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sevault-canyon · 2 years ago

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ms appleton was nowhere close to having total control over soy sauce: perspectives on food and postwar japan

there's a popular post going around this month by @inneskeeper about how a single person changed japanese soy sauce forever. i've made my own post showing why this the story is incomplete and based on some factual inaccuracies, but i will be honest in saying that i would not be so engaged in responding to this post if it were not wrapped in a shockingly reductive narrative. i'll use this quote from op as a summary of the general idea they're trying to convey:

[...] I think that it is incredibly important that more people in the world are aware that leading into the Cold War, Japan was forcibly coerced into giving total power over a significant cultural touchstone/ingredient/way of life to a single foreigner who had a complete lack of respect for what shoyu is, even going so far as to say "I want to change Japan's taste preferences". I cannot imagine a more direct and blunt parallel to settler-colonialism mindset. I truly cannot. [link]

i will attempt give a larger view of that era and convey why this singular view is at best oversimplifying and at worst an incorrect projection of other trends upon what is an almost unique event in history.

note: i am not an academic historian; i will do my best to provide sources, but they will mostly be secondary.

i will use the three i's presented by prof. ian shapiro of yale, interests, institutions, and ideals, as lenses through which i will provide a more holistic view of the events at hand:

tl;dr:

the united states did not have uniform interests entering the cold war and the occupiers had a varying set of visions for japanese society and economy.

both the japanese public, the american occupation, and the japanese civil government had a more important goal: preventing hunger. japan was not coerced into handing over a tradition; it was suffering the consequences of its own colonial empire-building.

both countries were interested in building a healthy consumer economy, and ultimately the tastes of the public held most sway.

the idea of "a guy" being in charge of things has been a common theme in american foreign policy, but the idea that "the guy" was singularly responsible for massive change belies american perspectives and biases that often misrepresent the truth abroad.

i - ideals

i think this lens is maybe the most sympathetic to @inneskeeper's narrative: it makes sense that a settler-colonial nation with a deep root of anglo-protestant self-righteousness and evangelical tendencies would want to impose its vision of society upon a defeated foe. that said, it is not the only ideology at play in this situation, from both japan and the usa.

let's talk about main value the united states likes to impose upon foreign societies: democracy capitalism. i think what is interesting here is that this single word can have multiple interpretations in practice, and we can use this soy sauce story to look at the diversity in opinion of what capitalism means.

first, a capitalism tied to liberal ideals: a free and open market without monopolies as a promoter of egalitarianism. this concept was brought to japan by many of the administrators in the american occupation that have previously observed or enacted roosevelt's new deal in the aftermath of the great depression. [1, p.57-58; 2, p.98] we see a focus on trust-busting and a strong aversion to any significantly concentrated capital. pre-war japan was dominated by structures known as 財閥 zaibatsu, vertically integrated groups that are helmed by a family-controlled holding company owning a set of subsidiaries in banking and industry with interlocking stock ownership and directorship. the zaibatsu structures, emerging since the late edo and early meiji periods, have become inextricably linked to building the japanese imperial war machine (though somewhat forcibly). [3] on the american side, as a result, certain american elements viewed trust-busting as a way to democratize japan through the economy. [2, p.34; 4, p.19; 5, IV-2b] this included maj. gen. marquat, ms. appleton's boss at the ghq/scap economic and scientific section (ess). [4, p.31] japan's first postwar prime minister, shigeru yoshida, and his ministry of foreign affairs, seemed to agree with the deconcentration of capital. [4, p.20] this is not to say that the americans were particularly sympathetic, as gen. macarthur and others were quite convinced of the japanese population's inability to shed its feudal tendencies; rather, the americans found an opportunity to build a new liberal, democratic society to their liking. and yes, there was some punitive intent; the united states and allies did just finish fighting an 8-year-long war against an expanding empire. [4, p.30]

opposite the liberal view is the conservative, if not pragmatic, ideal of capitalism: as a bulwark against communism. japan was an industrialized nation with a developed economy, and as far as the looming cold war is involved, the united states wants both a healthy consumer economy and one that is integrated in the new world economy (i.e. one with american interests as stakeholders). [4, p.31-32, 44] if "deconcentration" of capital, as it was called by the occupiers, were to run its course, some americans (and lobbyists linked to japanese industry) feared that japanese society would be thrown into chaos, or worse, the rapprochement with the soviets under a socialist economy. [4, p.22, 32] the victors did initially break up many of the tightly-woven zaibatsu, but the overall health of the economy was eventually prioritized as a bulwark against communism, thus the number of zaibatsu slated for dismantling was reduced, and the main deconcentration proposal (FEC-230) was disavowed. [4, p. 32]

all this debate within the american occupation, plus some interjections from the japanese business community, about the nature of the rebuilding japanese market and economy was held from 1946 to 1948. this culminated in the "reverse course," in which cold war objectives won out in occupation policy, though the free market as a liberalizing principle was not discarded. [4, p.44-46] in the same space, there existed both a punitive drive to disperse the old japanese economic engine and a desire to build a new, genuinely local, consumer society as a protection against communism.

“Nothing will serve better to win the Japanese people over to a peaceful, democratic way of life than the discovery that it brings rewards in the way of better living and increasing economic security.” - col. r.m. cheseldine, u.s. war department [4, p.44]

it is important to distinguish this from the colonialist drive, which is to capture markets and resources for the sole benefit of the homeland.

in the context of soy sauce, the release by ghq/scap of american soybeans to japan was announced in 1948, after the reverse course has taken hold. [6, p.157] in addition, kikkoman was not even a zaibatsu, it was a company with roots in family ownership, vertically-integrated structures, and eventually found to engage in monopolistic practices, but was not of a large enough scale or diversification to qualify. [7, ch.3] the list of zaibatsu is actually quite limited. [wiki] all this meant that the anti-trust case brought against noda shōyu k.k. (kikkoman's predecessor) in 1954 in the tokyo high court is an entirely domestic affair (scap handed over power in 1949 and the position was abolished in 1952). [8, p.53] that said, the 1957 ruling against noda in noda shōyu k.k. v. japan fair trade commission (jftc) was the result of an aberrant and unfavourable reading of the act on prohibition of private monopolization and maintenance of fair trade, article 3; the act was passed in 1947, when scap was in power. [8, p.53] since article 3 is quite short ("an enterprise must not effect private monopolization or unreasonable restraint of trade."), it was open to wide interpretation, leading to the argument by the jftc that price-fixing as a leading player in an industry constituted monopolistic behaviour. [9] in that sense, we can see echoes of the debate around monopolies from the occupation era.

through the lens of ideals, we can see that in the periphery of this story, there is a friction between competing visions of capitalism in practice. in that sense, while it agrees that the usa had some desire to reshape a foreign country to its own ideals, it also shows how @inneskeeper's narrative unduly reduces the american occupation to a singular actor with singular motives, and one that is akin to colonial empires in other parts of history.

research questions:

did american attitudes towards monopolies affect the free distribution of semichemical fermentation methods? [6, p.160]

what direct links can we make between occupation-era attitudes towards monopolization and japanese governance regarding the food industry?

ii - institutions

from the point of view of institutions (i use the term loosely), it's a lot more apparent how the situation has a lot more factors flowing in many directions. i will largely focus on three structures: the japanese food industry, the allied victors, and the japanese civil government.

when discussing the food industry, it's important to note that this is what sustains the inhabitants of a place; while condiments are a trivial part of sustenance, the way it is made and its ebbs and flows and shed a lot of light onto the needs of people. japan, since the early 20th century, had been a country that could not sustain itself off the resources of its home islands. as a colonial empire, it relied on food imports from korea and taiwan, and in the 20s and 30s pursued the low-lying plains of manchuria (northeastern china). this reflects in its soybean consumption as well: japan consumed about 1 million tons of soy each year in the 1930s, and at least two-thirds of it was imported from the colonies or manchukuo (the puppet régime ruling machuria). [10] within what we now call the "home islands" of japan, hokkaido, the one remaining settler-colony of japan to this day, produces the most out of all regions. [11, p.4]

(time for some math: [10] states that about 949 000 tons of soy sauce was consumed in japan per year in the mid-1930s. a quick look at soy sauce recipes reveals that 1kg of soy produces about 4 litres (and assuming about 4kg due to density of water) of sauce. with the 4:1 ratio, we can therefore estimate that about 237 000 tons of soy was used per year to make sauce immediately before the war.)

