#Satsuma Domain

[falseandrealultravival]

Like flying (Satoshi Ichiyanagi: NHK Taiga drama theme song) Classic

Japan's Modern Revolution: The leading figure in the Meiji Restoration: Satsuma Domain. Sakurajima in this area has been an active volcano since recorded history, with frequent eruptions that have had a major impact on Satsuma's culture and people's minds. This song is reminiscent of the great eruption of Sakurajima and is a masterpiece that makes you feel the depressed energy of Satsuma. The expression of this violent explosive power is probably the best among the theme songs of taiga dramas. Satoshi Ichiyanagi did a good job.

翔ぶが如く（一柳慧：NHK大河ドラマテーマソング）　クラシック

日本の近代革命：明治維新の立役者：薩摩藩。この地域の桜島は、有史以来活火山で、頻繁に爆発を繰り返し、薩摩の風土・人心に大きな影響を与えてきた。この曲は、桜島の大噴火を彷彿させ、薩摩の鬱屈したエネルギーを感じさせる名曲。この暴力的な爆発力の表現は、大河ドラマのテーマソング中、随一なのではないか。一柳慧は、良い仕事をした。

[prinzrupprecht]

His healer

For some reason I just love writing about Okita a lot. This is a one shot this time. Okita x reader again..

Synopsis: AU universe where you treated Okita’s illness as one of the best doctor’s in Kyoto and slowly grew attached to him.

TW: kind of angst but mostly fluff.

WC: 943

The moment you were summoned by the leader of the Shinsengumi to check on someone’s condition, you knew you couldn’t decline the man known as Kondo Isami. He was well respected and so were his men. All you were known for was being one of the best doctors in Kyoto. You studied all sorts of medicine and healing practices.

A few days after the ikedaya incident, a young boy in his early twenties laid in his bed panting heavily. Upon finding out what his name was: Okita Souji. He was the first division captain and former chief assistant of the mibu rishigumi. You heard of the incident that lead many dead from Chousou and Tosa clans. The political chaos between the factions broke out leading many ronin began assassinating each other.

As you made your way to the Shinsegumi base holding your supplies in your bag. Many of the members were already gone on their patrols. “Oh you must be the doctor,” Kondo greeted you at the entrance as you smiled and nodded. Truth be told, you were young and talented in your field. You were quite surprised your name travelled through most of Kyoto reaching the ears of the Shinsengumi to summon you.

Okita at first was very reluctant with your help. He kept telling you that he was fine and to go away. You noticed that when he coughs and struggled to sit up, you had requested to examine his chest area with your stethoscope with a soft smile. He couldn’t figure out why someone like you kept persisting on helping him.

Overtime you kept checking on him and started to give him the necessities to treat the bacteria in his lungs. Okita started to open up to you about his life and how he became a samurai with his friends which put a smile on your face. He was very kind to you when he slowly starts to trust you’re not trying to kill him or anything. You were feeling sorry for him and his condition since you knew he wanted to help protect those close to him, but was stuck in bed for months. He talked about Kondo-san a lot so you had an idea that was his closest person to him.

“It seems that you’re recovering faster than I thought. I guess the fresh mint has been working well with your lungs. Your respiratory tract seems to be almost clear.” You had sat next to him while wondering what he was going to do next. You only had known him for about a month which didn’t feel long.

Okita was smiling and was going to say something before Kondo walked in with free tea. “You’re looking a lot better,” he noticed Souji was moving more freely thanks to your help. You couldn’t help but giggle at their interaction. The young boy was happy to be able to get back and fight for Kyoto. It was risky trying to get involved with any ronin or samurai since the risk of dying is high. You couldn’t help but feel slight attachment grow but you pushed the thought away. Kondo noticed your mind was in a different world and asked if you were alright.

“Oh yes! I’m fine. I’m thinking I should be getting back soon.” You stood up but you couldn’t help but noticed the slight frown on Okita’s features. You saw a few other Shinsengumi members in the hallway spying in on the conversation and wanted to celebrate with Souji for his recovery. You quickly slip through the door as they all seemed busy and left their base.

You had wondered what it was like being a samurai and feeling respected by the townsmen. There was a lot of trouble with Chousou domain and their affiliation with Satsuma domain as well. Maybe it was best to forget about it all and move along like you’re used to; going into peoples homes and treating civilians was mostly your job. You got some money but mostly you prefer their hospitality over the money since your family was already wealthy.

As you almost made it back to your house near the Kamo river which was relatively close to Yagitei where the Shinsegumi’s headquarters were located. You heard someone behind yell for you to wait up. You were confused hearing your name being called out, till you saw it was Okita catching up to you. “You didn’t say you were leaving for good,” Okita stopped in front of you giving you a rather sad look.

“Kondo-san said you weren’t coming back,” Okita fell silent leaving you to feel solemn.

“Okita-san, you don’t need me anymore, it seems that my job is done and I’m happy that you’re all better. So, please, don’t push yourself hard and I’ll be ready to help you or anyone else that needs me again.” You gave him a gleeful smile but it wasn’t enough for him to whine and to see you again.

“Awww, how about I come see you when we’re both free? I don’t like the idea of never seeing you again.” The last phrase had him puffing his cheeks a bit making him look cute how stubborn he was. He didn’t want to let you go? You thought over it but nodded, you would love to get to know him better even if there’s risks in getting close to him.

“Okay, than it’s settled. I’ll see you around, Okita-san.��� Little did you know this was just the beginning of your new profound friendship that would blossom to something anew and future with him.

Note: sorry I promised more Anubis but I really been dying to do this piece for a long time. I’ll get back on Anubby soon~

[fatehbaz]

[A] luscious Owari Satsuma citrus tree, whose species was originally imported from Japan, currently experiencing the ravaging effects of an aphid infestation. [...] Where did they come from? [...] And a question that nineteenth- and twentieth-century individuals may have added is, who is to blame? Jeannie N. Shinozuka’s monograph, Biotic Borders: Transpacific Plant and Insect Migration and the Rise of Anti-Asian Racism in America, 1890-1950 [...] [examines] such human and nonhuman interconnections [...] [and] meditates on such questions in the historical setting of the American empire, including its transpacific borderland.

Toward the end of the nineteenth and through the twentieth century, the already present anti-Asian racism in the United States was infused with a conservationist attitude of sustainable yield and efficient use of the vast but vanishing natural resources of North America.

