Notes to The Rocks

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( Leaden ) Mirror

The first mirrors used by people were most likely pools of dark, still water, or water collected in a primitive vessel of some sort.  In China, bronze mirrors were manufactured from around 2000 BC. Mirrors of speculum metal or any precious metal were hard to produce and were only owned by the wealthy.
Glass mirrors backed with gold leaf are mentioned by the Roman author Pliny in his Natural History, written in about 77 AD. The Romans also developed a technique for creating crude mirrors by coating blown glass with molten lead.
There are many legends and superstitions surrounding mirrors. Mirrors are said to be a reflection of the soul, and they were often used in traditional witchcraft as tools for performing  spells. It is also said that mirrors cannot lie. They can show only the truth, so it is a bad omen to see something in a mirror which should not be there. It is a common superstition that breaking of the mirror symbolizes a bad luck. In some cultures (Ukraine, Russia )it is customary  to cover the mirrors in a house where the wake of a deceased person was being held. It was believed that the person's soul would become trapped in a mirror if it was left uncovered. According to legend, a vampire has no reflection in mirrors because it is an undead creature and has already lost its soul. Yata no Kagami is a sacred mirror that is part of the Imperial Regalia of Japan. The Yata no Kagami represents "wisdom" or "honesty," depending on the source. Its name literally means "The Eight Hand Mirror," a reference to its octagonal shape. Mirrors in ancient Japan represented truth because they merely reflected what was shown, and were a source of much mystique and reverence (being uncommon items). Japanese folklore is rich in stories of life before mirrors were commonplace. In the Japanese mythology this mirror and the Yasakani no magatama were hung from a tree to lure out Amaterasu from a cave. They were given to Amaterasu's grandson, Ninigi-no-Mikoto, when he went to pacify Japan along with the sword Kusanagi. From there, the treasures passed into the hands of the Imperial House of Japan. Doomed Shakespearean Hamlet
lectures the actors who will soon perform for his stepfather. As director, he expounds " the purpose of playing ", which from the invention of theather, has
been to hold "the mirror up to nature".


Ripples

Ripples are opposite to Mushin, which is the essence of Zen and Japanese martial arts. "Mu" is a term in Zen that is used to describe "emptiness"  or "nothingness".  The concept of Mushin is identical to the Japanese metaphorical expression "Mizu no Kokoro" or the "mind like water." This mental attitude refers to a mind that is in total harmony with the Cosmos that it resembles a still pond of water without any ripples where the surface reflects a clear and perfectly undistorted image of the surroundings, like a mirror. This is what a zen practitioner hopes to attain and realize. But the universe is in a constant flux of change. Nothing ever remains unchanged. As long as we continue to desire we will always be reached by ripples of suffering. If one wishes not to suffer, desire must be cut-off from one's life. Physically, all sentient being suffer with birth, illness, old age, and death. Sand on the sea floor is rarely flat, particularly close to the shore. Currents and waves interact with bed sediment to produce seabed forms: ripples, dunes, and more complex structures. White sand or gravel ripples had long been a feature of Japanese rock gardens. In the Shinto religion this symbolizes purity and is used around shrines, temples, and palaces. In zen gardens, it represents water, emptiness and distance. Howard Norman wrote in National Geographic: “Using plain language in the service of spiritual insight, Basho raised [haiku] to literature, each poem like a polished stone that, when dropped in water, creates an infinity of ripples."


Splash

What is a one-splash/one-stroke Zen Buddhism  painting? It is literally making a complete painting in one brush stroke, much like creating a calligraphic character. The brush is carefully loaded. The intention is to have enough ink, loose enough ink so that when the brush is flicked with the wrist, a highly energized splash of ink lands on the paper. Not too wet, not too stiff and dry. The focus is on being as much in the moment as possible to be able to adjust the power, the movement of the splash as it is happening in the flick of the wrist. The artist can stop just with the splash or add other elements or details to further call the painting out of the paper. The essential element of Zen Buddhism is found in its name, for Zen means “meditation.” Zen teaches that enlightenment is achieved through the profound realization that one is already an enlightened being. This awakening can happen gradually or in a flash (splash, stroke) of insight. But in either case, it is the result of one’s own efforts. Deities and scriptures can offer only limited assistance. Today, ink monochrome painting is the art form most closely associated with Zen Buddhism. In general, the first Japanese artists to work in this medium were Zen monks who painted in a quick and evocative manner to express their religious views and personal convictions. Their preferred subjects were Zen patriarchs, teachers, and enlightened individuals. In time, however, artists moved on to secular themes such as bamboo, flowering plums, orchids, and birds, which in China were endowed with scholarly symbolism. The range of subject matter eventually broadened to include literary figures and landscapes, and the painting styles often became more important than personal expression. Zen Buddhism’s emphasis on simplicity and the importance of the natural world generated a distinctive aesthetic, which is expressed by the terms wabi and sabi. These two amorphous concepts are used to express a sense of rusticity, melancholy, loneliness, naturalness, and age, so that a misshapen, worn peasant’s jar is considered more beautiful than a pristine, carefully crafted dish. While the latter pleases the senses, the former stimulates the mind and emotions to contemplate the essence of reality. This artistic sensibility has had an enormous impact on Japanese culture up to modern times.


Kanshi

While martial suicide is a practice found in a lot of cultures, the act of seppuku, or ritual self-disembowelment, is peculiar to Japan. The earliest known acts of seppuku were the deaths of samurai Minamoto Tametomo and poet Minamoto Yorimasa in the latter part of the 12th century. Korechika Anami  was the last general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II who committed the act of seppuku without a kaishkunin. As War Minister, Anami was outspoken against the idea of surrender, despite his awareness that Japan's losses on the battlefield and the destruction of Japan's cities and industrial capability by American bombing meant that by this point that Japan had lost the war militarily. Even after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Anami opposed acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, and proposed instead that a large-scale battle be fought on the Japanese mainland causing such massive Allied casualties that Japan would somehow be able to evade surrender and perhaps even keep some of what it had conquered. Eventually, his arguments against what he perceived to be the dishonor of surrender were overcome when Emperor Hirohito directly requested an end to the war himself; Anami's supporters suggested that he either vote against surrender or resign from the Cabinet. Instead, he ordered his officers to concede, later saying to his brother-in-law, "As a Japanese soldier, I must obey my Emperor." He informed the officers of the War Ministry of the decision, and that as it was an Imperial command, they must obey. His refusal to support any action against the Imperial decision was a key point in the failure of an attempted military coup d'etat by junior officers to prevent the surrender announcement from being broadcast. On 14 August 1945, Anami signed the surrender document with the rest of the cabinet, then committed suicide by seppuku early the next morning. His suicide note read: "I—with my death—humbly apologize to the Emperor for the great crime." This "cryptic" note is open to multiple interpretations.
Seppuku is known in the west as hara-kiri. However, the term seppuku is considered a more elegant usage. John "Akatsukami" Braue writes in his blog: " Reasons to commit the honorable suicide of seppuku were junshi (following the lord in death, sometimes translated as "suicide through fidelity"), funshi (to express one's indignation at a situation), kanshi (as an admonishment or rebuke to one's lord for his behavior), to atone for dishonorable actions of one's own, and to avoid capture and disgrace in battle. Seppuku (only  foreigners refer to it as "hari-kari") is a highly ritualized performance. The first thing to do is to recruit an assistant, a kaishkunin. Contrary to what is thought, almost all forms of seppuku do not technically involve suicide, but merely inflicting fatal injury upon oneself. The kaishakunin does the actual killing. Seppuku is ideally committed in the garden of a Buddhist temple (Shinto temples should not be defiled by death). The participant dresses in white, to express purity of intention and sits in the seiza position (legs drawn up under the body so that one is actually sitting on one's heels). A servant places the sanbo (an unlacquered wooden table) before one. It will contain a sake cup, a sheaf of washi (paper handmade from mulberry bark) and writing accoutrements, and the kozuka (disemboweling blade). This can be a tanto (dagger) blade without hilt, wrapped in several sheets of paper to provide a better grip. Real samurai, however, use their own wakizashi (the companion sword to katana ). If one is of tender years, or judged too dangerous to be trusted with steel, a fan may be substituted for an actual blade. The sake cup is filled from the left, by an attendant using his left hand (this is indescribably rude under other circumstances). The person committing seppuku then empties the cup in two drinks of two sips each (one sip would show greed, whilst three or more would show hesitation). This makes a total of four sips; shi, "four", also means "death". One then writes a death poem in the waka style. (five lines of five, seven, seven, five, and seven syllables). The poem should be graceful, natural, and about transient emotions. Under no means should it mention that the fact you are about to die. At this point, the person slips out of his outer garment (kamishimo) and tucks the sleeves under his knees to prevent him from doing something undignified like slumping to one side. If the person committing is so young or so evil that a fan has been substituted for a blade, the kaishakunin executes a kirioroshi strike (a vertical cut) as soon as the person committing seppuku touches the fan to his stomach. Otherwise, he will typically wait until the person plunges the blade deep into the left side of his belly, and draws it across to the right, with a sharp upward cut at the end. A samurai who feels himself capable may then plunge the blade into his groin and cut upwards to the sternum, followed by a horizontal cut at the base of the rib cage. However, the kaishakunin is supposed to keep a sharp eye out, and strike at the first sign of pain or hesitation. The kirioroshi (a vertical cut) was not intended to actually sever the head, but to leave it attached by a strip of skin at the throat. Incidentally, real die-hard samurais did kill themselves, in the ritual known as jumonji giri. This is just like seppuku, except that there is no kaishakunin. After disemboweling yourself, you sat quietly and bled to death over the next half-hour or so. In 1516, Muira Yoshimoto committed suicide by cutting off his own head, something that got him a gazillion style points". The usual explanation for seppuku is that Japanese culture believed the soul resides in the abdomen. Since the ritual of seppuku is usually meant to provide an honourable death, cutting open the abdomen was an act that "bares the soul", so to speak. Who cannot live with honor must die with honor. This view of mental physiology once admitted, the syllogism of seppuku is easy to construct. "I will open the seat of my soul and show you how it fares with it. See for yourself whether it is polluted or clean "( Nitobe, Inaze­. Bushido, the Soul of Japan. GP Putnam's Sons, 1905). The combination of "baring the soul" through abdominal dissection, and the admiration of those who die in this manner, led seppuku to really become fashionable around the late Sengoku Era.
Although pain was a large part of how the ritual originated, the larger reason that later samurai chose seppuku really comes down to it being the expected and proper way to die. By their time the practice of kaishaku had developed. This shortens the victim's suffering by having a friend cut off his head once the main act of cutting was completed. If pain was the goal everyone had in mind, there wouldn't be such measures to minimise it. In other words, seppuku was a social expectation that had developed over centuries. Women did not practice seppuku. They were expected to commit suicide by cutting their throats. This was practiced to avoid a fate "worse than death" .

