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jolynejay · 5 years

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JP New Year Event

Ok, so I want to talk about the new units for the jp new year event.

This years bigger theme is animals and ofc they all have some neat symbolism.

Ok, so first off: Dostoyevsky. This one is honestly the easiest of the five, since his asigned animal is the rat. No one should be surprised at this point as Fyodor has been associated on multiple occasions with rats. In the western hemisphere rats have a negative connotation. They are associated with death and decay. In Japan however the rat or nezumi is a symbol for wealth and succsess. Fitting for the mastermind manipulator Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Next, Shibusawa Tatsuhiko. This one, too, is relatively easy. Here the crow seems to be more prevalent as a symbol of death, seeing as Shibusawa was ultimately "already dead", only still being able to act thanks to the Draconia. However, there is in Japan also the idea of the crow as a messenger of the gods or a representative of divine intervention. It might be a stretch to say, but maybe this is also a reference to Shibusawa being "saved by an angel", a divine messenger.

Edit: As anon correctly observed, the crow in Shibusawa’s illustration has 3 legs. This is no error on the artists side.

I forgot to mention it, but in Japan the three-legged (or tripedal) crow is callled Yatagarasu. The appearance of this “eight-span crow” is seen as evidence of Heaven’s will or as proof for divine intervention in human affairs. And Yatagarasu as crow-god in Japanese Shinto is specifically a symbol for guidence. This actually strenghtens my theory of the three-legged crow as a metaphor for Shibusawa being “saved by an angel”.

But the Yatagarasu also has another older meaning. It may not be as celebrated today, but the crow is said to be a mark of rebirth and rejuvenation. The relation of Shibusawa’s character to this particular fact is quite obvious. I mean, how many times has he been killed and came back in one form or another XD

Now we’ll get into the nitty gritty, so buckle up:

Wisdom, Cunning, Adaptability, Strategy – all traits commonly associated with foxes. And all attributes I would assign Dazai, with his ability to seemingly think three steps ahead of everyone around him.

And he also shares a certain duality foxes possess in Japan.

On one hand Dazai is a kind of guardian and guide to the ADA, and Atsushi in particular. Just like Inari-foxes guard Shinto shrines devoted to Inari Ôkami and serve as their messenger. On a side note: Inari’s foxes are also pure white just like the one in Dazai’s illustration.

On the other hand, there exist other more mischievous foxes too. These foxes allude to the more mysterious and sly connotations they often embody in Western culture. Using illusions and deception to play pranks on unsuspecting humans, or in some cases even lure them to their untimely death. I’d argue this too is part of Dazai’s character as he plays tricks on others (often at Kunikida’s or Chuuya’s expense) on multiple occasions, but his wit and sharp mind also forces his enemies to their knees.

Chuuya has the honor of being portrayed with the Koi. Koi, for those who do not know, are quite powerful fish, demonstrated by their ability to swim against currents and even travel upstream. This in turn makes them strong symbols for good fortune, success, power and perseverance. It’s undeniable that Chuuya’s ability For The Tainted Sorrow – and especially its true form Corruption – makes him a force to be reckoned with. The koi fish is also a common yakuza tattoo. The relation here to Chuuya’s position as Mafia Executive is pretty easy to see.

Interestingly enough, a legend about Koi exists as well. It tells of a huge school of koi swimming upstream the Yellow River in China. Reaching the waterfall at end of the river, many of the koi turned back. But a single koi persevered and eventually reached the top of the waterfall. The gods, recognizing the koi for its determination, turned it into a dragon. Once again, it might be a stretch to say, but this could also be a subtle nod to Chuuya’s battle with Shibusawa’s dragon form – a “small fish” taking on a dragon.

(Side note: a koi swimming with lotus flowers symbolizes beauty that comes out hard circumstances, representing pain, struggle and growth. And if that doesn’t perfectly describe Chuuya, I don’t know what does. I mean, hot damn XDD)

And last, but not least, we have Odasaku. And this one is like a punch to the gut on all kinds of levels – so get ready for the Feels™ .

