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studentofshinto · 4 years

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Introduction to Shimenawa and Torii

And now I can finally get to what I wanted to talk about when I started my last info dump, the entrance to a Shinto Shrine. The Entrance to a Shinto Shrine is almost always marked by a Torii gate. But not always. Sometimes the entrance will be marked by a pair of lone posts, post connected by a Shimenawa rope, or a pair of trees linked with a Shimenawa rope. At the moment it would seem these are also referred to as torii when used to mark the approach of a shrine even though these gateways would not be recognizable as torii by most outside of Japan. The rope is usually made from rice straw, but can be made of hemp and even plastics. https://www.japanvisitor.com/japanese-culture/shimenawa

The use of plastic is a fairly modern practice. Rice and hemp will last about three years as I recall, depending on the environment, where plastic can last decades. The reason for using rice has nothing to do with a shortage of rice straw and everything to do with a shortage of people who know how to make the straw ropes. In early times rope might be used to mark out a property line. In order to distinguish between a property line and a sacred space straw tassels or paper strips (shide), or a combination of the two would be used. The shide are those little zigzag strips. The number and placing typically depends on the size and length of the rope as well as the custom of a given shrine and it’s intended use. The Shimenawa with shide is used for purification as well as marking out a sacred space. Plots of land will be marked with shimenawa prior to use, shimenawa can be used on torii, to encircle trees, mark out processional lanes, provide purification in shopping arcades, they may be used in the home for purification on new years, and placed in front of the household Shinto shrine known as a Kamidana. Oh, and if it’s available for sale on line it’s for primarily decoration use. The number of shide attached to the Shimenawa for home use will typically be three to four, but that’s not a hard and fast rule only a recommendation as an especially large shimenawa for home use could have up to five while a small one may only fit two. Recommendations regarding the placement of tassles and shide may be shrine specific as well. Shide can be displayed either in front of tassels or between. A quick online image search will show you that shide are normally attached between the tassels by most shrines but may also be placed directly in front of the tassels. Shimenawa come in a seemingly endless variety which each shrine having their own preferences. https://www.nippon.com/en/views/b05204/

From Wikipedia, a New Years decoration attached in place of the usual shide. By katorisi - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3323326 When used specifically for New Year’s festivities the Shiminawa may be displayed with oranges, fern, pine branches, and other festive ornamentation.

Keep in mind that there are two types of household shrines, the Shinto Kamidana and the Buddhist family alter.

Shimekazari (注連飾り) is a special type of Shimenawa that is looped.

The torii depicted is one I made, the Shimekazari on it came from the Portland Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon. The entire arrangement was for New Years in 2018.

And now onto the Torii. Torii are nowhere near as endless in variety as shimenawa are. In deed there seems to be only about a dozen basic design shapes if we discount the wide verity of garden decor all claiming to be torii. As for the origin of torii, I’m inclined to think that the Japanese Torii originated independently to be influenced by Chinese design and aesthetics.

The most basic torii is the Shinmei torii. To build one you need two posts with a shimenawa stretched between also known as a chūren, or three logs and a board. Two logs for the upright, one log stretched across the top, and the board fitted between the uprights just a little lower than the top log, called a nuki. The Ise torii adds a section to protect the top crosspiece. This is the roof of the structure and called a kasagi. The entire top section is referred to as the Kasagi when it’s all one piece, otherwise that top section includes the Kasagi and the shimaki. Next in line is the Kashima torii, followed by Kasuga, Hachimon, and the Mihashira torii.

The Tōhafu torii seems to be it’s own unique style demonstrating both traditional and Chinese influences.

The Mihashira torii also known as the mitsubashira torii and sankaku torii. This torii is unique in that it has three posts, three nuki, and three kasagi. Only one is publicly accessible that I’m aware of, it has a cairn at its base as well. According to Janus: records also state that the three pillars symbolize the heavens, earth and mankind. There is also a reference in the record which asserts that this torii had a connection with Nestorianism, Keikyou 景教, an ancient Christian sect which thrived for about 800 years in the Near East and Central Asia. It is possible that the three-pillared torii may have had a Christian connotation. http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/m/mihashiratorii.htm

For this reason the three-pillared torii has become rather controversial and has been denounced world wide by the very community who now clamor for everything Shinto. Looking on the internet I found at least two sites that look to be accessible but I have yet to verify this. Whether or not the possible connection to Nestorianism is real is immaterial. To practice Shinto is to accept all faiths, consider all possibilities, and to strive to live in harmony. It is only the destructive habits and teachings that are to be challenged and set aside.

After these we start seeing torii that show Chinese influence with upturned ends on the kasagi. These are the Myōjin family of torii wich include the basic Myōjin style, the Nakayama, Daiwa also known as the Inari torii, Ryōbu, Miwa, Usa,Nune, Sannō, and Hizen. Each having it’s unique differences.

Torii can be made of just about anything. Wood is the most popular, followed by stone and then iron. Some notable torii is the large speaker torii in Kamiyama, Tokushima, the Grecian inspired torii made by Kyoto artist Doumoto Insho which stands in the now abandoned Oiwa Jinja, the Motoki Torii which is a massive stone carved torii, the Otorii at Kumano Hongū Taisha which is 33.9 meters tall and 42 meters wide and the largest in the world, floating torii of Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima, and finally I’m going to conclude this list with the One legged torii of Nagasaki. The one legged torii of Nagasaki is a survivor of the atomic blast and has become a sacred sight in its own right.

Image from Pinterest. Original source unknown.

One final note before this gets way too long. Expect to find torii and even shrines in unusual places if you ever get a chance to go to Japan. I will admit that I myself have yet to have the opportunity, but I’ve scoured the internet long enough to know that urban sprawl has on occasion completely enveloped shrines. In many ways I am lucky to live in the Pacific Northwest where there is a shrine even though I can’t go to it right now. I am hopeful that 2021 turns out better than the previous year.

I ran across the term chūren just as I was getting ready to post and found the above infographic that has most of the basic styles. Finding good solid info from reliable sources can be difficult. The practice of search engines to decide it knows better by delivering what it wants as apposed to what we are actually searching for can make some searches near impossible. The internet is also full of blogs written by people who just discovered the “New Faith” [face palms]. Yes, I actually saw someone referring to Shinto as a new faith. Um, no, it’s hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years old.

What I want for you as the reader is to have the tools to be able to do informed research of your own. Don’t be afraid to ask questions of others. Be weary of anyone who is dogmatic in their thinking. And finally, always remember that Shinto is a culturally sensitive tradition with many facets. If it’s not of Japanese origin, it’s probably not part of Shinto and shouldn't be mixed.

#shinto #shrine #torii #shimenawa

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orthodoxydaily · 3 years

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Saints&Reading: Wed., Apr., 21, 2021

April 8/ April 21

Saints Herodion (Rodion), Agabus (Ahab), Asinkritos, Rufus, Phlegontos and Hermas (1st. c.)

Saints Herodion (Rodion), Agabus (Ahab), Asinkritos, Rufus, Phlegontos and Hermas are among the Seventy Disciples, chosen by Christ and sent by Him to preach (Sobor-Assemblage of Seventy Disciples – Comm. 4 January). The holy Disciple Herodion was a kinsman of the Apostle Paul and his companion on many journeys. When Christianity had spread to the Balkan Peninsula, the Apostles Peter and Paul established the Disciple Herodion as Bishop of Patara. The Disciple Herodion zealously preached the Word of God and converted many of the Greek pagans and Jews to Christianity.

Enraged by the preaching of the disciple, the idol-worshippers and Jews with one accord fell upon Saint Herodion, and they began to beat him with sticks and pelt him with stones. One of the mob struck him with a knife, and the saint fell down. But when the murderers were gone, the Lord restored him to health unharmed.

After this, Saint Herodion continued to accompany the Apostle Paul some years further. When the holy Apostle Peter was crucified (+ c. 67), the Disciple Herodion at the same time also and with Saint Olympos was beheaded by the sword. The holy Disciple Agabus was endowed with the gift of prophecy. He predicted (Acts 11: 27-28) the famine during the time of the emperor Claudius (41-52), and foretold the suffering of the Apostle Paul at Jerusalem (Acts 21: 11). The Disciple Agabus preached in many lands and converted many pagans to Christ. The Disciple Rufus (Ruphus), to whom the holy Apostle Paul gives greeting in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 16: 11-15), was bishop of the Greek city of Thebes. The Disciple Asincritos (Rom. 16: 14) – was bishop in Hyrcania (Asia Minor). The Disciple Phlegontos – bishop in the city of Marathon (Thrace). The Disciple Hermas – bishop in Dalmatia (there is yet another Disciple from the Seventy by the name of Hermas, who occupied a cathedra-seat in the Thracian city of Philippopolis). All these disciples for their intrepid service to Christ underwent fierce sufferings and were found worthy of a martyr's crown.

