Edo Quotes

И чувствата ми получават епилептичен припадък. А на повърхността не се вижда нищо. Кожата е гладка, лицето – спокойно, ръцете – отпуснати, но отвътре всичко ври, пени се, руши, разбива и бучи, и гласните ми струни могат да произведат вик, който ще разцепи галактиката.

We've all been given a gift, the gift of life. What we do with our lives is our gift back.

В края на краищата, като теглите чертата, важното е да имате на кого да опаковате подарък за Коледа. А всичко друго, дето се вика, е дим.

Искам още да кажа, че щастието няма никаква връзка с числото в граматичен смисъл.

But supposed she had a sudden urge to see their faces and turned to look at them - what would she see? Probably she would find that their backs were turned to her as well.

Накратко, аз съм съвсем нормално ненормален, напълно лишен от амбиции в това отношение, скромно и непретенциозно чалнат.

In the world of old memories, there's no room for visitors

Да напуснеш означава да изчезнеш, да се изпариш, да дезертираш, да зарежеш. Да си тръгнеш е нещо съвсем различно, тръгваш си спокойно и по някаква уговорка, и това е всичко, което засега искам да кажа по този повод.

No matter how long a log of wood remains in the river it does not become a crocodile

How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a  dgreat wind? 3  eDoes God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? 4 If your  fchildren have sinned against him,

Our society of scholars,' Haga stands up, 'debates natural philosophy--' '- and not matters of state,' agrees an Edo metallurgist, 'so--' 'Nothing is outside philosophy,' claims Omori, 'unless fear says it is.

For her I would gladly ferry across the Sumida on the coldest winter day to buy her those sakura-mochi sweets from old Edo that she loved so much. But medicine? That is another matter. Not even on the warmest day would I want to go buy her medicine.

Нямах с какво да сравня любовта си към нея. Страшна любов. Чудовищна. Беше ми тежко от любов. Исках да пъхна главата си под полата на Весна и да заплача. Исках да пия нейните сокове. Исках да изгоря пред къщата ѝ. Исках да ме разкъса на парчета и да ме погълне. Исках да ѝ принадлежа.

The first-known cultivated cherry in Japan was a weeping cherry, a form of Edo-higan. Aristocrats were enchanted by the way in which the thin, supple branches bent over towards the ground, giving the illusion of tears when the tree blossomed, and so they propagated this mutation by collecting seeds and planting them in their gardens.

Тя не живееше, тя понасяше живота. Знаеше, че това е пътуване от точка А до точка Б и го изминаваше мълчаливо ...

to the one who begs from you, and  e do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

the Meiji leaders faced a dilemma. How could they unite, emotionally and spiritually, thirty-four million people who had no sense of belonging to a ‘nation’? During the Edo period, from 1603 to 1868, everyone belonged to his own domain and was beholden to one of the 270 or so daimyō. No one called himself or herself ‘Japanese’. But now, in case of an emergency, the government would need to convince millions of ordinary people to take up arms.

You want to know who the strongest man in the Kabuki District is? You must be new in town. You won't last long with that attitude. Forget it. This town is on a whole different level. You got thugs, brawlers, vigilantes and rogue warriors from all over Edo here. It's like a haven for hooligans. This is for your own good. Have a drink and go back to the countryside. What's that? You want me to tell you about the top dogs before you go? You really like this stuff. First, there are four monsters on a level of their own: The Fierce and Divine Madamoiselle Saigo, Doromizu Jirocho the Gallant, Peacock Princess Kada and Empress Otose. The four factions are in a standoff which preserves a fragile balance of power. Who would be the strongest in a fight? You wouldn't be able to even scratch those beasts. Saigo and Jirocho in particular, were heroes during the Joui War. Well, they're too old to go on a tear now. If you want someone who's currently active, there's Katsuro Kuroguma, a young leader in the Doromizu Faction. He's the most feared man in Kabuki District right now. You'll also find a few former Joui in Saigo's Faction. There are rumours about Kada's Faction having ties to some crazy folk. Otose's Faction? It's just a bar, really. She's just an old lady with a soft heart. But if you try any funny business on her turf, you'll run into a certain guy. A guy who holds his own against the Big Three by himself. One hell of a monster, with hair that's completely white. A demon...

Percy, why do you always have to spoil beauty with explanation?" Primrose didn't look away from Edo. "One would think it might enhance your appreciation." "No, one wouldn't, you puffed-up chump. The mystery is all gone now!" "I appreciate knowing," said Arsenic, giving Prim a side-eye. "Well, you would, you're an intellectual too." Percy said it without realizing he'd extended praise, and blushed to hear admiration in his own voice. "Of a type, you two. It's exhausting. Go talk about technicalities on the other deck, would you? Let us bask in wonder.

PSALM 15 O LORD,  uwho shall sojourn in your  vtent? Who shall dwell on your  wholy hill? 2 He who  xwalks blamelessly and  ydoes what is right and  zspeaks truth in his heart; 3 who  adoes not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor  btakes up a reproach against his friend; 4  cin whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who  dswears to his own hurt and does not change; 5 who  edoes not put out his money at interest and  fdoes not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be  gmoved.