---

Unsurprisingly, these racial anxieties appeared just as the American empire expanded well beyond the continent’s borders. The economic threat of chestnut blight or citrus scale played into a native invasive binary that conveniently placed blame for the species’ decline, along with pest and disease introductions, on poor and immigrant groups, while excluding and erasing a longer colonial history of importations of destructive plants and animals by colonial and antebellum planters. These fears were founded not just in the economics of decline, based on a fear of the threat posed to cash crops often grown on increasingly large-scale farms, but also in jealousy surrounding agricultural innovations [...] of certain immigrant farmers [...] in a society plagued with racial anxieties of a so-called yellow peril. Paradoxically, wealthy American citizens interested in beautifying landscapes often held an orientalist fascination with a fetishized and consumable version of a Japanese countryside in the form of tea gardens. [...]

---

The work also discusses the role of newly ordained technocratic officials in giving supposed scientific validity to attitudes toward plant, animal, and human invaders from the Orient.

Plant biologists such as [D.F.] and entomologists [...] were on the forefront of crusades to prevent economically damaging insects and plant diseases from entering the borders of the United States and “degrading” the native stock. Many of these individuals, like [D.F.], were closely associated with some of the leading eugenicist organizations, for example, the American Breeder’s Association, within the United States. Their efforts at plant quarantine culminated in Plant Quarantine Number 37, or PQN 37, a law intended to prevent diseases and infection from foreign animal and plant bodies. This law set a precedent for similar policies regulating humans perceived as alien, including the Immigrant Act of 1924, which limited immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, while completely excluding individuals from Asia. Similarly, officials, [...] [entomologists] included among them, seized and destroyed the property of Japanese immigrants [...].

---

Shinozuka’s work is [...] a contribution to environmental history and Asian studies, [and] it is also a fresh conversation on borderlands and the role that [...] migrant groups, played in such porous places as the US Mexico border and Hawaii, the Pacific gateway to the US empire. Both domains offered opportunities to immigrants and scientists alike [...]. [I]mmigrant labor provided muscle power to corporate-owned American sugar plantations in Hawaii while also experiencing accusations of importing such damaging insects as the termite or Oriental beetle. What Shinozuka makes clear is that while these insects may have originated in southeast Asia, their spread was enabled by the context of American colonialism and empire. The trifold factors of urbanization, industrialization, and monocrop agriculture, all promoted in the interest of American business and marketed as a modernization effort in supposedly backward places like Hawaii, created the perfect circumstances for insects to swarm and disease to spread.

---

All text above by: Jacob Gautreaux. "Review of Shinozuka, Jeannie N., Biotic Borders: Transpacific Plant and Insect Migration and the Rise of Anti-Asian Racism in America, 1890-1950". H-Environment, H-Net Review. August 2024. At: h-net dot org slash reviews/showrev.php?id=60450. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[atlasandacamera]

Terukuni Shrine, Kagoshima, Japan. The shrine is the residence of the kami (spirit) of Shimazu Nariakira (posthumously Terukuni Daimyojin), the 11th daimyo of the Satsuma Domain. Shimazu was passionate about education and was considered one of the most intelligent daimyo. He was the first person in Japan to acquire a daguerreotype camera in 1848, and the photograph of him that was eventually produced was the first photograph to ever be named an Important Cultural Property in Japan.

[thedepressedjuggalette]

Paint it Blue: Counter Culture, Politics, Human Rights, and 4B.

As each day passes I am reminded how heavily my fellow Americans were hit when Trump -- unfortunately -- won the presidency. And as these days passed I began to do what I always do: Overthink and Strategize.

In the end I figured out what I personally view as the only way forward using what I have observed from the reactions from others and combining them to make a heavy consistent shove towards progress if and only if we keep this flame alive.

But to start this we need to start with a few definitions and go from there. If you wish to find a way to fight back, you need to commit to this 200% and do NOT yield. I don't care how red your state is. Fight and don't stop fighting.

Some of us can commit more than others in different ways but once you pick a path you are going to have to keep it up until the town/city/village you're in is painted blue and STAYS blue.

For the first definition we take a look at:

Protest Art:

Protest Art is a form of protest and saying “no” in an extremely different way. Specifically expressing it through an art form.

Majority of the time it is through painting.

If you've made paintings in protest against Israel’s attacks towards Palestine, you've made Protest Art. Through Protest Art one can express discontent without committing violence.

If you want to know more, check out this video: https://youtu.be/1_iqS_disW0?feature=shared

However we need to remember that Protest Art is different from Propaganda Art.

Propaganda Art:

Propaganda Art is exactly what it sounds like. Propaganda that is fed to the masses to get them in line to the ideals of the government and even war sentiments. We can even see this in real time through how the Republican Party uses AI Image Generators to create pro-MAGA images.

If you want a historic look at Propaganda Art, this poster shop has a LOT of them: https://vintagraph.com/collections/propaganda-posters

My personal favorites are the classic Rosie Riveter and Jenny on the Job. They're just classic propaganda styles.

However Propaganda can have SINISTER consequences, such as seen in this video: https://youtu.be/ip4dYcUDGFE?si=3qPKv_QP9pDNVEB-

Racist Propaganda caused increased racism, lynching, beatings and brutality. Eventually it led to the NEAR MURDER of a 13 year old child for the murder of two white people who were actually murdered by their own family member. She was supposed to spend the rest of her life in a prison.

Enka:

Enka is a genre of music from Japan that came around during the silencing of political speeches and protests. As a way to get around this politicians and protestors created a somber new genre to fight for a new wave of progress.

To give you an example here is an excerpt from Enka Music: From Political Protest to Cultural Tradition – on Unseen-Japan:

1868 saw witness to the overthrow of the shogunate and the establishment of the Meiji government. Yet despite its modern undertones, the new government was still led by powerful samurai from the Satsuma and Choshu domains. Not even five years after the Meiji Restoration, whispers of unrest eventually culminated in the formation of the Freedom and Civil Rights Movement (自由民権運動; Jiyū minken undō), or Jiyūto for short (自由党).

Spearheaded by disgruntled farmers, factory workers, and urban intellectuals, the movement demanded a more democratic approach to how the government was run. Their list of demands included a reduction in land taxes, an amendment to the numerous Unequal Treaties (不平等条; Fubyōdō jō) brooked between Japan and various Western countries, institution of a national assembly, and a constitution that protected basic civil rights.

At the time, the Meiji government had banned dissident speeches and protests about the new regime. So the Jiyuto had to get creative in order to make their voices heard. Rather than use force, they found a roundabout way to make political speeches without breaking the ban: singing.

Enter Soeda Azenbo (添田唖蝉坊). Rising from the depths of day laborer life to become one of the most well-known ballad composers, he wrote songs about the government and society couched in satire and humor. These political activist songs merited their own sub-genre: soshi enka (壮士演歌). His memoir A Life Adrift (流生記; Ryusei-ki) remains one of the most thorough and insightful accounts of life for a prewar enka singer.

