#mokuroku

[oratokyosaigunda]

Toaru Majutsu no Kinsho Mokuroku series banner

[animehouse-moe]

A Certain Magical Index, The Old Testament Omnibus

Knowing the quality of the Spice and Wolf equivalent of this omnibus, I had pretty high hopes for the quality Yen Press would give this sort of release. I was most definitely not disappointed. Such a bespoke release that borrows from interpretations of a high quality bible while imposing a style more similar to Magical Index's upon it, it certainly a piece that will stun many people. I'd also really like to go into more detail about this reasonably insane release.

So first things first, the cost. It's not what you'd call cheap. Not by a long shot. At retail, it's 315CAD. But, the thing to remember is that this is 24 (not 22, but 24. Includes 2 side story vols as well) volumes of content in a single release. It works out to an average of 13CAD per volume in this omnibus, which in and of itself is a good deal if you're able to front that amount of money. Of course, that doesn't take into account the size or quality or extras that come with this style of release, so depending on how much you like what Yen Press is putting down, it gets to be an even better deal.

If at all possible though, I can't recommend enough waiting for a sale to pick this up. I got mine for a total of roughly 30% off thanks to a sale and some gift cards, so I paid just about 220CAD. That's a little over 9CAD a volume which is a steal. So yeah, if you didn't get on a sale, try waiting for one.

Now, onto packaging. I've had quite a few... issues with Indigo and how they package larger orders, so I had my reservations about it. Thankfully, and this is a very big thankfully, Yen Press has packaged this volume incredibly well. Foam padding on all the corners, a layer of foam on the top and bottom, all contained within a very sturdy box that Indigo packed into one of their own. Yen Press really made sure there'd be no reason to worry about the sort of condition you'd get your copy in.

Okay, so the fancy stuff. It might be hard to tell, but the exterior is entirely covered in fabric. It's not just a design or anything, but the actual texture and approach to the book itself, and it's super nice.

The gold accents are surprisingly tasteful and work really well with the white background. I had really thought it would be something that makes it look a little too gaudy, but it captures the flashy nature of those higher-end bibles quite easily.

On that point, the golden tinted pages are a really nice addition that adds to that bible feeling. The clasp helps with that feeling a great deal as well. The one thing I thought would really end up an issue is the green 'gems' on the cover. However, seeing it in person it's far less offensive than it may seem. They're not reflective, flashy, bright, or anything like that so it's a surprisingly subtle addition.

One thing that I feel like The Old Testament Omnibus does way "better" than the Spice and Wolf one is the spine. Yes, I do know that the Spice and Wolf omni is designed to be similar to a medieval text and so it's pretty stripped down. However, I don't think that means that it can't be a little more fancy or detailed considering how plain the leather texture is on it. The idea between the horizontal lines and the use of the stars in the patterning just adds a lot more life to a spine that's designed in effectively the same way as the Spice and Wolf one. Simple changes, but ones that add more life and intricacy.

And just for good measure, here's the back cover. I really like how there's raised sections on both covers, as it continues to add to the details and little bits that make this seem so "fancy" and high end.

Overall, it's a very solid evolution from Yen Press' most recent All-In-One. Great design and creativity that stays true to the series while incorporating useful extras at a pretty damn hard to beat price point. For any Magical Index fans out there..... I mean. You should get it if you can afford it and don't already have the singles.

[missmyloko]

Hi Justine, hope you are well. When are a geimaiko's regular customers expected to give money and gifts during her career? I know they buy mokuroku and I think they pay for part of the misedashi and erikae. But what else?

That's pretty much it! They can also choose to give her gifts on her birthday such as small trinkets or cake ^^

[touhou-album-art]

魔法図書目録/Mahou Dosho Mokuroku by Studio H.E.X. (Comiket 70)

[shinsengumi-archives]

Anecdotes about Hijikata Toshizo

When he was a child, he used to practice sumo wrestling naked on a pillar in his house after getting out of the bath. The pillar still remains today.

When his nephew (Tamekichi, Sato Hikogoro's third son) fell down in the garden and cut his forehead, he immediately rushed to the scene. He laughed and said, "The boy has a wound on his face now. Congratulations! Congratulations!"

The only extant record of Toshizo in the Tennen Rishinryu dojo is the Chugokui Mokuroku. It seems that he was unable to let go of the habits of the various styles he had learned while peddling. However, it’s said that he was very strong in actual combat. (During a swordfight, he would hit his opponent with the sand under his feet and cut him down while he flinched, or strangle him by throwing his haori at him.)

