When Macbeth doubts that he should murder King Duncan he muses that, “He hath honored me of late, and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people…” The phrase “all sorts of people” can be translated into Japanese like this: あらゆる種類の人々 – “Arayuru shurui no hitobito.” Shurui = [Read more…]
The eleventh syllable in the traditional Japanese Hiragana syllabary is “Ru” (“る”). In the picture card we can see a Japanese gentleman inspecting a massive gemstone, or perhaps a crystal ball, which is shining brilliantly on its portable display stand. Translation The word for “crystal” is “hari” in Japanese. In [Read more…]
In my previous post about the Japanese “Iroha Karuta” playing card game I looked at a common proverb used to illustrate the tenth card in the sequence. The tenth card illustrates the tenth syllable in the old Japanese syllabary, the syllable “nu”. That proverb was about a lotus growing in [Read more…]
A lot of the local trains that head out of Hiroshima Station on the JR Sanyo line that takes you past Miyajima terminate at Iwakuni. Iwakuni is famous for its picturesque Kintaikyo Bridge (I should really take some pics of it to post on Liketu), the US Marine base, and… [Read more…]
I was in Nagasaki earlier this month to see my daughter performing with her Cheerleading group at their university festival. While I was there I had the opportunity to visit a few shrines and temples and the one that most impressed me was Sōfukuji (崇福寺), a temple that was built for the [Read more…]
In my last blog post about the Iroha Karuta I talked about one of the proverbs that is used to illustrate the 9th card in the series, which is “Ri,” (り) the ninth hiragana in the traditional hiragana syllabary. That proverb was, “Richigi mono no ko dakusan.” An honest person [Read more…]
This is the ninth card in the Japanese series of proverb that illustrate the Japanese “alphabet” (or, more correctly, “syllabary’). At least, this card is ONE of the proverbs that illustrate the ninth syllable, “り,” which is pronounced “Ri”. (My other deck of Karuta uses a different proverb to illustrate [Read more…]
The 8th syllable in the old Japanese “iroha syllabry” is pronounced “chi,” and written: “ち”. Chi is therefore the initial sound of the eighth proverb in the “Iroha Karuta” card deck. Here’s the proverb in Japanese: Chiri tsumotte yama to naru Chiri is “dust” and “yama” is “mountain.” “Tsumotte” is [Read more…]
The seventh Japanese proverb in some versions of the Iroha Karuta puts together two familiar but incompatible items from Japanese life: tofu and a carpenter’s nail… The closest “dynamic equivalent” in English is, “like nailing jelly to the wall.” It can be applied to a few of familiar situations. One [Read more…]
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