Saint Celestine (Celestinus), Pope of Rome (432)

Saint Celestine (Celestinus), Pope of Rome (422-432), a zealous champion of Orthodoxy, lived during the reign of the holy Emperor Theodosius the Younger (408‑450). He received quite excellent an education, and he knew philosophy well, but most of all he studied the Holy Scripture and pondered over theological questions. The virtuous life of the saint and his authority as a theologian won him the general esteem and love of the clergy and people. After the death of holy Pope Saint Boniface (418-422), Saint Celestine was chosen to the cathedra-chair of Bishop of Rome. During these times emerged the heresy of Nestorius. At the Local Council in Rome in the year 430, Saint Celestine denounced this heresy and condemned Nestorius as an heretic. After the Council Saint Celestine wrote a missive to Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria (Comm. 18 January), stating that if Nestorius after 10 days did not recant his false teachings, then he should be deposed and excommunicated. Saint Celestine directed also a series of missives to other Churches, Constantinople and Antioch, in which he unmasked and denounced the Nestorian heresy. The following two years after the Council, Saint Celestine preached incessantly the true teaching about Christ the God-Man, and thus he died at peace on 6 April 432.

Isaiah 58:1-11

1 “Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins.

2 Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways, As a nation that did righteousness, And did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God.

3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’ “In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers.

4 Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high.

5 Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the Lord?

6 “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh?

8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

10 If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday.

11 The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

Proverbs 21:23-22:4

23Whoever guards his mouth and tongue Keeps his soul from troubles.

24A proud and haughty man— “Scoffer” is his name; He acts with arrogant pride.

25The desire of the lazy man kills him, For his hands refuse to labor.

26He covets greedily all day long, But the righteous gives and does not spare.

27The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; How much more when he brings it with wicked intent!

28A false witness shall perish, But the man who hears him will speak endlessly.

29A wicked man hardens his face, But as for the upright, he establishes his way.

30There is no wisdom or understanding Or counsel against the Lord.

31The horse is prepared for the day of battle, But deliverance is of the Lord.

1A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, Loving favor rather than silver and gold.

2The rich and the poor have this in common, The Lord is the maker of them all.

3A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, But the simple pass on and are punished.

4By humility and the fear of the Lord Are riches and honor and life.

#orthodoxy #orthodox christianity #originofchristianity #spirituality #oldtestament #sacredtexts #wisdom

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militant-holy-knight · 4 years

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In light of President Obama’s recent remarks comparing the brutality of the Islamic State to the Crusades, it might be time to take a fresh look at those events. Were they really the one-sided Dark Ages barbarism we have been taught? Were they an early manifestation of Western imperialism and global conquest?

In his landmark book, “God’s Battalions” (HarperOne 2009), Baylor University social sciences professor Rodney Stark suggests otherwise. It is a well-researched chronicle, including 639 footnotes and a bibliography of about 300 other works, yet reads like an adventure story full of military strategy and political intrigue.

What Prompted the Crusades

He begins in the final years of Mohammed and describes how a newly united Arab people swept through (Zoroastrian) Persia and the (Orthodox Christian) Byzantine- controlled areas of Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and North Africa. (Byzantine refers to the Greek-speaking eastern remainder of the Roman Empire.) Eventually Arabs took over control of the Mediterranean islands, most of Spain, and the southern part of Italy, and even reached as far as 150 miles outside of Paris before being turned back by the Franks, or early French.

The Muslims were brutal in their conquered territories. They gave pagans a choice of converting to Islam or being killed or enslaved. Jews and Christians (other People of the Book) were usually but not always treated somewhat better, and allowed to retain their beliefs but under conditions of Sharia subjugation. But the Muslim-held territories were not monolithic. Stark writes:

‘Perhaps the single most remarkable feature of the Islamic territories was the almost ceaseless internal conflict; the intricate plots, assassinations, and betrayals form a lethal soap opera. North Africa was frequently torn by rebellions and intra-Islamic wars and conquests. Spain was a patchwork of constantly feuding Muslim regimes that often allied themselves with Christians against one another.’

Not surprisingly, there was intense Christian resistance and determination to take back lost territories. Especially effective were the Normans and the Franks in Spain and Italy.

The Golden Middle Ages Belonged to Europeans

Western scholars have often characterized this clash of cultures as an Islamic Golden Age versus a European Dark Age, but Stark demolishes this as a myth. He says the best of the Islamic culture was appropriated from the people Muslims conquered—the Greeks, Jews, Persians, Hindus, and even from heretical Christian sects such as the Copts and Nestorians. He quotes E.D. Hunt as writing, “the earliest scientific book in the language of Islam [was a] treatise on medicine by a Syrian Christian priest in Alexandria translated into Arabic by a Persian Jewish physician.” Stark writes that Muslim naval fleets were built by Egyptian shipwrights, manned by Christian crews, and often captained by Italians. When Baghdad was built, the caliph “entrusted the design of the city to a Zoroastrian and a Jew.” Even the “Arabic” numbering system was Hindu in origin.

And, while it is true that the Arabs embraced the writings of Plato and Aristotle, Stark comments,

‘However, rather than treat these works as attempts by Greek scholars to answer various questions, Muslin intellectuals quickly read them in the same way they read the Qur’an – as settled truths to be understood without question or contradiction…. Attitudes such as these prevented Islam from taking up where the Greeks had left off in their pursuit of knowledge.’

Meanwhile, back in Europe was an explosion of technology that made ordinary people far richer than any people had ever been. It began with the development of collars and harnesses that allowed horses to pull plows and wagons rather than oxen, doubling the speed at which people could till fields. Plows were improved, iron horseshoes invented, wagons given brakes and swivel axels, and larger draft horses were bred. All this along with the new idea of crop rotation led to a massive improvement in agricultural productivity that in turn led to a much healthier, larger, and stronger population.

Technology was also improving warfare with the invention of the crossbow and chain mail. Crossbows were far more accurate and deadly than conventional archery, and could be fired with very little training. Chain mail was almost impervious to the kind of arrows in use throughout the world. Mounted knights were fitted with high-back saddles and stirrups that enabled them to use more force in charging an opponent, and much larger horses were bred as chargers, giving the knights a height advantage over enemies. Better military tactics made European armies much more lethal. Stark writes:

It is axiomatic in military science that cavalry cannot succeed against well-armed and well-disciplined infantry formations unless they greatly outnumber them…. When determined infantry hold their ranks, standing shoulder to shoulder to present a wall of shields from which they project a thicket of long spears butted in the ground, cavalry charges are easily turned away; the horses often rear out of control and refuse to meet the spears.

In contrast, Muslim warriors were almost exclusively light cavalry, riding faster but lighter horses bareback with little armor, few shields, and using swords and axes. Their biggest advantage was their use of camels, which made them much more mobile than foot soldiers and gave them the ability to swoop in and out of the desert areas to attack poorly defended cities.

Muslims Slaughter, Rape, and Pillage

These differences provided Crusader armies with huge advantages, but what would prompt hundreds of thousand Europeans to leave their homes and travel 2,500 miles to engage an enemy is a desert kingdom—especially after the Muslim conquest of Europe had been turned back?

In 638 Jerusalem surrendered to Muslim invaders, and mass murders of Christian pilgrims and monks became commonplace.

There had been long-festering concern about the fate of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. After his conversion to Christianity in the early 300s, the Roman Emperor Constantine built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the site of what was believed to be Jesus’ tomb, and other churches in Bethlehem and on the Mount of Olives. These sites prompted a growing number of European pilgrims to visit the Holy Land, including Saint Jerome, who lived in Bethlehem for the last 32 years of his life as he translated the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. By the late fifth century, Stark reports, more than 300 hostels and monasteries offered lodging to pilgrims in Jerusalem alone.

But in 638 Jerusalem surrendered to Muslim invaders, and mass murders of Christian pilgrims and monks became commonplace. Stark includes a list of select atrocities in the eight and ninth centuries, but none worse than the some 5,000 German Christians slaughtered by Bedouin robbers in the tenth century.

Throughout this period, control of Palestine was contested by several conflicting Muslim groups. Stark writes, “In 878 a new dynasty was established in Egypt and seized control of the Holy Land from the caliph in Baghdad.” One hundred years later, Tariqu al-Hakim became the sixth caliph of Egypt and initiated an unprecedented reign of terror, not just against Christians but against his own people as well. He burned or pillaged some 30,000 churches, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the tomb beneath it.

