8/17/2015

Robin D. Gill quotes

[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]

. fûzoku 風俗 Fuzoku, entertainment and sex business .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 
- Robin D. Gill -
- From Wee Tinkle To Woeful Torrent -


Inspired by the
. shoobengumi, shôben-gumi 小便組 Shobengumi, "the urine gang"  .
I got permission from Robin to post his pages about peeing here.


It is part of his book



The Woman Without a Hole -
& Other Risky Themes from Old Japanese Poems

To read it all here :
- source : books.google.co.jp -


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

From Wee Tinkle To Woeful Torrent - - - シイシイ から ザアザア まで

小便の音 - - - The Sound of Piss

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

娘シイ年増のはじゅウ 乳母のはザア 一五六
musume shii toshima no wa juu uba no wa zaa

daughters go shii
experienced women juu
and wet-nurses zaa

a maiden tinkles
mother showers, wet-nurse
just pours down!

This is very late Willow ku (bk 156) is poetry if Old McDonald Had a Farm is. Yet you can bet it made its author and editor happy, for chances are no senryu (or haiku) before it contained more than two piss noises in 17 syllabets. Such is the nature of competitive short-form literature. Moreover, onomatopoeia itself takes on the nature of a word game in Japanese where one may find whole dictionaries devoted to matching sounds both physical and psychological with their proper subject (or, is it object?). Perhaps the closest English equivalent would be the collective nouns of venery (as in hunting) assembled after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who did it in a novel (where a young man was quizzed as to the proper terms for various groups of game), and thoroughly but not exhaustively supplemented by James Lipton (An Exaltation of Larks, or the venereal game: 1968). It turned into a parlour game. Old McDonald aside, English keeps the lion’s share of its extraordinarily good sound sense (it suffices to consider stop and shrimp) under wraps – I call it built-in as opposed to apparent mimesis – so such games combining aspects of matching, collecting and guessing, do not work.

an
Edo
observation:
girls go tinkle,
their mamas shower,
but wet-nurses can power
a hydro-electric plant !!!

Pardon the hyperbolic anachronism or anachronistic hyperbole as you wish. This example of one of the oddest themes to ever chapter a book come from Cuntologia (女陰万考) whose page on the subject starts with an explanation about why a woman’s urination was said to sound like a cataract (「女の小便滝の音」), namely, it gushes so powerfully for being far closer to the bladder than a man’s nozzle. I think I would call it oxygenated, for the sound sometimes resembles that of water coming from a tap with a filter. But such spigots were not around back then and because we moderns generally piss into water (I guess this makes us closer to raccoons, who do the same), males now sound as loud if not louder, in a less hissy way, for the longer distance to splashdown and the sound-box effect of the bowl.

しのをつく様にお乳母は小便し 摘 四
shino o tsuku yô ni uba wa shôben-shi

like a torrential downpour
the wet-nurse’s water
is an ear-sore

raining cats and dogs?
well, a wet-nurse
pisses hogs!

The wet-nurse, proverbially slack, as we see in another chapter, pisses true to character, or rather, stereotype. The shino in the original is a small variety of bamboo that combined with tsuku (stick/stab) denotes, as far as I could make out, a big bundle of slender projectiles flying together into something “downpour” literally translates as “sticks shino” and that idiomatically means a torrential cataract of a rain, what we might call “raining cats and dogs” but in Japanese is usually “raining spears.” I added “ear-sore” in one reading because this rain doesn’t always strike the ears as music (see Mother Goose: It’s raining, its pouring, the old man is snoring verse) and to bring out the insulting quality intrinsic to wet-nurse senryu. Directly after the above ku, Mr. Cuntology intro-duced a 7-7 epigram that transliterates as “affection-exhausts/ing piss/ing-sound” (aisô no tsukiru shôben no oto).

Where went the lovers’ bliss?

falling out of love to
the sound of piss
Love’s dead, the proof is this

you suddenly hear it
the sound of piss

love’s dirge

the sound of piss
from one who
no longer
cares

The verb in the original leaves room for ambiguity. I think it means that awareness of the sound of piss marks the death of love, but it may mean that the pisser is no longer trying to piss in a manner to please, or, at any rate not alienate the other, so the sound really is different.

cupid flown
discretion ceases
now she pisses as she
damn well pleases!

But most women in senryu did care:

なりつたけ娵小べんをほそくする
narittake yome shôben o hosoku suru   摘2-21

just married, she
would do all her pissing
through a pin-hole

a young wife
does her best to keep thin
her stream of piss

the bride tries
her best to keep a bridle
on her piss

the new wife
keeps her piss as narrow
as possible

The dietary joke in the second reading is an anachronism. In Japan, brides (young wives living with their husband’s family) had to struggle not to grow thin, for, if senryu are right, mother-in-laws preferred growing hair in closets (mold on hidden dumplings) to satisfying the appetite of their son’s wife. The bride is both struggling not to sound gross to her husband and, I would think, not to challenge

her mother-in-law with a bold display of sound.

たしなんた尼ハ小便しわくさせ 万 宝
tashinanda ama wa shôben shiwaku sase  13

prudently
the nun works to knit up
her pissing

decorously
the nun puts pleats in
her sheet of piss

to be discreet
sister puts pleat after pleat
into her piss

Shiwaku sase is “to wrinkle” or “put folds in.” This nun is embarrassed to reveal her gross humanity rather than one trying to sound demure and feminine.

小便をいきめば器量がどっとせず
shôben o ikimeba kiryô ga dotto sezu
(urine/piss[acc] strain-if/when looks/beauty plenty-does-not)

straining at pee
for all the world knows beauty
does not gush

squeezing her pee
for cats and dogs would mar
her beauty

a careful piss
her beauty won’t mean shit
if it bursts out

beauty’s boudoir
strains her pee lest it belie
her fragility

Usually the verb ikimu is used for straining at stool; here it means trying to restrict it rather than push it out faster, but both activities involve squeezing and breath-holding. First, I imagined a maid-servant who presumes to be a beauty, then a pretty mistress, a “Celia Pisses!” I took the Japanese from Cuntologia, but alas, it and, hence, my readings are probably wrong! A 1995 reprint from a prestigious publisher (岩波文庫), and a 1927 reprint (日本名著全集版) have one less syllabet – making it proper, for the above version was a syllabet over, something rare in the middle part of a senryu. “Ikimeba,” or “strain-if/when” becomes “imeba,” to have a strong aversion for, or “loathe-if/when.”
In this case, the allusion would be to a popular scam –popular in senryu at any rate – called “the piss team” (小便組 shôben-gumi), where an exceptionally beautiful woman becomes a mistress on extraordinarily reasonable terms, and within a week or two starts pissing in bed, then demands a high settlement fee to break off with her patron, i.e., the victim. Unfortunately, the final five syllabets, dotto sezu, have a number of readings. Using the same one used above, a figurative translation might be: “If they hate piss / they are not blessed with / drop-dead looks,” a round-about way of saying that one rarely gets lucky with beauties. But another idiomatic reading of dotto sezu, gives us –

小便をいめば器量がどっとせず   五
shôben o imeba kiryô ga dotto sezu
(urine/piss [acc] loathe-if/when looks/beauty cares-for-not)

if you loathe piss,
beauty is something
you can miss!

fear piss enough
and you will not dare
care for beauty

these beauties
will find nothing amiss
if you hate piss

The first and second readings seem weak of wit, so I prefer the last, which takes the “looks” (kiryô) for the person – something possible then, but not today. I.e., the beauties want someone who hates it so they can lose their job and gain that severance package. What’s funny is how attention is called to a perfectly normal dislike of piss in bed. But I am beginning to feel like a fool for wasting so much time on one stupid senryu – I even had one more reading: By definition he hates pee / A woman who doesn’t gush is a beauty! – and leave it only as an example of how a lack of pronouns can make some poems horribly polysemous. While all three imeba versions may be wrong, chances are that Mr. Cuntology misread. I went along with his ikimeba reading because it was surrounded by other ku about that same idea. As Laurence Sterne’s Tristam Shandy (1759-67) once explained:

“It is the nature of a hypothesis, when once a man has conceived it, that it assimilates everything to itself as proper nourishment; and, from the first minute of your begetting it, it generally grows stronger by every thing you see, hear, read, or understand. This is of great use.”
(Go read this old post-modern novel if you have not!).

