Ueda Akinari Quotes

In friendship, bond not with a shallow man.

The moon glows on the river, wind rustles the pines. Long night clear evening--what are they for?

Shape I may take, converse I may, but neither god nor Buddha am I, rather an insensate being whose heart thus differs from that of man.

Without a constant livelihood, there will be no constant heart.

...wealth without pride is the way of the great sage.

Though I cannot flee from the world of corruption, I can prepare tea with water from a mountain stream and put my heart to rest.

Ueda Akinari’s Tales of Moonlight

Ueda Akinari’s Tales of Moonlight and Rain.

Liễu mùa xuân xanh mơn mởn nhưng xin đừng trồng liễu trong vườn nhà. Cũng như chớ kết giao với hạng người khinh bạc. Dương liễu xum xuê đấy nhưng không chịu nổi trận gió đầu thu, khác nào người khinh bạc dễ nhạt mối giao tình. Liễu kia còn thắm lại lúc xuân về chứ người khinh bạc một đi không hề trở lại.

The first blossoming of early modern literature came toward the end of the seventeenth century, particularly with the work of three major figures: the fiction writer Ihara Saikaku (1642–1693), the poet Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), and the dramatist Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1724).

possibly at the Kaitokudō, one of the most prominent of the new schools chartered by the government to provide “an appropriately practical Confucian education” to the children of the merchant and artisan classes.8 The curriculum would have included the Confucian canon—the Four Books (Lun yü [Analects] of Confucius, Da xue [The Great Learning], Zhong yong [The Doctrine of the Mean], and Mengzi [Mencius]) and the Five Classics (I jing [The Book of Changes], Shu jing [The Book of Documents], Shi jing [The Book of Songs], Li ji [The Book of Rites], and Chun qiu [Spring and Autumn Annals])—and Japanese classics, especially waka (thirty-one-syllable court poems), Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise, ca. 947), and The Tale of Genji.

He continued his writing and scholarship as he moved here and there in Kyoto, depending on friends for support, until his death in 1809 on the twenty-seventh day of the Sixth Month (August 8, in the Western calendar), in his seventy-sixth year. His grave is at the Buddhist temple Saifukuji, near the Nanzenji monastery.

Many novelists—including Izumi Kyōka (1873–1939), Tanizaki Jun’ichirō (1886–1965), Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892–1927), Ishikawa Jun (1899–1987), Enchi Fumiko (1905–1986), and Mishima Yukio (1925–1970)—were avid readers of the collection. Two of the tales inspired Mizoguchi Kenji’s cinematic masterpiece Ugetsu monogatari (1953; known to Western viewers as Ugetsu), which is widely regarded as “one of the greatest of all films.

Miidera, also known as Onjōji, an important Buddhist temple established in the seventh century on a hill overlooking Lake Biwa, in what is now the city of Ōtsu, just east of Kyoto, is the setting of “The Carp of My Dreams.

He who fails to control his mind becomes a demon; he who governs his mind attains to buddhahood.

Pilgrims to the Mausoleum recite the chant Namu Daishi Henjō Kongō: “I put my faith in the great teacher who brings light to all the people, Universal Adamantine Illuminator.“2

Non far crescere mai nel tuo giardino i salici che mettono germogli verdi all'arrivo della primavera.Non legarti a una persona dal cuore volubile. I salici crescono subito ma non resistono al primo soffio del vento d'autunno; le persone volubili si legano con facilità ma se ne vanno presto e se i salici rinnovano il loro colore a ogni primavera, una persona infedele non farà più ritorno.

Haljas, haljas on kevadine paju, aga oma aeda ära teda istuta. Ja seltsiliseks ära vali endale pealiskaudseid inimesi. Paju läheb küll kiiresti lopsakasse lehte, aga kas suudab ta vastu panna, kui esimene sügistuul puhub? Pealiskaudse inimesega on samuti kerge kiiresti sõbraks saada. Aga mitu korda ka jõeääre paju igal kevadel uuesti roheliseks ei läheks, kui pealiskaudne inimene kord silmapiirilt kaob, ei tule ta kunagi tagasi.

Shape I may take, converse I may, but neither god nor Buddha am I, rather an insensate being whose heart thus differs from that of man.” “What the—?” “A line from Ueda Akinari’s Tales of Moonlight and Rain.