Soon enough, newly converted Turkish tribes came out of the north to seize Persia and Baghdad (by 1045) and press on to Armenia, overrunning the city of Ardzen in 1048, where they murdered all the men, raped the women, and enslaved the children. Next they attacked the Egyptians, in part because the Turks were Orthodox Sunnis and the Egyptians were heretical Shiites. While the Turks did not succeed in overthrowing the Egyptians, they did conquer Palestine, entering Jerusalem in 1071. The Turks promised safety to the residents of Jerusalem if they surrendered the city, but broke this promise and slaughtered the population. They did the same in Ramla, Gaza, Tyre, and Jaffa.

Emperor Alexius Pleads for Help

Finally, they threatened Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Alexius Comnenus wrote to Pope Urban II in 1095, begging for help to turn back the Turks. This was remarkable given the intense hostility between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Perhaps the pope saw an opportunity to unite or at least reduce tensions between the two Christian churches, but he responded with a call to create an army that would go to the Middle East.

Without ongoing support from Europe, the Crusaders could not survive constant attacks from the Muslims.

I am not going to regurgitate all the battles of the Crusades themselves. It is a fascinating history well worth studying in part for its parallels and lessons for today. Let’s just say that the Crusaders were extremely effective militarily, often defeating far larger Muslim armies, despite having traveled some 2,500 miles into an alien desert climate. Their biggest enemies were disease, starvation, and political betrayal. Plus, the Crusades were expensive and home countries grew weary of paying the taxes needed to support them (sound familiar?)

The Crusaders ended up establishing their own kingdoms in the Holy Land, which lasted for about 200 years or, as Stark notes, almost as long as the United States has existed; but without ongoing support from Europe they could not survive constant attacks from the Muslims.

How the Crusades Were Different from Military Action of the Day

So, what to make of all this?

The Crusaders were unique in that they did not seek to plunder or enslave.

Actually, the Crusaders were unique in that they did not seek to plunder or enslave. They didn’t even try to forcibly convert anyone to Christianity. Their sole interest was to protect the pilgrims and Christian holy sites. They sometimes sacked cities that refused to provide food to a hungry army, but they didn’t take riches back to Europe. There were few riches to be found. Rather than exploiting indigenous resources to benefit Europe, Europe sent money and resources to the Middle East. Pilgrims were quite lucrative for host countries, just as tourism is today.

War was a nasty and brutal business at the time, and had been for all of recorded history. Cities fortified themselves as protection against invading armies. A siege of a city meant surrounding the area and cutting off supplies until the population surrendered, often by starving. In the Bible, II Kings 6:24-33 relates the story of the siege of Samaria, in which two starving women agree to kill and eat their sons.

The rule of war at the time was that, if a city surrendered, the population would be spared, but if it resisted and the invading army had to take it by force all the inhabitants would be killed or enslaved. But Stark notes that Muslim armies often violated even this rule—promising sanctuary, then slaughtering the population that surrendered. (Before we get too smug and condescending about the savagery of these ancients, let’s not forget the rocket bombing of London, the firebombing of Dresden, and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki a mere 70 years ago.)

Muslim armies often promised sanctuary, then slaughtered the population that surrendered.

One way in which Muslim fighters today have advanced over their forebears is that during the Crusades they did not adopt new tactics to counter the technological advantage of the Europeans. They never used crossbows or shielded infantry, even after several hundred years of fighting. Today, Muslim warriors quickly evolve to make the most of Western technology, although they still never seem to develop anything of their own.

An Enduring Clash Between Inquiry and Submission

One final thought on this. As Stark indicates above, there is in too many Muslim countries a sense of obedience that precludes robust debate or new ideas, let alone technological innovation. In his classic, “The World is Flat,” Thomas Friedman quotes Osama bin Laden as saying,

‘It is enough to know that the economy of all Arab countries is weaker than the economy of one country that had been part of our (Islamic) world when we used to truly adhere to Islam. That country is the lost Andalusia. Spain is an infidel country, but its economy is stronger that our economy because the ruler there is accountable. In our countries, there is no accountability or punishment, but there is only obedience to the rulers and prayers of long life for them. (pp. 400-401)’

Friedman confirms that this is based on a 2002 report, the first Arab Human Development Report. This report, written by Arabs, found that Spain had a larger gross domestic product than all 22 Arab states combined!

I think Stark is closer to the mark than bin Laden. The problem is a cultural way of thinking that starts with the Qur’an and the Prophet and emphasizes unquestioning obedience. The very name of the religion, Islam, means “submission.” The thinking of bin Laden that emphasizes punishing poor rulers is a complete misunderstanding how progress is made. European cultures place a high value on questioning everything, even the divinity of Jesus Christ. Certainly there have been exceptions to this, but in the sweep of history it is an unmistakable trait.

So we have perhaps the starkest conflict of worldviews imaginable: on one hand, a robust and virtually unlimited spirit of inquiry, and on the other a fervent dedication to universal obedience and submission. How this plays out is the story of our times.

#politics #history #rants

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eli-kittim · 4 years

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The Quran’s Alternative Christianity

By Goodreads Author Eli Kittim

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Christianity’s Influence on the Quran

Although polytheism was the dominant form of religion in pre-Islamic Arabia, the Quran was diametrically opposed to this view and superseded it with its own brand of monotheism. The unknown author(s) of the Quran was obviously influenced by the Gnostic religion of the Mandaeans, who are sometimes called "Christians of Saint John," and by that of the Sabians or Manichaeans, who revered certain prophets, such as Zoroaster and Jesus. Despite these strong surrounding influences, however, the author(s) of the Quran seems to gravitate towards the Judeo-Christian Bible, paying special attention to the Jesus story and accepting even some of its more miraculous or fantastic elements, such as the virgin birth and the 2nd coming. That’s a clue that Christianity made a greater impact on the author(s) of the Quran than, say, Mithraism, Zoroastrianism, or Mazdakism! If, on the other hand, the author(s) of the Quran had used Judaism as a prototype of his new religion, then, in principle, he would never have accepted the Christian claims. Besides, Islam doesn’t show strict adherence to circumcision or the Law. And even though Moses and Abraham are mentioned more times than Jesus in the Quran, it’s rather obvious that Christianity had made a deeper impact on the author(s) than any other religion! And just as Christianity accepted the Hebrew Bible, so did the Quran.

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A Christian Revolt

Do you really know what the Quran is? Answer: the product of a late *Gnostic Christian revolt* against Byzantine Orthodoxy. No wonder its adherents hated Constantinople so vigorously that they finally sacked it in 1453 ce. What I am proposing is that the *Gnostic-Christian Sects* that were marginalized by Byzantine Orthodoxy from the fourth century onwards didn’t go away quietly but seemingly conspired against the Church during the early part of the dark ages! The result of those efforts eventuated in the Book we now call the Quran. The syncretistic-gnostic elements present in the Quran suggest that it was in fact an amalgamation of heresies that characterized many different Gnostic Christian sects.

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The Apocryphal Reformation

After the 4th-Century Church solidified itself theologically and otherwise within the Roman Empire and began to accept certain “canonical” texts while excluding others, those communities that held to the *rejected* gnostic and so-called “apocryphal” works eventually united to form their own Bible. The result was the Quran, which was mostly based on a variety of Jewish and Christian apocryphal and Gnostic texts!

Over time, Islam gradually lost it’s connection to Christianity (much like Christianity did when it broke away from Judaism) and became an independent religion in its own right. It may have been more Christ-centered at the beginning. But in order to distinguish itself from its rival Christian counterparts it would have had to significantly deemphasize its central Christian tenets. So, the first communities that gave rise to the Quran most probably comprised Gnostic Christians. Thus, the author of the Quran may have been seeking to take revenge on his Orthodox superiors, much like what a disgruntled Christian priest would do at a local church. Martin Luther immediately comes to mind and, with him, the Protestant Reformation!

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The Beginning of Islam as a Christian Minority Religion

No wonder the Quran reveres the Christian dogmas of the virgin birth and the second coming of Jesus, while putting less emphasis on the historical Jesus, his atonement, and his divinity! And the Islamic traditions begin to make more sense from this perspective, as, for example, when the Nestorian monk Bahira in Bosra foretold to the adolescent Muhammad his future prophetic career. And just as Orthodoxy condemned the Gnostic Christian texts as *heretical* and *uninspired*, Islam must have fired back at them alleging that the so-called “canonical Christian texts” themselves were *corrupt*. It seems, then, that Islam itself came out of these early Gnostic-Nestorian Christian roots! In other words, even though it now openly competes with Christianity for converts, originally, Islam must have been a Christian minority religion on the fringes of the Eastern Roman Empire that was well-aware of all the debates that were raging all around them.

