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July 16, 2024
 

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THE LIVING PAST

Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jul 15, 2017
Harsh lessons learned from Zen meditation
The monk Dogen lived in dreadful times. A revolution culminating in 1185 had brought to power warriors who for centuries had served perhaps the most unwar-like aristocracy in world history, the effete but highly cultured ladies and gentlemen of the Heian Period (794-1185). Their day was done. They were...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 17, 2017
Tracing the decline of a beautiful Japan
Two irreconcilable views of patriotism were given their classic expressions by two Englishmen: Lord Byron, the poet (1788-1824), and Dr. Johnson, the lexicographer and jack-of-all-literary-trades (1709-84). Byron said, "He who loves not his country can love nothing." And Johnson: "Patriotism is the last...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
May 20, 2017
Hokkaido's ancient place in the modern world
"Even the birds do not fly to Ezo," went a popular 19th-century saying about Japan's northernmost island. "Ezo" means "land of barbarians." Settlement tamed it into "Hokkaido" — "north sea road." But it was a rough passage.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Apr 15, 2017
The Japanese ego: the difference of self
"Go, my son! Fight, make your way in the world." But — the proviso is implicit — tell no one who or what you are.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Mar 18, 2017
The evolution of the Japanese ego: the discovery of themselves
'There was no room for mercy in view of their crime." None asked, none given. "They met their end ... with ... a touching acquiescence in their fate."
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Feb 18, 2017
The evolution of the Japanese ego: 'The Gossamer Years'
There is something morbid about selfhood in Japan. It is not native to the culture. In the West, Judaism, Christianity, philosophy, language itself all teach us to say "I." It is otherwise in Japan.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jan 14, 2017
The evolution of the Japanese ego: Learning to say 'I'
When Adam and Eve defied God, creator and master of the universe, and ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge, what did they learn? To say "I."
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Dec 10, 2016
Meiji Restoration leader's lessons of sincerity
Is there any understanding a man like Saigo Takamori? His spirit seems as vast as his bulk, and his bulk was that of a sumo wrestler. He is "the quintessential hero of modern Japanese history," said historian Ivan Morris.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Nov 19, 2016
Vileness is a quality more repugnant than evil
There is a kind of moral ugliness that, without being quite evil, may be even more repellant than evil because evil — genuine evil — has, sometimes, a certain romantic appeal. You can admire the villain's strength, or courage, or dash, or reckless defiance of that which we all, sometimes,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Oct 15, 2016
Fifteenth-century shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa: Impotent or indifferent?
'The Creation of the Soul of Japan" is how Donald Keene, the eminent Japanologist, subtitled his 2003 biography of 15th-century shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa. What is the soul of Japan? Tea, flowers, noh drama, simplicity, suggestiveness. War too — but Yoshimasa had no taste for war. No taste for power...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Sep 17, 2016
The rise of a toxic machine named fascism
Why not fascism?
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Aug 20, 2016
An awakening gives birth to modern medicine
Illness we share with our ancestors. Diagnosis and remedies set us and them apart.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jul 16, 2016
'Zen's sudden awakening to the truth beyond reason, beyond language'
Rabbi Zusia tramped through his native Poland — this admittedly is an odd way of introducing a story about Zen — collecting money to ransom Jews unjustly imprisoned, victims of the rampant anti-Semitism then prevailing. At a wayside inn he saw birds in a cage. Zusia, simple soul that he was,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 18, 2016
Absolutism: an acceptable price to pay for order
His contemporaries hardly knew what to make of him. Their bewilderment is reflected in the name by which he is best known to us: the "dog shogun."
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
May 14, 2016
Has pacifism always been doomed to fail in Japan?
Japan had a pacifist "constitution" long before 1947, when the current one went into effect. It was issued in the year 604, its author so esteemed, in his own time and since, as to merit the posthumous name Shotoku Taishi (Crown Prince Sage-Virtue). His lifetime (574-622) spanned an early phase of Japan's...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Apr 16, 2016
Understanding Heian nobles’ snobbishness
Once upon a time — the fairy tale opening is apt, though it's history we're dealing with — peace lay so thick upon the land that war was inconceivable. The capital was a city named "Peace and Tranquility" — Hei-An (modern-day Kyoto). There was a ministry of war, but the war minister was no fighter;...
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Mar 19, 2016
The Meiji Era and the soul of Japan: part 2
An ambitious young man of the 1880s, flattering a girl he may want to marry (or may not, if a more advantageous alliance materializes), asks her, "What are you reading these days, Osei?" When Osei in reply mentions "Outlines of the World's History" by William Swinton, Noboru, the young man, is suitably...
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Feb 20, 2016
The Meiji Era and the soul of Japan: part 1
'Japan's first modern novel" was published serially between 1887 and 1889.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jan 16, 2016
'It is I who rule' — Japan's 'Manyoshu' morning
What fun civilization is in its infancy! How bright and fresh the world looks at the dawn of consciousness! Listen:
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Dec 19, 2015
Japan's 'Christian century' failed to blossom
Christmas approaches. Christian or not, the mind turns to Christian themes.
Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
Amid same-sex marriage ban, LGBTQ couples opt for 'photo weddings'
A lesbian couple, consisting of a 35-year-old woman (left) and 40-year-old woman, cover their faces with bouquets as they pose for wedding photos in Yokohama on Nov. 1.
China and Russia conduct joint Pacific military patrol
The Russian corvette Gromkiy enters the Chinese port of Zhanjiang as part of a joint China-Russia naval exercise on Saturday.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.
How to tweak your diet when temperatures spike
Most people think of hydration as a strictly liquid-based concept, but eating foods with high water content is an essential part of making it through a Japanese summer unscathed.

Podcast

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

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Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals
Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals

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