Thomas Mann on the artist vs the state

Thomas Mann on the artist vs the state

Thomas Mann(1875-1955)
Overview
Born: June 6, 1875 · Lübeck [now Schleswig-Holstein], Germany
Died: August 12, 1955, · Kilchberg, Kanton Zürich, Switzerland (sclerosis of the arteries of the legs)

Mini Bio
Thomas Mann was probably Germany's most influential author of the 20th century, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. Born on June 6 1875 in Lübeck, his family moved to Munich in 1893, where he lived until 1933 and wrote some of his most successful novels like "Buddenbrocks" (1901), "Death in Venice" (1912) or "The Magic Mountain" (1924). After the Nazi takeover, the humanist and anti-fascist, married to Katia Pringsheim, daughter of a secular Jewish family, emigrated to Switzerland, then to Princeton and Pacific Palisades in the United States, where he finished his great tetra-logy "Joseph and His Brothers" in 1942. He became a naturalised US citizen two years later but finally returned to Europe in 1952. The famous analyst and critic of the German and European soul died on August 12 1955, in Kilberg near Zurich.

//Summary - Level-C2//

A prominent German writer, Thomas Mann, initially gained fame with his novel "Buddenbrooks" but faced a creative slowdown until his later success with "Death in Venice." During World War I, Mann wrote "Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man," a controversial essay criticising democracy and promoting German authoritarian values, diverging sharply from the liberal democratic ideals supported by his brother Heinrich. Mann's writings explore the conflict between civilisation and culture, emphasising the unique role of the artist as a vital yet nonpolitical force in society, resistant to the politicisation inherent in democracy.

//Summary - Level-A2//
A famous German writer, Thomas Mann, wrote "Buddenbrooks" and "Death in Venice." During World War I, he wrote an essay that did not support democracy but supported German values. His writings discuss the difference between civilisation and culture and highlight the role of artists in society. He believed politics should not influence artists.

By Christopher Beha
September 17 2021

A)
1)
Thomas Mann was just 26 years old when publishing his first novel, "Buddenbrooks," propelled him to the forefront of German writers. He relished this position but produced little else to justify it over the next decade. 

He was approaching 40 before he completed another major work, "Death in Venice", a novella about an ageing writer whose fascination with a beautiful young Polish boy keeps him on holiday even as a cholera epidemic breaks out. 

2)
Mann almost immediately began work on a second novella that would explore the themes of Death in Venice - the strange allure of "decadence", disease and death - in a comic mode. He was working on this companion piece in 1914 when the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand set in motion the events that would lead to the First World War.

3)
Like many educated Europeans of the time, Mann didn't quite believe the continent would descend into all-out war, but he greeted the possibility with a certain amount of excitement. When the worst happened, he put the comic aside to do a "war service using thought as a weapon". 

This took the form of an extended essay, "Thoughts in Wartime", in which he expressed "the necessity of a European catastrophe": "Deep in our hearts, we felt that the world, our world, could no longer go on as it had."

4)
By the time Mann published the essay in November 1914—alongside a historical study of Frederick the Great and Voltaire that also defended German militarism in its contest with French rationality—most observers recognised war as a moral and human disaster, and the response to this intervention was scathing. 

5)
Among the harshest critics was Mann's older brother, the novelist Heinrich Mann, who published a historical study of his own, ostensibly about Émile Zola and the Dreyfus Affair, but defending liberal democracy and declaring the responsibility of the politically engaged writer within it. 

6)
Heinrich didn't mention his brother explicitly, but in a passage on creative maturity, he speculated that writers 'who make their debut in their early 20s are likely to dry out young'.

7)
Mann spent most of the war years stewing over this insult, writing an extended self-justification, 'Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man', which he completed just in time for the truce. 

Recently reissued by New York Review Books with an introduction by Mark Lilla, Reflections is a strange, often off-putting book. It is a 500-page attack on democracy, enlightenment, and reason that is also an act of petty score-settling, written in a bubbly tone at odds with the stately irony for which Mann is remembered. 

And yet, at the moment, the book feels worthy of our attention and somehow indispensable.

B)
8)
Central to Mann's argument in both "Thoughts in Wartime" and "Reflections" is the distinction between "civilisation "culture". The terms are often used interchangeably, but Mann insists they are "not only not the same, but oppositesCivilisationisation involves reason, enlightenment, moderation, moral education, and scepticism" In contrast, culture represents "the sublimation of the demonic". As such, it "belongs entirely to the other side... a deeper, darker, passionate world". 

Every nation has a distinctive culture, but not all countries are civilised. Culture tends to value its particular local character; civilisation seeks to make itself universal.

C)
10)
According to Mann, German culture's unique destiny was to oppose Latin Europe's civilisation with its "Roman idea of unification." Over the centuries, this unifying idea had taken the form of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church, and the Napoleonic army. 

11)
Now, it was taking the form of liberal democracy. "I am deeply convinced," Mann wrote, "that the German people will never be able to love political democracy ... and that the much-maligned 'authoritarian state' is and will remain the one that is and will be right for the German people, and the one they want."

12)
What did Mann find so objectionable - and above all so un-German - about democracy? It embodied "the empire of civcivilizationPutting the power of the state in the hands of the people means making them rational, enlightened citizens - whether they like it or not. 

He quotes Friedrich Nietzsche: "All states are organised, then statesmen have to deal with politics." 

For Mann, democracy is "the politicisation of every ethos." Personal questions become social questions, moral problems become political problems, and art becomes "social literature."

13)
Surprisingly, Mann places Literature firmly in the camp of democracy. Literature is "the same as democracy in a hyperbolic general generalisation of the book's rhetorical tone. He is not referring to his writing as "literature". 

14)
He means "the social novel in the public interest," a genre exemplified by Zola's (or his brother Heinrich's) works. Literature is "pure, rational, humane and noble." 

It seeks to educate and enlighten its readers, to make them better citizens. This sets it in opposition to "art", which is irrational and reactionary, an expression of that darker, passionate world from which culture springs.

D)
15)
Throughout his career, from Buddenbrooks to his last unfinished novel, Felix Krull, Mann was fascinated by the artist's figure. This ambiguous character stands "between two worlds ... at home in neither". 

In Mann's portrayal, the artist wields a vital power that is not entirely under his control and, as such, poses a kind of risk to a culture that nevertheless depends on him. There is something unsavoury, even sickly, about the artist, something not entirely on the side of life. 

(Mann, who was bisexual, closely associated his artistic impulses with the dangerous secret of his same-sex desire).

16)
Above all, the artist is an apolitical figure because he refuses to be put at the service of any more extensive programme. The artist 'creates only what he is, what corresponds to his aesthetic judgement and needs' without regard to what society demands. 

Since Mann believed in democracy, he thought there could be no place for true art: "What is necessary [in a democracy] is not art at all, but the manifesto, the absolute manifesto in favour of progress. 

17)
Instead of the artist, democracy has the Zivilizationsliterat. This unwieldy German compound noun translates as "the literary man of civilisation treats culture as a means rather than an end in itself. He believes that "art must propagate reforms of a social and political nature. "Civilisation's man is not precisely an ignoble figure, but what he creates is not art, as Mann understands. 

18)
"Authorship itself has always seemed to me," Mann writes, "to be a witness to and an expression of ambivalence, of here and there, of yes and no, of two souls in one breast, of an annoying abundance of inner conflicts, antitheses and contradictions. 

The literary Mann civilisation is known for ambivalence or inner conflict, which can hinder progress and social reform.

E)
19)
One of the curious things about reading this half-forgotten book is that Mann has come down to us, not unfairly, as the consummate civilisation. He'd always had a bit of that tendency - a fact he notes with typical ambivalence in Reflections- and eagerly embraced it in later life. 

After the war, he supported the new Weimar government. In an essay entitled 'On the German Republic, ' he conceded that 'democracy can live on a certain level, the same level as German Romanticism'. However, he insisted he was 'not recanting anything' from his wartime writings. 

F)
20)
With the rise of fascism, Mann's ambivalent acceptance of democracy became full-throated support. He was an early opponent of Nazism, which led to his exile from Germany. 

21)
He ended up in the United States, giving speeches assuring Americans that the German spirit was perfectly compatible with democracy—his time in America made Mann one of the first genuinely global literary figures, a status he cultivated in part by carefully overseeing the translation of his works into English. 

"Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man was the only one of his major works to remain untranslated during his lifetime. (The current translation, by Walter D. Morris, first appeared in 1983).

22)
To read the book now is to conclude that Mann was right to be embarrassed by it. But that, in its way, is part of the point. 

