450-Year-Old Book Reveals What to Name a Baby Samurai

From Live Science:

What should you name a baby samurai? What food should a samurai bring to a battle? What is a samurai's most treasured possession? A newly translated 450-year-old book supposedly written by a renowned samurai provides answers to these and many other questions about the Japanese swordsmen.

Called "The Hundred Rules of War," the book is a series of songs that could be sung by samurai, who had never gone into battle. It was supposedly written in Japanese in 1571 by a famous samurai named Tsukahara Bokuden, who lived from 1489 to 1571, during a war-ridden time in Japan. Stories told about Bokuden claim that he fought in over 100 battles and slew hundreds of swordsmen.

The book was recently translated into English by Eric Shahan, who specializes in translating Japanese martial-arts texts. The book was first printed in Japanese in 1840, and has been republished in Japanese several times since then, Shahan told Live Science.

read more here @ Live Science

Women Writers in Ancient Japan

The immense cultural achievements of women writers in ancient Japan —Murasaki Shikibu (c. 973 or 978-c. 1014 or 1031 CE), Sei Shonagon (c. 966-c. 1017 or 1025 CE), and Izumi Shikibu (c. 976-c. 1040 CE) — facilitated the first flowering of classical Japanese literature. Women wrote Japan’s and perhaps Asia’s first autobiographical narratives in diaries and memoirs, as well as miscellaneous writings composed of poems, lists, observations, and personal essays during the Heian era (794-1185 CE). For this reason, the Japanese can uniquely claim to have a literary golden age dominated by women.

In this exclusive interview, James Blake Wiener of Ancient History Encyclopedia (AHE) speaks to Professor Lynne K. Miyake of Pomona College about the importance of these women writers and what enabled their literary brilliance.

read interview in its entirety here @ et cetera Ancient History

Japanese Warrior Women

From Archaeology News Network:

'The archaeological evidence, meager though it is," writes historian Stephen Turnbull in "Samurai Women 1184-1877" (2010), "tantalizingly suggests a wider female involvement in battle than is implied by written accounts alone."

Armor and weapons have been found in the tombs of 4th-century female rulers. Do they support the historicity of the legendary Empress Jingu? They might — or might not; scholars disagree.

Nara Princess Found

From the Mainichi Daily News:

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a tomb here thought to have been the burial place of the granddaughter of Empress Saimei (594-661), the local board of education has announced.

The tomb was discovered during excavation work around the nearby Kengoshizuka tomb, which is thought to be the burial site of Saimei. According to the Asuka Village Board of Education, the newly discovered tomb was likely constructed at almost the same time as the Kengoshizuka tomb, in the latter half of the 7th century.

The newly found tomb is thought to be the resting place of Empress Saimei's granddaughter Princess Ota, which would match with the Nara-period historical document Nihon Shoki, which records Princess Ota as being buried in front of the Empress in 667.

Further news from Heritage of Japan regarding the discovery of the tomb of Empress Saimei:

An ancient tomb in Nara Prefecture has been effectively identified as that of Empress Saimei (594-661) and her daughter Princess Hashihito, based on its shape and descriptions in the Chronicles of Japan, archaeologists said Thursday.

The Kengoshizuka tomb, located in the village of Asuka, Nara, is octagon-shaped, which is peculiar to imperial tombs in the mid-seventh to early eighth centuries, the board of education of the village said.

Medieval Asobi

Article from Nodo50.org:

In medieval Japan, sexual entertainers and their customers enjoyed great freedoms until a growing orthodoxy stifled their trade, Janet Goodwin tells a UCLA audience. An early Heian period painting shows three women in a boat rowing alongside a larger boat carrying male passengers, some dressed richly and some ascetically—aristocrats and monks. The kimono-clad women were asobi, or sexual entertainers, singing their siren song to lure the aristocrats to some temporary pleasure shack.

With the monks in the rear . . . the large boat was probably on its return from some chartered pilgrimage to a sacred site. The asobi knew well the sea lanes for pilgrims who were ready to unburden themselves of their journey’s abstinence. . . weaker pilgrims might have looked for the asobi even on the way to sacred sites.