Cat And Rabbit

Not quite enemies

nor quite friends, cat and rabbit

share a morning nap.

 

A Brief History Of Haiku (II)

 At the end of the Heian Period (A.D. 794-1185), a new poetry trend developed among the aristocracy of Japan:  the renga (連歌).

A renga (Japanese:  Linked Poem) is exactly that:  a set of linked verses. Two or more poets would create the poem:  the first poet would choose a theme and create a hokku (発句), literally the "starting verse" of 5-7-5 syllables. The next poet would have to continue the theme, using a verse of 7-7 syllables.  The next entry (be it the same poet or a new one) had to continue on the them, but again create a verse of 5-7-5; the following poet with a verse of 7-7, and so on.

A gathering of poets for such an event was called a renju, involving up to 7 or 8 poets.  There was a Master, who would set the tone and oversee the aesthetic progression of the poem.  There was a scribe, whose job it was to both write down the verses as they came as well as enforce the rules the particular genre.  Each participant would recite their verse to the scribe, who had to check it for infractions of the rules before inscribing it (Often younger aspiring poets, they had to have a prodigious memory to quickly remember every verse and compare the current verse to the previous verses.  They also had to serve as a master of ceremonies, as unlike earlier poetry, reiju could be attended by multiple social classes of people). 

There, were, of course, multiple conventions:  How the poems were to be transcribed (typically 4 sheets of paper front and back, with the first and last pages having 8 verses and the others 16 verses), the use of particular words such as a kireji (cutting word) and kigo (seasonal word).  Some phrases could only be used once, some had to be repeated if the theme demanded it.

In A.D. 1356 the first renga anthology was published. The great rengu masters often traveled from place to place and were sought after as guests of honour for renga writing.

A renga from Willian Scott Wilson's A Beginner's Guide to Haku.  This renga involved six poets:

The moon on the dry beach
where geese return
full of peace.

The boat beckons them away

with trailing white waves.

Today, leaving the capital,

how many days

has it been?

More and more the storm

on my sleeves of the journey.

On faraway fields

the sun burns the haze

at the beginning of dusk.

But with what colour,

the cloud-darkened pines?

Works cited:

Renga

Wilson, William Scott.  A Beginner's Guide to Japanese Haiku:  Tuttle Publishing, New York:  2022.

A Year Of Haiku (IV): Mistaken Identity

Buff feathers capture

my eye on a nodding branch:

Raptor in Winter!

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: Bayon Wat (III)

 More bas-relief.  At the bottom men fight as onlookers (perhaps supernatural beings?) look on:

Merchants?  Men playing a game?

Men - perhaps soldiers - marching through a forest:

More dancers:

One of the faces of Bayon Wat:

Another.  This (or a picture like it) may have been one you have seen before:

Even in decline, the temple is impressive.

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: Bayon Wat (II)

 As mentioned, Bayon Wat has an amazing collection of Bas-relief carvings.  Some of these are individual stand alone

And some of these are friezes, telling stories.

Here soldiers and an officer go to war:

Soldiers marching to war.  Note the individual on top of the element.  It could be a high officer or the King:

Design:

Carts bringing tribute or gifts:

No idea.  But pretty cool!

These dancers have some of the same hand gestures we saw in the dancing in Siam Reap:

A naval battle.  It is likely the battle led by Jayavarman VII to drive the Champa people from the site of Angkor between A.D. 1177 and 1181:

A crocodile seizes warrior that has fallen overboard as a fish swims by. The perils of naval warfare:

Of Phone Chargers And Linked In Descriptions

 

(Source)

We like to let J the Rabbit have "supervised" outings while we are home.  As part of the aforementioned outings, we try to limit her to the main part of the apartment (e.g., not our bedroom) as she has a tendency to get under the bed.  Also, she has a tendency to take out phone chargers (otherwise known in the rabbit world as "spicy hay").  The Ravishing Mrs. TB has lost two to date.

The above is why you should never trust a Linked In career description.

A Year Of Kindness (IV): The Actions Of Paul

 "We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found in our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way:  through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors watching, hunger; by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God;..." 

- 2 Corinthians 6: 4-6 RSV, emphasis mine

Our next stop on our New Testament journey of kindness has us stop in 2 Corinthians.  Written as a follow up to 1st Corinthians and an unknown "severe letter" confronting sin in the Corinthian church, it (among other things) establishes Paul's apostolic credentials in the midst of false teaching in the Church.