New Year

1695 (MDCXCV) was a common year starting on Saturday (dominical letter B) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday (dominical letter F) of the Julian calendar, the 1695 th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 695th year of the 2nd millennium, the 95th year of the 17th century, and the 6th year of the 1690s decade. As of the start of 1695, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar. It was also a particularly cold and wet year. Contemporary records claim that wine froze in the glasses in the Palace of Versailles. Prior to the Meiji period
( 1868-1912 ), the date of the Japanese New Year was based on the Chinese Lunar calendar, as are the contemporary Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese New Years.
Matsuo Basho died in 1694 - Lunar Year of the Dog. 1695 was the Year of the Wood Pig, which began on the Sunday, February 13. In 1873 Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar and the first day of January became the official and cultural New Year's Day in Japan. Japanese people eat a selection of dishes during the New Year celebration called osechi-ryori , typically shortened to osechi. Today, sashimi and sushi are often eaten, as well as non-Japanese foods. It is also very common to eat buckwheat noodles called toshikoshi soba on the New Year's Eve. At midnight on December 31, Buddhist temples all over Japan ring their bells a total of 108 times  to symbolize the 108 human sins in Buddhist belief, and to get rid of the 108 worldly desires regarding sense and feeling in every Japanese citizen. A major attraction is The Watched Night bell, in Tokyo. Japanese believe that the ringing of bells can rid their sins during the previous year. The bell is rung 107 times on 31st and once past midnight. The New Year traditions are also a part of Japanese poetry, including haiku ) and renga (linked poetry). All of the traditions above would be appropriate to include in haiku as kigo (season words). There are also haiku that celebrate many of the "first" of the New Year, such as the "first sun" (hatsuhi) or "first sunrise", "first laughter" (waraizome)and first dream (hatsuyume).  Starting the New Year with a smile is considered a good sign. Since the traditional New Year was later in the year than the current date, many of these mention the beginning of spring. At the New Year many Japanese people drink a special sake called toso. Toso is a sort of iwai-zake made by soaking tososan, a Chinese powdered medicine, overnight in sake. Even children sip a portion. In some regions, the first sips of toso are taken in order of age, from the youngest to the eldest. In Shakespearean  time it was customary during preparation for Christmas  to decorate the halls, houses, etc., with bay, laurel, ivy, and holly leaves, decorations which were kept in place to the end of the period of celebration. In the midst of this extra decorations the yule-log was brought in. It was the special duty of the household carpenter to provide the Christmas block which was the massive root or trunk of a tree capable of remaining a part of the fire for a number of days. It was brought into the centre of the hall on Christmas eve amid great rejoicing, and, while still there, each member of the household would come forward, seat himself or herself upon it and sing a Yule-song and drink to a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. It was then rolled amid a great tumult to the fire-place and, when properly set up and the material arranged about it for fire, the yule-log was actually ignited by the brand that had been expressively saved for the purpose from last year's Christmas fire. The whole household, including family, friends, and domestics then feasted to a late hour upon Yule-dough, Yule-cakes, and bowls of frumenty, with much music and singing. In Roman Catholic times special arrangements were made whereby the poorer people found it easy to collect money by begging, which was to be applied to the purchase of masses for the forgiveness of the excesses to which they went during the Christmas revels. In the time of Shakespeare this custom was still in vogue in the form of carols sung early on Christmas morning especially, as a regular custom, but also carols or songs of a more secular nature that were sung at all times during Yule-tide, with a collection to follow. This custom was frequently followed or accompanied by mumming where a number of persons went about together, from hall to hall, hoping for entertainment and gratuitous remuneration. On Christmas Eve the people were supposed to light up candles, called Christmas candles, of prodigious size, and to stir the fire till it burned with uncommon brightness. There is a line in " The Merchant of Venice "( 1599), which apparently is dedicated to this tradition:

"How far that little candle throws his beams!
 So shines a good deed in a weary world".


Banana Palm Tree

The Banana Palm Tree, scientific name Musa, is one of the most popular palm trees around the world because of its fruit called “banana”.   It is not only used to grow bananas, but also to give a landscapes or indoor space a tropical feeling.


Buddha

The Shimabara Rebellion  was an uprising in southwestern Japan lasting from December 17, 1637, to April 15, 1638, during the Edo period. It largely involved local peasants and ronin (samurai without masters), most of them Catholic Christians.  Religious persecution of the local Catholics exacerbated the discontent, which turned into open revolt in 1637. The rebelling Christians destroyed Buddhist temples and beheaded Buddha's statues. Tokugawa Shogunate sent a force of over 125,000 troops to suppress the rebels and, after a lengthy siege against the rebels at Hara Castle, defeated them. In the wake of the rebellion, the Catholic rebel leader Amakusa Shiro was beheaded and the prohibition of Christianity was strictly enforced. After the castle fell, the shogunate forces beheaded an estimated 37,000  Catholic rebels and sympathizers. Amakusa Shiroi's severed head was taken to Nagasaki for public display, and the entire complex at Hara Castle was burned to the ground and buried together with the bodies of all the dead. Because the shogunate suspected that European Catholics had been involved in spreading the rebellion, Portuguese traders were driven out of the country. The policy of national seclusion was made more strict by 1639. An existing ban on the Christian religion was then enforced stringently, and Christianity in Japan survived only by going underground. Following the Christian rebellion, Buddhism was strongly promoted in the area. With the exception of periodic, localized peasant uprisings, the Shimabara Rebellion was the last large-scale armed clash in Japan until the 1860s.


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Yangtze River

The Yangtze River, which flows eastward from Tibet into the East China Sea near Shanghai, is known in China as the "Long River" and is the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world. The river is the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. The Yangtze River plays a large role in the history, culture and economy of China. Because the source of the Yangtze was not ascertained until modern times, the Chinese have given different names to lower and upstream sections of the river. "Yangtze" was actually the name of Chang Jiang for the lower part from Nanjing to the river mouth at Shanghai. However, due to the fact that Christian missionaries carried out their activities mainly in this area and were familiar with the name of this part of Chang Jiang, "Yangtze river" was used to refer to the whole Chang Jiang in the English language. The Yangtze has long been the backbone of China's inland water transportation system, which remained particularly important for almost two thousand years. Historically, the Yangtze River became the political boundary between north China and south China because of the difficulty of crossing it. The Yangtze River was a source of inspiration for Chinese and Japanese poets and painters for many centuries.


Paper lantern

Toro nagashi is a Japanese ceremony in which participants float paper lanterns (chochin) down a river; toro is another word for "lantern," while nagashi means "cruise" or "flow." This activity is traditionally performed on the final evening of the Bon Festival in the belief that it will help to guide the souls of the departed to the spirit world. The ceremony may take place on other days of the year for such reasons as the commemoration of those lost in the bombing of Hiroshima and those who died on Japan Airlines Flight 123. It is also performed in other regions of the world, such as Hawaii, to commemorate the end of World War II. The Bon Festival takes place on the thirteenth to sixteenth of August or July, depending on the calendar used. Traditional Japanese beliefs state that humans come from water, so the lanterns represent their bodies returning to water and in particular to the sea. White paper lanterns are used to represent those who died in the past year.

