|
Hikyaku
were couriers in Japan who carried letters, documents, bills of exchange, and packages, using a system of relay stations under the bakufu military governments, beginning in the Kamakura period (1185–1333), gradually yielding to more modern systems beginning in 1858. Kamakura period During the Asuka period the government established a system called '' Five Home Provinces and Seven Circuits'', served by messengers known as who carried special . This system had broken down by the time of the Kamakura period. The Kamakura shogunate established a relay system (Roppara hikyaku) of horse-riders and stages that would carry messages from the Rokuhara Tandai headquarters (in the Higashiyama area of Kyoto) to Kamakura, sometimes within 72 hours. Edo period The ''hikyaku'' system reached a degree of sophistication that led to The Japanese Letter-Writing Era, beginning about 1721. There were many different types of ''hikyaku'', including: * , only available high-ranking bakufu offici ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Japanese Letter-Writing Era
The Japanese Letter-Writing Era was a key point in the later parts of Tokugawa Japan. It included writing letters that described personal emotions. These were usually written in vivid detail. Descriptions Within the letters of this period, descriptions of feelings and emotions were key. Emotions presented included: loneliness, sadness, disappointment, astonishment, joy and much more. Sometimes letters written in the period expressed thoughts on current social events. This provided much information towards many during the time. What Brought the Letter-Writing Period From about the middle of the Tokugawa period, more of the commoner's children were being taught to read and write. Japan started to change from this point of time, and fewer people were becoming illiterate. This brought higher chances of people writing things such as letters. More people were starting to travel far away from home. These were to carry out certain duties. Because of this letters became a more key so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Station Bell
Under the Japanese ritsuryō system, were bells of red copper issued by the central government or by local provincial government offices to travelling officials or messengers known as . Functioning as a proof of identity, they allowed them to procure horses and labour at post stations. These post stations were located every 30 ri (16 kilometers) each providing between five and twenty messenger horses depending on the grade of the road. Depending on the rank of the emissary, the bells were marked with a number of notches regulating the number of horses that could be requested. A prince of royal blood of first rank would receive ten horses. On urgent dispatches the ekishi would ride with the bells ringing in order to be able to change horses at any time of day or night without delay. These bells were also known as post road bells (''ekiru no suzu'') or stable bells (''umaya no suzu''). The system was established in the Taihō Code from 701 and was in use until the end of the 12th cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sunpu Castle
was a Japanese castle in Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan. The sobriquet of this feudal fortress was the "Castle of the Floating Isle".Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)Shizuoka It was also referred to as or . History During the Muromachi period, the Imagawa clan ruled Suruga Province from their base at Sunpu (modern-day Shizuoka City). It is not certain exactly when a castle was built on this site. After Imagawa Yoshimoto was defeated at the Battle of Okehazama in 1560, Suruga Province passed to the Takeda clan, and then to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had spent his youth in Sunpu as Yoshimoto's hostage. In 1585, Ieyasu constructed a new Sunpu Castle on the approximate site of the former fortified Imagawa residence. He took up residence at the castle in 1586, along with his favored consort, Lady Saigō, and their two sons, Hidetada and Tadayoshi.Kobayashi and Makino (1994), p.400. Lady Saigo died at Sunpu Castle in 1589. After the defeat of the later Hō ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daisuke Katō
was a Japanese actor. He appeared in over 200 films, including Akira Kurosawa's ''Seven Samurai'', ''Rashomon'', ''Yojimbo'', and ''Ikiru''. He also worked repeatedly for noted directors such as Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse and Kenji Mizoguchi. Career Born as Tokunosuke Katō to a theatrical family, his older brother was the actor Kunitarō Sawamura and his older sister the actress Sadako Sawamura. He joined the Zenshinza Theatre Company in 1933 and appeared in a number of stage and film productions under the stage name Enji Ichikawa, including Sadao Yamanaka's '' Humanity and Paper Balloons'' and Kenji Mizoguchi's '' The 47 Ronin''. After spending the war in New Guinea, he returned to Japan and signed with the Daiei Film studio, appearing now under the name Daisuke Katō. In addition to appearing in traditional jidaigeki roles, notably as one of Kurosawa's ''Seven Samurai'', Katō became a popular everyman in contemporary shōshimin-eiga movies. His transfer to Toho in 1951 wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daiei Film
Daiei Film Co. Ltd. ( Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ''Daiei Eiga Kabushiki Kaisha'') was a Japanese film studio. Founded in 1942 as Dai Nippon Film Co., Ltd., it was one of the major studios during the postwar Golden Age of Japanese cinema, producing not only artistic masterpieces, such as Akira Kurosawa's '' Rashomon'' (1950) and Kenji Mizoguchi's ''Ugetsu'' (1953), but also launching several film series, such as ''Gamera'', ''Zatoichi'' and ''Yokai Monsters'', and making the three ''Daimajin'' films (1966). It declared bankruptcy in 1971 and was acquired by Kadokawa Pictures. History Origin Daiei Film was the product of government efforts to reorganize the film industry during World War II in order to rationalize use of resources and increase control over the medium. Against a government plan to combine all the film studios into two companies, Masaichi Nagata, an executive at Shinkō Kinema, pressed hard for an alternative plan to create three studios. His efforts won out and Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chikamatsu Monzaemon