If you listen for strained piss, you will hear it. Enough, one last ku to get rid of the piss-team and we will get back on the main path of this essay.

小便は古イと妾あわをふき   万
shôben wa furui to mekake awa o fuki

piss is old
so this mistress
spews foam

piss is old hat
so now mistresses are
foaming over

A confidence trick must be new to work. With bed-wetting so well-known, it was time to move on . . . to epilepsy. I suppose the poet invented this, for I encounter no more of these ku, while the piss-team continues in senryu for generations!

めつきりと・小便ほそふする娘 かぢ枕 宝暦六 
mekkiri-to shôben hososuru musume

a young maiden
all too obviously
thins her pee

Coming of Age in Senryu, or at least a 1756 zappai. I will not explain how the 7-5 plays on the letters of the adverb めっきり(obviously). Suddenly self-conscious, a young girl squeezes her piss. Do her parents hear that their daughter is no longer innocent? The sound is not given in the ku, but we are conscious of it. So women of various ages and professions all worried about how they sounded pissing. The author of Cuntology also gives a ku about a woman in the Court, I cannot understand, though I imagine it means someone has the job of covering the sound, as a radio might do for bashful moderns, and concludes his “Sound of Pissing” section with a word of sympathy for the high-stress lifestyle these women led, when even the natural pleasure of release in urination may not be enjoyed chibiri-chibiri (in drips and drabbles), when one is afraid to let it all out.

欲心の無い小便を下女は垂れ
yokushin no nai shôben o gejo wa tare
(desire/greed-heart’s not urine[acc]maid-as-for drip)

the maid-servant
lets loose a stream of piss
without avarice

Nor artifice, for it is the same thing. The verb, tare, normally used for male pissing, suggests a real stream of piss. But maids are generally reserved for sex in senryu. It is the wet-nurse who cannot piss without becoming a target for senryu:

あいくつわむしさと乳母ハたれて居る  摘 
ai kutsuwa-mushi sa to uba-wa tarete-iru 1-28

“it’s only a giant katydid”
says the nurse-maid
making water

あいくつわむしさと乳母ハたれて居る  摘
ai kutsuwa-mushi sato-uba wa tarete-iru 1-28

a giant katydid?
the country wet-nurse
is taking a piss!

Without the Chinese characters, we have yet another ambiguous reading for the first ku. The sa is an emphatic which I made “it’s only,” and the to means that what came before it was spoken (a verbal quote-mark, lacked by English), but together sato means “country.” Regardless, we may assume the “giant katydid” (Mecopoda elongata) does not say “Katy did!” but sounds like a cataract.

乳母たれる向ふでくろがほへて居る 万 安四
uba tareru mukô de kuro ga hoete-iru

nurse-maid pisses
and, over the way, hark!
blacky is barking

That is enough attention paid to the sound of piss in senryu, though I am sure there must be much more, and better, for Japanese prose was full of it – there are entire lines of onomatopoeia following a piss from start to finish! Honest to goodness, purely verbal musical scores that read like jazz scats. Here is one I recalled reading in Inoue Hisashi’s personal grammar+reader in Japanese (井上ひさし著『私版日本語読本』), kindly looked up & economically transcribed by Y, the partner or doppelganger of O (I don’t have it straight yet) who works in a NY bookstore – for I am currently exiled from my books – which has it in stock: シヤリ(+くりかえし記号4回)ザラ(+4回)シヤア(+4回)ヂウ(+4回)シイシ(+1回)トツクリ(+1回)ポトン、チヨビン (I forgot to ask its original source) 。
.
sharisharisharisharishari, zarazarazarazarazara, shashashashasha,
jujujujuju, shiishishiishi, tokkuri tokkuri, poton, chobin!


It seems the mimesis picks up in mid-urination and the sound is altered by the varying thickness of the flow – maybe something was going on within sight of the pisser – and, possibly by what the piss strikes, and it ends on some notes that indicate the manner in which the flow is shut-down, though I dare not try to read it.

サホ姫のしと/\降るや春の雨 
sao-hime no shito-shito furu ya haru no ame
teitoku 1570-1653 貞徳 崑山

princess spring is out again
making flowers bloom
fine pizzling rain

A original is only “Princess Sao’s is falling shito-shito: spring rain.” The idea of making flowers bloom comes from reading Alexander Pope on women-as-clouds & vice-versa and from reading a ku by Issa, in whose sundry collection of dialect (方言雑集:全集七) I found Teitoku’s ku. Issa’s ku may already be in another of my books and, lacking mimesis, does not really belong here, but it is my favorite of Issa’s half a dozen Goddesses pissing ku, so here it is:

さほ姫のばりやこぼしてさく菫   一茶
saohime no bari ya koboshite saku sumire   文政三

where princess sao
spilled her urine, there
bloom the violets!

Classic poetry credited rain and mist with dyeing flowers and leaves. But what a beautiful complement to Ben Franklin’s observation that eating pine nuts could make urine smell like violets – the scent of ideal urine (?) – in his Letter to the French Academy of Science suggesting study be given to improving the smell of farts! And, so long as we are off-subject, let me say that there are older pee poems in Japanese than Teitoku’s. The earliest I know is in the Manyôshû (9c). It is not about pissing but a rare example of something famously rare in Japanese, cussing. A lover upset at another’s unfaithfulness used piss (shiko) to modify this and that (one that was a bed, if I recall right) three times in a tiny 31 syllabet complaint – ancient Japanese used it as British did the word “bloody.” But Teitoku’s is the first clear piss mimesis of the type that would soon become ubiquitous in Edo era literature. that I know of, and, right next to it, Issa jotted down (bassackwards) the most famous of all, or the only classic pissing poem:

サホ姫の春立ながらしとをしてかすみの衣裾はぬれけり 一茶記 犬筑波集
sao-hime no haru tachinagara shito o shite kasumi no koromo suso o nurekeri [sic. ★]

Princess Sao
tinkles with the coming
of the spring

Wetting the hems
of her misty robes
With her spring
Princess Sao makes water
standing tall

Wetting the misty
hems of her robes

The standing=arriving [Spring] does not English. Reading the original, one thinks of Kyoto, where women, like men, pissed into collection troughs while standing. Neither this nor Bashô’s well-known late-fall shower (mura-shigure) that wanders about like a dog whizzing a wee bit here and a wee bit there (inu no kakebari), or Issa’s many pissing ku, use sound words. Usually, Issa uses plenty. Could he hold back when dealing with crude material lest his high ku be considered low?

雨だれは只さほ姫の夜尿かな  犬子集 (1633)
ame dare wa tada sao hime no yobari [or yojito]kana
(rain drops-as-for just sao princess’s night-piss!/?/’tis)

those rain drops?
just little princess sao
wetting her bed

The rude metaphor used in this ku, dating to about the same time as Teitoku’s, feels senryu, but is haiku in direction (nature described by the human).