Pine tree

Pinus densiflora, also called the Japanese (red) pine or the Korean
pine has a home range that includes Japan, the Korean Peninsula, northeastern China and the extreme southeast of Russia. This pine has become a popular ornamental and has several cultivars, but in the winter it becomes yellowish. The height of this tree is 20–35 m. The Japanese red pine prefers full sun on well-drained, slightly acidic soil. In Japan it is known as akamatsu
(literally "red pine"). It is widely cultivated in Japan both for timber production and as an ornamental tree, and plays an important part in the classic Japanese garden. Korean aristocrats loved it because they thought this evergreen tree represents virtues of Confucianism, "fidelity" and "fortitude". In this strongly confucian society, it became national symbol. For Korean people, even today, it is considered to represent Korean spirit and mentioned in South Korean national anthem. Since it was introduced to the West by Japanese scholars during the colonial era, it was named "Japanese red pine" in English.


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The Song of Songs

The Song of Songs  also known as the Song of Solomon is the last section of the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. It is also the fifth book of Wisdom in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The Song of Songs is read on the Sabbath during the Passover, marking the beginning of the grain harvest and commemorating the Exodus from Egypt. Scripturally, the Song of Songs is unique in its celebration of sexual love. It gives "the voices of two lovers, praising each other, yearning for each other, proffering invitations to enjoy" The two each desire the other and rejoice in their sexual intimacy. The "daughters of Jerusalem" form a chorus to the lovers, functioning as an audience whose participation in the lovers' erotic encounters facilitates the participation of the reader. Jewish tradition reads it as an allegory of the relationship between God and Israel. Christian tradition, in addition to appreciating the literal meaning of a romantic song between man and woman, has read the poem as an allegory of Christ and his "bride", the Christian Church. The image of an enclosed garden is a metaphor for female virginity that is frequently repeated in later medieval and Renaissance literature.


Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji located on Honshu Island, is the highest mountain in Japan at 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft). An active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707–08. Mount Fuji lies about 100 kilometres (60 mi) south-west of Tokyo, and can be seen from there on a clear day. Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone, which is snow-capped several months a year, is a well-known symbol of Japan..
Mount Fuji has inspired artists and poets and been the object of pilgrimage for centuries. In Japanese mythology, Kuninotokotachi ( Kuninotokotachi-no-Kami, in Kojiki , Kuninotokotachi-no-Mikoto, in Nihonshoki) is one of the two gods born from "something like a reed that arose from the soil" when the earth was chaotic. He is known by mythology to reside on top of Mount Fuji.
Yoshida Kanetomo, the founder of the Yoshida Shinto sect, identified Kuninotokotachi with Amenominakanushi and regarded him as the primordial god of the Universe.  The origin of the name Fuji is unclear, having no recording of it being first called by this name. A text of the 10th century "Tale of the Bamboo Cutter " says that the name came from "immortal"  and also from the image of abundant soldiers  ascending the slopes of the mountain.  An early folk etymology claims that Fuji came from (not + two), meaning without equal or nonpareil. Another claims that it came from (not + to exhaust), meaning never ending. In English, the mountain is known as Mount Fuji. Some sources refer to it as "Fuji-san", "Fujiyama" or, redundantly, "Mt. Fujiyama". Japanese speakers refer to the mountain as "Fuji-san". Mount Fuji is a frequent subject of Japanese art especially after 1600, when Edo (now Tokyo) became the actual capital and people saw the mountain while traveling on the Tokaido road. The mountain is mentioned in Japanese literature throughout the ages and is the subject of countless poems. The summit has been thought of as sacred since ancient times and was forbidden to women until the Meiji Era. Ancient samurai used the base of the mountain as a remote training area, near the present-day town of Gotemba.  Founded by Nikko Shonin in 1290 on the lower alps of Mount Fuji in Shizuoka Prefecture is the Taisekiji temple complex, a central base and headquarters of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism.

Full Moon

Tsukimi refers to the Japanese tradition of holding parties to view the harvest moon. The custom is thought to have originated with Japanese aristocrats during the Heian period, who would gather to recite poetry under the full moon of the eighth month of the solar calendar, known as the "Mid-Autumn Moon." Since ancient times, Japanese people have described the eighth solar month (corresponding to September on the contemporary Gregorian calendar) as the best time for looking at the moon, since the relative positions of the earth, sun, and moon cause the moon to appear especially bright. On the evening of the full moon, it is traditional to gather in a place where the moon can be seen learly, decorate the scene with Japanese pampas grass, and to serve white rice dumplings (known as Tsukimi dango), taro, chestnuts and other seasonal foods, plus sake as offerings to the moon in order to pray for an abundant harvest. These dishes are known collectively as Tsukimi dishes. Due to the ubiquity of sweet potato or taro among these dishes, the tradition is known as Imomeigetsu or "Potato harvest moon" in some parts of Japan. From 862 until 1683, the Japanese calendar was arranged so that the full moon fell on the 13th day of each month. In 1684, however, the calendar was altered so that the new moon fell on the first day of each month, moving the full moon two weeks later, to the 15th day of the month. While some people in Edo (present-day Tokyo) shifted their Tsukimi activities to the 15th day of the month, others continued to observe the festival on the 13th day. Furthermore, there were various regional observances in some parts of Japan on the 17th day of the month, as well as Buddhist observances on the 23rd or the 26th day, all of which were used as pretexts for often late-night parties during the autumn throughout the Edo period. Festivals dedicated to the moon have a long history in Japan. During the Heian period elements of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival were introduced to Japan. Members of the aristocratic class would hold moon-viewing events aboard boats in order to view the moon's reflection on the surface of the water. The writing of tanka poetry was also an element of such mid-autumn moon viewing festivities.

Universe

The Universe is all of time and space and its contents. It includes planets, moons, minor planets, stars, galaxies, the contents of intergalactic space, and all matter and energy. The size of the entire Universe is still unknown.
In Japanese mythology, the Japanese creation myth  Tenchikaibyaku (literally "creation of heaven and earth"), is the story that describes the legendary birth of the celestial and earthly world, the birth of the first gods and the birth of the Japanese archipelago. At the beginning the universe was immersed in a beaten and shapeless kind of matter (chaos), sunk in silence. Later there were sounds indicating the movement of particles. With this movement, the light and the lightest particles rose but the particles were not as fast as the light and could not go higher. Thus, the light was at the top of the Universe, and below it, the particles formed first the clouds and then Heaven, which was to be called Takamagahara,( "High Plain of Heaven"). The rest of the particles that had not risen formed a huge mass, dense and dark, to be called Earth. When Takamagahara was formed, the first three gods of Japanese mythology appeared. Following the creation of Heaven and Earth and the appearance of  primordial gods, Izanagi and Izanami went on to create the Japanese archipelago (Kuniumi) and gave birth to a large number of gods (Kamiumi). William Shakespeare was born in the same year as Galileo Galilee and witnessed a cosmic revolution. Elizabethans at the close of the 16th century went from seeing themselves at center stage of the universe to realizing they were very much on the sidelines. All around them, innovations ranging from microscopes and telescopes to modern navigation instruments and lead pencils were revolutionizing their lives and their understanding of the Universe. William Shakespeare, the most profound observer of the human condition the world has ever known, lived through these events. But while his works dazzle with observations on life and death, love and vengeance, you would hardly find a quote Shakespeare on science. So is there science in Shakespeare? Yes – but you have to look for it more closely. "It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves,” proclaimed the Bard in "Julius Caesar" , revealing his disdain for astrology. Sir Francis Bacon and his discovery of “empiricism” (“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.”) was an unequivocally modern man, but other Elizabethans were yet to make a full transition from medieval thinking. For all their advances in science, the Elizabethans could still be a superstitious lot: and for many, astrology lived happily beside astronomy, alchemy with chemistry. Comets and eclipses were auguries of great, often disastrous events. When Calpurnia, wife of Julius Caesar, foresees her husband’s death in a dream, Shakespeare gives her these lines:

“When beggars die there are no comets seen,
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes".


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Serenade

Serenade( plural: serenades) is a piece of music sung or played in the open air, typically by a man at night under the window of his lover. "Serenade to Music" was originally composed by famous English composer Ralph Vaughan-Williams in 1938 as an homage to the greatness of Shakespeare by adapting to music a poetic discussion about music from Act V Scene 1 of his " Merchant of Venice". In this scene, declarations of love juxtapose with comparisons of music to the movement of celestial bodies and contemplation of the beauty of music by night and by day.


