General Japanese Culture Thread

Well, there was also that one time that Nobunaga burned down a temple complex and ordered his men to cut down anyone fleeing, women and children included.

I always thought that warranted some special mention whenever the moral character of Nobunaga comes up.

Which would be fair, if the temple complex wasn't Mt. Hiei with warrior monks who were set against Nobunaga. Women and children dying was regular occurence throughout the period. This actually necessitated rules for the removing of noses with the upper lip as it was not uncommon for samurai to attempt to sell women's and children's chopped off noses as soldiers they killed.

Brutality was the norm. Nobunaga was exceptionally pragmatic, as the audacity of attacking a holy mountain shows. Which almost certainly is one of the starts of his demonization in the historical record.

edited 15th May '17 10:27:40 AM by TerminusEst

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele

Aren't there a few questions about the actual number of civilians who were there? Inflating the number is practically traditional.

I can't speak to disabled veterans specifically, but the attitude toward disabled people in general can basically be summed up as "don't make trouble". If you're asking for accommodations for your disability, then you're asking for special treatment, which is frowned upon. The attitude is that you're being selfish by asking other people to go out of their way for your sake. The fact that they need that accommodation or else they'd be an even bigger burden doesn't keep it from being "selfish" for them to ask.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

Nobunaga was similarly unpleasant to the people of Iga Province - another valid-ish military target, given all the ninjas, but by all accounts, the slaughter was brutal even by the standards of the time.

What's precedent ever done for us?

True, some half of the province's entire population which was around 100,000. The province and Iga ninjutsu was effectively scorched.

He really liked burning things. If anything he had a modus operandi.

edited 15th May '17 9:38:13 PM by TerminusEst

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele

He even had the temple of Honnō-ji burned down around him when he committed suicide in the face of Mitsuhide's coup.

Oda Nobunaga. A hardcore burninator to the end.

edited 15th May '17 9:37:26 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised

It's been a few days since mother's day, but let us still remember figures often ignored in Japanese history: The Empresses.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele

Do we have a trope for when fiction leaves a stronger impression than history? Especially when fiction is your first encounter with the concept? To me, Honnouji is a school run by clothes fetishists.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Adaptation Displacement? Lost in Imitation?

One thing Nioh shows that no other depection of him has is freeing Yasuke from Slavery and he treated him no differently from other samurai under him despite being not believing in his skin color at first.

Watch Symphogear

Whoa. The drama. I teared up a bit.

Looks like a good game!

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

The story of Yasuke is incredible and one of the better displays of Nobunaga's surprisingly open worldview, just like his treatment of Christians (who were persecuted before and after downfall for pretty much the entire history of Japan up until the Meiji Restoration). Though we don't actually know if he was a slave. He most likely was, but Yasuke is a character almost entirely Shrouded in Myth, he shows up as an attendant of a jesuit (but no chronicle makes mention of him being a slave or a free man), and then he becomes Nobunaga's bodyguard (but again no one says if the jesuit freed Yasuke, Nobunaga bought his freedom or if he just jointed him willingly as a free man).

After Nobunaga's death he just went to a jesuit convert where he was apparently very well-received but then history makes no mention of him and he just up and vanishes from the history books.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

Today, when I have placed 11th in an in-game event of a mobile game event and tweeted about it, I got some support from my fellow Japanese players whom we follow each other. The winner even encouraged me.

Now, the headscratcher here is that is it common for Japanese mobile players to support each other even when they are rivals? I saw them having random talks and sharing information in Twitter.

Not necessarily a thread for that. You could try the video game threads for mobile games.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele

Friendly Rivalry is a quintessential Japanese trope.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

I was thinking more the game aspect. I've only seen rivalry in school and the entertainment industry, which gets very nasty.

Maybe because it was not a game?

edited 19th May '17 7:48:11 AM by TerminusEst

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele

This leads to another headscratcher: if the Japanese society prioritize harmony and whatnot, why rivalries can get nasty? I read somewhere in Cracked that some idol groups outright deliberately hold events on the same day to force fans to choose one or another.

Rivalries are 1 vs 1 (or at least similar numbers on each side), societal harmony is many vs 1. Different circumstances.

edited 19th May '17 4:03:20 PM by nightwyrm_zero

Also, Japanese people aren't robots. Horrible artistic feuds are universal - when an industry is built around provoking emotion, it's a guarantee that emotions will get heightened within it.

What's precedent ever done for us?

Were names like "Karen" and "Naomi" Japanese from the start to the Japanese people, or were they a result of Western influence, with the Japanese being able to find the kanji for both?

According to a quick google search, Karen is both a name with germanic roots and also a japanese name, and it appears to be a coincidence.

I think that's also the case with "Naomi".

"Karen" means "beautiful" in Japanese, which sounds like the kind of thing parents would name daughters, so yeah, probably a coincidence. Japanese "Naomi" is usually pronounced like NOW-MI or NAH-OH-MI whereas the Hebrew name tends to pronounce it NAY-OH-MI so that one's probably also a coincidence.

edited 23rd May '17 7:22:50 PM by AlleyOop

Its the same as "Yuri", in Russian it is a derivative of 'George' thus a guy's name. In Japanese it is a Lily and a girl's name, also Yuri Genre.

Which made Yuri On Ice the most misleading POS ever.

edited 24th May '17 7:22:58 PM by Memers

It's like "Idris" as a name — it has a Welsh past (ardent lord) and an Arabic one (interpretor). And, Anglo-Saxons and Normans also stole it for a few centuries before it dropped out of fashion, but they often made a boy's name a girl's because it sounded close to "-dis", a usually female indicative suffix often used in their naming patterns. *shrugs*

There are only so many sounds the human mouth, diaphragm and vocal chords can make to put together.

edited 25th May '17 4:37:55 AM by Euodiachloris