Kingdom of Benin Short Stories use delightful characters to explore aspects of life in the kingdom of Benin in its hay days. In Diary of an Edo Princess, the vulnerable Princess Iyomon finds growing up fun and a challenge; her experiences are those that most children can identify with today. This book is suitable for Key Stage 2: ages 7- 11. Other Kingdom of Benin stories by the same author: 1. Ehi Edo Warrior Chief 2. Uki at Ukpe Festival
Kingdom of Benin Short Stories use delightful characters to explore aspects of life in the kingdom of Benin in its hay days. Ehi Edo Warrior Chief turns the spotlight on a chief when he leads others through a war experience. This is war like no other. Uki at Ukpe Festival deals with a different aspect of Kingdom of Benin life. The main character, adorable Uki and her dance group is an instant hit with the audience when they present their dance at the palace to mark the king's New Year Ukpe festival. These stories present Kingdom of Benin in a jovial fun way guaranteed to entertain all readers. This book is suitable for Key Stage 2: ages 7- 11. Other Kingdom of Benin books by the same author: 1. Diary of An Edo Princess 2. Primary History Kingdom of Benin: the complete volume 3. Inside a Rainforest Royal Court: Kingdom of Benin 4. Inside a Rainforest Royal Court: Growing up in Benin
The Princess Nun tells the story of Bunchi (1619–1697), daughter of Emperor Go-Mizunoo and founder of Enshōji. Bunchi advocated strict adherence to monastic precepts while devoting herself to the posthumous welfare of her family. As the first full-length biographical study of a premodern Japanese nun, this book incorporates issues of gender and social status into its discussion of Bunchi’s ascetic practice and religious reforms to rewrite the history of Buddhist reform and Tokugawa religion. Gina Cogan’s approach moves beyond the dichotomy of oppression and liberation that dogs the study of non-Western and premodern women to show how Bunchi’s aristocratic status enabled her to carry out reforms despite her gender, while simultaneously acknowledging how that same status contributed to their conservative nature. Cogan’s analysis of how Bunchi used her prestigious position to further her goals places the book in conversation with other works on powerful religious women, like Hildegard of Bingen and Teresa of Avila. Through its illumination of the relationship between the court and the shogunate and its analysis of the practice of courtly Buddhism from a female perspective, this study brings historical depth and fresh theoretical insight into the role of gender and class in early Edo Buddhism.
This book explores what life was really like for everyday people in Ancient Benin. Using primary sources and information from archeological discoveries, it uncovers some fascinating insights and explodes some myths. Supported by timelines, maps and references to important events and people, children will really feel they are on a time-travelling journey when reading this book.
A thousand years ago, a young Japanese girl embarked on a journey from deep in the countryside of eastern Japan to the capital. Forty years later, with the long account of that journey as a foundation, the mature woman skillfully created an autobiography that incorporates many moments of heightened awareness from her long life. Married at age thirty-three, she identified herself as a reader and writer more than as a wife and mother; enthralled by fiction, she bore witness to the dangers of romantic fantasy as well as the enduring consolation of self-expression. This reader’s edition streamlines Sonja Arntzen and Moriyuki Itō’s acclaimed translation of the Sarashina Diary for general readers and classroom use. This translation captures the lyrical richness of the original text while revealing its subtle structure and ironic meaning, highlighting the author’s deep concern for Buddhist belief and practice and the juxtaposition of poetic passages and narrative prose. The translators’ commentary offers insight into the author’s family and world, as well as the style, structure, and textual history of her work.
Princess Kazunomiya, half-sister of the Emperor of Japan, relates in her diary and in poems the confusing events occurring in the Imperial Palace in 1858, including political and romantic intrigue.
English translation of the marginalia, or marginal notes, that were added to the text of the Deshima Diaries from the 1670's onwards in order to provide the Dutch chief of Deshima with a quick reference to the notes of his predecessors. This volume covers the marginalia from the 1740-4800 diaries. Providing the general public, and especially those who have neither a command of Dutch nor of Japanese access to a fascinating period of Japanese history in which the Dutch played such a singular role. At the same time, the serious scholar wil obtain an easy key to the extremely rich holdings of the archive of the Deshima trading factory, which covers a shelf length of more than forty meters in the National Archives in the Netherlands, but which has been only rarely utilized by historians, Japanologists or other scholars. In the 1740s, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was in many ways at the height of its power. The second half of the 18th century saw the decline of the Company from being the high and mighty - and only - trading company which covered from its base in Batavia (Jakarta) all of Asia with a network that stretched from Basra in Persia to Nagasaki in Japan, to becoming a mere shadow of its former self with only a tenous hold on a few possessions in the Indonesian archipelago. By the end of the century, it had lost its establishments in South Africa, India and Ceylon to the British, and its flleet was gone. However, as a trading company, it was dead, but as a proto-colonial producer it was actually doing quite well. The basis of the present text are the Deshima Dagregisters: their original tables of contents, Vol. VII (1740-1760), Vol. VIII (1760-1780), Vol. IX (1780-1790), Vol. X (1790-1800) published in the Intercontinenta Series Nos. 18 (1993), 19 (1995), 20 (1996), and 21 (1997) by the Institute for the History of European Expansion at Leiden University. Scientific Publications of the Japan-Netherlands Institute No. 21. Published by the Japan-Netherlands Institute, Tokyo 2004 (original ISBN 4930921066).
