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Great Fire Of Meireki
The , also known as the Great Furisode Fire, destroyed 60–70% of Edo (now Tokyo), then ''de facto'' capital city of Japan, on 2 March 1657, the third year of the Meireki Era. The fire lasted for three days and, in combination with a severe blizzard that quickly followed, is estimated to have killed over 100,000 people. Legend The fire was said to have been started accidentally by a priest who was cremating an allegedly cursed '' furisode'' kimono that had been owned in succession by three teenage girls who all died before ever being able to wear it. When the garment was being burned, a large gust of wind reportedly fanned the flames, causing the wooden temple to ignite. Historical account The fire began on the eighteenth day of the year, in Edo's Hongō district, and spread quickly through the city, due to hurricane-force winds that were blowing from the northwest. Edo, like all Japanese cities and towns at the time, was built primarily from wood and paper. The buildings ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meireki Fire
The , also known as the Great Furisode Fire, destroyed 60–70% of Edo (now Tokyo), then ''de facto'' capital city of Japan, on 2 March 1657, the third year of the Meireki Nengō, Era. The fire lasted for three days and, in combination with a severe blizzard that quickly followed, is estimated to have killed over 100,000 people. Legend The fire was said to have been started accidentally by a priest who was cremating an allegedly cursed ''furisode'' kimono that had been owned in succession by three teenage girls who all died before ever being able to wear it. When the garment was being burned, a large gust of wind reportedly fanned the flames, causing the wooden temple to ignite. Historical account The fire began on the Japanese calendar, eighteenth day of the year, in Edo's Hongō, Tokyo, Hongō district, and spread quickly through the city, due to hurricane-force winds that were blowing from the northwest. Edo, like all Japanese cities and towns at the time, was built primaril ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tael
Tael ( ),"Tael" entry at the . or liang, also known as the tahil and by other names, can refer to any one of several measures used in and . It usually refer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Peace
is a multimedia project composed of four short anime films produced by Sunrise and Shochiku, and a video game developed by Crispy's! and Grasshopper Manufacture. The four films were released in Japanese theaters on July 20, 2013, and were screened in North America during April 2014. Sentai Filmworks have licensed the films for North America. The film is taken from the eponymous manga written in 1976 by Katsuhiro Otomo. The video game was released in January 2014 in Japan, April 2014 in Europe, and September 2014 in North America. The game’s physical releases in Japan and Europe includes the four animated shorts as a bonus. Short films The opening sequence depicts a young girl following a white rabbit through different magical worlds. It was created by Koji Morimoto. It is then followed by four short films: ''Possessions'' ; :A lone traveler is caught in a storm, and finds an abandoned shrine when his hat is blown away. He takes refuge inside, where he discovers a sm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laura Joh Rowland
Laura Joh Rowland (born 1953) is an American detective/mystery author best known for her series of historical mystery novels featuring protagonist set in feudal Japan, mostly in Edo during the late 17th century. She is also the author of two other historical mystery series, one featuring a fictionalized Charlotte Brontë, as well an ongoing series set in Victorian England around the time of the Jack the Ripper murders. Early life Laura Joh Rowland is the granddaughter of Chinese American and Korean American immigrants. She grew up in Harper Woods, Michigan and was educated at the University of Michigan, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and a Master of Public Health. She tried a number of careers after college, including chemist, microbiologist, quality engineer with Lockheed Martin, and freelance illustrator, but it wasn't until she took a writing course that she found her calling. Writer Sano Ichirō Rowland's best known work are the Sano Ichi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mystery Novel
Mystery is a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a reasonable opportunity for committing the crime. The central character is often a detective (such as Sherlock Holmes), who eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts presented to the reader. Some mystery books are non-fiction. Mystery fiction can be detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle or suspense element and its logical solution such as a whodunit. Mystery fiction can be contrasted with hardboiled detective stories, which focus on action and gritty realism. Mystery fiction can involve a supernatural mystery in which the solution does not have to be logical and even in which there is no crime involved. This usage was common in the pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s, whose titles such as ''Dime Mys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fire Kimono
''The Fire Kimono'' is a 2008 mystery novel written by Laura Joh Rowland, set in the Genroku period (AD 1688–1704) in Japan. It is the 13th book in the Sano Ichirō series. This time, Sano is assigned to a sensitive murder investigation more than four decades old involving a member of the Tokugawa clan, cousin to his lord Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. The murder apparently occurred during the historical Great Fire of Meireki that destroyed much of Edo city and took the lives of many people in the confusion. Sano is shocked when his mother becomes embroiled in the case as a primary suspect and learns there is much more to her than he had ever imagined. Meanwhile, the tension between Sano and Lord Matsudaira reaches a boiling point and they are on the verge of open warfare, a situation brought about by the manipulation of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu who had earlier escaped from exile. Plot summary In the prologue, a Shinto priest passing by discovers remains of a human unearthed wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Inner Chambers