the end of the japanese empire meant losing direct access to those production areas: manchuria was returned to china, and korea and taiwan were placed under various allied (usa, china, ussr) administrations. with japan needing to supply its troops over an ever-growing front line, caloric intake by the average japanese already dropped well below necessary levels for an adult by 1944. [12] by 1946, the defeated nation was at the brink of starvation. american analysis towards the end of wwii determined that soybean production in the home islands could not rise beyond its pre-war levels without sacrificing other land use. [11, p.5] in order to survive, the soy industry needed to replace about 70% of its sources in short order without encroaching upon other agricultural sectors necessary to sustain life. there was immense pressure.

regarding the allies: the japanese empire was largely carved up by three victors, china, the ussr, and the usa. the ussr, having been the least active in the defeat of japan, with its most important contribution being the verbal threat of invasion, was not actively threatening aside from the spectre of spreading communism (as mentioned in part i). china, on the other hand, regained the lands that produced much of the food japan was consuming. while the republic of china (ruled by the kmt) was still in power, it was able to continue supplying food to neighbouring nations. [14] however, civil war broke out between the kmt government and the communists almost immediately after the end of wwii. [13] 1948 saw active fighting in northern china, thus hampering any exports of food; the kmt régime collapsed and fled to taiwan in 1949, and the communist government stopped all trade with the western bloc at the outbreak of the korean war in 1950. [14] with china being unable to supply japan, there is only one remaining option for food imports: the usa. soybean imports in the usa was generally coordinated by the garioa program and through private trade. american exports of soybean to japan skyrocketed from 6000 tons in 1946 and 34600 tons in 1947 to 119500 tons (about 12% of pre-war consumption) in 1948, 152500 tons in 1949 (almost all imports to japan that year), and 305000 tons in 1950. [15, p.67, 69] japan itself likely produced between 300 000 and 450 000 tons of soybeans each year, which meant that in 1947-48 japan was consuming definitively less than two-thirds of its pre-war consumption. the soy industry as a whole, and certainly the soy sauce industry, was in a desperate state.

unlike the collapsed german and italian régimes, the japanese government retained a functioning structure after the rapid end to hostilities in the pacific theatre. [16, p.194] this meant that instead of being tasked with the groundwork of running a country, the allied powers had an existing civil government to administer directives and policies; the u.s. eighth army served as an enforcement and reporting arm of scap. [16, p.195-197] during the war, from 1939 to 1942, the imperial government instituted various food control laws that collected and distributed food from producers under a quota system. [17, p.221] such quotas, as as well as rationing, persisted in the immediate months after allied victory. however, with the surrender of japan, public confidence in the government plummeted, significantly hampering its ability to administer food. the average caloric value of rations in tokyo could only fulfill about a third of an adult's needs; hungry city-dwellers increasingly opted to buy on the black market (which had poached imperial military stock) or physically go to the countryside to acquire food directly from farmers outside of government rationing. [18, p.30-31; 19, p.835, 843] scap policy directed the japanese government to "reinstate" agricultural quotas, and in 1946, it issued the emergency imperial food ordinance which empowered government expropriation of food for the production quota and enforcement of such policies; the u.s. eighth army participated in enforcing the policy within the civil administration. [17; 18] the yoshida government,the first democratically elected administration in the new state of japan, was keenly aware of the necessity of food in rehabilitating japan, as well as the importance of competing against the black market in order to once again establish the rule of law. [18] as such, the tight government control of domestic food production lasted much longer than in other industries, causing pressure for "non-essential" segments like the seasoning industry.

(as an aside, in line with certain ideas discussed in part i, scap directed land reform which redistributed much of the arable land in japan, increasing productivity of land and eliminating the interest of large landowners thought to be threatening to democracy. [18])

as discussed in my previous post, chemical alternatives to fermented soy sauce have been developed since the early 20th century. [6] during the war, substitute methods (especially amino acid-based ones, e.g. hvp or mixed hvp-honjozo) replaced fermented honjozo* methods as resources became more scarce. [20]

*honjōzō (本醸造) means "genuinely fermented".

in early 1948, it was announced that 20 000 tons of soybean meal would be made available by the eroa fund for the purpose of making seasonings, to be allocated by ms appleton at ghq/scap. [14; 6, p.159] this amount is only about 10% of the soybean consumption of soy sauce manufacturers before the war. on the surface, for an industry marginalized by the need to stave off starvation and maintain social stability, securing the imported soybean meal can be seen as a life-or-death situation. however, given the wartime state of sauce production, the struggle to acquire the soybean meal is more akin to an attempt to return to fully soy-based fermentation methods. the invention of the semichemical #2 method which increased soy usage productivity and secured most of the soybean meal for the soy sauce industry can be seen as a faster intermediate step to return to traditional fermented methods used before the war. it's also important to note that over 80% of soy sauce in japan has returned to traditional honjozo production, and that large companies such as kikkoman and yamasa have attempted to return to honjozo methods as early as the late 1950s. [20]

from this point of view, it does not seem particularly apparent that a single administrator had the power to change an industry, but rather her decisions were the impetus for developments to happen within the domestic industry. ultimately, japan's soy sauce industry was suffering the consequences of its industrialization and the failure of its colonial experiment. in a wider view, we can see this as a detail in the friction between two imperial projects. (consider this: out of the major parties involved, japan, china, usa, ussr, and other minor players in the pacific war, gb, netherlands, france, all of them entered the 20th century with imperial projects.)

research questions:

are there japanese sources that can verify production and imports during the 1940s?

there was a soy sauce control corporation formed by the imperial government in 1942 (全国醤油統制株式会社) that dictated resource allocation and quotas for the soy sauce industry. it seemed to have only been dissolved in 1948. what was its role after the war and what relationship did it have with scap?

iii - interests

as for interests, i will limit its scope to answering "who materially benefits." the groups at play are generally the same as the previous part, so i will be brief in elaboration.

the most obvious interest is that of the japanese public: their main material benefit in the late 1940s is to be nourished enough to stay alive (see part ii). while soy sauce is an important part of japanese cuisine, as a condiment, it is a nutritionally trivial part of its diet. it is then understandable, that japanese society and scap would be willing to temporarily sacrifice an immediate return to traditional production in favour of methods that would leave more food for direct consumption.

the next interest to discuss is that of the soy sauce industry, and its desire to return to honjozo (traditionally fermented) production after a period of scarcity during and after the war. it is important to note that regarding the 20 000 tons of soybean meal to be allocated by scap in 1948, the competitor to the soy sauce industry for those resources is the amino acid industry (msg, etc.). [6, p.159] with soybeans hard to come by, the soy sauce industry would have been under immense pressure to aquire the soybean meal distributed as aid. with kikkoman's development of semichemical #2 method, the scap decisionmakers reconsidered an earlier uneven distribution of soybean meal in favour of the amino acid producers. [6, p.160] what resulted next was talk between representatives of the two competing industries, facilitated by the americans. [6, p.160] it is important that taste trials were conducted, with wide support for the new semi-chemical method by the polled public. [6, p.160] at every step of the decision-making process, japanese interests were consulted by scap.

it is also important to mention the "japan lobby" in washington a set of interest groups and lobbyists representing japanese business as to illustrate the bidirectionality of influence in postwar japan. [21] this group arose from the aftermath of the first zaibatsu dissolutions. some key achievements of their advocacy activities include the disavowal of the fec-230 policy proposal from the allied powers (against gen. macarthur's wishes!), and adding revisions to scap's economic deconcentration program. it is plausible that this lobbying set had influence with scap and washington regarding soy sauce, given the tight-knit nature of the japanese business class. that said, the direct link between the japan lobby and soy sauce, should it exist, necessitates further research.

i think it is necessary to analyze from the lens of interests @inneskeeper's claim of the united states occupation forcibly seizing and making changes to a traditional food industry. it is known that the united states seeks to build a strong consumer economy that is open to american investment and imports of american products. [18, p.40] given that the soybean meal managed by scap in 1948 was aid, it would've been in the american interest to support either industry, since they would both eventually rely on american imports once the period of scarcity ends (china would soon cease ot be a reliable exporter of food). there is nothing related to soy sauce that would've been against american interests, business or political, whereas food scarcity has been a real problem facing the japanese and allied administration. in this case, the chief american interest is to stabilize japan as a society against two perceived social enemies: communism on the left and a renewed militarism borne of resentment on the right. with the task of placating a hungry and defeated populace, producing large amounts of soy sauce that is palatable to the public using minimal aid material would be an interest in and of itself for the americans. i think it could be argued whether comments made by americans about how easily japanese tastes can be swayed are insensitive and out of line, but it is also true that the public had much more pressing needs than condiment purity.