If you want a brief explanation of Enka, it is touched upon briefly here by Gaijin Goomba in his video about Marie from Splatoon: https://youtu.be/PE6sJLHLXFw?si=t7bVBm3bBH7PATsn

4B:

"Bi" is a shorthand for the word "no" in Korean  (Korean: 비; Hanja: 非) and there are 4 “nos” that this particular movement in Korea, and these now are:

No sex with men. (Korean: 비섹스; RR: bisekseu)

No giving birth. (비출산; bichulsan)

No dating men. (비연애; biyeonae)

No marriage with men. (비혼; bihon)

This particular feminist movement is a way to take control of one's own body. And this movement has started to be adopted by American women, some even calling it the “Boy Sober” movement. This has become extremely popular in the West due to women seeing that their husbands/boyfriends had voted for Trump. They had enough of the sexism and decided that they must resort to extreme measures and be done with men altogether.

Women have realized that it's impossible to change men's minds by simply talking things out or showing them data or even showing how much danger women are in when it comes to being around men in general. Men have shown that they have no morals when it comes to how to treat women – men even going as far as telling every woman they come across “Your body, my choice!” which is just a clear rape threat.

The popularity of 4B is only rising and men are trying to pretend that it isn't freaking them out, but it clearly is. Men have yet to realize that they are becoming less and less desirable the further they go down with their bullshit.

Romanticism Writing:

Romanticism was a political era of writing. Think of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Many of them have written against child labor such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem “The Cry of the Children”. Romanticism was focused on nature, liberty, and individualism. It may sound rather nonsensical but these writings have become pieces of history that cannot be erased and were inspirational to many during their time.

—-------

Okay so now that we got all of this out of the way. Let's get to the plan itself.

If you were able to pick it up while reading you might be thinking I am fucking crazy and maybe I am, but let's face the facts, Republicans and centrists and Non-Voters are all extremely Low Information. When they vote they vote without either doing their research or learning anything from their previous vote. They tend to believe whatever they read on Facebook or Twitter, or will go based on vibes and vibes alone. Or they will just believe whatever celebrity they follow (Andrew Tate, Fresh and Fit, Joe Rogan, etc.) and will leave it at that.

Those who aren't online like that they will only follow things IRL. Talk with friends and family, maybe fuck around on Facebook and that's it. They will not interact with politics outside of Voting Season and even then they will not look up anything. They will believe whatever propaganda happens to be on the billboard not too far from their local Walmart.

So what am I proposing? We are going to have to pull out the chalk, spray paint, printers, tape, and more.

We are gonna have to start doing graffiti. We need to tag EVERYTHING WE CAN in protest. We need to pull a Jinx/Jinxer from Arcane in the sense that we need to tag everything we can.

If you don't want to get in trouble, check if there are areas that are free to tag and you won't get in trouble, or just use a canvas and paint traditionally. Or even just get as much printer ink as you can to print as many posters as you can.

Make zines and leave them around at your local cafés, bookstores, libraries, restaurants, churches ESPECIALLY (because fuck Republicans and their shitty cults) or wherever you think will be a good place. Throw blue smoke bombs at your local churches.

It hurts no one, and it will all send a message.

We are angry.

We are angry that the Separation of Church and State has been trampled over and these churches have had the fucking audacity to try to take everyone's rights away. They have disrespected the Constitution and we will not take it lying down.

We are angry that Republicans are letting a literal RAPIST, TRAITOR and a CONVICTED FELON run the country for a SECOND FUCKING TIME.

We are angry that Republicans are disrespecting and betraying our allies.

In my hometown there is a church that has a FUCK TON of Republican Anti-Choice propaganda plastered all over the outside of their building.

We cannot be silent. We cannot stop speaking out. You cannot get tired of it. We need to start the pressure on day one of the new year or hell even now. And then NOT STOP until the Republican Party cuts their bullshit PERMANENTLY.

So let's get the meis en plas.

A lot of us on the Left and Democrat Party are environmentally conscious so I did my best to find as many biodegradable products that I could:

Spray paint.

Chalk.

Smoke bombs.

Ecofriendly art supplies in general: [1] [2] [3] [4]

To avoid your face being seen and thus being caught I highly suggest you invest in getting a mask especially a gas mask if you are using spray paint. I don't want anyone getting sick.

To paint the town blue our primary color for our protest art should be as bright of a blue as we can get. However, that doesn't mean we can't use all the colors.

Using “Traditional” art is a way to get your town talking and get more eyes on it. One person sees it and they take pictures and then they spread it around Facebook and Instagram and whatever other platforms your town uses the most.

I got this idea from the music video “Paint the Town Blue” in Arcane. To silently protest in the show, the people of Zaun started dying some if not all of their hair blue, started using chalk to deface Piltover Propaganda, and even dressing like Jinx. And the way they act out is also by making art.

I use this as an example of what we as people can do to peacefully protest without having to organize outside of your local town hall and hold up signs only for Trump to start having the military gun us all down. He cannot and will not look good to his worshipers if he starts shooting people down for simply dying their hair or making art. He will try to demonize everyone for it, that's a fact, but he will not be able to turn your entire home town against you when there is no actual physical damage towards ANYTHING. The most they will be able to do is that they will have to do is wash your art away but it will start to be spread online as well.

But if you don't want that to happen, painting on an actual canvas and selling it is another thing you can do. You might face harassment depending on what your artwork looks like and says, but you cannot back down. Never back down.

Make sure to wear masks. Be them the N95 masks, or something else.

If you are a woman, invest in a taser, and getting your tubes tied. Don't date, don't have kids if you happen to be single and/or not have kids. We CANNOT risk literal fucking death for a relationship and sex. It's not worth it. However, when it comes to Republican Women they will die because of their insurance that the most important role they can ever have is to be a mother. They will never value their lives outside of that until they have that "oh it's only less than a percent" moment when they have the ectopic pregnancy or are raped. As sad as it is they asked for this shit. They want to "clean the gene pool" they will have to realize it applies to them too.

If you can, update all of your vaccines before the end of the year. And remember to use masks if you notice anyone, even yourself are sick.

If you happen to want to tear shit up via the political system itself. Then the biggest and greatest way you can do so is by doing your research, look up “Run For Something” and sign up to jump into the political scene in your town, county, and state because you don't need to go to law school to become governor of your state or even the secretary of your state.

Yep, you can do that. Currently I am trying to figure out a way to get into my local school board for a community college I went to several years ago.

You don't need a lot of education for the VAST majority of positions in US politics. I'm not even making shit up here. The school board position I'm trying to get only has the requirement that I'm 21 years old or older. That's it.

Yeah, there is a limit as to how young you are for a position in your local politics. Check it out and see what you can do.

We need to tear shit up and not stop.

