"Beethoven's Anvil"

William L. Benzon, "Beethoven's Anvil", 2001, Oxford University Press, Oxford
「In one way or another the postmoderns are obsessed with the possibilities and difficulties of interpersonal understanding.」（p.19）
「the central nervous system (CNS), consisting of the brain and the spinal cord, functions in two domains external to it, the internal milieu and the external world.」（p.32）
「the central nervous system operates in two environments, the external world and the internal milieu, and it regulates the relationship between the external world and the interior milieu on behalf of that milieu.」（p.33）
「the neural representation of other people」（p.34）
「You are your body, but the division of the nervous system directed toward the external world is quite capable of treating your body as an object on a footing with other objects. The neural self (NS) in the CNS is the neural representation of that body.」（p.34）

Blood-stained Wooden Stands

We visited Myokoku-Ji Temple. The temple is known with its big cycad trees and with Sakai Jiken (Sakai incident). In an airconditioned show room, across clean glass, there lie the bunches of hair which were left by 11 samurais.
According to Wikipedia, "On the 8 March 1868, a skiff sent to Sakai was attacked by samurais of the prince of Tosa; 11 sailors and Midshipman Guillou were killed (a monument in Kobe is now erected to their memory). Sakai was not at the time a port openned to foreign ships, and the Tosa troops were in charge of policing the city. The captain protested to the Government so strongly that an indemnity of 150,000 yens was also agreed upon, the culprits were arrested, and 20 of them were sentenced to death by seppuku."
You can find two blood-stained SAMPO (small wooden stand to place, in this case, a short sword to cut their belly) near the hair, which were used by two leaders. The two headed the two squads who attacked the French, and were automatically included into the planned 20 offerings. The other 18 were, as the guide in Myokoku-Ji Temple says, randamly chosen from low-ranking Tosa samurais who were staying in Osaka then. The 20 sacrifices were brought to the execution ground in Myokoku-Ji Temple one by one. It seems French officers could hardly keep watching the dreadful scene of cutting bellies. The 11th seppuku was decided to be the last one. Yet, you can find 12 figures on a "kakejiku" picture above the hair and the wooden stands. The 12th killed himself after returning to Tosa. Why? Nothing has been told down about that.
We had visited their graves earlier. The graveyard was in the middle of a kindargarten, which is run by another temple. The grave stones were rather small, and no flowers nor insence were in front of them. I doubt if today's noisy rightists ever pay attention to those who sacrificed themselves on our way to open up our country. The small children on the school bus were carelessly waving their hands on their departure from the kindergarten.
On the way back, I was fingering a cycad seed in my pocket, whose colour is bloody red.

Blood-stained Ceilings in Japan

Where you can find "Chi-Tenjo" (a blood-stained ceiling):
Hosen-in Temple in Kyoto
Daiko-ji Temple in Osaka
Genko-an Temple in Kyoto
Joroku-ji Temple in Tokushima
Chogaku-ji Temple in Nara