HI, ladies!!
I had had something wrong with my PC for these past few days, and I couldn’t get access to this Blog and other homepages at all. No matter how many times I tried it, an error message appeared on the screen. I felt entirely lost and left it alone. But fortunately, when I tried again last night, my PC had recovered naturally. I don’t know why, but it’s really a troublesome PC, and I fear this problem may occur again…I also hope Gloriosa can get through her trouble with PC.
Last night the Beijing Olympics finally ended with a big light pageant. While some splendid performances attracted me during the games, I sometimes became puzzled about our flag and a national anthem. There is no doubt that they are the symbol of dark side of our history, and I wonder how Chinese people accepted them in their homeland.
Since I learned about some treacherous women of Imperial Japan, I was able to know a lot of sad accidents of them, whose stories strongly surprised me. I also realized that I have no idea about the emperor system of our country. It had been an inviolable sacred subject to us for a long time, so, though it's actually important to know its role for a full understanding of the modern Japan, I feel the difficulties of investigating the matter deeply. Perhaps they are closely connecting with the history of Christianity in Japan.
So, see you next time. Good bye, dear friends…!
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Dear Cherry and friends,
It is August 25th. I went to nashi picking in Matukawa, near Iida in Nagano Prefecture. In April I made a contract with a nashi grower to buy as much as 10 kilograms. They are more jucy and sweeter than I expected.
There is nothing more troublesome than a PC trouble. I have to have it repaied again. I hope some good remedies can be found in Glorisa's and Cherry's, too.
I have once heard a friend said she was an antheist. I feel unstable and puzzled. She pays a visit to the shrines and temples. I've read that when a foreign people ( Westerners) hear a Japanese say that he or she doesn't have any religion without any specail intention,the foreign people have a feeling of somewhat wrongness. So the best way to explain one's religious belief is "I don't believe in God, but we value religious mind high."
Have you ever been asked if you believe in God.
Good night, my precious leaders
Hi, everyone.
Peach, Did you harvest pears as much as 10 kg today? or some kg out of 10 kg? For me, it sounds early to gather them. A pear reminds me of September or October.
It is very important to know the face of a producer not only for consumers but also producers. It creates gratitude and responsiblity to both of them. You have a good experience in your life. In my opinion,to grow fruits needs many process, careful works and lot of competitors such as birds, insects, disease and strong wind and temperature etc.. How patient farmers are!
Hi, everybody!
I enjoyed the comment about “worshipping” of Alice. “Ambiguity” and “obscurity” are parts of Japanese culture. We tend to accept vague ideas in accordance with following the ideology of harmony. Cherry said that researching imperial history is difficult, because there are many taboo and there are a few people, not so many, who respect Royal family as the sacred. I read a documentary about Empress Teimei who was a wife of Emperor Taisho. It was serialized in the monthly magazine indetail. The story finished last December. It was very impressive story for me, because she was so nice to the poor and the handicapped and she gave a special support to institutions for lepers. That’s why Riddell and Wright were awarded because of their philanthropic activities. I knew that she did a lot of welfare activities. But it was a kind of special kindness from the divine. Her acts were made use of by Imperial government in order to promote worshipping toward Emperor and his family. I am sorry for throwing away the magazines. But I expect it will be published soon as a book.
Dear Cherry and friends,
Hello. How are you?
I appreciate Plum's valuable advice for my further study. I agree with you. Learning is fun!
I pasted your today's comment to a new document and named it “Advice from Plum.”
Cherry and Gloriosa, I'm sorry about your blogger problems. I suspect blogger is malfunctioning. I use Windows and 3 different browsers: Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla Firefox, and Netscape. Netscape doesn't work well with blogger or google. Internet Explorer 7 has some problems on my PC. I like Mozilla Firefox the best. I haven't had any problems with blogger or google so far. However, your blog looks prettiest on Internet Explorer 7.
I checked the Internet and saw some people complain about blogger. Apparently, they have similar problems with you.
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Since I got a question from Azalea, I have been thinking about Christian mission for the Japanese. Your question was whether it was politics or religion. My answer is this. It must have been political, but missionaries' motive was always religious. It is obvious that missionaries were not able to ignore the policies of the Japanese government. Let me explain why. I'm going to refer to the books I've read and I'm reading now.
I'm reading Japan and The Japan Mission of The Church Missionary Society. It was edited by the Society's Editorial Department and was published in 1898. It begins with Japanese geographical and historical overview. It shows that the Society had ample knowledge of Japanese major religions: Buddhism and Shintoism. Such knowledge was crucial to understand how Christianity had not accepted by the government for about 300 years although Christian missionaries reached Japan in the 16th century. From the protestants' point of view, Catholicism was accepted readily by Buddhist Japanese because whatever they used for the Catholic rituals could be substituted for Buddhist rituals.
