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oborogin (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
Wow!You know well about Jp's history.Actually, Saigo san is one of my respected person.In that period, many young people fought for Japan's future without any ego.We need to learn something from them now...Have a good one!!
oborogin (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
Thanks ma~n.I also know about many Western stories came to Jp and also many Asian's went to western.It is interesting..Ancestors are really great!!Have a good one!!
oborogin (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
Thanks buddy!!It is good to know ma~n..Western people are same as Jp.Not only the religion...Have a good one!
iluvwine13 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
I also read the autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa. I liken him to be the Benjamin Franklin of Japan. He was ahead of his time. He basically founded modern Japan. He embraced western thought and science as a way to benefit Japanese society. He studied medicine and went abroad as an embassador to the United States to learn more about what the west was doing. he thought the old Samurai ways were what made japan vulnerable to Western imperialism. He wanted his country to evolve and become better.
iluvwine13 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
Hey Oborogin! I have read a biography of Saigo Takamori who I think was one of the greatest people in Japanese history. I think he instilled the notion of keeping cultural values alive. He fought the Meiji government because he thought the Japanese were losing their cultural identity by adopting everything western and doing so at a brisk pace. It is not that he didn't want to borrow from the west, rather he did not want Japan to lose its cultural heritage. He fought for what he believed in.
acromel (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
Further to Hikosaemon comment, the Greek Aesop's fables were, I think, brought to Japan in the Edo period by the Portuguese.(I think it's 伊曾保物語).The Brothers Grimm also collected a lot of Western folklore and fairy tales into their book "Grimms' Fairy Tales". Most folklore and fairy stories have moral and ethical lessons although, over time, the meanings have become lost.I'll look out for those books, I'm reading いっすんぼうし and it's a fun way to study! :o)
Hikosaemon (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
I have a good one for you - try googling "Aesop's Fables". This is kind of the western culture equivalent of those stories. It is all about animals and is 2500 years old so older than christianty, but all the stories have a moral message, so people tell these stories to their kids in all European and western countries. I've never read those Japanese stories, it might be fun to check out! Thanks for the tip. Oyasuminasai! |
