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Don Philippi
Donald L. Philippi (October 2, 1930 – January 26, 1993) was a noted translator of Japanese language, Japanese and Ainu language, Ainu, and a musician. Born in Los Angeles, Philippi studied at the University of Southern California before going to Japan in 1957 on a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Kokugakuin University. In Japan he became an expert in both classical Japanese and Ainu. Philippi is known for his translation of the ''Kojiki'' and the ancient Shinto prayers known as ''norito''. He also published a book of translations of Ainu epic poems (''yukar''), ''Songs of Gods, Songs of Humans: The Epic Tradition of the Ainu'', and a book of translations of ancient Japanese poems, ''This Wine of Peace, This Wine of Laughter: A Complete Anthology of Japan's Earliest Songs''. Philippi was also a noted technical translator. Under the pseudonym Slava Ranko, Philippi edited and published ''Maratto'', a little magazine focused on Ainu literature and culture. The first issue was pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese Language
is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as the Ainu, Austroasiatic, Koreanic, and the now-discredited Altaic, but none of these proposals has gained widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), there was a massive influx of Sino-Japanese vocabulary into the language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese. Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords. The basis of the standard dialect moved f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ainu Language
Ainu (, ), or more precisely Hokkaido Ainu, is a language spoken by a few elderly members of the Ainu people on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is a member of the Ainu language family, itself considered a language family isolate with no academic consensus of origin. It is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Until the 20th century, the Ainu languages – Hokkaido Ainu and the now-extinct Kuril Ainu and Sakhalin Ainu – were spoken throughout Hokkaido, the southern half of the island of Sakhalin and by small numbers of people in the Kuril Islands. Due to the colonization policy employed by the Japanese government, the number of Hokkaido Ainu speakers decreased through the 20th century, and it is now moribund. A very few elderly people still speak the language fluently, though attempts are being made to revive it. According to P. Elmer, the Ainu languages are a contact language, having strong influences from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in California. The university is composed of one Liberal arts education, liberal arts school, the University of Southern California academics, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and 22 Undergraduate education, undergraduate, Graduate school, graduate, and professional schools, enrolling roughly 21,000 undergraduate and 28,500 Postgraduate education, post-graduate students from all 50 U.S. states and more than 115 countries. It is also a member of the Association of American Universities, which it joined in 1969. USC is ranked as one of the top universities in the United States and admission to its programs is considered College admissions in the United States, highly selective. USC has graduated more alumni who have gone on to w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fulbright Scholarship
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of the United States and other countries, through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills. Via the program, competitively-selected American citizens including students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists, and artists may receive scholarships or grants to study, conduct research, teach, or exercise their talents abroad; and citizens of other countries may qualify to do the same in the United States. The program was founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946 and is considered to be one of the most widely recognized and prestigious scholarships in the world. The program provides approximately 8,000 grants annually – roughly 1,600 to U.S. students, 1,200 to U.S. scholars, 4,000 to foreign students, 900 to fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kokugakuin University
Kokugakuin University (國學院大學; ''Kokugakuin Daigaku'', abbreviated as 國學大 ''Kokugakudai'' or 國大 ''Kokudai'') is a private university, whose main office is in Tokyo's Shibuya district. The academic programs and research include Shinto study, Japanese history, Japanese and Chinese literature and Community development, as well as the study of economics, jurisprudence and pedagogy . It was established in 1882. History From its beginnings as the Office of Japanese Classics Research (an organization created in 1882 to seek deeper meaning in Shinto after controversies over certain deities), Kokugakuin University was one of the first universities in Japan to gain legal approval to be recognized as such under the university system (which preceded the Imperial university system, but was repealed in 1947). The Office of Japanese Classics Research, founded in 1882, in 1890 established a method of teaching the subject of ''kokugaku'' called Kokugakuin. In 1920, it rose ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Japanese
The classical Japanese language ( ''bungo'', "literary language"), also called "old writing" ( ''kobun''), sometimes simply called "Medieval Japanese" is the literary form of the Japanese language that was the standard until the early Shōwa period (1926–1989). It is based on Early Middle Japanese, the language as spoken during the Heian period (794–1185), but exhibits some later influences. Its use started to decline during the late Meiji period (1868–1912) when novelists started writing their works in the spoken form. Eventually, the spoken style came into widespread use, including in major newspapers, but many official documents were still written in the old style. After the end of World War II, most documents switched to the spoken style, although the classical style continues to be used in traditional genres, such as haiku and waka. Old laws are also left in the classical style unless fully revised. History Classical Japanese began to be written during the Heian pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kojiki
