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The Burmese Harp
, also known as ''Harp of Burma'', is a children's novel by Michio Takeyama. It was first published in 1946 and was the basis of two films by Kon Ichikawa – one released in 1956 and a color remake in 1985. Both films were major successes. A translation of the novel into English by Howard Hibbett was published in 1966 by Charles E. Tuttle Company in cooperation with UNESCO (). Plot Takeyama wrote the story wanting to give young readers hope after defeat in WWII by emphasizing the traditional Buddhist ideal of altruism, embodied in a soldier hero, Mizushima. Captured by the British led Indian forces, following the Surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ... in July 1945, Mizushima is a harp-playing Japanese P.O.W. who volunteers to persuade a resist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michio Takeyama
was a Japanese writer, literary critic and scholar of German literature, active in Shōwa period Japan. Early life Takeyama was born in Osaka, but moved frequently as his father, a bank employee, was often transferred. From 1907-1913, he lived in Gyeongseong (modern Seoul), Korea, then under Japanese rule. After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University's Department of German Literature, he was sent by Ministry of Education to Europe, where he studied for three years in Paris and Berlin. Literary career On returning home in 1932, Takeyama taught German language as a professor at First Higher School, and also translated works of German literature into Japanese. Among the works he translated were Goethe's ''An Anthology'', Nietzsche's ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' and ''Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography'' by Albert Schweitzer. However, despite his close connections with Germany, he was very leery of the Tripartite Alliance between Japan, Nazi Germany and Fascist Ital ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Children's Novel
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's literature can be traced to traditional stories like fairy tales, that have only been identified as children's literature in the eighteenth century, and songs, part of a wider oral tradition, that adults shared with children before publishing existed. The development of early children's literature, before printing was invented, is difficult to trace. Even after printing became widespread, many classic "children's" tales were originally created for adults and later adapted for a younger audience. Since the fifteenth century much literature has been aimed specifically at children, often with a moral or religious message. Children's literature has been shaped by religious sources, like Puritan traditions, or by more philosophical and scientifi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kon Ichikawa
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His work displays a vast range in genre and style, from the anti-war films '' The Burmese Harp'' (1956) and '' Fires on the Plain'' (1959), to the documentary ''Tokyo Olympiad'' (1965), which won two BAFTA Film Awards, and the 19th-century revenge drama ''An Actor's Revenge'' (1963). His film ''Odd Obsession'' (1959) won the Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival. Early life and career Ichikawa was born in Ise, Mie Prefecture as Giichi Ichikawa (市川儀一). His father died when he was four years old, and the family kimono shop went bankrupt, so he went to live with his sister. He was given the name "Kon" by an uncle who thought the characters in the kanji 崑 signified good luck, because the two halves of the Chinese character look the same when it is split in half vertically. As a child he loved drawing and his ambition was to become an artist. He also loved films and was a fan of "chambara" or samurai films. In his teens ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Hibbett
Howard Hibbett (July 27, 1920 – March 13, 2019) was a translator and professor of Japanese literature at Harvard University. He held the Victor S. Thomas Professorship in Japanese Literature. Early life Hibbett was born in Akron, Ohio, on July 27, 1920. He began his studies of Japanese language and literature as a sophomore at Harvard College in 1942 before working as a language specialist for the U.S. Army in 1942-46. After graduating from Harvard College in 1947, he went on to receive his Ph.D., also from Harvard, in 1950. He taught at UCLA before returning to Harvard as a professor in 1958. He was Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies from 1985 through 1988. ''Seven Japanese Tales'', published in 1963, helped introduce the English-speaking world to Jun'ichirō Tanizaki and Japanese literature. His publications include studies and translations of Edo literature and modern Japanese literature. He is particularly known for his translations of Ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles E
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "free man". The Old English descendant of this word was '' Ċearl'' or ''Ċeorl'', as the name of King Cearl of Mercia, that disappeared after the Norman conquest of England. The name was notably borne by Charlemagne (Charles the Great), and was at the time Latinized as ''Karolus'' (as in ''Vita Karoli Magni''), later also as '' Carolus''. Some Germanic languages, for example Dutch and German, have retained the word in two separate senses. In the particular case of Dutch, ''Karel'' refers to the given name, whereas the noun ''kerel'' means "a bloke, fellow, man". Etymology The name's etymology is a Common Germanic noun ''*karilaz'' meaning "free man", which survives in English as churl (< Old English ''ċeorl''), which developed its depr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It has 193 member states and 12 associate members, as well as partners in the non-governmental, intergovernmental and private sector. Headquartered at the World Heritage Centre in Paris, France, UNESCO has 53 regional field offices and 199 national commissions that