Calliope articles from January 2006

Calliope archives from January 2006

Fall seven times stand up eight.(medieval Japan)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... Shoguns, emperors. samurai! Most people readily identify all three with Japan. But ask the questions, "Who's who?" and "Who does what?" and there's hesitation. Interested in the "real truth"? Then, let CALLIOPE take you to medieval Japan...

Forward to victory.(japanese history)
January 1, 2006... When Minamoto Yoritomo received Prince Mochihito's call for help, he saw the request as an opportunity for revenge. The year was 1180 and more than 20 years had passed since Yoritomo's father had attempted to wrest control of the government...

The Kamakura shogunate.
January 1, 2006... The regime that Minamoto Yoritomo established--the Kamakura shogunate (or Kamakura bakufu)--was a judicial and policing authority. Both part of and distinct from the imperial court in Kyoto, it acted as a police agency for the court. It also...

Who's who in Japanese society?(Japanese history, 1185-1333 (Kamakura period))(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... The court in Kyoto served as the center of Kamakura society. The emperors resided in the capital, and, more often than not, the oldest emperor wielded the most authority. The members of the Fujiwara lineage provided spouses for the emperors....

Kamakura women.
January 1, 2006... Thirteenth-century Japan granted its female warriors many legal protections. A comparison of Kamakura's 1232 Joei code of law with England's Magna Carta of 1215 reveals that the legal rights of women were stronger in Japan than in Europe at...

The tale of the Heike.(portraying military history of Japan)
January 1, 2006... The Tale of the Heike is Japan's most famous war story. Composed during the 14th century, it is an account of the Genpei War (see pages 4-5), focusing on the fall of the Taira family. Although the conflict actually had many causes, the Tale of...

Little more than an autumn breeze.(mangolains invasion into Japan)
January 1, 2006... Exactly why the Mongol ruler Kubilai Khan invaded Japan may never be known. Perhaps it was the desire for world conquest that led to Kubilai Khan's campaign. A similar desire had propelled Mongol armies since the time of his grandfather Ghengis...

Buddhism and medieval Japan.
January 1, 2006... Buddhism was a fundamental element in the culture of medieval Japan. It shaped the ideas and institutions of the political authority and the structure of the social order. It also shaped the categories of class and gender; the visual, literary,...

Word origins.(japanese words)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... KIMONO Today, the word "kimono" refers to a loose dressing gown usually worn by women. Traditionally, a kimono is a robe with wide sleeves and a sash that is part of the traditional costume of Japanese men and women. The word is Japanese and...

Word stories.(japanese words)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... Also known as just rickshaw, a jinrickshaw was commonly used in 19th-century Japan and other countries in East Asia as a means of transportation. The word is actually a combination of three Japanese words--jin ("man"), riki ("power"), and sha...

Japanese food terms.(FUN WITH WORDS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... Like food? Did you know the following popular foods trace their roots to Japanese? Sake A Japanese alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice and usually warmed before serving. Etymologists (people who study words) think that the word...

Did you know?(japanese immigrants history)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... The Japanese used the following three words to refer to the first three generations of Japanese in the United States: Issei ("first generation") refers to a Japanese person who immigrated to the United States, largely in the years from 1885...

Go-Daigo.(japanese emperor)(Biography)
January 1, 2006... Known as a person who rarely took no for an answer, Go-Daigo (1288-1339) was an outsider in the imperial family and resented the Kamakura bakufu. He rebelled against the social and political conventions of his father's generation--and lost--but...

The rise of the Ashikaga.(Ashikaga Takauji)
January 1, 2006... Ashikaga Takauji, the founder of the Ashikaga bakufu, portrayed himself as a figure of destiny. He consciously modeled himself after Minamoto Yoritomo, going so far as to sign his documents with the same distinctive steel blue ink as had the...

What's a corvus?(naval vessels)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... During the wars against the Carthaginians from North Africa (third century B.C.), Roman shipbuilders devised a special boarding plank that had a large iron spike at one end. They nicknamed it "the raven" (corvus) because of its shape. The...

Who was the Maya god of the underworld?(ASK CALLiOPe)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... The Jaguar God. As the god not only of the underworld, but also of night, caves, hunting, and war, he was very powerful. Beautiful and dangerous creatures, jaguars inhabited the jungles where the Maya lived in Central America, and they were...

What are chansons de geste?(ASK CALLiOPe)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... Chansons de geste, French for "songs of valorous deeds," were the action movies of the Middle Ages. Exciting entertainment, they told of conflicts between superheroes and supervillains. Professional storytellers called jongleurs performed these...

Kinkakuji: the Temple of the Golden Pavilion: "there is nothing on earth as beautiful as the Golden Pavilion.".
January 1, 2006... Gazing on its gleaming golden walls reflected in the surrounding pond, one may be inclined to agree with the speaker of those lines in The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, a modern novel written by Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) more than 500 years...

Medieval Japanese gardens.(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... Japanese gardens are among the greatest achievements of humankind. They demonstrate the strong kinship with the natural environment that is part of traditional Japanese culture. References to ancient gardens appear in Japan's earliest surviving...

The no theater.(japanese drama)
January 1, 2006... Among the important new art forms emerging during Yoshimitsu's lifetime was the no drama, one of Japan's most enduring theatrical forms. No is considered to be "nonrealistic" in comparison to modern drama, since the main character is often a...

Tomoe: a no play.(japanese drama)
January 1, 2006... Most no plays follow a fairly standard pattern. There are two principal characters, the shite, or "main character," and the waki, or "side character." The shite is often the ghost of a famous hero or heroine from history or literature, while...

Make a no mask.(ACTIVITY)
January 1, 2006... In medieval Japan, gifted craftsmen created amazing masks for actors to wear in spectacular plays. Now you can make a simple version of these marvelous Japanese masks. YOU NEED * piece of cardboard, about 9" x 12" * modeling clay...

Off the shelf.(Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan)(Edo, the City That Became Tokyo)(Sword of the Samurai: Adventure Stories From Japan)(The Tale of the Heike)(Warrior Ghost Plays from the Japanese No Theater)(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2006... Handbook to life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan by William E. Deal (Facts On File, 2005, www.factsonfile.com) introduces readers to Japan culturally, socially, politically, and historically, beginning with the Kamukara period in 1185 and...

On the net.(japanese history)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... Here's a site that includes links to various topics related to medieval Japan: www.wsu.edu:8000/~dee/FEUJAPAN/CONTENTS.HTM For a great site on Japanese gardens, with links to individual gardens as well as to great related sites, go to:...

Renga: linked verse.(haiku poetry)
January 1, 2006... furuike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto An ancient pond: a frog jumps in the sound of water. The verse on page 45 by the great 17th-century poet Matsuo Basho is probably the most famous example of a haiku, a poem in three parts, of...

Compose your own linked verse.(renga)
January 1, 2006... Each renga must be able to stand on its own as a complete statement. It must also obey certain rules. If the previous verse is about spring, the next one has to be, too, until three spring verses have been composed. You can then change to...