If you don't want to run for your local office or jump into such a job tear shit up artistically. If you don't have art skills, DON'T SHUT UP ABOUT POLITICS AND DONT DATE OR HAVE KIDS.

And if you just don't like Politics or are not interested in Politics I hate to be the one to inform you but, you may not be interested in politics but politics is VERY interested in you.

If you want to read more to get further into politics, read books that scare the ever loving shit out of Republicans, things like just about anything from Karl Marx.

Speaking of Karl Marx, the man himself predicted that one of the reasons why Capitalism will fail is because the wealth gap between Labor and Capitol will be too great and it will enrage the proletariats (the working class) and look at what happened recently. An Insurance CEO got killed by a proletariat who suffers from extreme pain.

We need to tear the rich down and keep scaring them. Karl Marx and Theodore Roosevelt predicted that the wealth gap and the 1% would be the downfall of democracy thanks to Capitalism, and they are right.

Personally I don't care how we tear them down. I just want to see them be forced to give us the money they have owed us.

Let's tear shit apart. Be it through peace or violence. Inside and out. I am not going to push this responsibility onto the next generation like the generation before me and the generation before that. We can't keep waiting for someone to do something.

[samurailoveballadhistory]

This is actually apparently a misconception that many people have that people in the feudal era thinks like this. This is such a late-date legend that hails from around the ending of Edo era, entering the Meiji.

This story event takes it to such extremes that even the citizenry have a fear of it, but the commonly spread legend is actually just the samurai that don't like it. It falls as a whole, like a head that's chopped off. It has the connotation of execution, which samurai supposedly find to be shameful/dishonourable.

The camellia is usually contrasted with sakura, whose scattering petals are considered "beautiful" and graceful, and a more befitting image for a samurai's death.

This narrative really doesn't make any sense in the first place, because even if a samurai commit seppuku honourably, their heads get chopped off too, so what's the difference?

Anyway. Even during the Edo era the samurai loves camellias. Many houses would go out of their way to breed and raise camellias.

The rumour of camellia hate supposedly came about because the people who toppled the shogunate, the clans who hail from Satsuma province and Choushuu domain of Nagato, famously really loved their camellias. The people of Edo (the shogunate capital, now Tokyo), who view those people as traitors or rebels, hated them and regularly complained about them.

Perhaps because the Edoites were connected to the old shogunate, the story of "these people from the bygone era dislike of camellia-loving people" somehow morphed into "samurai don't like the camellias themselves".

[kumoriyami-xiuzhen]

Hakuoki Shinkai Tenun no Shou Stellaworth Booklet “Her Long Day” Part 6

Still haven't figured out what I should do next.... I sorta wanna go translate the Shimabara Disturbance drama, but the tl I found has some parts that are missing text, and I just don't wanna go look up what I ned to fill in those gaps...

whatever. maybe i won't do that. good night. 😂 i'm too tired to think right now. waking up before 6 am really messes me up unless i'm travelling.

Hakuoki Shinkai Tenun no Shou Stellaworth Booklet “Her Long Day” Part 6

Translation by KumoriYami

Chǒushí · Kazama Moment 《1~3 o'clock》

It was 3 o'clock, the time when all plants slept, and when the gates of the underworld [I guess?] were open.

If things were as usual, I would have fallen asleep long ago…

Unfortunately, today I woke up, perhaps from hearing the sound of insects.

"……Huh……？"

As I huddled under my blanket, I heard something outside… a minute sound.

The chirping of insects was wrapped in the sound of the wind and the sound of footsteps on gravel.

...Was that the sound of a cat or dog walking by…?

I lifted up my groggy head head, and opened the door a finger-wide crack, and looked outside——

"——I didn't think you'd be awake at this time."

"……Eh？"

"Could it be those watch dogs are forcing you to work day and night?"

"……!"

My weary mind immediately cleared up, and my eyes widened.

Standing there was the one who had repeatedly crossed swords with the Shinsengumi and declared that he was going to take me away—.

"Kazama-san——"

"——Be quiet."

"Wah!?"

Just as the yell was about to leave my throat, my mouth was covered, and I could only desperately twist my body.

But Kazama-san's arm was like it was made of stone, and I couldn't pull away at all.

"It's useless, although female oni have powerful/strong vitality, their strength cannot be compared to that of a male oni."

"Uh——"

"……Listen, just stay quiet. As long as you promise not to yell, I will let you go."

I did my best to nod, and to my surprise, Kazama-san really did let me go."

"Why are you come here at this time? Could it be that you wanted to take advantage of how everyone's asleep..."

"That's ridiculous. Do you think that I'm the sort of vulgar man who would attack a woman at night?"

“……”

What happened just now, I did really feel that this was similar to being attacked…. I always felt there was a sense of incredulity with this, so I asked again.

"….Then why did you come here? It doesn't seem like you've answered my question yet..."

"……This flower/These flowers."

Kazama-san hesitated for a moment and handed me a flower.

"This is… a sunflower/These are... sunflowers…?"

"That's right. Early this morning, beautiful sunflowers bloomed in the garden of a house in the Satsuma Domain, and since I thought it'd be a waste if only I admired them. Thinking that, I involuntarily thought of your face. You are surrounded by a group of insensitive men all day long, and have no opportunities to see such beautiful flowers."

"Um......"

If Kazama-san's words were true, he really came just to send me this flower/these flowers…

"…….Even if you say that, with you suddenly coming here, I can't believe it…"

"Why suddenly? Is there something strange about a husband who treasures his wife giving her flowers?"

"——Wife?"

"Of course, you are my wife."

…………As expected, I couldn't communicate with this person. Kazama-san slowly extend his hand towards me, who was at a complete loss for words.

"Of course, if you want me to take you away right now, isn't that another matter?"

"I don't....!"

I trembled and hurriedly took a step back.

Kazama-san's hand abruptly stopped.

".......?"

"Hmph… Who would have thought that there would be a watchdog awake at this time."

Kazama-san sighed, turned around, and then disappeared into the darkness.

"——Let's meet again someday in the future. Next time, it will have to be in a place where no one will disturb us."

Yinshi · Sannan Moment 《3~5 o'clock》

——At that moment, a voice came from the depths of headquarters.

"——Apparently an uninvited guest came?"

"Ah…… Sannan-san……!!"

"——Oya. To go as far as to intrude at this time, how truly careless."

Sannan-san looked in the direction Kazama-san disappeared in and lowered the hand he had on his sword.

At the same time, I collapsed to the ground, as if the ties around had me had been unraveled.

"……Fu……"

"It's alright, Yukimura-kun. Did you get injured?"

"Nn. I'm okay. Thank you……"

I sat paralyzed on the ground and looked up at Sannan-san,, and noticed tha tmy hands were shaking.

