Showing posts with label geisha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label geisha. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Tao Te Ching Chapter 61-2 Intercourse


Today's Tao

It's the intercourse of the world under the sky. (Ch.61)


The world is your hologram.

Being one with Tao is "the intercourse" between Tao and your hologram.

This is the Juki 授記, which we discussed a few days ago at Tao by Matsumoto / Forever 59-7.


Zen Master Dogen says:

授記なんぞ大悟大迷ならざらん。

[juki nanzo daigo daimei narazaran]

"How can Juki not be Big Satori and Big Mayoi!"

(Juki 授記, «Shobogenzo»)


Satori is part of your hologram.

Mayoi, or being lost, is part of the hologram.

Your own Self is part of the hologram.

The intercourse between Tao and the hologram is part of the hologram itself.

Contradictory as it may sound, Tao is this intercourse.

Tao is the act of receiving and sending Love, which is Tao.


«Related Articles»
-Satori = Reality 61-1
-Intercourse 61-2
-Female of the world 61-3
-Female beats male 61-4
-By stillness 61-5
-Under small 61-6
-Under big 61-7
-By going down 61-8
-Gather and Raise 61-9
-Work on people 61-10
-Go down 61-11
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 61


Tao answers your question!



☞We have a few national treasures in Japan. Some are official, and others are the ones that we adore but feel too ashamed to admit it. Some Buddha statues and Zen drawings are the former, and Geisha and robots are the latter. At the deepest recess of a Japanese male's heart, he always have a little room for idolized femininity and mechanized animism. They have even mixed the two entities together and ended up inventing «Robo-geisha».

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Tao Te Ching Chapter 58-11 Kyoka (crazy song) hurts


Today's Tao

He is pure, but doesn't hurt anyone. (Ch.58)


白河の清き流れに魚住まず もとのにごりの田沼恋しき

[Shirakawa no kiyoki nagare ni uo sumazu. Moto no nigori no Tanuma koisiki]

(Supposedly composed about 1790 by the Kyoka poet Ota Nanpo 大田南畝 / Ota Shokusanjin 大田蜀山人 although he personally denied it)

No fish can live in the clear water of White River.

They miss the muddy water of good ole Paddy Pond.


This is a Japanese Kyoka 狂歌, which means "crazy song".

This Kyoka was popular under an austerity policy in the Edo period of Shoguns and samurai.

People could not stand the belt-tightening by the current minister Shirakawa 白河, White River, and were missing the preceding period of corruption governed by the former minister Tanuma 田沼, Paddy Pond.

Being pure is not always welcomed in the land of Geisha girls.

Nevertheless, let's be "pure" and courageous enough to tell your «emperor» that he is naked.

After all, everyone is part of your hologram and no one will be hurt.


«Related Articles»
-Dark Government 58-1
-Brilliant government 58-2
-Fortune = Misfortune 58-3
-Misfortune = Fortune 58-4
-Eternal cycle 58-5
-Criterion? 58-6
-Odd criterion 58-7
-Spooky 58-8
-Confused about time? 58-9
-Don't tear it! 58-10
-Kyoka (crazy song) hurts 58-11
-Straight = Bent 58-12
-Amida (Amitābha) shines 58-13
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 58


Tao answers your question!



☞The Edo era in Japan was an exceptional period of about 230 years without a war. Naturally, we experienced the urbanization of life and the emergence of a consumer society. People made love and were happy to talk about scandals and love affairs. Chikamatsu, Monzaemon was a Japanese Shakespeare who captured the heart and soul of burgeoning modern consumers in the world of samurai and geisha.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Tao Te Ching Chapter 29-11 Arrogance


Today's Tao

He stays away from arrogance. (Ch.29)


Be balanced.

Stay away from luxury.

Don't be arrogant.

That's for sure.

But did Lao Tzu need to emphasize them here?

I translated the Chinese character Kanji 去 [saru] as "stay away".

But the original meaning of the character is "to leave".

In order to leave, you have to go there once.

Be imbalanced.

Enjoy luxury.

Be arrogant.

Then, you leave.

This explains why Geishas in Kyoto have been patronized by many Buddhist monks historically.


