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Feb. 19th, 2003 01:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76UCI apparently has a Go and Chess Club, started last month. I think I will check them out--their meeting is this evening. I need to learn to play Go, both to better understand what happens in Hikaru no Go (don't laugh, that series has gotten a lot of people into the game), and also to be able to play with my fiance once he arrives over here. There's also apparently a culinary club started in December. There's little info on their webpage; maybe I'll e-mail the founder.
Some interesting information came up in my "Gender in Japanese Literature" class this morning. During the Edo/Tokugawa period, Kabuki and Bunraku were developed as performance styles. The shift in the patronage of these popular entertainments to being supported mainly by the merchant class, as opposed to the Buddhist temples that had sponsored Noh drama meant that the wants and needs of the spirits in the presented works also shifted from Buddhist to Neo-Confucianist values. In short, rather than wanting enlightenment as a goal unto itself, the ghosts now wanted justice or the fulfillment of a righteous vendetta; following the completion of this vendetta, they achieved enlightenment, letting go of the last thing that had kept them on the earth. This is not too far off of the Western belief that ghosts are here because there's something they want. But more importantly, it shed a certain light upon Ukon of Ayatsuri Sakon. He became a ghost as much because he was denied justice in his life and wants to serve it to others as because he wanted to be reincarnated as a doll made by Haruka. Fascinating.
Watched the first four episodes of The Casefiles of Young Kindaichi. I got them listed as OVAs, but I think they're actually the TV series. Definitely want more. Am also interested in seeing Wolf's Rain (recommended initially by fiance, definitely looks intriguing), the rest of .hack//SIGN, the rest of Witch Hunter Robin, much more Hikaru no Go, and Weiss Kreuz Gluhen. Have also found out that the Yami no Matsuei box set is being released on July 8th. Not buying anything until finances become significantly more stable, but knowledge is always a good thing.
Some interesting information came up in my "Gender in Japanese Literature" class this morning. During the Edo/Tokugawa period, Kabuki and Bunraku were developed as performance styles. The shift in the patronage of these popular entertainments to being supported mainly by the merchant class, as opposed to the Buddhist temples that had sponsored Noh drama meant that the wants and needs of the spirits in the presented works also shifted from Buddhist to Neo-Confucianist values. In short, rather than wanting enlightenment as a goal unto itself, the ghosts now wanted justice or the fulfillment of a righteous vendetta; following the completion of this vendetta, they achieved enlightenment, letting go of the last thing that had kept them on the earth. This is not too far off of the Western belief that ghosts are here because there's something they want. But more importantly, it shed a certain light upon Ukon of Ayatsuri Sakon. He became a ghost as much because he was denied justice in his life and wants to serve it to others as because he wanted to be reincarnated as a doll made by Haruka. Fascinating.
Watched the first four episodes of The Casefiles of Young Kindaichi. I got them listed as OVAs, but I think they're actually the TV series. Definitely want more. Am also interested in seeing Wolf's Rain (recommended initially by fiance, definitely looks intriguing), the rest of .hack//SIGN, the rest of Witch Hunter Robin, much more Hikaru no Go, and Weiss Kreuz Gluhen. Have also found out that the Yami no Matsuei box set is being released on July 8th. Not buying anything until finances become significantly more stable, but knowledge is always a good thing.