The book is a political intervention staged by a fundamentally apolitical man - or, as Mann himself puts it, "the work of an artist, not a work of art" - and the result is as clumsy as one might expect. 

23)
As political ideas, the thoughts expressed in it are useless (or worse). However, only someone who believes politics is everything would conclude that this renders the book useless.

24)
After completing "Reflections", Mann returned to his "Death in Venice" companion novella, which grew into his gigantic masterpiece, "The Magic Mountain". 

It is significant that his two greatest works were written immediately before and after "Reflections", for both deal with many of the same ideas, treated aesthetically rather than rhetorically, expressed with ambivalence through the profound irony that was Mann's signature effect. 

25)
As Lilla notes in his introduction, Mann, the novelist, remained an artist to the end, even as Mann, the public figure, assumed the role of spokesman for a civilisation that the most critical aspects of the human spirit - religion, philosophy, art, poetry, science - exist alongside, above and beyond the state, and often enough even against it," he wrote in Reflections. It is a belief he never abandoned.

26)
In the light of history, many 'Reflections' can be easily dismissed. Still, the idea that we damage the most critical elements of life when we use them instrumentally for political ends is a real challenge for our moment, obsessed as it is with the political responsibility of the artist. 

27)
Much of Mann's book will be obscure to contemporary readers. Still, the literary man of civilisation instantly recognisable she) is the novelist as a social conscience, writer of earnest op-eds, signatory of open letters, eager panellist at PEN events, and tweeter of #resistance memes. 

28)
When Heinrich Mann praises Émile Zola as a spokesman for democratic values, he praises him not as an artist but a man of letters in civilisation. A recent Pulitzer Prize winner takes to the pages of the New York Times to honour writers who "text voters, donate to activist causes, engage in bitter fights on social media and write op-eds attacking the Trump administration." He is doing the same.

29)
It is a curious sociological fact that the call to be sensible, responsible and progressive is now most often made by home-grown writers. 

Over the past two decades, American literary culture has eagerly embraced a procession of international novelists - W. G. Sebald, Roberto Bolaño, Michel Houellebecq, Elena Ferrante, Karl Ove Knausgaard - whose works derive much of their power from their proximity to the dangerous, the illiberal, the demonic; the foreignness of these writers seems to exempt them from being read through the lens of US domestic politics. 

30)
Yet our fascination with them suggests that some of us still recognise that saying both "yes" and "no" is an art that expresses internal contradictions rather than programmes for reform and art that is not unambiguous on the side of health and life.

31)
Mann was wrong to think that such art could not exist in a democracy. Indeed, liberal democracy, at its best, can be a great guarantor of the freedom to create such art. 

But he was not wrong to worry about democracy's tendency to co-opt art for its ends and call on artists themselves to resist it.

Thomas Mann on the Artist vs. the State

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/books/review/reflections-of-a-nonpolitical-man-thomas-mann.html

Thomas Mann - German author

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Mann

Thomas Mann - Biography

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003407/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Overview
Born: June 6, 1875 · Lübeck [now Schleswig-Holstein], Germany
Died: August 12, 1955, · Kilchberg, Kanton Zürich, Switzerland (sclerosis of the arteries of the legs)

Mini Bio
Thomas Mann was probably Germany's most influential author of the 20th century, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. Born on June 6 1875 in Lübeck, his family moved to Munich in 1893, where he lived until 1933 and wrote some of his most successful novels like "Buddenbrocks" (1901), "Death in Venice" (1912) or "The Magic Mountain" (1924). After the Nazi takeover, the humanist and anti-fascist, married to Katia Pringsheim, daughter of a secular Jewish family, emigrated to Switzerland, then to Princeton and Pacific Palisades in the United States, where he finished his great tetra-logy "Joseph and His Brothers" in 1942. He became a naturalised citizen two years later but finally returned to Europe in 1952. The famous analyst and critic of the German and European soul died on August 12 1955, in Kilberg near Zurich.

Thomas Mann: His Life and Work (documentary)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTAJXJ_ptMY

The documentary examines the life and work of German literary icon Thomas Mann, beginning with Mann's nomination for the 1949 Goethe Prize. His symbolic representation of Germany in exile after the war and his status as a representative of the liberal, humanist tradition are juxtaposed against Mann's private life. The program discusses how his works, such as Death in Venice, explore the disparity between the life of bourgeois convention and desire, a disparity present in Mann's own life. From the suicide of his eldest son to his homosexuality, the program explores the dual identity of Mann as a representative of post-war Germany and also as a private citizen.

Thomas Mann - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%88%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E3%82%B9%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3

Trailer of the movie "Death in Venice"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8snvOmA0Rc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHB_YWIWkE8

This is a masterpiece directed by Italian master Luchino Visconti. The film is based on a novel by German writer Thomas Mann, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. It depicts the suffering and ecstasy of Aschenbach, a famous composer who fell in love with the handsome boy Tadzio, in an aesthetically pleasing film.

"Death in Venice" 48 years after the handsome boy, the glory and ruin of Björn Andresen / Trailer of the movie "The Most Beautiful Boy in the World."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv-4zV1PBes

Bjorn, who was 15 years old at the time and was discovered by master Luchino Visconti and was chosen to play the role of Tadio in the movie Death in Venice (71), caused a considerable sensation at the time as "the most beautiful boy in the world." Andresen. Andresen, who was a strong driving force behind the film with his overwhelming presence that captivated viewers' eyes, was also active in the entertainment industry in Japan, including appearing in commercials, and greatly influenced Japanese culture. Fifty years later, he appeared before us as the old man Dan in Ari Aster's "Midsommar" (2019), a massive hit in Japan, and became a hot topic of conversation.

This work uses a wealth of archival footage to reveal the story behind Death in Venice, the glory and ruin of a man called "the most beautiful boy in the world" and whose life was destined for the rest of his life. It is a shocking documentary that depicts the path to spiritual rebirth.

Death in Venice | Thomas Mann's Essence of Novel Art

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDEfopiquBg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mqJYpQ6b6I

Seascapes and thoughts about the sea. It's the same as what was said in the Buddenbroek family.
In his later years, many expressions are very similar to his own life as a writer, which he wrote about the creation of Dr. Faustus.
In other words, the author and the sea. This is the theme of Mann's life; he expressed it this way when he was 37.
The Devil's Mountain also suggests conformity to the times. As we live our individual lives, we live in the times.
In that sense, it is a very Thomas Mann-like novel.

Thomas Mann "Buddenbrooks"
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%96%E3%83%83%E3%83%87%E3%83%B3%E3%83%96%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF%E5%AE%B6%E3%81%AE%E4%BA%BA%E3%80%85

Thomas Mann "Doktor Faustus"
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A6%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%82%A5%E3%82%B9%E5%8D%9A%E5%A3%AB

Thomas Mann "Lotte in Weimar"
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AF%E3%82%A4%E3%83%9E%E3%83%AB%E3%81%AE%E3%83%AD%E3%83%83%E3%83%86

Tokugawa Yoshinobu : The Last Shōgun

Tokugawa Yoshinobu : The Last Shōgun (1837-1913)

Prince Tokugawa Yoshinobu (28 October 1837 - 22 November 1913) was Japan's 15th lShogunogun. He participated in a campaign to reform the ageing shogunate, which ultimately failed. He resigned Shogungun in late 1867 in an attempt to retain his political influence. After these efforts failed due to his defeat at the Battles of Toba and Fushimi in early 1868, he went into hiding and avoided public attention for most of his life.

1)
Prince Tokugawa Yoshinobu (徳川 慶喜) was the 15th and last shōgun of the Tokugawa shōgunate of Japan. After reluctantly accepting the position of Shogunogun, he became part of a movement to reform the ageing shogunate, which was ultimately unsuccessful. After over a year, Shogunhogun resigned in late 1867, retired, and primarily avoided public life for the rest of his life. He was despised and envied by many in his own family and hated by those who wanted an end to the shogunate.

2)
Prince Tokugawa Yoshinobu was the 15th Shogunhogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement to reform the ageing shogunate but was unsuccessful. After resigning in late 1867, he retired and largely avoided public life for the rest of his life. 

3)
Tokugawa Yoshinobu was born in Edo as the seventh son of Tokugawa Nariaki, the Daimyo of Mito. Along with the Owari and Kii families, the Mito family was one of the Gosanke, albeit the lowest of the three families. Gosanke are Japan's three most important branches of the Tokugawa clan, all descended from the three youngest sons of the founder Tokugawa Ieyasu.

