Pay attention, even to trifles. –Miyamoto Musashi You remember what you give your attention to. After all, you can’t remember what you didn’t observe or experience! This seems like common sense, but consider the implications against a world where we cannot give our attention to anything for any length of time. Gloria Mark researches attention….
Lafcadio Hearn’s Japan
Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) offered a view into Japan during the Meiji Restoration with his books: Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Out of the East, Kokoro, The Boy Who Drew Cats, In Ghostly Japan, Kwaidan, and other books. He lived in Japan for 14 years before his death; his writings provide a snapshot of the land and…
Oshi no Ko: The Masterful First Episode
This article will spoil the first episode of Oshi no Ko. At first glance, Oshi no Ko appears to be another Japanese pop idol anime, but the story quickly bursts that assumption. Ai is a 16-year-old idol who was scouted by a tiny talent agency. So far, so normal. She’s pretty with a unique eye…
Why Should You Read Books?
Book reading is on the decline, at least in the US. According to Gallup (Jones, 2022), Americans read 3 fewer books in a year. The total percent of people who don’t read books held steady at 17%, but everyone is reading less, with the highest averaging around 10 books a year. The survey includes partial-reading…
Old Proverbs about Japanese Women
World War II marks a dramatic shift in Japanese history, equal in impact to the Meiji Restoration on the culture. The proverbs I will discuss trace deep into Japan’s cultural views of women and to the Confucian influence China had on Japanese culture. Women’s roles and freedom varied across the different eras of Japan, and…
Ryōnen Gensō, The Poet Who Disfigured Herself
Japan has a long history of literary and artistic women. If you look at the education of women, Japan’s history would resemble a sine curve. Some periods have widespread female education among the nobility and even among some peasant groups. Other periods neglected or limited female education. The most literary women cluster around the Heian…