Mishima's muse - The Golden Pavilion

In Japanese literature many talented writers hav had their works translated. But none has been as influential as 3 times Nobel Prize nominated Yukio Mishima (1925-1970). Especially his death is quite spectacular as he committed seppuku (Japanese suicide by the sword) upon having failed to inspire a coup d'état in Tokyo.

The Temple of Golden Pavilion or 金閣寺 (Kinkakuji) is probably one of the strongest novels by this eccentric Japanese writer. The intense psychological development of the main character is a must read for every would be psychiatrists!

The temple was at first a residence for the most powerful shogun of the Ashikaga period, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. After his death it became the grounds for a zen temple, until the last century.
It is a fact that this marvellous 14th century Buddhist temple was burned down by a residing monk in 1955. This strange story is the main theme of Mishima's novel, where he  describes the schizophrenic development of monk Mizoguchi. Especially the narrating of the love hate relationship the monk has with the Golden Pavilion is phenomenal.

The Japanese authorities started building the structure again after the arson and this is the result that can be visited in Kyoto.

The Golden Pavilion of Kyoto is such an history-filled site that will capture every visitor's imagination. No wonder Mishima described this architectural wonder in his amazing novel.

The Golden pavilion with its phoenix watching over the temple grounds is one of my most favourite tourist spots Japan. Hence my photographic post of this Buddhist temple.

 

Hanbok, the Korean fashion

The Hanbok is the name given to the traditional Korean clothing. Hanbok means literally "Korean clothing" and consists mostly of a upper and lower part. It is the traditional garment for women and men.

The vivid colours and full covering are a unique features of the Hanbok and give the clothes a very gracious touch.

This type of clothes is still worn by Koreans for formal occasions such as weddings and festivals. A few older people are not used to wearing contemporary clothes and are still using their hanbok.

In modern day Korea, it is a marvellous site to see these bright colours in contrast with modern day black and white suits. It really stands out!

The Hanbok has a very long history, but the present day form is said to be the style used in 15th century Joseon dynasty. As Confucianism took over from Buddhism as the state religion/philosophy, the adepts of Confucius had their influence on the clothing. Especially the hanbok for women was standardised with a wide long skirt and closed long-sleeves top. So no piece of bare skin could possibly be shown.

Lady in Hanbok at hotel reception

Wedding shop

Traditional arts performance

Clothes shop

Taking wedding pictures

Mom and daughter dressing up to visit Gyeongbok palace

Does Superman come from Korea?

We all have been indoctrinated that Superman is a comic hero developed by American writer Jerry Siegel. And it is also clear that superman is coming from the planet Krypton. His parents send him as an infant to earth, just before the destruction of his home planet. And on earth he grew up, got himself the nickname Clark Kent en saved the planet from several catastrophes and malicious evil plans.


But what if the creation of superman was based on an old Korean sign?


We all know the South-Korean flag, called Taegeukgi. In the flag we find in the middle, the ancient Yin-Yang sign. Not as we usually know it in black and white, but in red and blue.
Yin and Yang symbolise in the old Chinese philosophy all the opposites in the world like: negative and positive, woman and man, moon and sun, ...
And so in the Korean flag blue is Yin and red is Yang.


Next to the Yin Yang sign you will find 4 trigrams taken from the Yi Ching, which is the very old Chinese Book of Changes. This book was and still is used for divination practises.
Upper row from left to right are the trigrams for heaven and moon. While the two lower ones from left to right are sun and earth.
Interesting flag isn't it!

Another sign seen very often in Korea, especially on historical buildings is the Sam-Taegeukgi.
So we still find the round Yin Yang shape but no duality between 2 colours, here a third colour is present. As seen above, here blue represent Yin and so represents Heaven. Red was seen for Yang en represent Earth.

The new colour is yellow, which stands for the middle and Humanity. Even in ancient China the Yellow emperor was the only one allowed to wear yellow as he was the connection between heaven and earth. 


So in this Korean sign it is clear that the duality between Heaven and Earth, Negative and Positive, and all other dualities in the world effects humans. But as the yellow colour also spins around equaly as red and blue it can influence Heaven and Earth as well. All three are connected and influence each other.


So going back to superman. When we inspect his attire these three colours are coming back. His cape and boots are red, his suit is mostly blue and his belt is yellow. The Superman logo is a yellow and red sign on a blue background, normally visible on our hero's chest.  Superman forms the human connection (yellow) between heaven (blue), his former planet Krypton, and earth (red), where he is Clark Kent and changes in Superman to kick some serious butt in name of goodness. Would it be pure coincidence that blue, red and yellow were used to depict superman?

 

Concubines

The Concubines in the Imperial society of China were the woman of the emperor, high ranking officials or rich merchants.

Upon a visit of the Forbidden City in Beijing two parts can be seen. The first part is the Palace area where state affairs were handled. The second part is the living quarters and those quarters have a major part consecrated to the concubines.

Life was hard for these girls as there were many and a lot of jealousy. The concubines were graded in 9 ranks going from “beauty” to “imperial concubine”.

Every part of the court life was regulated and written down. The eunuch were the only (half) man allowed to stay in the Forbidden City. The eunuchs had to serve and advise the emperor and they had to make sure the emperor would follow the court rules. So a normal emperor would have 121 concubines. But of course some emperors enjoyed their God status and didn’t listen to their eunuchs. An emperor of that sort would have 400 to 4000 concubines. But an emperor with so many concubines wouldn’t have time to control his country as he had other preoccupations and so went in history as a bad emperor.

