Japanese education ~12~ Where does the name Mt.Fuji come from???

  There is a story, called Kaguya hime in Japanese classical literature.
Most of people in Japan have read this story in our childhood.
"Hime" means princess.
  This is a story about a princess that came from the moon.
The storyline is like below.

  There were old man and woman who don't have children.
One day, when he was working in the mountain, he found a bamboo
whose root was shining. He cut the bamboo. He found a small cute girl
in the bamboo.
  The old man and woman raised the lovely girl with warmed heart.
They named the girl "Nayotake no Kaguya hime"
She became a so beautiful woman.

  A lot of noblemen got to know the woman. They were curious of Kaguya hime.
They tried to get married with her. However, she refused that.

  And an emperor also heard of Kaguya hime.
The emperor wanted to get married with Kaguya hime as well.
Kaguya hime refused emperor's requirement.
  One day Kaguya hime disclose the old man and woman
that she was a women from the moon. And she told she had to
go back to the moon soon. Kaguya hime tells some messengers would come there
soon. Of course, the old man and woman did not wanted her to go back the moon.
  And also the emperor did not.

  The old man and woman tried to stop the messengers
The emperor also tried to stop.

 However, their trials were in vain.
Eventually, Kaguya hime went back to the moon. She gave
a medicine instead of returning to the moon. That was the elixir of life.

 The emperor depressed so much . And he decided to burn the medicine
at the place where is the closest to the sky. The emperor got to know the
highest mountain was Mt. Fuji and he went there with a lot of soldiers.
Then, he ordered to burn the medicine there.

  The story is like this.

  When you write Mt. Fuji by Kanji, you write like this. 富士
And "Fu" 富 means "a lot of"
Ji 士　means "soldiers".
  The origin of the name of Mt. Fuji may be from this story.
Some one named 富士 because the emperor went the mountain with
a lot of soldiers to burn the medicine.
  By the way, in Japanese, the Kanji of the elixir of life is 不死.
Hu 不　means "no"
JI 死　means death.
And the pronunciation of 不死　is "Fuji". So there is also rhyme here.

 Classical literature is so deep...

Japanese education ~11~ English education

  Today's newspaper says, Japanese Ministry of Education decided to start
English education from third grade(8~9 years old) at elementary school.
  In Japan, there is a English class at elementary school.
However, perhaps, it is once a week or so. It's a quite few.
  I think we should start to learn English more earlier age.
Some people say, we should not start learning the second language
before our first language develops. I think it doesn't matter so much.
The newspaper says, the education system would start from 2020,
the year when the Olympic will be held in Tokyo.

Japanese education ~10~The classical literature

  From next year, I have to teach junior high school students
Japanese at my workplace. I mean, I will have both English and Japanese class
at my work place. I have been preparing for the classes of next year now.
The other day, I learned the Japanese classical literature.
  I haven't read such works recently. I used to study it until high school.
  On this posting, I will write about the work I learned at that day.

  I still feel hard to find those classical literature are interesting. ^^;
When I was in school, I didn't enjoy learning classical so much.
However, I felt it was not so difficult to read the work.
  Japanese junior high school students have to read the work
like below in order to enter high school. The work is from the
examination for entering high school of Kumamoto prefecture.
 If you want to get in the public high school,
you have to have each prefecture's test held in March.

  This classical work was written at the end of Heian period.(794-1192)

From "Kojidan"(= title of the book)

  Kyougoku daijou daijinn(it is the status of a person) Munesuke kou (= a man
whose name is Munesuke) was having bees. People said it is useless.

  An aristocrat was at Tobadono(= the name of an imperial villa which is
located in suburb of Kyoto).
 One day, a beehive suddenly fell down in front of an aristocrat and
a lot of bees flew through the air. People got in panic.
 Munesuke found a "biwa(=a loquat)"which was in front of the aristocrat.
And then he peeled it and raised it. All the bees put on the loquat.
Bees did not fly through the air any more. Munesuke gave the loquat
the servant besides the aristocrat.

 The aristocrat said "I appreciate so much."
He praised him so much.

                                                    Fin

  How did you feel, reading this story?
The original story has some phrases that has not been used nowadays.
So, it is kind of difficult to read. However, the story is understandable.

Japanese food ~36~A saury Sanma

The season for saury has arrived.

Do you eat saury in your country?
If you live in Japan, you can enjoy eating fish in each season.
Japan is surrounded by the ocean. So, we have the habit of eating fish frequently.
There might be a manner when you eat saury. You should eat it cleanly.

