interconnected traditions of China, Japan, and Korea, this episode explores a literature where poetry, philosophy, and governance are deeply intertwined. We'll discuss the wisdom of Confucius, the breathtaking beauty of Tang Dynasty poetry, and the creation of the world's first novel, The Tale of Genji in Japan. To unlock full access to all our episodes, consider becoming a premium subscriber on Apple Podcasts or Patreon. And don't forget to visit englishpluspodcast.com for even more content, including articles, in-depth studies, and our brand-new audio series and courses now available in our Patreon Shop!

This was definitely a Saturday-caliber crossword, where Will & company pull out pretty much all the stops. On no other day of the week will you see entertaining, educational, and definitely challenging clues like 16A, Italian pianist who composed the scores for "Nomadland" and "The Father", LUDOVICOEINAUDI (yikes!); or 40A, Origin of "The Tale of Genji," considered by many to be the world's first novel, JAPAN (huh); or the amusing 25A, The 21,728th page of 1989's 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, END (what else?).

The pet of choice in Japan, as much as cuddly kitties and playful puppies, is the humble bug. The bug has been a key part of Japanese culture from the Heian era classic The Tale of Genji to popular modern-day manga and animation like Mushishi, featuring insect-like supernatural creatures. Japanese people appreciate the glitter of fireflies let loose in the garden or the gentle chirping of crickets kept in a little cage. You can feed the bug pets watermelon, but special jelly pet food for bugs is also available at stores. Naturally, bugs are for sale as well, with the more esoteric ones selling for 20,000 yen ($133). The bug as companion is an essential part of what's observed, enjoyed and cared for in everyday life, reflecting a deeply rooted celebration of humankind's oneness with nature. "They are so tiny. If you catch and study them, you're sure to discover something new," says Munetoshi Maruyama, professor of bioenvironmental sciences at Kyushu University, whose fascination with bugs began as a child, like many Japanese. "They are so beautiful in shape and form." One thrill that comes from studying insects is discovering a new species, simply because there are more than 1.2 million known kinds of insects, far more than mammals, which translates to a lot of undiscovered ones, said Maruyama, who has discovered 250 new insect species himself and shrugs that off as a relatively small number. Japan differs from much of the West in encouraging interaction with bugs from childhood, with lots of books written for children, as well as classes and tours. "In Japan, kids love bugs. You can even buy a net at a convenience store," he said. "It's fantastic that bugs can serve as a doorway to science." The love affair with bugs was clear at an exhibit in Tokyo, aptly called "The Great Insect Exhibition," which ran through the end of last month at the Tokyo Skytree Town, where crowds of children gathered around trees inside indoor cages so they could observe and touch the various beetles. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Gast: Jos Vos, literair vertaler In de maand augustus iedere week een keuze uit het archief. Deze week een gesprek van Robert van Altena met Jos Vos.* Hij vertaalde Het verhaal van Genji een meesterwerk uit de klassieke Japanse literatuur. Het verhaal van Genji werd aan het begin van de 11e eeuw geschreven door de erudite en literair begaafde Murasaki Shikibu, hofdame aan het keizerlijk hof. *Dit gesprek werd voor het eerst uitgezonden op 15 april 2014. Afbeelding: Illustratie van Het verhaal van Genji, Hoofdstuk.5 Wakamurasaki, traditional toegeschreven aan Tosa Mitsuoki (1617–1691). De illustratie maakt deel uit van de zogeheten Burke Albums, Collectie : Mary Griggs Burke Bron: Wiki Commons SPRINGVOSSEN
 Redactie + presentatie: Robert van Altena
 Contact: springvossen[at]gmail.com
  https://linktr.ee/springvossen www.amsterdamfm.nl/programma/springvossen

Fluent Fiction - Japanese: Unexpected Adventures: Capturing Magic in Arashiyama's Rain Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/ja/episode/2025-08-25-22-34-02-ja Story Transcript:Ja: 京都の嵐山竹林は、夏の日差しを浴びて緑に輝いていた。En: The Arashiyama Bamboo Grove in Kyoto was shining green under the summer sun.Ja: ところが、その日の午後、突然の雨が降り始めた。En: However, that afternoon, a sudden rain began to fall.Ja: ハルキ、愛子、そしてゲンジの三人は、嵐山竹林を訪れていた。En: Haruki, Aiko, and Genji were visiting the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove.Ja: ハルキはカメラを手に、完璧な写真を撮ろうと夢中だった。En: Haruki was engrossed in trying to take the perfect photo with a camera in hand.Ja: 彼の心の中には、愛子を感動させたいというひそかな思いがあった。En: In his heart, he had a secret desire to impress Aiko.Ja: 愛子は、のんびりとうまい祭りの食べ物を楽しみたかった。En: Aiko wanted to leisurely enjoy delicious festival food.Ja: ゲンジは常に準備万端な友人だが、今日はなぜか傘を忘れてしまっていた。En: Although Genji is a friend who is always prepared, today, for some reason, he forgot his umbrella.Ja: 天気は、さっきまで晴れていたのに、急に雨が強くなった。En: The weather had been clear until just a moment ago, but suddenly the rain got stronger.Ja: 「どうする？En: "What should we do?"Ja: 」と、ゲンジは少し焦りながら言った。En: Genji asked, a little flustered.Ja: 雨に濡れてはいけないカメラを守るために、ハルキは素早くカメラバッグを頭上に掲げた。En: To protect the camera that must not get wet, Haruki quickly raised the camera bag over his head.Ja: 「こっちだ！En: "This way!"Ja: 」とハルキが叫んで、みんなを雨宿りできる場所へ導いた。En: Haruki shouted, leading everyone to a place where they could take shelter from the rain.Ja: しかし、愛子とゲンジは、どちらの道が正しいのかで少し口論を始めた。En: However, Aiko and Genji started a slight argument about which path was correct.Ja: 「ここと思う！En: When Aiko said, "I think it's this way!"Ja: 」と愛子が言えば、「いや、あっちだろう」とゲンジが反論する。En: Genji countered, "No, it's that way!"Ja: それでもハルキは、「僕についてきて」と冷静に言った。En: Still, Haruki calmly said, "Follow me."Ja: 泥まみれになりながらも、彼らは笑い声を響かせて竹林の中を走った。En: Covered in mud, they ran through the bamboo grove with laughter echoing around them.Ja: 突然、ハルキの目に美しい光景が映った。En: Suddenly, a beautiful scene caught Haruki's eye.Ja: 竹の間を降り注ぐ雨が、幻想的な虹を作っていた。En: The rain pouring between the bamboo created a magical rainbow.Ja: 彼は一瞬立ち止まり、その瞬間をカメラに収めた。En: He stopped for a moment and captured that scene with his camera.Ja: その後、三人はなんとか雨宿り場所にたどり着き、びしょ濡れになった服を絞った。En: Afterward, the three of them somehow managed to reach a shelter and wrung out their soaked clothes.Ja: ハルキは撮った写真を愛子に見せた。En: Haruki showed the picture he had taken to Aiko.Ja: 愛子はその美しい写真に驚き、満面の笑みを浮かべた。En: Aiko was surprised by the beautiful photo and had a beaming smile.Ja: 「これ、すごいね！En: "This is amazing!"Ja: 」と彼女が言った。En: she said.Ja: 雨が上がると、三人は祭りの屋台で温かい食べ物を楽しみながら笑い合った。En: When the rain cleared, the three enjoyed warm food at the festival stalls while laughing together.Ja: ハルキは、完璧な瞬間は計画外から生まれることもあると学んだ。En: Haruki learned that perfect moments could also arise from unplanned events.Ja: 計画通りにいかない日が、心に残る一日になることもあるのだ。En: A day that doesn't go according to plan can become a memorable one.Ja: 嵐山竹林を後にするとき、三人の笑い声がまだ竹の間に残っていた。En: As they left the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, their laughter still lingered among the bamboo.Ja: 雨の中での冒険が、忘れられない夏の一ページとなったのだった。En: The adventure in the rain had become an unforgettable page of summer. Vocabulary Words:grove: 竹林engrossed: 夢中leisurely: のんびりflustered: 焦りshelter: 雨宿りargument: 口論countered: 反論calmly: 冷静echoing: 響かせてmagical: 幻想的beaming: 満面の笑みstalls: 屋台unplanned: 計画外memorable: 心に残るsudden: 突然forgot: 忘れてcaptured: 収めたbeaming: 満面の笑みadventure: 冒険unforgettable: 忘れられないprepared: 準備万端stronger: 強くprotected: 守るguided: 導いたpath: 道moment: 瞬間rainbow: 虹soaked: びしょ濡れecho: 響くlaughter: 笑い声

