Book Summary of The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
The story, The Ghost in Tokaido Inn By Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, is about a 14 year old boy boy named Seikei that lives in Japan around 1730. At the time Emperor Nakamikado was in rule and ruled from the city of Kyoto. In 1603 Ieyasu Tokugawa had defeated Japanese rivals and Tokugawa earned the right to have his descendants became Shogun, or military general. The shogun ruled from the city of Edo. Between the cities stretched the world busiest highway, the Tokaido road.
Seikei is a rich tea merchants son, but he dreams of one day becoming a great and respected samurai that fights, is noble, brave, and respected. He knows it is only a dream because it is impossible to become a samurai without being born into a samurai family. His father thinks he is silly and foolish and that he should stop being so imaginative. One day his father proposes that they travel the Tokaido road to the Shogun’s city of Edo to sell tea. He thinks his eldest son should earn how to become a great merchant, and Seikei has to accept even though he doesn't like selling tea.
They make their way on a kago, a passenger-box carried by men, along the road. They stop and rest at an inn where a great lord named Lord Hakuseki happens to be staying. A lord is a highly respected samurai,and Seikei is excited by the fact that they will be staying in the same hotel as him. The Lord requests for tea and the innkeeper tells Seikei and his dad to give the Lord some. You never say no to a samurai, so Sheki and his father go into the Lords room and offer him tea. Lord Hakuseki is rude and stupid and Sheik's idea of great samurai is forever changed. They go to bed, but Sheike can not fall asleep be...
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...ad banned the foreign religion, and executed all the Japanese who followed it”. I learned from the book that Christianity was brought to Japan from Europe in 1542. The religion took over western Japan, and once they had a strong hold they decided to go to the capitol. When they arrived, the Emperor Toyotomi Hideyoshi was not pleased. He banned Christianity, and executed 26 Christians to prove his point. His main reason for banning the religion was because the government was trying to take full control of its people, and this new religion just complicated things. The emperors after Toyotomi Hideyoshi continued the law, but after about 1850 the number of Japanese Christians rose. Today there are about 2 million Japanese Christians, but that is only 1 percent of the population. Most of the Christians live in the west, where Christianity was originally founded in Japan.
In The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama, a young man is thrown from his established world, left in a new, confusing realm that holds more than meets the eye. In the midst of a violent and ferocious war between the Chinese and Japanese in mid 1937, this young man, Stephen, contracts tuberculosis, and is sent to his family’s summer house in Japan. There he meets the house’s caretaker, Matsu, a simple and reserved man who holds back all but the most necessary speech. This meeting will come to define many of Stephen’s interactions with others throughout the novel: reserved and limited. In this odd land filled with subtle secrets and unspoken uncomfortability, Stephen is prepared for a very quiet and restful period, marked with healing and growth.
In conclusion, Katsu’s tale allows one to delve deep into the day to day life of an unemployed samurai during the end of the Tokugawa era. His life can be observed to see the immense privilege the samurai status held. Not only that, he displays the values of a samurai warrior and although he does not act like an honorable samurai, he is an honorable warrior. Katsu displays the tenacity of both samurai privileges and values during the late Tokugawa shogunate. Although his life may not exemplify the ideal samurai, it does in fact allow one to observe the life of an ordinary samurai.
It was the Portuguese, rather than the Dutch, were the first Europeans to begin a
Hawaiians should have rights to their own land and not let foreigners disrupt their daily habits and life. If a foreigner takes allegiance to Hawai’i they not only have the accessibility of a citizen but also the perks that go with citizenship. Foreigners would be able to marry the women of Hawai’i while they have wives back home in their previous motherland. Foreigners that are aiding to Hawai’i can stay as aliens and be just as effective. There is no need for them to gain citizenship and take an oath of allegiance for their help. If a foreigner wants a piece a land all he needs to do is take an oath of allegiance and he is able to have a piece of land. If too many foreigners enter Hawai’i, their culture will take over. The majority will consist of the foreigners and their government will take over. Too many foreigners will cause much more damage to the native Hawaiian population. The number of full Hawaiians will decrease if foreigners continue to enter the island of Hawai’i.
The Tale of the Heike is a collection of tales that depict the livelihood of warriors during the Heian and Kamakura period. These tales illustrate that warriors during this period spent their existence dedicated to their duty to the Buddhist Law and that the growing contention arose from each warrior’s devotion and loyalty to the Buddhist Law.
The Tale of Heike." Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600. Ed. Haruo Shirane. New York: Columbia UP, 2007. 736-39. Print.
The Japanese, as in document fifteen, said that innovations had to be reported, and listed them right next to factional conspiracies, as if they were both equally bad, showing that the Japanese didn't want to advance technologically, and wanted to stick with tradition. The Europeans, as we already know, where rapidly advancing technologically, because of their fierce rivals with each other, making Japan dislike them even more. The Europeans, who were trying to spread Christianity as well as become rich, thought that the Japanese would convert quickly, as Francis Xavier wrote in document thirteen, “They see clearly that their ancestral law is false and the law of God true, but they are deterred by fear of their prince from submitting to the Christian religion.” This caused them to dislike the leaders of Japan, and when as mentioned in document sixteen, the Closed Country Edict of 1635, this caused them to hate them, because then not only were they denied a lot of trade, but also the spreading of the cul Christianity.... ...
