Well… maybe because when I read Genji the book was in Portugal Portuguese so I couldn’t understand a thing

Reading Musashi is a whole new experience compared to reading the Genji

Reading Musashi is a whole new experience compared to reading the Genji

LORD ENMA

"Enma Daiō is the ruler of hell (both Jigoku and Meido) and the foremost of the 13 judges of the dead. He dresses in the robes of an ancient government official from the Chinese Tang Dynasty, and wears a fearsome expression upon his face. He is served by two secretaries, Shiroku and Shimyō, as well as a number of other demonic servants—the chiefs of which are Gozu and Mezu. His name often is invoked by parents who scold their children, “If you tell a lie, Enma will rip out your tongue!”

Enma’s chief duty is to judge the souls of the newly dead and send them on to their next location. He keeps a great scroll in which he records all of the good and evil deeds of each and every person to use as evidence against them when their time of judgment comes. He oversees the torturing and suffering in hell, making sure that each soul gets enough punishment."

Source

PAGODA

"Pagodas in Japan are called tō (塔, lit. pagoda), sometimes buttō (仏塔, lit. Buddhist pagoda) or tōba (塔婆, lit. pagoda) and historically derive from the Chinese pagoda, itself an interpretation of the Indian stupa.[1] Like the stupa, pagodas were originally used as reliquaries but in many cases they ended up losing this function.[2] Pagodas are quintessentially Buddhist and an important component of Japanese Buddhist temple compounds but, because until the Kami and Buddhas Separation Act of 1868, a Shinto shrine was normally also a Buddhist temple and vice versa, they are not rare at shrines either. The famous Itsukushima Shrine, for example, has one.[3]

After the Meiji Restoration the word tō, once used exclusively in a religious context, came to mean also "tower" in the western sense, as for example in Eiffel tower.

Of the Japanese pagoda's many forms, some are built in wood and are collectively known as mokutō (木塔, lit. wood pagoda), but most are carved out of stone (sekitō (石塔, lit. stone pagoda). Wood pagodas are large buildings with either two stories (like the tahōtō (多宝塔, lit. Tahō pagoda), see photo below) or an odd number of stories. Extant wood pagodas with more than two storeys have almost always either three stories (and are therefore called sanjū-no-tō (三重塔, lit. three-storeyed pagoda)) or five (and are called gojū-no-tō (五重塔, lit. five-storeyed pagoda). Stone pagodas are nearly always small, usually well below 3 metres, and as a rule offer no usable space. If they have more than one storey, pagodas are called tasōtō (多層塔, lit. multi-storied pagoda) or tajūtō (多重塔, lit. multi-storied pagoda)."

Source

THE MANYOSHU

"The Man'yōshū (万葉集, literally "Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves") is the oldest extant collection of Japanese waka (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara Period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in a series of compilers, is today widely believed to be Ōtomo no Yakamochi, although numerous other theories have been proposed. The chronologically last datable poem in the collection is from AD 759. It contains many poems from a much earlier period, with the bulk of the collection representing the period between AD 600 and 759. The precise significance of the title is not known with certainty.

The Man'yōshū contains 20 volumes and more than 4,500 waka poems, and is divided into three genres: Zoka, songs at banquets and trips; Somonka, songs about love between men and women; and Banka songs to mourn the death of people. These songs were written by people of various statuses, such as the Emperor, aristocrats, junior officials, Sakimori soldiers (Sakimori songs), street performers, peasants, and Togoku folk songs (Eastern songs). There are more than 2,100 waka poems by unknown authors."

Source

Hello ^^ you can call me Shiokoji or just Shio!

I’m not actually Japanese, nor am I a descendant of a native Japanese person, but I like to study the country’s history and culture nonetheless, mainly the Heian period.

This blog is basically me trying to organize all information I get from the internet about those early years of Japan (~500 or 800 a.C). The info I get might be right or might be wrong, that being known, help me if I get any false or incomplete information please :D

My posts will not necessarily contain texts I wrote, being mainly info I control c control v from sites. As I said before, this is just for organizing things I found.

If you somehow got here, I hope you enjoy :)

My nickname comes from The Heike Story book ^^

GENJI MONOGATARI

"The Tale of Genji (源氏物語) is a classic work of Japanese literature written in the early 11th century by the noblewoman and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu. The original manuscript, created around the peak of the Heian period, no longer exists. It was made in an orihon style, several sheets of paper pasted together and folded alternately in one direction then the other.

Genji's mother dies when he is three years old, and the Emperor cannot forget her. The Emperor Kiritsubo then hears of a woman (Lady Fujitsubo), formerly a princess of the preceding emperor, who resembles his deceased concubine, and later she becomes one of his wives. Genji loves her first as a stepmother, but later as a woman, and they fall in love with each other. Genji is frustrated by his forbidden love for the Lady Fujitsubo and is on bad terms with his own wife (Aoi no Ue, the Lady Aoi). He engages in a series of love affairs with other women. These are however unfulfilling, as in most cases his advances are rebuffed, or his lover dies suddenly, or he becomes bored."

Source

MASTERLIST

LEGENDS

— Lord Enma (Wiki)

MONOGATARI

— Genji Monogatari (Wiki)

— Genji Monogatari (Book Review) — In Progress...

POLITICS

GENERAL

— The Manyoshu (Wiki)

— Pagoda Temples (Wiki)

— Musashi I (Book Review) — In Progress…

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