We are about mid-book here (chapter 6 of 13) where is speaking of how he and his associates are working to share the gospel, comparing themselves to how some of the false teachers of the day acted.  Paul is in midst of speaking about how they actively work to make the gospel accessible. Verses 4 and 5 discuss the physical issues they face - physical endurance issues through travel including all of the things he lists:  afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watching, hunger - not necessarily a list to recommend following a belief system to anyone then or now.

Then he turns to the other elements.  Some - the Holy Spirit, the power of God- are supernatural and beyond their direct control.  But others are under their control and practice - purity, knowledge, forbearance, genuine love, truthful speech.

And, of course, kindness (chrestotes (χρηστότης) - goodness of heart, kindness).

Again, it makes me wonder:  why, when listing out things that he (Paul) uses in the presentation of the Gospel and proof of his ministry, does he include kindness?

---

Paul, in this passage overall, is talking about acting as an ambassador of Christ, of drawing individuals to him - "Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation" (2nd Corinthians 6:2).  They are doing this, he states, in various ways.

The first - demonstrated by the rather long list of difficulties they have encountered - demonstrates their commitment to the cause of Christ.  It is as if Paul is saying you cannot say we do not endure great things for this message we are proclaiming (which, it follows, we must believe in - after all, why else would we do this?).

The second part breaks into three different kinds of demonstrations by Paul.  The first are those things which Paul himself has no power or control over - the Holy Spirit, the power of God. These he can demonstrate, but he cannot generate.  The second kind are those which Paul lives out personally in his life - purity, knowledge, truthful speech.  These are things which are come from him internally to the outer world.

The third kind are those which he practiced to the outer world:  forbearance, genuine love, kindness.

---

One of the thing history tells us - if anything - is that human nature has not undergone much of a change in the 2,000 years since Christ walked the Earth (or longer, really; it is not like the records dating back any farther suggest we as a species were anything but what we still are).  Therefore, these virtue practiced to the outer world - forbearance, genuine love, kindness - must have been just as out the ordinary then as they seem so much of time today.

Imagine the example of a man like Paul - beaten, tired, without a real home, constantly ministering to the needs of others, constantly thinking about all the churches he has planted, potentially always under the risk for arrest - constantly demonstrating kindness in his relationship to others. Yes, he could be severe - he confronted Peter about Judaizing, and was willing to go toe to toe with Roman authorities about his rights as a citizen - but in his letters, and likely in his person, he was kind.  

Like his Master was.

---

Kindness - like forbearance and genuine love, practiced constantly and freely - makes a mark on the people around you.  It draws them in. It, as Paul demonstrated, gives credence to the idea that something has changed in our lives:  after all, who can be consistently kind in world that too often lives by force and selfishness.

Sometimes, it even draws people in against their will.  Which should not surprise us:  when commodities are valuable and rare, people wish to attain them.  Or in Paul's case, attain the thing that makes them possible.

Gone Training 2026 Edition

 Friends, as you read this I am likely somewhere over the ocean, heading for Japan:

As in years past (2018-2020, 2024 and 2025) I will be in Japan for our annual International Seminar, about 1.5 weeks of training with the Headmaster of our style.  

As usual, I am quite looking forward to the experience (and, as it turns out, this is how I seem to spend at least 50% of my annual vacation allocation).  It is good to see everyone, and nothing beats training directly in the presence of one's headmaster and with some of the most advanced students of the school.

Equally exciting for me is that, for the first time in a while, I actually get a day that is truly a vacation day that I can go see something.

(Asakusa Temple)

(Tokyo at Dawn)

(Yasukuni Shrine)

(Soba!)

(Oishi Kuranosuke, Leader of the 47 Ronin - Sengakuji)

(Graves of the 47 Ronin - Sengakuji)

As in years past, I have pre-programmed a series of posts in my absence - and, as in years past, I beg your understanding if responses are delayed.

I am excited.  This has become one of the highlights of my year.

A Brief History Of Haiku (I)

 The first collection of poetry in Japan was published around 759 A.D. The work, called Man'yoshu (万葉集) or "Collection of 10,000 Leaves", contains 4,516 poems of various types dating from around A.D. 457 to A.D. 759.

