#gokaido

[gxoneshotduelist]

GX Oneshot Duelist Tournament - Round One Match 29

Houzan Gokaido aka Reginald "Reggie" Van Howell III VS Ran Kochou aka Missy

[szkin-art]

Gokaido's Volcano design is a nightmarish support unit that uses a variety of thermal weapons to suppress armor and deny infantry. Using weaponry from USSR nations, it provides a cheap supplement to any force - with the caveat that fielding it inevitably proves controversial.

Another mech design commission for the Metallurgent TTRPG.

[odessasilver]

How I pick my story locations

Story locations are always a tricky part of story idea forming, especially when you are based in the real world. Japan is a country with many different sceneries from warm beaches to mountains to snow. Many of my stories are located up and down the country but how do I choose where each one will be? Are there places I won’t go at all?

There are two ways I approach a story idea, one is that something in particular inspires me, and I build around it, and the location is a part of that. The other is I find an idea and location can almost be anywhere, so I’m free to mentally wander up and down the country until it feels right. However, I know that none of my stories will be located in the far south islands of Japan, such as Okinawa. I know there is a different dialect this far south, even with different words such as haisai for hello instead of konnichiwa. These words ground characters into their surroundings, and I don’t know enough about them, or the difference in Okinawan culture to do it justice.

The same goes for Hokkaido, which is where the indigenous Ainu people of Japan live. During the 1800s (the end of the timeframe I am writing in) there were many atrocities against these people, including forced assimilation with Japanese people and cultural genocide. This sort of topic would require a lot of research and knowledge I might not be able to find, and feels out of the scope of what I can do. It would be lovely to write about the Ainu people sometime in the future, however, if I’m able to learn enough.

So, when choosing a location, I stay within the bulk of Japan, from Aomori prefecture in the north, to Kagoshima prefecture in the south.

With many of my stories, I have a vague idea of the scenery around. Such as with The Cry of the Raijuu, I placed it in a village in the forest. I knew the city wasn’t too far away and that it was a moderately warm climate. So I looked on Japan’s map and searched for a similar area, and realised that Hirotoshi’s village was somewhere in Nara prefecture.

For One, Two, Three I realised that the town was quite prosperous and I looked into towns which bloomed along the five routes (gokaido), that linked cities together. Many used it to travel, and rested at towns along the way, and many towns grew from the wealth.

The same went for any stories where farming was mentioned, I researched into which prefectures did the most farming, even down to what they farmed, and tried to get it as accurate as possible.

When it came to writing Tanuki Troubles, I could have located it anywhere, as tanuki are known throughout the whole country, however I picked Nigata prefecture as it is where the most tanuki lore is from. I initially wanted to locate them on Sado Island (which is off the coast of Nigata prefecture) where a tanuki shrine can be found, but I found it limiting for my characters exploration. Sado Island is known for the tanuki lore of Danzaburou, a very mischievous tanuki who controlled hundreds of tanuki which ganged up to play with humans. However, Danzaburou was also kind and lent out money to those in need interest-free. With such a huge character already known on the island, I felt like I couldn’t not have him in the story, but he also didn’t fit in mine. So the easiest thing to do was relocate to mainland Nigata instead.

Of all my locations, the one which has surprised me the most is that Broken Waves is set in Kanagawa prefecture. I was looking at all the things I mentioned in my first draft, the sea, the fields, the mountain, and matched it up to farming prefectures. And then I realised Kanagawa fit perfectly. Which would make the mountain in my story Mount Fuji. As soon as I realised this, I loved it so much, as my favourite piece of artwork is Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa, and laughed at the possibility in my alternate world that Susnaoo’s wave could have inspired it.

Three of my stories had a more concrete location which I had to build on; Beneath Tsukuyomi, Survival, and Lonely Waters. The former came about while I wrote a short piece about where Hotaka was before the events, and researched into the prefectures where the Takeda clan inhabited. After that, it was easier to figure out where the location was.