4)
The Owari and Kii families were eligible to succeed to the main shogunate should the central Tokugawa family fail to produce an heir. Unfortunately, the Mito family was unable to do so. So, at his father's instigation and seeing the potential problems with succession within the Gosanke families, Yoshinobu's father agreed to adopt him by the Hitotsubashi family to have a better chance of succeeding in the shogunate.

5)
The Hitotsubashi, Shimizu, and Tayasu are alternate families producing heirs when the two Gosanke families cannot. He became head of the Hitotsubashi family in 1847, receiving court rank and title and officially taking the name Yoshinobu. After the death of the Shogunhogun Tokugawa Iesada in 1858, Yoshinobu was nominated as a possible successor.

6)
His supporters touted his skill and efficiency in managing family affairs.   However, the rival faction led by Ii Naosuke prevailed. Their candidate, the 12-year-old Tokugawa Yoshitomo, was elected and became the Shogunhogun, Tokugawa Iemochi. Soon after, Ii was appointed Tairo, or Great Elder, and was the chief policymaker of the shogunate until Tokugawa Iemochi reached the age to take control.

7)
From 1858 to 1860, Ii led the Ansei Purge, in which those who did not support Tokugawa Iemochi's authority and foreign trade policies were imprisoned, executed or exiled. Although Yoshinobu had no interest in being Shogunhogun and fully supported Shogun Iemochi, Ii had him and those who supported him placed under house arrest as a perceived threat to Shogun's authority.

6)
Ii's rule over the Tokugawa government was marked by mismanagement and political infighting. He hoped to restore the shogunate's authority by acting as a dictator.   Without the Emperor's approval, he had the shogunate ratify the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the United States, also known as the Harris Treaty.

7)
This treaty opened the ports of four other Japanese cities to trade and granted extraterritoriality to foreigners, among several trade provisions that disproportionately benefited the U.S. Ii's brutality and treaties with foreigners had made him many enemies. On 24 March 1860, he was assassinated by a group of 17 Mito and one Satsuma samurai in the Sakuradamon Incident. 

8)
The death of Ii Naosuke sparked a wave of loyalist terrorism across Japan. Soon, other members of the Bakufu and their informers were targeted. After Ii's assassination, Yoshinobu was reinstated as head of the Hitotsubashi family, and in 1862, he was appointed guardian of Shogun Iemochi. 

9)
At the same time, his two closest allies, Matsudaira Yoshinaga and Matsudaira Katamori, were appointed to other high positions.   Yoshinaga was appointed Chief of Political Affairs, while Katamori was appointed Guardian of Kyoto. The three men then took numerous steps to quell the political unrest in Kyoto and gathered allies to counter the activities of the rebellious Choshu domain. 

10)
They were key figures in the Kobu Gattai political party, which sought reconciliation between the shogunate and the imperial court. At Yoshinobu's request, Katamori organised the brutal Kyoto police force known as the Shinsengumi. The Shinsengumi were Bakufu ronin troops charged with maintaining order and peace in the city.

11)
The shogunate's failure to keep the foreigners out served as a convenient excuse to oppose the Shogun and eventually plot to overthrow his government. The shogunate's duty was to protect Japan from the barbarians, and it seemed it could no longer do so. Some domains began questioning whether the Shogun was still needed since he wasn't fulfilling his purpose.

12)
The most vocal and disobedient domain was Choshu. In 1864, the Choshu rebels attempted to seize control of the Emperor in Kyoto to restore the Imperial household to its position of political supremacy. However, as commander of the imperial palace defences, Yoshinobu defeated the Choshu forces in what became known as the Kimon incident.

13)
This led to the First Choshu Expedition of 1864, led by the Tokugawa Shogunate, to punish the Choshu domain, bring them into line, and use them as an example of the resurgence of Tokugawa dominance. After the death of Tokugawa Iemochi in 1866, Japan was without a shogun for more than 150 days.

14)
While Yoshinobu agreed to be the head of the Tokugawa family, he continually refused to be nominated as Shogun, believing that the shogunate's political system was outdated and could not survive in the modern world. However, after much pleading from his supporters, Yoshinobu reluctantly accepted the nomination.  

15)
Yoshinobu was elected and became the 15th and last Shogun. He was the only Tokugawa shogun to spend his entire tenure outside Edo.   He never set foot in Edo Castle as Shogun. Immediately after Yoshinobu's accession, significant changes were initiated. A massive government overhaul was undertaken to introduce reforms that would strengthen the Tokugawa government.

16)
In particular, assistance from the Second French Empire was organised with the construction of the Yokosuka Arsenal under Leonce Verny and the dispatch of a French military mission to modernise the armies of the Bakufu. The national army and navy, already formed under Tokugawa's command, were strengthened with the help of the Russians and the Tracy Mission of the British Royal Navy.

17)
Equipment was also purchased from the United States. Many people believed the Tokugawa shogunate was on the road to renewed strength and power. They feared that the Tokugawa Shogunate would be strengthened again under a strong and wise ruler; samurai from Satsuma, Choshu, and Tosa allied to counter this. 

18)
Many considered Tokugawa Yoshinobu to be the reincarnation of Ieyasu, one who would continue to usurp the power of the Emperor. The three powerful lords worked to end the shogunate, although they differed in their approaches. Tosa, in particular, was more moderate. He proposed a compromise in which Yoshinobu would step down as Shogun but preside over a new national governing council composed of various Daimyo.

19)
To this end, Yamauchi Toyoshige, the Daimyo of Tosa, and his advisor, Goto Shojiro, petitioned Yoshinobu to resign to make this possible.   On 9 November 1867, Yoshinobu agreed to the terms and tendered his resignation to the Emperor, formally stepping down ten days later and returning all governmental power to the Emperor.

20)
He then retreated from Kyoto to Osaka. However, while Satsuma and Choshu favoured a governing council of Daimyo, unlike Tosa, they opposed Yoshinobu's leadership. They secretly obtained an imperial edict calling for the use of force against Yoshinobu, which was later revealed to be a forgery. They moved large numbers of Satsuma and Choshu troops into Kyoto. 

21)
There, they called a meeting of the Imperial Court, where Yoshinobu was stripped of all his titles and lands, even though he had done nothing that could be construed as aggressive or criminal. Anyone who might have opposed these punishments for Yoshinobu was not included in the meeting. The leaders of Satsuma and Choshu wanted the Tokugawa family destroyed.

22)
Until now, Yoshinobu had been fully cooperative with the new Japanese government. However, he objected to this action and wrote a letter of protest to be delivered to the Imperial Court. Given the many Satsuma and Choshu troops in Kyoto, Yoshinobu sent many troops to deliver this message to the court.

23)
When the Tokugawa forces arrived outside Kyoto, they were refused entry and attacked by Satsuma and Choshu troops, starting the Battle of Toba-Fushimi—the first clash of the Boshin War. Although the Tokugawa forces had a clear numerical advantage, Yoshinobu abandoned his army in the middle of the battle when he realised that the Satsuma and Choshu forces were flying the imperial banner.

24)
Seeing that the Emperor supported the Satsuma and Choshu forces and Yoshinobu did not want to be seen as a rebel against him, Yoshinobu fled to Edo. He placed himself under voluntary confinement and announced his submission to the imperial court. On 11 April 1868, at Yoshinobu's request, Katsu Kaishu negotiated the surrender of Edo Castle with Saigo Takamori, thus preventing a potentially costly and bloody war. 

25)
Yoshinobu moved to Shizuoka with Tokugawa Iesato, the newly appointed head of the Tokugawa family. Iesato was made Daimyo of the new domain of Shizuoka but lost this title a few years later when the domains were abolished. Many high-ranking samurai and those in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate also left the Shizuoka, and many found themselves without sufficient means to support themselves.

26)
As a result, many of them resented Yoshinobu, some to the point of wanting him dead. Yoshinobu was aware of this and was so afraid of assassination that he redesigned his sleeping arrangements to confuse any potential assassin. Living in quiet retirement, Yoshinobu indulged in many hobbies, including oil painting, archery, hunting, photography and cycling.

27)
In 1902, the Meiji Emperor allowed him to re-establish his house as a branch of the Tokugawa with the highest rank in the peerage, that of prince, for his loyal service to Japan.   He took a seat in the House of Peers and resigned in 1910. Tokugawa Yoshinobu died on 21 November 1913. Many people on both sides of the war resented Yoshinobu, from those who lost their privilege to those who wanted it.