Šta me ovdje veže? Moja djeca više ovdje neće moći živjeti nikad. Mržnja među nacijama je prevelika da bi se moglo ne znati da nešto takvo i ne postoji. A moja djeca će biti kao ja. Mogu znati da postoje neki Srbi, Hrvati i Muslimani samo teoretski. Ne smiju znati mržnju i krv i ubice. Ne moraju doživjeti ništa slično. Ne smiju! Ovdje se svako nekoliko decenija neko pobije. Uvijek isto. Neke osvete za smrti od prije nekoliko decenija. Uvijek isti protiv istih. Tito nije imao pravo. Nije bio dovoljno strog. Trebao je biti oštriji. Neka ti što mrze i ubijaju ginu sami i među sobom. Ne mi... Ne ja i moja djeca. Mi nemamo ništa s tim. Ja sam smrti svojih djedova davno oprostio. Neću se svetiti nikome. Neću ništa o tome ni da znam. Hoću mir. Hoću da budem normalan

Retaliation 38 h “You have heard that it was said,  y ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39But I say to you,  z Do not resist the one who is evil. But  a if anyone  b slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And  z if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, [8] let him have your cloak as well. 41And if anyone  c forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 d Give to the one who begs from you, and  e do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

To understand how seriously the people of Noto take the concept of waste, consider the fugu dilemma. Japanese blowfish, best known for its high toxicity, has been a staple of Noto cuisine for hundreds of years. During the late Meiji and early Edo periods, local cooks in Noto began to address a growing concern with fugu fabrication; namely, how to make use of the fish's deadly ovaries. Pregnant with enough poison to kill up to twenty people, the ovaries- like the toxic liver- had always been disposed of, but the cooks of Noto finally had enough of the waste and set out to crack the code of the toxic reproductive organs. Thus ensued a long, perilous period of experimentation. Locals rubbed ovaries in salt, then in nukamiso, a paste made from rice bran, and left them to ferment. Taste-testing the not-quite-detoxified fugu ovary was a lethal but necessary part of the process, and many years and many lives later, they arrived at a recipe that transformed the ovaries from a deadly disposable into an intensely flavored staple. Today pickled fugu ovaries remain one of Noto's most treasured delicacies.

O LORD,  u who shall sojourn in your  v tent?         Who shall dwell on your  w holy hill?     2 He who  x walks blamelessly and  y does what is right         and  z speaks truth in his heart; 3    who  a does not slander with his tongue         and does no evil to his neighbor,         nor  b takes up a reproach against his friend; 4     c in whose eyes a vile person is despised,         but who honors those who fear the LORD;     who  d swears to his own hurt and does not change; 5    who  e does not put out his money at interest         and  f does not take a bribe against the innocent.     He who does these things shall never be  g moved.

Who Shall Dwell on Your Holy Hill? A Psalm of David.     PSALM 15 O LORD,  u who shall sojourn in your  v tent?         Who shall dwell on your  w holy hill?     2 He who  x walks blamelessly and  y does what is right         and  z speaks truth in his heart; 3    who  a does not slander with his tongue         and does no evil to his neighbor,         nor  b takes up a reproach against his friend; 4     c in whose eyes a vile person is despised,         but who honors those who fear the LORD;     who  d swears to his own hurt and does not change; 5    who  e does not put out his money at interest         and  f does not take a bribe against the innocent.     He who does these things shall never be  g moved.

Cijeli rat u bivšoj Jugoslaviji je bio nepotreban i odvratan. Nikome nije donio sreće. U zemljama bivše Jugoslavije i danas vladaju nacionalisti koji su izazvali rat i koji vode svoje zemlje sve dublje u bijedu i zaostalost. U bivšoj Jugoslaviji se i danas zločinci kriju iza nacije i govore: „MI i ONI... Neka SMO ih... I ONI su NAS...” Time prenose odgovornost na cijeli narod. Kriju se iza naroda. Lažu! Čista laž je da su činili zločine u moje ime, ili u tvoje ime. Činili su ih zato što su zločinci, a ne zato što su narod. Oni nisu narod. Oni su sramota svoga naroda. Zabranjujem da me bilo ko od njih svrstava sa sobom. Odbijam da ih na bilo koji način podržavam u ime sebe, u ime svoje djece, u ime sve nesreće koju sam vidio u ovom ratu, a čiji djelić je opisan u ovoj priči.

El castillo de Edo, que dominaba la ciudad desde la cima de la colina, elevaba sus atalayas

Having completed its conquest of California in 1844, the United States looked across the Pacific for new business opportunities. In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Tokyo (then called Edo) Bay with four men-of-war, and handed over a letter for the Japanese emperor from the American president which began with the ominous words, ‘You know that the United States of America now extend from sea to sea.’ Denied an audience with the emperor, Perry retreated with subtle threats to return with more firepower if the Japanese did not agree to open their ports to American trade. They refused. He did as he said; and the Japanese succumbed.

