Vol.10
Forest of Thought
The Japanese Word for Tourism Comes from the I Ching's Guan Hexagram｜Its True Meaning Is Observing the Light of a Country's Virtue
The word for tourism comes from the Guan hexagram of the I Ching: "to observe the light of the kingdom; it is beneficial to be a guest of the king." The light means not scenery or famous sites but the radiance of a nation's "virtue." Tourism was neither a carefree excursion nor a place to find oneself. It was an utterly political and ethical observation.
Kunitsukami Project
Concrete Suffocated the Kunitsukami｜From Keichu to Atsutane Hirata's Restoration
What suppressed, beneath the ground, the human works and cultures that differ from place to place is concrete. Kokugaku, begun with Keichu, sought the true Japan by stripping away the foreign membrane, and with Atsutane Hirata the cry for "restoration" arose. Restoration is the state seen at the end of probing the membrane at the cost of one's life.
KINEMA 2400
Toei's Ninkyo Film Jinsei Gekijo Hishakaku (Theater of Life)｜The Stillness of Koji Tsuruta and the Motion of Ken Takakura
When the stage of chambara swordplay moved to television, what Toei found as its new form was the "ninkyo" film. The turning point was Theater of Life: Hishakaku in 1963. Where Koji Tsuruta, who had lived through the war, was stillness, Ken Takakura was motion, and audiences could entrust their pent-up frustration to either.