Heaven's Dew

The foundress of Tenrikyo, believed that at some fairly imminent moment a Heavenly Dew (kanro) would descend from the sky and inaugurate a new divine era of perfect Bliss ( yokigurashi). Tenrikyo was a new religion, originating from the teachings of a 19th-century Japanese woman named Nakayama Miki, known to her followers as Oyasama. Tenrikyo's worldly aim is to teach and promote the Joyous Life, which is cultivated through acts of charity and mindfulness called hinokishin. Hinokishin is any action arising from the deep realization that life is bestowed on the human body through the complete providence of God. Such action, ultimately enacted with gratitude and without greed, is pragmatically selfless for it arises out of the awareness that the human body is "a thing lent, a thing borrowed," and is to be used for blissful living. It is action which arises from being single-hearted with God. In other words, it is the physical and spiritual response to and an expression of wholeheartedly relying on the blessings of God that are bestowed upon the body and the world by way of the complete providence. There is no dew properly so called in Palestine, for there is no moisture in the hot summer air to be chilled into dew-drops by the coldness of the night. From May till October rain is unknown, the sun shining with unclouded brightness day after day. The heat becomes intense, the ground hard, and vegetation would perish but for the moist west winds that come each night from the sea. The bright skies cause the heat of the day to radiate very quickly into space, so that the nights are as cold as the day is the reverse, a peculiarity of climate from which poor Jacob suffered thousands of years ago ( Genesis 31:40 ). To this coldness of the night air the indispensable watering of all plant-life is due. The winds, loaded with moisture, are robbed of it as they pass over the land, the cold air condensing it into drops of water, which fall in a gracious rain of mist on every thirsty blade. In the morning the fog thus created rests like a sea over the plains, and far up the sides of the hills, which raise their heads above it like so many islands. At sunrise, however, the scene speedily changes. By the kindling light the mist is transformed into vast snow-white clouds, which presently break into separate masses and rise up the mountain-sides, to disappear in the blue above, dissipated by the increasing heat. These are 'the morning clouds and the early dew that go away' of which ( Hosea 6:4 ; 13:3 ) speaks so touchingly" (Geikie's The Holy Land, etc., i., p. 72). Dew is a source of great fertility ( Genesis 27:28 ; Deuteronomy 33:13 ; Zechariah 8:12 ), and its withdrawal is regarded as a curse from God ( 2 Samuel 1:21 ; 1 Kings 17:1 ). It is the symbol of a multitude ( 2 Samuel 17:12 ; Psalms 110:3 ); and from its refreshing influence it is an emblem of brotherly love and harmony ( Psalms 133:3 ), and of rich spiritual blessings ( Hosea 14:5 ). In Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew "    | Act 2, Scene 1  one can find the line " Say that she frown, I'll say she looks as clear. As morning roses newly wash'd with dew".


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Meditation

The English meditation is derived from the Latin meditatio, from a verb meditari, meaning "to think, contemplate, devise, ponder". In the Old Testament, haga  means to sigh or murmur, and also, to meditate. When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, haga became the Greek melete. The Latin Bible then translated haga/melete into meditatio. The use of the term meditatio as part of a formal, stepwise process of meditation goes back to the 12th-century monk Guigo II. The Tibetan word for meditation "Gom" means "to become familiar with" and has the strong implication of training the mind to be familiar with states that are beneficial: concentration, compassion, correct understanding, patience, humility, perseverance, etc. Apart from its historical usage, the term meditation was introduced as a translation for Eastern spiritual practices, referred to as dhyana in Buddhism and in Hinduism, which comes from the Sanskrit root dhyai, meaning to contemplate or meditate. The term "meditation" in English may also refer to practices from Islamic Sufism, or other traditions such as Jewish Kabbalah and Christian Hesychasm ("to keep stillness"). Some scholars  describing Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. Scholars have noted that "the term  "meditation" as it has entered contemporary usage" is parallel to the term "contemplation" in Christianity, but in many cases, practices similar to modern forms of meditation were simply called  "prayer".

Enso

In Zen Buddhism, an enso ( "circle") is a circle that is hand-drawn in one or two uninhibited brushstrokes to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create. The enso symbolizes absolute enlightenment, strength, elegance, the universe, and mu ("emptiness"). It is characterised by a minimalism born of Japanese aesthetics. Drawing enso is a disciplined-creative practice of Japanese ink painting—sumi-e ("ink painting"). The tools and mechanics of drawing the enso are the same as those used in traditional Japanese calligraphy: One uses a brush ( fude) to apply ink to washi (a thin Japanese paper). The circle may be open or closed. In the former case the circle is incomplete, allowing for movement and development as well as the perfection of all things. Zen practitioners relate the idea to wabi-sabi, the beauty of imperfection. When the circle is closed, it represents perfection, akin to Plato's perfect form (Plato), the reason why the circle was used for centuries in the construction of cosmological models, see Ptolemy. Usually a person draws the enso in one fluid, expressive stroke. When drawn according to the sosho  style of Japanese calligraphy, the brushstroke is especially swift. Once the enso is drawn, one does not change it. It evidences the character of its creator and the context of its creation in a brief, contiguous period of time. Drawing enso is a spiritual practice that one might perform as often as once per day. This spiritual practice of drawing enso or writing Japanese calligraphy for self-realization is called hhitsuzendo ( "way of the brush"). Enso exemplifies the various dimensions of the Japanese wabi-sabi perspective and aesthetic: Fukinsei (asymmetry, irregularity), kanso (simplicity), koko (basic; weathered), shizen (without pretense; natural), yugen (subtly profound grace), datsuzoku (freedom), and seijaku (tranquility).


Bamboo

The bamboos Listeni are a subfamily of flowering perennial evergreen plants in the grass family Poaceae. Bamboos include some of the fastest-growing plants in the world, due to a unique rhizome-dependent system. Certain species of bamboo can grow 91 cm (3 ft) within a 24-hour period, at a rate of almost 4 cm (1.5 in) an hour (a growth around 1 mm every 90 seconds, or one inch every 40 minutes). Bamboos are of notable economic and cultural significance in South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, being used for building materials, as a food source, and as a versatile raw product. Bamboo has a higher specific compressive strength than wood, brick, or concrete and a specific tensile strength that rivals steel. The word bamboo comes from the Kannada term bambu, which was introduced to English through Indonesian and Malay. Bamboo's long life makes it a Chinese symbol of uprightness. The pine, the bamboo and the plum blossom  are also admired for their perseverance under harsh conditions, and are together known as the "Three Friends of Winter". This is traditionally used as a system of ranking in Japan, for example in sushi sets or accommodations at ryokan ( a type of traditional Japanese inn that originated in the Edo period ). Pine is of the first rank, bamboo is of second rank, and plum is of the third. In traditional Chinese culture  bamboo is even regarded as a behavior model of the gentleman. As bamboo has features such as uprightness, tenacity, and hollow heart, people endow bamboo with integrity, elegance, and plainness. Countless poems praising bamboo written by ancient Chinese and Japanese poets are actually metaphorically about people who exhibited these characteristics. Bamboo is not only a symbol of a gentleman, but also plays an important role in Buddhism, which was introduced into China in the first century. Bamboo shoot has always been a traditional dish on the Chinese dinner table. In Japan, a bamboo forest sometimes surrounds a Shinto shrine as part of a sacred barrier against evil. Many Buddhist temples also have bamboo groves. Several Asian cultures, including that of the Andaman Islands, believe humanity emerged from a bamboo stem.  The Japanese folktale "Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" (Taketori Monogatari) tells of a princess from the Moon emerging from a shining bamboo section.


No Man Knows When His Hour will Come

Ecclesiastes 9:12
" Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them ". 


Patience is more than a virtue

"How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees ? "
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Othello, Act II, sc. 3


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Sakura

A cherry blossom is the flower of any of several trees of genus Prunus, particularly the Japanese cherry, Prunus serrulata, which in Japan is called sakura.  Along with the chrysanthemum, the cherry blossom is considered the national flower of Japan. "Hanami" is the centuries-old practice of picnicking under a blooming sakura. The custom is said to have started during the Nara Period (710–794) when it was ume blossoms that people admired in the beginning. But by the Heian Period (794–1185), cherry blossoms came to attract more attention and hanami was synonymous with sakura. From then on, in both waka and haiku, "flowers"  meant "cherry blossoms". The custom was originally limited to the elite of the Imperial Court, but soon spread to samurai society and, by the Edo period, to the common people as well. Under the sakura trees, people had lunch and drank sake in cheerful feasts. In Japan, cherry blossoms symbolize clouds due to their nature of blooming en masse, besides being an enduring metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life, an aspect of Japanese cultural tradition that is often associated with Buddhist influence, and which is embodied in the concept of mono no aware. The association of the cherry blossom with mono no aware dates back to 18th-century scholar Motoori Norinaga. The transience of the blossoms, the exquisite beauty and volatility, has often been associated with mortality and graceful and readily acceptance of destiny and karma; for this reason, cherry blossoms are richly symbolic, and have been utilized often in Japanese art, manga, anime, and film, as well as at musical performances for ambient effect. There is at least one popular folk song, originally meant for the shakuhachi (bamboo flute), titled "Sakura", and several pop songs. The flower is also represented on all manner of consumer goods in Japan, including kimono, stationery, and dishware. The Sakurakai or Cherry Blossom Society was the name chosen by young officers within the Imperial Japanese Army in September 1930 for their secret society established with the goal of reorganizing the state along totalitarian militaristic lines, via a military coup d'état if necessary. During World War II, the cherry blossom was used to motivate the Japanese people, to stoke nationalism and militarism among the populace.] Even prior to the war, they were used in propaganda to inspire "Japanese spirit," as in the "Song of Young Japan," exulting in "warriors" who were "ready like the myriad cherry blossoms to scatter." In 1932, Akiko Yosano's poetry urged Japanese soldiers to endure sufferings in China and compared the dead soldiers to cherry blossoms. Arguments that the plans for the Battle of Leyte Gulf, involving all Japanese ships, would expose Japan to serious danger if they failed, were countered with the plea that the Navy be permitted to "bloom as flowers of death." The last message of the forces on Peleliu was "Sakura, Sakura" — cherry blossoms. Japanese pilots would paint them on the sides of their planes before embarking on a suicide mission, or even take branches of the trees with them on their missions. A cherry blossom painted on the side of the bomber symbolized the intensity and ephemerality of life in this way, the aesthetic association was altered such that falling cherry petals came to represent the sacrifice of youth in suicide missions to honor the emperor. The first kamikaze unit had a subunit called Yamazakura or wild cherry blossom. The government even encouraged the people to believe that the souls of downed warriors were reincarnated in the blossoms. In its colonial enterprises, imperial Japan often planted cherry trees as a means of "claiming occupied territory as Japanese space". Cherry blossoms are a prevalent symbol in Irezumi, the traditional art of Japanese tattoos. In tattoo art, cherry blossoms are often combined with other classic Japanese symbols like koi fish, dragons or tigers.

