Monsters – the Ultimate Adversary? It seems to be the most gripping kind of tale: The fight against a monster. Our heroes may confront it literally, as a demonic creature or a mad serial killer, or more symbolically, in the faceless grinding mechanisms of society, or the depths of their own subconscious. The Japanese monsters…
Category: History
The Forty-seven Ronin, A.B. Mitford’s Authoritative Account
Note: This account dates to 1871 and contains unconventional spellings for transliterations. For example, daimyo is spelled daimio. It also uses British-English spellings of words such as honour. I decided to retain these spellings and retain the old grammar rules to help you become used to these conventions. As you dig through old stories (the…
1800s Japanese Photography: Windows to the Past
Photographs are everywhere. Every cell phone has a camera stuffed into it. Selfies and photos in general are so ubiquitous that they often lack impact. Even the most stunning photos make us shrug and click on to the next website. But if we stop and consider photos, they are a marvel. Photography captures a moment…
Influenced By – I: Daoism and Onmyōdō
This was written by the guest writer, Jasmin Influenced by: Daoism and Onmyōdō With this post, I’d like to start a new series in which I want to consider the use of religious tropes and images in either well-known or current Anime. Since I am a self-confessed lover of monsters and magic, this first blog…
Musings VII: On Monkeys in Japanese Culture.
Story: Three in the Morning, Four in the Evening. In the times of the Song Dynasty[i] in China lived a man they called Sokō, which means monkey trainer. He loved monkeys and reared a whole horde of them at his house. Sokō understood the monkey’s minds quite well, and likewise the monkeys understood their master….
Japanese Public Baths – Anime’s Staple for Awkward Humor
The hot spring scene, a staple for any romantic-comedy anime. So predictable and so traditional. Baths are an important part of Japanese cultural identity. Until the mid-1960s, 60% of Japanese homes had bathtubs. Everyone else went to communal bathhouses. Japan’s oldest text, the Kojiki — written in the 8th century–mentions public baths (Wynn, 2014). Anime’s…