Lady Murasaki Shikibu's Tale Of The Genji

Imagine the pressure of being expected to follow your culture’s traditions even if you want to rebel and create your own identity. Carrying on traditions can be difficult for many young people who are searching for their identities as they grow up. Two texts, “Life in the age of the mimis” by Domingo Martinez and “El Olvido” by Judith Ortiz, tell about the struggles of losing one’s culture. One shows the reader that forgetting your own roots simply because of being ashamed or embarrassed can really harm you, while the other demonstrates that forgetting your culture for the sake of fame and fortune can also do the same damage.

Musui 's Story is a samurai 's autobiography that portrays the Tokugawa society as it was lived during Katsu Kokichi 's life (1802 - 1850). Katsu Kokichi (or Musui) was a man born into a family with hereditary privilege of audience with the shogun, yet he lived a life unworthy of a samurai 's way, running protection racket, cheating, stealing, and lying. Before we discuss how Musui 's lifestyle was against the codes that regulated the behavior of the samurai, it is essential that the role of the samurai in Japanese society be understood.

Hey you guys it’s been awhile! How are things going back home? Things are going great here. You guys know how America Christianity is the main religion well here in Japan Buddhism and Shinto are the popular religions. I have now acquired a taste for fish and seafood here in Japan they rely on the seas of japan to provide them with their food. The hardest thing for me living here in Japan is I had to learn to read and write Chinse since that is the main language Japanese people read and write. Can’t wait to return and tell you all about my amazing adventures.

The time after the fifteen hundreds marked a time of great change in Asian countries. Places like China saw a new dynasty take control of the country. And almost every Asian civilization from India to Indonesia came in contact with people from western nations which changed the way people did business and the way Asians viewed the world. Japan, however, seemed to keep separate from the rest of Asia in the way that they were hesitant to deal with westerners. Despite their separateness, this period in time still brought an immense amount of change to Japan and its culture. The autobiography titled Musui's Story shows what life was like during Japan's time of change. When taking Musui's Story in context, one can see not

Yasumasa Morimura is an internationally respected and controversial Japanese artist who through his art, represents social changes in Japanese culture, such as Western influences, politics and gender values. Morimura explores how Japan interacts with the World through the lens of the artist and how the artist creates an identity within his culture and the global community.

People often feel embarrassed because they believe what they do are wrong. In The Things They Carried, the conflicts in emotions of the soldiers highlight the theme of embarrassment. For instance, O’Brien in “On the Rainy River” is ashamed because he decides to go to the Vietnam War and escapes his real ideals. In “Speaking of Courage,” Norman Bowker is embarrassed because he has saved himself instead of saving his friend Kiowa from death. Indeed, the theme of embarrassment plays an essential role in The Things They Carried because shame greatly affects the complexity of the soldiers’ decisions and emotions before and after the war.

The varying social interactions between status groups in Katsu Kokichi’s autobiography, Musui’s Story, convey a shift from the hierarchically strict Heian/Kamakura epochs to the more socially open late Tokugawa period. Throughout the work, Katsu illustrates his various dealings and communications with peasants, merchants, artisans and fellow samurai. While in theory a social hierarchy still presided, Musui’s Story dismisses the notion that social groups remained isolated from each other, as in previous Japanese eras, and instead reveals that people of Japan in the late-Tokugawa-era mingled with one another during their lives, regardless of their social status. Considering the

The author who brought to us The Tale of Genji, a novel now regarded as the first written novel in history, left behind an arguably more treasurable artifact: a diary that opens a window into history. The Diary of Lady Murasaki by Lady Murasaki Shikibu gives the reader a glimpse of the imperial court during eleventh century Japan and presents the past in an illuminated vision. Being an attendant in the imperial court, Lady Murasaki is frequently involved with the activities of elite Japanese women. Her day-to-day interaction with the nobles and elites enhance her account with the curious perspective of an elite female. As a woman, Lady Murasaki's descriptions are oriented around clothing

As you said, Emi Koyama’s argument on the importance of unity of the trans women and other groups of women is really persuasive. According to Emi, women, either trans or not, should not be inhibited or narrowed their personal choices. Even if their choices are aligned with the traditional gender roles, it is the rights of the individuals, therefore, it should not be judged by others (non-trans women). It is an advanced form of feminism, and she names this idea as “transfeminism.” All women from different background should come together to find the rights to express their gender. She claims for the environment in where women’s choices are honored, while the social structure that limits the range of their choice is challenged.

In the essentially dual religious system in Japan, ideologies and traditions play a heavy role in the everyday life of the Japanese people. Shintoism and Buddhism intertwine and complement themselves in Japanese culture, despite Buddhism coming in from mainland Asia. A particularly powerful idea from Buddhism is mono no aware, the realization and acknowledgment of the impermanence and its place in the world. This idea that nothing stays the same forever manifests itself heavily in Japanese literature, whether in personal writings or fictional works. Despite spanning hundreds of years, each work was shaped by and include manifestations of mono no aware. I intend to underline and pinpoint instances that mono no aware is influencing these works, and discuss similarities and differences between them. In this paper, I have three works that I will explore, each one corresponding to a different time period before the pre-industrial revolution; The Diary of Lady Murasaki comes from the classical period, Essays in Idleness from the medieval, and the immensely popular play Chushingura from the pre-modern era.

Cultural structures are often very complex and unique guidelines that vary across the globe. These cultural aspects provide a prominent background into the lives of each society respectfully, as seen often throughout the historic piece of literature, The Tale of Genji. Three crucial aspects depicted in the novel’s progression are the role of women, Buddhism, and the political configuration, each containing positive and negative attributes prevalent in the tale. China was a powerful nation at the time, and during this age, these three societal concepts were important, yet controversial at times. These concepts can all be related directly back to the central character, Genji, along with the other vital people who, not

The Canterbury Tales is strongly considered one of the greatest works in medieval literature. An admirer of Chaucer, and the author of Chaucer and the Fifteenth Century, H.S. Bennett describes Chaucer’s unique style as, “No detail was too small for him to observe, and from it he could frequently draw, or suggest, conclusions which would have escaped many.” While The Canterbury Tales was originally intended to be an epic poem consisting of over 120 short stories, Chaucer’s death came much sooner and he was only able to finish 24. Even with a small fraction of his original goal completed, Chaucer’s unique sense of language and ability to identify and establish common stereotypes was second to none. The three characters I choose, The Knight, The Pardoner and The Parson all exemplify Bennett’s quote and demonstrate Chaucer’s incredible ability to express every detail, while adding humor and irony.

The film that I watched is 《The Memoir of a Geisha》, and it was released in the United States on December 9, 2005. The director of this film is Rob Marshall, and 2 main characters in the movie are Sayuri (starring by Ziyi Zhang) and Hatsumomo (Gong Li). Although this film is produced by American directors, the origin of the story is in Japan.

The daughter of Japanese immigrants to the United States, Mitsuye Yamada was born in Japan during her mother’s return visit to her native country. In 1942, she and her family were incarcerated and then relocated to a camp in Idaho. The Executive Order 9066 signed by President Roosevelt in February 1942 was the reason Mitsuye and her family were incarcerated. The Japanese attack on Pearl Habor in December 1941, gave military authorities the right to remove any and all persons from “military areas.”

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka provides an interesting perspective to the American experience through the eye of Japanese women around the time of World War 2. The author uses a number of unique writing techniques which originally confused me, but once accustomed created an immersive and intimate reading experience. Otsuka also inserts a number of metaphors and symbols throughout the novel with various possibilities for explanation depending on the opinion of the reader.