What Heian Means To Me

NHK World TV - old illustration of Sei Shonagon

[This post has hyperlinks. Please feel free to click away!]

As a fan of Japanese culture, I go all out, going beyond the constraints of Anime and Manga --and this makes me a Geek, for those who still can't tell the difference with the term Nerd. 

I also tend to read, when time allows me, a lot of English-translated Japanese literature. I try to gravitate towards the contemporary but keep returning to the classics. 

When others claim to have read Shakespeare, I can say I have read "The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon". I blame publisher Grove Press for this. [The parent company is Grove Atlantic. Please check them out]

Grove Press is heavily reference and history title but do not let that daunt you. Their books are amazing, you will learn so many things in such enjoyable competent writing and they are quite friendly on Twitter too! :)  

"The Story of Lady Li" a Tang Dynasty short story, from my Grove Press collection of ancient Chinese literature -- during this dynasty, short stories had grown in popularity at this time, as well as some kick-butt jade sculpturing, I might add -- and this tale inspired me to write "Su Ling", which after some rejections, became my first published short story. 

But all roads lead... As the saying goes. Chinese culture was my gateway to other Asian cultures and their medias. Japanese animation, called anime (pronounced an-nee-may) by its fans both casual, intermediate, and hardcore, soon got me researching Japanese lit. 

Let me remind you that it's because animation from Japan is so thorough and steep in its cultural background, that it maddened me to watch these cartoons and struggle to understand what the meaning of this was versus the meaning of something else. 

Fast-forward to community college, and not only did I discover someone's discarded The Pillow-Book of Sei Shonagon, but reading this Heian Dynasty diary by an actual court lady was one of the most exciting books I had ever come across. Reading historical letters, diary entries, and somebody else's thoughts from a given time period has been the one thing that has kept history alive for me. To understand that history is not just a boring class of memorization of dates, tidbits, and figures. 

There were many references to the pillow book. The more I dug into the diary, I began to search for more information. Especially when Lady Murasaki came up and I learned she was the author of The Tale of Genji, the world's first novel. Yes, that's right. A Japanese noble woman invented the novel! 

And because it was a time that even women of high status could not learn the written language that the men could, many women invented their own lettering system and used this 'female alphabet' to write down in their diaries, write to one another, and write stories, as Lady Murasaki did.

This particular blog post was a long time in the making. It also explains why it is so hyperlink-heavy. I will speak more on this in another post. Please bear with me. 

Imagine Nation (Pop culture TV show)

Imagine Nation is a show on NHK World TV's channel (a Japanese news' channel for English-speaking viewers) that deals with anime, manga, animation, video games, cartooning, and speaking to industry insiders. The show is less than half an hour and I'll talk about it in another post. Right now, I want to bring up a quote I wrote down.

"There are things I don't want others to know about me. And there are things about people close to me that I wouldn't want to have disclosed either. I feel the same way about characters. I mean, not everything has to be revealed to the readers, because it's more beautiful when some things are left unsaid. I think the readers will appreciate it more." - Reiko Shimizu (mangaka)

This is an important quote to a writer from a comic writer. I don't know how to better place this in the context of the life of writing. The best I can understand from this quote from Mangaka (Comic writer) Reiko Shimizu is that a writer, not even the creator of whatever given media can absolutely know every bit and detail about one's characters. These clues may only be revealed in the process of writing. While in the moment of writing one's story can the stranger become the friend. The unfamiliar becomes the familiar. What is the mystery can only be understood and revealed through the active process of WRITING.

To learn more about "Imagine Nation" the show:

Imagine Nation official site

Imagine Nation On Demand

Imagine-Nation on NHK-World on Facebook

When Do We Take Responsibility?

This month under "The Big Read" project that is under Florida Center for the Literary Arts or FCLA (a program that started from the umbrella of Miami Dade College's Wolfson Campus' Community Education but now its own entity), I was invited by a professor friend to travel with several English classes to the Morikami Museum in Delray Beach last week Friday.

The Big Read is a Florida-program that endorses and encourages reading and activities through FCLA to promote a particular book. 

This year's book is Julie Otsuka's (pronounced: Oat-ska) "When the Emperor Was Divine". In it, a mother, her elementary school-age children and a host of other characters are Japanese-American and in a point in U.S. history when it was dangerous to be so. During World War II, after the Japanese bombed our military base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the United States government changed the statuses of Japanese-Americans from 'Citizen' to 'Enemy Alien'.

Propaganda ensued by the North American press to demonize and villianize a segment of our population as not American and worse, not human. Thousands of Japanese-Americans were then forced from their homes, businesses and shops at the point of American military firearms. In a horrific modernization that nearly recalls Native Americans' Trail of Tears and Nazi Germany's deportation of European Jews, Americans were marched and loaded onto trains and taken to internment camps out in the Midwest.

Surrounded by barbwire (which historically was invented to keep in cattle and other livestock, never human beings) and guards, countless Japanese-Americans pined and suffered, many wondering how their country could have done this to them.

Otsuka's tale is told in a slim and minimal prose style, as I've seen in other Japanese-American and Japanese writing. The novel's language is simple, but it delivers its promise of pain, agony, suffering and loss. Told in a voice that neither judges nor preaches.

We have seen such stories before.

Star Trek's 'Mr. Sulu', played by the adorable and incorrigible George Takei, is taking his experience of this point of shame in North American history with his play "Alliance". Weisel's "Night" speaks on the horrors of the Jewish people behind the Third Reich's bloody curtain.

