Thoughts about session 5 (Japan w/Prof. Sam)

[Anonymous]

Geiko/Geisha means a person who has skills (gei=skill, sha=person). Yes, in Edo period, male Geiko was once the norm, probably for the same reason that Kabuki was performed by only men since Izumo no Akuni (1572). (There is a reason why only men [font=Arial]but not women performed back then..I will put the reason if you are interested in it) Most of Geiko were trained from 5 to 6 years old for 15- 20 years to gain various 'skills' on almost all the classics: dancing, musical instruments (Japanense Orchestra "gagaku" started since Heian period), tea ceremony and manners, and knowledge of poems, etc. Currently if you decided to teach Tea Ceremony, it could still take more than 10 years to get the all certificates to serve tea on different occasions. When their Maiko training is completed, they are now able to wear different sets of hair styles, and wear their teeth black (ohaguro) which has been a symbol of beauty since Heian period. All the aristcrats and female members of the Emporer's family customarily tinted their teeth black since the Heian peiod. They are now called “Geiko”(skilled person), instead of “Maiko”(dancing person) . Both Maiko and Geiko could wear white in all exposed area of face, neck. Once a Maiko becomes Geiko, she leaves her name tag with "Chaya” (who acts like her agent). After this point, they can be called by Ryotei(more than a restaurant; a very expensive place serving very seasonal exquisite meals. Ryoriya/Ryotei still exist many places especially in Kyoto, Tokyo). Geiko are not prostitutes but rather provide quality Japanese traditional dancing and music and songs just for guests.[/font]People wanting to be Geiko are now less and less, as you could imagine, but still many Kyoto ”machiya” agents exist in Kyogoku area. We still hear stories that regular young junior high school girls decided to become Geiko. Their parents were against the girls' decision and later realized the physical benefits and cultural richness. Maiko/Geiko being synonymous with "prostitute" is erroneous and was an imported misconception from Foreign Countries. Clearly I could say there is no prostitution in the world of Geiko. [font=Arial]Imagine a young high school student wants to be a Broadway musical dancer. He/she needs to be able to dance, sing and the person needs to have agent and possibly be in a union, etc. Geiko is something similar to that.[/font]
edited by hsakuma on 4/26/2011
edited by hsakuma on 4/26/2011

[Anonymous]

I found this session to be very interesting. I enjoyed the pictures of the beautiful castles, which reminded me of my trip to the Osaka castle The rules on adoption and inter-marriage rules that were imposed really stood out to me and prompted me to do further research. In addition, I was enlightened by the information on the courtesan, Japanese Christians, and the protocol on vendetta's! After hearing this information, my perception of Japan being an organized country has be confirmed!
It was interesting to learn how during this time, the new Meji aimed to discard the feudal system and launch a series of reforms to change Japanese society. These reform programs were focued on: administrative, economic, social, legal, educational, and military matters. The purpose was to create a modern economy and society. Students were sent to Europe and the United States to study modern science and technology, while foreign experts were hired to help establish factories and educational institutions. Learning this information has helped me to gain a better understanding of the Medieval Japanese heirarchy and society.

[Anonymous]

This idea of gender roles would be interesting to discuss, especially with the current trend for women to have children later in life, if at all. The demographic impact on Japan is now reaching a serious point with the declining population and youth numbers. I wonder if there is any linkage from a system that seems to allow concubines to the modern difficulties they face.

[Anonymous]

Hi, all, I learn something about Japanese history. In this class, The Pearl Harber was talked about. But I heard that after the Japan got the plan to attack the Pearl Harber, the Chinese FBI got the information and they tried to inform the USA, however, the USA did not take it seriously. Why this happeden. Could the attack be avioded at that time?

[Anonymous]

I had to miss this class due to a bad cold -- sounds like it was an interesting one! Since I couldn't make it, I read the assignments with special care, although I found the East Asia textbook rather rough going (a good reminded to this teacher of how my students must sometimes feel: couldn't the authors make this more interesting? how much of this do I really need to know?). However, the visual sources included in the reading were often wonderful, especially the prints, which showed a certain liveliness and informality that was a welcome contrast to the textbook itself! I found the print of the young boys at school on p. 291 particularly delightful, and the "Portrait of an American Official" on p. 331 is pretty amusing, too, showing us how Japanese perceived Westerners through its exaggeration of some facial features.

[Anonymous]

I really enjoyed this lecture by Dr. Yamashita, his teaching style with the concentric circles help to keep me focused on all the names and dates that we covered. I found the Tokugawa order fascinating and wold like to visit some of the castles that sill remain from this time period. What I also found amazing was the process of the vendetta, that you could actually advertise the act and this was acceptable at the time.

[Anonymous]

The concentric circles helped make the relationships in history. The reasons why the daimyos and shogunates acted as they did made more sense after seeing them placed in relations to each other. I learned the causal relationships between factions, and particularly the issue of the vendetta more interesting after seeing them all in contect.

[Anonymous]

I think I need to add something here,because I said something in my last posting like I had a feeling that Japanese governers in the history were very aggressive since the beginning of its history. That is just my feeling and I hope nobody gets hurt with my saying. If somebody is not happy or feels being hurt, I apologize.

[Anonymous]

It was a very intriguing and impressing lecture!
I was having a hard time with the circles being drawn but once the Professor started filling them up and explaining how hierarchy, fixity and propriety are integrated in the Japanese philosophy it made sense.
A striking key point made in this lecture to me was about the proper way to do a Vendetta. It was an eye opener for me. I have never heard of it and made me wonder if that brings closure to a circle of pain on the victim’s behalf? Or will it start creating a ripple effect of vendetta’s that in a sense will never stop?

[Anonymous]

Don't you agree that this act of getting a government permission to kill someone could be explained by using Confucius Ideology? Definitely, not from Buddhism and this shouldn't be happening in any Christian based value societies.
Usually they did vendetta for their fathers, siblings, husbands, friends, superiors as Confucius described in his writings back in 500 BC.<"五輪の和" To keep rituals, ceremonies was also a part of Confucianism. In the Western world, there were duals, but when I compared these two, the western duals were more for themselves (humiliation? or more personal reasons), there are many well known stories on vedetta for superiors, ancestors (higher than them) not much wives and children (placed lower) Furthermore, there is so called 'social language' existed in Japan, the set of usages are used quite differently depending on where (superior-group or lower group) the subject belongs. One point in China around 500BC, I am sure this got too extreme one point, that some people (Mohism) started to refuse the Confucius' family values system...
I appreciate Clayton to start with these philosophers first before teaching the rest of the history of the East Asian countries. (Session #1) Time to time during the sessions, I referred to Confucius values to understand how people conceived, behaved and create laws in the society.

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Hi all,

Please share your thoughts about session 5 on April 5 by replying to this thread. You may raise questions and share thoughts either before or after the session.

Best,
Xin

[Anonymous]

I noticed many Confucius traits in the reading of Principles of Warriors. 'Your duty is to study', not only just weaponry, but studying both has been encouraged. I would like to read more re Samurai codes to see how much the Confucianism, Daoism/Shintoism, Buddhism have intertwined into this Bushido. They seem to require Samurai to read Confucius and Mencius back then.

Strict Bushido : Loyalty, Devotion, Obedience, Duty, Filial Peity, Respect, Honor to the death, Self-Sacrifice..
Eventually this strict codes led Japan to WWII...
I wish all the countries in the world would have the Separation of Power..things will be easier.

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