Ach, moje Irmičko! Není ti souzeno vidět svět v hezkých barvách. Dožila ses svých pěti let a hotovo. Tvůj čas se naplnil. Nějaké ožralé prase plnilo velké plány svého velkého vůdce tím, že zabilo tebe. Ať to slouží ke cti a slávě všech, kteří si myslí, že pokud tebe nezabijí, nedokážou uvést v život své velevýznamné ideály. Hanba jim!

Written by the hermit, Kanda Hakuryushi2 East Musashi, Edo, Toshima District Thirteenth Year of Kyoho (1728) On an auspicious day of the Twelfth Lunar Month

She's still quite fit at ninety, fit enough to chew her food with her own teeth. Apparently she grew up in a house without a bar of soap, let alone tooth powder. Her family didn't have electricity until she started elementary school, and she'd never seen a train until the tracks of the Koumi line were laid in Saku. It's exactly as if she were born in the Edo period. These days, you only have to drive for five minutes to find a sparkling clean convenience store, with bright lights above shelves stocked with everything you could possibly need. Land that used to be fields of mulberry bushes is now crisscrossed by smooth, wide roads lined with video rental stores and fast food restaurants. I would say O-Hatsu has seen more changes in her lifetime than I have. After all, she lived for most of the century when this country was changing faster than it ever had before. Even so, I have a feeling that the inside of her head has remained much the same as when she was a girl. By "the inside of her head" I mean the way she sees the world around her—the language she uses to make sense of it. In my case, the very way I looked at the world and the words I used to understand it had altogether changed.

The Edo period, or the Tokugawa period, lasted from 1603 to 1868.

The shogunate was established in the new capital of Edo, which was later called Tokyo.

These performances were very popular in the red-light district in Edo,

After Komei’s death, Prince Mutsuhito was renamed Emperor Meiji, and Edo was renamed “Tokyo.

who arrived in Yokosuka, located south of Edo, with four warships in June 1853.

I wanted to go to Edo, but you wouldn’t let me go.

These rice balls represent the responsibilities we have for the future." "The responsibilities we have for the future?!" "Let's start off with the stewed hard clams. In the past, they could be found anywhere. But nowadays, most of the hard clams are being imported because they can no longer be caught due to land reclamation and pollution. Hard clams from the sea nearby have now become a rarity. Stewed hard clams are an important cultural asset that has been passed down to us since the Edo Period. But at this rate, the hard clams will be lost, and the stewed hard clams will disappear from the menu of the future. The same with matsutake. The production of matsutake is going down every year because the mountains are not looked after with care. People hardly go to the mountains to take care of them because of the decrease in population in the mountainous regions, as well as the decrease of people who use wood as fuel. At this rate, domestic matsutake will also disappear from our tables. And then there's the katsuobushi. How many households have their own katsuobushi shaver these days? MSG and ready-made easy seasonings have become the mainstream of cooking. The most basic Japanese tradition of using katsuobushi and konbu to make dashi is starting to disappear. Even when you use katsuobushi, you use something that has already been shaved and packed." "He's right. Young people who have experienced shaving a katsuobushi are a minority nowadays." "In the old days, shaving the katsuobushi was the children's job." "The current Japanese culinary culture is one of the richest in the world. But at the same time, we are continuing to lose something we are not meant to lose. And that is not right . It is our responsibility to pass on the important cultural elements from our ancestors down to the future.

Maybe everyone in Edo was maintaining an illusion of sanity with clothes and hairpins. Or maybe they all started out as virtuous people but were transformed into monsters when they learned—over and over again—that they could never hold on to what they thought was theirs.

I gaze at the orchid sitting on his windowsill. It's wrapped in bamboo and tied with a purple tassel. Its yellow and green leaves are long and narrow, striped like a tiger's tail. The blooms are tiny, white, and fragrant. "Fūkiran," my father says. "Grown since the Edo Period and collected by feudal lords as gifts to the shogun or emperor." He slides the office doors closed. "I know." I smile because it's familiar. My mother has a woodblock of it above her nightstand. Neofinetia falcata.

Tokyo." Mr. Fuchigami's voice inflates with pride. "Formerly Edo, almost destroyed by the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, then again in 1944 by nighttime firebombing raids. Tens of thousands were killed." The chamberlain grows silent. "Kishikaisei." "What does that mean?" There's a skip in my chest. We've entered the city now. The high-rises are no longer cut out shapes against the skyline, but looming gray giants. Every possible surface is covered in signs---neon and plastic or painted banners---they all scream for attention. It's noisy, too. There is a cacophony of pop tunes, car horns, advertising jingles, and trains coasting over rails. Nothing is understated. "Roughly translated, 'wake from death and return to life.' Against hopeless circumstances, Tokyo has risen. It is home to more than thirty-five million people." He pauses. "And, in addition, the oldest monarchy in the world." The awe returns tenfold. I clutch the windowsill and press my nose to the glass. There are verdant parks, tidy residential buildings, upmarket shops, galleries, and restaurants. For each sleek, new modern construction, there is one low-slung wooden building with a blue tiled roof and glowing lanterns. It's all so dense. Houses lean against one another like drunk uncles. Mr. Fuchigami narrates Tokyo's history. A city built and rebuilt, born and reborn. I imagine cutting into it like a slice of cake, dissecting the layers. I can almost see it. Ash from the Edo fires with remnants of samurai armor, calligraphy pens, and chipped tea porcelain. Bones from when the shogunate fell. Dust from the Great Earthquake and more debris from the World War II air raids. Still, the city thrives. It is alive and sprawling with neon-colored veins. Children in plaid skirts and little red ties dash between business personnel in staid suits. Two women in crimson kimonos and matching parasols duck into a teahouse.