Playing tag

Tag, known as Onigokko, is the most popular game for kids in Japan to play in the school’s playground during recess and at the park after school. Well if you’re tagged by Oni (it), you’re out. The good old basic.

Vanity of vanities

"Vanity of vanities; all is vanity". A statement at the beginning of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. The pointlessness of human activity is the major theme of the book. The author, however, like Job, insists that God's laws must be kept, whether keeping them results in happiness or sorrow.
Tengu ( "heavenly dog") is a type of legendary creature found in Japanese folk religion, in popular folk tales, in Martial arts and in popular culture, which is connected to the ghosts of the arrogant, and as a result have become strongly associated with vanity and pride. William Shakespeare mentions vanity in his works several times:

"Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity —
That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears? " ,

Richard II (c. 1595), Act II, scene 1, line 24.

"Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
 Consuming means, soon preys upon itself".

Richard II (c. 1595), Act II, scene 1, line 38.


"Hoy-day, what a sweep of vanity comes this way!" ,

Timon of Athens ( published 1623), Act I, scene 2, line 137



You cannot run from yourself

“No matter where you go, there you are.” Confucius


A moment of Bliss

"Hear my soul speak:
The very instant that I saw you, did
My heart fly to your service".
"The Tempest", 3.1 by William Shakespeare



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Metamorphoses

The Metamorphoses (Latin: Metamorphoseon libri: "Books of Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid, considered his magnum opus. Comprising fifteen books and over 250 myths, the poem chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework. Although meeting the criteria for an epic, the poem defies simple genre classification by its use of varying themes and tones. Ovid took inspiration from the genre of metamorphosis poetry, and some of the Metamorphoses derives from earlier treatment of the same myths; however, he diverged significantly from all of his models. One of the most influential works in Western culture, the Metamorphoses has inspired such authors as Dante, Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Shakespeare. Numerous episodes from the poem have been depicted in acclaimed works of sculpture, painting, and music. Although interest in Ovid faded after the Renaissance, towards the end of the twentieth century there was a resurgence of attention to his work. Today, the Metamorphoses continues to inspire and be retold through various media. The work has been the subject of numerous translations into English, the first by William Caxton in 1480.


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Slowly but surely

In "Romeo and Juliet" ( Act 2, Scene 3, ) William Shakespeare  puts in the  mouth of Friar Lawrence the following line: "Go wisely and slowly. Those who rush stumble and fall".


Samurai

Samurai were the military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan. In Japanese, they are usually referred to as bushi. The word “samurai” roughly translates to “those who serve. ”Bushi”, from which bushido (“the way of the warrior” ) is derived, lacks the connotations of service to a master. By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class. The samurai were usually associated with a clan and their lord, were trained as officers in military tactics and grand strategy. The samurai, members of a powerful military caste in feudal Japan, began as provincial warriors before rising to power in the 12th century with the beginning of the country’s first military dictatorship, known as the shogunate. As servants of the daimyos, or great lords, the samurai backed up the authority of the shogun and gave him power over the mikado (emperor). The samurai would dominate Japanese government and society until the Meiji Restoration of 1868 led to the abolition of the feudal system. Despite being deprived of their traditional privileges, many of the samurai would enter the elite ranks of politics and industry in modern Japan. More importantly, the traditional samurai code of honor, discipline and morality known as bushido–or “the way of the warrior”–was revived and made the basic code of conduct for much of Japanese society. While the samurai numbered less than 10% of then Japan's population, their teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern Japanese martial arts.



Zephyr

A west wind is a wind that blows from the west, in an eastward direction. In Western tradition, it has usually been considered the mildest and most favorable of the directional winds. In Greek mythology, Zephyrus was the personification of the west wind and the bringer of light spring and early summer breezes; his Roman equivalent was Favonius (hence the adjective favonian, pertaining to the west wind). In the myth of Cupid and Psyche, Zephyrus was the attendant of Cupid, who brought Psyche to his master's palace.
Geoffrey Chaucer wrote of the "swete breth" of Zephyrus, and a soft, gentle breeze may be referred to as a zephyr, as in Shakespeare's Cymbeline (IV, ii): "They are as gentle / As zephyrs blowing below the violet, / Not wagging his sweet head."


Divine wind

Kamikaze (typhoon) literally "divine wind" were two winds or storms that are said to have saved Japan from two Mongol fleets under Kublai Khan. These fleets attacked Japan in 1274 and again in 1281. Due to growth of Zen Buddhism among Samurai at the time, these were the first events where the typhoons were described as "divine wind" as much by their timing as by their force.
The latter fleet, composed of "more than four thousand ships bearing nearly 140,000 men" is said to have been the largest attempted naval invasion in history whose scale was only recently eclipsed in modern times by the D-Day invasion of allied forces into Normandy in 1944. In the first invasion, the Mongols successfully conquered the Japanese settlements on Tsushima and Iki islands. When they landed on Hakata Bay, however, they met fierce resistance by the armies of samurai clans and were forced to withdraw to their bases in China. In the midst of the withdrawal, they were hit by a typhoon. Most of their ships sank and many soldiers drowned. During the time period between the first and second invasion, the Japanese prudently built two-meter-high walls to protect themselves from future assaults. Seven years later, the Mongols returned. Unable to find any suitable landing beaches due to the walls, the fleet stayed afloat for months and depleted their supplies as they searched for an area to land. After months of being exposed to the elements, the fleet was destroyed by a great typhoon, which the Japanese called "kamikaze" (divine wind). The Mongols never attacked Japan again, and more than 70,000 men were said to have been captured. The name given to the storm, kamikaze, was later used during World War II as nationalist propaganda for suicide attacks by Japanese pilots. The metaphor meant that the pilots were to be the "Divine Wind" that would again sweep the enemy from the seas. This use of kamikaze has come to be the common meaning of the word in English.

Little is the Light

This Little Light of Mine" is a gospel children's song with lyrics by Avis Burgeson Christiansen and a tune written by composer and teacher Harry Dixon Loes (1895–1965) c. 1920. Depending on the source, the song may take its theme from Matthew 5:16, "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your fine works and give glory to your Father who is in the heaven." Alternatively, it may refer to the words of Jesus in Luke 11:33, where he said, "No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light." Or, it may be based on Matthew 5:14–15, where Jesus said, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house." Jesus tells us that He is “the light of the world” in John 8:12 and John 9:5. If Jesus is the light, how then can we also be the light? The classic analogy is that of the moon and the sun. The moon dominates the night sky with its brightness, but the source of the light is the sun. In the same way, we may be excellent or poor reflectors of the light of Jesus. However in the darkness of night, even a poor reflection may provide sufficient light to be a guide. Without Jesus and the good news concerning his birth, death, burial and resurrection, we have no light to offer. It is only the gospel of Jesus Christ that can rescue us from the darkness.

To be or not ?

"To be, or not to be" from "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare is of course one of the most widely known and quoted lines in modern English, and the soliloquy has been referenced in innumerable works of theatre, literature and music.


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At the Gates of Eternity

The first published observation of the Orion nebula was by the Jesuit mathematician and astronomer Johann Baptist Cysat of Lucerne in his 1619 monograph on the comets. Some sources believe that the Orion Nebula is a cosmic 'doorway' to 'infinity' or the Gate to the Realm of the Creator, which transcends the time-space-matter universe. Some astronomers claim that a huge, beautifully-illuminated multicolored 'light' has emerged from the "nebula" and is on an intercept-course with Earth, although at a rather leisurely pace and at this rate this 'light' or 'star' will reach earth approximately 3000 AD.
Eternity in common parlance is either an infinite or an indeterminately long period of time. In classical philosophy, however, eternity is defined as what exists outside time while sempiternity is the concept that corresponds to the colloquial definition of eternity. Eternity is an important concept in many religions, where the God or the gods are said to endure eternally. Some, such as Aristotle, would say the same about the natural cosmos in regard to both past and future eternal duration, and like the eternal Platonic forms, immutability was considered essential. Aristotle argued that the cosmos has no beginning. In Aristotle's metaphysics, eternity is the unmoved mover (God), understood as the gradient of total synergy ("produces motion by being loved"). Boethius defined eternity as "simultaneously full and perfect possession of interminable life". Eternity is often symbolized by the image of a snake swallowing its own tail, known as the Ouroboros (or Uroboros). The circle is also commonly used as a symbol for eternity, as is the mathematical symbol of infinity. In "The Rape of Lucrece" by William Shakespeare  one can read:
"What win I, if I gain the thing I seek? A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy. Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week? Or sells eternity to get a toy? For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy? Or what fond beggar, but to touch the crown, Would with the sceptre straight be strucken down? "