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The New Testament Epistles Concur with the Apocryphal Texts that Undergird the Quran

As an offshoot of Christian Gnosticism, with an emphasis on personal existential experience rather than reason or doctrine, the Quran was, perhaps, closer to the truth than the pontifical, dogmatic Christianity of the Roman Empire. Gnosis, after all, was all about knowing rather than believing. And just because the Gnostic Christian texts were rejected by the church does not necessarily mean that they were wholly uninspired. For example, the Second Treatise of the Great Seth and the Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter, as attested in the Quran (Sura 4:157-158), doubt the established Crucifixion story and, by implication, perhaps even Jesus’ historicity. In other words, the Quran picked up Docetic thoughts and Gnostic ideas and asserted that all the acts and sufferings of Jesus’ life, including the crucifixion, were mere appearances. This is a noteworthy observation because, unlike the theological gospels, the New Testament epistles also suggest that Christ did not die in antiquity. Rather, they claim that he will be revealed “at the final point of time” (1 Pet. 1.20 NJB) and will die “once in the end of the world” (Heb. 9.26b). This idea of an earthly, eschatological messiah is also echoed in the pseudepigraphical Jewish-Christian texts, The Ascension of Isaiah and the Testament of Solomon. But it had been subsequently suppressed by Orthodox Christianity, which confused theology with history, and turned prophecy into biography. So, in this sense, Islam was correct in maintaining that the New Testament had been corrupted: not the text itself, but rather it’s interpretation.

However, as time passed, and as Islam separated itself more and more from Christianity, it, too, began to lose touch with the central tenet of Christ’s divinity, while its adherents took too many liberties with the original doctrines and became less and less “Christian”! To the extent that Islam gravitated away from Christ as the focal point of its doctrines, it, too, became corrupt, so much so that the deity of Christ was completely ignored or denied. Eventually, the religion’s deity became more identified with the monotheistic God of the Jews than with that of the Christians. That was the beginning of something new: the birth of a new religion!

——-

Family Feud Among the Abrahamic Religions

To sum up, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all part of the family of Abraham. Hence why they are called Abrahamic religions. Christianity, which grew out of Judaism, in turn, gave birth to Islam! But in the end, it’s like a dysfunctional family where the grandfather, father, and son can’t get along with each other.

——-

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whatdoesshedotothem · 4 years

Text

Saturday 22 March 1834: SH:7/ML/E/17/0011

8 ½

12 ½

Up at 6 for ½ hour with bowel complaint and therefore went to bed again - fine morning no white frosty even at 6 am F50 ½° at 9 25 am at which hour breakfast - Mr. Parker came at 9 ½ from Mr. Pollard to say that a man of the Rawson was going to build a steam chimney near St James church –would be a detriment also to my propriety - would I join Mr Pollard and the feoffers at Waterhouse’s charity to buy the ground of the man? could have it for £400 and should not lose more than £20 or £30 a piece by it in selling it for cottages - I declined having anything to do with it - Mr P- brought Mark Town’s lease which I signed - spoke to him (Mr. P-) about the sale of the Staups property - advertised p. 2 Hx Guardian of this morning - the public house and Staups buildings and William Green’s house and 23DW.1qrs.19p. make lot 6 - should like to buy it - without saying by whom mentioned having £8000 bid for Northgate without the sheep-croft or 2 fields above Hx - he thought it a pity to let so much money lie dead, or rather producing so little as at present - said I was not much inclined to let it go at that price - would rather buy what I wanted and borrow money for the time and pay off by and by - at present the funds too high and I did not want to have a large sum without well knowing what to do with it - just finished breakfast and then came Washington with plan of bar-house - thinks it will cost £100 - he is employed about the sale of the Staups property - a great many people for the public house - would sell for 2 or 3 times more than its worth - told him to consider what I might venture to give for it - would get one of the Crownest far-off tenants to bid for me - thought it would fetch above £3000 - there were the coals of Fold farm - said I did not want to have anything to do with them - well! but I must find a loose for them - yes! said I, I know that - he thought they were to go with the public house and if I could get them for very little it might be worthwhile - very well! I replied you can consider what you think them worth to me - told him what I had asked for Northgate - was the land worth 8/. a yard - no! but worth 7/. taking it all together - at this rate, and buildings valued £1000 the land

6DW.1qrs.0 = 19600 yards = £6860.3.0 + £1000 = £7860.3s.0d. and he thought it worth £8000 –

6DW.1qrs.8p. = 18816 + 784 + 242 yards = 19842 yards at 7/. = £6944.14.0 and at 8/. = £7936.16.0

3136 yards = 1DW

1/4DW. = 3136 yards/4 = 784 yards

1/4DW. = 26 perches 1 perch= 30 ¼ yards = 786 ½

Northgate land 6DW.1qrs.8p. = 19842 yards at 8/. = £7936.16.0

Buildings S. Washingtons’ valuation 1000.0.0

vide Friday 21 February 1834 p. 8936.16.0

Washington brought my father a plan of Butterworth end farm which he values at about 40 guineas per annum says there is hardly a fence left - buildings in very bad repair - £500 wants laying out - out a little while with Pickels and his 5 men - and with the 2 masons and a boy - finished getting all the walls low enough before noon - then began the heading next the palisades in front of the buttery - with Charles and James H-

SH:7/ML/E/17/0012

- at my desk at one - wrote all so far of today till 2 10 - from then to 7 10 at which hour dinner and coffee in ¾ hour and afterwards to 9 ¼ wrote and sent (in a parcel with Washington’s letter he brought this morning and the pattern glove sent to him to Whitleys by Miss Rawson) 5 pages and ends to ‘Miss Walker’ parcel to ‘Miss Walker, Heworth Grange York per mail 22nd March 1834’ and wrote letter to ‘Mr Thomas Thorpe 38 Bradford Street Covent garden London postpaid’ ‘Shibden Hall. Saturday 22 March 1834. Sir - I have received the parcel containing n°467 £2.2.0 and 4 volumes of catalogue for which I am much obliged - on shewing this letter to Messrs. Hammersleys and co., they will pay you the above sum of two pounds and two shillings I am sir, etc etc A. Lister’ - and in the course of the afternoon or twice downstairs with masons and Charles Howarth and much reading Encyclopaedia articles monophysite and Nestorians and Chapter 47 Gibbon (vol. 8 octavo) respecting the ‘monophysite controversy’ - Miss W- asked me the meaning of [it] – she had been reading Quarterly of Guizots’ new edition of Gibbon - wrote as followed ‘Monophysite controversy’ more particularly opposed to the Nestorian as the catholic was opposed to both – Monophysite from 2 Greek words signifying – one nature – the monophysites maintained that there was only one nature in Christ, the divine and the human being mystically united in one - the Nestorians maintained that there were 2 separate persons in Christ mystically united in one -the Catholics maintained ‘Christ in one person and in 2 natures’ but don’t pother your head about such matters which are, perhaps, too high for us all.’ - Kind letter – but the kindness is more in the quiet confidential manner of writing than anything else and might be seen by all the world except tell her never to look even half cross at me and being only quiet and gentle she will have more of her way and I less of mine than anybody but herself would believe. Said I had written as I told her to Mrs. L- but......... had not sent the letter which should now be rather modified – that is I will not tell π- that Miss W- and I are positively engaged and advised Miss δ- [W-] not to name it as she asks my leave to do to Steph say he had better hear it from π- than from Miss W- or me. Wrote the last 22 lines till 9 ¾ - ¼ hour with my father and Marian, an hour with my aunt till 11 pm. Fine morning - lowing about noon -and rain between 2 and 3 for about an hour - afterwards tolerably fine, and fair in the evening. F49 ½° at 11 pm – reading newspapers till 12.

