Salad Anniversary: Modigliani

 "the ladies of Modiglianai" - numerous images can be found in the Wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amedeo_Modigliani

For example:

Higuchi Ichiyo: Grilling Mochi ("rice cakes")

 A short video about grilling mochi, Japanese style. 

TAWARA Machi and "Salad Anniversary"

 Before our class meeting on April 30 please read the following short article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machi_Tawara

POETRY COLLECTION: FINAL PROJECT

The final project for the course is to produce an annotated anthology of Japanese poetry. The deadline for submission of your project is 4 pm, Thursday, May 15. The project is to be posted on the course blog. I will show you how to do this in class. 

1. SELECTION OF THE POEMS: You should start by going over the poems that you mentioned in your responses as ones that left a strong impression on you, and that you would have wanted to discuss in class if possible. You picked them for a reason. It will be interesting to look at your choices again, after having read a wide range of Japanese poetry. 

Choose at least 8 poems, taking them from different texts or authors from throughout the course. You can even include Salad Anniversary if you wish. Choose 31- or 17-syllable poems because you will need to put them in your text. 

2. ARRANGEMENT OF THE POEMS: This is entirely up to you. The most basic arrangement will be chronological, which is perfectly fine and would allow you to address changes and developments in the poetry as history progressed. But if you can come up with a different organizing principle, that would be great. One simple possibility would be to find 8 poems that are about a season, or about love, or about Buddhist ideas, or about a particular image--such as cherry blossoms (or blossoms in general), or snow, etc. You can even try an "association and progression" kind of arrangement, if you're up for it. Be sure to write the entire poem and to give the name of the poet. The poem numbers (for those from the Carter anthology) or page numbers would help as well. 

If you find an organizing principle that you like but hadn't selected enough relevant poems in your responses, you can certainly choose other poems from our readings. 

3. DISCUSSION OF THE POEMS: Please discuss each poem in one or two substantial paragraphs following each poem. You can bring any and all of the critical and analytical approaches that we have utilized this semester. Having read so much poetry this semester, you will likely have new thoughts about poetry that you cited and discussed in your earlier responses. Basically, I'm asking you to do a kind of "pumped-up" response to each poem. 

4. INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION: In an introduction to your collection, you should discuss how you came up with your organizing principle. You should also discuss what you hope your reader will find in your collection. In a conclusion to your collection, you should wrap up your project with some final thoughts about what you have produced.

5. SOURCES, ETC.: You do not need to cite any sources for your collection. This semester, we have focused on readings of primary sources, and have not been reading secondary (academic, critical, etc.) materials for the most part. 

If you think that AI can be of help to you, you can consult it, but you cannot use any AI-generated text as your own. And if you consult AI, you must make a note of this at the end of your paper, and explain how you used AI and how it may have helped. 

I'm not going to set a minimum length for this project. You can take the length that you need to fulfill this prompt. Given that the prompt is to write one to two substantial paragraphs about each of 8 poems, there is a built-in length. 

If you really want to write about an extra poem or two, that's fine, but 8 is the minimum and 10 is the maximum. 

If you have any questions about this assignment, please let me know. 

Bunraku: Masters of the Japanese Puppet Theater (video)

 

Saikaku: Year of the Fiery Horse

 According to the World Bank, Japanese fertility rates have gone down in the Year of the Fiery Horse because people don't want to give birth to daughters that year.

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/opendata/curse-fire-horse-how-superstition-impacted-fertility-rates-japan

And here's an amusing Reddit thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1b2htt8/til_the_fire_horse_is_a_sexagenary_60_year_cycle/

Sample post:

OCPyle

•1y ago

I am a fire horse and I didn't kill my husband, but he is dead.

691

thatshygirl06

•1y ago

Well... that's suspicious

381

Saikaku: Moxibustion (aka Moxa Cautery)

 Heres Wikipedia:

Moxibustion (Chinese: 灸; pinyin: jiǔ) is a traditional Chinese medicine therapy which consists of burning dried mugwort (moxa) on particular points on the body. It plays an important role in the traditional medical systems of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Mongolia. Suppliers usually age the mugwort and grind it up to a fluff; practitioners burn the fluff or process it further into a cigar-shaped stick. They can use it indirectly, with acupuncture needles, or burn it on the patient's skin.

Moxibustion is promoted as a treatment for a wide variety of conditions, but its use is not backed by good evidence and it carries a risk of adverse effects.^[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moxibustion