Romanen som vi känner den föds i slutet på 1700-talet och slår på några årtionden ut verseposet och poesin. Ny tryckteknik, fotogenlampan och moderna kommunikationer gjorde romanen tillgänglig för en större publik. Särskilt kvinnorna drogs till romanerna, som också varandes för konsekvenserna av allt för omfattande romanläsning.Romanen krävde inte samma klassisk bildning som eposet och svarade på borgarklassens behov av identifikation och individualitet.  Romanen passade in den nya offentligheten av tidningar, magasin och förläggare där många kända verk skrevs och publicerades som följetonger.I detta avsnitt av podden Historia Nu samtalar programledaren Urban Lindstedt med Ingrid Elam professor emerita i litterärgestalning vid Göteborgs universitet och aktuell med boken Romanens segertåg.Världens första kända roman, Berättelsen om Genji, skrevs av den japanska hovdamen Murasaki Shikibu strax efter år 1000. Men den moderna romanens segertåg började i slutet på 1700-talet som ett barn av upplysningen. Romanen var inledningsvis en föraktad genre, men den tog snabbt över från episka hjältedikter och teater som lånade stil och format från antiken.Där eposet var ett färdigt format med stilmallar som förfinats under 2000 år var romankonsten öppen och sökande. När vi började läsa romaner gick läsandet från kollektiv högläsning till en ensam sysselsättning för individen. I takt med att samhället och vetenskapen utvecklas förändras romanen i fråga om perspektiv och berättande.Eftersom romanen säljs till läsarna på en växande marknad blir läsarna allt viktigare för författarna som tidigare försörjts av mecenater och sinekurer. Och en stor del av läsarna och författarna var tidigt kvinnor.Bild: Läsande kvinna av Anna Nordgren 1882, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.Musik: Schubert: Moment Musical Op. 94, No. 3, D780 av Audio Waves - Eliche Remblon, Storyblocks AudioLyssna också på När sprätthökar och rangsjuka fruntimmer hotade samhällets överlevnad Vill du stödja podden och samtidigt höra ännu mer av Historia Nu? Gå med i vårt gille genom att klicka här: https://plus.acast.com/s/historianu-med-urban-lindstedt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode we are looking at the early years of the official reign of Naka no Oe, aka Tenji Tenno, including the building of a brand new capital on the shores of Lake Biwa. For more information, see: https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-126 Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is episode 126:  New Beginnings The local farmers couldn't help but talk.  There was so much construction, but it wasn't entirely clear what was being built.  The land between the mountains and the lake had been neatly groomed fields, but now that the government workmen had moved in, all of those fields were being cleared.  This new construction was much larger than anything that people had seen before.  Rocks were coming in from far flung quarries, and local kilns were being set up to create tiles, while woodcutters were sent into the forests to bring logs to the site. There were various stories about what was going on—a new provincial government office, or perhaps a new temple, but perhaps the most outlandish was that this was going to be some kind of royal palace.  The sovereign himself was taking in interest in this little slice of Afumi, and he was going to abandon the Home Territories of Yamato and bring his entire court to the shores of Lake Biwa. What a far-fetched story!  …Wasn't it? Last episode we recapped a lot of the history of Prince Naka no Oe and how he had come to this point: the Isshi Incident, the Taika reforms, as well as the reigns of his uncle, Prince Karu, aka Koutoku Tennou, and his mother, Takara Hime, aka Saimei Tennou.  With Takara Hime's death, Naka no Oe was now – finally, as he might have thought -- running things officially.  He had prosecuted the war in Baekje, and with that loss, he had turned his focus back to the archipelago.  He now had refugees to settle, and defenses to set up.  And then there were the embassies that would be coming, in an apparent attempt to normalize relations post-conflict.  That could only go so far, however, given that Tang and Silla had simply turned their war efforts against Goguryeo.  So one imagines that any diplomatic discussions were held with the understanding that the international order was still in flux. And so we arrive in the 8th month of 665, as some of the first defensive castles were being erected.  That same month, Tamna—the kingdom on the modern island of Jeju—sent ambassadors to the Yamato court.  The diplomatic ties between Yamato and Tamna were a relatively recent occurrence, but with Baekje gone, one wonders if Yamato wasn't feeling out a new alliance on the continent.  That said, Tamna does not appear to have been a major player on the international stage.    They had been a tributary of Baekje, and may have even been one of the last holdouts of the proto-Japonic language for a long time.  Indeed, a 15th century Joseon history records a foundation myth of Tamna that emphasizes close early ties with the Japanese archipelago. The following month saw another visit by Tang ambassadors, only a year after Guo Wucong had come to the court.  Guo Wucong had been wined and dined, and things seem to have gone well, as this time he returned, but he wasn't the one leading the embassy this time.  That honor went to Liu Degao, sub-prefect of Yizhou, among his many titles.  Yizhou is the same location where the previous missions from Yamato to the Tang court had made landfall.  Presumably, Liu Degao would have had experience with the embassies that passed through Yizhou, so he seems a logical choice to be sent over to the archipelago. This seems like an escalation, with a more titled ambassador leading the party. It is possible that the Tang were trying to not only reset their relationship with Yamato, but also attempt to woo them to their side.  The Tang likely knew that if they defeated Goguryeo, then they would have another problem to work out:  The alliance with Silla.  At the moment both Tang and Silla were in a partnership of convenience, but the Tang empire didn't get where it was by just giving up territory. And Silla was, itself, ambitious.  It would be in the Tang dynasty's best interest to have Yamato on its side in case Silla became a problem.  At the very least, the Tang court could have just been trying to make sure that Yamato would stay out of any continental entanglements, such as by supporting Goguryeo. Within the Yamato court, it is unclear which way, exactly, they were leaning at this point.  The court was clearly building defensive positions—fortresses and more.  At the same time, there were likely those who welcomed any return to stable relations with the Tang.  After all, there were still Wa in Chang'an and elsewhere, and there was still a hunger in the archipelago for the books and other goods that the Silk Road could provide.  On the other hand, they may have felt more at home with Goguryeo, or even Silla.  The bonds with the Korean peninsula were older and likely stronger.  And, as long as the Tang Empire was busy with other states, then perhaps they would be too preoccupied to attack Yamato. Liu Degao and his entourage had arrived at Tsushima on the 28th day of the 7th month.  They would have been put up there for a time, and entertained.  If this embassy followed later conventions, they would have likely pulled into a harbor, like the one near Kofunakoshi.  This is a narrow spot between the two parts of Tsushima, where we know that in the 9th century, ships from the Tang empire would stop, register goods and people, and likely have them transferred to Japanese ships.  All of the checking and cataloging would happen  at nearby Bairinji temple. Even if they didn't have to transport everything to another ship, it is likely that they would held at Tsushima for a while for security purposes.  Tsushima was ideal, both for its distance, halfway between the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago, but also for its shape, with numerous places that ships could sit at anchor in secluded bays away from any weather or rough seas that could otherwise cause problems. We don't know exactly what the Tang embassy's stay was like, but we know that they were at Tsushima for roughly two months, which was probably the time it took to get a message to the Yamato court and back.  We know how long it was because we learn that it is on the 20th day of the 9th month that they finally made landfall at Tsukushi, or Kyushu, and two days later they forwarded a letter-case to the Yamato court. Two months later, we know they were at the court, as there was a banquet held for Liu Degao on the 13th day of the 11th month, and then a month after that, Liu Degao and the rest of the mission were presented gifts, after which they left and returned to the Tang court.  We are also told that Mori no Kimi no Ohoishi, along with Sakahibe no Muraji no Iwashiki and Kimi no Kishi no Harima all went to the Tang court that same month, no doubt traveling with Degao and Wucong. On the first month of the following year, Neungnu of Goguryeo was sent to the Yamato court to offer tribute.  On the same day, the 11th day of the first month, Tamna also sent someone identified as Prince Siyeo to offer presents.  Immediately, I'm wondering about the way that this is presented.  Both of these states – Goguryeo and Tamna - were allies of the former Baekje kingdom.  I have to wonder how the Goguryeo ships made their way—did they come down the western side of the peninsula, through the Bohai sea, and thus past possible Tang patrols between their peninsular and continental territories, or did they head through the East Sea, aka the Japan Sea, where they would have to pass by the coast of Silla, whom they were also not on great terms with?  The fact that both missions are mentioned at the same time suggests that maybe the Goguryeo embassy sailed down to Tamna, on Jeju Island, and then the two groups made their way over to Yamato together from there. Other things about this entry to note is that the Chroniclers use different terms for these visits to the Yamato court.  Goguryeo uses a term that Aston translates as “offering tribute” while Tamna uses a different term indicating that they were “offering presents”.  This may be as simple as the difference in the various relationships between the polities, as viewed by the Chroniclers.  After all, there was a long relationship between Yamato and Goguryeo, which was considered one of the three Han, or Samhan.  Whether true or not, I could certainly see the Chroniclers feeling that Goguryeo was in a subordinate relationship with Yamato.  Tamna, on the other hand, was a more recent addition to the Yamato diplomatic sphere.  As such, it would be understandable, to me if the Chroniclers still saw it as a more independent entity. It also may hint at different messages being communicated.  As far as we can tell, Tamna wasn't under direct threat by the Tang empire—though they may have been feeling a little bit of heat, given the fall of Baekje and the Tang empire's new outpost on the peninsula.  Goguryeo, however, was under more direct threat, and had been in conflict with the Tang for years.  On top of that, based on what we can tell, it seems that Yeong Gaesomun, the despot who had been ruling Goguryeo and helping it defend against the Tang, had just passed away.  It may have been that the Goguryeo court was seeking support against Tang and Silla, as they were in a moment of instability, themselves.  As such, “Tribute” might indicate that they were more formally petitioning Yamato for support. Goguryeo envoy Neungnu left about 5 months later, on the 4th day of the 6th month but then another envoy, this time Minister Eulsyang Oemchu, arrived a little more than four months later.  Much like with the Tang, this feels like Goguryeo was upping the ante, sending higher ranking officials to negotiate with Yamato.  That lends some credence to the theory that there was something of a bidding war going on for Yamato's involvement in international affairs.  For Yamato, however, it would seem that getting involved in continental affairs was hardly something they were itching to do.  Instead, they continued their moves to fortify. In local events, we know that on the 11th day of the 10th month of 665, while the Liu Degao delegation was still in Yamato, there was a great “review”, by which they seem to mean a sutra reading, at Uji.  It is unclear just where this was held, as I haven't found reference to any particular temple.  However, it does indicate that there was activity in the area. Uji is probably most popular, today, for its role as a setting in the Tale of Genji.  There indeed numerous reminders there of the Heian period, including the hall of Ujigami Shrine, and the famous Hou-ou-do, or Phoenix Hall, of the Byoudouin. In 1053, Fujiwara Yorimichi inherited the villa from his father, Fujiwara Michinaga, and he converted it into a Pure Land temple.  Michinaga is thought to have been one of the people on whom Murasaki Shikibu based the character of the Shining Prince, Hikaru Genji.  That's all too late for this moment in the Chronicles, of course., but we do have earlier references to Uji as a place, as well as in various names.  It seems to have been part of the territory of the Hata, who controlled much of the area of modern Kyoto and environs.  There is a temple, Houjouin, also known as Hashidera, which claims to date back to the 7th century, and may have been the site of the above-mentioned sutra reading in 665.  According to the Temple's own legend, it was built around 604, when Hata no Kawakatsu built the famous Uji bridge, or Hashi, on the orders of Prince Umayado, aka Shotoku Taishi.  Other sources give the date as 646.  The temple was rebuilt in the 13th century, and as far as I can tell, nothing remains of the original temple, but it is possible that it was the site of this review. The next non-Diplomatic record of the Chronicles is from the 3rd month in 666.  The Crown Prince went to the house of Saheki no Komaro no Muraji, paying a sympathy call as Saheki appears to have passed away after having been gravely ill.  Saheki no Komaro no Muraji was one of those who had helped Naka no Oe in the Isshi Incident.  He had been introduced to the plot by Nakatomi no Kamatari, and then critical in the literal execution at the court.  He later led forces against Furubito no Oe, assuming that “Sahekibe no Komaro” is the same as “Saheki no Muraji no Komaro”.  There is also a relative, possibly his son, Takunaha, who was one of the Yamato court's overseas envoys.  Thus, one can understand that he had some importance to the Royal family, and we can probably assume that he had been involved in much more.  The Crown Prince, we are told, lamented him on account of his loyal service from the very beginning. One of the confusing things in this part of the Chronicle is the term “Crown Prince”.  It doesn't help that the Chroniclers were pulling from different records, and sometimes using anachronistic titles for individuals.  Naka no Oe had been known as the Crown Prince since the time of Takara Hime, whether he actually was or not.  Now he was in charge of the government, but it isn't clear that he had been formally invested as tennou.  More than that, there is mention of an investiture in either 667 or 668, several years after his quote-unquote “reign” had begun.  This makes some sense.  After all, when Takara Hime passed away, there was a foreign war to prosecute, and that probably took a fair bit of resources.  Plus, Naka no Oe had been running things for a while before that, or so we are told.  It would make sense if things just kept on going as they had been, and they held the actual investiture when they got around to it. We also know that he was busy with building projects: not just for the defense of the archipelago, but even a new capital and a new palace.  We'll talk about it a bit more, later, but suffice it to say that he may have been taking his time and gathering everything together. All of this makes the Chronicles themselves somewhat confusing.  They throw around the terms “Crown Prince” and “Sovereign”—well, “Sumera no Mikoto”—almost interchangeably.  Meanwhile, they've also stated that the Crown Prince was Prince Ohoama, Naka no Oe's younger brother. Based on my read of things, I believe we can distinguish between the two by whether or not it specifically calls them out as just “Crown Prince”, or “Crown Prince, younger brother to the sovereign”.  The latter is clearly Prince Ohoama, and the first is most likely Naka no Oe.  After all, in this instance, why would Prince Ohoama be the one so struck by the death of Saheki no Muraji?  Based on the story the Chronicles have told us, wouldn't it make more sense that it was Naka no Oe lamenting the death of one who had helped put him on the throne, rather than sending his brother? So keep that in mind as we go through the narrative.  I'll try to point out whom I believe they are speaking about, at least until we reach the point where Naka no Oe actually is invested. Getting back to the Chronicles, in the 7th month of the year 666, some four months after the illness and death of Saheki no Komaro no Muraji, another disaster struck—this time a natural disaster.  Great floods were reported—how widespread we aren't told.  This is often a problem in a land with many mountains that often gets large rains.  It is especially problematic when much of your agriculture is based on being just at or below the level of the rivers and streams so that it can be flooded on purpose.  We are told that the government remitted the land-taxes and commuted taxes that year, likely as a form of disaster relief to those affected by the flooding. In 666, we are also told a story that actually links this reign to the previous.  We are told that a monk, named Chiyu, gave the sovereign something called a south-pointing chariot.  I'll talk about what this was in another episode.  What's important here is to note that there was a previous entry in the era attributed to Saimei Tennou, aka Takara Hime, where a monk named Chiyu, or something similar, using different characters, also created a south-pointing chariot.  Likewise, we are later told in this reign how Naka no Oe installed a clepsydra, a water clock.  This is also mentioned in the previous reign.  It is possible that these reference completely different accounts.  Or they could be connected in some way. The south-pointing chariot is probably not something that we'll have evidence of, as it would have been mobile and probably deteriorated over time.  However, the water clock would have been a fixed installation with some clear architectural remnants, and indeed we think we know where at least one was built in Asuka.  Both of the water clock entries say that it was the “first” time, so make of that what you will. Also in 666, we see that some 2000 people of Baekje were settled in the East, possibly meaning the Kanto region, though this could be anywhere between modern Nagoya out to the far eastern edge of Honshu.  They were maintained at the government expense for three years, after which they were expected to have built new lives for themselves. In later periods, there is much to be said about “Men of the East”.  There are those that point to this region as being the origin point of many of the warrior traditions that would arise and become the military samurai.  Some of the weapons and fighting styles, especially some of the horse-riding archery seems to point to continental influences that made their way to the Kanto region and beyond.  One has to consider just how much did they bring with them and how did it grow, often beyond the view of the court and the court chronicles.  For now, though, it seems to have largely been a form of a refugee program, since the Baekje no longer had a kingdom to return to. Finally, we have an omen.  In the winter of 666, the rats of the capital, in Asuka, headed north to Afumi.  As with previous entries about rats departing a capital for a direction, this is again meant as an omen.  It probably didn't happen.  But it does foreshadow an account in the following year, when, on the 19th day of the 3rd month, the capital, surprise-surprise, moved to Afumi. And perhaps I shouldn't be flippant.  It was a surprise to have the capital move to Afumi.  There are accounts of legendary sovereigns that had their palace outside of the Nara Basin or Kawachi area, but at this point Yamato had been really building up those areas.  So why would they suddenly relocate to Afumi, of all places? Well, probably because of the same thing that had been driving the rest of their large-scale building projects during this period—from the Water Castle protecting the Dazai to the various Baekje style fortresses from Tsushima down to the Nara Basin.  Afumi was a naturally defensive position.  And in such an uncertain time, having a well-defended capital must have seen like a very good idea.  In fact, though they didn't formally change the capital until the 3rd month of 667, they probably had started work on it as soon as they got back from the loss at Hakusukinoe. As far as locations go, it wasn't necessarily a bad choice.  There were still routes to the port at Naniwa, which could still house various delegations when they arrived.  There were also routes to the east, leading to Owari and the rest of central and eastern Honshu, as well as mountain passes to get to the Japan Sea.  The area where the new palace was located was in the district of Ohotsu.  Ohotsu means something like “Big Port” and I don't know if it was already a major port along the banks of Lake Biwa or if that was a name that came from having the capital there.  Ohotsu was a long-inhabited area, even well before the 660's, and an important site for trade.  In the southern end of modern Ohotsu city is Ishiyama-dera, the stone mountain temple, it which was built in the 8th century, but in front of the temple are the remains of the largest freshwater shellmound in Asia.  As you may recall from some of our earliest episodes talking about the prehistoric period in the Japanese archipelago, shell mounds are typically evidence of ancient settlements, remnants of dump sites where they could throw their detritus.  This probably included a lot more than just shells, but shells, bones, and sometimes things like pottery sherds, would remain.  And while much of the wood and waste of the period would have disintegrated over time, shells do not.    These shell mounds accordingly provide important insight into the lives of people back in that day, and the size can also help us understand things about how large a settlement might have been or how long it was there.  The sheer size of the shellmound at Ishiyama-dera likely indicates that the region had been settled for many centuries prior to the 600's. In addition to the shellmound, and more closely related to the current times we are discussing, is evidence of a rock quarry found at the temple site and showing evidence of techniques familiar to people of the 6th to 8th centuries. You see, Ishiyama is a source of a particular white stone called wollastonite.  The quarry sits below the main hall of the temple, and so it probably would not have been quarried after the hall was built, which was in the 700s, so the site is believed to have been active before that.  From the composition of the stone and the markings on the remnants, we can see similarities to stones in the base of one of the buildings at Kawaradera, in Asuka, which we've talked about before and which was one of the pre-eminent temples of its day.  So this demonstrates a link between the region and the court even before the construction of the new Ohotsu palace. Speaking of the palace, we've known of its exact position since 1974,  when archeologists found evidence of the foundation of a large complex in a residential district in Nishikori.  While some initially suggested it was an old temple, further evidence makes it pretty clear that it was the dairi, or inner sanctum, of a palace.  This is very much in the same mould as the Toyosaki Palace in Naniwa and the various palaces in Asuka from around the same period.  In front of the dairi would have been the actual government buildings, but that area has not been excavated. That brings up another question: was this a full-on capital city, Ohotsu-kyo, or just a palace, the Ohotsu-no-miya?  So far we have only found the palace, But since the area is fairly built up, it may take time to find more, assuming it hasn't been destroyed by previous urban development in the area.  There are some hints that there was more: while there were already at a couple of temples that had been built by the mid-7th century, we see several temples built in ways that not only borrow features from important Asuka temples, like the layout of Kawaradera, but they also match the alignment of the Otsu palace ruins, hinting that they were built at the same time.  For example, there is are the ruins of an abandoned temple in Shiga-Minami – actually once thought to have been the Otsu palace. There was also Soufukuji, a temple in the mountains nearby meant to protect the Northwest from malign influences, likely based on continental geomantic concepts, part of what we might today think of as Feng Shui. This same kind of protective temple building is what we see in later capital cities. Of course, we know that this would not be a permanent capital for the nation of Yamato or of Japan—we aren't that far off from the Nara period, and then, a century later, the capital at Heian-kyo.  But that couldn't have been known at the time.  There was no way to know how long tensions with the continent would last, and it was just as possible that people at the time expected this to be a permanent move.  Its preeminence lasted, too: we do have evidence that even centuries later, the region was still known as an ancient “capital”. No matter what Naka no Oe's intentions were in moving the capital to Afumi, however, it didn't exactly go over well.  It was apparently quite unpopular—so unpopular that the move was mocked in song of the time.  That said, Naka no Oe's mind was made up, and the move took place regardless.     Before moving the capital, however, there was still business to attend to.  Takara Hime and Princess Hashibito were reinterred together in the Misasagi on Wochi Hill.  We are told that men of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla all mourned along the processional route.  The Crown Prince—I'm assuming Naka no Oe, this time given his connection to both of these women—apparently had started the work on a stone sarcophagus.  By this was probably meant the actual stone vault of the tomb, rather than just the coffin, which was also likely made of stone.  This was in Kuramaki, in Takatori, in the Takaichi District of the Nara Basin. Three months after the move to the new capital, the district of Kadono, in the west of modern Kyoto, presented to the sovereign a white swallow—an omen of some sort. The following month, on the 11th day of the 7th month, Tamna sent another embassy, led by a Minister known as Cheonma, with presents for Yamato.  This may have been the first envoy to actually visit the new Ohotsu capital, but certainly not the last. Cheonma stuck around for a few months.  In the intercalary 11th month, which is to say the extra 11th month of 667, inserted to keep the lunar and solar calendars at least partially aligned, Cheonma and his companions were presented with brocade and other cloth, as well as axes, sickles, and swords, presumably to take home to Tamna. While Cheonma was at the court, there was apparently another bit of diplomatic ping-pong going on.  Liu Jenyuan, the Tang general in charge of Baekje, sent Szema Facong and others to escort Sakahibe no Iwashiki and those with him to the Dazai in Tsukushi.  They didn't stay long, though—we are told they arrived on the 9th day of the 11th month and left only 4 days later, on the 13th day of the same.  When they left, however, they, themselves, were given escorts of Yuki no Muraji no Hakatoko—the same one whose memoirs we relied on for that previous trip to the Tang court—as well as Kaso no Omi no Moroshi.  So I guess they were escorting the escorts?  At what point does it end?  Hakatoko and others made it back about three months later, on the 23rd day of the first month of 668, and reported on their own escort mission.  That suggests that they didn't escort them that far.  They may have just seen them back to the Korean peninsula and that was it. Hakatoko's escort mission did mean that he missed a rather important event—the Crown Prince assuming the dignity.  That is to say, Naka no Oe finally took the title of sovereign.  A note in the text suggests that there were other sources that said it was the third month of the previous year—the same time that the Otsu capital was built.  Four days later they held a banquet in the palace for all of the court ministers. A little over a month later, his wife, Yamato bime, was appointed queen.  We are then told of his other wives and consorts. To be clear, Naka no Oe had been collecting consorts for ages.  So let's talk about a few of them. To start with there was Yamatobime, the Yamato Princess, daughter of none other than Naka no Oe's half-brother, Prince Furubito no Oe, his former rival to the throne. Then there was Wochi no Iratsume, aka Princess Miyatsuko, the daughter of Soga no Kurayamada no Ishikawa Maro.  She had a son, Prince Takeru, who died in 651 at the age of 8.  That suggests that she and Naka no Oe had been together since at least 643, two years before the Isshi Incident.  Another one of her daughters, Princess Uno, would go on to marry Naka no Oe's younger brother, Prince Ohoama, the new Crown Prince. Wochi no Iratsume seems to have died of grief in 649, after her father and much of her family were destroyed on the orders of her husband, Naka no Oe.  We are told that Naka no Oe also married Wochi no Iratsume's younger sister as well, Mehi no Iratsume.  She had two daughters, Princess Minabe and Princess Abe.  At this point Abe was only about 7 or 8 years old, herself, but she would eventually be married to Prince Kusakabe, the son of Prince Ohoama and Princess Uno, whom we just mentioned. Naka no Oe also had two other consorts.  Tachibana no Iratsume was the daughter of Abe no Kurahashi no Maro no Oho-omi—he was the first Sadaijin, or Minister of the Left, at the start of the Taika reforms, immediately following the Isshi Incident.  And then there was Hitachi no Iratsume, the daughter of Soga no Akaye. Soga no Akaye is an interesting figure.  You may recall the name from Episode 118.  Soga no Akaye was the acting minister in charge in Yamato when Prince Arima tried to start up a revolt against Takara Hime.  It was in his house where Prince Arima laid out his plan, but a broken armrest convinced Soga no Akaye to turn against the conspirators and turn them in.  And so it is interesting to hear that his daughter was married to Naka no Oe. We are also told of four “palace women” that Naka no Oe is said to have had children with.  The implication seems to be that these were women at the palace but they were not formally recognized with the same status as that of the formal consorts and, of course, the queen, his primary wife.  This fits in with at least one theory I've seen that Naka no Oe was something of a ladies' man.  It seems he got around even more than Murasaki Shikibu's fictional “Shining Prince”, Hikaru Genji.  We are told that there were at least 14 children among the nine official wives—and one has to consider that they were unlikely to record many of the women whom he may have slept with that he didn't also have children with.  And there is a theory that one of those not mentioned, may have been his own sister, full blooded sister.  Specifically, his sister Princess Hashibito, who was married to none other than Naka no Oe's uncle, Prince Karu, aka Jomei Tennou. To be clear:  we have no clear evidence that they were anything other than close siblings, but as you may recall how we mentioned back in Episode 114 that there was something that caused a falling out between Prince Karu and Naka no Oe, such that Naka no Oe disobeyed the sovereign's direct order in moving himself and the royal family back to Asuka.  That meant Naka no Oe, his wives, his mother, AND his sister, Princess—now Queen—Hashibito.  So, yeah, he absconded with Prince Karu's wife who was Naka no Oe's full-blooded sister.  And, as we've noted before, ancient Yamato's concept of incest was pretty narrow.  It was only if you had the same mother that you were considered full siblings—even if the father were someone else.  I suspect that this is related to the matrilineal nature of succession as well, which is why it was so important to insist that the ancient sovereigns had a direct lineal connection to the royal line through their mother as much as through their father. So if Naka no Oe and his sister were having any kind of relationship that was considered wrong or scandalous, then that could also help explain why he didn't take the throne sooner, and why it passed over to his mother.  But now, both Takara Hime and Hashibito were quite literally dead and buried, and Naka no Oe had ascended to the throne. Of the so-called “Palace Women” that  are listed as being likewise married to—or at least in a relationship with—Naka no Oe, I'd like to focus on one:  Iga no Uneme no Yakako.  For one, she is specifically mentioned as an uneme—one of the women sent to the court specifically to serve in the palace.  But her parentage isn't further illuminated other than the name “Iga” which is probably a locative, possibly referring to the area of Iga. This is also interesting because we are also told that she gave birth to a son named Prince Iga, also known as Prince Ohotomo.  Despite his mother's apparently unremarkable status, Prince Ohotomo seems to have been quite the apple of his father's eye.  He was born in 648, so in 668 he was about 20 years old, meaning that around this time he was probably just coming into his own at court.  He was married to his cousin, Princess Touchi, daughter of his uncle, Crown Prince Ohoama.  He was also married to Mimotoji, who appears to have been a daughter of Nakatomi no Kamatari, meaning that he was pretty well connected. But we'll get into that in a future episode.  For now, I think we'll leave it here: with the move of the capital to Ohotsu and the formal ascension of Naka no Oe to the throne. We'll talk about what that might mean in the future.  Until then, thank you once again for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