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wasalwaysagreatpickle · 4 years

Text

Saturday 22 March 1834

8 1/2

12 1/2

Up at 6 for 1/2 hour with bowel complaint and therefore went to bed again – fine morning no white frost even at 6 a.m. Fahrenheit 50 1/2 at 9 25/.. a.m. at which hour breakfast –

Mr Parker came about 9 1/2 from Mr Pollard to say that a man of the name of Rawson was going to build a steam chimney near Saint James’ church – would be a detriment also to my property – would I join Mr Pollard and the feoffers of Waterhouse’s charity to buy the ground of the man? Could have it for £400 and should not lose more than £20 or £30 a piece by it in selling it for cottages – I declined having anything to do with it – Mr Parker brought mark town’s lease which I signed –

Spoke to him (Mr Parker) about the sale of Staups property – advertised page 2 Halifax guardian of this morning – the public house and Staups buildings and William Green’s house and 23.1.19 (days work, quarters, pecks) make lot 6 – should like to buy it – without saying by whom mentioned having £8000 bid for Northgate without the sheep-croft or 2 fields above Halifax – he thought it a pity to let so much money lie dead, or rather producing so little as at present – said I was not much inclined to let it go at that price – would rather buy what I wanted and borrow money for the time and pay off by and by – at present the funds too high and I did not want to have a large sum without well knowing what to do with it –

Just finished breakfast and then came Washington with plan of bar house – thinks it will cost £100 – he is employed about the sale of the Staups property – a great many people for the public house – would sell for 2 or 3 times more than its worth – Told him to consider what I might venture to give for it – would get one of the Crownest far-off tenants to bid for me – thought it would fetch above £3000 – there were the coals of Fold farm – said I did not want to have anything to do with them – well! but I must find a loose for them – yes! said I, know that – he thought they were to go with the public house and if I could get them for very little it might be worth while – very well! I replied you can consider what you think them worth to me – Told him what I had asked for Northgate – was the land worth 8/. a yard – no! but worth 7/. taking it all together – at this rate, and buildings valued at £1000 the land 6.1.0 (days work, quarters, pecks) = 196000 yards = £6860.3.0 + £100 = £7860.3.0 and he thought it worth £8000 – 6.1.8 (days work, quarters, pecks) = 18816 + 784 + 242 yards = 19842 yards at 7/. = £6944.14.0 and at 8/. = £7936.16.0

Washington brought my father a plan of Butterworth end farm which he values at about 40 guineas per annum says there is hardly a fence left – buildings in very bad repair - £500 wants laying out – Out a little while with Pickles and his 5 men – and with the 2 masons and a boy – finished getting all the walls low enough before noon – then began the [heading] next the palisades in front of the buttery – with Charles and James Howarth -

At my desk at one – wrote all so far of today till 2 10/.. – from then to 7 10/.. at which hour dinner and coffee in 3/4 hour and afterwards to 9 1/4 wrote and sent (in a parcel with Washington’s letter he brought this morning and the pattern glove sent to him to Whitley’s by Miss Rawson) 5 pages and ends to ‘Miss Walker’ parcel to ‘Miss Walker, Heworth Grange, York, per mail 22 March 1834’ and wrote letter to ‘Mr Thomas Thorpe, 38 Bedford Street, Covent Garden, London, Postage paid’ ‘Shibden Hall Saturday 22 March 1834. ‘Sir – I have received the parcel containing number 467 £2.2.0, and 4 volumes of catalogue for which I am much obliged – on shewing this letter to Messers Hammersleys and co. they will pay you the above sum of two pounds and two shilings - I am, sir, etc. etc. etc. A Lister’ –

And in the course of the afternoon once or twice down stairs with the mason and Charles Howarth and much reading encyclopaedia articles monophysite and Nestorians and Chapter 47 Gibbon (volume 8 octavo) respecting the ‘monophysite controversy’ Miss Walker asked me the meaning of – she had been reading the Quarterly of Guizot’s new Edition of Gibbon – wrote as follows ‘monophysite controversy’ more particularly opposed to the Nestorian as the catholic was opposed to both – monophysite from 2 Greek words signifying one nature – the monophysites maintained that there was only one nature in Christ, the divine and human being mystically united in one – the Nestorians maintained that there were 2 separate persons in Christ mystically united in one – the catholics maintained ‘Christ in one person and in 2 natures’ ‘But don’t pother your head about such matters which are, perhaps, too high for us all’ – Kind letter

But the kindness is more in the quiet confidential manner of writing than any thing else and might be seen by all the world except tell her never to look even half cross at me and being only quiet and gentle she will have more of her way and I less of mine than anybody but herself would believe –

Said I had written as I told her to Mrs Lawton but …. had not sent the letter which should now be rather modified –

That is will not tell Mariana that Miss Walker and I are positively engaged and advise Miss Walker not to name it as she asks my leave to do to Steph say he had better hear it from Mariana than from Miss Walker or me –

Wrote the last 22 lines – till 9 3/4 – 1/4 hour with my father and Marian an hour with my aunt till 11 p.m. Fine morning – [lowering] about noon, and rain between 2 and 3 for about an hour – afterwards tolerably fine, and rain in the evening – Fahrenheit 49 1/2˚ at 11 p.m. – reading the newspaper till 12 –

#anne lister #ann walker #1834 #anne lister code breaker

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sparklyjojos · 4 years

Photo

THE SAIMON FAMILY CASE recaps [12/13]

In which we confront Gensui, make even more puns, and learn the beautiful boy’s secret. [tw: ED mention]

On September 19th, the first anniversary of Tamako’s death, everyone mobilizes to make sure not a single person will die this time. The entire giant family gathers in the auditorium of the stage next to their house, where they will spend the entire day guarded by several of Nihon Tantei’s Club office workers and detectives, young members of Fujita-gumi providing additional security.

The only family members to stay behind in Sanasou are the two surviving Tamakos, old man Gensui, as well as Tousen Natsuko and Tsukumo Karan who will provide them care. In order to guard these five, Ajiro, Kirigirisu, a few of their detectives and Fujita-gumi members will stay in the house.

The stakes are even higher than usual; if they fail to prevent yet another murder, Ajiro will quit the Club. A few of the Club's detectives, like Arito Tarou, only agreed to come here and help so they can witness his failure in person.

Ajiro asked Soga Tensui to meet him and Kirigirisu by the aviary at noon “for the final discussion about the Case”, so both detectives head there early. Ajiro chose the time and place on purpose; he knows from the dove caretaker Ranma that the big box with Onikaru-sama opens every year on September 19th between noon and 1 PM—apparently there's something about it that Ajiro wants to see.

As they wait for noon watching the doves, Ajiro points out more interesting (and wacky) coincidences. Prince Shoutoku lived in the Asuka period, Asuka being spelled with kanji for “flying birds” (飛鳥). The temple Houryuu-ji is located in the town Ikaruga (斑鳩), the name of which includes the kanji for “dove” (鳩).

When noon arrives, the detectives hear a loud coo, coo seemingly coming from within the box, and its double door opens to reveal Onikaru-sama.

No matter how long Kirigirisu stares at the figure, it doesn’t look like a dove. It’s more similar to a gray sparrow, its spread wings and tail darker, its distinctive beak gold. It's perched on a triple-pillared torii… and actually, the bird itself also has three legs.

Ajiro explains that the bird is a Japanese grosbeak, known as Ikaru or Ikaruga—the same name as the town Ikaruga that has just been mentioned. It’s likely that instead of Onikaru-sama, the figure was once called "the honorable lord grosbeak", On-Ikaru-sama (on being a honorific).

The triple-pillared torii is reminiscent of the shrine Kaiko no Yashiro, which is located near Kouryuu-ji, a temple founded by Prince Shoutoku’s close ally Hata no Kawakatsu. A fringe theory claims that the Hata clan was Jewish believing in Nestorian Christianity, and that Kaiko no Yashiro viewed from above resembles the Star of David. Perhaps that’s one more “proof” strengthening Soga Tensui’s belief in the connection between Shoutoku and Jesus.

As the detectives are lost in conversation, suddenly they hear another loud coo coo, but not from the box—it comes from right behind them.

The master of vocal mimicry Soga Tensui is standing behind them, a smile on his face.

“Souji, Kirigirisu… it looks like you have finally discovered our secret.” The man is speaking to them out loud, so he must be Gensui.

“Gensui… are you Jesus?” Ajiro asks without beating around the bush.

Gensui spreads his arms wide, creating the shape of a cross with his body—

“YES, I AM!”

[And what a horrible pun it is, since イエス is both “yes” and “Jesus”. Jesus I Am.]

“So… so you really are convinced you’re Prince Shoutoku and Jesus?” Kirigirisu takes a step back. “I can’t believe it…”

Gensui’s expression turns stern for just a second before that calming smile returns to his face. Kirigirisu realizes where else he saw a smile of this kind. It’s the “archaic smile”, often seen on Buddha statues. No doubt this too is a part of the man's delusion...

“It's not that I’m convinced,” Gensui says. “I really am both Shoutoku Taishi and Jesus Christ.”

“But that’s… are you claiming that you’re immortal?”

“No. Unlike Hikami Sensai, I'm not immortal.”

Hikami Sensai—the Mountain God that Hyousen once mentioned.

“I can think of only one explanation that supports your claims,” Ajiro says. “Shoutoku Taishi and Jesus Christ are succession names.”

“Indeed. Just like with stage names of kabuki theater or rakugo, Shoutoku Taishi and Jesus are also heritage names. In the Asuka period the name Jesus was first introduced to Japan, and a version of it changed to Japanese became a succession name. Its official form is Umayato no Miko. If Shoutoku Taishi was the first person to have that name, I would be the ninety-eighth Umayato no Miko in turn. ...I know you would not believe us even if we had definitive proof. No matter. It is enough that I know who I really am. No one else has to believe it.”