The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperial line. It is claimed in its preface to have been composed by Ō no Yasumaro at the request of Empress Genmei in the early 8th century (711–712), and thus is usually considered to be the oldest extant literary work in Japan. The myths contained in the as well as the are part of the inspiration behind many practices. Later, they were incorporated into Shinto practices such as the purification ritual. Composition It is believed that the compilation of various genealogical and anecdotal histories of the imperial (Yamato) court and prominent clans began during the reigns of Emperors Keitai and Kinmei in the 6th century, with the first concerted effort at historical compilation of which we have record being the one made in 620 under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norito
are liturgical texts or ritual incantations in Shinto, usually addressed to a given ''kami''. History The first written documentation of ''norito'' dates to 712 CE in the ''Kojiki'' and 720 CE in the '' Nihongi''. The Engishiki, a compilation of laws and minute regulation presented by the court compiled in 927 CE, preserves twenty-seven representative forms of ''norito''. Etymology There is no single universally accepted theory to explain the meaning of the term.Philippi (1990). p. 2. One theory derives ''norito'' from ''noru'' ( 宣る, 'to declare'; cf. the verbs '' inoru'' 'to pray' and '' norou'' 'to curse') - combined with the suffix ''-to''. A variant term, ''notto'', is derived from a combination of ''norito'' with ''koto'', 'word'. There are various known ways of writing the word in kanji: aside from 祝詞 (currently the standard), 詔戸言, 詔刀言, and 諄辞 are also attested. One recent writer summed up the original meaning of ''norito'' as "a general term ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yukar
( ain, ユカㇻ) are Ainu sagas that form a long rich tradition of oral literature. In older periods, the epics were performed by both men and women; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, when Ainu culture was in decline, women were generally the most skillful performers. Traditional tales describe floating worlds with , or the land of the humans (as opposed to , the land of the gods), resting on the back of a fish whose movements cause earthquakes. Translation history Professor Kyōsuke Kindaichi collected and translated them into Japanese. In August 2006, the reported in its article that Japan's Agency of Cultural Affairs () would discontinue funding by fiscal year 2007 of the project to translate and transcribe the compilations of Imekanu, , which consists of 92 stories written in romaji with the tenth story lost and 49 stories left untranslated. It is said that the stoppage was because of Shigeru Kayano's death in May 2006. In 1999, a multi-national group of edu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Magazine
In the United States, a little magazine is a magazine genre consisting of "artistic work which for reasons of commercial expediency is not acceptable to the money-minded periodicals or presses", according to a 1942 study by Frederick J. Hoffman, a professor of English. While George Plimpton disagreed with the diminutive connotations of "little", the name "little magazine" is widely accepted for such magazines. A little magazine is not necessarily a literary magazine, because while the majority of such magazines are literary in nature, containing poetry and fiction, a significant proportion of such magazines are not. Some have encompassed the full range of the arts, and others have grown from zine roots. The traditional characteristics of a little magazine include a format, a two-color cover, and a semi-annual or quarterly publishing schedule. Literary magazines that do not qualify as little magazines for these reasons include ''Oxford American'' and the Lindhurst Foundation's ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shamisen
The , also known as the or (all meaning "three strings"), is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument . It is played with a plectrum called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usually but sometimes when used as a suffix, according to regular sound change (e.g. ). In Western Japanese dialects and several Edo period sources, it is both written and pronounced as . The construction of the varies in shape, depending on the genre in which it is used. The instrument used to accompany kabuki has a thin neck, facilitating the agile and virtuosic requirements of that genre. The one used to accompany puppet plays and folk songs has a longer and thicker neck instead, to match the more robust music of those genres. Construction The is a plucked stringed instrument. Its construction follows a model similar to that of a guitar or a banjo, with a neck and strings stretched across a resonating body. The neck of the is fret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biwa
The is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. The is a plucked string instrument that first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia, eventually reaching Japan sometime during the Nara period (710–794). Typically to in length, the instrument is constructed of a water drop-shaped body with a short neck, typically with four (though sometimes five) strings. In Japan, the is generally played with a instead of the fingers, and is often used to play . One of the 's most famous uses is for reciting ''The Tale of the'' , a war chronicle from the Kamakura period (1185–1333). In previous centuries, the predominant musicians would have been , who used the as musical accompaniment when reading scriptural texts. The 's Chinese predecessor was the (), which arrived in Japan in two forms; following its introduction to Japan, varieties of the quadrupled. Guilds supporting players, particularly the , helped prol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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