Kyokutei Bakin s
Nansō Satomi hakkenden is one of the monuments of Japanese literature. This multigenerational samurai saga was one of the most popular and influential books of the nineteenth century and has been adapted many times into film, television, fiction, and comics.
An Ill-Considered Jest, the first part of
Hakkenden, tells the story of the Satomi clan patriarch Yoshizane and his daughter Princess Fuse. An ill-advised comment forces Yoshizane to betroth his daughter to the family dog, creating a supernatural union that ultimately produces the Eight Dog Warriors. Princess Fuse s heroic and tragic sacrifice, and her strength, intelligence, and self-determination throughout, render her an immortal character within Japanese fiction.
With the collaborative launch of their three newest digital projects, the University of Oregon Libraries and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art recently.
4 March 2021 • 12:02am
Lady of the manor, 11th-century Godiva, cradles a cat at St George’s church, Woolhope
Credit: Liam Bunce/Alamy
SIR – The Rev David Keighley says: “It is sinful not to sell empty churches” (report, March 2). By his definition, my local parish church is “a museum gathering dust”. I beg to differ.
Our congregations rarely exceed 30, other than for major festivals and (in non-Covid circumstances) weddings and funerals, but possibly they have not done so for centuries past.
Yet the church has been at the heart of the village since before the Norman Conquest and, God willing, will remain so for at least another millennium.