He is said to have devised strict rules, such as "jinchu-hojo" and "kachu-hojo," and to have showered his merciless blade on traitors and outcasts, earning him the nickname "Demon Vice-Commander", and is usually described as a ruthless man. However, according to Nakajima Noboru, a Shinsengumi member who even followed him to Hakodate, at the time of the Hakodate War, he was "mild-mannered and adored like a mother. It is said that he often took young soldiers out to eat and drink and gave them advice.

He was a kimono maker, so he was better than most women at cutting fabric with scissors.

He loved takuan (pickled turnips), and once received a whole barrel of it as a souvenir from a relative's house.

He had a face that was popular among women. The sister of a Byakkotai member wrote in her diary of the day she accompanied her brother to see Toshizo, "He was a nice, fair-skinned man."

He was also described by men of the same sex as a handsome man.

And a little more about the secret story of the formation of the Shinsengumi...

The man behind the formation of the Shinsengumi was Hijikata Toshizo's brother-in-law, Sato Hikogoro (husband of his sister Nobu).

He was under the direct control of Egawa Eiryu (江川英龍), a shogunate vassal, and it seems that Egawa approached him with the idea of a farmer's army, which he passed on to Toshizo.

The Shinsengumi, a meritocratic organization controlled by Toshizo that did not depend on status, seems to have been an implementation of Eiryu's modern concept of a farmer's army.

Interestingly, Eiryu was also the teacher of Sakuma Shozan, and through Shozan, his student Yoshida Shoin may have drafted the original idea of the grassroots soldiers, "Kiheitai".

The Shinsengumi and the Kiheitai may have shared the same roots 😲

Kondo Isami and Hijikata Toshizo met through the dojo that Hikogoro built in his house. He was also a financial supporter of the Shinsengumi.

Without Sato Hikogoro, the Shinsengumi might not have existed.

References

歴史群像シリーズ 土方歳三

新 歴史群像シリーズ 土方歳三

聞き書き新選組, by Sato Satoshi (descendant of Sato Hikogoro), published by Shinmono Oraisha, Inc.

子孫が語る土方歳三, by Hijikata Megumi (descendant of Kiroku, Hijikata Toshizo's elder brother), published by Shinbunjo-Oraisha.

Kondo Isami, Hijikata Toshizo, Sato Hikogoro, Egawa Eiryu in Wikipedia

Other information on fan sites, and many books by 新紀元社 and 新人物往来社.

[mimiminimal]

Amber Buddhist rosary, with color-lacquered container with the motif of tree peony and wild boar.  Prayer beads: Nara period/8th century, Container: Kamakura period/13-14 century

Nenju, also called Juzu, is a string of beads or a rosary, generally used in Buddhist services even now. Originally, a certain number of beads (basically 108 beads) were strung on thread and used for counting the chant of repeating the name of Amida (Shômyô) or Darani (magical words). The two strands of Nenju in N-287 and N-288 are considered to be those listed in “Kokin-mokuroku-sh” (the Catalogue of the Ancient and Modern) written by Kenshin in the Kamakura period (1192-1333) and “Onshariden-houmotsu-chûmon” (Order-book of Treasures for Reliquary Hall) collated in Tenmon 19 (1550), as one of the treasures enshrined in a reliquary hall. The Nenju in N-287 and N-288 come with a small lacquered case with a lid (J. Gousu), with the peony and cat patterns in the Kamakura period and a gilded bronze one with the pattern of Chinese milk vetch in the Edo period (1603 - 1868), respectively.

[sabakos]

Considering the broader situation down through the end of the Heian period, approximately two thirds of the titles mentioned in the Honchō shojaku mokuroku (a late thirteenth-century bibliography) no longer exist. Statistics like these remind us that there is ample reason to be skeptical of literary-historical generalizations based on extant works.

[incomprehensible noise]

[quetzalpapalotl]

Put your music on shuffle and list the first ten songs that come up, then tag ten people. (Tagged by @honestlyvan)

Naturaleza Muerta by Mecano

Darkness - New Blood Version by Peter Gabriel

Hero by Regina Spektor

禁書目録―天使幻覚《婬鬼論》篇― (Kinshou Mokuroku ―Tenshi Genkaku 《Inkiron》 Hen―) by JA SEAZER

Ave Maria, D. 839 by Franz Schubert, sang by Renée Fleming

Nine Point Eight -special edit- by Mili

Vestido Azul by La Oreja de Van Gogh

Help, I'm Alive by Metric

The Good & The Bad Guy by My Brightest Diamond

今際の死神 (Imawa no Shinigami) by Megumi Hayashibara

I'm too shy to tag anyone, but feel free to blame it on me if anyone wants to do this

[talesofedo]

These three items are from the collection of the Kojima Museum, located in the former Kojima residence in Onojimachi, Machida City (Tokyo).