We have countless first-person to third-person diaries and accounts on the Trail of Tears and the heavy toll it took on this continent's indigenous peoples. 

The news speaks every day (especially if you watch the right news and foreign news and not just celebrity news) about atrocities committed towards segments of populations around the world. Either through wars, civil wars, religious battles, diseases and famine, new holocausts happen everyday.

We once dehumanized the 'other' through propaganda and rumors. Now I hear Ebola jokes... When will we humans learn from history so we won't repeat it? 

When will we learn that Dr. King's quote "Injustice somewhere is injustice everywhere"? When DO we all begin taking responsibility instead of waiting for the next person to do it?

The Author of the First Novel

I want to  take the time to give a shoutout to Lady Murasaki, a lady of the Imperial Court during the Heian Period, and who penned what many say is the World's First Novel "The Tale of Genji". This point is indeed historically significant. However, what makes the first novel crucial is the fact that Japanese women, during  this era, were barred from learning to write and read the 'high form' Nihongi(Japanese Language) that only men could read and write.
All women, even the noble-born such as Murasaki, had to develop their own script! A female-written 'language'!
Can you imagine us modern writers not only struggling to pen our works, but the necessity to develop the language for said creative works!
And we wordsmiths complain about not finding the right words!

Earlier Book Log musing

[From an earlier book log - 11/2/08]
(My fake words in italics/Real words in bold)

I just discovered something about myself. While inventing a language for my feline characters, I often discover that whatever language I chose to emulate [...], followed exact real-world syntax!

For instance, 'Mata ga!' in [my] Si'amese [cat language] followed the actual Japanese word 'mata'! Bar'wati is my made-up word for 'storyteller'. In Arabic, 'haka wati' means 'storyteller'. I did not know this!

Also, the word 'Kannashi' or 'cannot succumb' is also an actual Japanese word I had not learned previously. And the Red tabby words 'Nna hubusa' - 'I am very pleased/I feel pleased'. 'Nna' is used in the Igbo/Nigerian word 'Nna ayi' means 'our father'! How did I know? I didn't! I just created these things, and when I read, these exacts come back. Amazing.

A SIDE NOTE: 'chi' in Chinese means a person's spirit or energy.
'chi' in the Igbo language means a personal god.

Ooh!  I just found out some other things! In Dr. Achebe's famous novel "Things Fall Apart", 'Nnadi' (there's that Nna again) is also a word and so is 'osu', which means 'outcast'.
But its deeper definition is what struck me: "Having been dedicated to a god, the osu was taboo and was not allowed to mix with the freeborn in any way."

Illustrators I admire - NOT comprehensive

As my previous list of favorite illustrators (Remember, neither that list or this one is comprehensive), these are the manga-ka (comic artists ) whose work I admire IMMENSELY as well.

Again, I will try to include official sites so you can view their available artwork. As I said before, these folks have long careers and diverse bodies of work. Beside the artist's name will be the work I'm most familiar with.
ENJOY!:)
~~~~~
*Japanese names are arranged culturally: 1st surname, 2nd given name*

Adachi Mitsuru - "Short Program", "Touch" & "Jinbei", etc. He does not have an official site but there are plenty of legitimate, well-made fan sites devoted to him. I included here the Anime News Network, which is a legit, ongoing site of related anime/manga news around the world. (Mitsuru ADACHI - Anime News Network)
His artwork appears as that classic 1950s Japanese art. Don't let this put you off. He is one of the foremost, living, modern masters. He is one of the kings of the comic short story, a difficult genre.

He has also influenced other artists I admire, such as Takahashi Rumiko! (More about her on another post!)

Katsura Masakazu - "Video Girl Ai", "Shadow Lady" (Studio K2R (Masakazu Katsura Official Website) (Japanese)) His girls are drawn so realistically adorable that you swear you knew someone like her in school!

Fujishima Kosuke - "Oh, My Goddess! (Ah, Megami-sama)", "You're Under Arrest!", etc. (Kousuke FUJISHIMA - Anime News Network)

Clamp! - "X/1999", "Knights of Rayearth", "XxxHolic", "Tsubasa Reservoir" *SITE GRAPHIC INTENSIVE* (CLAMP-NET (Japanese)) (CLAMP OFFICIAL WEBSITE (English)) 4 women who started as a doujinshi (fan-made comic) circle of about 13-20. The remaining 4 now help rule Japan and the world comic fandom! Read any of their plethora of titles, interlocking series & mountains of gallery art. Understand. Be amazed. Become a devotee.

Takada Yuzo - "3x3 Eyes" (Yuzo TAKADA - Anime News Network) Don't let the cutesy artwork fool you. He tells a mean tale. Don't read his stuff at night! There. You have been warned.

Takeuchi Naoko - "Sailor Moon" (Of course!!) (Takeuchi-Naoko.com (unofficial site of Taekuchi-sensei)) She is also married to fellow manga-ka, Togashi Yoshihiro of "Yuu Yuu Hakusho"!! Great anime/manga! Woot!

Asamiya Kia - "Inspector Gadget"(!), "Silent Mobius", "Steam Detectives" (Baka-Updates Manga - ASAMIYA Kia)

Shirow Masamune - "Dominion Tank Police", "Appleseed", "Ghost in the Shell", etc. (sTwo - Shirowledge!) (sTwo - (Japanese))

Ikegami Ryoichi - "Crying Freeman", "Mai, the Psychic Girl", "Strain" (Baka-Updates Manga - IKEGAMI Ryoichi) His comic art is so photorealistic, it's scary!