Kirigirisu naturally thinks that the man is completely nuts, but Ajiro warns him not to get heated; they have to accept what Tensui says for now or the conversation will get nowhere. Tensui comments that other people often refuse to believe giant truths that would turn their entire understanding of history around.

“I don’t doubt what you claim,” Ajiro says carefully, “but could you tell me how the next Umayato no Miko is chosen? Can there exist two at once?”

“When an Umayato no Miko senses their death approaching, they appoint a successor who will inherit the name. Anyone at all can be appointed, even those not related by blood. In the short period between appointing the successor and the predecessor's death, there technically exist two Umayato no Miko at the same time.”

“You said earlier, I quote: you have finally discovered our secret. By our, you mean…?”

“Mine and my predecessor’s. I am the only Umayato no Miko right now.”

“Could your predecessor be… Saimon Tamako?”

Ajiro explains how he came to this outrageous conclusion. Even though Tamako was Korean, she spent a lot of time travelling through Japan, and the title could be passed to anyone no matter the blood connection.

The three rich men who married the three Tamakos—Saimon Taishin, Tsukumo Taigen, Tousen Taikun—all changed their names, so they had a shared kanji tai (太). Everyone assumed that this name change occured before the triple marriage, but what if the opposite was true? What if it was in fact Saimon Tamako who proposed that change? While we’re at it, maybe it was her who came up with names for her daughter Akiko and some other family members like Taishi and Tsushima?

Once Gensui confirms that’s the case, Ajiro explains his thoughts in details.

Let’s look at the names of Taishin (太臣) and Taikun (太君) and replace that first kanji with another similarly looking tai (大). Taishin’s name would now mean a minister (大臣), while Taikun’s name could be read as ookimi (大君), like the emperor’s title in the times of Prince Shoutoku. Quite the coincidences.

Saimon Taishi was named after Shoutoku Taishi, though spelled differently. Tsushima is an island near the Korean Peninsula. The name Akiko (明子) is somewhat similar to mentaiko (明太子), which happens to both be a popular culinary ingredient in Korea and also have Shoutoku’s name Taishi (太子) in it. Many other members of the family have the kanji for “horse” in their names, which again relates to Umayato no Miko, “the Stable Door Prince”.

The next mystery to solve hid in the words Tamako used to repeat. Kudaranai… ima wa kudaranai. What she was actually saying was Ima wa Kudara nai, “there is no Kudara now”. Kudara is the Japanese name for Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Ajiro thinks Tamako might have been born in the region formerly known as Baekje.

Gensui states that while he can’t know Tamako’s thoughts, the reasoning about her Kudara line seems legitimate.

Ajiro’s next rhetorical question touches on a more practical matter: aside from the name, what else does an Umayato no Miko inherit from their predecessor? The answer is easy to guess when you look at what Tamako and Gensui had in common: magic. What’s passed down is the art of illusion.

“The current public image of Shoutoku Taishi or Jesus Christ greatly differs from reality,” Gensui says. “Historical facts passed down through the ages turn into false nonsense. I don’t intend to deny what people believe about either of the two, but from my point of view, they were above all else splendid magicians. You're free to choose whether you believe it.”

Well, it’s true that Jesus made a lot of miracles happen, and the art of illusion as we know it was first introduced to Japan in Asuka period.

“Let's accept the premise of Jesus Christ and Shoutoku Taishi being magicians,” Ajiro says. “Maybe the problem lies not with them, but with those who came afterwards. Perhaps they weren’t just plain magicians, but—magicians of murder.”

“Not the softest way of phrasing it,” Gensui comments with a somber expression.

Ajiro exposits some more.

Ajiro’s grandfather Soujin is a skilled detective who up until now has solved every case thrown his way… except for one: the Kuroyashi (“black peddler”) case, which killed hundreds of yakuza members throughout a few decades. The murderer wore a black kimono and matching black garments, held white prayer beads in his hand, and hid his face behind kokushikijou, the black Noh mask of a happy old man.

It was an open secret that Kuroyashi's true identity was Fujita Kyuuzou, who killed anyone trying to encroach on Fujita-gumi’s turf in Tsuwano. Even if Soujin knew that fact well, he had never managed to gather enough proof. Strangely enough, the two ended up becoming good friends even as a detective and a suspect constantly trying to figure each other out.

Kyuuzou was missing the tip of his thumb (for typical yakuza reasons), instead wearing a magician tool called simply a thumb tip. Soujin theorized that this could be where Kyuuzou hid the murder weapon he used to kill as Kuroyashi—poison needles. Maybe his death from a hornet sting was a fitting end for someone like him.

"I trust in my grandfather's abilities, so I also believe that Kyuuzou was Kuroyashi. However, the murderer in this Case isn't just him… The mastermind was Saimon Tamako, wasn't she? As the previous Umayato no Miko, she was a true magician of murder, a professional assassin of much greater skill than Kuroyashi. Since you claim you're not the culprit, then it must be her, right? No one other than you two—the magicians of murder—would be able to orchestrate the Saimon Family Case."

Gensui doesn't move. That archaic smile returns to his face.

"It's so unlike you to say such bizarre things, Souji. I understand why you suspect me, even though I am not the culprit. But to accuse Lady Saimon, who died a year ago…"

Gensui clearly isn't going to tell them anything as readily as he confirmed being Jesus.

"Souji, Kirigirisu, I think you have misunderstood something," he continues. "Except for the incident involving Yumeji, none of the deaths were murders. Even the police said there was no case."

"Are you seriously still claiming that?" Ajiro finally breaks and shouts in anger. "All just accidents, all on the same day of the month, twelve times in a row?!"

"You truly don't know when to give up. When I requested your help, I asked you to explain how these deaths could be murders. It seems you won't be able to fulfill my request no matter how much time passes. I have no choice but to withdraw the investigation request."

"Oh, so you’re withdrawing now? I don't care! I'm not here to investigate just because you asked me. I lost two of my people in this case. I will not back down!"

Ajiro and Tensui stand against each other, a detective against a suspect, just like Soujin and Kyuuzou before them. History repeats.

"If you still wish to investigate, I'm not stopping you," Gensui says finally. "Just let me give you a friendly warning. No matter how much you try, it's impossible to solve something that’s not a murder case like it is a murder case. Souji, it might sound weird coming from me, but do not underestimate the divine providence that can be nothing other than a miracle. No human can win a battle against the heavens. Even if the best detective alive investigated this case, they still wouldn't be able to solve it. My words aren't meant to challenge you; I'm simply telling you the truth."

"Then let me also tell you the truth. No matter how great a magician of murder you may be, I won’t let anyone die today. I used everything I had to prepare. Can you still make another incident happen? Here's a friendly warning: as soon as you try, it will be all over for you. These aren't the words of challenge, but simply the truth."

Gensui's smile doesn't waver, but his eyes fill with sadness. His expression turns to that of Buddha looking with compassion at all life.

"I didn't want to tell you this, but now I feel pity for you, Souji. You will learn for certain that I am not the culprit very soon; the Case is still going to continue even after my death. I may not be a fortune-teller, but even I can predict some things. You should know, Souji, that "prediction" is even a genre of magic. Magic always has secret methods behind it, but my own prediction is simply based on reasoning, something anyone can do with enough data. I'm going to die of illness. Illnesses are given to people by the heavens, and no human can possibly fight against their orders."

Illness? This is the first time they're hearing of this. Gensui looks perfectly healthy...

"The Case started on September 19th last year," Gensui continues, "and the incidents always take place on the 19th day of the month. If the will of heavens is connected to the number nineteen, then it stands to reason that the Case might last for nineteen months in all. My life will reach its end before the Case is finished."

Suddenly, they hear a loud coo, coo and Onikaru-sama's door closes again; it must be 1 PM. Gensui takes advantage of the others' momentary confusion and turns around to leave.

"I'm not going to run or hide," he assures them. "I'm just going to join my family in the auditorium. I… even now, I hold a favorable impression of you. I'd like to spend more time with you before my life ends… Let me give you a piece of information that might prove useful. My successor, the ninety-ninth Umayato no Miko, will be my nephew Saimon Juku. Ask him whatever you wish."

With this, Gensui leaves.

When later that day Ajiro and Kirigirisu check on everyone gathered in the auditorium of the stage, they witness Tsukumo Tsushima suddenly falling off his chair, their fellow detective Arito Tarou crumbling to the ground right afterwards. Both die shortly after being taken to the hospital. The cause of death in both cases is determined to be acute heart failure related to overworking.

Ajiro and Kirigirisu resign from Nihon Tantei Club.

“You didn’t have to quit as well, Kirigirisu,” Ajiro says, though he looks a little glad.

“Boss—no, Souji… I owe you my life. I have already decided to commit my life to helping you. I will stay by your side no matter what.”

