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The Cuckoo (novel)
, also called ''Nami-ko'' in English, is a Japanese novel first published by Kenjirō Tokutomi (under the pen name Rōka Tokutomi) in serialized form between 1898 and 1899. It was republished as a book in 1900 and became a bestseller. Beginning in 1904, it was also widely translated and read in the United States and Europe. The story is a tragic melodrama about the family conflict that ensues when Namiko, a young wife, contracts tuberculosis. Her husband initially resists his mother's pressure to end the marriage, but when he is drafted into the First Sino-Japanese War, his mother dissolves their marriage and Namiko dies. The novel critiques Japanese feudal values, especially the vulnerable social position of women. Synopsis The novel is an example of the Meiji period genre of '' katei shōsetsu'', or "domestic fiction". Namiko, the daughter of a general, and Takeo, a naval officer and son of a deceased baron, begin the story happily married. Their happiness is undermined by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenjirō Tokutomi
(December 8, 1868 – September 18, 1927) was a Japanese writer and philosopher. He wrote novels under the pseudonym of , and his best-known work was his 1899 novel ''The Cuckoo''. Biography Tokutomi was born on December 8, 1868 in Minamata, Japan to a samurai family. He was the younger brother of journalist and historian Tokutomi Sohō. He converted to Christianity in 1885, and moved to Imabari, Ehime, where he lived with Shiro Sokabe and was a student of Tokio Yokoi. This is also where he received the nickname "Roka". He later attended Doshisha University. He wrote for newspapers owned by his brother, Sohō, until his novel ''The Cuckoo,'' was published and became successful enough that Tokutomi could make a living as a writer on his own. It was translated 15 times between 1904 and 1918, and is one of the first Japanese works to be widely translated and distributed internationally. After meeting Leo Tolstoy, Tokutomi became inspired to move to the countryside. Their corr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yatarō Mishima
Viscount was a Japanese businessman, central banker and the 8th Governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ). Viscount Mishima was a member of Japan's House of Peers.Masaoka, Naoichi. (1914) ''Japan to America,'' p. 127./ref> Early life Mishima was born in Kagoshima Prefecture. In 1893, Mishima briefly married a daughter of Ōyama Iwao, whom he was forced to divorce when she caught tuberculosis. Their relationship was the basis for Kenjirō Tokutomi's popular 1899 novel ''The Cuckoo''. In 1894–1900 he studied at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York where he earned a M.A. degree. Career During 1911–1913, Mishima was head of the Yokohama Specie Bank was a Japanese bank founded in Yokohama, Japan in the year 1880. Its assets were transferred to The Bank of Tokyo (now MUFG Bank) in 1946. The bank played a significant role in Japanese overseas trade, especially with China. The original b .... Mishima was Governor of the Bank of Japan from February 28, 1913 to March 7, 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1898 Novels
Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island. * January 13 – Novelist Émile Zola's open letter to the President of the French Republic on the Dreyfus affair, '' J'Accuse…!'', is published on the front page of the Paris daily newspaper ''L'Aurore'', accusing the government of wrongfully imprisoning Alfred Dreyfus and of antisemitism. * February 12 – The automobile belonging to Henry Lindfield of Brighton rolls out of control down a hill in Purley, London, England, and hits a tree; thus he becomes the world's first fatality from an automobile accident on a public highway. * February 15 – Spanish–American War: The USS ''Maine'' explodes and sinks in Havana Harbor, Cuba, for reasons never fully established, killing 266 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aozora Bunko
Aozora Bunko (, literally the "Blue Sky Library", also known as the "Open Air Library") is a Japanese digital library. This online collection encompasses several thousands of works of Japanese-language fiction and non-fiction. These include out-of-copyright books or works that the authors wish to make freely available. Since its inception in 1997, ''Aozora Bunko'' has been both the compiler and publisher of an evolving online catalog.IntuteIntute web site, ''Aozora Bunko'' project description/ref> In 2006, ''Aozora Bunko'' organized to add a role as a public policy advocate to protect its current and anticipated catalog of freely accessible e-books. History and operation ''Aozora Bunko'' was created on the Internet in 1997 to provide broadly available, free access to Japanese literary works whose copyrights had expired. The driving force behind the project was Michio Tomita ( :ja:富田倫生, 1952–2013), who was motivated by the belief that people with a common interest sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reincarnation
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a similar process hypothesized by some religions, in which a soul comes back to life in the same body. In most beliefs involving reincarnation, the soul is seen as immortal and the only thing that becomes perishable is the body. Upon death, the soul becomes transmigrated into a new infant (or animal) to live again. The term transmigration means passing of soul from one body to another after death. Reincarnation (''Punarjanma'') is a central tenet of the Indian religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism; as well as certain Paganist religious groups, although there are Hindu and Buddhist groups who do not believe in reincarnation, instead believing in an afterlife. In various forms, it occurs as an esoteric belief in many s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josei Manga
, also known as and its abbreviation , is an editorial category of Japanese comics that emerged in the 1980s. In a strict sense, ''josei'' refers to manga marketed to an audience of adult women, contrasting ''shōjo'' manga, which is marketed to an audience of girls and young adult women. In practice, the distinction between ''shōjo'' and ''josei'' is often tenuous; while the two were initially divergent categories, many manga works exhibit narrative and stylistic traits associated with both ''shōjo'' and ''josei'' manga. This distinction is further complicated by a third manga editorial category, , which emerged in the late 1980s as an intermediate category between ''shōjo'' and ''josei''. ''Josei'' manga is traditionally printed in dedicated manga magazines which often specialize in a specific subgenre, typically drama, romance, or pornography. While ''josei'' dramas are in most cases realist stories about the lives of ordinary women, romance ''josei'' manga are typic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alice Stone Blackwell