In this episode, Trevor and Paul are joined by Chris Via of Leaf by Leaf to celebrate the experience of reading big books. From the books that once intimidated us to the ones we now can't imagine our overburdened shelves without, we dive into what makes a book feel "big." Along the way, we share personal stories, favorite strategies for tackling doorstoppers, the books that stretched us as readers, and reflect on why some big books stay with us for life. Whether you're a lifelong lover of big books or someone who's still building up your wrist strength, this is an episode for you.We'd love to hear from you, too—what are your favorite big books? Which ones are still looming on your to-be-read pile, daring you to pick them up? Let us know!Join the Mookse and the Gripes on DiscordAn easy place to respond to our question above is over on Discord!We're creating a welcoming space for thoughtful, engaging discussions about great novellas—and other books things. Whether you want to share insights, ask questions, or simply follow along, we'd love to have you.ShownotesBooks* War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Anthony Briggs* 2666, by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Natasha Wimmer* The Guermantes Way, by Marcel Proust* FEM, by Magda Carneci, translated by Sean Cotter* Blinding, by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter* Solenoid, by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter* Novel Explosives, by Jim Gauer* Bookwork: Conversations with Michael Silverblatt* The Recognitions, by William Gaddis* The Dying Grass: A Novel of the New Perce War, by William T. Vollmann* Faust, Part One: A New Translation with Illustrations, by Johann Wolfgang van Goethe, translated by Zsuzsanna Ozsváth and Frederick Turner* Invidicum, by Michael Brodsky* The Ice-Shirt, by William T. Vollmann* The Aesthetics of Resistance, by Peter Weiss, translated by Joachim Neugroschel* Middlemarch, by George Eliot* Great Granny Webster, by Caroline Blackwood* Pilgrimage, by Dorothy Richardson* Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry* Moby Dick, by Herman Melville* Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson* Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz* Nausea, by Jean-Paul Sartre, translated by Richard Howard* Schattenfroh, by Micheal Lentz, translated by Max Lawton* The Sword of Shannara, by Terry Brooks* The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Andrew R. MacAndrew* It, by Stephen King* The Stand, by Stephen King* Shogun, by James Clavell* Tom's Crossing, by Mark Z. Danielewski* Women and Men, by Joseph McElroy* Swann's Way, by Marcel Proust* Lies and Sorcery, by Elsa Morante, translated by Jenny McPhee* Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young* The Blue Room, by Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Deborah Dawkin* Against the Day, by Thomas Pynchon* Ulysses, by James Joyce* 4 3 2 1, by Paul Auster* Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison* Shadow Ticket, by Thomas Pynchon* The Tunnel, by William H. Gass* A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth* The Golden Gate, by Vikram Seth* The Story of a Life, by Konstantin Paustovsky, translated by Doug Smith* The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu, translated by Royall Tylor* A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara* The People in the Trees, by Hanya Yanagihara* Stone Upon Stone, by Wiesław Myśliwski, translated by Bill Johnston* Needle's Eye, by Wiesław Myśliwski, translated by Bill JohnstonOther* Leaf by Leaf* Episode 1: Bucket List Books* Episode 99: Books We Think About All the Time, with Elisa Gabbert* The Untranslated: Schattenfroh by Michael LentzThe Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a bookish conversation hosted by Paul and Trevor. Every other week, we explore a bookish topic and celebrate our love of reading. We're glad you're here, and we hope you'll continue to join us on this literary journey!A huge thank you to those who help make this podcast possible! If you'd like to support us, you can do so via Substack or Patreon. Subscribers receive access to periodic bonus episodes and early access to all new episodes. Plus, each supporter gets their own dedicated feed, allowing them to download episodes a few days before they're released to the public. We'd love for you to check it out! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe

