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….
Category: History
Death to Kanji! The Movement to Eliminate Kanji During the Meiji Restoration
Ask most English speakers about what makes Japanese so hard to learn and you will most likely hear kanji. The Japanese writing system consists of kana, or a phonetic script, and kanji, which are pictorial symbols Japan inherited and adopted from China. During the Meiji Restoration (beginning around 1868 following the end of the Tokugawa…
Japanese Book Guide : 27 Books You Ought to Read about Japan
Here’s a collection of books to help expand your knowledge about Japan. I’ve referred to these books for my various writing projects. This list skews toward history because that’s my thing. You will also find English translations of landmark Japanese literary works, which everyone interested in Japan ought to read. The Art of the Samurai…
Small History and Big History
History has two different and related types: small and big. Big history is what you learn in school. It’s the major events of the past: the American Revolution, World War II, the Thirty-Years War, Sengoku Jidai, and so on. Big history usually has some sort of date you needed to memorize. Small history sits on…
Hagakure: the Art of the Samurai
The Hagakure appears obsessed with seppuku when you read through it. In the book, Yamamoto Tsunetomo collected myriad accounts of samurai from Saga domain along with various proverbs and lessons. Tsunetomo lived during the long peace of the Edo period as a custodian of Lord Mitsushige’s books. He worked from theory, which is why seppuku…
“My Japan,” A World War II Anti-Japanese Propaganda Film
My Japan takes an interesting tact with how it tried to spur Americans to buy war bonds. The film claims to be a captured Japanese propaganda film aimed at demoralizing Americans. The film was, in fact, produced by the War Finance Division of the United States Office of War Information in 1945. The film uses a…