@inneskeeper also mentioned the yakuza in some of their posts as a possible interest group involved. the informal economy grew to encompass all strata near the end of the war and immediately afterwards; most urbanites were forced to use the black market to stave off hunger. [19] the yakuza, mafia-like organizations that would operate somewhat openly in the decades before the war, entered the fray as groups that managed informal vendors. [22, p.632] racketeering became rampant in the years immediately after japanese surrender due to shortages and irregular flows of necessities such as food, but as the economy recovered entering the 1950s, the yakuza moved to more conventional underworld enterprises such as as gambling, prostitution, and nightlife. [22, 23] it also moved towards the underbelly of political life, becoming an actor in anti-left politics. [22] we know that the changes to soy sauce production happened in the small window between the end of the war and the earnest start of economic recovery, so it is possible that parties involved would have to deal with the yakuza as a necessary source of material. however, since their sights are set on the industries traditionally associated with the underworld, it would be a stretch to say that they had any real say in the proceedings of this development beyond being one additional obstacle to the soy sauce industry in acquiring ingredients. that said, using a singular product can be very useful as a window into how the yakuza may have coerced informal food distribution channels.

research questions:

what specific outcomes were agreed upon at the "shoda-ouchi conference" between the soy sauce and amino acid manufacturing industries? [6, p.160]

how did the japan lobby affect or facilitate changes in the soy sauce industry?

how did the yakuza affect the informal food economy?

iv - individuals

one thing that made the original story by @inneskeeper so appealing to the tumblr public is the proposition that a single person may have changed japanese soy sauce forever.

it bears repeating that major industrial changes (and i would challenge the categorization of this soy sauce happening as "major" in comparison to the general state of japan in the 1940s) are often the culmination of many small decisions from a wide set of actors. what is interesting about the idea of a singular "manipulator" is that it mirrors a common trope in american foreign policy: the idea of "our guy" (e.g. "our guy in afghanistan" [24, p.277], "our guy in panama" [25], etc.), that is, a singular handler for american interests in a foreign theatre of operations. in this case, since the country at hand is managed by an american occupation, "our guy" in the japanese soy sauce industry is an american, ms. blanche appleton. while american policy sometimes prefers to use this paradigm, it does not necessarily mean it works, not is the wishful american imagination correct when it comes to situations on the ground (see citations above). this trope may also possibly be borne of the oft-cited concept of "american individualism," a value that is as much a contradiction (how can a single person be free to change the world as they see fit, while also live in a world free from the will of others?) as it is a real part of american culture.

in the faulty narrative of ms. appleton, we also see a similar contradiction: how can a foreign woman who is allegedly willingly unfamiliar (as it turns out, probably not true [6, p.160]) with the native culture be in total control of an entire element of its cuisine? what is the meaning of "total power": did she personally decide taste profile of the condiment to her tastes, coerce various native parties to the will of the americans (what will?), or facilitate the solution to a complex resource distribution problem? in any case (except the fancifully implausible first case), what is the singular role of ms appleton? did power flow from her, or through her? perhaps a more interesting way to look at this problem is to ask what would have happened if someone else were in ms. appleton's place. would their personal influence be significant enough as to change the outcome? if so, what would have been the extent of the changes? (we can maybe look at the facilitation of the "shoda-ouchi conference" as one point. [6, p.160]) conversely, what would have remained the same as the various parties involved influenced the situation?

a more helpful view is to see the balance between the ideas, institutions, and interests behind each decision that would paint a more complete picture of this historical era. perhaps it is not as flashy to break down a chapter in culinary history as the convergence of multiple influences, but it is the one that does history most justice.

discussion questions

this is for the test

how significant was the dearth of food in late 1940s japan to this situation, and what similar adaptations of food cultures occurred in other post-wwii nations?

what factors from imperial japan, whether before the sino-japanese war or during the war, influenced this situation?

is there any part of this development that forshadows the economic rehabilitation and subsequent growth of japan in the latter half of the 20th century? if so, how?

what american attitudes were at play in this situation, and what japanese attitudes (if you're familiar) were involved as well?

what influence did china, as the originator of soy sauce, a major source of food in east asia, and a significant allied power, have on postwar japan and how did it influence the development of the japanese variants of soy sauce?

what was the influence of the japanese public's tastes?

bibliography:

apologies for the weird mix of ieee inline and mla bibliography formats, ieee works best with hypertext but doesnt make much sense for non-stem subjects.

Allinson, G. D. Japan's postwar history, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004. [link]

Moore, R. A., & D. L. Robinson. Partners for Democracy : Crafting the New Japanese State under MacArthur, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2002. [avail. at libraries]

Okazaki, T. “The Japanese Firm Under the Wartime Planned Economy,” in The Japanese Firm: Sources of Competitive Strength, edited by M. Aoki and R. Dore, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1994. [link, requires academic access]

Sugita, Y. Pitfall or panacea : the irony of US power in occupied Japan 1945-1952, New York: Routledge, 2003. [avail. at libraries]

State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee. United States Initial Post-Surrender Policy for Japan (SWNCC150/4), 1945. [link]

Oguri, T. "醤油製造技術の系統化調査 Development of Soy sauce Manufacturing Technologies" in 国立科学博物館技術の系統化調査報告, Tokyo: National Museum of Nature and Science, 2008. [link; translation of excerpts in an earlier post]

Fruin, W. M. The Japanese Enterprise System: Competitive Strategies and Cooperative Structures, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1994. [link]

Haley, J. O. "Marketing and Antitrust in Japan" in Hastings Int'l & Comp.L. Rev. 51 Vol. 2 No. 1, San Francisco: UC Hastings Law, 1979. [link]

Japan, National Diet. Act on Prohibition of Private Monopolization and Maintenance of Fair Trade (Act No. 54 of April 14, 1947), Tokyo: National Diet, 14 Apr. 1947 [link]

Nakamura, H. "The Japanese Soybean Market" in Illinois Agricultural Economics Vol. 1, No. 2, Milwaukee, WI: Agricultural & Applied Economics Association, 1961. [link]

United States of America, Tariff Commission. Japanese trade studies : special industry analysis no. 13, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1944-45. [link]

United States of America, Strategic Bombing Survey. Summary Report (Pacific War), Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1946. [link]

Crisis, Time, 1944. [link]

Hirano, M. "Using American Soybeans in the Japanese Economy" in The Soybean Digest Vol. 12 Iss. 11, Cleveland, OH: Penton, 1952. [link]

United States of America, Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service. United States Farm Products In Foreign Trade, Statistical Bulletin No. 112, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1953. [link]

General Staff of Gen. D. MacArthur. Reports of General MacArthur - MacArthur in Japan: The Occupation: Military Phase Volume I Supplement, Washington, DC: Center for Military History, 1966, reprinted 1994. [link]

Smith, H.F. (Chief, Food Branch, Price and Distribution Division, ESS, SCAP) "Food Controls in Occupied Japan" in Agricultural History Vol. 23, No. 3, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1949 [link]

Fuchs, S. J. "Feeding the Japanese: Food policy, land reform, and Japan’s economic recovery" in Democracy in Occupied Japan: The U.S. Occupation and Japanese Politics and Society, edited by M. E. Caprio and Y. Sugita, New York: Routledge, 2007. [link]

Griffiths, O. "Need, Greed, and Protest in Japan's Black Market, 1938-1949" in Journal of Social History Vol. 35, No. 4, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2002. [link]

Oya, Y. "みそ製造業の構造変化とその要因" in 食品経済研究第30号 (Bulletin of the Department of Food Economics, Nihon University), Tokyo: Nihon University, 2002. [link]

Schonberger, H. "The Japan Lobby in American Diplomacy, 1947-1952" in Pacific Historical Review Vol. 46, No. 3, Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 1977. [link]

Siniawer, E. M. "Befitting Bedfellows: Yakuza and the State in Modern Japan" in Journal of Social History Vol. 45, No. 3, The Hidden History of Crime, Corruption, and States, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2012. [link]

Hill, P. B. E. The Japanese Mafia: Yakuza, Law, and the State, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2003. [link]

Blaxland, J., M. Fielding, and T. Gellerfy, Niche Wars: Australia in Afghanistan and Iraq, 2001–2014, Canberra: ANU Press, 2020. [link]

Kornheiser, T. "Noriega Our Bountiful Nation" The Washington Post, Dec. 22, 1989. [link]

#the mysterious appearance of miss appleton #voice of the canyon

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whencyclopedia · 7 months ago

Photo

Edo Castle

Edo Castle was a large castle built by the Tokugawa family in 17th-century Japan. It served as their seat of government for more than 260 years. After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Edo became the capital of Japan and was renamed Tokyo. Edo Castle became the residence of the imperial family and was renamed the Imperial Palace.