つみ草に来てハこらへるいなた姫  万
tsumigusa ni kite wa koraeru inada-hime  宝九

draw-verse: it’s so scary!

plucking herbs
she holds it in all the while
a princess inada

princess inada
comes to pluck herbs but
must hold it in

There is no sound here but the chuckling of the poet. The main themes in pissing (or not pissing) by women in senryu are 1) wanting to sound feminine, or sounding otherwise, as explained above; 2) the gorgeous piss-gang (小便組 shôben-gumi) mistress who wets her bed on purpose to make a man dislike her and gain a severance fee; 3) men pissing somewhere they shouldn’t; 4) Things that happen when pissing – thoughts, civilities, observances of nature; 5) women, mostly blind, unaware they are being spied upon by a man, generally their servant; 6) fear of being violated by snakes if they do it in the country, and 7) Fear of doing it on worms (like snakes vindictive?). If I did not fear creating yet another 740 pg worst-seller (I already have two), I would have introduced more of each, but this wee sample must do. Pissing evidently did not piss-off the censors, for Blyth catches enough of 3) – perhaps the most amusing category – and 4), so I was able to let them go and instead chose to concentrate on sound, for its raw quality makes it sound senryu.

The above ku, from Karai Senryû’s earliest major collection, is one of the wittiest examples of 6). Princess Inada, more commonly Kushinada-hime, daughter of an ancient King, bound to be the next victim of the Leviathan, Yamato no Orochi, was saved when a suitor got the serpent drunk and cut it/him to bits. Please note that without the use/non-use of particles, in Japanese, the princess in the poem may be the princess, i.e. an imagined hap-pening after the mythological princess was married to her brave suitor (for noble women went out in the Spring for herbs), AND a Princess Inada, which is to say a clever idea for a name for all women who tend to hold it in on field trips (more likely fearing chiggers or leeches or poisonous plants than snakes). In English, the ku cannot have it both ways; it must be OR, one or the other, as determined by the use or non-use of an “a.” That is far more important than whether the syntax puts the Princess in the first line or the last, as it is in the original.

しゝの出ル穴ハ別さとさゝめこと   摘3-16
shishi no deru ana wa betsu sa to sasamegoto pinch
(“peepee’s leaving hole-as-for different [+emph]” whisper-words)

pillow talk:
telling him the pee hole
is different

“you know, the hole
for pee is not the same”
sweet nothings

“so you thought
the pee hole was the same!”
young lovers

I can recall an argument with friends in primary school about this same problem. Boys just do not know. Moreover, if women really worried about how they piss (as senryu would have it), you might think it reflected on the diameter of their vaginas, and one word for vagina in Japanese was the ninth hole 第九穴 (when anyone who counts the urethra separate would come up with ten, or twelve, counting tits). Shishi is a colloquial term with good sound quality. I did not do a chapter on holes as I save them for a whole book I will probably never write.

.......................................................................

~ eddies ~
.......................................................................

Other Onomatopoeia. More mimetic senryu in this book may be found in passim, but here, two fine examples should suffice for the sound of things other than pissing.

悪ふざけ障子をスポン/\抜き  85-22
waru-fuzake shôji o supon supon nuki

a bad prank:
popping out from
a paper wall

horse-play
pop! pop! through
a paper wall

Or, is it, rather “popping in” ? The original mimesis, supon, cannot be matched by English unless we add a moving s to pop, making it “spop!” or “spopping.” It does not allude to but evokes the suppon, a long-neck soft-shell snapping turtle identified with the penis and eaten or drunk (the blood) as a fortifier for men. This mimesis is not one of those commonly repeated, so I imagine two men, either doing it on a dare possibly to surprise a maid, or else, in their own rundown pad after painting a woman or women on the paper. Another reason for two or more men, rather than one, poking multiple holes is that cock-matches (mara-kurabe), contesting size, erective power (lifting strength) and hardness (punching through paper) were common, at least in picture scrolls of such fun (who can speak for reality?). There would be an old paper door, window or room partition – shôji can be any of these, and doors that slide are often nothing but partitions, ergo “wall” (scene of our pecker-through-the-mouse-hole jokes) – that is, easily spopped paper to make it tempting. Since Japanese tend to be neatnicks, such activity would take place at years-end, when the paper would be replaced anyway.

がさ/\といふととんぼうつるむ也   摘
gasagasa to iu to tonbô tsurumu nari 4-30
(rustling say and dragonflies mating is)

what makes
a rustling sound? mating
dragonflies

a dry sound?
it would be the fucking
dragonflies

This is a senryu often reprinted and probably has been Englished elsewhere. It starts in a manner that reminds us of listing, where one might be challenged to supply examples of “things that rustle,” but some readers might recall Saikaku’s gay(!) dragonflies as well.

.......................................................................

Issa’s Goddess/Violet Ku. Because this chapter concerns pissing I emphasized the Goddess but please note that Issa’s ku is, at heart, a violet (sumire) ku, excellent because it indirectly describes the place where violets are found, ground so damp another Issa ku explains, “I sit after / spreading out tissue paper: / violet-viewing” (鼻紙を敷て居 (すわ) れば菫哉 hanakami o shiite suwareba sumire kana). Issa did not actually say “viewing” and the tissue is literally “nose-paper,” but you get the idea: he didn’t want his seat to get wet. It was a mistake for the editors of Issa’s ALL to only include the ku in question under “Princess Sao” and forget to at least mention it in under the theme “violet.”
.......................................................................

More Pissing Ku type 3 and 4. The “Pissing on the Moon” chapter of A Dolphin in the Woods (in progress) has men pissing where they shouldn’t and my Fifth Season has them pissing while engaged in civilities. Please note, I do not have particular interest in making water; it just happens to be a favorite theme of the haiku master I know best, Issa.
.......................................................................

Pissing Type 5, or, Watching Blind Women Pee? I have half a dozen such before me now, of which my favorite has someone, almost surely the blind singer’s attendant, so eager to get a peek that he is tip-toeing (nuki-ashi). I also have a picture, with a poor senryu and hundreds of words of prose, showing a man legs spread wide like a giraffe at a waterhole, bent so low to get a good view that his chin is all but grazed by the jet of urine, while the fingers of one hand rest in the rivulet created by the same! The fingertips of his other hand are barely visible reaching around his massive cock in mid-ejaculation. The message for us? Even in a culture with a relaxed view of nudity, men got off by looking.

.......................................................................

Huge Serpent Lovers. If you find such myths and the way they are used in poetry today interesting, Yamato no Orochi appears in a number of translated sea cucumber haiku you may find in Rise, Ye Sea Slugs! (Paraverse Press, 2003)
........................................................................

