#Translated from Russian

[shinsengumi-archives]

Shimabara (part 1)

I looked for Kyoto's red light district several times. First on a map. Shimabara is not marked on modern maps. And for a while I seriously thought that there was nothing left of it, just like Tokyo's Yoshiwara. Then I found out that Shimabara is a real place. And it's not that far from our house. Well, it's about half an hour by bike.

The next stage was several attempts to find Shimabara by car. After riding back and forth a couple of times on highways that are supposed to pass near Shimabara and from which we saw no sign of this Shimabara, my husband said he was bored with this entertainment.

Eventually I got on my bike and decided: Even if die, I'll find it. I made it to the bus stop at the back of the Nishi-Hongan-ji temple, which is called "Shimabara-guchi" (Shimabara's Gate, sort of). Having parked my bike to make sure that I wouldn't miss it on foot, I went for a spin around the surrounding streets. I found a Shimabara Hospital, Shimabara Police Station, and even the Shimabara post office (pictured below). Everything said it was around here somewhere. But where?!!

I passed a small flower store on the corner of a narrow, crooked street a few times. The owners were busy outside setting up their merchandise, and clearly noticed the gaijin girl walking around. I was about to give up and ask them where the hell Shimabara was, but the crooked, narrow street leading away from the store suddenly winked at me from lurking around the corner...

That's it! That's it!!! This is the main gate of Shimabara, Shimabara Daimon (or Omon). The eastern, front gate, one of only two that were, and the only one that survived. The entire perimeter of the block was surrounded by a wall, a couple pieces of which remain on either side of the gate. The gate itself is a copy of the gate of Shimabara Castle (located on the territory of current Nagasaki prefecture), which was captured during the suppression of the uprising of Japanese Christians by Tokugawa Iemitsu's troops in 1638. Actually, according to the most common version, the "Shimabara" neighborhood, which moved to this location in 1641, got its name from the castle. Apparently, there was a funny saying: "The brave visitors of the entertainment quarters were invited to bravely take the beauties by storm. And there is no fortress that will not be conquered".

Remains of a stone water basin. Rinse your hands. 

And outside the gate. It's nothing special. Just a regular residential urban neighborhood. Modern houses and cars. A tangle of wires overhead. And only the gray tiles underfoot mark the former Shimabara hanamachi.

You see that? The asphalt changes to tile in the place where there was once a wall enclosing the neighborhood.

The first thing we found in the former entertainment quarters was a hotel with an onsen called Makoto no yu (Makoto bathhouse). Shinsengumi fans, enjoy. Hopefully, customer autopsies are not on the menu.

A stone's throw from the bathhouse is the former Wachigaiya 輪違屋 tea house. It was founded in 1688. It's now closed to the general public, although periodically events are held there with the last incumbent tayu of Shimabara. And Wachigaiya has served as the setting for several feature films of Shimabara life. Including a romance about the Shinsengumi, who were frequent visitors to the entertainment district.

The door was ajar, see? I stuck my nose in there and blew loudly. But no one came out. Judging by the complete absence of any clear signs describing a brief history of the institution, the house is private. And according to the presence of all the proper stickers above the door (gas, electricity, television, etc.) - the house is residential and random outsiders are not allowed to look inside. However, there is nothing particularly valuable in this institution. It's a standard tea house of an entertainment district: on the first floor they walk in and get drinks, on the second floor there are "rooms" where you can be alone with the girl of your choice.

A little farther down the street from Wachigaiya was a tiny cemetery wedged between the houses. These tombstones (darker in the center) were placed during the Edo period. Perhaps one of Shimabara's brothel dwellers was also buried here. I haven't found any confirmation of this theory (nor any refutation, for that matter), but I like to think so. Where have the residents of the neighborhood been buried for the last four hundred years?

Adjacent to the cemetery is an equally tiny Buddhist temple called Hokke-ji 法華寺. It has very interesting tiles on the edge of the roof, I haven't seen such a thing until now. The temple is said to belong to the Nichiren Buddhist sect. But it has nothing to do with Shimabara proper as a licensed entertainment district: the temple was built on this site eight hundred years before Shimabara so it has its own agenda.

It's an old house. From the architecture, it looks like it used to be some kind of food establishment. But now it looks like just a residential building.

