#historic path

[autumnmylife]

1100-step stairway in Vradeto village,(Greek: Βραδέτο) Greece

This stairway, a winding stone structure with black and white rocks creating three different lanes is a creative solution provided by the builders of this intricate and complicated construction to manage traffic between people and animals in this uneven, rough area, since this was the only way from the village to the surrounding areas, beyond the mountains.

For centuries, the village’s hard-to-reach location has made it impossible to open a road to facilitate the transportation of people and goods any other way. In fact, up until the early 1970s the Skala path was the only way in and out of the village. The new road, that bypasses the gorge, was built in 1974, and, almost instantly, the meandering Skala and the two bridges, Pera and Dothe, that go over the Mezaria ravine fell into disuse.

Vradeto is a village in the Greek Zagori region. It lies at a height of 1,340 m on Mt Tymphe in the Pindus mountain range. It is the highest of the 44 villages of Zagori. It is the middle of the Vikos–Aoös National Park and is about 50 km away from Ioannina.

Sources:Wikipedia and travel.gr

[orofeaiel]

Opelofa Trail - Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park

[composeregg]

"Yona is being selfish"

have you considered that she has no assurances that any promises being made will be upheld?

from her point of view, the dragon gods have only hurt her friends and threatened everything she loves, she has NO reason to trust them!

The dragon gods are acting like her father did, denying her the agency to make her own choices even when she states what she wants loud and clear. The threats to her country are being made BY THESE DRAGON GODS, these threats are not some immutable fact, they have a place of origin, and she refuses to accept ANY of this.

Because she's not the spoiled selfish princess her father sheltered from everything anymore

She's a woman who has seen the world at its best and its worst, and is determined to forge a path ahead with her own hands, with the people she cares about, for the country she cares about

Yona is choosing to have agency, even when gods are trying to strip her of it. Their threats are threats, and she will see this mess they have made and fix it.

The dragon gods are being selfish.

Why do you want Yona to give in to these demands? To bow her head to the ones proclaiming to know what's best for her and her people? Who keep adding threats to what she loves JUST TO MANIPULATE HER INTO DOING WHAT THEY WANT?

The point of Akatsuki no Yona is not that "Soo-Won has always been right to discard all emotion and focus solely on saving the country" OR that "Good emotions are all you need, you must never face any hardship and it will all work out okay"

The point is Yona's journey into finding a 3rd path, a balance.

She can love her father and think he was not fit to be king. She can still care deeply for Soo-Won, and think he makes a better king, and yet be hurt by his actions.

And she can mend all the pain of the past, and stop the cycle of revenge, and stop the cycle of pain and hurt for EVERYONE. Her country, her dragons, her people, her friends.

It's not being selfish to refuse to give in to these demands. It's simply refusing to play by rules others have made which state there are only two paths, when you can see three.

[tamamita]

Make no mistake

Tamamita

[gardenandcountry]

Potager des Etournelles, France. Photo by Claudine Lecoustre ©️2023.

[silverseaming]

I set her on my pacing steed, And nothing else saw all day long, For sidelong would she bend, and sing A faery’s song.

— la belle dame sans merci / pt. 1

beautiful poses by @antiquatedsimmer <33

also please click for hq because tumblr has murdered the quality 😢

[purpleajisai]

The history in fiction: Parallels between historical Japan and the Narutoverse

Part 1: The era of the Six Paths

Naruto may not be a historical fiction and most people will think that the utmost historical reference in the series is the fact that ninja were a thing in feudal Japan. But what if I told you that there is an insane amount of historical parallels in the series? That we could actually place the events of the main timeline within real periods of Japanese history? In this two-part series, I’ll be explaining the many parallels, references and design inspirations of the main events and generations that shaped the course of the series that we all know and love. I’ll start with the era of the Six Paths (starting from Kaguya and ending with Indra and Ashura), and part 2 will be about the Warring States (dynamic between the Senju and Uchiha). At the end of each part, I’ll add useful links so that you can deepen your investigation and see my sources. Without further ado, let’s start overanalyzing.

