A few times week, I walk the grounds of 明治神宮 Meiji Jingu, the grand shrine in central Tokyo dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. The emperial couple were famous poets who composed about 130,000 poems in the classical Japanese form, waka. Emperor Meiji was born mere months before Commodore Perry’s ships arrived in Japan. [...]
Archive for the ‘Literature’ Category
武神 Bushin Warrior Gods
Posted in art, budo, education, Japanophilia, Literature, Philosophy, Tokyo on October 16, 2009 |
縄 Let Loose
Posted in black pyjamas, languages, Literature, Philosophy on August 6, 2009 |
On Tuesday night, Hatsumi Sensei talked about the concept of 縄の空間, nawa no kuukan, or the rope space. He alluded to the ritual use of rope in Shinto practice, and said that an alternate reading of the kanji 神, kami is nawa, homophonous with the Japanese word for rope. He said we bind ourselves to the kami with the [...]
Martial, literary and fine
Posted in black pyjamas, languages, Literature, peeps, Philosophy on April 5, 2009 |
What an old lady knows about looking like and being: My German-speaking great grandmother was not impressed by post-war fashion worn by the young ladies of a house she worked in. They were impeccably dressed but their rooms were filthy, which outraged my usually reserved Oma so much, she remarked, “Oben hoi, und unten foi.” The nuance [...]
The girl who drew cats
Posted in art, black pyjamas, Japanophilia, Literature, peeps, Philosophy on September 9, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Lyssa is an amazing woman. She can knit, sew, design costumes, dissasemble, paint, reassemble and ride a bicycle, grow plants, cook great food and be help desk diva to others. And she’s also a Bujinkan student. Lately, she’s been applying her artistic talents to the production of Ninja Gears, an online shop featuring her designs for [...]