Japan at this time was in the historical era known as the Nara period (A.D. 710 - 790).  Buddhism at this point had been in Japan for over two hundred years.  The great reform known as the Taika Reform (大化の改新), which had reoriented Japan both in its land control and its cultural orientation towards China (at that time the Tang dynasty) has occurred over a century earlier.  The capital of Heijo-kyo (now Nara) was built, larger modeled on the Tang Dynasty capital of Chang'an.

The poems of the Man'yoshu fall into several types:  long poems (chōka), short poems (tanka), one an-renga (a short connecting poem), one bussokusekika (a poem in the meter of  5-7-5-7-7-7) and several Chinese poems or quotes from Chinese literature.

"Why does any of this matter, TB?"  A couple of reasons, beyond the great benefit of having more trivial knowledge.  The first is that, like many cultures, Japan has a long history of recorded poetry.  The second is that even very early on, there were a variety of poems and their lengths (including a version of 5-7-5, which we will come to soon enough).

By the 9th Century A.D., Japan had entered a new historical period (the Heian period, A.D. 794 - 1185), had a new capital (Heian-kyo, or modern Kyoto) and Japanese poetry had a formal name - waka (和歌), which literally meant "Japanese poetry" (Wa being a very old name for Japan).  

Practiced largely by the aristocracy, who were the only ones that knew and could write in the rather formal Chinese literature, it had reached the limits of the Chinese characters versus the Japanese language - until the Buddhist monk Kukai (at least legendarily) created the Hiragana syllabary after returning from studying in China sometime in the mid-9th Century.  (New language word:  technically the hiragana is really a syllabet, as it is not truly a syllable nor an alphabet but rather the syllables of the Japanese language (we read them as k, g, t, d, s, z, n, h, b, p, m, r, and y, combined with the short vowel sounds a,e,i,o, and u).  

Within forty years or so of this radical change in writing, the poetry collection Kokinshu (古今集) would be published with around 1,100 versus dealing with seasons, love, a sort of "Human experiences" section (congratulations, partings, travel), acrostics, and a miscellany including songs from "The Bureau of Song".

This update in the Japanese Alphabet drastically changed the language and culture and, in many ways, established the syllabary that we study today.  The next great change could come not in what characters were used, but in the poems written.

Works consulted:

Man'yoshu

Nara Period

 Wilson, William Scott.  A Beginner's Guide to Japanese Haiku:  Tuttle Publishing, New York:  2022.

A Year Of Haiku (III): Gravity

 

Stones sink gracefully

into the frosty soil

under Winter's sun.

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: Bayon Wat (I)

Bayon Wat (Bayon Temple, wat meaning temple in Khmer) is located at the center of the city of Angkor Thom.  Built by its founder Jayavarman VII circa late 12th to early 13th Century A.D., it was the last state temple built at Angkor Wat.

The temple is was not actually known as "Bayon" in its time but Jayagiri, or "Victory Mountain".  It was given the name Bayon in the 1880's by a French archaeologist making a translation.

There are a total of 216 faces throughout the temple, all with a serene smile.  As with gates of Angkor Thom, experts are not sure who the faces are meant to represent:  King Jayavarman VII, Brahma, or the Buddhist bodhisattva (enlightened one) of compassion.

Another naga, the half human/half serpent serving as a temple guardian.

The Bayon Wat is filled with bas-relief  carvings.

The first time in my travels this has ever been an active concern:

The concern.  It is warm in Cambodia even in Winter, and everyone benefits from  a mid-day nap:

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: The Gates Of Angkor Thom

 Angkor Thom, as you may recall from last week, was built by the Khmer King Jayavarman VIII sometime after A.D. 1181 following the looting of the capitol of Yasodharapura by the Champa people.  Jayavarman, a devout Buddhist, started a building program that lasted through the 37 years of his reign.

At its height, Angkor Thom had a population of between 80,000 and 150,000.  Access to the city was controlled by 5 gates, 4 set at the cardinal points (North, South, East, West) and another named The Victory Gate. About a quarter of a mile from the Siam Reap river, the city is surrounded by a moat.  The walls of Angkor Thom stood 8 meters (26 ft) in their heyday.

The approach to the South Gate, the best preserved gate.

The moat is 100 m (328 ft) wide.

The moat is crossable via a causeway.  Lining the causeway are statues of devas and asuras.

At the head of the causeway stands a naga (less the carved heads at this point).

The gate stands 20 m (65 ft) high.

Mounting the top of each gate are four faces facing four directions.  They are believed to be either King Jayavarman or Brahma.