Japan
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The Great Fire of Meireki
One of the greatest disasters in Japanese history, began in the Japanese capital city of Edo on March 2, 1657. Legend has it that the fire was accidentally started by a priest who was supposedly trying to cremate a cursed kimono. The kimono had been owned in succession by three teenage girls who all died before ever being able to wear it. When the garment was being burned, a large gust of wind fanned the flames causing the wooden temple to ignite. The fire spread quickly through the city, due to hurricane force winds which were blowing from the northwest. Edo, like most Japanese cities and the buildings were especially…
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On Buddhism: Two men, one Buddha
Two images come to mind when someone mentions a Buddhist Idol, such as a statue or a piece of jewelry; one man is seen as skinny and somber, while the other is depicted as a fat, jolly man. What is less known is who these Idols are and what each one represents, both of whom were prominent men in the Buddhist religion but only one was actually a Buddha. The fat Buddha, or The Laughing Buddha, is known by different names in different regions, Budai in China and Hotei or Qici in Japan, but he was not a Buddha at all. In China, Budai was a monk from Chinese folklore…
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Onna-bugeisha – the female samurai
Some of the most mighty and fearsome Japanese warriors were the Onna-bugeisha. Their family backgrounds differ from noblewomen to peasant farmers. They were members of the bushi (samurai) class in feudal Japan and were trained in the use of weapons to protect their household, family, and honor in times of war. An eight century span produced some of the most famous female warriors, Tomoe Gozen, Nakano Takeko, and Hōjō Masako, just to name a few. The naginata was their signature weapon of choice. Around the 12th century Japanese women were responsible for raising their children with the proper samurai upbringing, they were also allowed rights to inheritance and to bequeath…
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Pearl Harbour…. Welcome to the War, America!
On 7th December 1941, at shortly before 8am, Japan launched an attack on the US Naval fleet based at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. America at that point were maintaining their stance of neutrality, however due to interests of USA, Britain and the Netherlands specifically, in Southeast Asia, Japan had decided that interference from those countries was a high risk at odds with their own aims in the area, specifically their recent invasions of Manchuria in 1931 and China in 1937. Japan had her sights set on further expansion into Malaya and the Dutch controlled area of the East Indies in the hopes of exploiting the natural resources there, particularly rubber and…
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Man’s Best Friend
“He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.” – Unknown A dog’s loyalty to his owner was proven through the sad tale of Hachiko. Around 1924, Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo, took Hachiko, a golden brown Akita, as a pet. Throughout his owner’s life, Hachiko would accompany him to the nearby Shibuya Station and would patiently wait to greet him at the end of each day at…
