yamayuandadu

[yamayuandadu]

Noriko T. Reider, Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan (2016), p. 120

#japanese miscellanea

[yamayuandadu]

Honestly a pretty cool line, even if Masafusa exaggerated it. For context: Yoshika's family was not really influential, his only recoreded relatives are his father (a minor provincial official), his son (known from a total of 1 poem and nothing else) and his uncle. The last of them was his only academically accomplished relative and possibly mentor as well, and supposedly held fairly progressive - for his times - views on higher education, notably voicing opposition to appointments to academic position based on birth and status rather than skill.

#japanese miscellanea

[yamayuandadu]

just learned there are people getting paid for polishing deepL translations of wikipedia articles. not a huge fan. tbh I'm not a huge fan of wikipedia allowing the upload of translations of other editions of wikipedia in the first place; I believe to write an article you should actually interact with primary and secondary sources, not just with wikipedia.

needless to say, I will continue to contribute pro bono publico but this does kind of sting since I secure sources on my own and dedicate a non-trivial percentage of my free time to this and have been doing so for close to 4 years. I suppose I suck at monetizing hobbies. However, I can voich for everything I wrote; not once have I just posted an automated translation of another person's work.

[yamayuandadu]

天野喜孝 鬼譚草紙 / Yoshitaka Amano Otherwise frank

#Yoshitaka Amano

[yamayuandadu]

天野喜孝 鬼譚草紙 / Yoshitaka Amano Otherwise frank

#Yoshitaka Amano

[yamayuandadu]

Michizane's poem about his family is wild

#japanese miscellanea

[yamayuandadu]

For anyone curious: #1 is Kamo no Yasunori no Musume:

(translation from Roselee Bundy's A Life Suspended: The Preface and Long Poem Accompanying Kamo no Yasunori no Musume’s Poetry Collection) #2 is Miyako no Yoshika:

(translation and commentary from Robert Borgen's Sugawara no Michizane and the Early Heian Court)

my two favorite heian period poets to study are a 40 years old neet who wrote about feeling sick and a guy whose best known work is a critical evaluation of a someone more famous' exam paper

#japanese miscellanea

[yamayuandadu]

my two favorite heian period poets to study are a 40 years old neet who wrote about feeling sick and a guy whose best known work is a critical evaluation of a someone more famous' exam paper

#japanese miscellanea

[yamayuandadu]

#touhou

[yamayuandadu]

#touhou

[yamayuandadu]

Taiheiki doesn't resonate with me quite as much as Heike Monogatari and Gikeiki so reading progress is fairly slow, but I like that it establishes Mara wears a helmet inscribed with his own name

#japanese miscellanea

[yamayuandadu]

Recent decisions mean some reshuffling is necessary, and a few things won't show up until mid to late summer as a result (a summary of the Chira Tenko origin myth and a Taizan Fukun article, for example) but you can safely expect a Kuzunoha article at worst in early may (I'm waiting for a book with a long delivery time, it's largely done otherwise) and a Masakado one (focusing on literary reception more than the real guy, though, and with Michizane thrown in due to an interesting incident) in june. I will most likely be unable to work on articles altogether through the second half of may due to work obligations, hence the long break.

[yamayuandadu]

#touhou

[yamayuandadu]

#touhou

[yamayuandadu]

greatly unnerved by the cat form of retired emperor go-shirakawa from some show for kids

#genpeiposting

[yamayuandadu]

Currently reading Robert F. Campany's To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth. A Translation and Study of Ge Hong's Traditions of Divine Transcendents. I might post a longer review in the future since it's definitely a book worth recommending (even if the early 2000s trend of translating xian as "transcendent" rather than "immortal" seemingly didn't stick), for now these are my three favorite immortals mentioned by Ge Hong:

Baishi Xiansheng ("Master White Stone") as indicated by his name lived off of cooked white stones. He also met Peng Zu and told him he has no interest in ascending to heaven because living in hiding on earth is more entertaining. This would not be notable in its own right - it's a common motif in immortality literature - but it's specified that he was alredy 2000 years old by then - in other words, he was much older than Peng Zu even though it's the latter whose lifespan is normally presented as unusual

the biography of Ban Meng is fairly standard, save for stating she could write by chewing a block of dry ink and spitting it out piece by piece.

Liu Zheng was apparently personally taught by Chang'e and as a result obtained abilities as diverse as making fruits and vegetables ripen instantly, concealing armies as birds or animals to let them surprise the enemy, and changing own form into that of a woman

[yamayuandadu]

Due to recent events, there will be no Touhou-themed research articles anymore. I won't stop posting but this specific format is dead until further notice. Considering they never really sparked meaningful discussion - not even putting together an extensive recommended reading list improved anything - it was basically a dead end anyway. My goal was to find meaningful engagement and people who are similarly obsessive about research but that just didn't happen. Now it would appear the very idea of being into Touhou for mythology first and foremost is something to be mocked, as indicated by more than one incident, so I might as well call it quits on this endeavor.