★ Issa’s Inu (Dog) Tsukuba Princess Pissing on her Robe. Since Issa, with his word-book, was concerned with the term used for pissing (shito suru) in the old haikai, he put the 5-7-5 that followed the 7-7 first, simply because it had the phrase. The original order is better. Hiroaki Sato skillfully precedes it with a linked verse from the slightly earlier Shinsen (new) Tsukubashû (1495), some call the start of honest-to-goodness haikai, where Monk Sôzei wonders “whether he’s looking at the inside or outside of the robe because the day has not fully broken.” Then he gives the opening linked-verse of the Inu (dog=pseudo) Tsukubashû (1536): “the robe of haze is wet at its hem / Princess Sao of spring pissed as she started.” He passes over the standing connection, but his “started” is itself a good pun – I use it several times in The Fifth Season with respect to Spring’s starting/standing – and his broader explanation is elegant:

The maeku (initial part) is innocuous enough; but, instead of explaining conventionally why the robe is wet, the respondent – it could have been Sôkan – says it is because the goddess of spring inopportunely succumbed to the call of nature. (One Hundred Frogs: 1983)

Other Japanese explanations where the haze stands for the vanishing waka replaced by the wet (full of bodily humors?) haikai. Then, in the heyday of haikai, in the 1633 Enoko (dog/puppy) collection, we have the more outrageous pissabed goddess we saw in the maintext. But so long as we are off-subject, a few more examples from Issa’s word-book, or “vernacular miscellany” (方言雑記) as it is called. On the same page as the pissing Princess: “Shiritasuki [shiridasuki],” a butt that looks like it has been criss-crossed by a tasuki sash/chord (see page 299). The OJD explains this means someone is so thin their butt gets folds. Pages before we learn the fine line between the privates and the anus is called “ants’ gate-crossing” (蟻の門渡り), i.e., a single file from gate to gate. And, before that, we find “chopenashi: when an old man etc. pinches a woman’s butt”(一茶全集七巻).

.......................................................................

One Meta-mimetic Senryu.
The following is so simple an observation that only an extraordinarily alert poet could catch it.
.
家毎に風は違った音を立て 素人
ie goto ni kaze wa chigatta oto o tate

the wind makes
a different sound
at each house

I found this ku in Blyth’s Japanese Life and Character . . , with no source given (Change “at” to “Round” & uncenter for his translation). Blyth writes “This is yet another example of how the poetry of senryu is different from that of haiku.” It is also an extraordinarily poetic ku. ◎What I mean by the title of this eddy, “meta-mimetic,” is that I wonder if people might listen more carefully to sounds other than the human because of their tendency to turn so many of them into onomatopoeia. The ku does not itself contain mimesis, but it may have been born of it. (Note: Japanese intellectuals can get quite conceited about their mimesis and, since I hate collective boasting as much as I hate individual boasting – unless it is damn funny hyperbole ala Davy Crockett – I have also pointed out that the existence of settled upon onomatopoeia for so many sounds may dull ears to the real thing. That argument and what I wrote above may both be true.) ◎ And, why so much use of mimesis/tic rather than onomatopoeia/tic? 1), it is shorter; 2), it includes psychological sound effects which are clearly recognized in Japanese but not in English; 3) it is easier to spell and remember if you only know what mime means. Try using the word. If others mimic you, soon we may be able to discuss sound more easily.

.......................................................................

~ 蛇足 ~

仮章題には、「シイちゃんからザアザ・ガボール迄」の方が良かったかしら? 




:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


. shoben, shooben (小便), the" small business" .
often pronouced shomben.
to pee, bari suru ばり, 尿 ( ばり ) する
piss-pot, shibin 尿瓶
piss bucket, shooben oke 小便桶
If you do it standing, it is tachishoben, tachi shôben , 立小便.


. shoobengumi, shôben-gumi 小便組 Shobengumi, "the urine gang"  .
- Introduction -

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::



- - - To join me on facebook, click the image !

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

. Japanese Architecture - Interior Design - The Japanese Home .

. - Doing Business in Edo - 商売 - Introduction .

. senryu, senryū 川柳 Senryu poems in Edo .


[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #edorobingill #robingill - - - -
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

8/02/2015

sankin kotai

[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]
. Edo period - History .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 
sankin kootai 参勤交代 Sankin Kotai Daimyo attendance in Edo
daimyoo gyooretsu, daimyō gyōretsu 大名行列 Daimyo procession


. samurai 侍, buke 武家, bushi 武士   .
Lord of a Domain, Daimyo, daimyoo 大名

. hatamoto 旗本 samurai class .





. shukuba 宿場 post station, postal station .
along the Sankin Kotai roads
Honjin (本陣):
Rest areas and lodgings built for use by samurai and court nobles. Honjin were not businesses; instead, large residences in the post towns were often designated as lodging for government officials.

. Kaido 街道 Highways used by the Daimyo .

..............................................................................................................................................

- quote
Sankin-kōtai 参勤交代 "alternate attendance",
a daimyo's alternate-year residence in Edo - was a policy of the Tokugawa shogunate during most of the Edo period of Japanese history. The purpose was to strengthen central control over the daimyo, or major feudal lords.

History
Toyotomi Hideyoshi had earlier established a similar practice of requiring his feudal lords to keep their wives and heirs at Osaka Castle or the nearby vicinity as hostages for loyal behavior. Following the Battle of Sekigahara and the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, this practice was continued at the new capital of Edo as a matter of custom. It was made compulsory for the tozama daimyo in 1635, and for the fudai daimyo from 1642. Aside from an eight year period under the rule of Tokugawa Yoshimune, the law remained in force until 1862.


Sightseers and merchants gazing at an entourage (sixth panel) from
"Folding Screen Depicting Scenes of the Attendance of Daimyo at Edo Castle",
National Museum of Japanese History

Description
The details changed throughout the 26 decades of Tokugawa rule, but generally, the requirement was that the daimyo of every han move periodically between Edo and his fief, typically spending alternate years in each place. His wife and heir were required to remain in Edo as hostages while he was away. The expenditures necessary to maintain lavish residences in both places, and for the procession to and from Edo, placed financial strains on the daimyo, making them unable to wage war. The frequent travel of the daimyo encouraged road building and the construction of inns and facilities along the routes, generating economic activity.

There were a number of exceptions for certain fudai daimyo in the vicinity of Edo, who were allowed to alternate their attendance in Edo every six months instead. Temporary exceptional dispensations were also occasionally granted due to illness or extreme extenuating circumstances.

In principle, the sankin-kōtai was a military service to the shogun. Each daimyo was required to furnish a number of soldiers (samurai) in accordance with the kokudaka assessment of his domain. These soldiers accompanied the daimyo on the processions to and from Edo.

With hundreds of daimyo entering or leaving Edo each year, processions (大名行列 daimyō-gyōretsu) were almost daily occurrences in the shogunal capital. The main routes to the provinces were the kaidō. Special lodgings, the honjin (本陣), were available to daimyo during their travels.

The sankin-kōtai figures prominently in some Edo period ukiyo-e (woodblock prints), as well as in popular theater such as kabuki and bunraku.
- source : wikipedia

- quote -
Picture of Daimyō Visiting the Castle on New Year's Day
The processions of all the daimyo, or domain lords, were one of the famous sights of the New Year in Edo.
The daimyō leave from their Edo residences to arrive at the castle at about seven in the morning.
The date of this paying of respects was arranged according to the rank of each daimyo
and held not only on New Year's Day but went on over three days.
- source : Tokyo Metropolitan Museum -

under construction
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

NHK samurai drama, August 2015

Ichiroo 一路 Ichiro "One Road"

The adventures of Sankin Kotai, as experienced by 小野寺一路 Onodera Ichiro.

Ichiro’s father dies suddenly in a fire at his home. 19-year-old Ichiro, who had studied in Edo, has to come home. His father was supposed to prepare Sankin kotai and lead the lines of his Daimyo to visit Edo.

After his father's death, Ichiro leads the procession of Sankin kotai and heads to Edo, relying on his father's notes about the proceedings. During the journey, he faces various problems and schemes which target his family.




based on a book by 浅田次郎 Asada Jiro




- reference -

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

- - - - - Legends about Sankin Kotai and Daimyo Gyoretsu - - - - -
There are quite a few tales with the fox or badger. Sometimes they compare their ability in shapeshifting.