28)
But later in the Meiji era, many could look back with a greater perspective and imagine what might have happened if Yoshinobu had not peacefully handed Tokugawa power. They later believed that Tokugawa Yoshinobu was the most significant contributor to the establishment of the Meiji government.

Tokugawa Yoshinobu : The Last Shōgun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU6uY042IBI&t=23s

Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837-1913)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokugawa_Yoshinobu

Portrait of Furtwängler

Portrait of Furtwängler(1886-1954)

"All great things are simple." Furtwängler

Wilhelm Furtwängler:

He was the permanent conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra from 1922 to 1945 and from 1947 to 1954, and he is regarded as one of the leading conductors of the first half of the 20th century. He specialised in mainstream German music, including Beethoven, Brahms, and Wagner. His performances are generally regarded as inheriting the style of late German Romanticism. 

Because he also inherited the style of late German Romanticism as a composer, he is sometimes placed in opposition to his rival Toscanini. Still, some consider it "rash to dismiss performances with a solid constructive quality as 'Romantic performances'". Furtwängler is said to have disliked being labelled a 'late romantic' so much that he said: 'I am neither a romantic nor a classicist'.

In Japan, Music critic Hidekazu Yoshida has described Furtwängler as having' a rich sensuality, a high spirituality, and a charm that blend into one and engulf the listener in a potent intoxication' and 'you can hear the ideas and emotions that [Beethoven] had enclosed in this music come to life'.

Artist in war:
The conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Furtwängler, remained in Germany to protect Jewish members of the orchestra, and after the war he was suspected of being a Nazi collaborator. Composer Shostakovich continued to compose against his will to survive under Stalin's regime. During the war between Germany and the Soviet Union, he created a symphony symbolising anti-fascism. Akutagawa Prize-winning author Hino Ashihei wrote "Wheat and Soldiers" while serving in the military, which became a bestseller, but after the war, he suffered from a sense of guilt. Artists continued to be torn between the state and freedom of expression.

1)
"Make sure the crescendo isn't too fast."
"It's not finished yet."

At the time, there were seven Jewish members of the Berlin Philharmonic.
Simon Goldberg, the concertmaster at the centre of the performance, was also Jewish.
However, the Berlin Philharmonic was never attacked by the Nazis.
Hitler appreciated Furtwängler's talent.

2)
Extract from Furtwängler's words:
"I was advised to vanish into thin air on the day of the Jewish attack".

When he returned to Berlin, he found a historic Jewish-owned business attacked by young Nazi shock troops and a Star of David, the Jewish symbol, plastered on his house.

But nothing happened to the Berlin Philharmonic office.

3)
But the only refuge was the Berlin Philharmonic.
In April 1933, Hitler decided to remove Jews from public office.

Extract from Furtwängler's words:
If the policy of expelling Jews is directed against talented artists, it will mean a loss of cultural activities.
Jewish artists should be allowed to continue working in Germany in the future.

4)
Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels shook Furtwängler.
He threatened to cut the Berlin Philharmonic's subsidies.

Furtwängler withdrew his criticism of the Nazis on the condition that he would protect the members of the Berlin Philharmonic.

5)
From a statement by the Berlin Philharmonic:
On the question of race, Mr Furtwängler once again emphasised his nationalist position, stating the principle that German performers should be given preference over those of other ethnicities as long as they are of approximately the same level of ability.

Furtwängler was heavily criticised at home and abroad for his stance, accused of pandering to the Nazis, and many musicians refused to perform with him.

Against Furtwängler:
Musicians Boycott Furtwängler's Music Concerts
Musicians refuse to perform in Germany, rejecting Furtwängler's request

6)
At the time, Toscanini was a conductor whose popularity with Furtwängler was split. The Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini hated Mussolini.
He publicly declared that he would not perform under fascist conditions.

In 1937, the two had the chance to meet at a music festival in Salzburg, Austria.
However, they ended up having a heated argument.

7)
From Toscanini's words:
In today's world climate, it is not acceptable for an artist to command both an enslaved and a free country at the same time.

From Furtwängler's words:
Music takes people into an open, accessible space that even the Gestapo cannot touch.

Just because I play great music and it happens to be in a country under Hitler's control, does that mean I'm Hitler's mouthpiece?

8)
From Toscanini's words:
Anyone who commands the Third Reich is a Nazi!

From Furtwängler's words:
So, is art just propaganda for whatever government happens to be in power?
That's not the case.

Art exists in a different world from politics.

9)
German art was called upon to contribute further to the deification of Hitler.

The Berlin Philharmonic under Furtwängler will perform Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, "Ode to Joy (Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee)"

Furtwängler had distanced himself from the Nazis and refused to perform at official events, but in the end, he could not refuse.

10)
It was 19 April 1942, the eve of Hitler's birthday.
Goebbels and other senior Hitler officials sat in the front row, and there was a strange atmosphere in the concert hall.

The performance was exciting.
Furtwängler's conducting was heated. In the last part of the performance, he reached such a furious tempo that even the virtuoso members of the Berlin Philharmonic could hardly keep up.

This performance came to be known as ``Hitler's Ninth''.
It is considered one of the most outstanding historical performances of the Ninth.

11)
It was just after the end of the performance.
Suddenly, Goebbels asked Furtwängler to shake his hand.
It was a surprise action, not known in advance.

This moment was broadcast around the world and created the impression that Furtwängler was a Nazi sympathiser.

12)
From the protest leaflet of the time:
Furtwängler is a musical official controlled by the Nazi state.
Furtwängler is the epitome of the slave mind!

Thomas Mann, a German Nobel Prize winner who denounced the Nazis and went into exile, also pointed this out:
Furtwängler's tragic ignorance.
He is an incompetent person who cannot grasp the essence of Nazism.

Furtwängler has no other intention than to keep his life as an artist pure.

13)
Furtwängler was repeatedly advised by his friends to seek asylum.
However, he remained in Germany.

Members of the Berlin Philharmonic were exempt from conscription as long as they worked in military factories or performed for soldiers.

14)
From Furtwängler's words:
If I had wanted to defect, I could have done so.
Then I could have criticised the Nazis from abroad.

But I thought my mission was to keep German music alive.
In the face of continuing to play German music for German musicians and the German people, the fear that the performances might be used for Nazi propaganda receded.

15)
Music festivals at the Bayreuth Festival Theatre were banned for the time being because the festival played a role in Hitler's rise to power.
Wagner's music was considered taboo as a symbol of the Nazis.

Furtwängler was also accused of helping to spread Nazi ideas.
However, he was found not guilty because he had protected Jewish musicians.

16)
In 1947, Furtwängler returned to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic.
And the tickets were sold out in an instant.

Beethoven's Fate Symphony No. 5

He went on to give many concerts overseas, but throughout his life, he was criticised as a Nazi collaborator, especially by Americans and Jews.

17)
December 2022, invasion of Ukraine. Italian protest demonstration.
There is a growing movement around the world to ban Russian artists who do not criticise their country's invasion.

"Milan's Scala does not support Putin's propaganda".

18)
Valery Gergiev, a world-renowned Russian conductor, has been a leading figure in Russian concerts since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
He has been friends with Putin for 30 years.

Edinburgh International Festival:
Gergiev was banned for loyalty to Putin.

Gergiev:
Sacked from Swiss music festival

Gergiev was sacked as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic.
He has been asked to criticise the invasion of Ukraine but has remained silent.

19)
How should artists deal with the past?
Here is a video that powerfully asks this question.

This happened at a concert in the Jewish state of Israel.

7 July 2001, a concert by the orchestra of the Berlin State Opera:
This is a video taken by a member of the audience.

20)
The conductor is Daniel Barenboim, a Jewish conductor.
Furtwängler recognised Barenboim's talent at the age of 11, and he went on to perform in concerts worldwide.
He has since looked up to Furtwängler as a mentor.

21)
It was just after all the scheduled performances had finished.
Barenboim had a proposal for the audience.

"You all decide whether you want to play. Here is the score of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde".

The hall became noisy.
Many people in Israel still regard Wagner as a symbol of the Nazis.

22)
"This kind of approach is unconscionable."

"If any of you don't want to hear it, I'll leave quietly."

"No! If you do, you'll be giving in to the minority."

23)
The audience discussed whether or not to allow the performance to go ahead for over 30 minutes.

"You're a fascist!"

"Are you forcing me to listen to something I don't want to hear? The programme is over, you can leave".

"Stop playing!"

In the end, the protesters left the venue and played the performance.

24)
However, there were still some jeers during the performance.

"No!"

