Proverbs and folklore preserve the wisdom and hard-learned lessons of the common class. Both pass down orally, taking on regional flavors over time until someone comes along and writes them down. Proverbs, because of their pithiness and use of metaphor, tend to remain in regular speech long after folktales become literature. Sometimes proverbs become folded…
Category: History
Only Time Will Tell: Mechanized Time in Old Japan
A day divided into 24 hours of 60 minutes, which are each 60 seconds in length, feels natural. But at one time, daylight didn’t divide so mechanically. Many mistakenly think people didn’t care about timekeeping even just a century-and-a-half ago. The idea: agriculturally based economies didn’t need hourly timekeeping and instead focused on seasonal and…
The Yamato Dynasty by Sterling and Peggy Seagrave
The Yamato Dynasty traces the Japanese imperial family from Emperor Meiji and the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate to Akihito. As you can imagine, most of the book centers on Emperor Hirohito. After all, he was Japan’s longest-serving emperor. To the authors’ credit, they spend a nice number of words on more obscure aspects of…
The World of the Shining Prince by Ivan Morris
In order to understand works like The Tale of Genji, you have to understand the historical context. Ivan Morris’s book The World of the Shining Prince sketches enough of this background for you to understand what Murasaki took for granted. Morris covers every aspect of Heian society from food and superstitions to the relationship practices…
Factors Behind Population Decline and the Ancient World’s Solutions
Birthrates in the developed world, especially in South Korea and Japan, have fallen below the replacement rate. Japan’s total fertility rate dropped below replacement back in 1974 with population decline beginning in 2010 (Oizimi, 2022). Japan’s population also declines because of people migrating out of the country. This has led to concern about demographic collapse,…
The Unfettered Mind by Takuan Soho
The Unfettered Mind contains essays and letters written by the Zen monk Takuan Soho, who was a friend and a teacher of Miyamoto Musashi. As Takuan neared death, he reportedly told his students: “Bury my body in the mountain behind the temple, cover it with dirt, and go home. Read no sutras, hold no ceremony….