Ghost, Bodhisattva and fermented

This week I have two religious related entries and a food.

The Kongoyasya one was fun to do. I was staying home with the flu and watching my VHS tape of Sanctuary when i got curious about Tokai's tattoo. So I also dug out my copy of the manga and compared the two. Then I started looking to see if it was based on a real diety. Just as I was starting to decide that it was made up I found an image of Kongoyasya in one of my books. I wonder how many other large tattoos in anime and manga have meanings behind them? This is not the first that has shown up, so I'll keep my eye out for more.

Gaki I had been meaning to do for some time and shiokara is unusual enough a food that I could not resist adding it.

I have also added a new category to the index for fermented foods.

gaki (hungry ghost) 餓鬼

Kongoyasya 金剛や者

shiokara 塩辛

Yet more food

This week I have a cold. No not the piggie flu, the symptoms are different.

This means I have low energy so I went with some easy food related entries, but worked to keep them a bit obscure.

botan-nabe (boar meat hotpot) 牡丹鍋 or ぼたん鍋

itamae (Japanese chef) 板前

yamakujira (mountain whale) 山鯨 or やまくじら

Hope you enjoy these. Next week I hope to start doing more religious related entries as people keep telling me that is an area of interest.

Japan's Tasty Secrets

Thanks to my friend Esteban in Tokyo I now have a copy of Japan's Tasty Secrets sitting on my desk.

If you want a quick overview of the regional varieties of Japanese food check it out.

Of course as soon as I get a paper copy I find out the book is now available for download as a PDF.

Three anime books

Clements, Jonathan
Schoolgirl Milky Crisis: Adventures in the Anime and Manga Trade
London: Titan Books, 2009

I was jazzed when the Cartoon Art Museum store got this one in. I spotted a box that the manager had yet to open, and knowing the book was on the way got her to process the order.

I buy damn near anything Clements publishes, the only thing I don't have is his book on the Empress Wu.

This is a fat (393 p + index) collection of his essays.

I also walked out of the museum store with:

McCarthy, Helen
500 Essential Anime Movies: The Ultimate Guide
New York: Collins Design, 2008

An excellent book to show folks who are trying to decide what to watch next.

Richmond, Simon
The Rough Guide to Anime: Japan's finest from Ghibli to Gankutsuo
New York: Rough Guides, 2009

Looks like a good introduction to the industry and has entries on 50 select titles.

I also recommend his Rough Guide to Tokyo, one of the best travel books on the city available.

Food, two roots and a technique

This week I decided to start adding food related entries again. You see when I created the Topical/Subject Index to the Anime Companion Supplement I realized how many food related item I had and decided to focus on other subjects for some time.

Viz is now publishing the Oishinbo manga and I'm hearing from retailers that it is selling quite well. Plus I feel inspired by the love of food shown by Jigoro in Yawara, the Fashionable Judo Girl anime. So I decided to again start including food related entries. Originally I planned to do one a week. However for this week my plan was for an entry for kabu (turnip) 蕪, however my example from Samurai X Trust and Betrayal showed a second root crop satoimo (taro) 里芋. So I included that one, thing is the taro entry included that the root is used in nimono (simmered food) 煮物. The result was three interlocked food entries.

To make things even more interesting, and to simplify to locating entries, I have added two new food related sub-categories to the Topical/Subject Index. There are now entries for Food - Cooking Techniques and Food - Processed Ingredients. The addition of categories and sub-categories will continue as the index expands with new entries.

A weapon, a divination and a firefighting aid

This weeks entries all will be of interest to those of you who enjoy stories set in the Edo Period. Three items, two commonly seen the other still seen today.

metsubushi (sight remover) 目潰し

ninsō (physiognomy) 人相

tensui-oke (rainwater buckets) 天水桶

Small temple, large temple, wrestler

This week I cover two famous temples one small and one very large as well as a man who was very large in his time.

Fans of Yawara!, Genshiken and Ghost Slayers Ayashi will learn about details in those works.

Jōkanji 浄閑寺

Rikidozan 力道山

Shinshōji 新勝寺