Alice Stone Blackwell (September 14, 1857 – March 15, 1950) was an American feminist, suffragist, journalist, radical socialist, and human rights advocate. Early life and education Blackwell was born in East Orange, New Jersey to Henry Browne Blackwell and Lucy Stone, both of whom were suffrage leaders and helped establish the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). She was also the niece of Elizabeth Blackwell, America's first female physician. Her mother introduced Susan B. Anthony to the women's rights movement and was the first woman to earn a college degree in Massachusetts, the first to keep her own last name after getting married, and the first to speak about women's rights full-time. Blackwell was educated at the Harris Grammar School in Dorchester, the Chauncy School in Boston and Abbot Academy in Andover. She attended Boston University, where she was president of her class, and graduated in 1881, at age 24. She belonged to Phi Beta Kappa Society. Career Bla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1905 over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major theatres of military operations were located in Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria, and the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan. Russia sought a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean both for its navy and for maritime trade. Vladivostok remained ice-free and operational only during the summer; Port Arthur, a naval base in Liaodong Province leased to Russia by the Qing dynasty of China from 1897, was operational year round. Russia had pursued an expansionist policy east of the Urals, in Siberia and the Far East, since the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century. Since the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Japan had feared Russian en ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madama Butterfly
''Madama Butterfly'' (; ''Madame Butterfly'') is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It is based on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther Long, which in turn was based on stories told to Long by his sister Jennie Correll and on the semi-autobiographical 1887 French novel '' Madame Chrysanthème'' by Pierre Loti.Chadwick Jenna"The Original Story: John Luther Long and David Belasco" on columbia.edu Long's version was dramatized by David Belasco as the one-act play '' Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan'', which, after premiering in New York in 1900, moved to London, where Puccini saw it in the summer of that year. The original version of the opera, in two acts, had its premiere on 17 February 1904 at La Scala in Milan. It was poorly received, despite having such notable singers as soprano Rosina Storchio, tenor Giovanni Zenatello and baritone Giuseppe De Luca in lead roles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madame Chrysanthème (novel)
is a novel by Pierre Loti, presented as the autobiographical journal of a naval officer who was temporarily married to a Japanese woman while he was stationed in Nagasaki, Japan. It closely follows the journal he kept of his summer 1885 affair with Kiku (Chrysanthemum) née Kane a few blocks north of Glover Garden in the () neighbourhood; modern day (), whence she fled to hometown due to xenophobia. Originally written in French and published in 1887, was very successful in its day, running to 25 editions in the first five years of its publication with translations into several languages including English. It has been considered a key text in shaping western attitudes toward Japan at the turn of the 20th century. It is known in Japan under the title of (), which is a direct translation of the French name. André Messager's 1893 opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the lite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierre Loti
Pierre Loti (; pseudonym of Louis Marie-Julien Viaud ; 14 January 1850 – 10 June 1923) was a French naval officer and novelist, known for his exotic novels and short stories.This article is derived largely from the ''Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition'' (1911) article "Pierre Loti" by Edmund Gosse. Unless otherwise referenced, it is the source used throughout, with citations made for specific quotes by Gosse. Biography Born to a Protestant family, Loti's education began in his birthplace, Rochefort, Charente-Maritime. At age 17 he entered the naval school in Brest and studied at Le Borda. He gradually rose in his profession, attaining the rank of captain in 1906. In January 1910 he went on the reserve list. He was in the habit of claiming that he never read books, saying to the Académie française on the day of his introduction (7 April 1892), "''Loti ne sait pas lire''" ("Loti doesn't know how to read"), but testimony from friends proves otherwise, as does his libra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ie (Japanese Family System)
''Ie'' is a Japanese term which translates directly to household. It can mean either a physical home or refer to a family's lineage. It is popularly used as the "traditional" family structure. The physical definition of an ie consists of an estate that includes a house, rice paddies and vegetable gardens, and its own section in the local cemetery. The symbolic definition of ie has been referred to as the cultural medium for the physical processes of kinship, such as mating and procreation. The symbolic ie refers not only to blood lines, however, but also to economic and socioreligious functions that take place within the family. Family registration and status The ie is a patriarchal household and is considered to consist of grandparents, their son, his wife and their children. In a "traditional" Japanese household, the eldest son inherits the household property as well as the responsibility of taking care of his parents as they age. The eldest son is also expected to live with h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