Although he was joking about that bitter experience, it really could have been quite dangerous.

——If Sannan-san hadn't come, what would have happened?"

While I trembled as I imagined that, Sannan-san, he——

"……Forgive me/I apologise."

He took hold of my hand, and slowly pulled me so I could stand up, then he wrapped both of his hands around my hands.

"——As expect you're terrified, your hands are still shaking now."

"……Yes. As soon as I thought that I was saved, all the fear came bursting forth……"

"I'm sorry. If I was able to notice a bit sooner, you wouldn't have been so scared."

"N-No, it's not Sannan-san's fault! You saved me…"

"……Hehe. Yes. At least the worse was avoided."

Sannan-san urged me to sit down, and the two of us sat by side in the corridor.

Even though my body was still shaking now, he smiled.

"It's alright, I'll sit with you here and accompany you until you calm down."

"……"

"Apparently, I'm meddling——"

"No….. if Sannan-san doesn't mind…. please."

Perhaps my words went against his expectations, so Sannan-san's eyes wiedened, and he was speechless.

".......Are your words sincere?"

"Nn... is that no good....."

".......You aren't afraid of me even though I've become a rasetsu?"

Sannan-san gazed into my eyes, and I laughed/smiled.

"......I think that genuinely scary people wouldn't say that sort of thing. Although it's true that Sannan-san hasbecome a rasetsu……."

"……But?"

"But, I think that your heart is the same as it was before."

Actually, until just now, Sannan-san had been saying consoling words to me,…. .

"......Oya. After hearing such adorable words, I can't do anything bad now."

Sannan-san stroked my head, as if to say that he had surrendered.

"Then… until you can peacefully fall asleep…"

Afterwards, Chizuru's moment

—Then, after that—

Sannan-san stayed and chatted with me until the sky faintly became green.

I completely calmed down and returned to my room as well.

"Today… I should say yesterday, a lot of things happened from morning until night……."

I got under the blankets again, and what happened all day long began to gradually resurfaced in my mind again.

"Waking up early, seeing Souma-kun, cooking together with Heisuke-kun…… going on patrol……"

If I fall asleep now, I didn't know if I'll be able to sleep before daybreak.

"......In the middle of the night, Kazama-san came over for some reason…. then… Ah, Hijikata-san…. I don't know if he'w awake after that…"

Incredibly, as soon as I was covered with the blanket, I immediately felt drowsy. Tired to the point where I couldn't resist.

"……"

With my narrowing field of vision, between the gaps of dreams of reality, I mumbled to myself.

"……Tomorrow too…… I'll work hard……"

Until I was woken up again shortly after by the sound of birds, a new day was about to start again. I finally slept peacefully again so I could get a moment's rest——.

----end----

[soulofamy]

here is everything we know about seidou nagumo from the old timeline

seidou nagumo was originally meant to replace mitsurugi in soulcalibur ii, but was scrapped. here is art of what he was supposed to look like

however, he was still kept in the canon storyline for soulcalibur even though we never saw him make an appearance

here we see him listed in one of the relationship flowcharts found in the canon "new legends of project soul" artbook. here are the things that we know about him based on this small tidbit of information:

he is from the satsuma domain. according to this artbook chart and to a quick wikipedia search:

with this we start to get an idea of what his possible relationships are with the main roster. the ryukyu kingdom was where maxi came from. and we see that yagaji, who is canonically the man who made maxi his nunchaku and a good friend of maxi, was also the personal weaponsmith for the ryukyu king.

we know that seidou himself was a direct agent sent to infiltrate the ryukyu kingdom

we know that he was trained in the jigen style sword technique. a quick wikipedia search tells us that this art style is actually native to the satsuma region. and his master was actually the founder of that style

bonus: his master and mitsurugi have fought before

its not a lot but its definitely more than you would expect a scrapped replacement character to have. i personally really hope he makes a comeback in this new timeline. i think he has great potential to have fun and interesting rivalries with maxi and with mitsurugi. his design would be such a waste if they did nothing with him, i would love for them to reconsider his place on the roster

[shinsengumi-archives]

An Assassination Attempt on Okita Souji

Abe Juro was a subordinate of Okita Souji in the First Squad.

After he and Itou Kashitaro separated from the Shinsengumi to form the Goryo-eji, he was no longer associated with Okita.

However, on December 18, Keio 3, he and his comrades, Utsumi Jiro (内海次郎) and Sawara Taro (佐原太郎), suddenly plotted to assassinate Okita.

What happened between Abe and Okita?

Before the incident

November 18, exactly one month before the incident. Itou Kashitaro, the leader of Abe's group, was attacked and killed by the Shinsengumi.

Abe escaped thanks to the fact that he and Utsumi had gone to Yamato at that time, but he fled to the Satsuma residence to escape the Shinsengumi's pursuit.

However, the Satsuma domain forbade them from going out for a month, along with other comrades who had also fled.

When Abe and his comrades finally received permission to go out in early December, the first thing they did was search for the Shinsengumi.

It's believed that during the time they were in hiding, they were determined to avenge Itou's death.

Then, on the evening of December 17. Kano Washio came across information that Okita was "hiding" at Kondo Isami's mistress's house in Rokujo.

The day of the incident

Abe Juro woke up at 4 a.m. the next morning and cut into the mistress's house with Utsumi and Sawara.

This is a so-called "night raid, morning attack" (夜討ち朝駈け) strategy.

Normally, this strategy seems to be used when a small number of men face a large number of enemies, but Okita was alone. Moreover, he was on his sickbed at that time.

Abe was skilled with a spear, and Utsumi Jiro was the head instructor at Itou Kashitaro's dojo. Sawara Taro was also described by Nishimura Kanefumi as "a master of swordsmanship", so it seems that he was quite skilled.

No matter how good Okita was, it might have been tough for him to fight against these three men with his illness.

In other words, Abe was wary of Okita that much.

However, Okita was not at the place where they planned to cut him down. Around 10 p.m. the night before, he had moved to Fushimi.

Mistaken assumptions

The reason why Okita was at the mistress's house in the first place is thought to have been a temporary refuge from the chaos of the Shinsengumi's move to Fushimi, as the Shinsengumi was moving out of their old headquarters and going to Fushimi.

Perhaps Abe and his colleagues could not grasp the fact that Okita would leave when the situation calmed down.

Nevertheless, they should have confirmed that Okita was home when they got the information and should have at least left a lookout.

It's said that Okita was lucky, but I think he was also helped by the lack of precision from Abe and his team.

And most of all, what they really needed to confirm was whether Okita was actually involved in the murder of Itou Kashitaro.

Abe's opinion of Okita

As it turned out, Okita was not involved in Itou Kashitaro's murder.

However, Abe seemed to have assumed that Okita must have been involved.