Christianity posed as a political threat to the Shogunate; therefore they banned the Portuguese from teaching Christianity. Around the end of their relations in 1639 the Tokugawa Shogunate prohibited the Portuguese from continuing to visit Japan and decided to officially trade only with the Dutch.
Kunio Maekawa was born in 1905 in the city of Niigata, Japan (Maekawa, 1984). Maekawa’s parents were decedents of samurai origins, relatives from his mother’s side were retainers of the Tsugaru clan of Hirosaki (Maekawa, 1984). His father’s side of the family were retainers of the powerful Ii clan of Omi (Maekawa, 1984). In the beginning of the Meiji Restoration the samurai families had their earnings taken away and their...
Japan has been a home for Shinto and Buddhist religions for centuries. The Christian missionaries during the 16th, 19th and 20th centuries worked hard to evangelize the Japanese nation but could not get desired success. There efforts in past failed partly due to sanctions imposed by the local rulers. The Jesuits missionaries traveled with Spanish and Portuguese traders to many areas of America and Asia-Pacific and established their churches and religious missions. They were funded, sponsored and trained by their respective governments in order to spread Christianity. At several places they preached the Christian faith by force but the aboriginal population did not accept it wholeheartedly. Initially the Jesuits targeted the elite class of the country and a large number was converted. The rulers also forced their subject to embrace the same faith. About 300,000 Japanese were converted in the first phase. Later on, Christianity was prohibited as the rulers started seeing them as a threat to their authority. Following a change of regime, the ban was lifted and missionaries were again allowed to enter Japan. Like many Native American tribes, the Japanese also resisted the new religion. As a result, presently Christians form only 1% of the total population in Japan. This paper is focused on how the Christian religion was introduced in Japan, the evolution of evangelism, establishment of churches, the restrictions and hurdles faced by the missionaries and priest of the new religion and the response of Japanese nation towards an alien faith. All these queries are answered in detail given as follows.
Fourteenth century Japan was a time of peace for many people. Buddhism had just become a major part of Japanese culture due to the Shogun Yoshimitsu. He became ruler in 1367 at the sapling age of ten (Waley 21). Yoshimitsu needed to distinguish himself from his ancestors and he did this by being devoted to Buddhism, specifically the Zen Sect (21). “Zen Buddhism and the life and teaching of Shinran are popularly identified as typical Japanese Buddhism.” (Takeda 27) However Buddhism, in Japan, is different and unique from Buddhism in other countries because it is considered the “funeral religion” (27). This is mainly influenced by ancient Japanese beliefs of the onryo.
Alistar Macleod’s “No Great Mischief” is a novel full of constant recollections of the Clann Calum Ruadh’s past and genealogy and relating it to the history of Canada; everything that happened in the family’s past effected the life they live currently. This is evident in the characters Alexander McDonald, his brother Calum, the different groups of people and all the connections they have with their family’s past and connections they have with the Clann Calum Ruadh. Alexander is the main character and is the one explaining the story of the past in a very short time period in the present and he connects the family lines throughout history. Calum, the older brother, was left to take care of himself and his siblings at a young age, which results in his drunkenness at the present. Included in the story, at many different time periods, are various groups of people, such as the French Canadians, the English, and the Migrant workers who make an impact on the characters of the story. The reoccurring phrase “Always look after your own blood” (14) was passed down the family line and is questioned and demonstrated by the characters.
The embarrassing defeat of China directly influenced Japan to voluntarily accept Western culture. Both Japan and China adopted bits and pieces from Western culture and adapted it to their traditional culture rather than becoming Westernized. The Boxer Rebellion is proof of China’s refusal to accept Western culture, in particular for Christianity. The slaughtering of practicing Christians, both Chinese and Western, is a very distinct rejection of Western religion.
Perhaps the Japonisme phenomenon can be acknowledged as another instance of the artistic “appropriation and reuse of the pre-existing” that David Shields defines in “I Can’t Stop Thinking Through What Other People are Thinking”. In Shields’ eyes, art is “edited, quoted and quoted again and recontextualised, replaced, collaged, stitched together anew” (744). Shields believes that appropriation should not be vilified because art is dependent on the diffusion of ideas between artists and this diffusion suggests an appreciation or admiration between artists.
Japan's political journey from its quasi-democratic government in the 1920's to its radical nationalism of the mid 1930's, the collapse of democratic institutions, and the eventual military state was not an overnight transformation. There was no coup d'etat, no march on Rome, no storming of the Bastille. Instead, it was a political journey that allowed a semi-democratic nation to transform itself into a military dictatorship. The forces that aided in this transformation were the failed promises of the Meiji Restoration that were represented in the stagnation of the Japanese economy, the perceived capitulation of the Japanese parliamentary leaders to the western powers, a compliant public, and an independent military.