Barenboim describes his reasons for performing as follows:

25)
From Barenboim's words:
Some people may have frightening associations when they hear Wagner's music.
We should not encourage such people to listen.
That's natural.

But do people with terrible associations have the right to deny others the opportunity to listen to music?
I do not think so.

I want to play music from the heart.

26)
The great German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler has died at the age of 68.
Furtwängler died in December 1954.

He continued to play music until two months before his death.
He continued to perform in Germany during the war, as he recalled.

27)
From Furtwängler's words:
To leave at such a time was a shameless escape.
After all, I'm German.

Perhaps no one needed or longed for Beethoven's gospel of freedom and love of humanity more than the Germans living under the terror of the Nazis.

28)
No matter what people abroad think, I have no regrets about what I did for the German people.

Portrait of Furtwängler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOmq5dQ_uv8

Furtwängler / Liszt "Les Préludes" 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8dvw1kzgsg

Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Furtw%C3%A4ngler
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A3%E3%83%AB%E3%83%98%E3%83%AB%E3%83%A0%E3%83%BB%E3%83%95%E3%83%AB%E3%83%88%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A7%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B0%E3%83%A9%E3%83%BC

Add info)

Liszt: Les Préludes, S 97 Karajan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pqrPjMiUXo

Do you know that the Part from Minute 2.45 to ~ 3.15 was the "entry music" to EVERY message on the nazi radio for Unternehmen Barbarossa, the war against the soviet union from 1941 to 1945! Every German knows this melody; it is the sound of 30 million people murdered! In this second is the complete tragedy of Germany! Karajan, Liszt, Berliner Philharmonica, here in use from Hitler and Goebbels for the most considerable cruelty in the history of humanity. The German tragedy...

Liszt - Les Préludes - Berlin / Karajan 1967
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvxRDjsrGFI

The best orchestra was the Berliner Philharmoniker in the last years of the Second World War: apart from outstanding musical qualities, one senses the existential doubts throughout. Never was there more penetrating, more intense music than at the war's end with the total collapse.

Furtwangler's version is also great, as are Daniel Barenboim with BPO, Riccardo Muti with WPO, and a few more interpretations. But none of them is as breathtaking as Karajan's. Something in this version grabs your heart and soul throughout the song. Genius!

I want "you" to remember the musicians—the wind instruments, the brass, the violas, the violins. They had just lost the war—and what a war! Yet, there!!! I had never heard of an orchestra like this, and it was 1967.

Les préludes (Liszt) / ~ Conductor: Daniel Barenboim ~ West Eastern Divan Orchestra 1999
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3zbIG0MN4o

Liszt: Les Préludes - Muti / Wiener Philharmoniker 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV-4ztlXEDA

The conductor of the 2025 New Year Concert will be Maestro Riccardo Muti
https://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/ja/magazin/das-neujahrskonzert-2025-wird-von-maestro-riccardo-muti-geleitet/6209

Dialogue vol.10 Riccardo Muti (conductor) x Koichi Suzuki
"Music leads us to beautiful harmony."　2024/04/17
https://www.tokyo-harusai.com/harusai_journal/20ast_10/

Les Préludes, S. 97 (Arr. Liszt for 2 Pianos) (Live) Martha Argerich · Daniel Rivera 2010
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoK9Nsk9nBM

Martha Argerich Day - 2021/6/05
https://argerich-mf.jp/argerich_day

Valery Gergiev, Janine Jansen & London Symphony Orchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7PNKDaeuQM

Valery Gergiev & Janine Jansen perform Brahms and Bruckner with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8Ezj5R7iJw

Thanks for sharing this video! I decided to write in Spanish. My experience with Master Gergiev has been excellent. He always encouraged me when I started writing; his treatment was cordial and warm. One day, I asked why a famous director like him had time to be so lovely to me. He told me that he owed his parents for being so well-educated. No other gentleman has treated me the same. I think I know, I always knew... Separate music and art from political issues.
Best regards, and please do not argue when art is involved.

I don't believe that Janine Jansen agreed to a joint concert with this henchman of the criminal Putin. And if that wasn't enough, it's in the Polish composer's repertoire. The only excuse for all this is that this recording is not from recent years. But publishing such a video now is outrageous. It would be a slap in the face to Janine Jansen and the LSO orchestra. 

Let us hope people understand that music is music, an area where politics cannot contribute. This is music, and Gergiev is the conductor. It is beautiful music, and he is an excellent conductor, even if he has a different opinion about politics than mine.

The British director of the Academy Award for International Feature Film Award for "The Zone of Interest" makes a statement about the war in Gaza in his acceptance speech

https://www.bbc.com/japanese/articles/c97wj581e8lo

The Zone of Interest (2023) 7.5/10
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7160372/
https://eiga.com/movie/99292/

Berliner Philharmoniker - Wikipedia

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%99%E3%83%AB%E3%83%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A3%E3%83%AB%E3%83%8F%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A2%E3%83%8B%E3%83%BC%E7%AE%A1%E5%BC%A6%E6%A5%BD%E5%9B%A3

Does "Rhapsody in Blue", a song representing the 20th century, plagiarise black music?

Does "Rhapsody in Blue", a song representing the 20th century, plagiarise black music?
Race, Jazz and the Melting Pot

1)
<George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", which many people love - Thinking about the song celebrating its 100th anniversary since its first performance>.

On 12 February 1924, New York was gripped by a severe cold snap. But music lovers braved the cold to gather at the Aeolian Hall in Manhattan for an "Experiments in Contemporary Music" event.

Organiser and musician Paul Whiteman wanted to show how well jazz and classical music could mix. So he commissioned George Gershwin, an up-and-coming Jewish-American composer, to write a new piece.

2)
Composed for the event, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue became one of the most iconic pieces of music of the 20th century. It has been used in famous films such as Woody Allen's Manhattan and Disney's Fantasia 2000, which were played at the opening ceremony of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. It is the background music for a United Airlines safety video.

For me, who has been researching "Rhapsody in Blue" for almost 20 years, this song is not just a piece of the past. It is a constantly evolving piece of music whose meaning has changed.

3)
Including this song in a concert programme today is, in a sense, a double-edged sword. Even 100 years after its release, its popularity remains undiminished, and if you include it in your programme, you can almost guarantee that tickets will sell out. However, many experts see the song as white plagiarism of Harlem's vibrant black music scene.

Whiteman commissioned Gershwin to write the song in late 1923. But Gershwin had utterly forgotten about it until 4 January the following year, when he read a newspaper article about the concert.

He started composing quickly but was so busy that he had little time. His manuscript score suggests he spent several weeks writing the piece but worked on it for about ten days.

4)
Black resistance through music

So, he created songs using the melodies, harmonies, rhythms and musical structures he was familiar with as a Broadway composer. 

The song was heavily influenced by earlJaJazz, the jazzrovisational, syncopated, blues-like sound from New Orleans by black musicians like Louis Armstrong. He also had contact with and was influenced by jazz piano masters working in New York's Harlem, such as James P. Johnson.

Although it was a tough job, "Rhapsody in Blue" sold well on records and in sheet music.

But the more significant the success, the easier it is to be criticised. One common criticism is that Gershwin plagiarised black music.

5)
Not only 21st-century music historians hold this view. Even 100 years ago, black artists felt uncomfortable but expressed it in their music, not words.

In 1929, blues singer Bessie Smith starred in a short film called St. Louis Blues. The film is based on the song of the same name by composer W.C. Handy, and the cast is all black. Of course, the music plays in the background, but there is one exception.

6)
Bessie, played by Smith, loves Jimmy, a gambler, but her love is not reciprocated. In the final scene, the two embrace on the dance floor as "St. Louis Blues" plays.

But when Jimmy secretly steals money from Bessie, he coldly pushes her away. As he shows off the stolen bills, the opening clarinet glissando of "Rhapsody in Blue" plays. It lasts only 20 seconds, but in that time, Jimmy bows lifts his hat and leaves the club with a proud look.

The purpose of bringing this song here is obvious. Just as Jimmy stole money from Bessie, Gershwin stoJazzazz from the Jazzblack community.

7)
What is the true nature of the kaleidoscope lens?

Gershwin once said that "Rhapsody in Blue" was "a kaleidoscope of American music, a great American melting pot". However, the melting pot metaphor is synonymous with asking immigrants to relinquish their cultural activities and identities and assimilate into the majority.

Whiteman intended this in his "musical experiments" 100 years ago. He said he wanted to "make ladies out of jazz".