At the height of Imperial Japan, during a golden age of court intrigue, obsessive hierarchy, and fabulous sophistication, who was the legendary lothario and emperor's son, Genji? What can the Tale of Genji - a great masterpiece of Japanese literature - tell us about this remarkable and alien world, and the imperial family at the heart of it? Who was the woman who wrote it, at a time when in the West it would have been unthinkable? What was the influence of China, Japan's powerful neighbour, on the world the text describes? And, does the story hold the secrets to the divine power of the Japanese emperors…? Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss the thrilling and romantic Tale of Genji; the historical man behind the myth, and the glorious world of Imperial Japan, with its glittering court.  _______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett + Aaliyah Akude  Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a rare Darfox absence, the remaining gang discusses Princess Mononoke, F THE TRIBUTE, Rock Is a Lady's Modesty, and more! Then we celebrate(?) Morgana's birthday with a wild and emotional Morgana's Manga Makeup through Mushishi, The Tale of Genji: Dreams at Dawn, and Sensei's Pious Lie!!! Send us emails! mangamachinations@gmail.com  Follow us on Twitter! @mangamacpodcast Check out our website! https://mangamachinations.com Support us on Ko-fi! https://ko-fi.com/mangamac  Check out our YouTube channel! https://www.youtube.com/mangamactv Check out our new commentary channel! https://www.youtube.com/@MangaMacWatches Timestamps: Intro - 00:00:00 Princess Mononoke - 00:05:16 F THE TRIBUTE - 00:09:35 Rock Is a Lady's Modesty - 00:22:16 Anime Music Quiz with Dawn - 00:28:00 Next Episode Preview - 00:32:14 The Tale of Genji: Dreams at Dawn - 00:33:50 (CONTENT WARNING: Sexual Assault) Sensei's Pious Lie - 00:58:27 *SPOILER WARNING: Sensei's Pious Lie - 01:21:45 Mushishi - 01:31:01 Our Rankings - 01:57:09 Outro - 01:59:3 Song Credits: “Hopscotch” by Louis Adrien “Jiggin the Jig” by Bless & the Professionals “Green Light” by Emily Lewis “Tasty Bites” by ZISO