First of all, to identify the kind of crane Odasaku is portrayed with: judging by the snow white colour with black on the wing secondaries, as well as the patch of red on its head, it is save to say it is a red-crowned crane aka a tanchôzuru. This is of importance as this specific type of bird is said to live for 1000 years – a cruel irony considerind Odasaku’s fate. But this is just the beginning.

Red-crowed cranes have the ability to fly high for miles without tiring, making them a symbol for strength. Flawless is a good representation for that strength, as it makes Odasaku almost undefeated in combat with the exception of another ability of the same kind (we all know the one). It’s a sign for the mental fortitude Odasaku has, too, as a member of the Port Mafia.

Cranes are said to grant favors in return for acts of sacrifice. It is possible to see this as a reference to Odasaku’s death, where his ultimate sacrifice makes Dazai respect Odasaku’s last wish. Dazai changes his way to “be on the side that saves people”, to “save the weak, and protect the orphans”.

To “become a good man”.

I’ll be honest this, together with the fact that red-crowned cranes mate for life, really gets the Odazai shipper part of my brain going.

But there is one last part I haven’t mentioned yet: The story of Sadako and the thousand paper cranes. Suffering from leukemia as a result of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and knowing she was dying, Sadako undertook to make a thousand origami cranes before her death at the age of 12. After she passed away, Sadako as well as cranes beame a symbol for the innocent victims of war. And this should sound familiar. Kousuke, Katsumi, Yuu, Shinji and Sakura – the five orphans Odasaku took in after the Dragon Head Conflict were killed in front of Oda to provoke him into destroying Mimic, the organization behind the murder. They were killed as means to an end. Innocents sacrificed in a war they had no part in.

So being portrayed with cranes in his New Year Illustraition is, in the end, a metaphorical picture for Odasaku with his children. Yeah... let that one sink in :)

I would love to further expand on the new units, like the meaning of the flowers, but this post is already long enough as is, so I’ll leave that for another day, maybe…

#odasaku #dazai osamu #odazai #nakahara chuuya #fyodor dostoevsky #shibusawa tatsuhiko #bsd #bungou stray dogs #bungou mayoi #shut up jojo #these are so good i can't #sorry for the long post #1k

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howwelldoyouknowyourmoon · 4 years

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A Letter to Rev. Moon

Dear Reverend Moon,

Although you have passed into the spirit world, your followers say you are now omniscient and omnipresent so I feel I can still address this letter directly to you.

I myself followed you for a number of years, received your blessing and looked forward to living in the society of co-prosperity you promised us (DP page 445). It took me some time to realize that prosperity was only meant to be enjoyed by yourself and your family, because as you said:

‘The only thing that matters is that my children take up positions as the leaders of the cosmos.’

There are of course a fair number of church leaders who also manage to enjoy a modicum of prosperity – which is, I’m afraid, the only reason why many are still ‘believers’.

I know you deserved to enjoy the good things of life to make up for all the indemnity you say you kept paying. Unfortunately, I’m still unsure about your indemnity – in all the years I knew about you I never saw you working, cooking for yourself, doing your own laundry, making your own travel arrangements, doing your own tax returns, taking any care of individual members or even of your own children, so apart from giving directions to your assistants and talking to church members, what was the indemnity you say you kept paying? Ah! It must have been prayer. No, I’m afraid not:

‘I haven’t prayed for the last twenty years. Mother was very surprised to see me start praying again, but I knew the time would come when I had to guide Heavenly Father.’ USA 1999

So you started praying again in order to guide God, very considerate. So if you weren’t paying indemnity by praying how were you doing it? Fasting? Not according to your overworked kitchen staff. Ah! Fishing for long periods? But you loved fishing, and like most fishermen, you were happy to stay out all day. So maybe it was talking to the members for long hours? But again you loved that – all the adoration and sycophantic applause. No, sorry, you’ve got me beat– I can’t see the indemnity anywhere.