And this is the corner of the biggest and most famous structure in Shimabara: an ageya called Sumiya. Ageya 揚屋 is a type of establishment. It's not a tea house, a restaurant, or a brothel. It's a kind of closed elite club where only certain members of the public are allowed in and only on recommendation. It's where they gather to discuss important business or to talk about elegant things, where beautiful and educated women are invited to enhance the conversation with their brilliance. Sumiya 角屋 is the name of this ageya.

The front, guest entrance to Sumiya. It's closed to regular visitors. Tourists can enter through the back entrance, which leads to the kitchen and "office".

The street along which Sumiya stretched. It's about the width of one car.

I reached the other side of Shimabara.

There was once a second, western, gate in the wall around the block, smaller, not preserved. Only a black granite plaque reminds us that it was here.

Shimabara Sumiyoshi jinja Shrine. One of the many Sumiyoshi temples under the Osaka Sumiyoshi-taisha. The temple is quite tiny, but it is well-maintained and appears to be open to visitors.

On the curb surrounding the tree on the temple's territory, someone had placed either toys or some kind of memorial sign. It was completely unclear why, and there was no one to ask.

Everything is like in big temples, only smaller.

The temple is surrounded by a low granite fence. Each pillar is a donation from someone whose name is carved on the stone.

After going around all the surrounding gardens, which turned out to be fewer than I thought, I went back to Sumiya. I had to see the inside, right? It's a unique structure, by the way, there aren't many of them left. An ageya was a combination of a strict and spacious samurai dwelling and a richly decorated merchant's house combined with an office.

Interior courtyard. View of the front entrance from inside. The entrance itself is behind a curtain with Sumiya's coat of arms on it. Behind me is the door to the kitchen and other utility rooms, which take up almost a third of the entire area. And to the left is the passageway to the guest rooms.

Stone carving at the entrance, a place for travelers to wash. Also with the coat of arms of the institution.

The kitchen area. The kitchen itself, where cooking is done, is on the left. At the center is the entrance to the working and business area. This is where they dealt with vendors and conducted other business that kept the place alive.

Above the entrance there is a "pocket" where they insert plaques with the names of the ladies who are entertaining the guests today. Tayu and geisha. Shimabara had its own geiko and maiko who delighted guests with singing and dancing.

There's a palanquin parked out front. Doesn't look so worn, so probably no one's ever ridden in it.

The entrance to the kitchen and a bench for visitors. The beautiful carvings represent again the Sumiya coat of arms.

Cooking stove. From the size of this place, it could feed an army.

The dishwashing area. There was a well from the old times, and the water supply system was installed in the 20th century.

"Ceiling" in the kitchen and "pipe". There were no chimneys in the literal sense in the local houses. Smoke rose freely from the stove and spread throughout the available space. Therefore, in machiya houses, kitchens were very separate from living spaces.

[continued]

[uhcasual]

All illustrations for The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Russian Edition Exclusives, Volume 5

Finally got my hands on the russian истари/Istari publication volume 5 for Mo Dao Zu Shi, so here are high resolution scans of the art exclusive to this particular edition. The art here portrays events that occur in the post-storyline extras.

Full resolution available for download here (tumblr compresses images a little)

Illustration Artist: Marina Privalova (Baoshan Karo)

[Vol. 1] - [Vol. 2] - [Vol. 3] - [Vol. 4] - [Vol. 5] (part 1)

[emfudya]

Dare to be stupid

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

Levels of understanding other slavic languages

oh we also have X and it means the same!

that looks like X but misspelled

that's just the archaic variant of X

this sounds a lot like Y from another slavic language I know which means X in mine so this almost 100% also means X

this word is completely different but I can kinda tell the meaning from the morphology

what

okay right now I'm gonna have to dissect the entirety of this language's history to figure out how the FUCK did y'all get to the point of calling X that and not something more normal

I wanted to ask for X and accidentally called someone a whore

[feroluce]

I like to imagine that when Boothill is alone with Dan Heng, he feels safe enough that he just kind of lets his body relax a bit, and quits trying to keep such a close eye on his internal workings or run shit as optimally as possible. So he lets his cooling fans kick on and whir a bit without worry.

Dan Heng: What is that sound.

Boothill: Coolin' fans. It botherin' ya?

Dan Heng: It's fine. Please don't halt them on my account.

