Kyushu Island
Christians versus Samurai: What caused the bloodiest rebellion in Japanese history
Japan is traditionally associated with two religions – Shintoism and Buddhism. But in fact, Christianity has existed in it for several centuries. True, the relations between Japan and Christianity are very complex, and probably the peak of complexity was the events known as the Shimabar rebellion – after which the Shinto Christians were represented by bloody rebels, and the Christians bill the Shinto for their brutally tortured co-religionists.
Coming to Deus on the Islands
Christianity arrived in Japan with the Portuguese. Until the sixteenth century, Japan lived for a long time almost in isolation from world processes (although, for example, the Mongols tried to conquer it – but Continue reading
How Samurai’s son Matsuo Basho glorified the Japanese three-song haiku all over the world
Haiku (hoku) remains popular largely due to the fact that it perfectly conveys the subtexts of the funny, allows you to achieve funny understatement – a couple of expressive touches, a reference to the mysterious oriental nature – and the joke is ready. But when the haiku, which was originally called “hoku”, appeared in Japanese culture, his role was just that – comic. But thanks to the poet Matsuo Basho, the haiku genre has risen to the very heights of Japanese art – it turned out that “the haiku space is infinite and can contain the whole world”, in the words of another famous haiku author, or haijin, Masaoka Shiki.
The roots of Japanese poetry, as befits everything that this culture is famous for, go back to the deep past. Continue reading
What is the secret of the Japanese rock garden
The mystery of the disappearing fifteenth stone is, perhaps, the first thing the European has associated with the traditional Japanese “dry” garden. However, neither the “invisible” stone, nor “Mount Fuji”, nor the sea of moss are mandatory elements of a rock garden, unlike the person for whom it is intended – a person.
How stone gardens appeared in Japan
The Japanese Garden has come a long way of development – from luxurious spaces designed to entertain the nobility and decorate the residences of aristocrats, to hidden meanings of secluded and quiet corners for meditation. Like all primordially Japanese, the traditions of creating gardens came to the islands Continue reading