Soon, Ajiro creates a small private detective bureau with Kirigirisu as the only coworker, Mizuki taking care of office matters. The bureau is located in Ajiro’s own house, so his son Souya is constantly running around, and Kano sometimes comes to visit.

Even though they’ve just started working on their own, Ajiro gets an astounding number of investigation requests, probably because he made a name for himself as the leader of Nihon Tantei Club. In fact, it turns out many people had only called Nihon Tantei Club in the first place because Ajiro was there, and now his private bureau ends up getting more requests than the Club.

With this new wind pushing them forward, Ajiro is sure they will solve even the Saimon Family Case.

Just like Gensui predicted, new incidents still keep coming.

Fourteenth… On October 19th, Saimon Miku dies in the bath from carbon monoxide poisoning, indirectly caused by a wild bird’s nest blocking the chimney.

Fifteenth… On November 19th, Saimon Yurine dies from shellfish poisoning—more specifically from red tide toxins—when dining with friends in Yamaguchi.

Sixteenth… On December 19th, Saimon Akiko (junior) is found starved to death in the family’s storehouse, suspended by her arms inside the giant bell. It is noted that the girl had developed anorexia some time before and was under significant stress after her mother Yurine’s death. The police doesn’t consider the incident a murder.

While investigating Akiko’s death, Ajiro and Kirigirisu learn another secret behind the magic show. Three bells are used in the show, one real and two gimmicks. The gimmicks are shown on stage, while the real one is kept backstage and struck in accordance with the performers striking the gimmicks to give the impression that the latter are real. The magician can hide inside the gimmick easily and be moved somewhere else with it, so he can magically appear even in places without a trapdoor.

When armored Soga Tensui disappears behind the projection screen, he actually pulls himself up inside the bell above him. When the other bell near the front of the scene is then lowered down, the second Soga Tensui shows up from beneath it using the trapdoor. Both bells are then lowered to the ground and covered with black cloth. At this point, the bells (and the first Soga Tensui who’s still inside) are taken off stage through the trapdoor—apparently the gimmicks can be easily taken apart so they fit through. Two frames are put up instead to give the impression of two bell-like things underneath the cloth. The frames are black, so even after the Soga Tensui who’s still on stage removes the cloth, spectators can’t really see it in front of the black curtain.

The cases still keep coming.

Seventeenth… On January 19th, Tsukumo Touji (Tsushima’s young son) dies when a hospital nurse accidentally gives him the wrong IV drip. The boy was hospitalized due to serious malnutrition, the long-term effect of stress after his father’s sudden death.

If Gensui’s prediction was true, there will be two more cases, one of them surrounding his own death.

...that’s assuming he’s telling the truth. As far as Ajiro can tell, Gensui already lied to them about Saimon Juku being his future successor. When back in September the two detectives asked the boy about whether he’s Umayato no Miko, he just looked at them with honest confusion and repeated his usual ima wa kudaranai. When Ajiro explained what that phrase actually meant and asked about Prince Shoutoku, the boy still kept staring at them completely lost, visibly not understanding what on earth is going on.

When they brought this up to Gensui, he told them that Juku was just feigning ignorance; that specifically because the boy was Umayato no Miko, he wouldn’t let anyone know his secret. This explanation just sounded like Gensui trying to confuse them further.

After repeated attempts to ask Juku about the topic and never getting any solid answer, the two detectives gave up on trying to talk to him.

Eighteenth… On February 19th, Ajiro and Kirigirisu find Gensui’s body in front of Shouryouin. He looks so thin and miserable it’s hard to believe he could be the same healthy strong man they knew. Autopsy reveals he had last-stage cancer.

On the same day, the only remaining Soga Tensui disappears. Kirigirisu instantly thinks that the two may have switched places—the classic mystery plot twist—but Ajiro cools his enthusiasm by revealing yet another secret of the two brothers.

When Tensui (that is, the older brother Ryuusui) was a young man, he lost his left hand in the Pacific War. It’s hard to notice nowadays as he always wears a prosthetic, the movements of which can be secretly controlled with his right hand. The device was designed by the late Tousen Yomi, the genius magic prop maker. Tensui and Gensui both wore white gloves at all times to hide the difference. Apparently Tensui hates to be looked at with pity, can’t stand the prospect of being seen as “that disabled magician” rather than being recognized strictly for his art, so he trained hard to make his movements look as natural as possible. That’s also why Ajiro stayed quiet about it until now.

The body they found in front of Shouryouin definitely has a real left hand, so it can’t possibly be the older brother… although Ajiro can’t completely deny the possibility that Tensui could have been lying about his disability, and actually used an illusion to make it look like he’s removing a prosthetic hand (an event that Ajiro saw with his own two eyes once). Or maybe the person he thought to be Tensui at the time was actually Gensui, and it was him who had a prosthetic… who knows which brother was actually which.

It’s all quite confusing, but Ajiro proposes they keep calling the dead brother Gensui and the one still alive Tensui, since this is what the rest of the family will think is the case… even though he personally suspects that the person they knew as Gensui is still alive.

What a weird brotherly switcharoo.

Ajiro gets lost in thought for a long time after that conversation, as if something pushed his mind onto a completely new track. After all the funeral rites are over and the house calms down, he takes Kirigirisu along to talk with Saimon Juku one more time.

Apparently Ajiro has no intention to needlessly prolong things, as he immediately asks the boy:

“Juku… are you actually Juku?”

“Boss, what are you even saying?!”

“If Gensui told us the truth, then Saimon Juku was chosen as the next Umayato no Miko. However, the boy in front of us doesn’t even know that name. I think the brother who died in the accident wasn’t Joukei, but Juku. Gensui—no, Tensui must have known about this switch. That’s why he sounded so confident when telling us we can ask the boy anything: because the child who knew all about Umayato no Miko was already dead.”

For a long moment, the boy with sunglasses is quiet. Then—

“You're right… Juku was the one who died,” Saimon Joukei says. Tears fill his eyes. “I was supposed to be the one to die that day. The man with the white demon mask came here and said he would kill everyone if I didn’t go with him… He really should have taken me, but… but Juku went to meet him instead. Before he went, Juku said… if something happens to me, please live as me from now on...”

Then Shiroyasha was the murderer in the Saimon Family Case as well…

“And after that,” Ajiro says with an expression like he just figured something out, “you suddenly became so beautiful that people faint just looking at you. I think I can explain it. The reason why babies are cute is because that cuteness is their only weapon; they can’t do anything by themselves and have to rely on adults being charmed into providing for them. Perhaps when people have no other means to protect themselves, they can somehow make themselves more beautiful in order to survive. Joukei, I think your sudden beauty is a defense mechanism. You can’t possibly allow anyone to notice that you and Juku switched places, not after he sacrificed his own life to protect you. That’s why you turned so beautiful that no one can take a closer look at you—so no one can notice the truth.”

Even Joukei himself looks surprised learning the reason behind his beauty.

Kirigirisu wonders whether this sort of supernatural transformation is actually possible in real life… well, he already knows that the boy really does make people faint, so the only choice left is to accept the improbable.

Now that the detectives are sure the boy really doesn’t know anything more about the Case or Umayato no Miko, they decide they can’t get him tangled into any more dangerous matters. They turn back to leave.

“Mr. Ajiro! Mr. Kirigirisu!” the boy shouts, making them stop. “From now on… will you protect me?”

“Of course we will,” Ajiro answers without hesitation.

[>>>NEXT PART>>>]

#sparkly reads the saimon family case #maijo and jdc stuff

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wearthegoldhat · 5 years

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Kyrgyzstan: A Travelogue in Words

Manas International Airport has inadvertently turned into a bird sanctuary. The decibel of bird sounds when, dazed after 22 hours of travel you walk for the first time out into early morning Kyrgyz sunlight, provide a stunning first impression of the deepest part of the lushest forest at sunrise. Then you traverse the barren miles between Kyrgyz towns. So that when leaving you look up again and realize the birds have made a home not between the lush green leaves that were earlier conjured, but between long metal bars stretched across a plain awning. You chuckle to yourself for pity of those architects. Certainly they had not intended nor anticipated this secondary affect of hundreds of birds gathering to fight and sing and build and defecate above the sliding doors in and out of Kyrgyzstan.

Other first impressions: the toilet paper here is just a slightly wider and colorless kin of the crinkly stretchy paper streamers we use in America to celebrate birthdays and bridal showers and such.

Borscht soup has the redness of the reddest heirloom tomato distilled to 15 feet for purity of color. I thought it was full of tomatoes but it is full of cabbage and bits of beef, without any of the tartness of tomatoes. The red remains a mystery, but that is of little concern to me because it tastes very good. (After writing this, I learned the soup is made from beets.)