Boothill: Arright.

Dan Heng: (....purring....)

[vesna-v-irkutske]

is artyoms letter about rats in his prison cell real? i saw it on a tg channel and ngl his writing style is lowkey cutie patootie (his grammar fucking sucks tho)

I think it is real, but I haven't seen the letter itself. You saw ONE obvious mistake and called him uneducated. But your tongue turned to call him cute, I'm shook. 🙄

🐀 Artyom's story about the rat from the toilet:

"When in our detention center, the so-called Red building, where convicts sentenced to life imprisonment are held, was undergoing repairs, it was exactly on their floor, i.e. on the ground floor. I don't know how it is in other places, but in our detention center, while I was there, repairs of various kinds were carried out all year round. Well, it was just some kind of the end of the world =) They began to dismantle the floors, apparently they were doing something with pipes, and the rats became so uncomfortable that they decided to rush to where the floors were more intact, i.e. to the cells =D And just imagine: so I sleep at night, I don't touch anyone and I wake up to the squeaking of these cute creatures coming from the toilet =) I boil the kettle, pour boiling water into this stinking abyss and realize that they're swimming somewhere there, and they just need some hot water to be added =) In general, zero emotions =) Well, okay, I went back to bed. And then this sweetie climbs out all covered in piss, it's been who knows where, excuse me =) Like it strolled businesslike through the toilet and dived back about its rat business. Well, nothing to do with local history, of course =) But I remembered something, and I decided to share!"

[molathesunfish]

my limbus bugs mainly based on characters that may or may not show up later... and one mystery feature for your guessing fun:]

[redroom-peterparker]

An email arrives one day, from an encoded address

“My name is Ben Reilly, formerly Peter Parker. I have work if you’d like, if not friendship”

@not-your-peter-parker

Pytor opens his phone and sees the email. He almost deletes it but his AI, Karen, speaks in his ear.

“I wouldn’t do that boss” she says. “You have been looking for every vigilante and merc possible and one reaches out to you. You’re just going to delete it?”

Pytor groans. “I have nothing. No information on a ‘Ben Reilly’. How do I know I can trust him?” He asks

“You dont. But then again, you don’t know if you can trust anyone anymore. The only thing you can do is try. And if it doesn’t work out, you can kill him.

“Fine. But I am blaming you if anything goes wrong” Pytor says as he answers the email

[jude-harley]

how could yulia lyuricheva possibly not be gay? she literally has yuri in her name

[faaun]

the way that diff languages sound r so fascinating they're all different and all so vivid

[movermort]

webtoon version

[shinsengumi-archives]

Shimabara (part 2)

Continued from part 1

I don't know what this drawer is. Logically, I'd use it for keys, because it's near the exit. But who knows what's really in there?

View from the kitchen to the inside of the "business" area. A staircase leads to the second floor, where there are living rooms for the owners and servants.

A small Shinto altar on the wall near the stairs.

An office for vendor payments and bookkeeping. The owner's seat of power.

Right above the desk on the wall is an arsenal for when negotiations go wrong. Or for escorting uninvited guests out.

The entrance to the guest room is clearly visible from the business area. This thing near the entrance is a katana rack. The guests who came in used to put their swords in here. Maybe even get room numbers. And to the left, behind closed doors, is the staircase to the second floor, where there are also guest rooms, but smaller in size. Unfortunately, I didn't get in. They go there only on scheduled tours and under the supervision of a guide. It's not allowed to take photos there: some of the decorations of the rooms were made by famous artists and craftsmen and are National Treasures of Japan. Such a palace.

One of the first floor guest rooms. Here the guests dined in a pleasant relaxing atmosphere, talking about life and business. Or poetry.

Sumiya was founded in 1641, the same year as Shimabara itself. The Nakagawa family owned the place for 13 generations until the building was taken over by the state in 1952. The interiors were decorated by some of the most famous artists of the Edo period, including Yosa Buson, Maruyama Okyo, Kishi Ganku, Yamada Gazan, and Emura Shoen.

The same room from another corner overlooking a small courtyard garden.

In the 18th century, Sumiya was the regular gathering place of the haiku poets' club, the so-called "Shimabara Haidan". The 6th and 7th owners of Sumiya were friends with Buson and Taigi (a haiku poet). The establishment's archives contain poems written by these buddies during these creative dinners.