Ologbosere was defiant. He did not deny his part in the attack on Phillips’s expedition, but said he’d been sent by the Oba to fight the white men. He poured scorn on those Edo chiefs who had worked with him to defend Benin, but were now part of the court that sat in judgment over him: ‘The day I was selected to go from Benin City to meet the white men all the chiefs here present were in the meeting and now they want to put the whole thing on my shoulders.’7 Ologbosere Irabor was found guilty, and hanged at 8 a.m. on 28 June 1899 outside the court house. There are photographs of him awaiting execution.

during this peaceful Sakoku period that unique arts and culture evolved, mostly in Edo and other large cities. These included ukiyo-e woodblock prints, pottery, haiku poetry, kabuki plays and the creation of about 250 varieties of cherry blossom in the Edo gardens of the daimyō lords.

the highly developed urban system, urban traditions and material culture of the pre-modern period, which remained influential until well after the Pacific War. A second key influence has been the dominance of central government in urban affairs, and its consistent prioritisation of economic growth over the public welfare or urban quality of life. This bias is seen both in the preference for large-scale infrastructure projects over local parks or roads, and in the reluctance to regulate private urban land development activity.

Perhaps the most significant of these are two related aspects characteristic of Japanese urbanisation: the intense intermixture of differing land uses, and the extensive areas of unplanned, haphazard urban development. Mixed land use is so prevalent in Japanese cities that it may be hard to believe the government Figure 0.1 The “busy place” (sakariba) of Ueno is one Japan’s most enduring central city entertainment and shopping districts, and was already famous in the Tokugawa period for its theatres and nightlife.

More important in aggregate population were about two hundred castle towns (Jōkamachi), distributed throughout the breadth of the archipelago, which ranged in population from one or two thousand to over a hundred thousand (Hall 1968; Rozman 1986). There was also a range of other urban settlements, most of which were smaller than the castle towns, such as the post towns (shukubamachi) along the main trunk highways, port towns (minato), market towns (ichibamachi), and religious centres (monzenmachi).

Antes de que Tokio fuera Tokio, se llamaba Edo. Desde principios del siglo XVII, Edo fue el centro político de facto de Japón, aunque Kioto siguió siendo la capital del país hasta 1868, como lo había sido desde el año 749.

Zergatik ez erotu behingoz eta eten edo askatu bakar bizitza honetara makurtzen nauen oldarretik.

Sadly, the original manuscript of Gorin-no-sho no longer exists. According to Terao Magonojō, it was destroyed in a castle fire, possibly the Edo Castle fire of 1657 or the Yashiro Castle fire in Kyushu in 1672. Musashi never titled the five scrolls Gorin-no-sho. He named each individual scroll as one of the five elements. It was Nagaoka Naoyuki and Toyota Masakata who conceived Gorin-no-sho as a shorthand title in their notes, and this designation stuck. As for the use of the “five elements” (gorin), it was not Musashi’s intention to appropriate the idea from Buddhist philosophy. In Heihō Sanjūgo-kajō, he had already referred to the heart or mind of the warrior as being comparable to the properties of “Water.” He also wrote briefly of the “Ether” as a state of high attainment and clarity, but not in the Buddhist sense of Nirvana. It was more like figuratively piercing through the clouds of confusion and being exposed to the boundless clear sky.46 Moreover, he had discussed the “Wind” of other schools in previous texts. Wind is a term in Japanese indicating “type” or “appearance.” Adopting “Earth” to explain the basis of his school, and “Fire” to represent what happens in the heat of battle and dueling, probably seemed convenient and oddly prophetic.

A thick layer of cloud hung above the Sumida River. From the window of the little steamer, he watched the Mukōjima bank drawing closer. To his eyes, the blossoming cherry trees looked as dreary as rags in a row. But almost before he knew it, in those trees - those cherry trees that had lined the bank of Mukōjima since the Edo Period - he was beginning to discover himself.

One summer evening during the fourth year of his search Seikichi happened to be passing the Hirasei Restaurant in the Fukagawa district of Edo, not far from his own house, when he noticed a woman’s bare milk-white foot peeping out beneath the curtains of a departing palanquin. To his sharp eye, a human foot was as expressive as a face. This one was sheer perfection. Exquisitely chiseled toes, nails like the iridescent shells along the shore at Enoshima, a pearl-like rounded heel, skin so lustrous that it seemed bathed in the limpid waters of a mountain spring — this, indeed, was a foot to be nourished by men’s blood, a foot to trample on their bodies.