Background

At the end of the 15th century, the central government in Japan collapsed and the country descended into civil war. The period from 1467 until 1573 is referred to as the Sengoku or Warring States period. During the Sengoku period, rival warlords, called sengoku daimyo by modern historians, competed for power and land. In the 1560s, one of these daimyo called Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), managed to reunify large parts of Japan. In 1582, however, he was assassinated, and the task of reunifying the rest of Japan fell to his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598).

In 1590, Hideyoshi launched a campaign against a rival daimyo family called the Go-Hojo whose base was near the modern city of Odawara in eastern Japan. After the campaign was successfully completed, Hideyoshi offered to reward Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), one of his powerful subordinates, with all the land in the Kanto region. In exchange, however, Ieyasu would have to give up the land he already controlled in central Japan. On the one hand, this was a reward because it would give Ieyasu control over more land, but on the other hand, it would weaken his position because the area was further from the capital of Kyoto and he had no traditional ties there. If he refused, it would also mean war with Hideyoshi.

#History #EdoCastle #EdoPeriod #MeijiRestoration #WHE #[#]

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jibunbosh · 19 days ago

Text

As we all know, the Victorian maid was a staple in the class hierarchy of Heian period Japan. the role has its origins in the Chinese model of rule, and was initially introduced to Japan in the Asuka period through traveling monks from the kingdom of Baekje in the Korean peninsula, alongside other teachings in topics of literacy and governance.

The presence of the maid demarcated the status of a noble - it was oft said that if you did not have a maid, you had nothing worth of value to maintain, materially or otherwise. They served an invaluable role in cementing beliefs of filial piety in the Japanese interior (despite, ironically, existing outside of the familial hierachy by blood), while also serving as a sort of combination servant-warrior class that helped maintain the security of nobles and emperors from would-be assassins or other assailants.

It's a common misconception that these maids themselves served the role of political assassins themselves; while some of these agents may have used the role of a maid as cover, such tasks were never part of the responsibilities of a Heian-era maid, and their natural skill at weaponry alongside a daily regimen of servitude was more naturally acclimated towards taking a defensive station.

The maid class showed a slow decline in the Edo period, as their skills were less needed in a properly unified Japan post-warring states period. However, it wasn't until the Meiji period that the class was formally abolished, alongside the samurai. In modern-day Japan, maids only exist as a ceremonial role without the militaristic connotations the class once had.

#text poast #maidposting #misinformation

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dranosh-haran-of-paleoworld · 9 days ago

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why do you hate itachi so much?

Because he's one of the worst written characters in the entire manga bar, none. The guy is NOT a fucking hero, good guy or anything, he's a bad guy through and through.

This guy willingly betrayed his own people and family, selling them out to the government who wanted to destroy them all. He knew about Obito and that he was behind the 9-Tails attack but said nothing to anyone. He discriminated against his own people and slaughtered them all to the last child. He cast Tsukuyomi on his own parents and brutally murdered them, tortured his own little brother beyond imagine with one torture session putting Sasuke in a fucking coma, one he would've never gotten out of if it wasn't for that bitch Tsunade and that's the only good Tsunade did in the series. Itachi thought he was wiser and more noble than his own people, which was pure and utter arrogance. When brought back as an edo, he said that a 7-year-old Sasuke could've changed the clan. He called himself Itachi Uchiha of Konoha and that he specifically had no regrets he was a massive piece of shit in life and death.

None of his plans make any kind of fucking sense. He wanted to save Konoha from war even though the other villages wouldn't have attacked for their own reasons.

Kumo already had a treaty in place after the Hyuga Incident, and it was preoccupied with gathering and collecting jutsus as well as kidnapping kids with kekkei genkai and rare bloodline abilities.

Iwa felt threatened by Kumo's growing militarization, and as such, Ohnoki was busy hiring the Akatsuki to do jobs for him to counter Kumo.

Thanks to Obito controlling Yagura, Kiri was in a massive state of chaos and strife with the bloodline purges and the various defections.

Suna was already extremely weak to attack Konoha on its own, and that weakness was present even before Gaara was born, and it just got worse after his birth, with his murderous rampages that wiped out half of his village and that's why Suna hired Orochimaru and his Sound village for assistance in the Chunin Exams.

So Itachi saved Konoha from zero potential wars, especially when none of the other villages attacked after Obito's, Orochimaru's, and Pain's assaults in the series.

He practically sent Sasuke gift wrapped to Orochimaru or Danzo. He knew about Obito and Pain's plans and yet did nothing about them, which just screwed over Konoha immensely.

He was never a prodigy or anything, unlike Sasuke. His fights are just him using genjutsu on his opponents and overpowering them with it, which just childish and stupid. He pulled Susanoo, Mirror Yata, and the Tsoka Blade out of his ass.

That's not even getting into his fanbase and how morally bankrupt they are.

This fucker is all over the place and doesn't make sense. Dushman-e-jaan has posts that go into greater detail about how this guy doesn't make sense, and I recommend you read them as she does an infinitely better job at explaining my dislike for Itachi than I have.

#naruto manga #rant post #anti itachi fandom #anti itachi

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internal-ethics · 1 year ago

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Theory : Madara was not the only reincarnation of Otsutsuki Indra. Indra's soul/chakra split in two.

while asura's soul remains full and reincarnated alone into hashirama.

the other half of indra's soul was in Senju Tobirama.

how it split can be played with, could be a blip, a flaw over time on zetsu's part or whatever.

the main conflict and question of the founders' era and in all of naruto was the difference between worldview of two brothers : doing everything alone, priotizing personal talent and genius (indra) or leaning to cooperation and companions (ashura) and their father Sage of 6 paths supported ashura, thus putting friendship and cooperation as the favorable view.

we know madara shares the same view with indra and hashirama ashura's, and indra and madara were treated as antagonistic for their extremist views.

so a couple of questions and observation ;

1/ashura was the 'dunce' one that has to seek help from others and that formed his view of putting love and friendship above all. and due to being superior and genius indra believe independence trumps all. so why was hashirama, the weak one, the friendship one, so abnormally monsterously strong that even without help from 'companions' , madara can never match up even if he got a bijuu and part of hashiramas power while hashirama was nerfed as an edo. not that equal in strength there, and not much for 'friendship' either because for his personality, hashirama always fights madara alone. theory ; madara is not FULL indra while hashirama is FULL ashura.

2/ why did the narrative gloss over another character who at the same time with these two, seems so much into the view of indra, just maybe in a healthier way - bc his duty as stated is to balance madara and hashirama. but balance and learn from them to what extent and effective is arguable. seems that he just focused on himself. he's like an entity on his own.

past databooks described him like this

he's a respectable man who inspires and taught people. but isnt that last part a little extreme and reminding of indra himself and certain members of a certain clan that were indra's descendents.

his ideals about the world are entirely his own as well with seemingly no sounding board, no "friend' like hashirama had. in a time when his brother was thinking of compassion and cooperation and friendship to maintain order and to stop wars, and madara thinks about being honest with people., he was the only one who says "order will maintain order" and "pushed forward to that objective until the end" since childhood and for all his time governing the village , also seemingly alone in his views. sure most agreed with him while some agree with hashirama's views, and he HAD friends and comrades to share that, but it could just be the warring times, the history, the situation that agreed with him and not the friends, the people themselves. Hashirama himself only agreed with tobirama because he had to when tobirama was objectively right, and never once acted as tbrms support or sounding board, going as far as to mock and question him in front of others. Tobirama seems to be lonely and isolated, not for any social and relationship issue but because he's too genius and different - and especially cold-hearted - in views and intellect. He never felt self conscious or guilty even when nobody seems to like his decisions.

he was also the only hokage who has no co-hokage in his time as hokage, someone equal to share the work and the world with him. he functioned as his own shadow hokage. even the third who was not that explored has danzo. minato has his wife, tsunade has jiraiya and kakashi shikamaru . if the narrative calls out indra's independence and lonesomeness as opposed to ashura's bonds, i think tobirama's mindset could be brought into the equation too.

