Thanks, wisdom, curse

This week I cover something every anime fan has heard, unless you only watch re-dubs. Plus another Bodhisattva and a general religious entry.

itadakimasu いただきます

Monju (Manjusri) 文殊

tatari (curse or spiritual retribution) 祟り

Next week? Who knows? I am open to suggestions.

Food, high and low

This week I again do food entries. In fact expect more soon as I intend to fill some gaps in the culinary related entries.

kaiseki ryōri 懐石料理

ryōtei (traditional restaurants) 料亭

tsukimi (culinary term) 月見

This week choosing to do an entry on ryōtei led to the need to do one on kaiseki ryōri.

Take out, spooky and offering.

I have a new subcategory in the topical index Business - Food & Restaurants.

This week I have a food service related entry, a spooky tale custom and something to bring to bring to a Japanese funeral.

bentô-ya (bentô shop) 弁当屋

hyakumonogatari (100 stories) 百物語

kôden (incense money) 香奠

There is actually a bit of a theme this week, two of the entries have references from 20th Century Boys manga. I'll put up a review of the first 20th Century Boys live action movie soon, I went to see it in San Francisco at the Viz Cinema theater in the New People building in Japantown on Saturday.

This blog entry typed to T-Rex's 20th Century Boy.

Kaze Hikaru 14

I'm greatly enjoying the volumes of Kaze Hikaru that Viz is publishing. After all I'm a bit of a sucker for stories in the set in the bakumatsu period (see: The Anime Companion 2 p.8), especially stories about the Shinsengumi.

What was most interesting to me was the supplementary material found at the end of this volume, each volume has a section where the author writes various things related to the story. This time there was a section on women's hairstyles. The thing is in all my years of studying Japanese culture I have never seen so much on Edo Period women's hairstyles in one place. This is an example of the lack of material in English on many aspects of Japanese society. The supplements and notes at many current translations are useful sources of information for the readers but Kaze Hikaru is exceptional.

Kaze Hikaru is a josei manga, even tho' Viz publishes it in their Shojo Beat line. While aimed at young women the tale is very well done and the characters portrayed well. I highly recommend this series for anyone interested in the period and a good tale. However do be aware that male male sexual situations do turn up (nothing explicit shown) and there are trips to the local red light district (again nothing explicit shown).

Three more on Buddhism

This week's entries all related to Buddhism, and to each other.

Amida 阿弥陀

Jōdo-Shinshū 浄土真宗

Jōdoshū (Jōdo sect) 浄土宗

The largest Buddhist group in the US is the Buddhist Churches of America a Jōdo-Shinshū organization.

Male geisha, festive curtain, future Buddha

This week I'm happy to finally have an entry on male geisha, it took until recently for an anime to come out in the US with a reference to them. However now that I've written the entry I'll go back and re-check Saber Marionette as I realize it may have one in it. I now also have an entry on something you see in many titles, red and white curtains at festive events. Then continuing the adding of religiously related entries I have one on Miroku, commonly known as Maitreya in the West.

hōkan (male geisha) 幇間

kō-haku-no-manmaku (red and white curtain) 紅白の幔幕

Miroku (Maitreya) 弥勒