Episode 164 Chapter 25, Electronic Music in Japan and The Asia-Pacific. Works Recommended from my book, Electronic and Experimental Music  Welcome to the Archive of Electronic Music. This is Thom Holmes. This podcast is produced as a companion to my book, Electronic and Experimental Music, published by Routledge. Each of these episodes corresponds to a chapter in the text and an associated list of recommended works, also called Listen in the text. They provide listening examples of vintage electronic works featured in the text. The works themselves can be enjoyed without the book and I hope that they stand as a chronological survey of important works in the history of electronic music. Be sure to tune-in to other episodes of the podcast where we explore a wide range of electronic music in many styles and genres, all drawn from my archive of vintage recordings. There is a complete playlist for this episode on the website for the podcast. Let's get started with the listening guide to Chapter 25, Electronic Music in Japan and The Asia-Pacific from my book Electronic and Experimental music.   Playlist: ELECTRONIC MUSIC IN JAPAN AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC   Time Track Time Start Introduction –Thom Holmes 01:32 00:00 1.     Toshiro Mayuzumi, “Les Œuvres Pour La Musique Concrète X, Y, Z” (1953). Early work of tape music. 13:50 01:36 2.     Toru Takemitsu, “Vocalism Ai (Love)” (1956). For magnetic tape (condensed from a 72-hour tape montage. 04:11 15:22 3.     Makoto Moroi and Toshiro Mayuzumi, “Shichi No Variation (7 Variations)” (1956). Tape music for sine wave generators. 14:51 19:32 4.     Toru Takemitsu, “Sky, Horse And Death (Concrete-Music)” (1958). For magnetic tape. 03:28 34:24 5.     Group Ongaku, “Object” (1960). Recorded on May 8, 1960, at Mizuno's house. Performers were Chieko Shiomi, Mikio Tojima, Shukou Mizuno, Takehisa Kosugi, Yasunao Tone, and Yumiko Tanno. 07:34 37:50 6.     Toru Takemitsu, “Water Music” (1960). For magnetic tape. 09:41 45:26 7.     Michiko Toyama, “Aoi No Ue (Princess Hollyhock) (Music Drama for Tape and Narration).” For magnetic tape and reader. 07:05 55:06 8.     Group Ongaku, “Metaplasm Part 2” (1961). Live performance, 1961, at Sogetsu Kaikan Hall, Tokyo. Tadashi Mori (conductor), 09:08 01:02:10 9.     Akira Miyoshi (composer), opening excerpt to Ondine (1961). For orchestra, mixed chorus and electronic sounds. 04:32 01:11:18 10.   Joji Yuasa ‎– “Aoi No Ue” (1961). For voice and tape and based on The Tale of Genji written by Murasaki Shikibu in 11th century. Tape parts realized at NHK Electronic music studio. 29:50 01:15:50 11.   Kuniharu Akiyama, “Noh-Miso” (track 1) (1962). Tape music. Hitomi-Za is an experimental puppet theatre group. They had performed in February 13-17 in 1962 at Sogetsu Kaikan Hall. This program was consisted of three parts, and Joji Yuasa, Kuniharu Akiyama and Naozumi Yamamoto composed background sound for each part. 01:44 01:45:40 12.   Toshi Ichiyanagi, “Parallel Music” (1962). Tape music recorded at NHK Electric Music Studio, Tokyo Japan. 09:12 01:47:22 13.   Kuniharu Akiyam, “Demonstration of Nissei Theater” (excerpt) (1963). “Demonstration of Nissei Theater” composed in 1963 for a public demonstration of the stage machinery of the newly opened Nissei Theatre in Tokyo. 05:15 01:56:36 14.   Toshi Ichiyanagi, “Sound Materials for Tinguely” (1963). “Music For Tinguely” was composed at the studio of Sogetsu Art Center. This rare track comprises sound materials used for that composition. 03:31 02:01:54 15.   Joji Yusa, Tracks 1-4 (1963). Incidental music for NHK Radio, based on Andre Breton's "Nadja". "The actual chart of constellations was played by three players (violin, piano, vibraphone) which was supposed as the music score. And birds' voices, electronic sound, sound generated from inside piano, through music concrete technique and constructed at the NHK Electronic Music Studio." 04:24 02:05:26 16.   Maki Ishii, “Hamon-Ripples (For Chamber Ensemble, Violin And Taped Music)” (1965). Tape piece for violin and chamber orchestra. 10:01 02:09:46 17.   Joji Yuasa, “Icon on the Source Of White Noise” (1967). Tape work using white noise as material and designed for a multi-channel system. In the original version, several sound images of various widths (e.g. three loudspeakers playing simultaneously) moved at different speeds around the audience, who were positioned inside the pentagonal loudspeaker arrangement. 12:13 02:19:44 18.   Makoto Moroi, “Shosanke” (1968). Tape work fusing electronic sounds with those of traditional Japanese instruments. 13:20 02:31:54 19.   Minao Shibata, “Improvisation for Electronic Sounds” (1968). Tape piece for electronic sounds. 09:27 02:45:12 20.   Toshi Ichiyanagi, “Love Blinded Ballad (Enka 1969)” from the Opera "From The Works Of Tadanori Yokoo" (1969). Tape collage. 06:57 02:54:40 21.   Toshi Ichiyanagi, Music for Living Space (1969, Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha), composed for the Electric Faculty of Engineering of Kyoto University. Early Computer Music combined with Gregorian chant for Osaka Expo '70. 08:49 03:01:34 22.   Toshiro Mayuzumi, “Mandara” (1969). Tape piece for electronic sound and voices. 10:22 03:10:24 23.   Takehisa Kosugi,  “Catch-Wave” (Mano Dharma '74)” (1974). “Mano-Dharma '74” is an excerpt from a meta-media solo improvisation performed by Takehisa Kosugi. From his notes: “Sounds speeding on lights, light speeding on sounds music between riddles & solutions. ‘the deaf listen to sounds touching, watching.” 26:32 03:20:42 24.   Yoshi Wada ‎– Earth Horns with Electronic Drone, excerpt, (1974). Electronics by Liz Phillips. Pipehorn players Barbara Stewart, Garrett List, Jim Burton, Yoshi Wada. Composed by, recorded by Yoshi Wada. Recorded at Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, Sunday 2-5pm, February 24, 1974. 10:51 03:47:10 25.   Matsuo Ohno, Takehisa Kosugi, “B.G.M. Parts A-F” (1963). Music and effects later used for Astroboy. 06:59 03:57:48 26.   Joji Yuasa, “My Blue Sky (No. 1)” (1975). Tape parts realized at NHK Electronic music studio. 15:43 04:05:00   Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes. My Books/eBooks: Electronic and Experimental Music, sixth edition, Routledge 2020. Also, Sound Art: Concepts and Practices, first edition, Routledge 2022. See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation. For a transcript, please see my blog, Noise and Notations. Original music by Thom Holmes can be found on iTunes and Bandcamp.

最近目にしたニュースなどを話題にした雑談回です！平成レトロブームについて、たまごっちのこと、中居くんやジャニーズのこと、WOWOW「7 S.T.A.R.S. ～7つの答え～佐藤アツヒロが繋ぐ光GENJIの現在」を観たなど […] The post 2025 最近のネットニュースなど｜百六段 first appeared on 白と水色のカーネーション.

about, it's its significance and its fascinating manga adaptations.

Welcome back to the Namco Museum Tour! In this second installment of this three-part series, Andre and Vin visit Vol. 3 and Vol. 4 of this classic PlayStation compilation series. Enjoy the sights, sounds and wonders of the museum along with us! If you missed Part 1, you can listen to it here. Twitter: @FineTimePodcast Andre: @pizzadinosaur.fineti.me Vin: @lucentai.bsky.social [00:00] We're Back! (A Dinosaur Story) [00:38] Welcome to Namco Museum Vol. 3! (Ms. Pac Man, Galaxian, Phozon, Pole Position II, Dig Dug, Tower of Druaga) [04:12] Vol. 3: CGI Intro and Loading Animation [09:20] Vol. 3: Museum Layout and Game Rooms [21:38] Vol. 3: Cool Stuff To Look At [30:36] Vol. 3: The Games [41:16] Vol. 3: Wrap-Up, Questions, and Thoughts [52:54] Welcome to Namco Museum Vol. 4! (Pac-Land, The Return of Ishtar, The Genji and Heike Clans, Ordyne, Assault) [55:37] Vol. 4: CGI Intro and Loading Animation [01:01:47] Vol. 4: Museum Layout and Game Rooms [01:16:44] Vol. 4: Cool Stuff To Look At [01:21:05] Vol. 4: The Games [01:29:54] Vol. 4: Wrap-Up, Questions, and Thoughts [01:38:09] See You Next Time in Part 3!

Was Mulan real? Did Mulan exist? And, if so, how accurate is the movie Mulan? This week we get down to business to uncover the history behind our favorite female warrior. We meet other important women from East Asian history. Tamoe Gozen, a Japanese Samurai from the 12th century, whose bravery and romances were featured in Heike monogatari (The Tale of Heike), and Murasaki Shikibu, the author of what's thought of as the world's oldest novel, Genji monogatari (The Tale of Gengi). And, of course, we sing a couple of lines from that killer movie soundtrack (singing podcast?). Women in history had something worth fighting for!