Important to note that indra holds his beliefs firmly even at the beginning before his father disregards him, sasuke had that natural attitude to be lonesome and vulnerable as well, while Madara was never that into doing everything alone until he was manipulated out of all friendship and cooperation.

3/ indra was superior genius, the founder of ninjutsu thanks to his godly eyes powers and that's his greatest 'good" legacy to the ninja world. tobirama, while lacking in pure power compared to his reincarnation of god brother and his friend, is a leader of countries who copied his systems, as well as inventor of a number of jutsus that everyone could use but with caution lest they could wage wars. the sage talked about indra's ninjutsu negatively : "ninjutsu is to wage wars'. he had a point because tobirama invented jutsus that :

fooled both sharingan and byakugan and trolled the mother of shinobi herself - kage bunshin

beats mangekyo sharingan - flying thunder god

creates infinitely regen corpses , even after the caster died, corpses that also remain unaffected by the strongest eye genjutsu weve seen aka tsukuyomi

s exactly as enormous and powerful as hashirama's most enormous sage jutsu

4/hashirama's efforts to connect with and balance both these brothers of his, which are only almost successful. he seems to stumble between them and has to choose between them, and neither choice is pretty for them and himself in the long terms. When he chose one he failed the other, and nearly failed both completely when he tried suicide. He tried to protect and understand both, but he never truely connected with madaras true vision and goal of family, and was shown as not as good and close to tobirama as a brother: he mocked and questioned tobirama in front of others who were maliciously mocking and questioning tobirama!! Plus threatening him with violence multiple times when words fail him. Regardless of who of the brothers you agree with, there was a clear disconnection and disagreement between them even in death, their vision, the way they do things. Its like ashura reincarnated ALONE into hashirama and thats why hashirama was monstrously strong on his own but also need companions. But both madara and tobirama are LONE warriors thats not as strong but just as formidable, and he needs to connect with BOTH to find true peace and brotherhood. especially when they are both very lonesome and yet devoted to him in different ways.

5/ his care and dare i say connection to sasuke, who i believe - for the sake of this theory - is a full Indra in temperament and skills (in relations to the FULL ashura like naruto] tobirama saw both madara's unhealthy potential and himself, a brother of someone great that everyone revered, who really deep inside, need guidance and companions, in sasuke and that's why he helped him with all he had towards the end of the 4th war.

#naruto #naruto reread #senju tobirama #senju hashirama #uchiha madara #uchiha sasuke #theory #meta

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silvermoonphantom · 6 months ago

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A Miko Ban in the Meji era, Kagura dances, and other such things.

Miko traditions have been around in Japan since before 300 B.C. Early miko would go into trances and convey the words of the gods, perform ritual dances, and a variety of other religious and political functions.

Pre-Meji (300 BC - 1868 AD), there were Miko who worked at shrines, and there were also wandering Miko who performed prayers and invocations for a payment, independent of a shrine.

In the Edo period, some of the wandering miko became indentured, like geisha or prostitutes, and the revenue they made went to their masters. They gained a reputation for also offering prostitution services.

During the Meji Restoration, the Japanese government went HARD on revamping the Shinto shrine system, and demanding its religious services would support the imperial regime. It wanted to separate Shinto practices, asserting that shinto was a secular thing - a matter of the state. It tried to separate Shinto from folk religions and Buddhism. In 1873, the Miko Ban was put into place.

This ban heavily restricted what services a miko could offer. It prohibited wandering miko from engaging in anything that resembled Shinto practice - including prayer. After this ban, ALL wandering miko were now found to be on the wrong side of the law, and state-sanctioned shrine-miko could not perform any duties which implied she was being an oracle for a spirit, or being possessed by one.

Mikomai (miko dances) including Kagura dances, originally implied that the miko was posessed by a spirit/kami, or was inviting a spirit/kami to be present and watch. These dances were also banned, except at certain state-sanctioned shrines, where they were still heavily restricted to eliminate the appearance of possession.

Mitsuyoshi Tomita of the Kasuga Taisha shrine, along with many other miko, used pleading, protesting, and outright defiance of the law to convince the government that traditional miko dances, music, and performances like Kagura were cultural practices worth preserving - for the sake of history and national pride, if not for faith.

After decades of the miko ban, (and decades of miko doing these songs/dances/performances ANYWAY) the Ministry of the Imperial Household accepted their assertion of cultural significance, and allowed the miko dances & songs to be performed again.

In 1900, the Shrine Bureau was created, as the Meji government attempted to reduce the political influence of Shinto, by bringing the remaining shrines under government jurisdiction and make them easier to control. They worked to abolish smaller Shinto shrines, and consolidate their functions with larger regional shrines.

The Meiji government ascribed to a ‘Secular Shrine Theory’ which proposed that the shrines weren’t religious in nature, but just a sect of Japanese traditions. The government argued that Shinto was a non-religious moral tradition and patriotic practice, to give the impression that they supported religious freedom. Therefore, since it was a public space for the purpose of rituals of the state, the state ought to be able to change and rearrange the shrines, like they would with roadways.

By 1914, 70,000 shrines (out of about 200,000) were demolished across Japan, under this policy. In particular, the Mie Prefecture had about 90% of their shrines abolished. On November 10th 1940, after a lot of coordination and training to ensure a perfect performance, kagura dances were performed simultaneously in every shinto shrine in Japan. This was to celebrate that they were allowed to dance again.

Read more about restrictions to Miko in the Edo period, heading into the Meji Restoration:

Listen. This started as a research project for Demon Slayer (Set at the start of the Taisho Era, (in 1912-1915). This was supposed to be for a little 'fun fact!', a slight fleshing out of a single character's background.

The fool's crown sits ever-shining upon my brow.

#miko #history

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kaurwreck · 8 months ago

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Hiya, thanks for indulging me in my little hyper fixation!

（╹◡╹）♡

I have more questions if you’re interested in sharing!

Is there any connection between the real Port if Yokohama and the irl authors? Did Asagiri choose Yokohama for a specific reason or something like that?

Do the authors in a specific organisation get chosen for their irl relationships or was it randomized?

How do the literary texts have connections with manifestation of the ability in universe? (Some are obvious others not so much eg. For the Tainted Sorrow = gravity???????)

Sorry for the long ask. I hope you have a nice day! :D

I've hesitated to answer this ask because I wanted to be thorough and give each question due consideration. Further, the latter two questions rely a lot on my individual interpretation and I can't offer very much objectivity. But, I think I might be overthinking it, so below, please find attempts at answering each in turn.

The Port of Yokohama

The characters in Bungo Stray Dogs are named after and inspired by authors from modern Japanese literature. The "modern" era of Japan is generally (albeit not necessarily appropriately) measured as beginning during the Meiji Restoration, during which Japan restored centralized Imperial rule, ended a centuries-long seclusion by opening its borders to the West, and rapidly industrialized. For reference, Britain's Industrial Revolution spanned eighty years, from 1760 to 1840. By contrast, Japan industrialized within, roughly, forty years.

Japan reluctantly opened to the West under duress; Commodore Perry arrived in Japan with a squadron of armed warships, a white flag, and a letter with a list of demands from US President Fillmore. A year later, Japan signed the disadvantageous and exploitive Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the United States (日米修好通商条約, Nichibei Shūkō Tsūshō Jōyaku), which opened the ports of Kanagawa and four other Japanese cities to trade and granted extraterritoriality to foreigners, among other trading stipulations.