They are, from top to bottom, Kojima Shikanosuke's wooden practice swords and his two mokuroku (certificates) for the Tennen rishin-ryu sword style. I thought the swords were especially neat because you almost never see them with metal tsuba.

---

It also occurred to me that I should probably add a quick "Today I Learned" post about Kojima Shikanosuke:

+ Kojima Shikanosuke, also known as Kojima Tamemasa, was born in 1830 and died in 1900, aged 70. He lived his entire life in Onoji village in the Tama district of Musashino province, which was just outside the city of Edo.

+ He came from a wealthy farming family and served as the headman of Onoji, the central village in a village league, which is an administrative grouping of multiple, generally smaller, villages.

The position of headman was hereditary, as was common for many posts during the Edo period, and it was previously held by his father, Masanori, whom he succeeded in 1838 at age 18.

The Kojima family's land made up a large portion, roughly 1/6th, of the overall village league. Onoji was also an important post town on the Oyama Kaido, the road linking Edo and Shizuoka, which was not only a secondary route to the better-known Tokaido but a popular pilgrimage route in its own right.

In other words: think less "tiny farming community" and more "bustling post town"; less "country bumpkin village head" and more "capable, well-educated young administrator for this district".

+ We know a lot about the Kojima family, Onoji, and the villages in Tama because of a series of diaries kept by the family: Masanori started the first one in 1836 and Shikanosuke continued it from 1848 on. Additional, two further generations continued diaries past the Meiji period, making the set of journals an important resource.

+ Aside from being a capable administrator, Shikanosuke was well known as a Confucian scholar (a disciple of Kikuchi Kikujo) and a master of Chinese poetry (a disciple of Toyama Unnyo). He owned a large library of more than 10,000 books, and regularly welcomed traveling scholars, poets, and others into his home.

+ In the 1840s, the Kojima family built a fencing hall next to their home in Onoji to encourage young people to learn swordsmanship. He invited Kondo Shusuke to teach the Tennen rishin-ryu sword style, which was popular in the area.

The dojo was later frequented by Kondo Isami, Hijikata Toshizo, Okita Soji, and other members of the Sheikan, who regularly came to Tama to teach.

Shikanosuke received his license in the Tennen rishin-ryu in 1848.

+ He became close friends with many of the Shieikan's members through the Onoji fencing hall, and the Kojima museum's collection includes a large number of letters sent to him by Kondo Isami, Hijikata Toshizo, and Okita Soji. (You can read some surviving letters here.) He even received a New Year's greeting from Sannan Keisuke - the only known letter written by Sannan.

Shikanosuke was distantly related to Hijikata Toshizo through the Hashimoto family, and there are multiple examples where Hijikata addresses him as "brother Kojima" in his letters, including the most famous (infamous?) one he's written where he brags about his women in Kyoto.

However, he was probably even closer to Kondo Isami than he was to Hijikata. He taught Kondo how to write Chinese poetry, many examples of which still survive in various collections. The two also had a ceremony to become sworn brothers in 1863, just before Kondo left for Kyoto. (Such a ceremony usually involved the exchange of cups of sake, not entirely unlike the ceremony for marriage.)

I am wondering whether Shikanosuke became sworn brothers with both Kondo and Hijikata? (That would be such a Three Kingdoms reference, wouldn't it?)

+ In addition to being sworn brothers and close friends, Shikanosuke was also a major backer of the Shinsengumi, regularly sending gifts and funds to Kondo and Hijikata. + Although the Kojima family was among the wealthy and powerful families in their area, they focused a lot of their efforts on helping everyone in their village league, organizing food for the village poor during times of bad harvests, setting up a defense force when there was rioting and looting in Edo in the 1860s, and providing supplies and care during the flooding following the earthquake and the epidemics of cholera and measles in the 1850s.

+ Shikanosuke didn't care for the westernization of the country following the Meiji restoration and never adopted a western hairstyle or clothing. Can't you just imagine him grumbling about all the modern western things that are getting popular?

[rose-madder-gaze]

I'm doing some wiki editing for my bday (lmao) so I figured I'd share an in-progress page from the Thunderbolt Fantasy wiki that I'm already proud of:

still a long way to go! I want to get a few pictures on this page before I start setting up SEO stuff.