Katana

"Katana" is the term now used to describe nihonto (sword) that are 2 shaku (606 mm / 23.9 in) and longer, also known as "dai" or "daito" among Western sword enthusiasts although daito is a generic name for any long sword. As Japanese does not have separate plural and singular forms, both "katanas" and "katana" are considered acceptable forms in English. Pronounced [katana], the kun'yomi (Japanese reading) of the kanji, originally meaning dao or knife/saber in Chinese, the word has been adopted as a loanword by the Portuguese language. In Portuguese the designation (spelled catana) means "large knife" or machete.
In 1588, the right to carry swords was restricted only to samurai, which created an even greater separation between them and the farmer-peasant class. The samurai during this period became the “two-sword man,” wearing both a short and a long sword as a mark of his privilege. The wakizashi being worn together with the katana was the official sign that the wearer was a samurai or swordsman of feudal Japan. When worn together the pair of swords were called daisho, which translates literally as "big-little". The katana was the big or long sword and the wakizashi the companion sword. Wakizashi are not necessarily just a smaller version of the katana; they could be forged differently and have a different cross section. Iaido  is a Japanese martial art that emphasizes being aware and capable of quickly drawing the sword and responding to a sudden attack. Iaido is associated with the smooth, controlled movements of drawing the sword from its scabbard (or saya), striking or cutting an opponent, removing blood from the blade, and then replacing the sword in the scabbard. While beginning practitioners of iaido may start learning with a wooden sword (bokken) depending on the teaching style of a particular instructor, most of the practitioners use the blunt edged sword, called iaito. Few, more experienced, iaido practitioners use a sharp edged sword (shinken). Practitioners of iaido are often referred to as iaidoka.


Bushido Code

Bushido ("the way (or the moral) of the warrior") is a Japanese term for the samurai way of life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry in Europe.
The "way" itself originates from the samurai moral values, most commonly stressing some combination of frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honor until death. Born from Neo-Confucianism during times of peace in Tokugawa Japan and following Confucian texts, Bushido was also influenced by Shinto and Zen Buddhism, allowing the violent existence of the samurai to be tempered by wisdom and serenity. Bushido developed between the 16th and 20th centuries, debated by pundits who believed they were building on a legacy dating back to the 10th century, although some scholars have noted that the term bushido itself is "rarely attested in premodern literature", but it was frequently alluded in Japanese culture and literature. Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, some aspects of warrior values became formalized into Japanese feudal law.
The word was first used in Japan during the 17th century. It came into common usage in Japan and the West after the 1899 publication of Nitobe Inazo's Bushido: The Soul of Japan. In Bushido  Nitobe wrote: "[…] Bushido, then, is the code of moral principles which the samurai were required or instructed to observe […] More frequently it is a code unuttered and unwritten […] It was an organic growth of decades and centuries of military career. In order to become a samurai this code has to be mastered ". Nitobe was not the first to document Japanese chivalry in this way. In Feudal and Modern Japan (1896), historian Arthur May Knapp wrote: "The samurai of thirty years ago had behind him a thousand years of training in the law of honor, obedience, duty, and self-sacrifice.... It was not needed to create or establish them. As a child he had but to be instructed, as indeed he was from his earliest years, in the etiquette of self-immolation".
In developing the modern concepts of State Shintoism  and emperor worship, various Japanese philosophers tried to revive or purify national beliefs (kokugaku) by removing imported foreign ideas, borrowed primarily from Chinese philosophy. This "Restoration Shintoist Movement" began with Motoori Norinaga in the 18th century. Motoori Norinaga, and later Hirata Atsutane, based their research on the Kojiki and other classic Shinto texts which teach the superiority of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu. This formed the basis for State Shintoism, as the Japanese emperor claimed direct descent from Amaterasu. The emperor himself was therefore sacred, and all proclamations of the emperor had thus a religious significance. After the Meiji Restoration, the new imperial government needed to rapidly modernize the polity and economy of Japan, and the Meiji oligarchy felt that those goals could only be accomplished through a strong sense of national unity and cultural identity, with State Shintoism as an essential counterweight to the imported Buddhism of the past, the Christianity and other Western philosophies of the present. In 1890, the Imperial Rescript on Education was issued, and students were required to ritually recite its oath to "offer yourselves courageously to the State" as well as protect the Imperial family. The practice of emperor worship was further spread by distributing imperial portraits for esoteric veneration. All of these practices used to fortify national solidarity through patriotic centralized observance at shrines are said to have given pre-war Japanese nationalism a tint of mysticism and cultural introversion. The hakko ichiu  philosophy became popular during the Second Sino-Japanese War. This came to be regarded by militarists as a doctrine that the emperor was the center of the phenomenal world, lending religious impetus to ideas of Japanese territorial expansion.



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Rice

Japanese rice refers to a number of short-grain cultivars of Japonica rice including ordinary rice (uruchimai) and glutinous rice(mochigome). Ordinary Japanese rice, or uruchimai  is the staple of the Japanese diet and consists of short translucent grains. When cooked it has a sticky texture such that it can easily be picked up and eaten with chopsticks. Outside Japan it is sometimes labeled sushi rice, as this is one of its common uses. It is also used to produce sake. There is a common misconception that sushi rice when served must be cold. Jiro Ono - the Shokunin of Sushi- the owner and Chef of the best and most expensive sushi restaurant in Japan believes that rice should be served at body temperature. Glutinous rice, known in Japan as mochigome  is used for making mochi and special dishes such as sekihan. It is a short-grain rice, and can be distinguished from uruchimai by its particularly short, round and opaque grains, its greater stickiness when cooked, and firmer and chewier texture.
Rice production in Japan was and is important to the food supply in Japan, with rice being a staple part of the Japanese diet. Most people in Japan see rice as a subsequent part of their daily life ( sushi, sake, fabric, paper at setera ). According to national mythology, rice was intimately associated with the creation of Japan. That is because the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, gave grains of rice to one of her descendants, the mythical first emperor Jinmu. His task was to turn Japan into a land of rice. Legend has it that Emperor Akihito, who reigns today, is Jinmu's 125th direct heir. That makes him Japan's rice-farmer-in-chief, and each year he harvests a small crop to share with the gods. Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, a Japanese anthropologist and authority on its rice, notes how most countries' creation myths begin with the birth of the universe. Japan's are more down to earth, and reflected in its businesslike approach to life today: “It was about the transformation of a wilderness into a land of abundant rice at the command of the Sun Goddess, whose descendants, the emperors, rule the country by officiating at rice rituals.” As these rituals suggest, the planting of rice has an intimate bearing on Japan's indigenous religion, Shintoism. The religion makes a virtue of the idea of subordination of self-interest to the well-being of the group. Scholars believe this may stem from the traditional labour-intensity of rice cultivation, in which all members of the village were required to help sow, weed and harvest, and water had to be shared out with scrupulous fairness (even today, two-thirds of Japan's water goes to its paddies). Those who did not co-operate risked being shunned, in a chilling village practice known as murahachibu; it could lead to ostracisation of a farmer and his descendants. There may be traces of this in the striking conformity that visitors to Japan notice today. A well-known Japanese expression, “the nail that sticks up will be hammered down”, runs through religion and culture and may reflect attitudes established in the paddies. As well as customs and morals, rice helped to shape history. For much of the Middle Ages and beyond it was the main unit of taxation. The wealth of a samurai in feudal Japan was measured in terms of koku; one koku, supposed to be the amount of rice it took to feed one man for a year, was equivalent to around 180 liters. The farmers who produced it were long considered valuable members of society, above merchants in the rigid hierarchy, although below warriors. But if they ate rice, they often had to mix it with millet to make it go further. If the harvest was poor, they sacrificed their own needs to give rice to the taxman. That meant that rice was a luxury good, served in the elegant rice bowls of the warlords and samurai at the cost of back-breaking work in the fields. But the feudal lords went a stage further. They made something implicitly noble—and quintessentially Japanese—out of rice that begun to be reflected in art, aesthetics, even fashion. Rich women wore representations of rice woven into their 17th-century kimonos. It was during the Edo era, from about 1600 to 1870, a period of self-imposed isolation in Japanese history, that the rice culture flourished most vividly. Trade along the roads to Edo, now Tokyo, was vigorous. Edo and Osaka hosted rice-futures markets. The area around Tochikubo, now known as Niigata, was one of the most populated parts of Japan because of the quality of its crop. At that time, Ukiyo-e, or woodblock prints, were in fashion. Ms Ohnuki-Tierney notes that the prints depict the rice paddies in beautiful detail. They represent an unchanging “primordial Japanese landscape”, she says. The people in the foreground travelling to and from Edo are far more transitory. Over the centuries rice became so embedded in Japanese culture that it helped to reinforce a sense of national identity. In the seventh century the emperor Tenmu commissioned the first myth histories of Japan, the Kojiki and Nihonshoki, to explain national origins. As in the story of the Sun Goddess's grandson, they are replete with rice. They served to reaffirm Japanese identity just as China was influencing it with a writing system and new culture. But the myths skirted over an awkward historical fact. Rice did not come to Japan from heaven. It came from China and reached Japan via what is now the Korean peninsula in about 400BC, accompanied by lusty Korean farmers who probably went on to populate Japan, outbreeding the indigenous Jomon hunter-gatherers. Even today, the Japanese are reluctant to acknowledge they may have Korean roots. Rice also plays an important role in Japan's main religions and popular beliefs.