However, Kanagawa was very close to a strategic highway that linked Edo to Kyoto and Osaka, and the then-government of Japan did not relish granting foreigners so much access to Japan's interior. So, instead, the sleepy fishing village of Yokohama was outfitted with all the facilities and accoutrements of a bustling port town (including state-sponsored brothels), and the Port of Yokohama opened to foreign trade on June 2, 1859.

Thus, Yokohama is representative of Japan's opening to the West, including Western literature. Short stories and novels as the mediums we know them were Western imports to Japan, and Western literature shaped, inspired, and became subject to cross-cultural examination by Japanese authors.

This included Russian literature: Kameyama Ikuo, a Japanese scholar of Russian literature, described Fyodor Dostovesky's enduring popularity in Japan as follows:

In Japan, there were two Dostoevsky booms during the Meiji period [1868-1912], and The Brothers Karamazov being translated into Japanese for the first time in 1917 triggered a third. After that, critics like Kobayashi Hideo led fourth and fifth waves of popularity before and after World War II, and then Ōe Kenzaburō led the sixth wave around 1968, right when the student protests were at their height. Today we might say we’re in the middle of a seventh, with Murakami Haruki writing about how he was influenced by The Brothers Karamazov.

I've oversimplified Yokohama's role in Japan's modern engagement with the West substantially for the sake of brevity, but in short, yes, Kafka Asagiri chose the Port of Yokohama for a reason. Yokohama was, for a time, Japan's most influential, culturally relevant international metropolis, before becoming eclipsed by Tokyo in more recent history.

The Organizations

There aren't bright-line rules to explain why each character is in each organization, although it isn't randomized either.

Attempts to delineate between the organizations based on the irl!authors' philosophies, legacies, literary genres, degrees of acceptance or rejection of Western influence, etc., are inaccurate oversimplifications at best. (At worst, they're orientalist and, in some cases, conflate fascist ideology with literary aesthetics -- or literary aesthetics with violence; I've seen both, oddly enough.)

That said, the namesakes' irl relationships and literary impacts are sources of inspiration for the relationships in bsd, including between and among the various organizations. For example, Jouno, Tetchou, and Fukuchi were all among Japan's first Western-style newspaper editors. Kouyou and Mori were in the same literary circles and collaborated on influential publications; such as the magazine in which they penned anonymous reviews of works by emerging authors that made or broke careers, and which established modern literary criticism in Japan. Akutagawa is such an enduring and intimidating titan in Japanese literature; the sharpness of his prose and his ability to gut me like a fish suit bsd!Akutagawa's theatric and violent role within the Port Mafia.

But, Mori Ogai and Yosano Akiko were dear friends, Chuuya Nakahara idolized Kenji Miyazaki, and modern Japanese authors weren't mafiosos, private detectives, military police, or surreptitious intelligence officers. I'd warn against (i) cramming bsd's characters into oversimplified archetypes or literary devices and (ii) overinflating the importance of or reading any certainty into the patterns and reflections of the irl!authors. bsd makes dynamic and creative use of its source material to tell a story that's very much its own.

The source material absolutely adds depth, commentary, and intention to Kafka Asagiri's storytelling, but only if read within the context and framework of the story being told.

For an example of why strict dichotomies and oversimplified metanalysis don't work for comparing the various organizations, I wrote a post explaining why it's inaccurate to compare the Port Mafia and the Agency using an East vs. West framework here.

The Abilities

Yes, the literary texts inspire how the corresponding abilities manifest in-universe. At least, I think so, based on my own interpretations. For example, I see the green light across the bay from The Great Gatsby in the Great Fitzgerald and a throughline between Fyodor's bloody ability and the symbolic eucharist in Crime and Punishment.

I speculate about Fyodor's ability manifesting as imagery from Crime and Punishment here.

I mention the potential relationship between irl!Akutagawa's literary voice and bsd!Akutagawa's ability here.

I also share some thoughts on Dazai and the manifestation of No Longer Human based on narration from No Longer Human here.

For the Tainted Sorrow, in particular, is a poem about grief, which characterized much of Chuuya Nakahara's brief life. I've always experienced grief in intense fluctuations of weight -- sometimes heavy and immobilizing, sometimes untethering and billowing, often compulsive and consuming. It has an immense gravity.

I've always thought that bsd!Chuuya's manipulation of gravity emblemized his intense and layered relationship with grief -- for irl!Chuuya, his brother, his parents' brutal expectations, his lover, his friends, his son; for bsd!Chuuya, the Sheep, the Flags, the yet-named seven taken by Shibusawa's fog. But where irl!Chuuya was seemingly crushed by the gravity of what he lost, bsd!Chuuya defiantly persists with a rougish levity, his grief galvanizing his ferocious love for others and his desire to live for and in service of their memories.

To roughly quote bsd!Chuuya's character song, "I will manipulate even the weight of this cut-short life."

But, that's only my interpretation; take it with a grain of salt. Or with the weight of several pounds of salt. The extent to which it compels you is yours to decide.

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd meta #bsd analysis #i have no idea if any of this is useful to anyone given its subjectivity and cursory overview of really complex topics #i have more thorough breakdowns of things like my crime and punishment analysis and the influence of the West on modern japanese literature #but each of these answers could be a dissertation length analysis and unfortunately I do not have the bandwidth to go totally wild on them

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talesofedo · 1 year ago

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Hello sorry to disturb you. In a post from some time ago (about Okada Izo and literacy) you talked about how at the end of the Edo era there were books printed with kana targeted toward women and children. You linked a (very interesting) article about Female Readership in Edo in this post. The article gives many interesting details about books and their female readership, but I am not sure about the average level of literacy of women at the time. The only thing I am sure of is that higher class women were more literate than lower class women, and men tended to be more literate than women of similar social classes. Would an middle class woman (from a low samurai family, or a not particularly rich merchant family, but not poor) know how to read kanji at the time?

Questions are never a bother as long as you don't mind that I sometimes just don't have an answer, and that other times it takes a long time before I can get to it.

But I do have a quick answer for this question because it came with perfect timing: I just read an article on Edo period literacy by Tsujimoto Masashi!

Estimating an average literacy rate for the Edo period is difficult because the rate varied between the early, middle and late Edo period, between urban and rural settings, and because research in this area suffers from an overall lack of accurate period statistics.

That said, Tsujimoto estimates that by the mid-1700s, the literacy rate in Japan's three largest cities - Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka - may have been as high 60-70% among males and 40-50% among females, and that literacy rates in rural areas were likely about 10-20% lower than this.

Being literate in Edo period Japan was a near necessity because not being literate put you at significant disadvantage: edicts and important information was posted on public signboards, and the government accepted no reports, petitions, or appeals that were not presented in writing.

Even in villages, where the overall level of literacy may have been low, village officials and wealthy farmers needed to be both literate and adept at math to ensure records were kept and were kept accurately.

Schools for the common people, such as merchants, townspeople, and farmers, were not regulated by the shogunate, so anyone with an inclination to teach could open a school of their own. This was often a go-to for unemployed samurai, but as Tsujimoto points out in his article, it was also a common way for widows in urban areas to make their living as writing teachers.

How common were those schools? Tsujimoto points to a 1722 letter written by a Confucian scholar employed by the shogunate, which states that "there are more than 800 writing teachers in Edo". That's roughly one writing teacher per residential block in the areas of the city inhabited by townspeople rather than samurai.

Tsujimoto writes: "The study of penmanship usually began with the iroha (that is, kana). Then, after studying numbers, students learned the Chinese characters for things familiar from everyday life, personal names, place names, and the heavenly directions. Next, they progressed to a text that was a compilation of phrases commonly used in letters, idiomatic expressions, and standard sentences."

As students usually started their studies around age 6 or 7, and generally continued for about 5 years, this meant most students who attended writing schools, both male and female, would have had a good foundation in kana, as well as knowledge of at least a fair number of commonly-used kanji.

Therefore: a woman from a poor samurai family or an average merchant family had a good chance of being able to read and write at least a limited number of kanji, depending on how long she attended school and how well she kept up with her studies. She would be most likely to read kanji that are in common use for everyday things.

An interesting note here to bring this back to Okada Izo: many of the letters written by Izo's teacher, Takechi Hanpeita, remain in collections and archives. Among his writings are letters to his wife, Tomiko, which he wrote primarily using kana but also occasional kanji within the text. Takechi's letters to Tomiko, I think, are probably a good example of texts that would have been within the reading ability of a lower-ranking samurai's wife.