Samantha’s grandmother had taught her how to feel loved, but Edo had taught her how to feel adored.

Ako sam išta iskusio hodajući Velebitom, onda je to sljedeće: sve za čime žudimo, poput uspjeha, novca, imetka, slave, ugleda, moći, i zbog čega smo u stanju godinama rintati, prodavati se, spletkariti, izdavati prijatelje, ponižavati se, manipulirati ljudima i gaziti ih - u planini ne vrijedi ništa, niti išta znači. A ako te stvari ne vrijede u planini, dakle ako same po sebi nemaju nikakvu vrijednost, kako onda mogu vrijediti igdje drugdje? Tko im daje i određuje vrijednost? Onom poskoku u pukotini stijene na puteljku izpod Jareće glave, smrekovoj pipi na kamenoj ploči u Čepurašima, srni ispod Oblog kuka, jastrebu iznad Prosenjaka, njima je bilo sasvim svejedno tko sam i što sam; ništa im nije značilo moje zanimanje, položaj u društvu, imovinsko stanje i takve stvari. Bili su potpuno ravnodušni rema tome. Zanimalo ih je jedino jesam li im prijetnja ili ne, i koje su moje namjere. Poskok me je puhanjem upozorio da sam prešao liniju diskrecije, i ja sam se zaustavio, fotografirao ga i strpljivo čekao njegov sljedeći potez, a on je nakon nekog vremena napustio svoj obrambeni gard i zavukao se u pukotinu. Smrekova pipa se ukočila, praveći se mrtva, i ja sam je prekoračio i otišao svojim putem. Srna, ne obazirući se na mene, uspinjala se padinom obraslom klečicom, i nestala među stijenama. Jastreb je neko vrijeme kružio iznad kukova, i potom odletio prema Vilinskom vrhu. Shvatio sam, također, još nekoliko običnih, jednostavnih stvari. Na primjer, da su majstorije više ili manje razvikanih kuhara koje sam kušao proteklih godina puka splačina u usporedbi s kriškom sušene govedine, raženim kruhom i svježom paprikom serviranim na siću na terasi ispred Rossijeva skloništa, dok vam oči prelaze s tepiha klekovine na kukove, s kukova na gustu crnogoričnu šumu, sa šume na more, s mora na indigo plavo nebo, gdje svoj ples izvode vjetruše koje se, valjda, gnijezde u kukovima Shvatio sam da sve što mi je doista potrebno stane u ruksak od 40 litara.

O planini se govori kao o prostoru slobode. Samo odete gore, kaže se, i svi okovi spadnu s vas, sve brige nestanu, postanete slobodni. Ali, kako u planini može biti slobodan netko tko nije slobodan u gradu?

Na Velebitu sam se često susretao licem u lice s oblacima. Koji su me put znali otjerati s planine. Što ću ovdje, mislio sam, kad ništa ne vidim. Kasnije sam shvatio da ne moram uvijek gledati očima.

U planini najprije osjetite kako vrijeme usporava. Ništa vas ne podsjeća na protok vremena, ni tramvaji i autobusi s redovima vožnje, ni satovi na trgovima, ni crkvena zvona, niti program radija i televizije, ništa osim sunca i mjeseca, koji se u iskonskom ritmu izmjenjuju na nebeskom svodu. I vi samo prihvatite taj ritam, počnete živjeti u njemu.

traditional weapons of the samurai Dim Mak Death Touch doku poison dōshin Edo-period police officers of samurai origin (low rank) endan ninja smoke bombs fugu blowfish or puffer fish Fuma Wind Demons gaijin foreigner, outsider (derogatory term) geisha a Japanese girl trained to entertain men with conversation, dance and song haiku Japanese short poem hamon artistic pattern created on a samurai sword blade during tempering process hashi chopsticks horagai conch-shell trumpet horoku a spherical bomb thrown by hand using a short rope itadakimasu let’s eat! kagemusha a Shadow Warrior kamikaze lit. ‘divine wind’, or ‘Wind of the Gods’ kanji Chinese characters that are used also by the Japanese katana long sword ki energy flow or life force (Chinese: chi) kiai literally ‘concentrated spirit’ – used in martial arts as a shout for focusing energy when executing a technique kimono traditional Japanese clothing kissaki tip of sword koban Japanese oval gold coin

Ljudski organizam napravljen je tako da povraća samo sitnice. Hranu, cugu i takve stvari. Pokvarene starce, pokvareno djetinjstvo, i uopće pokvarenu prošlost ne možete povratiti.