Even in adversity, Catholics exercised considerable agency in post-Reformation Utrecht. Through the political practices of repression and toleration, Utrecht's magistrates, under constant pressure from the Reformed Church, attempted to exclude Catholics from the urban public sphere. However, by mobilising their social status and networks, Catholic Utrechters created room to live as pious Catholics and honourable citizens, claiming more rights in the public sphere through their spatial practices and in discourses of self-representation. Catholic Survival in the Dutch Republic: Agency in Coexistence and the Public Sphere in Utrecht, 1620-1672 (Amsterdam University Press, 2024) by Dr. Genji Yasuhira explores how Catholic priests and laypeople cooperated and managed to survive the Reformed regime by participating in a communal process of delimiting the public, continuing to rely on the mediaeval legacy and adapting to early modern religious diversity. Deploying their own understandings of publicness, Catholic Utrechters not only enabled their survival in the city and the Catholic revival in the Dutch Republic but also contributed to shaping a multi-religious society in the Northern Netherlands. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Even in adversity, Catholics exercised considerable agency in post-Reformation Utrecht. Through the political practices of repression and toleration, Utrecht's magistrates, under constant pressure from the Reformed Church, attempted to exclude Catholics from the urban public sphere. However, by mobilising their social status and networks, Catholic Utrechters created room to live as pious Catholics and honourable citizens, claiming more rights in the public sphere through their spatial practices and in discourses of self-representation. Catholic Survival in the Dutch Republic: Agency in Coexistence and the Public Sphere in Utrecht, 1620-1672 (Amsterdam University Press, 2024) by Dr. Genji Yasuhira explores how Catholic priests and laypeople cooperated and managed to survive the Reformed regime by participating in a communal process of delimiting the public, continuing to rely on the mediaeval legacy and adapting to early modern religious diversity. Deploying their own understandings of publicness, Catholic Utrechters not only enabled their survival in the city and the Catholic revival in the Dutch Republic but also contributed to shaping a multi-religious society in the Northern Netherlands. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Even in adversity, Catholics exercised considerable agency in post-Reformation Utrecht. Through the political practices of repression and toleration, Utrecht's magistrates, under constant pressure from the Reformed Church, attempted to exclude Catholics from the urban public sphere. However, by mobilising their social status and networks, Catholic Utrechters created room to live as pious Catholics and honourable citizens, claiming more rights in the public sphere through their spatial practices and in discourses of self-representation. Catholic Survival in the Dutch Republic: Agency in Coexistence and the Public Sphere in Utrecht, 1620-1672 (Amsterdam University Press, 2024) by Dr. Genji Yasuhira explores how Catholic priests and laypeople cooperated and managed to survive the Reformed regime by participating in a communal process of delimiting the public, continuing to rely on the mediaeval legacy and adapting to early modern religious diversity. Deploying their own understandings of publicness, Catholic Utrechters not only enabled their survival in the city and the Catholic revival in the Dutch Republic but also contributed to shaping a multi-religious society in the Northern Netherlands. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even in adversity, Catholics exercised considerable agency in post-Reformation Utrecht. Through the political practices of repression and toleration, Utrecht's magistrates, under constant pressure from the Reformed Church, attempted to exclude Catholics from the urban public sphere. However, by mobilising their social status and networks, Catholic Utrechters created room to live as pious Catholics and honourable citizens, claiming more rights in the public sphere through their spatial practices and in discourses of self-representation. Catholic Survival in the Dutch Republic: Agency in Coexistence and the Public Sphere in Utrecht, 1620-1672 (Amsterdam University Press, 2024) by Dr. Genji Yasuhira explores how Catholic priests and laypeople cooperated and managed to survive the Reformed regime by participating in a communal process of delimiting the public, continuing to rely on the mediaeval legacy and adapting to early modern religious diversity. Deploying their own understandings of publicness, Catholic Utrechters not only enabled their survival in the city and the Catholic revival in the Dutch Republic but also contributed to shaping a multi-religious society in the Northern Netherlands. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

Even in adversity, Catholics exercised considerable agency in post-Reformation Utrecht. Through the political practices of repression and toleration, Utrecht's magistrates, under constant pressure from the Reformed Church, attempted to exclude Catholics from the urban public sphere. However, by mobilising their social status and networks, Catholic Utrechters created room to live as pious Catholics and honourable citizens, claiming more rights in the public sphere through their spatial practices and in discourses of self-representation. Catholic Survival in the Dutch Republic: Agency in Coexistence and the Public Sphere in Utrecht, 1620-1672 (Amsterdam University Press, 2024) by Dr. Genji Yasuhira explores how Catholic priests and laypeople cooperated and managed to survive the Reformed regime by participating in a communal process of delimiting the public, continuing to rely on the mediaeval legacy and adapting to early modern religious diversity. Deploying their own understandings of publicness, Catholic Utrechters not only enabled their survival in the city and the Catholic revival in the Dutch Republic but also contributed to shaping a multi-religious society in the Northern Netherlands. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

In this week's episode, Aaron, Bob, Carolyn, Joey, and Steve become seat-fillers at the Tony Awards! After that, Joey loses his voice during karaoke, Steve gets emotional about Inside Out 2, Bob gets down with the sickness, Aaron disrespects Screech's robot Kevin, and Carolyn educates us with a Cultural History of The Punisher.Books: Lawful #1, Godzilla: Skate or Die #1, Napalm Lullaby #4, X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse #1, Hard Style Juice #3, Lady Murasaki's Tale of Genji and Tale of Genji, Dreams at Dawn, Avatar the Last Airbender: The Rise of Kyoshi, Making It So, A Cultural History of The Punisher: Marvel Comics and the Politics of Vengeance, Fantastic Four #21, Blood Hunters #1-2, Scarlet Witch #1Other Stuff: Inside Out 2, The Beekeeper, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men: First Class, and The Wolverine, Star Trek Picard: FirewallThe Comic Book Podcast is brought to you by Talking Comics (www.talkingcomicbooks.com). It is hosted by Steve Seigh, Bob Reyer, Joey Braccino, Aaron Amos, Chris Ceary, and John Burkle, who weekly dissect everything comics-related, from breaking news to new releases. Our Twitter handle is @TalkingComics, or you can find us on Instagram and Threads @talkingcomicspodcast. You can email us at podcast@talkingcomicbooks.com.

In this week's show, John talks to Marie Mutsuki Mockett about her exquisite new novel, The Tree Doctor, which leads us to the topics of Japanese literature, The Tale of Genji, and how the ancient world is surprisingly like our own.

When the unnamed narrator of Marie Mutsuki Mockett's stirring second novel returns to Carmel, California, to care for her mother, she finds herself stranded at the outset of the disease. With her husband and children back in Hong Kong, and her Japanese mother steadily declining in a care facility two hours away, she becomes preoccupied with her mother's garden--convinced it contains a kind of visual puzzle--and the dormant cherry tree within it. Caught between tending to an unwell parent and the weight of obligation to her distant daughters and husband, she becomes isolated and unmoored. She soon starts a torrid affair with an arborist who is equally fascinated by her mother's garden, and together they embark on reviving it. Increasingly engrossed by the garden, and by the awakening of her own body, she comes to see her mother's illness as part of a natural order in which things are perpetually living and dying, consuming and being consumed. All the while, she struggles to teach (remotely) Lady Murasaki's eleventh-century novel, The Tale of Genji, which turns out to resonate eerily with the conditions of contemporary society in the grip of a pandemic. The Tree Doctor (Graywolf Press, 2024) is a powerful, beautifully written novel full of bodily pleasure, intense observation of nature, and a profound reckoning with the passage of time both within ourselves and in the world we inhabit. Marie Mutsuki Mockett is the author of a previous novel, Picking Bones from Ash, and two books of nonfiction, American Harvest, which won the Nebraska book award, and the northern California book award, and Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye, which was a finalist for the Pen Open Book Award. A graduate of Columbia University in East Asian studies she has been awarded NEA – JUSFC and Fulbright Fellowships, both for Japan. Recommended Books: Royall Tyler, The Disaster of the Third Princess: Essays on The Tale of Genji Emily Raboteau, Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against "The Apocalypse" Martin Puchner, Culture Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the unnamed narrator of Marie Mutsuki Mockett's stirring second novel returns to Carmel, California, to care for her mother, she finds herself stranded at the outset of the disease. With her husband and children back in Hong Kong, and her Japanese mother steadily declining in a care facility two hours away, she becomes preoccupied with her mother's garden--convinced it contains a kind of visual puzzle--and the dormant cherry tree within it. Caught between tending to an unwell parent and the weight of obligation to her distant daughters and husband, she becomes isolated and unmoored. She soon starts a torrid affair with an arborist who is equally fascinated by her mother's garden, and together they embark on reviving it. Increasingly engrossed by the garden, and by the awakening of her own body, she comes to see her mother's illness as part of a natural order in which things are perpetually living and dying, consuming and being consumed. All the while, she struggles to teach (remotely) Lady Murasaki's eleventh-century novel, The Tale of Genji, which turns out to resonate eerily with the conditions of contemporary society in the grip of a pandemic. The Tree Doctor (Graywolf Press, 2024) is a powerful, beautifully written novel full of bodily pleasure, intense observation of nature, and a profound reckoning with the passage of time both within ourselves and in the world we inhabit. Marie Mutsuki Mockett is the author of a previous novel, Picking Bones from Ash, and two books of nonfiction, American Harvest, which won the Nebraska book award, and the northern California book award, and Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye, which was a finalist for the Pen Open Book Award. A graduate of Columbia University in East Asian studies she has been awarded NEA – JUSFC and Fulbright Fellowships, both for Japan. Recommended Books: Royall Tyler, The Disaster of the Third Princess: Essays on The Tale of Genji Emily Raboteau, Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against "The Apocalypse" Martin Puchner, Culture Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

When the unnamed narrator of Marie Mutsuki Mockett's stirring second novel returns to Carmel, California, to care for her mother, she finds herself stranded at the outset of the disease. With her husband and children back in Hong Kong, and her Japanese mother steadily declining in a care facility two hours away, she becomes preoccupied with her mother's garden--convinced it contains a kind of visual puzzle--and the dormant cherry tree within it. Caught between tending to an unwell parent and the weight of obligation to her distant daughters and husband, she becomes isolated and unmoored. She soon starts a torrid affair with an arborist who is equally fascinated by her mother's garden, and together they embark on reviving it. Increasingly engrossed by the garden, and by the awakening of her own body, she comes to see her mother's illness as part of a natural order in which things are perpetually living and dying, consuming and being consumed. All the while, she struggles to teach (remotely) Lady Murasaki's eleventh-century novel, The Tale of Genji, which turns out to resonate eerily with the conditions of contemporary society in the grip of a pandemic. The Tree Doctor (Graywolf Press, 2024) is a powerful, beautifully written novel full of bodily pleasure, intense observation of nature, and a profound reckoning with the passage of time both within ourselves and in the world we inhabit. Marie Mutsuki Mockett is the author of a previous novel, Picking Bones from Ash, and two books of nonfiction, American Harvest, which won the Nebraska book award, and the northern California book award, and Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye, which was a finalist for the Pen Open Book Award. A graduate of Columbia University in East Asian studies she has been awarded NEA – JUSFC and Fulbright Fellowships, both for Japan. Recommended Books: Royall Tyler, The Disaster of the Third Princess: Essays on The Tale of Genji Emily Raboteau, Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against "The Apocalypse" Martin Puchner, Culture Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

If you enjoy this show and would like to help me spread the word about it, or support it financially, you can find out more at nuancespod.com/support GUEST BIO Prof. Sachi Schmidt-Hori is interested in investigating how gender, sexuality, corporeality, and power are represented and negotiated in pre-seventeenth-century Japanese narratives and illustrations. Her first book, Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Narratives (University of Hawai`i Press, 2021) is on medieval chigo monogatari (Buddhist acolyte tales), which often depict romantic relationships between Buddhist priests and adolescent boys. These tales challenge a host of normative and moral standards we (academics, especially) internalize, including such ideas as "sexual orientation," "transgenerational sex," and "sexual agency." Her current project is on the literary representations of "milk kinships" in pre-seventeenth Japanese tales, in cluding the Tale of Ochikubo, the Tale of Genji, the Tales of the Heike. She is also the director of the Springboard Japan Project, a multi-purpose open-access forum for Japan Studies. Web MENTIONED YOASOBI (J-Pop duo) The Tale of Ochikubo (Ochikubo Monogatari) The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari) Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives TAKEAWAYS The equation of your career/life choices is for you to solve. It doesn't have to make sense to anyone else if it makes sense for you. You can seek out spaces where being you is a plus instead of a minus. Don't settle. If you're not a white man, emulating white men probably won't help. Be goofy :-) Language shapes our discussions. Identity is seen as static, whereas actions are choices that we could change in the future, not immutable character traits. How integrity is perceived is one of many things that can vary widely outside the West. In Japan, parenting is about taming the child's ego. In the U.S., parenting is about nurturing the child's ego. Do not talk to cats and babies in Japan. CONTACT Instagram | TikTok | Web | LinkedIn | Twitter Host: Lazou --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nuancespod/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nuancespod/support