Abe's comments about Okita at the historical discussion meeting can be summarized as follows.

Okita was a cruel man

He acted like he didn't know there was an Imperial Court in this country

He was simply a good swordsman and used his swordsmanship well.

He only knew how to act for Kondo's sake

He killed people unnecessarily

This is a terribly negative evaluation. What in the world happened in the First Squad?

As for the 2nd point, Nagakura Shinpachi wrote that Okita was one of the members who discussed and worried about national affairs during his time in the Shieikan Dojo, so it doesn't mean that he didn't discuss national affairs.

However, Okita might have shrugged away from debates about national affairs in front of Abe and his colleagues and didn't take it seriously.

Okita's response seems very mature, as he knew the weight of his statements as an executive. But Abe must have taken his actions at face value.

Who was Abe Juro as a person?

Abe Juro was a man who was "smart, liked cleanness, a little short-sighted (=not thinking clearly, short-tempered), but very good with his hands and mouth (=speaks and acts well)", and had "a strong temper since childhood" (=nervous and irritable), and it seems he had a strong conviction.

From the contents of the historical talks, we get the impression that he was a hot-blooded man who was convinced of his own righteousness.

However, his belief in his own ideas may have led to the attempted assassination of Okita.

Okita was nearly killed by a false accusation.

I think it's important to confirm everything, not to act on assumptions. This is something I would like to always remind myself.

References

史談会速記録　第90輯　国会図書館蔵

大内町が生んだ幕末の風雲児　阿部十郎小伝　アベツトム (北方風土 : 北国の歴史民俗考古研究誌 (13)　北方風土社編)

新選組・高台寺党　市居浩一

浪士文久報告記事　永倉新八

[laikaflash]

Some observations on this section relationship chart in Legend of Soulcalibur. (Showing only the Ryukyu Kingdom half from page 15. The rest deals mostly with the Korean characters.) The darker green section is about Maxi himself (in the red-lined box) and his pirate crew. From left to right:

Maxi's father was a merchant connected with the royal palace. (I'm paraphrasing.)

His dying wish was for Maxi to see the vast world.

Maxi's crew form out of his father's merchant fleet. (Loosely paraphrasing.)

Out of all the named characters here, only his sworn brother Kyam (キャン) is in the darker green box with the rest of the crew.

Yagaji (ヤガジ), who made Maxi's nunchaku Fatibal, disembarks from the ship owing to his injuries. (I can't find specifics for the life of me.)

There's also Cadena (カデナ)... or Kadena in New Legends of Project Soul, but I'll get to that. She started tagging along after being rescued as a castaway by Maxi's father. She became a pirate, but ended up staying behind because she was too young. (Probably the reason for this throwaway line from Kyam in Maxi's Soul Chronicle after Lyla is invited aboard: "Tch. Cadena's gonna be jealous.") Also, she had a bit of a crush on Kyam. (Rough translation: "faint awakening of love".)

Li Long, under the alias Zhang Wu (張武) taught Maxi nunchaku techniques on a ship out of Japan. Bold move of him to use the name of the assassin sent after him for deserting (he's mentioned elsewhere in this book).

On the right, we're back on familiar territory with Astaroth wiping out (most of) Maxi's crew. And Kilik's friendship with Maxi.

I cut it off, but that bit at the top right is about Xianghua mistaking Maxi for Li Long. (I swear I'm not misreading that.)

Speaking of Yagaji and Cadena/Kadena, according to New Legends of Project Soul (page 121), they got together at some point and had a son Shushin. It seems that Sushin was meant to figure in a side-plot involving the invasion of Ryukyu by the Satsuma Domain's forces.

[redsamuraiii]

5 Trivia about The Last Samurai

Although The Last Samurai is known to be historically inaccurate, I realized that some part of it does make sense but the producers just tried to simplify it for the audience as not everyone knows the complex history of Japan.

1. Katsumoto and Hasegawa

They fought together for the Emperor but now they fight on opposing sides. 

Katsumoto 's character is based on Saigo Takamori of Satsuma .

Hasegawa is probably inspired by Hasegawa Yoshimichi of Choshu . 

Historically, Satsuma once supported the Shogunate (Shogun) while Choshu supported the Imperial (Emperor). But over time Satsuma realized the urgency of change and embrace new technology in the face of emerging Western Powers and that the decaying and stubborn Shogunate will destroy the country .

Satsuma join forces with Choshu to overthrow the Shogunate. After they succeeded, Satsuma realized they got played as the new Imperial government is dominated by Choshu instead of having lords from various clans to govern the country and retaining the Samurai way of life but with modern technology .

This sparks the Satsuma Rebellion against the Imperial (Emperor) where former Samurai rallied to Saigo Takamori. While the Imperial is fully modernized and equipped with guns and canons, Satsuma has limited supplies by then and the Ronin that rallied to the cause are poor and uses Katana and arrows.

2. Guns and Samurai

So yes, guns are available since the time of Oda Nobunaga who changed the way of war in Japan and the number of guns used in battle increases as time goes by so one would think that by the time The Last Samurai takes place everyone should have guns right? 

While the movie showed Katsumoto as a man of principles to not use modern weapons but there is a practical reason : money. After the collapse of the Shogunate, the Imperial strip the Samurai of their lands, earnings and status, so they became poor and could not afford to buy more guns.

Guns are not cheap, especially when there is high demand for the European traders to make profit. A reason why in the early days, some Kyushu lords convert to Christianity. Not out of faith but to get exclusive deals of cheap new guns in exchange of allowing the priests into their domains to preach.

3. Poor Samurai

Where is Katsumoto's castle? Every Daimyo has his own castle. As mentioned, since the Samurai are stripped of their lands, the Castles are now under the control of the Imperial. So Katsumoto withdrew to the mountains of his ancestral place at his son’s village, where the monks and peasants are.

Here he reflected his past actions, probably regretting what he had done and seen at Aizu. While the Satsuma are reasonable but the Choshu are less forgiving due to their personal grudges with the Tokugawa Shogunate that strip away their lands and dignity after their defeat at Sekigahara . 

In the Japanese Drama, Yae No Sakura , when the Imperials entered Aizu, the Satsuma was shocked to find most of the defenders are women and children who committed seppuku to avoid capture, lying dead all over Aizu, which disturbed the commander who was expecting Samurai and foot soldiers.

I like to think this commander is Katsumoto which is why he understands what Algren was feeling knowing that they both do not deserve to live. 

4.The European Samurai

Nathan Algren is based on Jules Brunet of the French military who was sent to Japan by Napoleon III to train the Japanese in modern weaponry. He was caught in the crossfire when the Boshin War broke out and received orders to return home to France but he rejected it to stay and fight with the Samurai.

