Daimyo

The koto is the pleasantest of the Japanese instruments, but probably on account of its large size, which makes it inconvenient to keep in a small Japanese house, it is used most among the higher classes from the samurai upwards.

The samurai in the feudal times were the hereditary retainers of the daimyo, or feudal lord, who formed the military and literary class.

The koto is an embryo piano, a horizontal sounding board some six feet long, upon which are stretched strings supported by ivory bridges.

It is played by means of ivory fingertips fitted to the thumb, forefinger, and middle finger of the right hand, and gives forth agreeable sounds, not unlike those of the harp.

There is only one answer.

It is the attraction of wealth and rank, very rarely that of the daughter herself.

In the houses of rich daimyo without sons, yoshi are very common, and there are many younger sons of the nobility, themselves of high birth but without prospects, who are glad enough to become great lords.

In feudal times the number of samurai families was limited.

If you were to go there, you would probably see it.

End of section 8 lady white and lady yellow a legend of japan by frederick hadland davis read for libafox.org by phone the sixteen-petal chrysanthemum is one of the crests of the imperial family long ago there grew in a meadow a white and a yellow chrysanthemum side by side one day an old gardener chanced to come across them and he took a great fancy to lady yellow he told her that if she would come along with him he would make her far more attractive that he would give her delicate food and fine clothes to wear lady yellow was so charmed with what the old man said that she forgot all about the white sister and consented to be lifted up carried in the arms of the old gardener and to be placed in his garden when lady yellow and her master had departed lady white wept bitterly her own simple beauty had been despised but what was far worse she was forced to remain in the meadow alone without the companionship of her sister to whom she had been devoted day by day lady yellow grew more fair in her master's garden no one would have recognised the common flower of the field but though her petals were long and curled and her leaves so clean and well cared for she sometimes thought of lady white alone in the field and wondered how she managed to make the long and lonely hours pass by one day a village chief came to the old man's garden in quest of a perfect chrysanthemum that he might take to his lord for a crest design he informed the old man that he did not want a fine chrysanthemum with long petals what he wanted was a simple white chrysanthemum with sixteen petals the old man took the village chief to see lady yellow but this flower did not please him and thanking the gardener he took his departure on his way home he happened to enter a field when he saw lady white weeping she told him the sad story of her loneliness and when she had finished her tale of woe the village chief informed her that he had seen lady yellow and did not consider her half so beautiful as her own white self at these cheery words lady white dried her eyes and she nearly jumped off her little feet when this kind man told her that he wanted her for his lord's crest in another happy moment the happy lady white was being carried in a palanquin when she reached the daimyo's palace all warmly praised her perfection of form great artists came from far and near set about her and sketched a flower with wonderful skill

skillShe soon saw her pretty white face on all the Daimyo's most precious belongings.

She saw it on his armor and lacquer boxes, on his quilts and cushions and robes.

She was painted floating down a stream and in all manner of quaint and beautiful ways.

Everyone acknowledged that the white chrysanthemum with her sixteen petals made the most wonderful crest in all Japan.

While Lady White's happy face lived forever designed upon the Daimyo's possessions, Lady Yellow met with a sad fate.

She had bloomed for herself alone and had drunk in the visitors' praise as eagerly as she did the dew upon her finely curled petals.

The koto is the pleasantest of the Japanese instruments, but probably on account of its large size, which makes it inconvenient to keep in a small Japanese house, it is used most among the higher classes from the samurai upwards.

Footnote: The samurai in the feudal times were the hereditary retainers of the daimyo, or feudal lord, deformed the military and literary class.

End of footnote.

The koto is an embryo piano, a horizontal sounding board some six feet long upon which are stretched strings supported by ivory bridges.

There is only one answer.

It is the attraction of wealth and rank, very rarely that of the daughter herself.

In the houses of rich daimyo without sons, yoshi are very common, and there are many younger sons of the nobility, themselves of high birth but without prospects, who are glad enough to become great lords.

In feudal times the number of samurai families was limited.

