Recent posts have discussed ancient mythology, scientific cosmology and a Kipling connection: essential Poul Anderson.
In his Japan-based story, Anderson also mentions:
the Temple of the Golden Pavilion;
Sumiyosi Taisha;
the Sengakuji;
Daibutsu;
the Hase district;
the Kannon Hall;
Sagami Bay;
Jizo;
Amida.
"The Shrine for Lost Children" was more coherent on rereading and contains a wealth of Japanese references. See links above.
2 comments:
Kamakura is important both as a religious/cultural center, and as the capital of the first Shoguns -- the beginning of the long period in which the samurai and the clans of the warrior nobles dominated the Emperor and the court aristocracy, eventually reducing it to a venerated but powerless shadow.
The great Japanese epic, the Heike Monogatori, tells that story; it's the beginning of Japan's medieval period, and also sets the archetypes that will dominate Japanese ethics and aesthetics for a long time -- doomed loyalty, sacrificial courage, the conflict of giri and ninjo, of duty and human sympathy.
The Tale of the Heike figures prominently in THE DESERT AND THE BLADE, the sequel to THE GOLDEN PRINCESS.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
And I did notice how you used the themes listed above in both THE GOLDEN PRINCESS and THE DESERT AND THE BLADE. Such as the highly venerated but usually powerless Emperor. Which also reminds me of what we see in the Merseian Roidhunate in Anderson's Terran Empire stories.
Sean
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