The Crossroads of the Aether
A group for those residents and explorers of the distant and ancient Silk Road. Share the era of the Meiji Period where Victorian culture merged with Bushido and Asian tradition to create the world of the Far East Silk Road.
Location: Tokyo, Japan and elsewhere.
Members: 43
Latest Activity: on Friday
Started by Raydeen Graffam Aug 30, 2012. 0 Replies 2 Likes
Release date: November, 2012 …Continue
Started by teawithablackdragon. Last reply by teawithablackdragon Apr 21, 2012. 2 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Dan Orlowitz Nov 29, 2011. 0 Replies 0 Likes
If you'll indulge me, a plug for a band that I've been working closely with since the spring! Strange…Continue
Tags: strange artifact, tokyo, japan, band, music
Started by teawithablackdragon. Last reply by teawithablackdragon Aug 8, 2011. 4 Replies 0 Likes
I have been asked to do a panel at an Anime Con. Any suggestions on content?
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Comment by SteampunkSiren on March 31, 2013 at 11:16pm
Comment by teawithablackdragon on July 8, 2012 at 2:35pm
Comment by teawithablackdragon on April 21, 2012 at 8:12am Chikanobu a Japanese Meiji artist
Comment by teawithablackdragon on August 21, 2011 at 12:31pm
Comment by Unthalit Thammavongsa on August 20, 2011 at 9:27pm
Comment by Yoko not Ono on August 20, 2011 at 8:26am
Comment by Unthalit Thammavongsa on August 20, 2011 at 6:53am
Comment by Prince of the North on June 6, 2011 at 10:07am Does anyone want to discuss kimono?
A week ago at a convention (Wiscon) in Madison Wi, I shopped at Ragstock and picked up a narrow silver/orange striped obi ($4) and a men's silver-grey silk kimono, fully lined (sale $5 !). My intent was to re-use the fabric. I've heard that normally kimono are aired out between wearings and disassembled for a rare full cleaning. In taking it apart, I found that it was all hand-stiched and had almost no cutting lines. The angles are folded under the lining. Main sections are full width of the woven fabric (which is why there is a straight back seam).
Comment by Miss Cherries Jubilee on March 7, 2011 at 3:00am Ah the SCA...speaking as a member in good standing of SCA Anonymous....hi my name is Shirikuma nakamura no kami yagiu....or was it Lady Marion of Scarborough...oh my mundane name ?....I had one of those once...I fear I have misplaced it.
I was a member of a Japanese household in Colorado in which we camped, ate and dressed in 15 cen Japanese, right down to separate tables and food at feast where the women ate in private. You wouldn't beleive the flack we took, but it was so interesting to merge into a clan system where everyone knew their role.
In my story (beginning in 1855) my airship captain, who is female, must recruit and train a crew of women. No men would take orders from her even though she is a princess of the Fujiwara clan. Thank you Mr. Turnbull. Getting around the social taboos and avoiding being married off to some prince while battling the evil British Empire makes for a very interesting story line.
Comment by Dr. Antonio Boschettofata, PhÆD on March 6, 2011 at 10:05pm "...and Japanese social mores, so very different from the west..."
==+++>> O.M.G! =YES!= I used to teach classes at the (local) SCA kingdom "university" on various topics, mostly Japanese. One of them was on "Japanese Etiquette", which, of course, included "social mores". A 'companion' class was on "Bushido: what it is and what it isn't". I had people from all over the 'temporal-location spectrum' take the classes, including a few "heavy" fighters.
As a 'general statement', students could understand limits and influencing factors caused by isolation -- Japan is a series of islands a reasonably long way from a 'mainland' of any sort. They could understand influences of high population density [Paris or London would have only been a mid~large town, =not= a "city"], of =totally= different religious ideas [Abraham? Who's he? Sin? What's that & what's it got to do with anything important?], of 'wet' grain farming [yes, a =BIG= difference between "wet" & "dry" grain farming!], etc, etc.
.. =BUT= ..
The very idea of Rights::Responsibilities, of Privilege::Duty, of "Duty is as heavy as a mountain, Death as light as a feather" .. seemed to be so hard to come to grips with, that people would come up to me months later to ask me questions about it, still trying to figure it out!!
One of the biggest 'stumbling blocks' seemed to be the idea that a person (yes, almost always a guy) could be "hard-a** & bad-to-the-bone" and three times as macho .. and 99.9%+ of the time, it wouldn't mean squat! Did you have any 'culture', any 'style', any 'gentle-ness', any 'strong yet calm spirit' -- =those= were important!
Hmmm, I'm starting to ramble and shift into 'lecture' mode .. so I think I'll shut up, now. {big grin}
© 2013 Created by Hephzibah Marsh.
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