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still water runs deep

The English popular saying "still water runs deep " was possibly inspired by Shakespeare, c. 1590, in Henry VI, Part 2, act 3, sc. 1:
"Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep; And in his simple show he harbours treason ".


Rising Sun of Japan

Both Nippon and Nihon literally mean "the sun's origin", that is, where the sun originates,] and are often translated as the Land of the Rising Sun.
The Rising Sun Flag  design was originally used by feudal warlords in Japan during the Edo period. On May 15, 1870, as a policy of the Meiji government, it was adopted as the war flag of the Imperial Japanese Army, and on October 7, 1889, it was adopted as the naval ensign of the Imperial Japanese Navy. It is still used in Japan as a symbol of tradition and good fortune, and is incorporated into commercial products and advertisements. However it is  still viewed as a symbol associated with Japanese imperialism in the early 20th century in South Korea, North Korea, China, and by some veterans in the United States because of its use by Japan's military forces during that period. The design is similar to the flag of Japan, which has a red circle in the center signifying the sun. The difference compared to the flag of Japan is that the Rising Sun Flag has extra sun rays (16 for the ensign) exemplifying the name of Japan as "The Land of the Rising Sun". The flag was used until Japan's surrender in World War II during August 1945. In 1954 the flag was re-adopted. The flag with 16 rays is today the ensign of the Maritime Self-Defense Force while the Ground Self-Defense Force uses an 8-ray version.

Sacred forest

Sacred forests (groves) in Japan are typically associated with Shinto shrines, and are located all over Japan. They have existed since ancient times and shrines are often built in the midst of preexisting groves. The Cryptomeria tree (a kind of cypress ) is venerated in Shinto practice, and considered sacred. Among the sacred groves associated with Shinto shrines is the 20-hectare wooded area associated with Atsuta Shrine at Atsuta-ku, Nagoya. The 1500-hectare forest associated with Kashima Shrine was declared a "protected area" in 1953. Today it is part of the Kashima Wildlife Preservation Area. The woods include over 800 kinds of trees and varied animal and plant life. The Utaki sacred sites (often with associated burial grounds) on Okinawa are based on Ryukyuan religion, and usually are associated with toun or kami-asagi - regions dedicated to the gods where people are forbidden to go. Sacred groves are often present in such places, as also in Gusukus - fortified areas which contain sacred sites within them. It consists of a triangular cavern formed by gigantic rocks, and contains a sacred grove with rare, indigenous trees like the Kubanoki (a kind of palm) and the yabunikkei or Cinnamomum japonicum (a form of wild cinnamon).


Nether World

The netherworld or underworld is an otherworld thought to be deep underground or beneath the surface of the world in most religions and mythologies. Typically it is a place where the souls of the departed go, an afterlife or a realm of the dead. Yomi or Yomi-no-kuni ( Yellow springs/wells") is the Japanese word for the land of the dead (World of Darkness). According to Shinto mythology as related in Kojiki, this is where the dead go after life. Once one has eaten at the hearth of Yomi it is impossible to return to the land of the living. Yomi is comparable to Hades or Sheol and is most commonly known for Izanami's retreat to that place after her death. Izanagi followed her there and upon his return he washed himself, creating Amaterasu, Susanoo, and Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto in the process. Many scholars believe that the image of Yomi was derived from ancient Japanese tombs in which corpses were left for some time to decompose. This dark and vaguely defined realm was believed to be located beneath the earth, but it was not until the Han Dynasty that the Chinese had a clearly articulated conception of an underworld below in contrast with a heavenly realm above. Some Japanese Christian texts use Yomi to refer to what is called Hell in the English versions. For example, Revelation 6:8: " And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him ". Naraka  is the Sanskrit word for the underworld ( literally, of man). According to some schools of Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism, Naraka is a place of torment, or Hell. The word 'Neraka' (modification of Naraka) in Indonesian and Malaysian has also been used to describe the Islamic concept of Hell.

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Divine Providence

In theology, divine providence, or just providence, is God's intervention in the world. The term "Divine Providence" (usually capitalized) is also used as a title of God. A distinction is usually made between "general providence", which refers to God's continuous upholding the existence and natural order of the universe, and "special providence", which refers to God's extraordinary intervention in the life of people. Miracles generally fall in the latter category. The word comes from Latin providentia "foresight, prudence", from pro- "ahead" and videre "to see". The current use of the word has the sense of "knowledge of the future" or omniscience, understood as an attribute of God.
Christian teaching on providence in the high Middle Ages was most fully developed by Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica. The concept of providence as care exercised by God over the universe, his foresight and care for its future is extensively developed and explained both by Aquinas himself and modern Thomists. One of the foremost modern Thomists, Dominican father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, wrote a study of providence entitled "Providence: God's loving care for man and the need for confidence in Almighty God." In it, he presents and solves, according to Catholic doctrine, the most difficult issues as related to providence. Author Simon Augustine Blackmore speaks from Divine Providence in Hamlet : " After mature reflection upon these incidents, Hamlet comes to see more than ever the interposition of Divine Providence in the affairs of men. In self-reliance, he had boasted that he would "delve one yard beneath their mines, and blow them to the moon;" in self-reliance, he had gone forth with the enemy upon the cruise to England, confident of rescue by the counter stratagem of a pirate ship; but when his "deep plot" apparently had failed, and left him helpless, like a fettered prisoner in the throes of despair, the scheme which flashed upon his mind, without thought or effort of his own, he now recognized as a Divine inspiration. It brought him what he had so long and eagerly desired, — a positive and tangible proof of the murderer's guilt. His death-warrant, written by the hand of the King, and bearing the royal seal, was beyond dispute a convincing proof. The precious document he entrusts for safe-keeping to Horatio, because of the presentiment of his own speedy death. It will justify before the world the avenging blow which he is soon to strike. It will unmask the seeming virtuous villain, and consign him to everlasting infamy.  Hence, with a sense of thankfulness for the unexpected proof which he procured solely by the intervention of a higher power, he openly professes his faith in the guidance of divine Providence:

"There's a Divinity that shapes our ends,
 Rough-hew them how we will".


Aphrodite of the beautiful buttocks

The Venus Callipyge, also known as the Aphrodite Kallipygos  or the Callipygian Venus, all literally meaning "Venus (or Aphrodite) of the beautiful buttocks", is an Ancient Roman marble statue, thought to be a copy of an older Greek original. In an example of anasyrma, it depicts a partially draped woman, raising her light peplos to uncover her hips and buttocks, and looking back and down over her shoulder, perhaps to evaluate them. The subject is conventionally identified as Venus (Aphrodite), though it may equally be a portrait of a mortal woman. In the 17th and 18th centuries the statue was identified as Venus and associated with a temple to Aphrodite Kallipygos at Syracuse, discussed by Athenaeus in his Deipnosophists.
 


Haiga

Haiga ( haikai drawing) is a style of Japanese painting that incorporates the aesthetics of haikai. Haiga are typically painted by haiku poets (haijin), and often accompanied by a haiku poem. Like the poetic form it accompanied, haiga was based on simple, yet often profound, observations of the everyday world. Stephen Addiss points out that "since they are both created with the same brush and ink, adding an image to a haiku poem was ... a natural activity."
Stylistically, haiga vary widely based on the preferences and training of the individual painter, but generally show influences of formal Kano school painting, minimalist Zen painting, and Otsu-e, while sharing much of the aesthetic attitudes of the nanga tradition. Some were reproduced as woodblock prints. The subjects painted likewise vary widely, but are generally elements mentioned in the calligraphy, or poetic images which add meaning or depth to that expressed by the poem. The moon is a common subject in these poems and paintings, sometimes represented by the Zen circle enso, which evokes a number of other meanings, including that of the void. Other subjects, ranging from Mount Fuji to rooftops, are frequently represented with a minimum of brushstrokes, thus evoking elegance and beauty in simplicity.

Rice paper

Washi  is a style of paper that was first made in Japan. Washi is commonly made using fibers from the bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub , or the paper mulberry, but also can be made using rice, bamboo, hemp and wheat. The word "washi" comes from wa "Japanese" and shi "paper", and the term is used to describe paper made by hand in the traditional manner. Washi is generally tougher than ordinary paper made from wood pulp, and is used in many traditional arts. Origami, Shodo, and Ukiyo-e were all produced using washi. Washi was also used to make various everyday goods like clothes, household goods, and toys as well as vestments and ritual objects for Shinto priests and statues of Buddha. Several kinds of washi, referred to collectively as Japanese tissue, are used in the conservation and mending of books.

Master

Shokunin is a Japanese word for "artisan" or "craftsman", which also implies a pride in one's own work. Shokunin, in simple terms, would translate into a Mastery of ones Profession.