ぬるぽ放送局投稿フォーム https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScwYSAEyRhDCHd-JRk9dLA05JKnGINgvnDhY3Xmkw2lwwDjQw/viewform 2023年12月パワープレイ 曲名：03. Shanghaihai／Alicemetix 原曲：明治十七年の上海アリス 収録アルバム：IO-0339 TOHO BOOTLEGS 7 Release　2023.10.10 https://www.iosysos.com/discographyportal.php?cdno=IO-0339 番組時間：119分21秒 出演者：夕野ヨシミ、たくや ---- 2023/12/21 公開録音したものを配信いたします。 ラジオ記事はリスナーのEEチャンピオンさんが書いてくれているので楽してます。 ＜オープニング＞ ・あのー ・あのー ・あのー（エコー） ・甥っ子の接待の話なんですけどね ・新千歳空港に行ってみてはどうだ？ ・空港と言えばでっかい飛行機 ・アッ！！ビジネスジェットだよ珍しいね！！ ・興奮してたのは大人だけ ・働く車に子供が興味をわかない ・最近の子はYouTubeなんじゃないのかな？ ・新千歳空港にアニメイトはもうない ・５年前ですね ・空港の温泉は高い ・甥っ子の選んだのはスラムダンク ・スラムダンクの１巻は３冊くらい置いといてほしい ・前枠のつづきみたいな感じになってます ・それじゃない ＜Aパート＞ ・ふつおたです ・漢は黙って伯方の塩 ・今週のポコ ・年末年始は忙しいポコさん ・もちつきします？ ・ヨガマットの上で餅を搗く ・餅によせてきたリングフィットアドベンチャー ・ゲームオーバーになったら「やっちまったなぁー」が聞ける ・ウエストのもつ鍋 ・もつ鍋2人前580円 ・博多のイメージは熊本の辺のイメージ ・阿佐ヶ谷の忘年会の話 ・手ぬぐいは1000枚作っちゃって ・7人って光GENJIのフルメンバーですよ ・渋谷はロシア ・前川「ロフト9の店長やると2キロ痩せるよ」 ・ボウネンカイのボウは暴力のボウ ・クフ王とは ・あのイベント長くやってますよね ・電子レンジだと湯はどこにいったの？ ・どこまでが湯豆腐なのか ・〆パフェ鍋 ・お姉さんとおばさんの中間 ・100年後？来年にしよう ・明日何食べます？ ・みんな大好き前回のアレ ・年取るといいことしかない ＜Bパート＞ ・引き続きふつおたです ・ホロライブの話 ・ビジネスショタコン ・ためになったねー ・お世話になってます ・イオシス25周年おめでとうございます ・いたいなーたいなー ・はじめてのギブス ・結婚式のあいさつみたい ・間違って夕野ヨシミを消してしまいました ・病院に行けない事情でもあったんですか？ ・病院はいいぞ ・入院中のゲームの話 ・深夜の病院で号泣 ・去年の5月じゃん ・病室で8番出口 ・骨を折って入院しなきゃ ・SteamDeckの排気口の匂い ・ギルドなくなっちゃたね ・入院中にやるゲーム募集します ・2年後くらいに読みます ・みつをたです ・具体的な社名を出すのはよくないです ・すみぺのサンタフェ ・脱 ・すみぺ応援してます ・クリスマスパーティーのキックバック欲しいな ・みつおかん ・​みつを-1グランプリ ・重圧を感じるM-1グランプリ ・ウーバー取りに行った夕野さんが帰ってこない ・売れてほしいけど売れてほしくない ・年越し何します？ ・埼玉の金持ちが歌う番組 ・ガヤをやらされてる社員を見る番組 ・村長はレア ・年末ですね ＜エンディング＞ ・大泉さんは今何歳？ ・はかせの大学の先輩 ・お知らせです ・東方ステーション生放送がありました ・D.wattが歌うYAH YAH YAH ・IOSYSくま牧場公開録音のスタジオ観覧チケット発売中です！ ・明日はコバヤシ会です ・月曜日、久々のIOSYS桃鉄王決定戦をやります！ ・年末年始はゆっくりできるね ・夕野さんはコバヤシ会をお休みするかも？ ・インフルエンザかも ・ヨシ、一旦おわろう

Découvrez l'abonnement "Au Coeur de l'Histoire +" et accédez à des heures de programmes, des archives inédites, des épisodes en avant-première et une sélection d'épisodes sur des grandes thématiques. Profitez de cette offre sur Apple Podcasts dès aujourd'hui ! [INTERVIEW] Le Dit du Genji est un chef d'œuvre de la littérature japonaise, ses illustrations aussi ! Au XXe siècle, le grand maître tisserand japonais Itarô Yamaguchi se lance dans la confection de quatre rouleaux pour mettre en image le roman de Murasaki Shikibu. Ils lui demanderont plus de trente ans de travail, et vous pouvez admirer le résultat à l'occasion de l'exposition 'À la cour du Prince Genji, 1000 ans d'imaginaire japonais' qui se tient du 22 novembre 2023 au 25 mars 2024 au musée Guimet, le musée national des arts asiatiques ! Au cœur de l'Histoire vous fait la visite ! Partez à la découverte de l'art japonais du tissage de la soie et des liens qu'il a permis de tisser avec la France en écoutant l'entretien entre Virginie Girod et Aurélie Samuel, la commissaire de l'exposition.> À l'occasion de l'exposition 'À la cour du Prince Genji, 1000 ans d'imaginaire japonais' qui se tient du 22 novembre 2023 jusqu'au 25 mars 2024 au musée Guimet à Paris , Virginie Girod vous propose une excursion japonaise au cœur de l'histoire. Itarô Yamaguchi est un maître tisserand qui a fait ses armes dans le quartier de Nishijin à Kyoto, très réputé pour ses productions textiles. Elles ont la particularité de tisser la soie en insérant des feuilles de papier doré ou argenté pour donner du relief et rigidifier le tissu. Alors que le secteur est en difficulté, le Japon s'ouvre au monde à partir de 1868 : c'est l'ère Meiji. 'Les Européens vont arriver au Japon, les Japonais vont venir en France. Trois japonais de Kyoto arrivent à Lyon et apprennent à tisser à la mécanique Jacquard', raconte Aurélie Samuel. Fonctionnant grâce à un système de cartes perforées, ils sont bien moins coûteux que les anciens métiers à la tire et leur déploiement au Japon va redynamiser l'industrie textile à Nishijin.Pour réaliser son chef d'œuvre, Itarô Yamaguchi va jusqu'à perfectionner le métier Jacquard pour réaliser ses tissus sophistiqués, 'des étoffes façonnés'. Il a déjà 70 ans lorsqu'il se lance dans l'illustration du Dit du Genji. Ce monument de la littérature japonaise, considéré comme le premier roman psychologique de l'histoire, a été écrit au XIe siècle. C'est la période Heian qui correspond à 'l'avènement d'une culture spécifiquement japonaise, il faut savoir que jusqu'à lors c'est essentiellement l'influence chinoise en fait qui dominait la culture japonaise', précise Aurélie Samuel.'Dès le XIIe siècle, le Dit a été illustré par des artistes : peintres, sculpteurs, laqueurs, considéré comme un trésor national. Lorsqu'au XXe siècle, Itarô Yamaguchi décide de livrer un chef-d'œuvre digne de ce nom sur l'art du tissage, pour montrer qu'il s'agit d'un art majeur, il décide de reproduire ces peintures. Ce n'est pas une copie, c'est un vrai travail historique'. C'est aussi un travail monumental qui demandera plus de trente ans. Aurélie Samuel détaille : 'il va teindre jusqu'à 14 fois le même fil pour avoir toutes les subtilités de la teinture qui vont accrocher la lumière d'une manière différente à chaque fois'. Ces rouleaux, Itarô Yamaguchi va les offrir à la France. 'Justement parce que c'est la patrie de Joseph-Marie Jacquard. Le métier Jacquard a totalement sauvé l'industrie Nishijin, dont lui-même fait partie, il a voulu remercier la France !'.Thèmes abordés : tissage peinture japon soie 'Au cœur de l'histoire' est un podcast Europe 1 Studio- Présentation : Virginie Girod - Production : Camille Bichler et Nathan Laporte- Réalisation : Pierre Cazalot- Composition de la musique originale : Julien Tharaud - Rédaction et Diffusion : Nathan Laporte- Communication : Kelly Decroix- Visuel : Sidonie Mangin