For Survival, I was inspired by the Akita and Gifu festival and chose the latter area to locate the story, as it wasn’t too far from where Beneath Tsukuyomi was. For this story, the location didn’t matter as much as trying to keep the festival accurate, as different prefectures have different festivals.

Most recently I wrote Lonely Waters which includes kappa. They are water yokai known for loving rivers and lakes, so for this story I started with the location as my research. I chose Lake Inawashiro which is the fourth largest lake in Japan, and easily home to many kappa without detection, and then built the town around the information I found.

Of the two types, I prefer to find the story then work out where in Japan it is located as I find it fun. I like to compare the feel of my story in my head with ones I have written and what I know, and slowly home in on the rough area where you’d find my characters, living their lives. One day I’ll have a map of all the locations and you can see how well I’ve done.

[evasionsrebelles]

Nakasendo

Le Nakasendo est une ancienne route reliant Kyoto à Edo (aujourd'hui Tokyo) qui a commencé à prendre forme vers le 7ème siècle. #japon #voyage #tourisme #culture #evasion #kyoto #tokyo #nakasendo

Le Nakasendo est une ancienne route reliant Kyoto à Edo (aujourd'hui Tokyo) qui a commencé à prendre forme vers le 7ème siècle. Dans la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle, le shogunat Tokugawa, le gouvernement central de l'époque, en fit l'un des Gokaido (ou cinq grands axes routiers) qui étaient sous son contrôle direct et qui rayonnaient d'Edo, le centre du gouvernement jusqu'au reste du pays. Le…

[fujiwara57]

Gokaidō 五街道

Le Gokaidō 五街道 correspond à cinq voies majeures partant de la ville d'Edo 江戸 aujourd'hui Tōkyō 東京 :

Tōkaidō 東海道 - route de Tōkaidō (645-1867) - partait en direction de l'est, vers Kyōto 京都, en suivant la côte de l'océan Pacifique (taiheiyou 太平洋) (53 stations),

Nakasendō 中山道 ou Kisokaidō 木曾街道 (1603 - 1867) - route de 200 km d'Edo 江戸 à Kyōto 京都 à travers les montagnes, au centre d'Honshū 本州 (69 stations),

Kōshū Kaidō 甲州街道 - route de Kōshū Kaidō (1603-1867) rejoignant Kōfu (甲府市 -shi) capitale de la Préfecture de Yamanashi (山梨県-ken) (44 stations),

Ōshū Kaidō 奥州街道 - route de Ōshū Kaidō (1603-1867) rejoignant la province de Mutsu no kuni 陸奥国 et divers lieux au nord du Japon, notamment Shirakawa-shi 白河市 située dans la préfecture de Fukushima-ken 福島県 (27 stations),

Nikkō Kaidō 日光街道 ou Nikkō Reiheishi Kaidō 日光例幣使街道 (1603-1867) - route secondaire rejoignant la Nakasendō 中山道 (21 stations),

Sans être aussi célèbre que la route du Tōkaidō 東海道, la route de Nakasendō 中山道 ou Kisokaidō 木曾街道 venait sans doute juste derrière celle-ci par son importance au sein des "Cinq Routes". 

Même si ces cinq voies commencent à apparaître dès l'ère Kamakura jidai 鎌倉時代 (1185-1333), c'est en 1601 que Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康 (1543-1616) 1er shōgun 将軍 et fondateur du Tokugawa bakufu 徳川幕府 commence véritablement à les organiser en un réseau routier coh��rent, de façon à accroître son contrôle sur le pays, qui sort d'une très longue période de guerres civiles et d'affaiblissement du pouvoir central.

Un tronçon préservé de la route du Nakasendō ou Kiso Kaidō aujourd'hui.

[japanthis]

Launch Pad of the Realm - What does Senju mean? #japan #japanhistory #japanesehistory

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[japanthis]

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[japanthis]

Samurai Roads of Edo! #japanesehistory #japanhistory #japan

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