Something else I’ve found difficult to understand is to do with the matching and blessing. I was originally given to believe that God was working through you during the matching process, but on at least two occasions in Europe you matched physical brothers and sisters together, and I heard of it happening in Japan and America also. So what gives? I know you said in one of your speeches that Jesus should have married John the Baptist’s sister – who according to you would have been his half-sister – so maybe such relationships are allowable in your kingdom of heaven. Either way, you changed those matchings after being informed they were brothers and sisters, but isn’t it strange that God didn’t know about them?

So anyway blessed couples are supposed to produce children substantially free of original sin, and your children are especially pure – being the progeny of the messiah and his bride. But, I then read one of your speeches where you said, ‘I knew this time would come, (when some of my children would disunite with me) maybe I should turn to the son of the concubine. The children of the concubine are better because there is more passion.’ (involved in their conception) Korea 1996

Now here I’m really mystified. If the child of your concubine is better than those from your marriage, where does this leave the idea of the blessing?

Let me think awhile. Adam and Eve fell because they had sex out of wedlock – they fornicated and because of that the original sin was passed down through the generations. So, the messiah, the Second Advent, is supposed to restore this by establishing the blessed marriage (the marriage of the lamb) and then the children from that marriage are supposed to born without original sin and establish a new lineage, thereby creating the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

So where does the excuse for the concubine come from? In order to restore the sin of fornication does the messiah have to commit it again but this time for God’s sake? Does he have to restore Cain’s sin by murdering someone for God’s sake? What about all the other sins? Where does it end?

I know you were trying to restore gambling by spending many hours in casinos. I also know you said you had to enjoy the luxuries of life sometimes, because otherwise when the rich people die and go to the spirit world they would be ashamed in front of you – because they enjoyed the high life and you didn’t. So you stayed in luxurious hotels, were driven around in expensive cars and flew in private airplanes all for the sake of the rich people, again very considerate.

You know, I really have to come back to this concubine thing. If, as you said, the children of the concubine are better than those from a blessed marriage then surely that means the blessing has no value whatsoever, and that blessed children are no different to any other. That must also mean there is no restoration providence and that you weren’t really the messiah after all.

I’m sorry Reverend but I’m starting to have serious doubts about this whole business.

Another aspect of your vaunted dispensation that I found confusing was your use of numbers. Most of the people counted in the 360 million couples blessing didn’t even know they were blessed. For example, in India sachets of holy wine were thrown into reservoirs and anyone drinking from them was counted as being blessed. The amazing thing is, however, that you then announced that all the newly blessed couples should now make a ‘total living offering’ of $10,000 and come to Jardim Training Center in Brazil for a workshop.

Considering that $10,000 is more than most of these Indians will see in a lifetime, that they don’t even have a hope of affording a flight to Brazil, and that they have no idea they’ve been blessed, then surely your expectation of 360 million couples turning up at Jardim with suitcases full of cash was a little fanciful to say the least.

This ancestor liberation is something else I find confusing. After only a few thousand members had attended these liberation ceremonies it was announced that 36 billion ancestors had been liberated. Later it was said that more than 360 billion had been liberated. Now considering the most generous statistics state that only about 150 billion people have ever lived on this planet in the past, I’m left wondering where the other 210 billion are from. Mars maybe? Maybe all these numbers are just symbolic – except of course until it comes to financial offerings.

I was extremely happy to read your speech of June 14th 1999 where you said,

‘There are no more hardships or indemnity.’

Again on Sept. 9th 1999

‘Satan has completely surrendered.’

Sept. 10th 1999

‘Therefore the time when Satan can oppose us is passed.’

And finally my favorite was on Oct. 27th 1999

‘No more indemnity is needed. The providence of restoration is completed.’

However, after Young Jin’s suicide in Las Vegas (as reported by the Las Vegas Police Department) you changed your tune yet again.

Nov. 14th 1999

‘Take responsibility by paying indemnity.

‘Satan tried to attack True Parents directly.’

‘Can you live a life of complete indemnity?’

Now while I have every sympathy for the loss of Young Jin, who appears to have been a very nice young man, this still does not explain this complete contradiction in your speeches. If Satan had completely surrendered how was he still able to attack your family? And if the providence of restoration is completed why were you asking the church members to continue paying indemnity? (Which anyway appears to be a waste of time because you said,

‘Did you pay indemnity? No. Only Father and Mother together did.’)