facilitate its global mandate. UNESCO was founded in 1945 as the successor to the League of Nations's International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation.English summary). Its constitution establishes the agency's goals, governing structure, and operating framework. UNESCO's founding mission, which was shaped by the Second World War, is to advance peace, sustainable development and human rights by facilitating collaboration and dialogue among nations. It pursues this objective t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which could also have their own armies. As quoted in the Imperial Gazetteer of India, "The British Government has undertaken to protect the dominions of the Native princes from invasion and even from rebellion within: its army is organized for the defence not merely of British India, but of all possessions under the suzerainty of the King-Emperor." The Indian Army was an important part of the British Empire's forces, both in India and abroad, particularly during the First World War and the Second World War. The term ''Indian Army'' appears to have been first used informally, as a collective description of the Presidency armies, which collectively comprised the Bengal Army, the Madras Army and the Bombay Army, of the Presidencies of British India ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surrender Of Japan
The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) had become incapable of conducting major operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent. Together with the United Kingdom and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on 26 July 1945—the alternative being "prompt and utter destruction". While publicly stating their intent to fight on to the bitter end, Japan's leaders (the Supreme Council for the Direction of the War, also known as the "Big Six") were privately making entreaties to the publicly neutral Soviet Union to mediate peace on terms more favorable to the Japanese. While maintaining a sufficient level of diplomatic engagement with the Japanese to give them the impression they might be wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saung
The ''saung'' ( Burmese: စောင်း, MLCTS caung: ; also known as the ''saung-gauk'' ( စောင်းကောက်), Burmese harp, Burma harp, or Myanmar harp), is an arched harp used in traditional Burmese music. The saung is regarded as a national musical instrument of Burma. The saung is unique in that it is a very ancient harp tradition and is said to be the only surviving harp in Asia. Etymology and terminology ''Saung'' ( စောင်း) is the Burmese word for "harp," and is etymologically derived from the Persian word chang, which is the Persian arched harp. The Burmese arched harp is more precisely called ''saung gauk'' (, ; ), while another indigenous lute is called ' () or ''saungbya'' (; ). The Burmese word ''saung'' has been borrowed into several regional languages, including mnw, စံၚ် (), and Chinese (), likely from Burmese ''saunggaukgyi'' (). Description The Burmese harp is classified as an arched horizontal harp since the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Burmese Harp (1956 Film)
is a 1956 Japanese drama film directed by Kon Ichikawa. Based on a children's novel of the same name written by Michio Takeyama, it tells the story of Japanese soldiers who fought in the Burma Campaign during World War II. A member of the group goes missing after the war, and the soldiers hope to uncover whether their friend survived, and if he is the same person as a Buddhist monk they see playing a harp. The film was among the first to show the losses of the war from a Japanese soldier's perspective. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 1956. In 1985, Ichikawa remade ''The Burmese Harp'' in color with a new cast, and the remake was a major box office success, becoming the number one Japanese film on the domestic market in 1985 and the second largest Japanese box office hit up to that time. Plot Private Mizushima, a Japanese soldier, becomes the harp (or ''saung'') player of Captain Inouye's group, composed of soldiers who fight a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Burmese Harp (1985 Film)
, also known as ''Harp of Burma'', is a 1985 Japanese film directed by Kon Ichikawa. The film is a color remake of the 1956 black-and-white '' The Burmese Harp'', which was also directed by Ichikawa. Cast * Kiichi Nakai * Kōji Ishizaka * Nenji Kobayashi * Jun Hamamura was a Japanese actor. He appeared in more than 130 films between 1938 and 1995. Selected filmography * ''Wolf'' (1955) * '' The Burmese Harp'' (1956) * '' The Hole'' (1957) * ''The Temptress and the Monk'' (1958) * ''Enjō'' (1958) * ''Odd Obs ... * Atsushi Watanabe Reception ''The Burmese Harp'' was the number one Japanese film on the domestic market in 1985, earning ¥2.95 billion in distribution income. With an audience of 3.87 million people, it was then the second largest Japanese box office hit.Philip A. Seaton, ''Japan's Contested War Memories: The 'Memory Rifts' in Historical Consciousness of World War II'', London and New York: Routledge, 2007, p. 141. The film grossed a total of or in Japan. R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese Novels Adapted Into Films
Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspora, Japanese emigrants and their descendants around the world * Japanese citizens, nationals of Japan under Japanese nationality law ** Foreign-born Japanese, naturalized citizens of Japan * Japanese writing system, consisting of kanji and kana * Japanese cuisine, the food and food culture of Japan See also * List of Japanese people * * Japonica (other) * Japonicum * Japonicus * Japanese studies Japanese studies (Japanese: ) or Japan studies (sometimes Japanology in Europe), is a sub-field of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on Japan. It incorporates fields such as the study of Japanese ... {{disambiguation Language and nationality disambiguation pages ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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