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic pronoun ''thee' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bombing Of Tokyo In World War II
The was a series of air raids on Japan by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), primarily launched during the closing campaigns of the Pacific Theatre of World War II in 1944–1945, prior to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The strikes conducted by the USAAF on the night of 9–10 March 1945, codenamed Operation Meetinghouse, constitute the single most destructive aerial bombing raid in human history. of central Tokyo was destroyed, leaving an estimated 100,000 civilians dead and over one million homeless. The U.S. mounted the Doolittle Raid, a small-scale air raid on Tokyo by carrier-based long-range bombers, in April 1942. However, strategic bombing and urban area bombing of Japan only began at scale in 1944 after the long-range B-29 Superfortress bomber entered service. Superforts were first deployed from China and thereafter from the Mariana Islands, after they were seized from Japanese forces in mid-1944. B-29 raids from the Marianas began on 17 N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1923 Great Kantō Earthquake
The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake (, or ) was a major earthquake that struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshu at 11:58:32 JST (02:58:32 UTC) on Saturday, 1 September 1923. It had an approximate magnitude of 8.0 on the moment magnitude scale (Mw), with its epicenter located southwest of the capital Tokyo. The earthquake devastated Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama, and surrounding prefectures of Kanagawa, Chiba, and Shizuoka, and caused widespread damage throughout the Kantō region. Fires, exacerbated by strong winds from a nearby typhoon, spread rapidly through the densely populated urban areas, accounting for the majority of the devastation and casualties. The death toll is estimated to have been between 105,000 and 142,000 people, including tens of thousands who went missing and were presumed dead. Over half of Tokyo and nearly all of Yokohama were destroyed, leaving approximately 2.5 million people homeless. The disaster triggered widespread social ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matsudaira Nobutsuna
was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period, who ruled the Kawagoe Domain. First serving Tokugawa Iemitsu as a page, Nobutsuna was renowned for his sagacity. He was named a rōjū in 1633. Nobutsuna led the shogunal forces to their final victory over the rebellion at Shimabara. His court title was '' Izu no Kami'', which was the origin of his nickname, . Biography Nobutsuna was born in 1596, the son of Ōkōchi Hisatsuna, a senior retainer of Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was adopted as the heir of his uncle, Matsudaira Masatsuna, in 1601. After being introduced to Hidetada and Ieyasu, he was appointed as page to Ieyasu's grandson Iemitsu. He was greatly admired by Iemitsu, and renowned within the Tokugawa administration for his sagacity. In the early years of his service, he was a hatamoto; he later became a daimyo. In 1623, he received the court title of '' Izu no Kami''. He became daimyo in 1633, receiving the Oshi Domain as his fief. After the failure of Itakura Shigemas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rōjū
The , usually translated as ''Elder (administrative title), Elder'', was one of the highest-ranking government posts under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council of Elders as a whole; under the first two ''shōguns'', there were only two ''Rōjū''. The number was then increased to five, and later reduced to four. The ''Rōjū'' were usually appointed from the ranks of the ''fudai daimyōs'' with domains of between 25,000 and 50,000 ''koku''. Duties The ''Rōjū'' had a number of responsibilities, most clearly delineated in the 1634 ordinance that reorganized the government and created a number of new posts: :#Relations with the Emperor of Japan, Emperor, the Court, and the Prince-Abbots. :#Supervision of those ''daimyō'' who controlled lands worth at least 10,000 ''koku''. :#Managing the forms taken by official documents in official communications. :#Supervision of the internal affairs of the Shogun's domains. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ekō-in
, also known as Honjo Ekō-in, is a Jōdo-shū Buddhist temple in Ryōgoku, Tokyo. The formal name of the temple is , reflecting its founding principle of Pariṇāmanā, or the spreading of Amida Buddha's benevolence to all souls of all living creatures. History On March 2, 1657, the Great Fire of Meireki destroyed 60 to 70% of the city of Edo (Tokyo) and killed about 100,000 people. The ''shōgun'' Tokugawa Ietsuna wished to commemorate the victims of the fire, most of whom were not survived by relatives. For this purpose he erected a monument called the ''Banninzuka'' (Mound of a Million Souls) and held a great memorial service conducted by of Zōjō-ji. A temple for prayers to Amida Buddha was built at the same time. This was the origin of the Ekō-in, which today continues to offer a resting place for any soul who did not leave relatives behind, including victims of natural disasters, prisoners, and animals. Sumo The temple was known as a sumo wrestling venue during the Edo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