Historical references and parallels in character design and dynamics

I’d place this particular era of the Narutoverse in the Heian period of Japan (or at least the most important people, the brothers Indra and Ashura). Considering that we’re spanning 3 generations here, I’ll separate the individuals involved in the following way:

Kaguya: End of Nara period (710 AD - 784 AD)

Hagoromo and Hamura: Early Heian period (794 AD - 1185 AD)

Indra and Ashura: Heian period (794 AD - 1185 AD)

Kaguya

On a side note, I’d like to add that I’m not really considering Tenji in the list above because he’s an anime only character. However, his case caught my eye so I’ll discuss him as well. Let’s start by evaluating Kaguya and Tenji then. Kaguya’s character design is a very classical archetype of Heian beauty standards and clothing. Long, straight hair with flowy kimono and a delicate face. Her unusual eyebrows are no coincidence as well, as in the Heian period the practice of hikimayu was commonplace in noblewomen. 

"Hiki means "pull" and mayu means "eyebrows". Aristocratic women used to pluck or shave their eyebrows and paint new ones using a powdered ink called haizumi, which was made of soot from sesame or rapeseed oils." (source)

Left: Filler anime episode // Right: Manga panel

Above: Hikimayu through the ages of Japan

Another interesting fact that I’d like to point out is that Kaguya is a character with striking similarity to a Japanese folk tale, in this case the Tale of Princess Kaguya (Kaguyahime no monogatari), whose origin we can trace back to Heian Japan. The Tale of Princess Kaguya tells the story of a little baby girl who “fell from the skies” and was found by a couple of old farmers inside of a bamboo. She grew up to be extremely beautiful and was courted by lots of noblemen, but she rejected them all insisting that somebody would come for her, as she looked at the moon. Of course, Naruto provides us with a different ending to the story but this similarity can’t be overlooked.

Above: "The Receding Princess" from The Japanese Fairy Book, 1908

Moving on to Tenji, it gets a bit more complicated to place him in an exact historical moment as he has elements of many different periods. His hairstyle resembles the styling of the Jomon period, whereas the entire setting in the filler episodes are more similar to the Nara period with the many small kingdoms fighting for dominance within a vast land, just like pre-unification Japan. Therefore, I place Kaguya and Tenji at the end of the Nara period, because we see how Kaguya takes over Tenji’s rulership and is regarded as a noblewoman after she casts the first Infinite Tsukuyomi. I have to rely on some filler in this case because otherwise I can’t find a logical explanation as to why Hagoromo was so well settled and had a large group of people following his teachings if it wasn’t for Kaguya ruling some land that originally belonged to Tenji. 

Hagoromo and Hamura

Let’s start with the second generation. Following the events of the end of the Nara period I quoted in the previous section, Hagoromo and Hamura would go in the beginning of the Heian period. Their character designs feature long, flowy tunics without a visible belt. Here you have an image of men’s clothes through Japanese history, the third one being a feudal lord of the Heian period. Compare and contrast with these anime and manga images.

Above: “Men’s Japanese clothes” by Glimja

Left: Filler anime episode with both // Right: Hagoromo manga panel

Again, since we get very few manga panels related to Hagoromo and his sons, I’ll refer once again to the filler episodes where he is shown as the ruler of a village. The spot within the Heian period in which I’m placing Hagoromo would be around 100 years after the Taika reforms which established one of the first codes of law in Japan and (Taihō code) and divided the country in provinces ruled by feudal lords. Curiously, around the time where the Taika reforms happened, there was an emperor called Tenji. 

Indra and Ashura

The third generation of the alien-human hybrids is here, and I place them in the Heian period as well. My main reason to consider Indra and Ashura in the Heian period is the fact that this is the exact time period where the samurai originate. A common misconception is that a samurai is a Japanese warrior highly trained in the martial arts and weapons. While this statement holds some truth, the samurai were the military social class of feudal Japan, which means that there were people who were of the samurai class but had never touched a weapon in their lives. Therefore, samurai clans were not entirely composed by warriors but also had a number of people who lived a more “civilian” lifestyle. And you may be wondering, “what do the historical samurai have to do with the ninja that we see in Naruto?”. The answer is: more than you think. Historically speaking, the ninja is a samurai specialised in stealth and sneaking, the only difference with the Naruto universe is that the ninja we know and love from the show possess chakra and perform techniques with that. 