A concubine was selected between the ages of 12 to 14 as this is the age when she was considered the most female. A selection was made in the different provinces. The girl must be a local beauty and still virgin. Then when she passed the different tests she would be brought to the eunuchs, who made further selection and in the end the emperor could select his concubines.

The goal of a concubine was to be able to sleep with the emperor and to please him, so she could be promoted and she and her family would get more fame and richness. But a group of 400 to 4000 women fighting for one man gave a lot of quarrels and more.

So why did the emperor need all these concubines, shouldn’t he be a good housefather and take care of his empress?

Well as every little detail was controlled at the court (and a good emperor would follow these regulations), the emperor had designated times, according to the moon calendar, where he could sleep with his empress and try to conceive an heir to the throne. Those were very select days and the chance of having a child, and especially a boy, was quite small. So when the emperor had a boy with a concubine, this concubine would receive a higher grade and in the end could become the mother of the next emperor.

Because the emperor could only sleep with his wife on these designated days he had to sleep with his concubines. Here we find the concept of Yin and Yang.

Yang is “good”, “sunlight”, “heaven”, “male”, …

Yin is “bad”, “darkness”, “earth”, “female”, …

They represent all the duality around us. And because the emperor was “The son of Heaven” he was absolutely Yang, but everything should be in balance, so he needs more Yin.

He could get this Yin be special food and exercises, but the most efficient way was his concubines. By having intercourse with them he received Yin and especially if the concubine had an orgasm she would release more Yin. The eunuchs developed a way to improve the chance of an orgasm. The used the eyelid of a sheep and that was placed on the penis of the emperor.

In the writing it was also regulated how many ejaculations (losing the Yang) the emperor could enjoy. In spring he could have an ejaculation every 3 days, in summer and autumn only twice a month and in winter, as this is the coldest and darkest (Yin) month, he could have none!

To select a concubine was a tricky business. In the beginning the emperor could choose who he wanted to sleep with, but this custom was abolished by the eunuch as it is not fair to all the concubines (except for the emperor’s favorites). So different systems were tried out. A cart with a goat was set up in front of the courtyards of the concubines. Where the goat would stop the concubine could get in and was brought to the emperor. Concubines weren’t stupid women as they were also selected on their artistic and mental skills. Soon vegetable baskets were put outside some houses and the same concubines kept coming up on the cart, so this system was also terminated.

A tube of bamboo was kept by the head eunuch and inside the names of all concubines was written on separate bamboo sticks. So every day a stick was picked at random. This system was kept for a longer time, as it seemed quite successful in keeping everybody happy.

When a concubine was selected she was washed and perfumed by the eunuchs. Her naked was enrolled in a silk gown and she was brought like that to the emperor. No clothes so no possibility to hide a weapon to murder the emperor.

The emperor was given one hour to gain more Yin. While the emperor was in his bedroom with the concubine, a eunuch would stand outside. He controlled the time after one hour he would hit his big metal staff on the floor, indicating that the emperor only had 5 more minutes left.

Of course “bad” emperors would indulge more on those worldly pleasures and order their eunuch to go away or they just picked another concubine after the first session was finished.

When a concubine died she would be given a funeral according to their rank. An imperial concubine would even be buried not far from the grave of her emperor.

When an emperor would die all his concubines would go to the next emperor. But he never used them as concubines, but as advisers. The new emperor would get a new set of concubines. The old concubines would live in palaces outside the Forbidden City, except for the imperial concubines, who would normally stay close to the new emperor.

Belgium concession in China

European powers are well know for their colonial history. Even a small country as Belgium was able to enrich itself with a colony, Congo. Belgian Congo was about 76 times bigger than its home country. This colony was annexed to Belgium in 1908.

A less well know fact is that a few years before earlier Belgium gained a concession in China. A concession is an enclave inside a major city. The best know concessions, actually more territories, are probably Macau and Hong Kong, but there were some in major cities such as Shanghai and Tianjin.

Because the foreign powers (next to European countries also Japan and the United States were also involved) were military stronger than the conservative Chinese empire. Because of the military inequality and the tumultuous chaos in China, the foreign powers easily got access to mainland China. The first concessions are given to the British after signing the "unequal" Treaty of Nanjing, which marks the end of the first Opium War in 1842. Gradually other countries get their concession after consecutive Chinese defeats. During that time Belgium got its own concession in Tianjin on 6 Ferbruari 1908.
In a concession everything is administrated by the foreign country. The concessions had their own police, military and court. So the laws could differ from concession to concession. This brought a lot of misbehaviour from those foreigners residing in these areas, because they were practically protected by their home country. A famous example is the signs that were hung up near the foreign concessions in Shanghai, which said : "Forbidden to dogs and Chinese".
Tianjin is a harbour city about 150 km from Beijing. About 3 million people reside there nowadays and it's also the place where the Sail sports will be hold during the Olympic Games. It is a very important city because it gives access to Beijing by water canals. Although not too much is know about these concessions, the most famous one would be the Japanese one. In 1911 the Republic of China is established and the last emperor has to flee. He finds refuge in the Japanese concession and will later be used as puppet emperor by the Japanese for their state of Manchuoku.
The Belgium concession was allocated in 1902, but it was not before1924 that it was in use. A mutual treaty on 31 August 1929 proclaimed the transfer back to China, which was completed on 18 February 1931. Not much is left from the Belgian concession as the area is now covered by medium density housing estates.


The Belgian Bund.
Map of Tianjin 1937.