was a Japanese dramatist of jōruri, the form of puppet theater that later came to be known as bunraku, and the live-actor drama, kabuki. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' has written that he is "widely regarded as the greatest Japanese dramatist". His most famous plays deal with double-suicides of honor bound lovers. Of his puppet plays, around 70 are ''jidaimono'' (時代物) (historical romances) and 24 are ''sewamono'' (世話物) (domestic tragedies). The domestic plays are today considered the core of his artistic achievement, particularly works such as ''The Courier for Hell'' (1711) and ''The Love Suicides at Amijima'' (1721). His histories are viewed less positively, though ''The Battles of Coxinga'' (1715) remains praised. Biography Chikamatsu was born Sugimori Nobumori. to a samurai family. There is disagreement about his birthplace. The most popular theory. suggests he was born in Echizen Province, but there are other plausible locations, including Hagi, Nagato Provi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shinjū
''Shinjū'' (心中, the characters for "mind" and "centre") means "double suicide" in Japanese, as in '' Shinjū Ten no Amijima'' (''The Love Suicides at Amijima''), written by the seventeenth-century tragedian Chikamatsu Monzaemon for the ''bunraku'' puppet theatre. In common parlance ''shinjū'' is used to refer to any group suicide of people (two or more individuals) bound by love, typically lovers, parents and children, and even whole families. A double suicide without consent is called '' Muri-Shinjū'' (無理心中) and it is considered as a sort of murder–suicide. In Japanese theatre and literary tradition, double suicides are the simultaneous suicides of two lovers whose ''ninjo,'' (personal feelings) or love for one another are at odds with ''giri'', social conventions or familial obligations. Double suicides were rather common in Japan throughout history and double suicide is an important theme of the puppet theatre repertory. The tragic denouement is usually know ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Courier For Hell
''The Courier for Hell'' or ''Courier of Hell'' (''Meido no hikyaku'' 冥途の飛脚) is a love-suicide play by the Japanese writer Chikamatsu Monzaemon, written in 1711. It follows a similar storyline to some of his other love-suicide plays, including ''The Love Suicides at Sonezaki'' and ''The Love Suicides at Amijima''. ''The Courier for Hell'' was based on real events that took place in Osaka in 1710. It is one of the most celebrated of his domestic plays. Plot ''The Courier for Hell'' centers around Chubei, an adopted son of a hikyaku courier located in Osaka, who is in love with the prostitute Umegawa. He begins using customers' money to buy out her contract before another man can do so. Chubei's friend Hachiemon attempts to stop Chubei's behavior by informing her fellow prostitutes and mistress of what is going on, but it instead incites Chubei to break the seal on 300 gold pieces belonging to an important samurai, a crime punishable by death. The two escape Osaka togethe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vermilion
Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since ancient history, antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its corresponding color. It is very often synonymous with red orange, which often takes a modern form just 11% brighter (at full brightness). Etymology and orthography The word vermilion came from the Old French language, Old French word ''vermeillon'', which was derived from ''vermeil'', from the Latin ''vermiculus'', the diminutive of the Latin word ''vermis'', or worm. The name originated because it had a similar color to the natural red dye made from an insect, ''Kermes vermilio'', which was widely used in Europe. The first recorded use of "vermilion" as a color name in English language, English was in 1289. The term cinnabar was used interchangeably with vermilion until the 17th century, when vermilion became the more common name. Now the term "ci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bakumatsu
was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji government. The major ideological-political divide during this period was between the pro-imperial nationalists called and the shogunate forces, which included the elite swordsmen. Although these two groups were the most visible powers, many other factions attempted to use the chaos of to seize personal power.Hillsborough, ''page # needed'' Furthermore, there were two other main driving forces for dissent: first, growing resentment on the part of the (or outside lords), and second, growing anti-Western sentiment following the arrival of Matthew C. Perry. The first related to those lords whose predecessors had fought against Tokugawa forces at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, after which they had been permanently excluded from all powerful pos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2.7 million in the 2020 census, it is also the largest component of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, which is the second-largest metropolitan area in Japan and the 10th largest urban area in the world with more than 19 million inhabitants. Osaka was traditionally considered Japan's economic hub. By the Kofun period (300–538) it had developed into an important regional port, and in the 7th and 8th centuries, it served briefly as the imperial capital. Osaka continued to flourish during the Edo period (1603–1867) and became known as a center of Japanese culture. Following the Meiji Restoration, Osaka greatly expanded in size and underwent rapid industrialization. In 1889, Osaka was officially established as a municipality. The construc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