Carlton Church review – Why Tokyo is populated? How Tokyo became the largest city? Apparently Tokyo Japan has been one of the largest global cities for hundreds of years. One of the primary reasons for its growth is the fact that it has been a political hotspot since they Edo period. Many of the feudal lords of Japan needed to be in Edo for a significant part of the year and this has led to a situation where increasing numbers of the population was attracted to the city. There were many people with some power base throughout Japan but it became increasingly clear that those who have the real power were the ones who were residing in Edo. Eventually Tokyo Japan emerged as both the cultural and the political center for the entire Japan and this only contributed to its rapid growth which made it increasingly popular for all people living in Japan. After World War II substantial rebuilding of the city was necessary and it was especially after the war that extraordinary growth was seen and because major industries came especially to Tokyo and Osaka, these were the cities where the most growth took place. The fact remains that there are fewer opportunities for people who are living far from the cities of Japan and this is why any increasing number of people come to the city. There are many reasons why Japan is acknowledged as the greatest city The Japanese railways is widely acknowledged to be the most sophisticated railway system in the world. There is more than 100 surface routes which is operated by Japan’s railways as well as 13 subway lines and over the years Japanese railway engineers has accomplished some amazing feats which is unequalled in any other part of the world. Most places in the city of Tokyo Japan can be reached by train and a relatively short walk. Very few global cities can make this same boast. Crossing the street especially outside Shibuya station which is one of the busiest crossings on the planet with literally thousands of people crossing at the same time. However, this street crossing symbolizes one of the trademarks of Tokyo Japan and its major tourism attractions. It lies not so much in old buildings but rather in the masses of people who come together for some type of cultural celebration. There is also the religious centers in Japan such as Carlton Church and others. Tokyo Japan has also been chosen as the city that will host the Olympics in 2020 and for many reasons this is considered to be the best possible venue. A technological Metropolitan No other country exports more critical technologies then Japan and therefore it should come as no surprise that the neighborhood electronics store look more like theme parks than electronic stores. At quickly becomes clear when one looks at such a spectacle that the Japanese people are completely infatuated with technology and they make no effort to hide that infatuation. People planning to visit Japan should heed the warnings from travel organizations and also the many complaints which is lodged by travelers who have become victims of fraud. It is important to do extensive research regarding the available options and to read every possible review which is available regarding travel agencies. A safe option will always be to visit the website of Carlton Church and to make use of their services when travelling to and from Japan.

Щастието започна отново да ни се усмихва едва след като се разделихме.

Smoking kills. Голяма работа. Кого си мислят, че плашат. Пушенето убивало, така ли? Разбира се, че убива. Но и преяждането убива. Бягането също. Ами работата, тя как убива само! Вървенето по улиците, плащането на сметки, висенето пред телевизора, сексът... Всичко убива, ебати, и няма сега да вземем да се разстройваме за това.

Omura rattled off a long string of something in Japanese that I didn’t understand after his declaration of feces. “What was that pile of Japanese?” I had to ask. “Oh, I was complaining at my parents for having given birth to me and cursing my ancestors all the way back to the Edo Period.

Toda la negatividad es causada por una acumulación de tiempo psicológico y por la negación del presente. La incomodidad, la ansiedad, el estrés, la preocupación — todas las formas del mi-edo — son causadas por exceso de futuro y demasiado poca presencia. La culpa, las lamentaciones, el resentimiento, las quejas, la tristeza, la amargura y todas las formas de falta de perdón son causadas por exceso de pasado y falta de presencia.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise, instead, seek what they sought.” –Matsuo Bashō Japanese poet of the Edo period

Queste fonti furono utilizzate costantemente da Hiroshige, soprattutto per la realizzazione di quelle stampe raffiguranti luoghi lontani da Edo, città dove il maestro nacque e fu attivo.

Mon efficacité dans le combat concret et le corps à corps brutal apparaît ridicule en comparaison de celle d'Edo. Certes. Mais moi, je sais creuser des gouffres de peines chez l'être le plus insensible. Je parviens à faire naître le désir cruel, l'envie aliénante, la frustration implacable. J'obsède, j'énerve, je tends et j'agace. Je fascine, j'excite, je détruis et rends dément. Je suis le roi de l'artifice. Je fais exploser dans le ciel de ma victime des comètes hallucinatoires, des soleils délirants et des éclairs de folie avant de laisser tomber sur ses jours une nuit noire épaisse et dense, qui ne précède aucune aurore prometteuse. Et si je suis vraiment d'humeur fouillis-souillonne comme maintenant, je peux en tirer un plaisir indécent quasi onaniste. Que l'on se rassure : je ne vais pas casser le jouet de mes petits camarades. Juste m'amuser un peu avec...

Всъщност до какво се свежда цялата тази работа с живота, ако не до празни места, където някога са стояли хора.

The Europeans wanted more ivory than the Edo had hitherto needed, and their guns made it easier to kill elephants. Edo hunters learnt to use Dane guns, firing poisoned darts which penetrated further into the elephant’s hide than arrows or spears. In the late nineteenth century, the British trader Cyril Punch met an Edo man who boasted of killing 200 elephants during his career.64 But West Africa’s ivory trade peaked in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, driven by Dutch, and to a lesser extent, British, demand. Dutch records from that time show it was not unusual for a ship returning from the West African coast to carry 15,000 pounds – about 6,800 kilograms – of ivory.