8)
In other words, he tried to incorporate the then-popular jazz music into classical music (high-class music by white people for white people). He tried to extract the inherent beauty of the wild beast that wJazzazz and JJazzit moJazzalatable to white ears.

Highbrow music borrowed or plagiarised musical elements such as rhythm and harmony from lowbrow music. This fusion somewhat elevated lowbrow music but will never reach its peak in its original form.

9)
If this song by Gershwin was intended to be heard as a "kaleidoscope of American music," who was holding the kaleidoscope lens, and what kind of music was added to it? Recognising how things have changed after they have been included is essential.

On the other hand, 100 years is a long time. It is inevitable that "what is highly valued in a given culture and why" will change. The same can be said of Rhapsody in Blue.

Does "Rhapsody in Blue", a song representing the 20th century, plagiarise black music?
RacJazzazz and JazzMelting Pot

https://www.newsweekjapan.jp/stories/culture/2024/04/post-104271.php

Why was the Emperor at the centre of overthrowing the Tokugawa Shogunate?

Why was the Emperor at the centre of overthrowing the Tokugawa Shogunate?

This time's theme is the Emperor and politics. The key figures are Emperor Gomizunoo and Emperor Meiji.
Tokugawa Ieyasu became a ruler of Japan, and the Edo Shogunate was established. At this time, the Emperor could do nothing.
During the Edo period, the only authority left to the Emperor was to establish the era's name and the calendar. Eventually, when the Edo shogunate began establishing the Jokyo calendar, the Emperor lost the authority to set the calendar. Only the Emperor had the authority to decide the name of the era.

The imperial ban and the laws of the court nobles confined the Emperor. There is also the idea that ``Emperor Gomizunoo gained the power to compete with the shogunate,'' but I disagree.

If so, why did the Meiji Restoration occur? Why was the Emperor at the centre of overthrowing the Tokugawa Shogunate? The key word when thinking about this question is "common people."

The Edo period was peaceful, so ordinary people started studying.
When ordinary people became aware of the Emperor's existence and black ships arrived from abroad, they felt that the Tokugawa shogunate was already outdated.
They wanted the power of the Emperor restored, and the Meiji Restoration ended the Edo period.

＞Please watch the video below for more details.

https://business.nikkei.com/atcl/seminar/19/00086/121900013/

What do animals dream about?

What do animals dream about?

//Summary - Level-C2//

As historical and modern research indicates, animals likely experience dreams akin to humans. Aristotle observed dreaming in various animals, and contemporary studies show physical and neurological signs during sleep that suggest dreaming. Techniques like monitoring animals' brain activity and physical movements during REM sleep have provided evidence that animals replay waking experiences while asleep, albeit the subjective experience of these dreams remains unknown.

//Summary - Level-A2//

Jason G. Goldman discusses how animals might dream, beginning with observations from Aristotle, who believed that animals like horses and dogs also dream. Modern science examines animal dreams by studying their sleep behaviours and brain activity, showing similarities to humans. Experiments have shown that animals exhibit dream-like activities, such as cats displaying hunting behaviours and zebra finches seeming to practice songs in their sleep. Understanding animal dreams combines observations of physical behaviours and brain functions during sleep.

A)
If animals dream like us, where do they go in their slumber? Jason G Goldman explores how we can peer into the minds of sleeping cats, birds and other creatures.

"Almost all other animals, whether aquatic, airborne or terrestrial, are observed to participate in sleep," wrote Aristotle in his work On Sleep and Sleeplessness. But do other animals dream? The Greek philosopher also had an opinion on this. 

In The History of Animals, he wrote: "It seems that not only men dream, but also horses, dogs, and oxen; yea, and sheep, and goats, and all viviparous quadrupeds; and dogs show their dreaming by barking in their sleep. His research methods may have lacked sophistication, but Aristotle may not have been too far off the mark.

We certainly can't ask animals if they dream, but we can at least observe the evidence that they might. Scientists have approached this seemingly impossible task in two ways. One is to look at their physical behaviour during the various sleep cycle stages. The second is to see if their sleeping brains work similarly to our sleeping brains.

The story of how we figured out how to look into the minds of sleeping animals began in the 1960s. At that time, anecdotal reports started to appear in medical journals describing people making movements in their dreams. This was strange because our muscles are typically paralysed during REM sleep (rapid eye movement).

B)
Researchers realised they could study how animals dream by inducing a similar state. In 1965, French scientists Michel Jouvet and J.F. Delorme found that removing a part of the brain stem called the pons from a cat's brain prevented it from becoming paralysed during REM sleep. The researchers called this condition "REM without atonia" or REM-A. Instead of lying still, the cats paced and behaved aggressively.

This suggested that they were dreaming about activities from their waking hours. Since then, studies have found similar behaviours. According to veterinary neurologist Adrian Morrison, who has written a review of this research, cats in REM-A move their heads as if following stimuli. Some cats also behave identically to predatory attacks, as if chasing mice in their dreams. Similar dream activity has been observed in dogs.

C)
Some humans have also been found to 'act out' their dreams - if they suffer from a condition called REM sleep behaviour disorder. "Punching, kicking, jumping, and running out of bed during attempted dream enactment are common manifestations and usually correlate with reported imagery," according to the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD). Injury is common among these people and those who sleep with them, the ICSD adds.

D)
Physical movement is not the only way to peer into dreams. Researchers can now peer humanely into the electrical and chemical activity of brain cells in animals as they sleep. In 2007, MIT scientists Kenway Louise and Matthew Wilson recorded the activity of neurons in a part of the rat brain called the hippocampus, a structure involved in memory formation and encoding. They first recorded the activity of these brain cells while the rats ran in their mazes. 

They then looked at the activity of the same neurons while the rats slept. Louise and Wilson discovered identical patterns of firing during running and REM sleep. In other words, it was as if the rats were running the maze in their heads while they slept. The results were so precise that the researchers could deduce the exact location of the rats in their mental dream maze and map it to actual locations in the real maze.

E)
Biologists at the University of Chicago, Amish Dave and Daniel Margoliash, looked into the brains of zebra finches and discovered something similar. These birds are not born with the melodies of their songs hard-wired into their brains; instead, they must learn to sing. 

When awake, neurons in a part of the finches' forebrain called the robutus archistriatalis fire after they sing specific notes. The researchers can determine which note was sung from the firing patterns of these neurons. By piecing together the electrical patterns in these neurons over time, Dave and Margoliash can reconstruct the entire song from beginning to end.

Later, when the birds were asleep, Dave and Margoliash looked again at the electrical activity in this part of their brains. The neurons weren't firing at random. Instead, the neurons fired in sequence, as if the bird were singing the song note by note. You could say that the zebra finches were practising their songs as they slept.

F)
Can the behaviour of cats in scientific experiments be described as dreaming? Do rats have any subjective awareness that they're doing their mazes in their heads while they're napping? Are songbirds aware that they're singing in their sleep? These questions are as challenging to answer as the question of consciousness. It's tricky. 

We humans don't usually realise we're dreaming while we're dreaming, but it becomes apparent as soon as we wake up. Do zebra finches remember their dreams as dreams when shaken out of their sleep? Can they distinguish the natural world from the world of their dreams? 

We can say with reasonable certainty that the physiological and behavioural features of dreaming in humans have now been observed in cats, rats, birds and other animals. But what it's like to dream when you're not human remains a mystery.

What do animals dream about?

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140425-what-do-animals-dream-about

After waking up from a scary dream, the cat's reaction was so cute!

youtube.com/watch?v=eoLcYpaAfMk

SAMURAI WISDOM: TOKUGAWA IEYASU - Time and Tide

SAMURAI WISDOM: TOKUGAWA IEYASU - Time and Tide

"Onri-edo Gongu-Jodo".
"A Peaceful World Without Suffering and Sorrow."

「厭離穢土　欣求浄土」

This means "to sincerely desire to be reborn in the Pure Land of Paradise" and is used in the Jodo sect as "the path of salvation for believers." This is the message that a world of happiness awaits.

 

//Summary - Level-C2//

Tokugawa Ieyasu, a strategic and visionary leader, played a pivotal role in ending Japan's long civil war and establishing 260 years of peace. His significant decisions included allying strategically, engaging in critical battles, and focusing on good governance rather than solely military strength. Ieyasu's governance strategies involved economic power from rice taxes and strategic urban planning, exemplified by his development of Edo. His leadership was marked by a focus on education and the spread of wisdom, underpinned by the philosophy of creating a peaceful world free from suffering, encapsulated in the phrase "Onri-edo Gongu-Jodo."