I’m getting really confused now, because you said on Aug. 8th 1999

‘The lord of the Second Advent is a person with no property.’

However, on Jan. 2nd 1996 you were boasting as follows:

‘You may not know, but I already own a small airplane company and have several airplanes.’ And you also said ‘In Montevideo I built a landmark hotel, which is the biggest and the best in South America.’

‘I have the desire to become the richest person in the world…’ Dec. 1st 1997

‘I could buy a Mercedes Benz 600 series if I wanted to.’ Feb. 13th 1997

And I suppose the palace at Cheongpyeong and the new one on Geomun island off the coast south of Yeosu are solely for God to live in. Oh, my mistake. I forgot you had become ‘the god of the day’, the incarnation of God on earth.

There are actually quite a few of your statements that I have difficulty with:

‘While Oriental people sleep on their backs and face God, asking Him to embrace them, Westerners sleep on their stomachs, facing down like animals; that’s why free sex and homosexual problems predominate in the Western hemisphere.’

Has the world really waited 2000 years to receive such wisdom from the Second Advent?

‘I did not blink my eyes for three hours once. So I overcame the number three.’

It’s lucky number three didn’t call in four and five or you’d have been well hammered.

‘A woman who does not love Father is not a complete woman: something must be lacking.’

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the most delusional of all?

‘Our goal is to create a world where everyone has affection for me.’

Really? So whose definition of the Kingdom of Heaven would that be then?

‘That is why widows, widowers and people who do not marry are to be pitied. They have no place to settle in love, so they just fade away. They have no foundation for eternal existence.’ Feb. 7th 1999

So all the monks and nuns, all the young unmarried soldiers who died in war, (even the Korean one that was supposed to have been fought just to save you,) all the children who have died throughout history – all of these poor souls will just fade away and have no place in the spiritual world?

I’m afraid your concept of the Kingdom, whether it be in this world or the next, appears to be very cold and heartless – and does not reflect anything of God’s loving parental nature.

‘A person with no descendants will have no place to rest or play in the next world.’ Feb. 4th 1999

So all the church sisters who were kept fundraising for so long that when starting their married life they were too old to have children, they will have nowhere to rest or play in the spirit world?

Let’s get this straight, Jesus, the Dalai Lama, and all those celibates throughout history who honestly dedicated their lives to God or the betterment of mankind, they will just fade away, but someone like Genghis Khan, who was responsible for the slaughter of millions but fathered hundreds of children, after serving his time in hell he will eventually be able to live it up in heaven? Give me a break!

When I originally joined your church we were told that the dwelling place of God was in the ‘Original Mind’ of man. This apparently was some unpolluted area of the spirit mind that always directs man towards goodness. Now, however, His abode appears to have changed.

‘My sexual organ is the original palace of love… the palace where God can dwell.’ Jan. 1st 1997

This to me would seem a rather appalling drop in living standards to inflict upon the Almighty. I also find it a little difficult to understand, because surely you don’t take that organ with you when you enter heaven, whereas your spirit mind is eternal (unless of course you are unmarried).

Anyway, maybe I should put aside all my doubts, sell everything I possess and use the money for a trip to Cheongpyeong. I could then donate much of the cash to liberate the spirits of the Martians or Venusians or whoever we’re liberating now. I’ve heard the people in charge of Cheongpyeong are also selling houses in the spirit world – very useful because it means you don’t have to spend time finding a real estate agent once you cross over, because you know what crooks real estate agents can be.

Yours in search of sanity and a good laugh,

Sloe Gin

P.S. All of these quotations were carefully checked against the original Korean.

_______________________________________

Unification Church shampoo for evil spirits

Cheongpyeong: Evil spirits stop Korean and Japanese women from having children.

“Ancestor Liberation must be done” Hak Ja Han 2015

Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han bow to a pig’s head

Moon is God’s original sperm

Sperm in the Holy Wine of the Unification Church

#Sun Myung Moon #indemnity #ancestor liberation #scam #Hak Ja Han

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