............................................................................ Aomori 青森県

The foxes from 三戸 Sannohe
The fox from Akasaka 赤坂の狐 and the fox from Nagane 長根の狐 held a contest in shapeshifting.
The fox from Nagane transformed into a Daimyo procession, which looked quite real with the regional lord and all, when bowing to it from under a tree. The fox of Nagane got caught by the official vassals of the Daimyo and was put to death.



............................................................................ Fukushima 福島県
湖南町 Konan

O-Suga sama お菅さま "Lady Suga"
O-Suga Sama was the wife of the Shogun in Edo. He had been up in Ezo エゾ (Northern Japan and Hokkaido) and since she missed his love so much, she came after him. But she fell sick on the road and eventually committed suicide by drowning in a nearby pond.
She was the youngest of three sisters. When she was a child she liked to roam the forests and look for silkworms. She fed them with leaves and cared for them.

The place is called "O-Suga Sama" and people come here to pray for the well-being of their silk-worms. She observed the silk worms munching leaves with joy and told them:
neesan kuu wa ねえさん食うわ. Since then the leaves were called "kuwa クワ".

When her husband passed the area on his way back, he dreamed that she has become the mist on mount 高井原山 Takaraibarayama to moisten the kuwa leaves.
Her name was actually "O-Sugi お杉", Lady Cedar, but that turned to "O-Suga" in the local dialect.

During the procession of Sankin Kotai there was a great serpent up on a willow tree along the road. It displeased the vassals of the Daimyo and was thus driven away and had to move to Fukushima. When a branch of this willow tree breaks off, there was blood flowing from the wound. So in the end the whole tree was cut off.
This place is called "O-Suga Sama".

. silk 絹 kinu legends .
kuwa 桑 mulberry tree / kuwago 桑子 "kuwa child", "mulberry child", - silkworm



............................................................................ Hiroshima 広島県

. Osangitsune オサンギツネ / 於三狐 O-San kitsune fox with three tails .

Wakamiya no Iwa 若宮の岩 - 大和町 Daiwa

原田備前守が参勤交代で萩原を通ったとき、若宮の岩から白い蛇が現れた。ここを城にしろとのお告げだと思い、城を建てて永住したという。昭和に入ってその岩がトンネル掘削の邪魔になったので、ダイナマイトで壊そうとしたら暴発して作業員が怪我をした。神の住む岩である。

狐,狸 Fox and Badger
昔、於三という悪い狐と、四国の讃岐にいる於三に劣らぬ悪き狸が、どちらが化けるのが上手か比べあった。於三の番がきたとき、於三は今度大名行列に化けるので来てくれといった。約束の日に行くと果たして大名行列が来た。狸が本性を現して近づくと、侍に斬られてしまった。



............................................................................ Hyogo 兵庫県

Shibaemon 芝右衛門 - tanuki and kitsune 狸 - 狐
淡路に芝右衛門という狸がいて、阿波の狸合戦に来て働いたが、その後京都へ上って伏見の狐に遇った。京の狐は口ばかりで腕の程も知れぬから、1つ腕前を見せてくれといわれたので、芝右衛門は翌日大名行列を見せた。盛大な大名行列で、狐は驚きこれは殺してしまわないといけないと思い、次の日におれも大名行列を見せるから稲荷の鳥居に来てくれといった。芝右衛門が約束どおり行くと文句の付けようのない大名行列だったので手を打ち「ヤレヤレ」といってほめたが、それは本物の大名行列で芝右衛門は撃ち殺された。



............................................................................ Kochi 高知県

. The Old Tanuki from 奈半利町 Nahari town .



............................................................................ Nara 奈良県

shirogitsune 白狐 the curse of the white fox
The Lord of Yamato Koriyama 大和郡山 had caught a white fox 白狐 and killed it. The white fox appeared in his dream and asked to have a shrine built so he could go to paradise. But the Lord did not do as he was asked by the spirit. Therefore the white fox cursed him. During his next procession to Edo he behaved quite crazy, like bewitched by the fox. So his family name was taken away and the family line stopped.


. shirogitsune 白狐 Legends about the White Fox .



............................................................................ Niigata 新潟県

Dankuro the Fox and Sankichi the Tanuki 団九郎,三吉 from Sado 佐渡
団九郎狐は、佐渡に住むたちの悪い古狸の三吉を憎んでいた。あるとき信濃川のほとりで団九郎は三吉と出会う。団九郎は三吉をおだてて酒屋の小僧や大入道に化けるなどさせる。団九郎はお礼に自分の芸も見せるといい、次の日に街道に来るようにいう。三吉が約束の場所で待っていると大名行列がやってくる。三吉は感心して行列の前に飛び出るが、それは本物の大名行列で、捕らえられて食べられてしまう。
-
佐渡島には狢が群れをなして住んでおり、その首領の名前を団三郎と言った。鎌倉時代の末期、狐が渡って来て、団三郎と妖術の勝負をした。狐は嫁入りの行列をして見せた。そこで団三郎は大名行列をして見せると狐に行った。狐は大名行列のあまりの見事さに驚いて近寄ったら、その行列は本物で、狐は殺されてしまった。それ以来、佐渡島に狐は来なくなった。

mujina 狢 the Mujina badger from Sado 佐渡
The Mujina badger from Sado and the Fox from 越後 Echigo held a contest in shapeshifting.
The fox shapeshifted into a fire, but was soon found out.
The mujina shapeshifted into a Daimyo Gyoretsu and no one found this strange. So the mujina won.



............................................................................ Yamagata 山形県

遊佐町
onshoo no tama 宝珠の玉
小坊が狐の宝珠の玉を盗んでやろうと、子狐をだました。狐たちが玉を取り返そうと画策するが、のけものにされた狐が計画を小坊に漏らした。大名行列に化けてやってきた狐たちは、本堂に閉じ込められ、小坊の話した犬に噛み付かれて死んだものもいた。



............................................................................ Yamaguchi 山口県

tanuki to kitsune 狸,狐 the badger and the fox

化け上手な阿波狸が、中国地方へ股旅をし、周防の国で狐に化けくらべを申し込んだ。まず阿波狸が、翌々日の午前10時頃に、毛利侯の行列に化けてみせることになった。狸は、その日時に本物の参勤交代の行列が通ることを知っていた。当日、狐は狸が化けたものと信じ込み、狸との約束通り拍手喝采したので、侍に捕らえられて斬り殺されてしまったという。


- source : ukiyoeota/status -

Foxes shapeshift as humans and perform a daimyo gyoretsu.
狐たちが人間を化かして大名行列

- reference : yokai database - nichibun.ac.jp -

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


参勤交代 : 土橋章宏

- reference - books about 参勤交代 -

..............................................................................................................................................



This is probably the definitive work on sankin-kotai in English.

- quote -
What is Sankin-kōtai?
[Sankin-kōtai is] the Alternate Attendance Policy. Established by the Tokugawa Shōgunate, this system required all daimyo to live in Edo for a certain period of time, often every other year.

The daimyō were required to attend (provide service to) the shōgun in Edo and so they set up residences within the city. I like to think of them as embassies from the provinces. The daimyō would bring samurai “staff” from their domains to serve in Edo as well, so these were essentially provincial courts accompanied by a military staff. The daimyō residences included a small palace for the lord and domainal administration as well as barracks for the lower ranking samurai who accompanied the lord.

Each lord generally maintained 3 residences in Edo, though some had more. The land was granted to them by the shōgunate and could be confiscated or redistributed at the discretion of the shōgun or his council of advisors.



