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How to live with “iki”; “we will not have extra money to use tomorrow”

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Recently, I was asked by my friend to translate a short Japanese song into English. Su-zu-shi-ge-ni Mi-zu-no-o-to-su-ru Ya-na-gi-ka-ge Tu-ki-ni-ka-ku-re-te To-bu-ho-ta-ru The innocent meaning of the lyrics is as follows; “hearing the sounds of water I am comfortable, and I looked up to the moon from near the silhouette of a willow. What a lot of fireflies are flying under the bright moon!” It is so beautiful. If it were read innocently, you would be impressed by only the beautiful scene. However, it is a short song which is sung by a geisha, who is a Japanese singer and dancer while serving sake to guests at a room for mature Japanese drinking. Then I translated it to the lyrics below. The Translation “Refreshingly The sound of water resonates the silhouette of a willow Flying fireflies hidden by the bright moon” Do you understand the different nuances between both? The scene I described from the lyrics is as follows. The Scene of The lyrics ...
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The persistence of a Japanese stem tea maker in Kanazawa

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There is a tea brand called “Kaga-bohcha”, the Japanese stem tea in Kanazawa (that is the same as “Kaga”). You may know it as the tea frappe chino of Starbucks. Its characteristics is its aroma, and the color of the tea is brown and the taste isn’t tannic.There is one of their cafeterias in Higashi-chaya-gai in Kanazawa. Higashi-chaya-gai is a popular sightseeing spot. Both sides along a central street have all traditional Japanese buildings. The front face of each building has a few beautiful big windows which are covered with art-craft grid patterns made by thin wooden sticks. The central street is made by flagstones. And over there behind the edge of the street is a hill covered with green leaves, you can’t see anything modern here and over there. Just upon entering into the town you shall feel that you are standing on a place of a different dimension. You may feel exited whether you can experience something you never have. The tea café of the maker of the Japanese stem tea is on a ...
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Sumiyoshi Shrine and spirits of words

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Sumiyoshi Shrine is located in the south of Osaka City. Its history is very long and the form of the architecture is particular. There are four main houses for praying and the form of the houses is called “Sumiyoshi-tsukuri”. The shrine is called the guarding-god of Osaka, in addition, it has other names, the god of good voyage, the god of purification(“harae”), the god of a safe birth, the god of Japanese poetry(“waka”) etc. In fact, the shrine enshrines four gods, Sokotutu-no-ono-mikoto, Nakatutu-no-ono-mikoto, Uwatutu-no-ono-mikoto, and Jingu Empress, and each of the four gods have a house.Three mikotos are noted in an ancient history-book, “Kojiki”, as they were born in the sea when Izanagi-no-mikoto underwent a purification after coming back from the world of death. then three mikotos are gods of voyage and god of purification. Jingu Empress is the god of safe birth, it was already written in this blog. However, the reason why it was named the god of Japanese poetry isn’t reveal...
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Praying for a safe birth and first visit of a new baby to a shrine

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Nakayama-dera Temple is famous for being the place of praying for a safe birth in the Kansai area. It is one of a few temples which have elevators and escalators for visitors, and its buildings are magnificent and not old, so it looks glorious. Despite of the early morning and the rainy day there were many couples and families with pregnant women or babies, and it made a happy mood. Praying for a safe birth A pregnant woman wants a safe birth of her baby, it must be a common wish for pregnant women around the world. In Japan the wish made the common custom of praying for a safe birth. This custom was made by some Japanese fundamental thoughts during ancient times and some Japanese spells. So I want you to know the Japanese thoughts and spells. Firstly, a fetus in its mother’s womb gets its spirit approximately 9 weeks after the pregnancy and the fetus’s mother gets her morning sickness, it is Japanese spiritual thoughts. And five months after pregnancy the spirit of the fetus ...
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The tanabata story of a female deity and a male deity across the Milky Way and Orimono Shrine

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Once upon a time, a female deity, Orihime, lived on the west side of Amanogawa (the Milky Way). She had been very good at weaving since her childhood. The clothes she wove in the celestial world became fresh mist and clouds, and covered mountains and fields. When Orihime became marrying age, her father brought, as her fiancé, the deity of a cowherd, Hikoboshi, from the east side of Amanogawa. They quickly fell in love and no longer worked as before. So, people said, “It’s not normal weather. Recently, the mist and clouds don’t come out at all.” Orihime’s father was very upset at this situation and decided to separate his daughter from Hikoboshi. Still, Orihime’s father suggested one condition to the couple – If you work hard, I will allow you to meet up once a year on the night of July 7th”. Since then, Orihime worked harder than before and looked forward to meeting Hikoboshi on July 7th. (From a leaflet of Katano City) It is a very popular story in Japan and there are a lot o...
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Let’s copy out Heart Sutra

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“Let’s protect ourselves against the invisible coronavirus by the invisible power of copying out Heart Sutra.” Yohnin Koike, the vice-chief priest of Suma-dera Temple, called on everyone via YouTube. Copy out Heart Sutra He said that the Emperor Saga had eagerly copied out Heart Sutra praying for the recovery from an epidemic in Japan in ancient times and the epidemic had faded out. “Coping out Heart Sutra gives you a mysterious power, thus let’s try to copy out Heart Sutra even if you have no experience of not only copying it out but also reading it”, he added. Every person in the world can do it and participate in the circle of something mysterious. It is said that Heart Sutra has its mysterious power in its each individual word, thus even if you don’t know its kanji or Japanese language, you can be initiated into something mysterious by copying out Heart Sutra. Incidentally, a man in ancient times made an emoji sutra, illuminated sutra, for people who had no knowledge o...
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Todai-ji Temple; the magnificent hope in the most severe time after a horrible epidemic

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So far a lot of travelers visit Todai-ji Temple continually. They enjoy seeing the large historical statue of Buddhism and giving food to deer in Nara Park near the temple. It looks like a peaceful scene. However, COVID-19 is altering the world extremely. Several thousand people in the world are dying due to it everyday. Many of the people on the earth are forced to stay home. Now few people visit there. Meanwhile, the core desire of this Buddha since the beginning is to cherish people and to guard people from epidemic. If you knew the episode of building the temple, you would become more interested in the temple. The chronicle of establishing the temple The most important key person of the temple was Emperor Shomu. He was born in 701, when the first significant law “Taiho-ritsuryo” in Japan, which was learned from the law in China, was regulated by Emperor Tembu. And Shomu was the great grand-child of Tembu. Ultimately, we can say that Shomu was raised in the atmosphere of ...
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