The story of Indra and Ashura is strongly tied to the origin of ninja clans in Naruto, just as the Heian period is the origin of the samurai clans. From this time period I’d like to highlight the myth of Minamoto no Yorimitsu, more commonly known as Minamoto no Raiko. His story says that he slayed demons (yes, really) and saved many maidens from being abused by drunk oni with his great sword, Dojigiri Yasutsuna. The difference between myth and legend is that myths hold some kind of historical fact whereas legends are purely fictional. Minamoto no Raiko has been heavily mythified and his story sounds unbelievable or too much like a fantasy story until you realise that he did exist and that his sword is kept in a museum. Doesn’t this resemble how the origins of ninja in Naruto are almost like fantasy stories up until Hagoromo shows up in the 4th war and explains that everything was real all along? 

Above: Ukiyo-e of Minamoto no Raiko and others fighting the demon Shuten Doji.

Just as Minamoto no Raiko is considered the first samurai, Indra could be considered the first shinobi. He was the first to channel and shape chakra to create jutsu, and he was considered as part of the legends surrounding Hagoromo. Please compare these two panel sequences, one is from earlier in the story and the second one is Hagoromo’s version. 

The brothers’ character design can also be correlated with the Heian period. Indra’s eyebrows seem to be real but resemble the hikimayu design of Kaguya’s eyebrows, however he does add eye makeup. The people who wore makeup in the Heian period were nobles (mostly noblewomen), once again reinforcing my point that this family started out as feudal lords and eventually fused with the warrior class, becoming ninja clans. Although the character design for Indra and Ashura isn’t 100% equal to Heian Japan’s male clothing, the inspiration is subtle yet visible. I’d say that the inspiration is mostly for the plot rather than the appearance of the character. If you’d like to see more real Heian period clothing, this link has recreations of the outfits of the characters in the Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu.

Sources

These are some useful links that I’ve referred to while writing this post. I’d like to invite you to read them if you’d like to do further research on the beautiful history of Japan.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tenji

https://www.britannica.com/event/Taika-era-reforms

https://www.japanhousela.com/articles/princess-kaguya-a-tale-for-the-ages

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikimayu#:~:text=Hiki means "pull" and mayu,from sesame or rapeseed oils.

https://www.thoughtco.com/beauty-in-heian-japan-195557

https://history.hanover.edu/hhr/22/HHR2022miller.pdf

https://www.tumblr.com/heian-collection/30869762024/beauty-ideal-in-heian-japan?source=share

https://thegate12.com/article/264

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for part 2, the Warring States era. Special thanks to @al-hekima-madara-blog for actually motivating me to write all of this down 💜

[mothmiso]

Isle of Skye, 2017 (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) by Phil Gyford

Via Flickr:

(1) Eilean Donan Castle (2) Cat in Broadford (3) Path to Coral Beach (4) Abhainn Choishleadar, Edinbane (5) Scorrybreac (6) Neist Point Lighthouse       

[wandering-italy]

Winding passageway.

Orvieto, Umbria

March 2024

[hsundholm]

An Autumn Path by Henrik Sundholm Via Flickr: Early autumn in Gamla Uppsala, Sweden.

[butchsaint]

i might fuck around and become a paramedic

[untoldsoup]

As someone flying American airlines tomorrow, what a great day to read the news 💀

[the-golden-vanity]

Participants in the Sloop Providence's crew exchange with the Mildred Belle swing by our ship on the way to National Harbor, Maryland, 10/14/24

[kvetch19]

[postcard-from-the-past]

Path on the Hoher Göll mountain, Bavaria, Germany

German vintage postcard

[mothmiso]

Bergenhus Fortress (2) (3) (4) by Steve L Knight