GEISHAS, NINJAS, HAIKUS AND ORIGAMIS IN MYORYUJI

Kanazawa District: samuaris, ninjas and geishas

Today, The Jones have visited Myōryū-ji in Kanazawa. They wanted to discover the world of ninjas and geishas, two of the most famous icons in the Japanese culture.

The family has visited this wonderful temple and have had enough time to revised the Second Conditional and talk about very interesting themes that affects the whole planet. Joaquín Jones have been talking about the smart green cities in Sweden and how this country is working in a sustainable model betting on renewable green energies. Marta Jones have explained the Spanish fraud with the renewable energies and how it has ruined hundreds of little investors and has affected the global public debt of this country.

 More information: Second Conditional

Finally, the family has read another chapter of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and they received the visit of some Japanese friends and altogether, they have written some haikus and have made some origamis before talking about an interesting theme: dinosaurs and its difficult names.

Some Jones at Myōryū-ji

Myōryū-ji, commonly known as Ninja-dera or Ninja Temple, is a Buddhist temple belonging to Nichiren sect located in the city of Kanazawa, Ishikawa. While not actually associated with ninjas, the temple earned its nickname because of its many deceptive defences.

Myoryuji is located in the Teramachi District in the south of the city. Populated by numerous temples, this area was originally located outside of the city limits as were the entertainment districts.

In 1585 Maeda Toshiie, the founding daimyō of Kaga Domain, built a chapel within Kanazawa Castle as a prayer place of Kaga Domain. In 1643, Maeda Toshitsune, the third daimyō of Kaga Domain, relocated the chapel to a new site in the Tera-machi district to the south of the castle, and ordered the construction of a full temple. The temple layout and location were part of the domain's defensive plans against a possible attack by the central government, Tokugawa shogunate.

More information: Myoryuji Temple

Since the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate imposed strict building restrictions as one way of weakening his regional lords, Myōryū-ji was designed to circumvent the restrictions and serve as a disguised military outpost. It was supplemented with considerable defensive features and escape routes, so that its defenders could alert the castle in the event of an attack. These iincluded hidden tunnels, secret rooms, traps, and a labyrinth of corridors and staircases.

Some Jones at Myōryū-ji

The Tokugawa shogunate prohibited construction of buildings higher than three stories. Viewed from the outside, the temple appears to be a two-story building, but actually it is a four-story building with seven-layer internal structure.

The temple is built around a central water well which is approximately 25 m deep; the bottom of the well is said to connect to a tunnel to Kanazawa Castle. The main building has a complicated layout which includes a middle floor and middle-middle floor, and contains 23 rooms and 29 staircases. There are different contrivances to fool the enemy such as hidden chambers and stairs, completely unexpected and reversible trap-like doors and floors, secret tunnels, escape pits. The lookout on the top affords a view of the surrounding area. In addition, the temple walls and roof are very strong and durable enough to withstand typhoons and heavy snow.

More information: Taiken

Since the shogun imposed strict building restrictions as one way of weakening his regional lords, Myoryuji was designed to circumvent the restrictions and serve as a disguised military outpost. It was built with considerable defences and escape routes, so that its defenders could alert the castle in the event of an attack.

The temple's defences aimed to guard against intruders or attack, and include hidden tunnels, secret rooms, traps, and a labyrinth of corridors and staircases.

More information: Hub Japan

 Fall down seven times, stand up eight.

Japanese Proverb

A ninja or shinobi was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, assassination and guerrilla warfare. 

Their covert methods of waging irregular warfare were deemed dishonorable and beneath the samurai, who observed strict rules about honor and combat. The shinobi proper, a specially trained group of spies and mercenaries, appeared in the 15th century during the Sengoku period, but antecedents may have existed as early as the 12th century.

Ninja warriors

In the unrest of the Sengoku period (15th–17th centuries), mercenaries and spies for hire became active in the Iga Province and the adjacent area around the village of Kōga, and it is from the area's clans that much of our knowledge of the ninja is drawn. 

Following the unification of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate (17th century), the ninja faded into obscurity. A number of shinobi manuals, often based on Chinese military philosophy, were written in the 17th and 18th centuries, most notably the Bansenshukai (1676).

By the time of the Meiji Restoration (1868), the tradition of the shinobi had become a topic of popular imagination and mystery in Japan. Ninja figured prominently in legend and folklore, where they were associated with legendary abilities such as invisibility, walking on water and control over the natural elements. As a consequence, their perception in popular culture is often based more on such legend and folklore than on the historically accurate spies of the Sengoku period.

More information: Thoughco

After the rain, earth hardens.

Ninja Proverb

Geisha are traditional Japanese female entertainers who act as hostesses. Their wide skills include performing various arts such as Japanese classical music and traditional dance, witty games and conversation, traditionally to entertain male customers, but also female customers today.

Some geishas

In the early stages of Japanese history, there were female entertainers: Saburuko, serving girls, were mostly wandering girls whose families were displaced from struggles in the late 600s. 