1)
Edo Castle, located in the centre of Tokyo, covered more than one million square metres and was also located on the grounds of the Imperial Palace.

The residence Shogun's work on the castle began 400 years ago. It was the seed from when the Shogun's capital of Edo was born.
Today's Tokyo. After generations of upheaval, the Tokugawa Shogun brought 260 years of peace to Japan. 

2)
One man made it possible: Tokugawa Ieyasu broke the curtain on Japan's long civil war. 

In the 16th century, European nations took to the seas. Japan is divided into dozens of warring clans in East Asia, with samurai leaders locked in a never-ending struggle for local supremacy. 

They excel in the arts of war, but some are also farseeing visionaries; their wisdom will lay the foundations for an extended period under the Tokugawa Shogun and a legacy for modern Japan that these men of vision Samurai wisdom.

3)
Niko Toshogu Shrine is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Japan's greatest samurai are worshipped here as Shinto gods. 
Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa Shinto.
The gate bears his posthumous name "Tosho Doigongen". 

It means the god who fills Japan with light from the east. How did a samurai become the object of such devotion? Three turning points in Ieyasu's youth marked his path to greatness. 

4)
Tokugawa Ieyasu was born in the province of Mikawa, now Aichi Prefecture. 
He was the heir to Okazaki Castle. Ieyasu's father was in a precarious position with two aggressive neighbours, the Oda and Imagawa clans.

With the Oda clan threatening him, he allied himself with Imagawa Yoshimoto, his powerful eastern neighbour. Ieyasu became a vassal of Imagawa to guarantee his father's loyalty and was sent to live in Suruga when he was eight. 

5)
BREAKTHROUGH-1: Age 8 Winter

Suruga in modern-day Shizuoka was the seat of Imagawa power. Ieyasu was sent to study at the Zen temple of Rinzaiji. 
The temple has a replica of the room he used. The young Ieyasu was instructed to read many classical works, especially books on military strategy. 

"Taigen Senssai", the head priest of Rinzai-ji, oversaw the boy's education. How did a Zen priest become so knowledgeable about military matters? 
Owada Tatsuo, an expert on the civil wars of the 16th century, explains. 

6)
All the great works of strategy at that time came from China, and they were in Old China.
In those days, only Zen priests could read such texts with ease.

Zen priests were among the most educated people in Japan. 
Sessai himself had served as a tactician for the Imagawa clan. Under his tutelage, Ieyasu learned the Art of War.

7)
These classic works of strategy were far more than manuals for military commanders.
They also contained ideals of authentic leadership, such as:
"The world is not one man's possession."
 
The world does not belong to one man; all share it. Ieasu often quoted these words of wisdom throughout his life and included them in his last will.

8)
Ieasu would put his training to the test at the age of 17 when Imagawa Yoshimoto ordered him into the field. 
He besieged and burned an enemy castle and won Imagawa's praise. Two years later, the battle that would change his life came. 

9)BREAKTHROUGH-2: Age 19 Spring

In 1560, Imagawa Yoshimoto advanced with 25,000 men against a rising young samurai, Oda Nobunaga, with a force of just 2,000. Ieyasu and his men marched at the head of Imagawa's forces. He was given the critical task of delivering supplies to a frontline castle. 
It was a task he carried out with distinction. 

10)
But during an attack by Nobunaga, Imagawa was killed. His forces were thrown into chaos. 
He was left alone with his troops in a vanguard position. Ieyasu had to make a fateful decision. 

11)
Return to Suruga and rebuild his forces or establish himself at Okazaki Castle, his childhood home. 
He decided to go to Okazaki. A large number of retainers accompanied him. Ieyasu left for the castle at midnight. Twenty-five kilometres away, but Oda was hot on his heels. With time running out, Ieyasu went to Daiju-ji Temple, where his ancestors were buried. 

12)

Nomura Kenko is a priest at Daiju-ji Temple. 
He showed us where Ieyasu went when he arrived. 

These are the graves of Ieyasu's ancestors.
Ieyasu wanted to go to this place to commit seppuku, ritual suicide.
He decided to die like a samurai.

13)
But the 13th chief priest, "Toyo", intervened. 

Toyo listened as Ieyasu explained his intentions, and he told him that Ieyasu's duty was not to die.
Ieyasu was to bring peace to all.
Toyo expressed this with the phrase "Onri-edo Gongu-Jodo".

"Onri-edo Gongu-Jodo" is a phrase from an ancient Buddhist text. 

14)
It expresses the wish for a peaceful world without suffering and sorrow. 
Ieyasu thought his 19 years of life were over, but these words inspired him to pursue peace as his ultimate goal. 
He went to Okazaki Castle, waiting for orders from Imagawa's successor.

15)
But in the chaos of war, no orders came. 
A year later, Ieyasu declared independence and turned against the Imagawa clan. 

He first brought western Mikawa under his control and then moved to unify the entire province. 

16)
To finance, Ieyasu relied on collecting taxes, which were paid in rice and measured in koku, a standard unit of volume. 
Rice yield was the basis of a domain's economic power. 

But this had an unexpected result: a riot broke out in the castle town of Okazaki. 

17)
BREAKTHROUGH-3: Age 22 Autumn

Ieasu's opponent was the Ikko-shu, a militant faction of Buddhists. He was 22 years old. 

18)
Ieyasu needed revenue to fund his army.
Under the Imagawa, temples were exempt from paying taxes.
Ieyasu tried to change this.
But the members of the Ikko-shu responded with force.

The Ikko-shu attracted not only farmers, merchants and tradespeople. But also samurai who could oppose the authority with military force. 

19)
They had already overthrown the ruler of Kaga province in modern-day Ishikawa.
Their rule was unchallenged for almost a century. 

A similar threat now loomed in Mikawa. 
Worse still, Ikko-shu beliefs were spreading among Ieyasu's vassals.

20)
Several of them had advisors from the Ikko-shu school.
This brought Ieyasu into conflict with his vassals.

Ieyasu, however, stood at the forefront of the fighting, even after being hit twice by gunfire. 
He survived the crisis and, six months later, achieved peace. 

21)
It is said that during the battle, Ieyasu's forces carried a banner with the motto 'Onri-edo Gongu-Jodo'. 

Ieyasu's determination to conquer the region was undoubtedly a significant factor in gaining the trust of his vassals.

22)
Ieyasu's victory allowed him to unify the province of Mikawa. 
He was ready to expand his territory further. 

Next, he made peace with his former enemy Oda Nobunaga. 
The two entered into a military pact and fought side by side. Over the next 17 years, Ieyasu would bring five provinces under his control, producing 1.2 million koku of rice. 

23)
He was now 41 years old. In the same year, disgruntled vassals betrayed Oda, and Oda was destroyed.

Nobunaga's chief general, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, took over his power and authority. 
Hideyoshi had defeated the lord who ruled eastern Japan and almost unified the country. 

24)
He then ordered Ieyasu to move to another area. 

Ieyasu ruled five provinces, but Hideyoshi sent him to eastern Japan, which had about eight provinces.
He would trade five provinces worth 1.2 million koku for eight provinces worth 2.5 million koku.

25)
However, most of Ieasu's vassals strongly opposed the idea. 
Kyoto was the nexus of Japanese politics, and Ieyasu was sent to Edo, 500 km away. 
Edo was situated on swampy ground, hardly a promising sight for a fortified city. 

26)
At 49, Ieyasu began to build his new capital from scratch. It would be a significant step towards the realisation of a peaceful Japan. 

The answer to how Ieyasu transformed Edo can be found on maps of the period. 
Senda Yoshihiro is an expert in castle archaeology.

27)
Ieyasu decided to make Edo the heart of Japan.
This is reflected in this map.
The town planning is very ambitious.

The castle design was quite advanced.
Edo castle would be a fortress as strong as anything built so far.

28)
However, Senda explains that Ieyasu's system of the "moat" is particularly significant. A moat protects a castle and the town around it from invaders. 

If the boundaries of a castle town are fixed, its growth is also limited.
Ieyasu had a solution.
You can see it here.
Follow the lines of the moat. See how it spirals outwards?
You can indefinitely defend and expand your city by making our moat spiral like this.

29)
Traces of Ieyasu's urban planning can still be seen today. 
It's time for a trip on the water. 
We're near the mouth of the Sumida River, where it flows into Tokyo Bay. 

Ieyasu built a moat from the harbour to his castle. 
Lined with warehouses, this section of the moat looked much like this 400 years ago. The moat was also used as a route for transporting goods. 