Get a second opinion at nebraskamed.com slash cancer.

when he goes abroad his retainers march before him for fear he might break his nose against something he wears a long grey beard down to his girdle and moustaches to his chin in his left hand he carries a large fan made of seven wide feathers this is the sign of his rank he has a mouth but he rarely opens it he is very wise and rules over the tengus in japan the karasu or crow tengu is a black fellow with a long beak in the place where his nose and mouth ought to be he looks as if someone had squeezed out the lower part of his face and pulled his nose down so as to make a beak like a crow's he is the dai tengu's lictor he carries the axe of authority over his left shoulder to chop bad people's heads off and his right fist is the master's book of wisdom and a roll of authority even these two highest in authority in tengu land are servants of the great lord kanpira the long-haired patron of sailors and mountaineers the greatest of the dai tengu lived in kurama mountain and taught this lad while in a pupil in the monastery would slip out in the evening when the priests thought him asleep and come to the king of the tengus who instructed him in the military arts in cunning magic and wisdom every night the boy would spread the roll of wisdom before him and sit at the table of the hoary-headed tengu and learn the strange letters in which tengu wisdom is written while the long-nosed servant tengus propped on their stilt clogs looked on the boy was not afraid but quickly learned the knowledge which birds beasts and fishes have how to understand their language and to fly swim and leap like them when a tengu stumbles and falls down on his nose it takes a long while to heal and if he breaks it the doctor puts it in splints like a broken arm until it straights out and heals up again some of the amusements in tango land are very curious a pair of young tangoos will fence with their noses as if they were foils their faces are well protected by masks for if one tango should poke his nose into the other's eye he might put it out and a blind tango could not walk about because he would be knocking his nose against everything two old tangoos with noses nearly two feet long sometimes try the strength of their face handles one fellow has his beak straight up in the air like a supporting post while the other sits a yard off with his elastic nose stretched out like a tight rope and tied with twine at the top of the other one's nose on this tight-nosed rope a little tengu boy with a tiny pug only two inches long dances a jig he holds an umbrella in his hand now dancing and now standing upon one foot the tengu daddy whose nose serves as a tent pole waves his fan and sings a song keeping time to the dance there is another tengu who sometimes quarrels with his wife and when angry boxes her ears with his nose a lady tengu who is inclined to be literary and sentimental writes poetry when the mood seizes her she ties the pen to her nose dips it in the ink and writes a poem on the wall a tengu painter makes a long-handled brush to whitewash the ceiling by strapping it to his nose sometimes the little tangoes get fighting and then the feathers fly as they tear each other with the little claws which have talons on them shaped like chickens but which when fully grown look like hands all the big tangoes are fond of trying the strength of their noses and how far they can bend them up and down without breaking they have two favorite games in which they sometimes give exhibitions the player has long strings of iron cash that is one hundred of the little iron coins with a square hole in the center several of these he slides on a rope like buttons on a string or counters on a wire then he lifts them off with the tip of his nose sometimes his nose bends so much under the weight that the coins slip off whichever tengu can pick off the greater number of strings without letting any slip wins the game and is called ohana the king of noses another balances hoops and poles on his nose and throws balls through the hoops or he poises a saucer of water on the tip of his nose without spilling a drop another fellow hangs a bell from the ceiling then with the handkerchief tied loosely round his head he pulls his nose back like a snapping turtle's beak and then he suddenly lets go his nose then strikes the bell and rings it it hurts very much but he does not mind it the tengus have one great fault they love liquor too much they often get drunk they buy great casks of rice wine sling them round their necks and drink out of long cups shaped like their faces using the nose for a handle a drunken tengu makes a funny sight as he staggers about with his big wings drooping and flapping around him and the feathers trailing in the mud and his long nose limp pendulous and groggy when the master of tengus wishes to see the flowers which means to go on a picnic he punishes his drunken servant by swinging the box of eatables over the fellow's red nose putting the end over his shoulders he compels the sot to come along it sobers the fellow for the weight on his nose and the pulling on it hurts dreadfully and often makes him squeal o yama a mountain near tokyo is said to be full of these long-nosed elves but many other mountains are inhabited by them for they like lonely places away from men dancers often put masks like the tengu's face and dance a curious dance which they call the tengu's quadrille the tengus are very proud fellows and think themselves above human beings they are afraid of brave men however they never dare to hurt them they scare children especially bad boys they watch a boy telling lies and catch him then the tengus pull out his tongue by the roots and run away with it When a Tengu walks, he folds his arms, throws back his head till his nose is far up in the air, and struts around as if he were a Daimyo.

When a man becomes vain and carries his nose too high, the people say, he has become a Tengu.

End of The Tengus or the Elves with Long Noses In Myths and Legends Around the World Collection 17

Off ran the white fox.

The men uttered an excited cry and gave chase.

Instead of going towards the open plain, she made for the temple of Inari Daimyojin.

There, surely, I will find a safe refuge from my pursuers, she thought.