[mangakakalot-official]

Boku to Kanojo no Renai Mokuroku

Mizuhara Ritsu loves both the 2D beauties of eroge and elementary school students. Also, his friend Bungo is jealous of how he seems to be surrounded by cute girls–there’s his little sister Miri, his tsundere childhood friend Akari, and kuudere Hatori. One day, Bungo tells Ritsu about an anonymous blogger who writes about the future, and whose vague online self-description seems to match Ritsu.…

[ryotarox]

小説版『S.I.C. HERO SAGA MASKED RIDER SHIN EDITION -終わりの始まり、始まりの終わり-』

真・仮面ライダー 序章 - Wikipedia

https://w.atwiki.jp/aniwotawiki/pages/48919.html

　 ムック『S.I.C HERO SAGA Vol.4』刊行にあたり、書下ろしとして収録された作品 発売日 ‏ : ‎ 2013/12/16

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

こういう「終わりの始まり」「始まりの終わり」みたいなタイトルは「真なんとか」と親和性が高い。 ルーツはなんだろう。平井和正の影響が大きそう。 ▼平井和正作品目録（エッセイ等）【お】 http://hiraist.fan.coocan.jp/mokuroku/bib/bib5_ao.html 『…〔初出〕 「狼火」ウルフ会〔同人誌〕　1986.10（23号）　p.2-9 （掲載時の題名「終わりの始まり始まりの終わり」）…』　 そのもとを辿ると、アーサー・C・クラーク『地球幼年期の終わり』やアシモフ『永遠の終り』で、その派生の『日本SF・幼年期の終り』という早川書房「日本SF・幼年期の終り」（『世界SF全集』月報）だったのかも。 もっとたどるとウィンストン・チャーチルかも。

今は終わりではない。これは終わりの始まりですらない。しかしあるいは、始まりの終わりかもしれない。 Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

（1942年11月9日、ロンドンのThe Mansion Houseで開催された公式昼食会でチャーチルが行ったスピーチから）

[missmyloko]

Hello! Regarding this question previously answered: https://missmyloko.tumblr.com/post/724597475464331264/do-you-have-a-map-of-where-every-every-okiya-is-in is there any way to locate or spot okiyas in the various hanamachi? and do all hanamachi have the lantern and name plates outside or do they not display them to seem inconspicuous to tourists etc?

Okiya have name plates of the geimaiko registered there placed outside of the entrance, so that's the biggest giveaway that you've stumbled upon an okiya (unless you're in Kamishichiken which doesn't participate in that tradition). On days of misedashi and erikae there's always mokuroku set up outside and a crowd of gatherers, so that makes them even easier to find ^^

[ayashiame]

Omisedashi

おおきに！としゑ美どす。よろしゅうおたのもうしま。 「Good Evening, I'm Toshiemi. Please keep me in your favor.」

On Thursday, December 8, 2022 I had my 'omisedashi' celebration. I have made my formal debut to work as a maiko-san with Komayaka Okiya at Kyoto-kagai. In these last few days, I was showered with gifts and kindness of those in the community who support each other.

My formal kuromontsuke hikizuri was especially created for the occasion. In truth, the mother of our house, Geiko Toshiha, made it. I absolutely adore it and wish I could find a thousand reasons to wear it. However, today was the third day of my week-long celebration, which means I must put it away until a formal kimono is required. It won't be long! Formal attire is used during new years celebrations and for shigyoshiki!

The auspicious motif in use is called Shochikubai. Shochikubai is a combination of Pine, Bamboo leaf, and Plum Blossom. It is quite colorful in its use here. Also, the hikizuri depicts bold blue crashing waves. There is also a treasure ship riding along the waves.

In tradition, we slapped one of my hanameishi (or senjafuda) onto the pillar with the rest!

Many mokuroku (celebratory posters) were commissioned by friends, sisters, and patrons. If you see these posted - it means someone has either debuted as a maiko or as a geiko. They don't stay up for very long on display. They are saved elsewhere once the celebratory week has ended.

I now also have a designated Oneesan, or mentor, who I can ask for guidance of. That is Geiko Toshiha. My heart and my spirit are full.

[sokeanshu]

The Importance of Densho within Traditional Japanese Martial Arts Training: Ninpo, Taijutsu, Ninjutsu

[taisakuraokiya-blog]

9 พฤษภาคม 2562: ไมโกะ Fukusono (โอกิยะ Shigemori) จากเขต Miyagawacho ในพิธีแสดงตัวครั้งแรก (店出し : Misedashi) ของเธอ

ไมโกะ Fukusono เป็นไมโกะคนที่สองจากโอกิยะ Shigemori ที่ได้เข้าพิธีแสดงตัวครั้งแรกในปีนี้ ตามหลังไมโกะ Fukunori ที่เข้าพิธีนี้ไปเมื่อเดือนกุมภาพันธ์ที่ผ่านมา โดยไมโกะ Fukusono เป็นน้องสาวอุปถัมภ์ของเกโกะที่อายุน้อยที่สุดในโอกิยะ Shigemori ซึ่งก็คือเกโกะ Fukuchou นั่นเอง

Manuscript: geimei on Tumblr

Source: emi.blue33 on Instagram