He trained the Aizu Samurai and develop comradeship with them, particularly with the Vice Commander of the Shinsengumi , Hijikata Toshizo . Although Jules Brunet did not wear Samurai armor but he did fought alongside them till the end until the death of Hiijikata at Hokkaido when they were outnumbered.

But Jules Brunet managed to return safely to France just as Nathan Algren survived the war. And just as Nathan Algren talked to the Emperor about how Katsumoto lived his life as a Samurai, Jules Brunet wrote in his memoir, holding Hiijikata Toshizo in high regard , referring to him as the last true Samurai.

5. English Speaking Samurai

Since the arrival of the Europeans and Black Ships, the Samurai have been studying in earnest about Western medicine and technology, hoping to elevate their standing on the world platform and be an equal to the European powers as they fear of what happened to China in Opium Wars happen to them next. Not all, but the high ranking Samurai, especially those on the West of Japan like the Satsuma and Choshu who have been trading with Europeans for many years and have begun learning their languages ​​​​​so it is of no surprise that Katsumoto knows English which he teaches his son as well.

Besides, unlike the early days of the Samurai, during the 300 years of peace and isolation under Tokugawa Shogunate, the Samurai learn to read and write in order to help the Shogun administer and govern the country including land surveying, tax collecting and accounting balance sheets .

Thoughts

Overall I think the producers did an amazing job simplifying the long and complex history of Boshin War and Meiji Restoration in a span of two hours plus movie without exaggerating. For a historical fiction I think it's pretty great. After all it'a not a documentary but a masterpiece meant to be enjoyed, filled with spirituality and life lessons. 

But that is a story for another time. Thank you for reading.

[book-girl4evaaa]

hi bea! i hope you’ve had a lovely day and had breakfast <3 if you didn’t what are you doing go eat

i just wanted to tell you that when i first saw your blog, i got super ridiculously excited because my favorite oc is called bea so. yeah. i really love her and some nicknames i gave her is like “bea-bug” or just “bug” because this girl loves bugs sm she knows waayyyy too many facts about them

have a good day and ily

sorry for taking so long to answer this I put it in drafts lol

I had a nice satsuma for breakfast which was good!

OMG SHE SOUNDS SO CUTE I LOVE HER ALREADY!!! I get the blurting facts that's so me, but space and physics are more my domain lol

It's so cool I chose the same name as your oc!

[kyndaris]

Tosa Calling

Although I know it's been a year since Like a Dragon: Ishin! released, it wasn't until I came back from my trip to Japan that I managed to find some time to sink into the hefty title. I know, I know. It's shameful! But in my defence, last year I was swamped with games. And lengthy ones to boot!

I mean, given the evidence, I think, dear readers, it would not be wrong for me to ask that y'all give a gal a break. Especially because playing video games and writing up my impressions of them is a hobby. And having a full-time job does not make playing games, reading books and writing stories any easier. Throw in the FOMO from watching whatever is popular on streaming and also socialising with real-life people, I think the fact I manage to get through games at such a steady clip is a commendable exercise.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Or, at controller, if you'll pardon the terrible attempt at wordplay.

Unlike the Yakuza games that came before it, Like a Dragon: Ishin! is a game set in the mid-1800s as Japan grappled with foreign diplomatic and military pressure to change. And instead of stepping into the shoes of Kiryu Kazuma, players are thrust into the shoes of one Sakamoto Ryoma - a real-life historical figure who advocated for democracy, return of power to the Imperial Court, abolition of feudalism and the modernisation of Japan during the Bakumatsu period.

Of course, Like a Dragon: Ishin! does take a more fanciful approach to their interpretation of history as they have Ryoma playing double-duty with another real-life historical figure: Saito Hajime - Captain of the Shinsengumi's 3rd Division.

But, hey, what's a bit of artistic licence to give us some excellent blockbuster action scenes and build up a conspiracy about the Tosa loyalist party and the best interests of the budding nation of Japan? Why not even throw in a fight with Scottish merchant Thomas Glover too (which was passingly strange for me to deal with considering I visited Glover Garden while I was in Nagasaki while in Japan and failed to find nary a mention of how the man duked it out with Ryoma with a set of twin pistols)?

As always, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio keeps the main story dramatic and relatively grounded with Ryoma on a quest for revenge when his adoptive father Yoshida Toyo is assassinated. The majority of the game then takes place in Kyo (the modern day equivalent being Kyoto) as Ryoma tries to hunt down the man responsible. He does so by deducing the style of swordplay and looking for dojos who teach Tennen Rishin.

It isn't long before he is informed that the Tennen-Rishi is practiced by the Shinsengumi. Ryoma soon joins the organisation, hoping to whittle down who among the captains was the killer.

Along the way, he must deal with a second 'Sakamoto Ryoma' who is trading with guns and other weapons to the Satsuma Domain and hatch a civil war in Japan in order to take out the Shogunate that had reined for nigh on 300 years. It later turns out that this second 'Sakamoto Ryoma' is his brother and leader of the Tosa Loyalist Party: Takechi Hanpeita (another real-life historical figure).

While the game does incorporate actual historical events such as the Ikedaya incident and the assassination of Sakamoto Ryoma at Omiya Inn, it does certainly take quite a few liberties of the actual events. Like how the person assassinated at Omiya Inn was just a stand-in and both the actual Ryoma and his brother Takechi survived for a final battle back in Tosa as they engage in battle due to competing ideologies.

From a gameplay perspective, Ishin! only really incorporates one of the fighting styles from the Yakuza games. This, being of course, the brawler style. As Ryoma is a samurai, he also had a swordsman style (my default one that I used for most of the game) and mixed it up with the occasional use of a revolver. While these all had a variety of different abilities, I found myself focusing on swordsman and wild dance throughout most of my playthrough as they easily ripped through the fodder you faced on the streets and were mighty effective against bosses as well.

Unlike the other games, Ishin! also introduced the concept of troopers. This boosted Ryoma's health and granted him additional abilities that could be triggered in the midst of battle, such as triggering additional damage or conjuring a gravity well to draw all the enemies to one part of the battle arena.

This helped mix-up the combat, especially after hours of using the same moves and combos throughout the game.

Boss battles, too, forced me to vary my strategy. Rather than brute forcing my way through most enemies, I'd often have to play more defensively - seeking to use my stronger attacks only when necessary and throwing in the occasional heat action to give Ryoma some breathing space.

But while the story and the combat are worthy of praise, it was the side content in Ishin! that stole my heart. I loved all the wacky stories Ryoma somehow got suckered into. As is RGG tradition, there are also numerous minigames such as singing and buyo dancing. True, it didn't have a crane minigame but it DID allow me to play rock, paper, scissors with a geisha.