#history notes #historical notes #history reference #historical reference #history research #historical research #edo period #literacy #terakoya #education #ask #answered ask

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inusmasha · 2 years ago

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Pride & Prejudice (2005): Edo Period AU ft. SessKik & InuKag

Hi guys! Sorry for being MIA! Has it really been 9 months!?

Life has calmed down a little so I have time to work on AU projects again c: buuut I changed a few things !

I'll be illustrating key parts of the Pride and Prejudice (2005) movie in hopes of opening the fandom's eyes to SessKik romance... but it's going to take place during The Tokugawa era (also known as the Edo Period). I love historical fiction and have been reading up a ton about feudal society.

Originally, in the manga, Inuyasha is set in the Sengoku Period (The Warring States Era) where feudal warlords dropped like flies due to the constant political warfare. Later on, Samurai tried to establish "order" by assigning people into a strict hierarchy of social classes.. Which reminded me of P&P.

On top you have the Emperor, who didn't really wield any political power at this point and was more of a 'figurehead'.

Then there was the Shogun. These military men were the supreme commanders and head of government. I think it makes sense to have the Great Dog Demon be a shogun.

Beneath them were the Daimyo. They were the regional warlords and noble families that ruled over the lowly foot-soldier/samurai. They made up the upper-class but only those with close familial ties to the Shogun would be able to wield political power. Shogun gave land to daimyos to rule in exchange for loyalty. Also! There were "outer" Daimyo who barely hung on to what little perks they had since they had few real allies. Reminds me of the Bennet Fam.

...Everyone else (farmers, merchants, & peasants) weren't respected until the turn of the century brought about that dank rapid economic prosperity.

TBH there was no Japanese 'middle class' like there was in Europe during the time of Pride and Prejudice so I take a lot of creative license.. I'm taking elements I loved from the movie and combining them with the Ukiyo-e art that was so popular during the Edo period. I can't freaking wait to glam everyone up in kimonos, ribbons and pearls.

I hope that made sense! I love overcomplicating things ;p

Dedicated to my dearest friend @magical-campanula who inspired all this with her beautiful mind and HCs!

#inuyasha #pride and prejudice edo au #pride and prejudice au #sesskik #inukag #inuyasha au #LETS TRY THIS AGAIN #muwahahahahahha #Mama Higurashi was born into the merchant class and married into a declining Daimyo family #which would of been unheard of!#Kagome and Kikyo are the elder sisters who help upkeep their small run down shrine next to their home in the countryside #Papa Higurashi dies early on which leaves Grandpa in charge #His old age and lack of financial security has him eager to marry the girls off #bby Kaede is going to have Lydia's storyline #and im going to throw in Kikyo's shikigami twins so we have the complete set of 5 sisters #i got a new tablet and its like i need to teach myself how to draw/paint all over again #its been hard but so so so nice to finally have time to play #tbh i just wanna watch movies and think about AUs #rec me some movies!#ive been really into musicals lately #I HAVE SO MANY AU IDEAS @_@#im never leaving this place

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kemetic-dreams · 1 year ago

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THE HISTORY OF ODUMOSA, THE POWERFUL HUNTER AND FOUNDER OF ERIN-ILE KWARA STATE

Erin-ile, an old Yoruba town was established around 1225 AD for example more than 878 years prior. History of Erin-ile goes back to the verbose return of Oranyan from Edo nation after his red hot military campaigns against the Igbos who were then annoying that piece of Oduduwa's reality.

Erin-ile is probably the most established town in the old Oyun Local Government Area, including Offa. Erin-ile town was established about a similar time as Ipee and the limit between these two was before the coming of Offa town. Solid oral custom and serious research agreeably spin the authentic cause of Erin-ile around one famous regal sovereign of Ife called ODUMOSA.

He was known to be an eminent tracker and marksman, subsequently his name "APAAYAN", for example a marksman who was presumed for his best games. As the fore-name recommend, Odu-mosa was additionally a faithful religionist and a figuring chief. He was a shrewd executive and appealling character. He was the grandson of lord OBALUFON of Ife. OBALUFON is the contracted from the OBA ILU IFE for example (The ruler of Ile-Ife), and Olufon its short structure implies OLU-IFE for example (the ruler of Ife).

He was an acclaimed skilled worker and the first to acquaint metal works with Ife. He is as yet being exceptionally venerated for that important commitment. Ruler Obalufon was ruling when his nephew sovereign ORANMIYAN drove his arrangement of military undertakings to Benin. Ruler Obalufon later kicked the bucket and sovereign ORANMIYAN who was the beneficiary obvious didn't return in time from the war front. In his nonattendance, lord Obalufon's child ALAIYEMORE was designated and introduced as the following Ife ruler.

From that point, sovereign Oranmiyan surfaced suddenly to Ife. Frenzy held everybody inspired by a paranoid fear of what might and could be the response of such a fierce military legend to his life aspiration being so run by his counsin's climb to the seat which he (Oranmiyan) had constantly desired. In such a disrupted and unsure circumstance, ODUMOSA who was the immediate child of lord Alaiyemore thought of it as foothardy to sit tight in Ife for ORANMIYAN's response.

He immediately chose to stop Ife so as to get away from the conceivable anger of Oranmiyan. It was everybody's conviction that whoever incited Oranmiyan welcomed searing war. Odumosa set off with a huge unforeseen of devotees including his child ALAWODE AREBIOPE and his stepbrother, ruler ALAPA. He conveyed with him enough supplies of essential needs. he brought various valuable fortunes from the castle. Among such were beaded crowns, glorious clothing types, regal staff (EDAN OBALUFON), Obalufon's celebration silver crown, set of strung coral dots, the way of life of Obalufon, Ifa prophet, war types of gear, arms and ammo, (for games and self preservation) and a puzzling clarion horn for collecting his adherents at whatever point they dispersed looking for games and food or were abandoned. He depended particularly on the horn which he likewise used to give war or harmony signs and headings of next developments to his supporters.

Like patriarch Abraham of the Jewish history who on divine requests left his folks in the land Haran for an obscure goal. Odu-mosa left Ife on Ifa prophet's guidance for the open wide world without learning his genuine goal. He was a man of confidence, without a doubt a man of dauntless boldness, never terrified of slopes or wildernesses, dry land or overwhelmed planes. He continued endlessly nudging his contingents to walk and head quick in the opposite direction from a potential pursue by Oranmiyan. He told his kin "E RIN E RIN; E RIN" for example WALK FAST, WALK FAST, WALK FAST. The name ERIN was later suffixed with "ILE", which signifies the terminal finish of the trek on Ifa prophet's heading to frame the compound name ERIN-ILE.

After a long spell of meandering and meandering aimlessly before they arrived at that goal, they ended and rested in various spots, as ERINMO or ERIN-ITADOGUN for example an intersection place where they laid on seventeenth day of their trek and made places of arrangement fronds. A major market was set up at the intersection settlement. When Odumosa left, a portion of his devotees stayed behind and settled for all time in ERINMO. Other spot of visit included ERIN-OKE, ERIN-IJESHA, which are all now remarkable towns in Osun State. At Erin-ile, Odumosa met three trackers; Olowe, Afolumodi and Gbaagba, who received him as their first ruler when they was aware of his august status.

At a last visit before Erin-ile, Odumosa, Odumosa overlooked his clarion horn. When they returned for it, it had sunk and shimmering water, presently the stream Owo has begun spouting out of it. It was at this crossroads that his stepbrother, ruler Alapa isolated from him while Odumosa moved west ward, Alapa moved east ward. Alapa now settled Eku-Apa now in Irepodun LGA of Kwara State.

An a lot later settlement of Odumosa's replacements are Erin Papa, established on an open meadow by the thirteenth Elerin of Erin-Ile in rebellion of Alimi, the Fulani Jihadist. Erin Papa was found in Osun State and is presently called Erin – Osun. Around 1907, Elerin olaojo chose to profit to Erin-Ile for discontinuance of threats by the Jihadist. A few residents tailed him while some picked to remain. Erin_osun is likewise a major toen and she imparts close proclivity to Erin-ile. Indeed,the two towns are "twain" towns.

