Yamamba's Mountains
Title | Yamamba's Mountains PDF eBook |
Author | Linda C. Ehrlich |
Publisher | ATBOSH Media Ltd. |
Pages | 20 |
Release | 2019-11 |
Genre | Poetry |
ISBN | 1626131724 |
These writings are inspired by the medieval-period Japanese Noh play Yamamba, and by Ohba Minako’s short story “Smile of a Mountain Witch” which contemporizes the Yamamba legend.Yamamba (sometimes written as “Yamauba”) is an elderly figure who is alternately described as a “witch” or a “holy spirit.” The first act of the Noh play presents a priest and dancer on pilgrimage to Zenkoji Temple (literally “Temple of the Good Light”) who encounter a powerful and ambiguous figure of an old woman in the mountain. The travellers comment on the strange changes in Nature that day, with the sky suddenly darkening. By the second act, the old woman has exited and returned to reveal herself fully as Yamamba, her true self, with matted white hair and a reddened face. Yamamba is a paradoxical figure. She aids the woodsman and the weaver, but also hides the sun behind storm clouds and frightens the traveller. Stamping the ground, pointing to the center of the earth with her fan, Yamamba leans on her cane (decorated with evergreen leaves) and shares with us her journey as she traverses the mountain paths, in pain.
Yamamba
Title | Yamamba PDF eBook |
Author | Rebecca Copeland |
Publisher | Stone Bridge Press, Inc. |
Pages | 144 |
Release | 2021-06-22 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 1611729483 |
Alluring, nurturing, dangerous, and vulnerable the yamamba, or Japanese mountain witch, has intrigued audiences for centuries. What is it about the fusion of mountains with the solitary old woman that produces such an enigmatic figure? And why does she still call to us in this modern, scientific era? Co-editors Rebecca Copeland and Linda C. Ehrlich first met the yamamba in the powerful short story “The Smile of the Mountain Witch” by acclaimed woman writer Ōba Minako. The story revealed the compelling way creative women can take charge of misogynistic tropes, invert them, and use them to tell new stories of female empowerment. This unique collection represents the creative and surprising ways artists and scholars from North America and Japan have encountered the yamamba.
The Book of Yokai
Title | The Book of Yokai PDF eBook |
Author | Michael Dylan Foster |
Publisher | University of California Press |
Pages | 330 |
Release | 2015-01-14 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0520271025 |
Monsters, ghosts, fantastic beings, and supernatural phenomena of all sorts haunt the folklore and popular culture of Japan. Broadly labeled yokai, these creatures come in infinite shapes and sizes, from tengu mountain goblins and kappa water spirits to shape-shifting foxes and long-tongued ceiling-lickers. Currently popular in anime, manga, film, and computer games, many yokai originated in local legends, folktales, and regional ghost stories. Drawing on years of research in Japan, Michael Dylan Foster unpacks the history and cultural context of yokai, tracing their roots, interpreting their meanings, and introducing people who have hunted them through the ages. In this delightful and accessible narrative, readers will explore the roles played by these mysterious beings within Japanese culture and will also learn of their abundance and variety through detailed entries, some with original illustrations, on more than fifty individual creatures. The Book of Yokai provides a lively excursion into Japanese folklore and its ever-expanding influence on global popular culture. It also invites readers to examine how people create, transmit, and collect folklore, and how they make sense of the mysteries in the world around them. By exploring yokai as a concept, we can better understand broader processes of tradition, innovation, storytelling, and individual and communal creativity.
Traditional Japanese Theater
Title | Traditional Japanese Theater PDF eBook |
Author | Karen Brazell |
Publisher | Columbia University Press |
Pages | 580 |
Release | 1998 |
Genre | Drama |
ISBN | 9780231108737 |
The first book of its kind: a collection of the most important genres of Japanese performance--noh, kyogen, kabuki, and puppet theater--in one comprehensive, authoritative volume.
The Book of Yokai, Expanded Second Edition
Title | The Book of Yokai, Expanded Second Edition PDF eBook |
Author | Michael Dylan Foster |
Publisher | Univ of California Press |
Pages | 479 |
Release | 2024-10-22 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0520389565 |
Significantly expanded and updated—a lively excursion into Japanese folklore and its increasing influence within global popular culture. Monsters, spirits, fantastic beings, and supernatural creatures haunt the folklore and popular culture of Japan. Broadly labeled yōkai, they appear in many forms, from tengu mountain goblins and kappa water sprites, to shape-shifting kitsune foxes and long-tongued ceiling-lickers. Popular today in anime, manga, film, and video games, many yōkai originated in local legends, folktales, and regional ghost stories. The Book of Yōkai invites readers to examine how people create, transmit, and collect folklore, and how they make sense of the mysteries in the world around them. Revised and expanded, this second edition features fifty new illustrations, including an all-new yōkai gallery of stunning color images tracing the visual history of yōkai across centuries. In clear and accessible language, Michael Dylan Foster unpacks the cultural and historical contexts of yōkai, interpreting their varied meanings and introducing people who have pursued them through the ages.
The Religious Art of Zen Master Hakuin
Title | The Religious Art of Zen Master Hakuin PDF eBook |
Author | Katsuhiro Yoshizawa |
Publisher | ReadHowYouWant.com |
Pages | 390 |
Release | 2010-09-07 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 1458758834 |
The Religious Art of Zen Master Hakuin is a stunning volume containing many of Hakuin's finest calligraphies and paintings. Katsuhiro Yoshizawa, the leading Japanese expert on Hakuin, masterfully reveals the profound religious meaning embedded in each artwork, providing a richly detailed documentary of the life and lessons of one of Zen's most respected teachers.
Imagination without Borders
Title | Imagination without Borders PDF eBook |
Author | Laura Hein |
Publisher | University of Michigan Press |
Pages | 175 |
Release | 2020-06-01 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 0472901621 |
Tomiyama Taeko, a Japanese visual artist born in 1921, is changing the way World War II is remembered in Japan, Asia, and the world. Her work deals with complicated moral and emotional issues of empire and war responsibility that cannot be summed up in simple slogans, which makes it compelling for more than just its considerable beauty. Japanese today are still grappling with the effects of World War II, and, largely because of the inconsistent and ambivalent actions of the government, they are widely seen as resistant to accepting responsibility for their nation’s violent actions against others during the decades of colonialism and war. Yet some individuals, such as Tomiyama, have produced nuanced and reflective commentaries on those experiences, and on the difficulty of disentangling herself from the priorities of the nation despite her lifelong political dissent. Tomiyama’s sophisticated visual commentary on Japan’s history—and on the global history in which Asia is embedded—provides a compelling guide through the difficult terrain of modern historical remembrance, in a distinctively Japanese voice.