And my gosh, I have never been so glad my mother doesn't often see what I'm playing when I first went through the song: Truehearted Samurai. Initially, I was confused there were live-action actors. Then, I was bewildered when they started acting flirtatious even as I was trying to nail most of the notes for the very fast-paced song.

To be fair, the Sensual Healing portion of the geisha interactions also earned a raised eyebrow from me.

As for buyo dancing, it was probably the most tame of the mini-games (at least when it came to salacious material), but it was difficult to master. I'm no slouch when it comes to rhythm games and I very much enjoyed the dancing mini-games in Yakuza 5 and Lost Judgment but Ishin! was a different beast entirely with how it implemented its controls.

Overall though, Ishin! is a must-play for Yakuza fans. Though its replaced the shady crime drama with an historical period plot, it still retains the heart and soul of the Yakuza games. Especially because many of the character models have been reused, like Kiryu Kazuma acting as both Sakamoto Ryoma and Saito Hajime. Then there's Goro Majima as Okita Soji and Taiga Saejima as Nagakura Shinpachi.

Oft times, I had to ask myself if I wasn't just playing another Yakuza game with just a historical skin on top.

True, maybe I should have instead dived into Rise of the Ronin (I will play this game eventually as I've actually bought it), but Ishin! took precedence. Besides, it's not every day that one gets to play as THE Sakamoto Ryoma.

For anyone who might say otherwise, I'll shall simply retort with: ee ja nai ka.

[teatitty]

Sorachi fucked up a lot by always putting Katsura on standby but you know who else he fucked up on? Sakamoto. You can't give me a character based on the Sakamoto Ryouma, a famed revolutionary who was a huge part of the Meiji Restoration and who ended up getting fucking assassinated because the big guys in charge saw him as such a threat and then do barely anything with said character.

Ryouma established a critical alliance between the Choshu and Satsuma domains, which in turn provided the backbone for the forces that overthrew the fucking Tokugawa in the Boshin War, and he survived one assassination attempt at the Teryada Inn

Tatsuma should've absolutely been way more involved with Takasugi because guess what? Ryouma and Shinsaku [the basis for our Shinsuke] actually did meet and know one another. On top of this, Ryouma wrote a rather famous letter to his sister, Otome, wherein he declared he wanted to "Wash Japan clean."

There's just so much Sorachi could've done with those historical influences and it's maddening that he never touched on any of them, especially given how famous Ryouma is as one of Japan's great heroes

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: The Tax Man Cometh

Ah, tax season. That time of year when the weather is veering from cold to thunderstorms and otherwise upset, but not nearly as upset as the harrowed souls tangling with the labyrinth that is the U.S. tax code.

Mine needed at least eight separate sheets of paper (any amount of royalties counts as self-employed and that is a lot of paperwork), meaning I always bring the envelope to the post office directly to be weighed and have correct postage applied. If the government loses my forms again, it’s not going to be a fault on my end.

...I had someone ask what I was doing as I was photocopying said forms at the library. Evidently it wasn’t obvious.

“Why would you want to do that?”

In case the government loses the originals. Again.

“But that would never happen!”

For a moment I could only blink at her, because this lady was at least a decade or so older than me, meaning way more than old enough to know better. Because it has to me in the past. On at least three separate occasions. How do people sail through life this oblivious?

...Anyway. If you have a government in your world, you have taxes. Even if it’s something as simple as “I’m the head of this clan, I get first pick of everything.” How taxes are collected, and what they’re used for, make a big difference in how your society works, whether or not trade and technological advancement are supported or discouraged, how upset people are with the government in general, and how much power they have to do anything about it.

One of the ways taxes make a big difference is, are they collected in kind, in a specific produced thing, or in money? In a lot of Asian countries, for example, taxes were often historically collected in rice. In the short term this was relatively convenient for the government, which could assess land for its potential rice production and assign taxes accordingly; not to mention acquiring the rice necessary to feed the court, with extra to sell for everything else. But there are several potential problems. Bad weather and famine years would hit marginal farmers with a double whammy; they couldn’t produce enough rice to pay their own taxes, and they couldn’t buy enough food to stay alive. In contrast good years meant the price of rice dropped and the government was suddenly short of cash. Demanding taxes in rice instead of money also forces more people to stay in agriculture, even if the area is better suited to, say, herding, fishing, or long-distance trade. And one of the things about taxing in rice that was particularly convenient to the Tokugawa Shogunate starting out bit them in the rear big-time over two centuries later.

I’m going to elaborate on this because it’s interesting, especially if you’re a Rurouni Kenshin fan. If you’ve looked into the Bakumatsu, you know two of the major drivers of it were the Satsuma and Choushu domains. What you may not know is that when Tokugawa Ieyasu assigned domains and assessed taxes for the Shogunate (which were then mostly followed for centuries after), is that those two domains in particular had been very hard-hit by the Onin War a century before the whole Tokugawa takeover, and thus had lost a lot of farms, and on top of that had land that was otherwise undeveloped. So... their taxes were assessed relatively low, compared to the farmland they potentially had.

Mind, it took them two centuries to realize the whole potential of what they had. But the Shogunate kept on trucking with the same assessed taxes, counting on alternate attendance to keep the daimyo too poor to make trouble. And eventually Choshu and Satsuma... weren’t that poor. And other nations were knocking on the doors, able and willing to sell firearms, among other things....

Taxes, like everything else government does, have consequences. Give them some thought for your world!

[bakumatsu-assassin]

AUGUST 20, 1864

@nobuverse The scorching heat of the final month of summer engulfed the bustling streets of Kyoto, the very heart of imperial power in Japan. The heavily guarded Palace stood tall, a symbol of protection, with samurai from different domains, especially the Aizu and Satsuma, ensuring its safety. Tensions ran high, and the warriors of the sword found little respite on this eventful day.

Following the signing of equal treaties, the Shogun was forced to open Japan's ports to foreign traders, breaking away from the long-standing sakoku policy. This decision sparked widespread discontent, and the people united under the cry of "expelling the barbarians." The consequences were severe, leading to numerous assassinations by both pro-imperial sympathizers and anti-foreigner groups.

Amidst this tumultuous atmosphere, Leopold Lafleche, an Assassin from the French Parisian Brotherhood, found himself amidst the foreigners present in Kyoto. His mission was to support the fragile Tokugawa against the Imperial Court, but he faced disdainful looks from the guards. Struggling with the language and customs, he was seen as an outsider, a "barbarian" in their eyes.

Unfazed by the hostile glares, Leopold scoffed, caring little for their judgment. The Brotherhood had sent him on a mission, and any grievances could be taken up with the Shogun himself. Preparing for action, he loaded five rounds of Col .36 cartridges into his single-action revolver, securing it in his leather holster.