. . . . . The trip to Edo and the trip back to the domain were also costly.
The daimyō had to walk, with family and court and staff and in tow, in long processions called 大名行列 daimyō gyōretsu daimyō processions. These elaborate parades took days. But with so many domains coming and going all the time, they were a constant site on the major routes in and out of Edo. There are many great Edo Era prints of these and accounts from foreigners and Japanese alike agreed they were something to see!

- - - - - further info and links :
- source : Marky Star -

- reference - books about sankin kotai -

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

A Daimyo Gyoretsu is just coming over 日本橋 Nihonbashi in Edo,
the first station of the Tokaido road to Kyoto.


CLICK for more photos !

. Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797 - 1861) .

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::



- - - To join me on facebook, click the image !

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

. bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government and Administration .

. kido 木戸 The Gates of Edo .

. - Doing Business in Edo - 商売 - Introduction .

. senryu, senryū 川柳 Senryu poems in Edo .


[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
- - - - - #edosankinkotai #sankinkotai #ichiro #onoderaichiro #daimyogyoretsu #edobakufu - - - -
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

7/26/2015

funeral rituals

[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]

. - Doing Business in Edo - 商売 - Introduction .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 
sooshiki 葬式 soshiki - funeral service

. funeral 葬式 sooshiki, 葬儀 soogi .
- Introduction -

maisoo 埋葬 Maiso, dabi 荼毘 to cremate, cremation of the body
kasoo 火葬 Kaso, burning of the body
- burial of the ashes

- discussion at the PMJS Forum -




- quote
The Material Culture of Death in Medieval Japan
by Karen M. Gerhart



This study is the first in the English language to explore the ways medieval Japanese sought to overcome their sense of powerlessness over death. By attending to both religious practice and ritual objects used in funerals in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it seeks to provide a new understanding of the relationship between the two. Karen Gerhart looks at how these special objects and rituals functioned by analyzing case studies culled from written records, diaries, and illustrated handscrolls, and by examining surviving funerary structures and painted and sculpted images.
The work
is divided into two parts, beginning with compelling depictions of funerary and memorial rites of several members of the aristocracy and military elite. The second part addresses the material culture of death and analyzes objects meant to sequester the dead from the living: screens, shrouds, coffins, carriages, wooden fences. This is followed by an examination of implements (banners, canopies, censers, musical instruments, offering vessels) used in memorial rituals.
The final chapter discusses the various types of and uses for portraits of the deceased, focusing on the manner of their display, the patrons who commissioned them, and the types of rituals performed in front of them. Gerhart delineates the distinction between objects created for a single funeral—and meant for use in close proximity to the body, such as coffins—and those, such as banners, intended for use in multiple funerals and other Buddhist services.
Richly detailed and generously illustrated,
Gerhart introduces a new perspective on objects typically either overlooked by scholars or valued primarily for their artistic qualities. By placing them in the context of ritual, visual, and material culture, she reveals how rituals and ritual objects together helped to comfort the living and improve the deceased’s situation in the afterlife as well as to guide and cement societal norms of class and gender. Not only does her book make a significant contribution in the impressive amount of new information that it introduces, it also makes an important theoretical contribution as well in its interweaving of the interests and approaches of the art historian and the historian of religion. By directly engaging and challenging methodologies relevant to ritual studies, material culture, and art history, it changes once and for all our way of thinking about the visual and religious culture of premodern Japan.
- source : uhpress.hawaii.edu

..............................................................................................................................................


- quote -
FUNERAL RITES - (FROM THE "SHO-REI HIKKI.")
On the death of a parent, the mourning clothes worn are made of coarse hempen cloth, and during the whole period of mourning these must be worn night and day. As the burial of his parents is the most important ceremony which a man has to go through during his whole life, when the occasion comes, in order that there be no confusion, he must employ some person to teach him the usual and proper rites. Above all things to be reprehended is the burning of the dead: they should be interred without burning. The ceremonies to be observed at a funeral should by rights have been learned before there is occasion to put them in practice. If a man have no father or mother, he is sure to have to bury other relations; and so he should not disregard this study.

There are some authorities who select lucky days and hours and lucky places for burying the dead, but this is wrong; and when they talk about curses being brought upon posterity by not observing these auspicious seasons and places, they make a great mistake.
It is a matter of course that an auspicious day must be chosen so far as avoiding wind and rain is concerned, that men may bury their dead without their minds being distracted; and it is important to choose a fitting cemetery, lest in after days the tomb should be damaged by rain, or by men walking over it, or by the place being turned into a field, or built upon. When invited to a friend's or neighbour's funeral, a man should avoid putting on smart clothes and dresses of ceremony; and when he follows the coffin, he should not speak in a loud voice to the person next him, for that is very rude; and even should he have occasion to do so, he should avoid entering wine-shops or tea-houses on his return from the funeral.

The list of persons present at a funeral should be written on slips of paper, and firmly bound together. It may be written as any other list, only it must not be written beginning at the right hand, as is usually the case, but from the left hand (as is the case in European books).

On the day of burial, during the funeral service, incense is burned in the temple before the tablet on which is inscribed the name under which the dead person enters salvation. The incense-burners, having washed their hands, one by one, enter the room where the tablet is exposed, and advance half-way up to the tablet, facing it; producing incense wrapped in paper from their bosoms, they hold it in their left hands, and, taking a pinch with the right hand, they place the packet in their left sleeve. If the table on which the tablet is placed be high, the person offering incense half raises himself from his crouching position; if the table be low, he remains crouching to burn the incense, after which he takes three steps backwards, with bows and reverences, and retires six feet, when he again crouches down to watch the incense-burning, and bows to the priests who are sitting in a row with their chief at their head, after which he rises and leaves the room. Up to the time of burning the incense no notice is taken of the priest. At the ceremony of burning incense before the grave, the priests are not saluted. The packet of incense is made of fine paper folded in three, both ways.

NOTE.
The reason why the author of the "Sho-rei Hikki" has treated so briefly of the funeral ceremonies is probably that these rites, being invariably entrusted to the Buddhist priesthood, vary according to the sect of the latter; and, as there are no less than fifteen sects of Buddhism in Japan, it would be a long matter to enter into the ceremonies practised by each. Should Buddhism be swept out of Japan, as seems likely to be the case, men will probably return to the old rites which obtained before its introduction in the sixth century of our era.
What those rites were I have been unable to learn.

TALES OF OLD JAPAN
by LORD REDESDALE, G.C.V.O., K.C.B.
- source : www.gutenberg.org -

..............................................................................................................................................

History of funeral practices intertwined with religion
By William Wetherall
- source : yoshabunko.com/anthropology-


A nation's dying industry
Burgeoning mortuary market spurs competition

By William Wetherall
- source : yoshabunko.com/anthropology -

..............................................................................................................................................