Découvrez l'abonnement "Au Coeur de l'Histoire +" et accédez à des heures de programmes, des archives inédites, des épisodes en avant-première et une sélection d'épisodes sur des grandes thématiques. Profitez de cette offre sur Apple Podcasts dès aujourd'hui ! Connaissez-vous Murasaki Shikibu ? Elle est l'auteure de la saga littéraire du Le Dit du Genji. Monument de la littérature japonaise, ce roman de plus d'un millier de pages raconte l'ascension et les passions amoureuses d'un prince impérial. Murasaki Shikibu a elle-même vécu à la cour impériale japonaise à son apogée, durant la période Heian, qui s'étend du VIIIe au XIIe siècle.> À l'occasion de l'exposition 'À la cour du Prince Genji, 1000 ans d'imaginaire japonais' qui se tient du 22 novembre 2023 jusqu'au 25 mars 2024 au musée Guimet à Paris , Virginie Girod vous propose une excursion japonaise au cœur de l'histoire. L'histoire de la femme de lettres Murasaki Shikibu commence dans 'un monde au-dessus des nuages', le monde de la cour impériale dans le Japon de l'époque Heian. Sous l'influence de la Chine, le Japon se réforme et connaît une période de prospérité, ce qui favorise les arts et les lettres. La capitale est déplacée à Heian-Kyô, l'actuel Kyôto, et une famille en particulier s'impose dans les plus hautes sphères du pouvoir : le clan Fujiwara. Murasaki Shikibu naît pendant cet âge d'or. Elle appartient à la noblesse moyenne, sans doute une branche cadette du clan Fujiwara. Brillante, elle maîtrise le chinois dont l'apprentissage est alors réservé aux garçons. Sa réputation de jeune fille savante a déjà fait le tour de Kyôto : autour des années 1000, l'homme le plus puissant de son clan, le ministre Fujiwara no Michinaga, lui propose de devenir dame de compagnie de sa fille, la toute jeune impératrice Shōshi. C'est là qu'elle se consacre à la rédaction de son chef-d'œuvre, Genji monogatari, Le Dit du Genji. Riche de 54 livres, de plus de 1000 pages et de 500 personnages, cette grande fresque qui se veut réaliste raconte la vie du Genji, qui désigne un fils d'empereur ne pouvant pas prétendre au trône. Le Dit du Genji est considéré comme le premier roman psychologique de l'histoire. Pour l'écrire, Murasaki Shikibu s'inspire des aristocrates qu'elle côtoie à la cour, où ses livres rencontrent un vif succès. Murasaki Shikibu meurt vers l'âge de 38 ans, on ignore la cause de son décès. Son Genji Monogatari devient immédiatement un classique. Les manuscrits sont sans cesse recopiés, puis imprimés. Ils sont encore aujourd'hui à la base de la culture littéraire nippone et inspirent de nombreux artistes dans tous les domaines, jusqu'aux mangas pour les adaptations les plus récentes. Thèmes abordés : Japon, littérature, Dit du Genji, cour impériale 'Au cœur de l'histoire' est un podcast Europe 1 Studio- Présentation : Virginie Girod - Production : Camille Bichler - Réalisation : Pierre Cazalot- Composition de la musique originale : Julien Tharaud - Rédaction et Diffusion : Nathan Laporte- Communication : Kelly Decroix- Visuel : Sidonie Mangin Sources : Ressources en ligne : https://histoiredujapon.com/2021/01/26/reperes-epoque-heian/ https://www.persee.fr/doc/dhjap_0000-0000_1989_dic_15_1_926_t1_0008_0000_4 Bibliographie : Daniel Struve, Sumie Terada et Christopher Lucken (dir.), « Roman du Genji et société aristocratique du Japon ancien », Médiévales, 72, Printemps 2017, 190 p.

Recorded by Genji Amino for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on September 28, 2023. www.poets.org

I interviewed Meta XR producer Ryan Genji Thomas at Venice Immersive 2023. Check out all of the Quill pieces, narrative apps, and Horizon worlds that Ryan has produced down below and check out more context in the rough transcript below as well. Narrative animation experiencesYearTitleStudio/Creator2019The RemedyDaniel Martin Peixe2020Tales from Soda Island - Chapter 1: The Multiverse BakeryStudio Syro2020The ReservoirMaiden InteractiveRic Carrasquillo2020Cube Farm (ep 1)Two Trick PonyDir. Tory Stanton, Scott McCabe2020Cube Farm (ep 2)Two Trick PonyDir. Tory Stanton, Scott McCabe2020Cube Farm (ep 3)Two Trick PonyDir. Tory Stanton, Scott McCabe2020Tales from Soda Island - Chapter 2: The Neon JungleStudio Syro2020Goodbye Mr. OctopusAtlas V x Studio GepettoDir. Amaury Campion2020The BeastBlue Zoo AnimationDir. Grant Berry, Dave Winn2020Lifetime AchievementParade AnimationDir. Yonatan Tal2020Four StoriesNick Ladd2020Tales from Soda Island - Chapter 3: The Quantum RaceStudio Syro2021Peace of MindBlue Zoo AnimationDir. Ben Steer2021Kteer TayyebSamia Khalaf2021Tales from Soda Island - Chapter 4: The Golden RecordStudio Syro2021RebelsFederico Moreno Breser2021NightMara Ep.1So Meta StudiosDir. Gianpaolo Gonzalez2021_HELLOSamuel Klughertz, Nicolas Capitane2021Tales from Soda Island - Chapter 5: The School TripStudio Syro2021NamooBaobab StudiosDir. Eric Oh2022Lustration Ep.1New CanvasDir. Ryan Griffen2022Lustration Ep.2New CanvasDir. Ryan Griffen2022Lustration Ep.3New CanvasDir. Ryan Griffen2022Lustration Ep.4New CanvasDir. Ryan Griffen2022Mescaform HillEdward Madojemu2022NightMara Ep.2So Meta StudiosDir. Gianpaolo Gonzalez2022Tales from Soda Island - Chapter 6: SilenceStudio Syro2022Tales from Soda Island - Chapter 7: The First IngredientStudio Syro2023ReImagined - Volume I: NyssaVery CavaliereDir. Julie Cavaliere2023ReImagined - Volume II: MahalVery CavaliereDir. Michaela Ternasky Holland NARRATIVE APPSYearTitleCreator(s)2017Dear AngelicaOculus Story StudioDir. Saschka Unseld2017Baba YagaBaobab StudiosDir. Eric Darnell2023Wallace & Gromit in "The Grand Getaway"Atlas V x AardmanDir. Finbar Hawkins, Bram Ttwheam2023(confidential)(confidential) HORIZON WORLDSYearTitle2022Creepy Cabin2022Dead End Drive-In2022Neon Arena2022Shaqtacular Spectacular2023(confidential)2023(confidential)2023(confidential) This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

Did you know that a woman wrote the very first novel ever? (We didn't!) In this week's mini, we learn more about Murasaki Shikibu's master work “The Tale of Genji.” The novel's blend of passion, intrigue, and psychological depth has earned this ancient Japanese work comparisons to modern sensations like "Sex in the City" and "50 Shades of Grey," while also drawing parallels to the literary genius of Proust. In this episode: Murasaki Shikibu: Japanese author of "The Tale of Genji”Eleanor of AquitaneHenry VIII"Sex and the City""50 Shades of Grey"Marcel Proust"Six” (musical)Elizabeth Smart: Canadian-born author of "By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept""The Sopranos" (TV series) Virginia WoolfTyler Translation: Recommended English translation of "The Tale of Genji"For episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.com Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Follow Kim on twitter @kaskew. Sign up for our newsletter: LostLadiesofLit.com Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast

Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga was a samurai who led a diplomatic delegation to New Spain, Spain and Rome in the 17th century. But many of the Japanese records about their mission were lost or destroyed after they returned. Research: Carl, Katy. “Aiming for Japan and Getting Heaven Thrown In.” Genealogies of Modernity. 12/2/2020. https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/journal/2020/11/25/scales-of-value-shusaku-endos-the-samurai Christensen, Thomas. “1616: The World in Motion.” Counterpoint. 2012. https://archive.org/details/1616worldinmotio0000chri/ Corradini, Piero. “Some Problems concerning Hasekura Tsunenaga's Embassy to the Pope." From Rethinking Japan Vol. 2. Routledge. 1995. Frederic, Louis. “Japan Encyclopedia.” Translated by Käthe Roth. 2002. https://archive.org/details/japanencyclopedi0000loui/mode/1up Fujikawa, Mayu. “Pope Paul V's global design.” Renaissance Studies, APRIL 2016, Vol. 30, No. 2 (APRIL 2016). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26618847 Gessel, Van C. “Historical Background.” From The Samurai by Shusaku Endo. Gutierrez, Ed. “Samurai in Spain.” Japan Quarterly, Jan. 1, 2000. Jones, Josh. “The 17th Century Japanese Samurai Who Sailed to Europe, Met the Pope & Became a Roman Citizen.” Open Culture. 11/29/2021. https://www.openculture.com/2021/11/the-17th-century-japanese-samurai-who-sailed-to-europe-met-the-pope-became-a-roman-citizen.html Kamens, Edward. “'The Tale of Genji' and ‘Yashima' Screens in Local and Global Contexts.” Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin , 2007, Japanese Art at Yale (2007). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40514681 KCP International. “Hasekura Tsunenaga and his Travels.” KCP International Japanese Language School. 9/6/2017. https://www.kcpinternational.com/2017/09/hasekura-tsunenaga-and-his-travels/ Lee, Christina H. “The Perception of the Japanese in Early Modern Spain: Not Quite ‘The Best People Yet Discovered'.” eHumanista: Volume 11, 2008. Massarella, Derek. “The Japanese Embassy to Europe (1582–1590).” The Japanese Embassy to Europe (1582–1590). February 2013. https://www.hakluyt.com/downloadable_files/Journal/Massarella.pdf Mathes, W. Michael. “A Quarter Century of Trans-Pacific Diplomacy: New Spain and Japan, 1592-1617.” Journal of Asian History , 1990, Vol. 24, No. 1 (1990). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41925377 Musillo, Marco. “The Borghese papacy's reception of a samurai delegation and its fresco image at Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome.” From Western visions of the Far East in a transpacific age, 1522-1657. Ashgate, 2012. Pasciuto, Greg. “Hasekura Tsunenaga: The Adventures of a Christian Samurai.” The Collector. 12/7/2022. https://www.thecollector.com/hasekura-tsunenaga-christian-samurai/ Sanabrais, Sofia. “'Spaniards of Asia': The Japanese Presence in Colonial Mexico.” Bulletin of Portuguese Japanese Studies. 2009, 18/19. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/361/36129851009.pdf Shigemi, Inaga. “Japanese Encounters with Latin America and Iberian Catholicism (1549–1973): Some Thoughts on Language, Imperialism, Identity Formation, and Comparative Research.” The Comparatist, Vol. 32 (MAY 2008). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26237176 Strusiewicz, Cezary Jan. “The Samurai Who Met the Pope.” Tokyo Weekender. 4/26/2021. https://www.tokyoweekender.com/art_and_culture/japanese-culture/the-samurai-who-met-the-pope/ Theroux, Marcel. “The samurai who charmed the courts of Europe.” The Guardian. 6/7/2020. https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/jun/07/hasekura-rokuemon-tsunenaga-japan-samurai-charmed-courts-europe Tucci, Giuseppe. “Japanese Ambassadors as Roman Patricians.” East and West , JULY 1951, Vol. 2, No. 2. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/29757935 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are you a lover of long fiction novels? Well, did you know that you have Lady Murasaki to thank for starting the trend? Often known as Murasaki Shikibu, the lady of the chronicles was born in a time and place in Medieval Japan when the lady's court was so secluded. If it wasn't for her novel (Tale of Genji) and collections of poetry, we might have never known the intricate ins and outs of the Japanese court! We pair this girl with a sake-flavored mimosa and a whole lot of laughs. The story really starts at 4:30Some sourceshttps://libraryguides.bennington.edu/courtly/shikibuhttps://www.nippon.com/en/views/b09002/https://www.nancyduong.com/portfolio/junihitoe/Want more Queens? Head to our Patreon, check out our merch store and follow us on Instagram!Our awesome new intro music is thanks to @1touchproduction !Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/queenshistorypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.