Lake Issyk Kul is blue-blue. Blue must be said twice because it is not just blue, it is the bluest blue, and the standard against which all blues may be set. And it does not want for size either—8 hours is required to travel its circumference. We could see it from our room. But at the lodge, the hallway we had to walk down to get to our room was so long it began to feel psychological. It was long and dimly lit, with no windows, just rows and rows of doors to each side, and you think you are nearly there but then you are still not. It is inevitable, even after walking up and down it multiple times a day, that you wonder if it ever ends. Walking through it feels a little like you have been plunged into an anxious dream.

An hour’s drive around Lake Issyk Kul towards the Hindu Kush mountains brought us to a little dirt road into the alleged burial grounds of St. Matthew, which turned out to be merely a small cave tunneling through a hill, with a yellowed Bible, a half-assed alphabet etched into the wall, a crumpled picture of Mary, Nestorian symbols of the cross inside an enclave, and a fistful of yellow flowers fastened above the small dark hole of an exit. It was a funny attempt to capitalize on pious tourists and the actual discovery: the divers who discovered remnants of ancient human civilization buried under Lake Issyk Kul, a shard with Armenian/Syrian language which corroborates with a 14th century map indicating an Armenian monastery at a place called “issikol,” where St. Matthew might have been as he traveled towards India, establishing little communities of believers.

Large yellow brown planes, horses and cows nibbling side by side with little nosy clusters of gossiping chickens. Chickens, when they are together in the country, are always gossiping. Cows wander freely along the single paved road, crossing it at will, knowing their right of way—if they are hit the driver is at fault and pays. By nightfall they have all headed home because if they are hit after dark, the driver is no longer at fault and the owner pays for his losses. One lamb is 100 som and one horse is 3,000 som. I’m guessing cows are somewhere in between. The road is pollarded with trees painted white on the bottom, for what I’m not sure, because the trees are all dead and dried. They burn areas of the fields before cultivation, but I am not sure if anything can be coaxed out of these miles of dry grey granules of dirt, with yellowed grass spaced out like the hairs of a balding man. What great faith these men have driving around in tractors, farm tools scattered about. Seasons are a miraculous thing when the dead of winter is really so dead. But even then, Kyrgyzstan’s main problem, it seems, is that nothing is going on. Lake Issyk Kul is a large shock of brilliant turquoise just before the rise of the Tien Shan mountains to snowy peaks, and the beauty of it seems utterly useless, because beauty is completely frivolous and indifferent when industry is what is needed, work for men to put their hands to. And you can see it in some of the men’s faces ruddy with alcohol at noon, nothing to do and no purpose aside from bottles of that great Russian export, hard liquor. A man on a horse corralling his sheep on a barren hillside here, a lone smoke stack there, and a girl sitting on an overturned bucket selling 3 more buckets of soft apples...

Their jaunty hats of embroidered creamy woolen felt seemed at first like costume. I saw them upon the heads of a group of men, old and young, in western dress waiting at the gate in Istanbul. But as our plane descended into Bishkek, the men had grown raucous (I could smell the alcohol on their breaths behind me) and they kept laughing wildly and standing up in the cabin. The stewardesses’ reprimands went from pleading to threatening until they finally sat down. All throughout that week I saw men wearing them neatly upon their heads, amidst the countryside dust and the smog of Bishkek buses. They became to me more beautiful than all of Lake Issyk Kul, because they are symbols of human dignity, handiwork, and identity upon their heads—singular and defiant acts of Kyrgyz expression amidst vast lethargic poverty. Then we were back at Manas International Airport. Missions is messy, he said as they tried to stuff a large Kyrgyz wall hanging amidst other shapely gifts into a suitcase that weighed in just under 20 kg. Earlier he had told me a story about the videographer for a group of missionaries going around Kilimanjaro. What was the hardest part of the journey? They asked him. He had lugged hefty camera equipment all up and down the mountain. After a bit of thought he said, getting all the receipts for reimbursement. So, missions is messy, and this has many meanings. Tetras-ing wall hangings into luggages under the weight limit is one of them, I said.

Later I saw two Kyrgyz infantrymen in smart Soviet-era hats and uniforms. They stopped to stand on the luggage weighing scale, in a jocular mood, perhaps ready to fill their bellies with spirit on a Friday night. I took a picture of them as they looked up at the large round clock of kilograms, laughing. We had just seen some people off, and went back out again to the deafening sound of birds.

Spaciba. I whispered many times under my breath but did not have the courage to say out loud. I started to recognize a few Russian letters. I was using a BeeLine sim card and all the messages from the carrier came in Russian.

Afghanis vacation in Tajik, Tajiks vacation in Kyrgyzstan. That is the order of wealth perhaps. We walked around the plaza, the architecture and use of space, so starkly Soviet-looking, was nothing like I had seen before. Stone monuments rose up everywhere. Lenin stood tall as a mountain, his hand outstretched, ominously pointing the way. We saw banners from the Persian New Year celebrations. We saw bottles of their award-winning white honey. They gifted me two, and a wall-hanging made of wool, before I left.

Back in the other central asian country where they worked, their phone calls were monitored by the government. They had code words for anything that might give their religion away, and while in Kyrgyzstan, they kept stiffening at words like church and missionary spoken out loud so freely between us. He acted out a phone call he once received from his dad who hardly ever called him: he heard his dad ask how is the mission doing? at the same time he heard a beep sound in the background, and he started coughing loudly, frantic to cover that forbidden word, mission. Are you ok? his dad asked. Dad let me call you back later. He hung up abruptly.

He told me about the experience of his Dutch friends. The lady was newly pregnant and earlier that morning she had broken news of it to her family over the phone. In the afternoon her husband stopped at a government office. The officials greeted him and then congratulated him on his wife’s pregnancy. He was obviously taken aback--how could they have known? And then he realized they had tapped his call. The state learned of his wife’s pregnancy at the same time their family learned of the pregnancy. Constant surveillance was a fact of life, as elementary as seasons and the color blue.

We shared immigration stories (immigration offices in developing countries always produce stories). He told me about his friend who went to the immigration office in a North African country. The windows were numbered 1-8. He went to the first one. A man slid open the window. And after an exchange of explanations and papers was done, he said, please proceed to window 2. So he went to window 2 and waited. It slid open to reveal the same man. Hello, he said, as if they had not just spoken moments ago. A twin perhaps? But no. Window after window it was the same man, running all 8 windows of immigration at the immigration office. Seven times he greeted him as if they had never spoken before.

He also told me about kidnappings. A few days after he told me about his own, he shared another one about the pregnant German woman who was kidnapped in a middle eastern country he had worked in. The kidnappers had begun to broadcast a live video of their ransom demands. But the scene quickly spiraled into a chaos that was almost comic. The woman began to shout at her kidnappers, openly mocking and shaming them in her brazen way. The kidnappers could be seen regrouping in a corner, arguing with each other over what to do, how to proceed, maybe they should just let her go? She was pregnant afterall and maybe what they were doing was unethical. He told me he never thought he could feel for kidnappers, but he did then. In that moment, they were just a group of people who were desperate and believed that this was the only way to get their demands met. They were also just a group of people who did not agree with each other and did not have a good plan in place. They eventually released the woman.

Gigi and I sat on the floor of the hotel room (because the floors were heated and nothing else), across the street from the American embassy that rose up like a fortress amidst rubble, before a beautiful alpine backdrop. It did not feel real. We talked and talked late into the night. We held onto each other like sisters who would be separated soon.

I heard many stories and shared a few of my own. After I spoke in front of a conference room of 200 people, a couple approached me. The husband used to be a professor at UPenn and now runs a social enterprise/business as mission in Kyrgyzstan. Her daughter teaches on a Native American reservation in the Southwest. The wife told me that she was very touched by what I had said. I almost laughed and began to apologize for my terrible public speaking. Speaking skills don’t matter as much, she said firmly. What I could tell was the message you shared came from the heart, and that is the more important thing. So then I n my heart I felt comforted, but in my head I said, I am not entirely convinced that is true. Several other schools and organizations also approached me, in an uncomfortably eager attempt (imagine elderly men requesting to sit with you at dinner time to tap the corners of their mouths with a napkin and share the most scintillating mission statements with a side of groveling) to recruit me because I am young and already have 3 years of experience in East Africa. I turned them all down by the end of the week. I left that path 2 years ago and I do not see myself going back. If I do go, I will go another way.

Now that it has been six months since my trip, I can hardly believe I was ever there. There are a few parts of it that I’d rather not recall. But I do have a pair of luxurious woolen slippers, deftly embroidered, with tips that curve sharply upward, that I wear around the house when I want to feel regal, to remind myself of who gifted them to me, and that I did really spend a very strange week gallivanting about Kyrgyzstan.

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