30)
Further along the waterway, we can see a stone wall that was part of the original outer moat. 
This waterway, about 3km from the castle, was built post-Ieasu.

Its construction involved cutting a notch through the hills. 
Over 40 years, the moat was widened three times around the castle. 

31)
Edo grew into a city of 1 million people in a single century. 
The world does not belong to one man. All share it.

Ieyasu looked beyond victory on the battlefield.
From the beginning, he planned Edo as the capital of a peaceful Japan.
His vision made this great castle and the great city of Edo possible.

32)
When Ieyasu was 57, his chance to unite the nation finally came—the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Ieyasu had always known that Japan needed a strong government.
Otherwise, it would return to the era of civil war.
To prevent this, he would have to take control of the country.

33)
However, not all of Hidehoshi's vassals were pleased with Ieyasu's moves to exercise supreme political power before the nation was unified. 
There would be another battle to fight.

Most of the conflicts in the Civil War period were over territory.
But in a sense, the Battle of Sekigahara would be fought to end all battles.

34)
The Battle of Sekigahara dwarfed all previous battles in terms of sheer scale.

Provincial leaders from all over Japan chose between the East Army, led by Ieasu, and the West Army, led by Ishida Mitsunari, a vassal of the late Hideyoshi.

35)
Age 59: September 1600

At the time of the battle, Ieyasu was 59 years old. 
The events leading up to the clash had begun two months earlier.

Ishida Mitsunari and his followers had sent letters to samurai leaders throughout Japan. They urged them to join in an attack on Ieyasu.

36)
For a month, Ieyasu made no move to leave Edo. 
Instead, he bided his time. 
The wealth gap between Mitsunari and Ieyasu was enormous: Ieyasu's provinces produced 2.5 million koku of rice, while Mitsunari's yielded 194,000 koku. 

37)
I argue rice yields meant military influence.
In modern terms, if you have money to invest, you usually choose a bank with a lot of capital.
The difference in wealth between Ieyasu and Mitsunari was staggering.
This made some leaders reluctant to side with Mitsunari. 

Ieyasu spent his time writing to feudal lords who had not yet decided. 

38)
This is a letter from Ieyasu to a lord in Tohoku. 

"You are to recover seven districts (495,000 koku) confiscated by Hideyoshi.

39)
And he sent another to the Kyushu area.

"I promise you dominion over Tanba and the province of Tajima."

Ieasu sent at least 169 such letters to samurai lords throughout Japan. He encouraged them to support him and promised to reward them handsomely. 

40)
On 15 September 1600, the two armies met at Sekigara in modern Gifu Prefecture, with Ishida Mitsunari's Western Army fielding 82,000 men and Ieyasu's Eastern Army facing off with 74,000 men. 

Ieyasu is also at a disadvantage regarding terrain - Mitsunari's troops are camped on the heights and can monitor every movement of Ieyasu's army.

41)
At 8:00, the battle begins. 

However, one group of soldiers remains in place. 
A 16,000-strong force from the Western Army was ordered to attack Ieyasu's rear, but their commander never gave the order. 

He has already made a secret deal to support Ieyasu.
Meanwhile, another leader camped on the heights with 15,000 men, changed sides without warning and attacked the Western forces. 

42)
This was an agreement made by an ally of Ieyasu before the battle.

With his support falling away, the Western army disintegrates after only 6 hours of fighting, ending in victory for Ieyasu and his allies.

43)
Age 62 - Establishes Tokugawa Shogunate

Three years later, at 62, Ieyasu is appointed Shogun. 
The era of Tokugawa supremacy has begun. 

Ieyasu left a far-reaching legacy. 
This is Japan's first metal moving type. I am actively engaged in publishing. 

44)

This is the Suruga copperplate typeface.
Suruga-ban Copper Type - Important Cultural Property

This is Japan's first metal movable type.
Ieyasu invested actively in publishing.

There are 110,000 individual pieces of type. 
Ieyasu had 100 copies of his favourite Chinese work on good government printed and distributed to other feudal lords. 

Political unity established by force is subject to change by force.
Good governance and education help to ensure peace and unity.

45)
Ieyasu wanted his vassals to remember this.
So, he encouraged printing and publishing.

Tokugawa Ieyasu left these words. Of all the measures I have considered to end the chaos of war. It seems to me that books are the best. 
He believed that study and learning were the most effective ways of educating people.

I could almost say that Ieyasu's path to power was paved with books.

46)
Ieyasu's efforts to promote peace not through military might but through the power of education brought Japan more than two and a half centuries without war. 
He died at the age of 75.

"Onri-edo Gongu-Jodo".
"A Peaceful World Without Suffering and Sorrow."

「厭離穢土　欣求浄土」

SAMURAI WISDOM: TOKUGAWA IEYASU - Time and Tide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQMI6h-iNqk

What does the Tokugawa army's banner say, "Onri-edo Gongu-Jodo"?

https://readyfor.jp/projects/tokugawaieyasu/announcements/199872

The behind-the-scenes story of the "Onri-edo Gongu-Jodo" that stopped Ieyasu's seppuku
The banner of the Sengoku era was an excellent tool for controlling people's hearts.

https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/646957

Add info)

Shogun - Cast name
https://disneyplus.disney.co.jp/program/shogun

[Cast]
Yoshii Toranaga: Hiroyuki Sanada "The Last Samurai" =Hideyoshi Toyotomi
John Blackthorne / Anjin: Cosmo Jarvis = Anjin Miura, William Adams
Mariko Toda: Anna Sawai = Gratia Hosokawa

Yabushige Kashiwagi: Tadanobu Asano = Masanobu Honda
Oumi Kashiwagi: Hiroto Kanai ?
Kazunari Ishido: Takehiro Hira = Mitsunari Ishida
Fuji Usami:  Moeka Hoshi ?

Hiromatsu Toda: Tokuma Nishioka = Fujitaka Hosokawa
Buntaro Toda: Shinnosuke Abe = Tadaoki Hosokawa
Nagakado Yoshii: Yasunari Takeshima ?
Ochiba no Kata: Fumi Nikaido = Yodo-dono, ChaCha Asai

Why was the Emperor at the centre of overthrowing the Tokugawa Shogunate?

https://business.nikkei.com/atcl/seminar/19/00086/121900013/

This time's theme is the Emperor and politics. The key figures are Emperor Gomizunoo and Emperor Meiji.
Tokugawa Ieyasu became a ruler of Japan, and the Edo Shogunate was established. At this time, the Emperor could do nothing.
During the Edo period, the only authority left to the Emperor was establishing the era's name and the calendar. Eventually, when the Edo shogunate began establishing the Jokyo calendar, the Emperor lost the authority to set the calendar. Only the Emperor had the authority to decide the name of the era.

The imperial ban and the laws of the court nobles confined the Emperor. There is also the idea that ``Emperor Gomizunoo gained the power to compete with the shogunate,'' but I disagree.

If so, why did the Meiji Restoration occur? Why was the Emperor at the centre of overthrowing the Tokugawa Shogunate? The key word when thinking about this question is "common people."

The Edo period was peaceful, so ordinary people started studying.
When ordinary people became aware of the Emperor's existence and black ships arrived from abroad, they felt that the Tokugawa shogunate was already outdated.
They wanted the power of the Emperor restored, and the Meiji Restoration ended the Edo period.

Add info No2)

SHOGUN Episode 8: Why did you choose the red-light district and Christianity? A thorough analysis of Toranaga from previous episodes reveals a grand plan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBHtPE31Odo

Ogin:
I can't understand this situation.
The spies should have alerted you to the approaching army, but you are too reckless to pick up your brother, your enemy, with a weakened group.
Why did you make such a mistake?

Toranaga:
Do you think I'm doing it because I want it?
(I am convinced that Ogin's insight is reliable. I will let her monitor the church.)

p.s.
Toranaga may have calculated his son Nagakado's attack on his young brother.
Even if the attack was successful, he might have ordered his son to commit seppuku.

Yoshiwara Yuukaku - Wikipedia

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%90%89%E5%8E%9F%E9%81%8A%E5%BB%93

Episode 9 - Crimson Sky | FX's Shōgun: The Official Podcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ozGE79to7o&t=222s

Add info No3)

#08 Iehiro talks about his ancestor Ieyasu 03

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj_9Yw3qyrs

Tokugawa Memorial Foundation
This is the official channel of the Tokugawa Memorial Foundation, brought to you by the Chairman of the Board, the 19th head of the Tokugawa family, Tokugawa Ikehiro.

http://www.tokugawa.ne.jp/