Kakuta Haruo---Decoding Japan---

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Location: Sakai, Osaka, Japan

Monday, March 23, 2015

To Whom Winter Comes Faster? (3) —The Third of 10 Chinese Poems on the Poor composed in the winter of 886 by Sugawara Michizane, the then Sanuki Province Governor—

To whom winter comes faster? To an aged widower winter comes faster He tosses and turns with his eyes open In a low hut, he sleeps alone With a sick, he is more in agony With whom should he moan over the poverty? With his motherless child He sheds tears all night

Saturday, March 21, 2015

To Whom Winter Comes Faster? (2) —The Second of 10 Chinese Poems on the Poor composed in the winter of 886 by Sugawara Michizane, the then Sanuki Province Governor—

To whom winter comes faster? To fugitives winter comes faster Those who have escaped from overdue taxes Are still to be accused of taxes here A short deer leather jacket is ragged And one room shelter makes it poorer A man with his baby and his wife Often begs, as they go

Sunday, March 15, 2015

The True Meaning of Kaguya-hime

At the age of 57, I finally understood the true meaning of the story Taketori-Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter). Every child is a Kaguya-hime, and has their own "hagoromo" (the feather robe). Once they wear "hagoromo", they fly away to live in another world, a world different from their childhood.

Friday, March 13, 2015

To Whom Winter Comes Faster? (1) —10 Chinese Poems on the Poor by Sugawara Michizane—

To whom winter comes faster? To repatriated tramps winter comes faster They don’t have a clan to rely on And are assigned along the names they give But the land granted is too poor Their bodies become thinner and thinner Unless the governor rules them with mercy More and more will certainly take flight

Saturday, March 07, 2015

The Ancient Japanese Good-Family Clans and Piracy (7) ——Conclusion——

All in all, whether you are a pirate or not depends on the result of power games among central noble families in the Heian-kyo Capital, one of which you belong to. As Fujiwara Yasunori, a competent governor at the time, put it on piracy, “Most leaders are not local registered people, but dropouts (from the hierarchic center, the Henan-Kyo Capital). Some are young members of good family who have pursued means of support. Some others are officers’ valets who have married local women. They have made the remote provinces their hometowns.” Those young members and valets who belonged to Tomo, Ki, and Tachibana Clans must have had a hard time finding a new job, other than piracy. Furthermore, the fall and the further purge of Silla connections must have caused certain vacuum of human resources who could handle water transports and foreign trading. The vacuum should be filled with Fujiwara Clan’s young members and/ or butlers. A road was paved to have a Fujiwara Sumitomo . Sumitomo was actually a young member of Fujiwara Clan, and became a third officer in Iyo Province. He later became a pirate, or was accused of piracy once he was judged to be a menace for the community of noble-blooded highborn people of central power. However, it was not only a pirate but the first pirate king in Japan that he made. It was not difficult to become a pirate, or be judged to be a pirate, but the reason why he could become a pirate king is yet to be researched.