«Related Articles»
-Obtain the world 29-1
-A god's vessel 29-2
-Defeat it 29-3
-If you stick to it 29-4
-Lead 29-5
-Blow gently 29-6
-Judo 29-7
-Maximum = Minimum 29-8
-Imbalance 29-9
-Luxury 29-10
-Arrogance 29-11
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 29


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.29 text / Next video


-There is nothing wrong with living beautifully. It is no use judging those Buddhist monks who fell in love with a geisha in the red light district in Kyoto. On the contrary, I want to praise them for their honesty and sincerity. How can we stop someone from loving an adorable creature living in the despised sphere of a decent society? Fortunately, the Japanese have Master Ikkyu who respected and worshipped "it". So-called pure religious leaders often make us laugh in Japan although this attitude sometimes confuses the naive believers of Zen Buddhism abroad.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Tao Te Ching Chapter 23-1 Say no words / video

Today's Tao

Saying no words makes things come about by themselves. (Ch.23)

Yukiguni Momiji
Japan stories


Who is the best novelist ever in Japan?

Surely, the answers vary.

Some might say Murasaki shikibu (Lady Murasaki) who wrote «the Tale of Genji».

Other might say Yukio Mishima who committed Harakiri.

Haruki Murakami, the author of «Norwegian Wood», is certainly an up-and-coming star in Japanese literature.

It is a question without one definite answer, isn't it?

So, let's paraphrase the question.

Which Japanese novelist might you miss the most if he or she had not written any works?

My answer is Yasunari Kawabata and I guess that many fans of Japanese literature share the opinion.

Before his «Snow Country», the Japanese word Geisha was a pejorative. After his invention of the heroine Komako, the word has gained some divine power.

Komako the Onsen geisha (hot spa geisha) is the symbol of the pure and sacred womanhood in the collective consciousness of many Japanese and non-Japanese men and women.

"Not all the Japanese, though", I have to admit.



Mishima might have preferred a samurai boy to a geisha girl. Murakami may fancy a glass of gin and tonic with the author of «the Cather in the Rye» more than having Sake with Kawabata, served by a Komako at a snowy onsen ryokan (Japanese style inn).

But look at Japanese boys hanging around Akihabara who adore girls in a Maid Cafe. Aren't they looking for a Komako in a fantasized maid's cutsie wootsie costume?

Thank you, Mr. Kawabata. We are glad that you wrote it.


No matter how much Mishima tried to create his public image resembling the photo, his classmates at Gakushuin high school know who he was. Tough luck, Mishima-san.

-To read the text of Today's Tao, please visit Tao Te Ching Chapter 23-1 Say no words.


Tao answers your question!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 16-1 Do emptiness / video


Today's Tao

Do emptiness perfectly. (Ch.16)


Geisha are gone.

We don't have them any more.

It is what we call social engineering.

We have transformed our town.

We got cleaner, better organised, and even wealthier.

I used to go to school with sons and daughters of Geisha.

Geisha got wealthier as well.

They abandoned their kimonos, and bought a Dior and a Louis Vuitton.

They shipped their old Toyota to Russia and asked AMG to upgrade their new Mercedes.

And they have become invisible.

Old businesses continue, of course, but they have put their money safely on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Oh, excuse me. Not so safely.

You never know. One day they may have to wear old kimonos again and stand at the street corner.


To read the text of Today's Tao, please see Tao Te Ching 16-1 Do emptiness.

To read other episodes of Japan stories, please click the label below.


Tao answers your question!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 18-1 Tao out of use


Today's Tao

After big Tao has fallen out of use, we have "morality of love" and its rules. (Ch.18)


In Taoism, the words like morality and rules are considered pejorative.

For they are not natural and created by a society.

If you are one with Tao, you don't need any frame to control your conduct.

Any artificial control is fake.


«Related Articles»
-Tao out of use 18-1
-Hypocrisy 18-2
-Merciful "love"? 18-3
-Loyal ministers 18-4
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 18
-Kawabata's Onsen Geisha Morality is very immoral in Taoism. In this sense, a Geisha is the purest form of womanhood.


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.18 text / Next video