- quote -
A Japanese funeral (葬儀 sōgi or 葬式 sōshiki)
includes a wake, the cremation of the deceased, a burial in a family grave, and a periodic memorial service. According to 2007 statistics, 99.81% of deceased Japanese are cremated.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


hayaokeya, hayaoke ya 早桶屋 "fast coffin maker" , undertaker
soogiya 葬儀屋 / saihooya 西方屋 / koshiya 輿屋 = undertaker

- quote -
Changes in Japanese Urban Funeral Customs during the Twentieth Century
Murakami Kokyo
The work of pre-Meiji sogisha was called hayaokeya 早捅屋 (fast coffin maker) or
hayamonoya 早物屋 (fast itemer).
The term hayamono, was used to refer to funeral paraphernalia in general, suggests that the funeral items were not already prepared for rental but rather were made and sold quickly after someone died.
Edo-period funerals were often modest affairs.
People without much social status avoided an afternoon procession and instead close family members silently transported the body at night. This was the case until about 1887,when afternoon processions began to spread among the common people.
As the funerals and processions became more resplendent, so too did the accessories. We can assume that one factor influencing this was the loosening of the status system (mibun seido 身分制度).
As funerals became more elaborate even among common people, items that had previously been used only once were now rented, con­versely, since materials could now be rented,elaborate funerals spread among commoners.
In other words,these trends were mutually com­plementary. Furthermore, beautification of funeral decoration in the Meiji era was related to the display of public mourning as the funeral came to be seen as a social event.
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 2000
- source : nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp -

..............................................................................................................................................

kan 棺, kanoke 棺桶 coffin, casket
The dead body was placed seating into the wooden casket.
During epidemics, there were often not enough caskets in town.


source : supernil


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

- - - - - H A I K U and S E N R Y U - - - - -

江戸広し早桶屋へ嫁が来る
Edo hiroshi hayaokeya e yome ga kuru

Edo is big -
even the undertaker
gets a wife


..............................................................................................................................................


棺桶に合羽掛けたる吹雪かな
kanoke ni kappa kaketaru fubuki kana

during a snowstorm
a raincoat is hung
over the casket . . .



棺桶を雪におろせば雀飛ぶ
kanoke o yuki no oroserba suzume tobu

when the casket
is placed in the snow
a sparrow flies away



Murakami Kijoo 村上鬼城 Murakami Kijo (1865 - 1938)

..............................................................................................................................................


万緑の底に棺桶用の樹よ
櫂未知子

南北の又棺桶や二の替 野村喜舟
小石川

棺桶に封ずこの世の菊
辻田克巳

棺桶のどこ叩いても棺桶で
稲葉直

棺桶を舁けば雲ひろき夏野かな
飯田蛇笏


- - - - - MORE funeral haiku
- source : HAIKUreikuDB -

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


42 legends about kanoke to explore
- source : yokai database -


. Legends from Japan 伝説 - Introduction .

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::



- - - To join me on facebook, click the image !

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

. onboo, omboo, ombô 隠坊 (おんぼう) graveyard warden .

. - Doing Business in Edo - 商売 - Introduction .

. senryu, senryū 川柳 Senryu poems in Edo .


[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #edohayaoke #edofuneral #funeralinedo #kanoke - - - -
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

7/05/2015

Legends, monsters, yokai

[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]
. Japanese Legends - 伝説 民話 昔話 – ABC-List .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 
Legends and Tales from Edo 江戸の伝説

. Edo, Tokyo 江戸 - 東京 - と伝説 Legends .
- Main Collection -



江戸東京伝説散歩 / 岡崎柾男


. 江戸 Edo - 妖怪 Yokai monsters, 幽霊 Yurei ghosts .
- Introduction -


. Edo Nana Fushigi 江戸七不思議 The Seven Wonders of Edo  .
- with amazing legends . . .


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


ema no uma 絵馬の馬 the horse from the votive tablet
at the Asakusa Kannondo Hall 浅草観音堂

. 狩野元信 Kano Motonobu . (1476―1559)- Painter

..............................................................................................................................................


. Yaguchi no watashi 矢ノ口渡 .
and the death of Nitta Yoshioki 新田義興 (? - 1358)


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


. Hidari Jingoroo 左甚五郎 Hidari Jingoro .
a legendary carpenter and woodcarver with many carved animals come alive


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::



江戸の都市伝説 --- 怪談奇談集 collection of monster legends
志村有弘


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::



- - - To join me on facebook, click the image !

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

. Japanese Legends - 伝説 民話 昔話 – ABC-List .

. minwa 民話 folktales / densetsu 伝説 Japanese Legends .

. - Doing Business in Edo - 商売 - Introduction .

. senryu, senryū 川柳 Senryu poems in Edo .


[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #edolegends #legendsfromedo - - - -
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

6/24/2015

takenoko bamboo shoots

[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]

. Food vendors in Edo .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 
Edo no takenoko 江戸の筍 bamboo shoots in Edo
Bambussprossen. Bambussprössling




. take no ko, takenoko 筍 bamboo shoots   .
笋(たけのこ), takanna たかんな, たかうな、たけのこ、 竹の子
hachiku no ko 淡竹の子(はちくのこ)bamboo sprouts
madake no ko 苦竹の子(まだけのこ)- 真竹
moosoochiku no ko 孟宗竹の子(もうそうちくのこ)

. takenoko meshi 筍飯(たけのこめし) rice with bamboo sprouts .
..... nokomeshi のこめし, tako una たこうな, takanna たかんな
takenoko gohan sold in Meguro 目黒  (see below)

The Edoites liked "first things", hatsumono 初物, and one of them were the first bamboo shoots of the season.
haru no takenoko 春の筍 - bamboo shoots in spring
..... haru take no ko 春筍 / ..... shunjun 春筍

There were even some kind of hot houses around Edo where vegetables could be grown earlier than the normal season outside and sold at a good price.



source : furuhonkirikoya.blog

takenoko uri たけのこ売り vendor of bamboo shoots in Edo

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

takenoko isha 筍医者 a kind of yabuisha 藪医者 quack doctor
or even worse than a yabu-isha.

. isha 医者, ishi 医師 doctors in Edo .
Sugita Genpaku 杉田玄白 (1733―1817) was called takenoko isha.


..............................................................................................................................................


. take no ko shinji 筍神事 bamboo shoots ritual .
at Shrine Asusuki Jinja 阿須々伎神社
myooga matsuri 茗荷祭 Japanese ginger festival in February


..............................................................................................................................................


. Bamboo shoots - takenoko bamboo shoot legends - 筍 / 竹の子 伝説 .
Taketori Monogatari 竹取物語 The Tale of the Bamboo cutter
also known as
Kaguya Hime かぐや姫 Princess Kaguya, Shining Princess
and more . . .

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


- quote -
Springtime for bamboo
Few plants are as useful as bamboo. A member of the grass family, it is fast growing and very prolific given the right growing conditions, which makes it eco-friendly too.

The bamboo plant is indispensable in the Japanese kitchen, where every part of it is used. The leaves and bark are employed as wrappers, as well as in cooking. (Those little green leaf-shaped pieces of plastic called baran that are used as a divider in bentō boxes and takeout sushi are designed to emulate the shape of bamboo leaves — better sushi places still use the real thing.) The stalks of the plants are used as food containers, and thin skewers made of bamboo are used for everything from yakitori chicken to testing if your cake is done. So many kitchen implements are made from bamboo that it’s impossible to list them all, but it’s particularly hard to imagine making proper sushi rolls without a makisu, a bamboo sushi roll mat.


Although the tender bark is edible too, the most widely eaten parts of the bamboo plant are the shoots, which grow underground in the spring. Edible bamboo shoots are mentioned in the Kojiki, which was written in the early 8th century, but they weren’t widely eaten until the mid-1600s (early Edo Period), when a tender variety called mōsōchiku was introduced from China.

Fresh bamboo shoots are so strongly identified with springtime that they are accepted as a kigo (seasonal word) in haiku. Nowadays you can have precooked bamboo shoots year round, but in the days before canning, bamboo shoots were an eagerly anticipated sign of the end of winter. The best bamboo shoots are said to be those ones grown around Kyoto, with those grown in northern Kyushu also strong contenders.