Jesus was substituted for Buddha. Maria for Kan non. They had already had rosaries and so on and so forth. This is not the only reason why they had some converts in the beginning.
Nobunaga Oda, who unified Japan in the late sixteen century, hated Buddhism very much and sent some Daimyos (nobilities) to Rome. He even allowed Jesuit missionaries to build a church. The nobilities sent to Rome forced their subjects to believe in God. It was recorded as the first Inquisition observed in Japan. If they refused they were expelled.
Both Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Ieyasu Tokugawa who came into power one after the other prohibited Christianity. They were afraid that it would become too influential. They eradicated Christians and Bibles from the land of Japan.
After the opening of Japan, Harris Townsend was appointed as consul general to Japan. As a Christian, he openly criticized the Japanese policy toward Christianity and tried to incorporate it into the treaty agreed between the US and Japan.
So much so politics influenced Christian mission work. It would have been impossible for missionaries to be irrelevant with politics.
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That's all for today.
Dear Alice,
I would like to ask you about the book Japan and The Japan Mission of The Church Missionary Society. Did you borrow the book from any library or did you buy it? If you bought it, please let me know where or perhaps how. Thank you.
Hello, everyone.
Since Obon holidays I've been very exhausted because my children visited us one after another, which was really enjoyable for me and I spontaneously entertained them with playing with my grandchildren and with cooking a lot of portions, so its fatigue was accumulated. I felt like having heavy rock on my shoulder.
Yesterday I went to get a massage all over my body and my pain in the neck was cured, but I still have a backache. As the masseur was a handsome and an intelligent guy as well, I had a very good time talking with him about reading during 40 minutes of massage.
He introducted me the books he enjoyed recently and I gave him some information of interesting books which includes Yonehara Mari's 'Usotuki Aanya no makkana shinjitu', Miyabe Miyuki's books and Uehashi Naoko's.
It was interesting to hear that when he was a junior high school boy, he used to listen to the radio broadcast from Moscow in Japanese, which riminds me of Yonehara mari's book and he was glad to know the book, so he promised me to read 'Usotuki aanya'.I hope he'll like it.
Fukuzawa Momosuke was not only a speculator, but also a talented man to run some power plants and established almost 100 companies with his friends.
He was very succesful and spend money lavishly for Kawakami Sadayakko and he didn't hide the fact that he loved her, which angered Yukichi, I guess.
azalea, I wonder why you rewrote the sentence 'they disdain bankers.' That's OK because banker means not only the person who works for a bank, but also means a speculator. We use 'banker and broker'. How's that?
Hello, Cherry and my sweet friends.
I don't know why but I was refused access to Cherry's blog today however desperately I tried, say numerous times to enter this site.
Now I'm happy to post my message.
After reading Miyake's essay, I thought it's ironic that feminists such as Ichikawa Fusae collaborated with war policies, playing a significant role in rallying women around the idea of serving the state.
However it is also intriguing that Ichikawa and other feminists recognized that the state's emphasis on women as the subjects of family-state ideology was the first step forward in their fight for sexual equality.
Now that the state had recognized women's maternal contribution as comparable to soldier's contributions, women willingly demonstrated their capabilities.
Summary
***
The family ideology was shifted from a father-centered ideology to a mother –centered one.
This shift had become a driving force for feminists to collaborate with war policies.
In other words women were being given an officially acknowledged role outside the home. In the end the state was asking for women’s cooperation.
It was not difficult for the state to seduce feminists partly because they have not organized against the imperial system.
Mori Yasuko was an academic and pursued the goal of gender equality but mistook the state’s commitment to motherhood and also misinterpreted Japan’s war of aggression as a sacred war.
Although Mori Yasuko succumbed to the state’s instrumental use of women like other feminists, her argument was relatively progressive regarding woman’s status, in the sense that roles of women and men in the family are equally important.
The reason is that the Mori’s image of the benevolent mother was not an exact replica of the mid-Meiji ideal. In the Meiji version of family-sate ideology, the morality of the father was superior in value to the mother’s benevolence, but in the Showa version of Mori’s view, the virtues of benevolence were equally important.
Mori redefined the female role, supporting the status quo of the family system. She supported the male-centered, authoritarian state rather than challenging the male-centered family system.
Mori and other feminists joined the chorus glorifying the image of motherhood that the state had created. Showa mothers were regarded as the mother of the nation.
By the way, I need your help.
I'd like to introduce this wonderful blog to one of my friends, Reiko san who is interested in our activities.
Could you tell me the way to
access to this blog for the first-time visitor?
Thank you!
August 26, 2008 2:52 PM
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