Saturday, October 18, 2008

Manyoshu


Manyoshu is the oldest collection of poems.It was made in about 760.Many poems were selected in Japan.There are 20 volumes and about 4500 poems.Many kinds of people in every status composed poems.Someone edited them.Manyoshu means "a collection of ten thousand of leaves".People wrote their feelings and beautiful natures.They didn't use Hiragana and Katakana.They still only use Kanji for it.We call "Manyogana".
Manyogana is the phonetic use of monosyllabic Chinese graphs to represent syllables of the Japanese poems in the Manyoshu.Hiragana and Katakana were made from Manyogana.
In 2003 one narrow strip of wood was found at Ishigami ruins in Nara.
Takashi Morioka, an associate professor of Tsukuba University,read these words on the wooden strip and found out it is a part of a poem in Manyoshu.This strip is believed to be oldest of its kind.
He said"It's become clear that composing poems in kanji in the phonetic Manyo style was popular among people of a certain social class in the Asuka period.The wooden strip provides clues to understanding how people of that time tried to compile poems and how they decided which characters to use to write them."

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Rakugo in English(Osaka)

15th Ofuku-Yose "Rakugo in English"

Welcome to English Rakugo World!Have you heard English Rakugo?
Rakugo,comic story, is one of Japanese traditional speech.
It is fun. This group have a show once a year.
(http://ofuku.wisnet.ne.jp/)(http://ofukuyose.blog9.fc2.com/)
Admission Free.You do not have to make reservations
but the number of seats is only 150.

Date:November 16th(Sun),2008
Time:Open 1:30pm Start:2:00pm (Free)
Place: Municipal Life Long Learning Center 5F
http://osakademanabu.com/umeda/
(at Daini-building in Umeda)
1.This is Rakugo by Shima & Juen
2.Monkey by Hasshow
3.Tsuru by Sinocchi(debut)
4.Myogaya Inn by Koito /(intermission:15minutes)
5.The raccoon and the gambler by Kanan(debut)
6.Kouzu Shrine by Showto

Sunday, October 12, 2008

autumn sky


Beautiful autumn sky.