Freshly dug bamboo shoots can be simply sliced and eaten raw, and fans of fresh raw bamboo shoots go foraging in the mountains just to enjoy this delicacy. But the longer the shoots are out of the ground the more fibrous they become, and the oxalic and phenolic acids become more pronounced, making them taste bitter unless they are cooked.

In Japan, this is most commonly done by boiling them in a mild alkaline solution — usually the white, cloudy water produced from rinsing rice, or plain water with some rice bran included, plus a sliced red chili pepper. It is believed that the outer skin of the bamboo shoots helps to tenderize them, so the skin is left on when the shoots are simmered.

Another method is to marinate the sliced bamboo shoots in grated daikon radish, which is also mildly alkaline, and preserves a crunchy texture. Still another way to reduce the bitterness is to cook the sliced bamboo shoots in oil, by deep frying them for example — this method is used in Chinese cooking.

Takenoko gohan (rice with bamboo shoots) is a quintessential springtime dish. For the recipe on this page, you could use bamboo shoots that are placed in water from rinsed rice and a sliced red chili pepper, and simmer them until a skewer goes through them easily. You can use ready-cooked bamboo shoots sold in vacuum packs or cans, but do try to make this with fresh bamboo shoots when they are in season. The rice is garnished with another quintessential springtime food — kinome, the tender young shoots of the sanshō pepper tree. Give it a go, and bring spring to your kitchen.
- source : Japan Times 2014 - Makiko Itoh -


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::




歌川豊国 Utagawa Toyokuni




Children digging for bamboo shoots
子どもたち、おおいに筍掘る図




Meguro no Takenoko 目黒の筍 Bamboo from Meguro 

山路治郎兵衛勝孝 Yamaji Jirobei Katsutaka introduced the farming of 孟宗竹 mosochiku bamboo in Meguro. He tried it first in the garden of his own villa in Shinawgawa.
He begun selling it in three venues:
1- He delivered it to the local markets in babmoo baskets high on the back of horses.
2- He sold them at the regular market of the Meguro Fudo temple, a popular spot in the Edo period.
3- He asked the tea stalls along the path to Meguro Fudo to sell 筍飯 "Babmoo Shoots with Rice" as a local speciality.




A school in Meguro has the bamboo shoots in their crest to our day.
目黒区立中目黒小学校


source : edoyasai.sblo.jp/article



目黒の筍縁起 / 浅黄斑 The story of the bamboo shoots from Meguro


. Meguro Fudo Temple 目黒不動 - 瀧泉寺.


reference : edococo.exblog.jp - 目黒の筍林

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Kabuki : Honchô Nijûshikô 本朝二十不孝 Honcho Niju Shiko
Twenty-Four Examples of Filial Piety

- quote -
From ancient time, the Twenty-Four Examples of Filial Piety, one of the Confucian classics, has taught respect for one's parents with stories that seem rather strange and even grotesque today.
For example, there is the story of the man whose sick mother wanted fresh fish in the dead of winter and so the man lay naked on the ice until he melted a hole through and the gods, taking pity on his plight saw that fish jumped out through this hole.
Another story has a mother who wants to eat fresh bamboo shoots in the dead of winter. A dutiful son digs through the snow and finds that, miraculously, there are bamboo shoots growing underneath the snow.
- source : www.kabuki21.com TAKENOKO HORI 筍堀」 -


. Legend about a son of great filial piety 親孝行息子 . .
Filial piety is a virtue highly praised in the teachings of Confucius.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


雪中筍掘り Digging for bamboo shoots in the snow
a sobachoko そば猪口 pot for dipping soba buckwheat noodles


source : 越前屋平太


..............................................................................................................................................


netsuke with bamboo shoot and snail 筍根付


CLICK for more photos !


..............................................................................................................................................


tea cup with bamboo design
名乾山写 飴釉七夕文茶碗作 者寺尾陶象


source : www.gmo-toku.jp


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


たけのこまつり Takenoko Bamboo shoots festival
in Uchikawa 内川, Ishikawa prefecture



A samurai from the Kaga han domaine called 岡本右太夫 Okamoto Migidayu (? - 1817) had first eaten bamboo shoot dishes in Edo and liked it very much. When he came back to Kanazawa he brought some bamboo plants of mosochiku 孟宗竹 with him. He re-planted them many times to find a type that suited the soil of Kanazawa and now they are a speciality of our town, Uchikawa.

別所町在住の向田吉右衛門がこの地に栽培した . . .
- source : uchikawa-k1.bz-office.net -


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::




. 河鍋暁斎 Kawanabe Kyosai .

..............................................................................................................................................




竹林での筍(たけのこ)掘り digging for bamboo shoots in a bamboo grove

歌川豊国 Utagawa Toyokuni

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

- - - - - Edo specialities with bamboo shoots



junkan, shunkan 筍羹 / 笋羹 / 筍干 boiled bamboo shoots and
assorted simmered dishes, including vegetables rolled in a sheet of deep-fried tofu.
A favorite since the Muromachi period.
In Kagoshima bamboo shoots are boiled with salted meat of pigs (or wild boars) and other vegetables.

junkan / shunkan was first introduced as par of the
. fucha ryori 普茶料理 Chinese-style Buddhist vegetarian cuisine .


takenokawa makisushi 竹の皮巻すし Sushi rolled in bamboo leaves
- - - - - take no kawa 竹の皮 dried bamboo leaves were often used as wrappers.

takenoko aemono 竹の子 和え物 bamboo shoots with special dressing

takenoko dengaku 竹の子田楽 Dengaku with bamboo shoots

takenoko meshi 筍めし bamboo shoots boiled with rice

takenoko nikomi tamago 笋煎入卵 bamboo shoots boiled with eggs

takenoko sashimi 竹の子刺身 Sashimi with bamboo

takenoko shirumono 竹の子汁物 bamboo shoots in soup

takenoko sushi 筍すし Sushi made with bamboo pieces
- - - - - made from hachiku 淡竹 Hachiku bamboo.

takenoko teriyaki 照焼き broiled after being soaked in sweetened soy sauce


. 100 Favorite Dishes of Edo 江戸料理百選 .
Bamboo is not mentioned among them.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

- - - - - H A I K U and S E N R Y U - - - - -

竹の子の千世もぽっきり折にけり
takenoko no chiyo mo pokkiri ore ni keri

the thousand year
bamboo shoot...
snap! broken


Kobayashi Issa


Robin D. Gill points out that pokkiri in the Edo era connoted "the sound made when a hard thing breaks." Shinji Ogawa explains:
"If there were no people, the bamboo shoot would grow to adulthood and enjoy the thousand years of its life. But someone has snapped the bamboo shoot for dinner."
Tr. David Lanoue

. WKD : take no ko, takenoko <> bamboo shoots 筍 .
- - kigo for summer - -


:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::



by Ueda Mucho 上田無腸 (1734 - 1809)

無腸上田秋成 Mucho Ueda Akinari、筍圖併俳句讃 -
- source : oukodou/gallery -


. Ueda Akinari 上田秋成 (1734 - 1809) .
He is famous for his eerie ghost stories and strange fiction in Japan.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::



- - - To join me on facebook, click the image !

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

. Edo yasai 江戸伝統野菜 Vegetables of Edo .

. 100 Favorite Dishes of Edo 江戸料理百選 .

. - Doing Business in Edo - 商売 - Introduction .

. senryu, senryū 川柳 Senryu poems in Edo .


[ . BACK to DARUMA MUSEUM TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #edofood #edotakenoko #takenoko #bambooshoots - - - -
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::