Aside from towns and settlements set up legitimately by Odumosa or his replacements, there are additionally families who have blood or social proclivity with Erin-Ile and are living in different networks. They can be perceived by their surname (oriki) regardless of whether they are in Ibadan, Abeokuta, Ilorin, Oshogbo, Ilesha, Ogbomoso or Offa. Such names incorporate, "More, Mosa" (from Alaiyemore and Odumosa), "Omo Elerin Mosa", "Omo Elewe Ladogba", "Omo Obalufon L'Erin", "Omo Abinuwole" alluding to Olowe who sank alive and "Omo Abiowe" again alluding to Olowe star war pioneer of Erin-Ile. Some outstanding Nigerians with such names incorporate Ali Agboguleri; Saka Pena, Adegoke Adelabu (Penkelemi) and Oba Gbadamosi Adebimpe all in Ibadan, the balogun group of Iragbiji, the Duro Ladipo family in Oshogbo, the Ige family in Ijeshaland spreading to Ibadan, the Toki family in Offa and on the maternal side, the Olugbense imperial family in Offa and so forth.

By and by, Erin-Ile is in Oyun LGA of Kwara State and was the base camp of the Local Governement when it was first made in 1980. For odd reasons, the central command was moved when the Federal Military Government re-made the L.G.A. in 1990. Erin-Ile is on the southern-most edge of Kwara State and offers limits with Offa, Ilemona, Irra, Eku-Apa, Ipee, Igosun all in Kwara State and Oyan and Ila - Odo in Osun State. She is overhauled by current enhancements. A yearly celebration impossible to miss to her is the Obalufon celebration named after their begetter in Ile-Ife.

#lle-ife #obalufon #kwara #oyan #osun #'adegoke adelabu #oshogbo #erin #erin-lle #nigerian #africans #afrakan #african #afrakans #kemetic dreams #african culture #afrakan spirituality #nigerians #nigeria

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chanoyu-to-wa · 7 months ago

Text

The Chanoyu Hyaku-shu [茶湯百首], Part I: Poem 14.

〽 Cha wo furu ha tesaki wo furu to omou-na yo, hiji-yori fure yo, sore ga hiji nari

[茶を振るは手先を振ると思うなよ、肘より振れよ、それが秘事也].

“When whisking the tea¹, [we] should not think that [the chasen] is being agitated by the wrist². [Rather] the shaking motion [arises] from the elbow. This is a secret [teaching].”

Furu [振る] is used to express a wide range of meanings today, but its original meaning was to shake or wave. Here it refers to the action of the chasen when whisking usucha. Usucha was the original way³ that matcha was prepared -- not only in Japan, but in China⁴ and Korea, too.

The verb omou [思う] means to think. Omou-na [思うな], which seems to be a contracted form of omou-nashi [思うなし], means do not think.

Hiji-yori [肘より] means from the elbow -- that is, the whisking motion arises from the elbow, rather than the fingers, so the entire forearm is involved in the action.

Hiji [秘事] means a treasured secret.

While this poem was found in neither Jōō’s Matsu-ya manuscript, nor, apparently, in Rikyū’s 1580 manuscript, Katagiri Sadamasa claimed that he found a version that deviated from the traditionally received text in an (otherwise unidentified) Jōō manuscript. That version reads:

〽 cha wo furaba te-saki de furu to omou-na yo, soko ne nu yō ni kokoroete fure

[茶を振��ば手先で振ると思うなよ、損こねぬように心得て振れ].

“If the tea is going to be whisked, [one] should not think that the whisking is done with the fingers. Perform the whisking with understanding, so [the tea] is not spoiled.”

This version seems to be talking about the preparation of koicha⁵; and that idea, coupled with its being unknown elsewhere (or found in any existing source, no matter how fragmentary), might suggest that it is spurious, added during the Edo period (when the argument for koicha’s preeminence was again being made by the proponents of certain schools).

_________________________

¹In this translation, whisking, as well as shaking and agitating are all used as translations for the verb furu [振る], which literally means to wave, to shake back and forth.

²Tesaki [手先] literally means the upper extremity of the arm. Usually interpreted to mean the fingers, it could also refer to the fingers and wrist as a unit, and this is probably the sense that is intended here. If not moved from the elbow (as this poem intimates), the whisking action would originate from the wrist (not the fingers).

³Sòng period Chinese documents appear to describe the drinking of what we would call usucha.

The Chá jīng [茶經], which describes the drinking of steeped (or boiled) fermented brick tea, does not appear to have been known before the middle of the Qīng cháo [清朝] (the Ching dynasty). Several points associated with this document, which were pointed out to me by Chinese scholars, make its authenticity questionable*: first, rather than a written manuscript, the “original” is a block-printed text that was published during the second half of the eighteenth century; second, this book was published precisely at the point in time when the Manchurian dynasty’s validity was being questioned (as part of the government’s propaganda campaign stating that “we are the preservers of authentic Chinese culture”); third, the document (which purports to reproduce an original document†) begins with a librarian’s stamp indicating that the language is that of Sòng cháo [宋朝] (i.e., the Song dynasty -- not Táng, as traditionally believed), though the language is idiomatically Qīng, not Sòng; and, finally, the assertion that it is a Táng writing, as well as its ascription to Lù Yǔ [陸羽; 733 ~ 804], appear only in an appendix of 5 pages of text that were added by the publisher (Zhào-kuàng-kak [照曠閣])‡. ___________ *Though, given the importance of the Chá jīng to a huge swathe of Chinese business, it is unlikely that any scholar will ever presume to speak out against it. Even though it is described as a late Táng book, copies printed on bamboo slats are now widely available (and these are often represented as actual historical artifacts, or replicas of the same), even though this implies that the Chá jīng dates from much earlier times (authentic books of this sort can be dated no later than the fourth century; paper was invented in China several centuries earlier than that, and universally used for documents by the Táng cháo).

†The story is that the original was extensively damaged during the fire that resulted when the Mongols burned Beijing. While this much could certainly be credible, the fact that it goes on to say that the original was later discarded after a copy had been made must be viewed with absolute suspicion -- since this is simply not the way that the Chinese treat ancient documents.

Furthermore, if the original was that badly damaged in the fire, how was it that the text was restored (or, more likely, recreated) -- since the details of this way of drinking tea are historically unprecedented?

Since at least the Míng cháo [明朝] (the practice is said to have begun during the first year of the dynasty -- which, like many similar assertions regarding matters of cultural identity and importance, is doubtful in and of itself, since these assertions imply that an entire cultural milieu was waiting in the wings, ready to flood across the country en masse once the legacy of the heretical interregnum had been swept under the national carpet), the Chinese had drunk steeped tea (wūlóng-chá [烏龍茶], oolong-cha). But brick tea of the sort that forms the basis of the practices described in the Chá jīng was a regional product associated with the Yúnnán area until the late 20th century (in Hong Kong this kind of tea was used to flavor the hot water at street-side food booths, which hardly indicates that it was traditionally held in any sort of esteem).

‡Again, I was told by Chinese scholars (who were working on this text) that other earlier ascriptions and citations began to appear only in more recent years, seemingly in an attempt to validate the authenticity of the Zhào-kuàng-kak publication.

⁴The Chinese process of sun-drying the leaves means that they can only be used to prepare a very thin beverage (since sun-drying allows for the development of tannins and other byproducts as the cellular constituents begin to break down, which makes for a bitter tea).

The Koreans processed tea leaves in the same way as they traditionally did ginseng roots -- steaming -- followed by rapid drying over relatively mild heat (the leaves were put into a large, rather shallow pot (perhaps 60 or 80 cm in diameter -- this kind of pot was used to steam the rice, and also boil the soup, in the temple kitchen) that was suspended over a low fire, hand stirring the leaves until dry (which insured that the heat would not be too high). The steaming fixed the chemical content of the leaves so they would not begin to break down during the drying process. (Green tea was also produced in a similar way, though the steaming step was left out. The leaves were put into the same sort of large pot, and repeated picked up and rolled between the hands while being dried. Rolling ruptured the cells, so that oxidization of the cell contents could begin to occur.)

⁵Since it is difficult to spoil usucha, especially with regard to the way it is whisked (indeed, while some modern schools encourage whisking that borders on violence, others do little more than stir the usucha vigorously, so only a small island of foam forms in the middle of the bowl).

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