Some of these saburuko girls sold sexual services, while others with a better education made a living by entertaining at high-class social gatherings. 

After the imperial court moved the capital to Heian-kyō, Kyoto, in 794 the conditions that would form geisha culture began to emerge, as it became the home of a beauty-obsessed elite. Skilled female performers, such as Shirabyōshi dancers, thrived.

Traditional Japan embraced sexual delights, it is not a Shinto taboo, and men were not constrained to be faithful to their wives. The ideal wife was a modest mother and manager of the home; by Confucian custom love had secondary importance. 

More information: Toki Tojyo

For sexual enjoyment and romantic attachment, men did not go to their wives, but to courtesans. Walled-in pleasure quarters known as yūkaku  were built in the 16th century, and in 1617 the shogunate designated pleasure quarters, outside of which prostitution would be illegal, and within which yūjo, play women, would be classified and licensed. 

The highest yūjo class was the geisha's predecessor, called tayuu, a combination of actress and prostitute, originally playing on stages set in the dry Kamo riverbed in Kyoto. They performed erotic dances and skits, and this new art was dubbed kabuku, meaning to be wild and outrageous. The dances were called kabuki, and this was the beginning of kabuki theater.

More information: Historical Honey

Martial arts is just practice. Being a geisha requires complete control. 

Michelle Yeoh

Origami, from ori meaning folding, and kami meaning paper is the art of paper folding, which is often associated with Japanese culture. In modern usage, the word origami is used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. 

The Jones & Kokeshis ready to make origamis

The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of paper into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques. Modern origami practitioners generally discourage the use of cuts, glue, or markings on the paper.  

Origami folders often use the Japanese word kirigami to refer to designs which use cuts, although cutting is more characteristic of Chinese papercrafts.

The small number of basic origami folds can be combined in a variety of ways to make intricate designs. The best-known origami model is the Japanese paper crane. In general, these designs begin with a square sheet of paper whose sides may be of different colors, prints, or patterns.

Traditional Japanese origami, which has been practiced since the Edo period (1603–1867), has often been less strict about these conventions, sometimes cutting the paper or using nonsquare shapes to start with. The principles of origami are also used in stents, packaging and other engineering applications.

More information: My Modern MET

Distinct paperfolding traditions arose in Europe, China, and Japan which have been well-documented by historians. These seem to have been mostly separate traditions, until the 20th century.

In Japan, the earliest unambiguous reference to a paper model is in a short poem by Ihara Saikaku in 1680 which mentions a traditional butterfly design used during Shinto weddings. Folding filled some ceremonial functions in Edo period Japanese culture; noshi were attached to gifts, much like greeting cards are used today. This developed into a form of entertainment; the first two instructional books published in Japan are clearly recreational.

More information: Smithsonian

My origami creations, in accordance with the laws of nature, require the use of geometry, science, and physics. They also encompass religion, philosophy, and biochemistry. Overall, I want you to discover 

the joy of creation by your own handthe possibility of creation 

from paper is infinite.
 

Akira Yoshizawa

The Jones have written some haikus dedicated to some members of the family for Ana Bean-Jones to wish a soon recovering; Silvia Jones to wish a great success in her exams; and Félix Jones and Rubén Jones to congratulate them for their successes in athletics and gymnastics.

To Ana Bean Jones:

Ana's very strong

She overcomes all bad things

She is our winner 

Haiku is a very short form of Japanese poetry.In Japanese haiku a kireji, or cutting word, typically appears at the end of one of the verse's three phrases. A kireji fills a role somewhat analogous to a caesura in classical western poetry or to a volta in sonnets. 

The Jones have written some dedicated haikus

Depending on which cutting word is chosen, and its position within the verse, it may briefly cut the stream of thought, suggesting a parallel between the preceding and following phrases, or it may provide a dignified ending, concluding the verse with a heightened sense of closure.

To Silvia Jones:

Silvia works hard

Tomorrow a great proof has

Good luck she will have

The fundamental aesthetic quality of both hokku and haiku is that it is internally sufficient, independent of context, and will bear consideration as a complete work. The kireji lends the verse structural support, allowing it to stand as an independent poem. 

The use of kireji distinguishes haiku and hokku from second and subsequent verses of renku; which may employ semantic and syntactic disjuncture, even to the point of occasionally end-stopping a phrase with a sentence-ending particle. However, renku typically employ kireji.

To Félix Jones:

He is the winner

Félix the happy boy is

The best runner is

In English, since kireji have no direct equivalent, poets sometimes use punctuation such as a dash or ellipsis, or an implied break to create a juxtaposition intended to prompt the reader to reflect on the relationship between the two parts.

To Rubén Jones:

 Rubén was training
to be a great champion
Now he is the best

The first haiku written in English was by Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro, published in 1913. Since then, the haiku has become a fairly popular form among English-speaking poets. English haiku can follow the traditional Japanese rules, but are frequently less strict, particularly concerning the number of syllables and subject matter.

More information: Web Exhibits

In eternity
We live. Come from.
Life is one Series of footprints. 

Shashi