One of the indoor gardens. It was the middle of March, so everything was so bare and cold. I became cold pretty quickly myself, by the way. As you can see, everything is wide open. And the temperature in the place is the same as the ambient temperature. Ten degrees. And you only wear socks on the tatami.

A passageway to the back of the house, towards the most luxurious and largest of the guest rooms.

There it is. On the opposite side are the painted fusuma by Kishi Renzan.

The room opens to a large courtyard garden.

In the foreground is a wisteria. In the garden, three separate tea houses are hidden in different corners. One of them is clearly visible on the right.

Ranma - carved wooden panels under the ceiling.

Tokonoma, front corner. Where one hangs scrolls appropriate to the season and/or situation and places all sorts of beautiful things, from seasonal flowers to small sculptures by famous artists.

Fine and luxurious finishing of all details.

A continuation of the same wall.

"Tenbukuro" - cabinets below the ceiling. Notice how the "handles" are decorated.

"Phoenixes and paulownia" painting. Kishi Renzan, late 18th century.

A corner of the garden. Other buildings of the Sumiya can be seen.

Tour guide tells an anecdote from the Bakumatsu. In June 1863, the then-formal head of the Shinsengumi unit, Serizawa Kamo, got drunk and went on a rampage in one of the rooms on the second floor. The drunken samurai refused to pay his bill and, after picking on some petty detail, began smashing the furniture in the room with his sword. The tokonoma of the affected room still has notches from the sword. And in September of the same year, on this very spot, where the guide stands, Serizawa Kamo sat with his friends, and Kondo Isami and Hijikata Toshizo, who organized a party for their already condemned former commander, were trying to get him drunk. this was Serizawa's final night.

Around the same time period, Sakamoto Ryoma and Saigo Takamori entertained wealthy merchants in Sumi-ya, trying to persuade them to shell out money to restore the Emperor.

The Sumiya has always been known for its neutral political leanings. You could meet anyone here.

Interesting screen door clips.

A phoenix head on a painted fusuma.

And fusuma handles shaped like paulownia leaves.

From this room, a small bridge leads to another part of the house, more private if the case is particularly secret or if the guest has achieved privacy with the tayu.

The path to the tea house. To enjoy a tea ceremony with geisha or tayu in peace and quiet.

View of the second floor from the small courtyard garden. Nothing interesting, a blank wall.

A lantern in the same garden.

Shimabara Daimon from the inside. I've finally walked around and I'm crawling home.

[terrumdurak]

under full moon the young official meets the immortal

my OCs, xianxia au

art process

I've also did a synopsis for the hypothetical storyline:

"A young official, follower of Confucianism, one day encounters a Taoist who has achieved immortality. They have long talks, play weiqi, drink tea - the Taoist doesn't drink wine.

Several months pass this way, and one day the young official quits his service to cultivate immortality."

Their names are Yang Qiangren for the official and Mingtian ("tomorrow" bc he has to have the most weird name possible) for the immortal

[e1ectricwords]

uh

inspired by that one uni hc i had

If you liked this, check out the Masterlist

[jxmey]

actual conversation between me and my bf

convo between me and my bf after i showed him this shitpost

EDITED 5.24.24 BECAUSE I DID INDEED SCUFF THE RUSSIAN AND ALLIGAYTORSWAMP VERY KINDLY CORRECTED ME SO THANK YOUUUU ALKDSFGKLF

[skeletalheartattack]

Subtitles below the keep reading:

Hey you, shut your mouth and look at my paw! DON'T FORGET!! [Incomprehensible sped up gibberish] This... Journey... Money... Loads of coins. [Incomprehensible sped up gibberish] What-about-her? What-about-her? ... What-about-her? 'She still like me? [Quiet but mostly incomprehensible gibberish about subtitles] O P S O P N O-1 1. Here's the spell: Love the mermaid, for sure! The mermaid is HAPPY! Okay! It's pretty normal for a fish, right? Guuuyyyssss, beeeee caaarefuuulll wiiiiith theeee GIIIIIRRRRLSSS!!! [Incomprehensible] Oh! Silly! Oh yes! Lamb chop boy! [Incomprehensible] [Very quietly, while white noise is playing over it] Goood eevening, aand weeelcome too the shoooowww... [In the background] Ohhh, mooney!