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Shinto: The Way of the Kami
Look here to learn more about the background of Shinto in the Tokugawa Era: https://sway.com/IsBOBohK8JTVEGOF
53 Stations of the Tokaido Road
There are a few connections from The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn at some of the stations on the Tokaido road such as Station 47, Kameyama. Seikei stops at Kameyama on he and his dad’s trip to Edo. The whole book is about the crime that was committed in the inn in Kameyama. Seikei thought that he saw a jinkininki outside of his room the night that the ruby disappeared. Judge Ooka found a tunnel in the inn that led to a monastery where a troupe of actors slept the night before. The book was built on the foundations of what happened in Kameyama… The missing ruby, a tunnel to a monastery, the fact that a troupe of actors performed a play the night before and slept in the monastery where the tunnel led, all that led up to Judge Ooka and Seikei following the theif to Edo and finding out his motives.
There are several interesting facts that I learned about the stations of the Tokaido road. I learned that the first station of the road begins in Edo and that there was a bridge in the middle of the city. The bridge is the beginning of the Tokaido road. I also learned that station 39, Okazaki, had a castle that was the birthplace of Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate. He also became shogun and took credit for what Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi helped create – the 66 provinces of Japan united into a feudal agreement.
Renga Poem
As the snow falls forth
covering what was made then
plant life comes again. AG
If the night is chilling now,
the plants will hold off longer. CR
I see snow melt and the life
of plants come again. AG
Touring 18th Century Edo
I decided to write about and research the temple of the 47 Ronin or Senkakuju. A lord called “Kira” was visiting the Shogun’s palace and was insulting a Samurai called Asano. Kira purposely knocked off his sandal but made it look like an accident and told Asano to put it back on. Asano lost his temper and drew his sword and injured Kira but had to do seppuku for drawing weapons in the house of the Shogun. His 47 retainers became ronin, samurai without a master, and swore to avenge their master. One ronin, Oishi, made a plan so for a year, the ronin were humiliated and insulted and treated badly. The ronin met at the house of Kira once a year passed and found him. Oishi offered him to do the honorable thing, seppuku but he begged for mercy so Oishi killed Kira. The ronin had to commit seppuku too because they killed Kira but they were honored because they endured many insults and misery to avenge their master.
I am Human
One of the two quotes that stood out to me was “We are all born different, so don’t be the same.” The quote made me think that we are all different and special in our own ways and since we are all different, why be exactly the same as the person next to you or your best friend. Another quote was “I am but a small voice”. It makes me think about who or what the world might listen to. The world might not take a small voice, one person, seriously but if you gather a lot of people, the world might listen because a lot of people is a bigger voice that the world might listen to. Every human is unique and if a team works together, they could make one big voice that the world might listen to but one person on his/her own would have a small voice the world might not listen to.