In order for Japan to become an equal member of the international community, the western perception of time had to be accepted. The western calendar was adopted with much complaint in 1872, with the decision that the third day of the succeeding twelfth month would become the first day of 1873. The decree added: On this day a ceremony…will be held, and the Emperor will inform the sun goddess and the imperial ancestors of the change…. The day will be divided into 24 hours instead of twelve two-hour periods, as hitherto.

the buildings of the city blossoming and withering like flowers from the swamps of Edo

As with France, an important consequence of the British Industrial Revolution for China and Japan was military vulnerability. China was humbled by British sea power during the First Opium War, between 1839 and 1842, and the same threat became all too real for the Japanese as U.S. warships, led by Commodore Matthew Perry, pulled into Edo Bay in 1853. The reality that economic backwardness created military backwardness was part of the impetus behind Shimazu Nariakira’s plan to overthrow the shogunate and put in motion the changes that eventually led to the Meiji Restoration. The leaders of the Satsuma domain realized that economic growth—perhaps even Japanese survival—could be achieved only by institutional reforms, but the shogun opposed this because his power was tied to the existing set of institutions. To exact reforms, the shogun had to be overthrown, and he was. The situation was similar in China, but the different initial political institutions made it much harder to overthrow the emperor, something that happened only in 1911. Instead of reforming institutions, the Chinese tried to match the British militarily by importing modern weapons. The Japanese built their own armaments industry. As a consequence of these initial differences, each country responded differently to the challenges of the nineteenth century, and Japan and China diverged dramatically in the face of the critical juncture created by the Industrial Revolution. While Japanese institutions were being transformed and the economy was embarking on a path of rapid growth, in China forces pushing for institutional change were not strong enough, and extractive institutions persisted largely unabated until they would take a turn for the worse with Mao’s communist revolution in 1949. R

The preferred worlds to simulate were either sci-fi or Edo-period Japan, as if the two breaks of the Meiji restoration (1868) and the occupation (1945) had not happened. Azuma links simulation to the practice of détournement or the fan-based making of derivative works, which “official” products then borrow from in turn: “the products of otaku culture are born into a chain of infinite imitations and piracy” (O26). Simulacra thus float free from both the notion of an historical time and from the authoring of original works.

Седим в кафето в началото на улица "Прерадовичева" и пием бира. Пак беше зима, когато се запознахме, но хоризонтите бяха малко по-различни. Оттогава пътищата ни често се пресичаха. - Чете ли вестниците, че не сме били славяни? - попита Денис. - Кой ние? - питам. - Ами ние, хърватите - отвръща той. - Това не ме засяга - казвам. - Как тъй, не те засяга? - Аз съм монголец. - Монголец? - Да, роден съм с монголско петно. - Глупости - казва Денис - Обаче ето какво мисля аз за хърватите - разбира се, че не сме славяни. Не само, че не сме славяни, ами ние, брато, не сме нищо. Хърватин - изсумтя подигравателно - това не е националност, това е диагноза. Виж само както направихме от държавата си. Цирк, ето както.

L'organisation de la société à l'époque f4edo se référait au système confucéen de classification des individus par rapport à leurs origines sociales et leurs métiers, shinokosho. Cette hiérarchie se résumait en 4 kanji représentant chacun un rang social, en partant du sommet jusqu'à la base. Shi désignait les guerriers, no les paysans, ko les artisans et sho les commerçants.

Leur apparition remonte à la fin du IXème siècle et au début du Xème siècle. Ces guerriers (bushi) s'emparent du pouvoir politique à la fin du XIIème siècle et créèrent un système monarchique particulier dirigé par un shogun qui tenait sa légitimité de la reconnaissance impériale. Ce gouvernement fut mis en place dès 1180 à Kamakura dans l'est du Japon, avant d'être transféré à Kyoto au XIVème siècke, puis à Edo (future Tokyo) au début du XVIIème siècle. Trois dynasties shogunales (toutes descandant, réellement ou fictivement, du clan Minamoto) se sont succédé entre le XIIème et le XIXème siècle. On distingue un premier bafuku (gouv. de la tente) à Kamakura (1180-1333), celui de la famille Ashikaga, qui se constitua en 1336 et qui fut installé à Kyoto dans le quartier Muromachi en 1378. Ce deuxième bafuku s'éteignit en 1573 avant qu'un nouveau régime militaire n'émergeat à Edo en 1603. Dans l'intervalle 3 seigneurs hégémons, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, et ensuite Tokugawa Ieyasu travaillèrent à réunifier le pays sous leur domination. Les samouraï ont pendant un bon millénaire joué un rôle central dans l'histoire du pays par leur rôle politique, leur poids démographique (environ 5% de la polulation au milieu du XIXème siècle).

Each person was an individual work of art. But seeing such a multitude assembled in one place, with such a profusion of magnificent skin-pictures on their backs, the philosophical observer was tempted to view them as an independent race, separated by their immortal tattoos from the transience of life on earth. With the force of a tidal wave, the sculpturesque group made a profound impression on the spectators. In the hallucinatory excitement, some people even forgot that they were living in the postwar depression of 1947, and were transported back to the carefree days of the Edo Period.