Japanese traditional culture ~38~Yuinou no gi 結納の儀（ゆいのうのぎ）

  You are so lucky. At this posting, you can see  so rare  photos.
Most of foreign people in the world, would not have ever seen
those photos.
(Actually, we also haven't ever seen the stuffs in our life)

I will write about ceremony of Yuinou on this posting.
  We Japanese people do a formal ceremony, called "Yuinou no gi"
before we get married.
  This tradition has many meanings.
  First of all, this ceremony has the meaning of swearing the
engagemento in the public. And after this ceremony, each
family of the bride and groom becomes closer.
 And second, the bride and groom exchange some gifts
each other.

  Some decades ago, the bride used to invited the groom to her
house and did the ceremony. But nowadays, traditional styled
Japanese restaurant is used for the ceremony.
  At this ceremony, some gifts are given from the groom to the bride.
The wife of the owner of Japanese restaurant is called
"Okamisann" She explained well about the meaning of the
gifts.

The groom needs to give a lot of money for the bride.
That is called "Yuinou kin" Kin means "money".

The gift on your right is Surume. It's a dried squid.
This dried food can be preserved for a long time.
This gift is given so that the bride and the groom can
make their living without missing a meal.
The gift on your left is Kobu. Kobu is a kelp.
In Japanese, we say Yoro"kobu" when you are happy.
So, a kelp has the meaning of lucky food.

The stuff on your right which looks like strings is called
Tomoshiraga. "Tomo" means "together". "Shiraga" means
"white hair". This gift is given so that the bride and groom
can live together until they get old.

This is "Katsuo bushi". It's a dried bonito.
"Katsu" has the meaning of "win" in Japanese.
So, this is lucky food in Japanese traditional culture.
This triadition is based on the idea the man work in the society.

We drank Sake, Japanese alchohol at the ceremony.

And the photos below are dishes we had after the ceremony.

Each dish is sophisticated...
The last photo is Sakura yu. They preserve the Sakura with salt
in the spring. This is also lucky food in Japanese traditional culture.
Well, this Japanese restaurant invited "Dame Elizabeth Taylor",
famous actress about 20 years ago. I saw the photo of then.

As I show you above, this Yuinou has a long history.
On wikipedia, the origin of Yuinou seems to go back until
4 or 5 century.


Well, that's about it, today.
I'm sure these are quite rare photos. Maybe this blog has not
been known at all. I don't know how much my activity of
introducing Japanese culture is valuable.
I just hope I dedicate to those who are interested in Japanese
culture. I hope I play a role as a brighe between other cultures.

Thanks for reading.
https://www.facebook.com/SeeMyJapan











 

Japanese expression ~15~Keigo けいご敬語 An honorific expression

  In Japanese, there are many honorific expression to show respect to the person.
One of the reasons why Japanese people tend to be seen "polite" would come from
our language that has various kinds of honorific expressions.
  There are three kinds of terms of respect for the person, such as
Teinei go, Sonkei go, Kenjou go.
 Teinei go are like "masu" "desu". These come at the end of the sentences.
Most of Japanese learners would know that.
 Sonkei go is the term to show the person.
 Iu 言う（いう）means "say".
 When you mention to what your superior said, you have to choose the word like
”Ｏｓｓｙａｒｕ” It is the Sonkei go of "say"言う（いう）
Kenjou go is humble language.
You have to choose the word "mousu or moushiageru" when you say something to your superior.

 When Japanese people handle these three kinds of words according to
various social situation. Young adults would sometimes make mistakes though.

 At elementary school and junior high school, children start to learn these words
at school.

Japanese lifestyle ~68~About workplace

   I listen to the radio on my way to my workplace.
I've heard that American or Canadian workers put on
his or her family's photo on the desk at workplace.
Maybe people would put on family's photo in other
cultures, too.
  But in Japan, I guess it is not common to do so.
I think it is not very welcomed to do so in Japanese culture.
In Japan, workers usually are working at opened space
in an office. I think most of company would not give
an separated room to each worker.



  I have kept posting articles on this blog for one year since
I started. Fortunately, a lot of people checked this blog
from various countries. I counted the number of the countries
yesterday. It was 72. It is said that there are about 190 countries
in the world. I guess the kind of country would not increase
any more...
  When I started this blog, I aimed to keep posting for one year.
I don't know if I can keep posting in the future as well.
I like to think about the cultural differences between other cultures.
So, I hope this blog continues.


  I have kept writing a story like below. This work has become
100 papers with Japanese manuscript paper. But the story
has not finished yet. I need to write more to end the story...
I don't know how much I need to write from now.
That may become a very very long story for children...
Writing 100 papers is my first experience. If I entry a
competition, the manuscript papers should be from 80 to 150.
This story is about baseball which is one of the most popular
sports in Japan. I know baseball is not so common sport in Europe.
Hopefully, I want to attach something interesting to read some day.
It will be more shorter story...

Thanks for reading!!
https://www.facebook.com/SeeMyJapan