In the words of shokunin Tashio Odate:

Shokunin means not only having technical skill, but also implies an attitude and social consciousness... a social obligation to work his best for the general welfare of the people, [an] obligation both material and spiritual.

Shokunin is a way of life, a way of thinking, a personal characteristic that affects your every interaction in the world. raditionally, shokunin honoured their tools of trade at New Year's - the sharpened and taken-care of tools would be placed in a tokonoma (a container or box still found in Japanese houses and shops), and two rice cakes and a tangerine (on top of rice paper) were placed on top of each toolbox, to honour the tools and express gratitude for performing their task.



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Odysseus

Odysseus, also known by the Latin name Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle. Husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of Laertes and Anticlea, Odysseus is renowned for his brilliance, guile, and versatility (polytropos), and is hence known by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning (metis, or "cunning intelligence"). He is most famous for the Odyssey, ten eventful years he took to return home after the decade-long Trojan War.


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Bamboo flute

Hotchiku ( lit. "dharma bamboo"), sometimes romanized as hocchiku or hochiku, is a Japanese end-blown flute (a fue), crafted from root sections of bamboo. After cleaning and sanding, the heavy root end of the bamboo stalk reveals many small circular knots where the roots formerly joined the stalk. Because of its extremely natural construction, the hotchiku is commonly used for Suizen (blowing Zen meditation). Playing traditional honkyoku would only be attempted by highly technically skilled shakuhachi musicians since the blowing and fingering techniques required for honkyoku have to be altered considerably. Since hotchiku are not generally tuned to a standard musical scale, they do not commonly accompany other instruments.

On the shield

The Old Greek saying " Either [with] it [your shield], or on it " means "either you will win the battle, or you will die and then be carried back home on your shield". It was said by Spartan mothers to their sons before they went out to battle to remind them of their bravery and duty to Sparta and Greece. A hoplite could not escape the field of battle unless he tossed away the heavy and cumbersome shield. Therefore "losing one's shield" meant desertion.

Psalm 84:9
"Behold our shield, O God, And look upon the face of Your anointed".

Sake

Sake is a Japanese rice wine made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. In the Japanese language, the word "sake" ( "liquor", also pronounced shu) can refer to any alcoholic drink, while the beverage called "sake" in English is usually termed nihonshu ( "Japanese liquor"). Under Japanese liquor laws, sake is labelled with the word seishu ( "clear liquor"), a synonym less commonly used in conversation. In Japan, where it is the national beverage, sake is often served with special ceremony – gently warmed in a small earthenware or porcelain bottle called a tokkuri, and sipped from a small porcelain cup called a sakazuki. The origin of sake is unclear. The making of Chinese alcoholic beverages predates recorded history. The earliest reference to the use of alcohol in Japan is recorded in the Book of Wei in the Records of the Three Kingdoms. This 3rd-century Chinese text speaks of the Japanese drinking and dancing. Alcoholic beverages are mentioned several times in the Kojiki, Japan's first written history, which was compiled in 712 AD. Sake production was a government monopoly for a long time, but in the 10th century, temples and shrines began to brew sake, and they became the main centers of production for the next 500 years. In Japan, sake has long been taxed by the national government. In 1898, this tax brought in about 55 million yen out of a total of about 120 million yen, about 46% of the government's total direct tax income. During the Russo-Japanese War in 1904–1905, the government banned the home brewing of sake. At the time, sake still made up an astonishing 30% of Japan's tax revenue. Since home-brewed sake is tax-free sake, the logic was that by banning the home brewing of sake, sales would go up, and more tax money would be collected. This was the end of home-brewed sake, and the law remains in effect today even though sake sales now make up only 2% of government income. October 1 is the official Sake Day ( "Nihonshu no Hi") of Japan. Sake is often consumed as part of Shinto purification rituals (compare with the use of grape wine in the Christian Eucharist). Sakes served to gods as offerings prior to drinking are called Omiki or Miki. People drink Omiki with gods to communicate with them and to solicit rich harvests the following year. The person committing seppuku should empty a cup of sake in two drinks of two sips each (one sip would show greed, whilst three or more would show hesitation). This makes a total of four sips; shi, "four", also means "death". The sake cup should be filled from the left, by an attendant using his left hand (this is indescribably rude under other circumstances). During World War II, kamikaze pilots drank sake prior to carrying out their suicide missions in the same fashion. In a ceremony called kagami biraki, wooden casks of sake are opened with mallets during Shinto festivals, weddings, store openings, sports and election victories, and other celebrations. This sake, called iwai-zake ("celebration sake"), is served freely to all to spread good fortune.

Chopsticks

Chopsticks are shaped pairs of equal length sticks that have been used as the traditional ancient kitchen and eating utensils in virtually all of East Asia for over six thousand years. Chopsticks were first used by the Chinese and later spread to other countries. Chopsticks are smoothed and frequently tapered, and are commonly made of bamboo, plastic, wood, or stainless steel. They are less commonly made from gold, silver, porcelain, jade, or ivory. Chopsticks are held in the dominant hand, between the thumb and fingers, and used to pick up pieces of food. The English word "chopstick" may have derived from Chinese Pidgin English, in which "chop chop" meant "quickly". According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest published use of the word is in the 1699 book Voyages and Descriptions by William Dampier. In Japanese, chopsticks are called " hashi". They are also known as" otemoto" , a phrase commonly printed on the wrappers of disposable chopsticks. "Te" means hand and "moto" means the area under or around something. The preceding "o" is used for politeness. Japanese chopsticks are shorter length sticks of about 23 cm (9.1 in) tapering to a finely pointed end. Japanese chopsticks are traditionally made of wood or bamboo and are lacquered. It is common for Japanese sticks to be of shorter length for women. Children's chopsticks, in smaller sizes, are common. Many Japanese chopsticks have circumferential grooves at the eating end, which helps prevent food sliding. Chopsticks are used in many parts of the world. While principles of etiquette are similar, finer points can differ from region to region. In Japan the pointed ends of the chopsticks should be placed on a chopstick rest when the chopsticks are not being used. However, when a chopstick rest is not available as is often the case in restaurants using waribashi (disposable chopsticks), a person may make a chopstick rest by folding the paper case that contained the chopsticks. Reversing chopsticks to use the opposite clean end is commonly used to move food from a communal plate, and is acceptable if there are no communal chopsticks. Chopsticks should not be crossed on a table, as this symbolizes death, or vertically stuck in the rice, which is done during a funeral. Chopsticks should be placed right-left direction; the tips should be on the left. In formal use, disposable chopsticks should be replaced into the wrapper at the end of a meal.


Sushi

Sushi is a type of food preparation originating in Japan, consisting of cooked vinegared rice  combined with other ingredients  such as seafood, meat, vegetables and sometimes tropical fruits. Although commonly mistaken for sushi, sashimi, which is also a Japanese delicacy, consists of thinly sliced raw meat or fish and may or may not be served with rice. Sushi is often served with pickled ginger, wasabi, and soy sauce. The original type of sushi, known today as narezushi was first made in Southeast Asia centuries ago. Fish was salted and wrapped in fermented rice, a traditional lacto-fermented rice dish. Narezushi was made of this gutted fish which was stored in fermented rice for months at a time for preservation. The fermentation of the rice prevented the fish from spoiling. Contemporary Japanese sushi has little resemblance to the traditional lacto-fermented rice dish. Originally, when the fermented fish was taken out of the rice, only the fish was consumed while the fermented rice was discarded. The strong-tasting and smelling funazushi, a kind of narezushi made near Lake Biwa in Japan, resembles the traditional fermented dish. Beginning in the Muromachi period (1336–1573) of Japan, vinegar was added to the mixture for better taste and preservation. The vinegar accentuated the rice's sourness and was known to increase its shelf life, allowing the fermentation process to be shortened and eventually abandoned. The seafood and rice were pressed using wooden (usually bamboo) molds. By the mid 18th century, this form of sushi had reached Edo (contemporary Tokyo). The contemporary version, internationally known as "sushi", was created by Hanaya Yohei (1799–1858) at the end of the Edo period in Edo. Sushi invented by Hanaya was an early form of fast food that was not fermented (therefore prepared quickly) and could be conveniently eaten with one's hands. The size of the previous sushi was about three times as large as contemporary ones. Originally, this sushi was known as Edomae zushi because it used freshly caught fish in the Edo-mae (Edo Bay or Tokyo Bay). Though the fish used in modern sushi no longer usually comes from Tokyo Bay, it is still formally known as Edomae nigirizushi. The Oxford English Dictionary notes the earliest written mention of sushi in English in an 1893 book, A Japanese Interior, where it mentions sushi as "a roll of cold rice with fish, sea-weed, or some other flavoring". However, there is also mention of sushi in a Japanese-English dictionary from 1873, and an 1879 article on Japanese cookery in the journal Notes and Queries. Unlike sashimi, which is almost always eaten with chopsticks, nigirizushi ("hand-pressed sushi") is traditionally eaten with the fingers, even in formal settings. Although it is commonly served on a small platter with a side dish for dipping, sushi can also be served in a bento, a box with small compartments that hold the various dishes of the meal.





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