One of Matsudaira Sagami no kami’s retainers went to Kyoto on a matter of debt collection and took up lodgings by renting living quarters in a townhouse. One day while standing out front watching the people go by, he heard a passerby say, “They say that Lord Matsudaira’s men are involved in a fight right now.” The retainer thought, “How worrisome that some of my companions are involved in a fight. There are some men to relieve those at Edo staying here. Perhaps these are the men involved.” He asked the passerby of the location, but when he arrived out of breath, his companions had already been cut down and their adversaries were at the point of delivering the coup de grace. He quickly let out a yell, cut the two men down, and returned to his lodgings. This matter was made known to an official of the shogunate, and the man was called up before him and questioned. “You gave assistance in your companions’ fight and thus disregarded the government’s ordinance. This is true beyond a doubt, isn’t it?” The man replied, “I am from the country, and it is difficult for me to understand everything that Your Honor is saying. Would you please repeat that?” The official got angry and said, “Is there something wrong with your ears? Didn’t you abet a fight, commit bloodshed, disregard the government’s ordinance, and break the law?” The man then replied, “I have at length understood what you are saying. Although you say that I have broken the law and disregarded the government’s ordinance, I have by no means done so. The reason for this is that all living things value their lives, and this goes without saying for human beings. I, especially, value my life. However, I thought that to hear a rumor that one’s friends are involved in a fight and to pretend not to hear this is not to preserve the Way of the Samurai, so I ran to the place of action. To shamelessly return home after seeing my friends struck down would surely have lengthened my life, but this too would be disregarding the Way. In preserving the Way, one will throw away his own precious life. Thus, in order to preserve the Way of the Samurai and not to disregard the Samurai Ordinances, I quickly threw away my life at that place. I beg that you execute me immediately.” The official was very impressed and later dismissed the matter, communicating to Lord Matsudaira, “You have a very able samurai in your service. Please treasure him.

He's on to sashimi now, fanning and curling slices of snapper and fugu into white roses on his cutting board. Before Toshio can plate the slices, Shunichi reaches over and calmly replaces the serving plate his son has chosen with an Edo-era ceramic rectangle more to his liking. Three pieces of tempura- shrimp, eggplant, new onion- emerge hissing and golden from the black iron pot in the corner, and Toshio arranges them on small plates with wedges of Japanese lime. Before the tempura goes out, Shunichi sneaks in a few extra granules of salt while Toshio's not looking. By now Dad is shadowing his son's every move. As Toshio waves a thin plank of sea cucumber eggs over the charcoal fire, his dad leans gently over his shoulder. "Be careful. You don't want to cook it. You just want to release its aroma." Toshio places a fried silverfish spine on a craggy ceramic plate, tucks grated yuzu and sansho flowers into its ribs, then lays a sliver of the dried eggs over the top. The bones shatter like a potato chip, and the sea cucumber detonates in my mouth.

By the end ot the 18th century it had a population of around 1 million, making it the biggest city (Edo) in the world at the time.

The custom was originally limited to the elite of the Imperial Court, but soon spread to samurai society and, by the Edo period, to the common people as well. Traditionally, poems would be written praising the delicate flowers, which were seen as a metaphor for life itself, luminous and beautiful yet fleeting and ephemeral.

The Morioka region of northern Japan is famous for its horses and this festival was originally conceived by horse breeders who wished to pray for long and happy lives for their animals. It now features a parade of colourfully dressed horses ridden by local children with round 80–100 horses usually taking part dressed in konida costumes (worn by the horses of daimyo – feudal lords – in the Edo Period). The name of the festival comes from the noise made by the bells (chagu chagu) on the horses’ harnesses (umakko) and the event is designated as a national intangible folklore cultural asset. At the end of the parade, prayers are offered for a bountiful rice harvest and thanks are given to the horses.

Une coutume remontant au moins à l'époque de Heian consistait pour les femmes à se tindre les dents en noir. A l'origine, elle concernait la plupart des nobles et beaucoup de guerriers. Pendant la guerre de Genpei, les combattants se reconnaissaient ainsi, les uns (Minamoto) gardaient leurs dents blanches, tandis que les autres (Taira) suivaient la coutume des gens de la cour et se les teignaient en noir. Par la suite, la pratique fut suivie seulement par les femmes de toutes les classes sociales. A l'époque Edo, elle signalait que celle-ci avaient atteint la maturité. Ensuite, elle finit par indiquer le statut de femme mariée.

U ratu su stvarno dobri ljudi postajali još bolji, a zli još gori. Sve se postepeno pretvaralo u svoju karikaturu.

On the evening my mother-in-law died, the noise of a chance sudden downpour resounded in the walkway and through the garden, roaring as though everything around us were being hammered by a fall of pebbles. That was why I was unable to catch what she said in the last moments before her eyes closed.