Askaen Inc.

Hōryūji Temple

http://www.horyuji.or.jp/en/garan/yumedono/

Quotation: “...originally a repository built to store artifacts related to Shotoku Taishi...The word shari refers to the bones left after the cremation of the Buddha’s body. According to legend, the shari contained in the Hall of Relics sprang from the hands of Shotoku Taishi, who was only two years old at the time, as he brought his hands together in prayer.”

What I found interesting while reading this is the underlying presence of Buddhism and how it was so dominant in Japan way before the early modern era of Japan due to Shotoku Taishi. This would explain the complex culture Japan has, with religion being so embedded within the country’s structures and thinking. The quote also introduced the legend of shari, Buddha’s remaining bones. This was personally quite interesting as I have known the word shari as the vinegar rice used in sushi, and after researching, apparently the Japanese started calling rice shari as the bone pieces resembled rice grains.

E-Museum: National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

11th century

Tokyo National Museum

https://emuseum.nich.go.jp/detail?&langId=en&webView=null&content_base_id=100167&content_part_id=0

Quotation: “The poems are written in either hiragana (the Japanese phonetic syllabary) or the more traditional man'yôgana, which represents words logographically and/or characters phonetically in Chinese characters.”

What I found interesting in this reading is the use of traditional man’yogana, showing how Japanese literature was intertwined with and influenced by Chinese. This explains the evolving of the Japanese language, especially with katakana, having very similar structures as Chinese characters. This also raises the question of how many people were able to read the poems back in the day, considering they were written in Chinese characters.

National Diet Library, Japan

https://www.ndl.go.jp/exhibit60/e/copy1/1ise.html

Quotation: “Particularly, classics represented by Kokin waka shu (a collection of waka poems edited more than 1,000 years ago), Ise monogatari (the Tales of Ise), and Genji monogatari (the Tale of Genji) were regarded as indispensable for waka poets who needed to be literarily sophisticated. Studies of Confucian texts were maintained by families of hereditary scholars.”

What I found interesting in this reading is how the old Japanese texts were maintained throughout time. The fact that these complicated works were being passed down through generations draws emphasis on cultural reverence for literary heritage, and also supports the common belief in Japanese literature of the importance of bringing inspiration from the past.

Music of the BIWA

https://japanesetradmusic.blogspot.com/p/biwa-music-satsumachickuzenheike.html

Quotation: “The biwa (琵琶) is a 4-string lute (sometimes with a 5th string), originally imported from India and China (as the pipa) and then incorporated into the Gagaku orchestra as the Gaku-biwa (雅楽琵琶)...Due to its origins, biwa vocal accompaniment is naturally influenced by Buddhist chant, and this style was adapted to deliver historical stories (as narrative poetry).”

I found this reading particularly interesting in relation to the historical relevance of the biwa. One of the most famous biwa stories is the legend of Miminashi Hoichi, the blind biwa player who loses his ears to a spirit. In the legend, Hoichi is telling the story of Heike in a Buddhist temple showing the connections between historical tales and the influence of Buddhism.

早稲田大学文学学術院 Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Youtube, 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07VCZYl45xI

Quotation: “Japanese books, or wahon, were heavily influenced by East Asia, particularly China. But when we look at the features of wahon in East Asia, we see that there were many different ways to make books in Japan…there are many variations in size, cover design, and colors, compared to the bookmaking in surrounding countries.”

I found this reading interesting as it highlights the influences and impact different cultures bring to the production of Japanese texts and books. One of the most impactful was the Chinese, bringing both language and culture to Japanese works, with its mixture creating new works and branching off into many different categories such as book design and use of text.