別冊歴史読本６４号「古史古伝の謎」
Supplemental History Readings, No. 64 “Mysteries of the Parahistories”

作家の古史古伝にむいて視点を探してつらつら読んだが、結局歴史的な情報以外知恵がほとんどなかった。「懐疑な研究」と呼ばれなくて、標準的な世界観を強制するための非難である。（井村宏次だけは別に、非常によかった。）

This is one of three “academic” Japanese books devoted to parahistory that I am aware of. You would expect these “academics” to engage in an open-minded analysis of the importance of parahistory, but they did not produce any insight so amazing I would want to include it in my book. The first five chapters are devoted to these introductory questions, but with one exception I found them unsatisfying. Outside of conveying actual historical facts, their primary goal seems to be enforcing the materialist-scientific case against the upstart amateurs.

原田実　「古史古伝」研究の状態と展望
Minoru Harada, “An Overview of the Current State of ‘Parahistory’ Research”

（概要）原田さんの視点で、古史古伝はミクロストリエとして評価して「史料の細部を重視することで、それに現れる徴候を読み取り歴史像を記述展開していこうとするものである」（二十三）というだが、古史古伝は小さなミクロストーリーではなく、記紀とつながる壮大な物語である。もしある古史古伝が正しい歴史として教えたら、日本人の自己像が大きく変わる！

Harada, a scholar of the occult and of civilization, could be expected to offer a unique perspective on how parahistory changes our view of civilization. Instead, after explaining how parahistorical research was largely naïve and uncritical in the kindai, and how a second boom coincided with the Yamatai craze of the 1970s, Harada leaves only a hint of deeper analysis. He points us towards the Jewish-Italian Carlo Ginzburg’s microhistory. Ginzburg’s idea is to avoid the grand narrative of history, kings, wars, etc. and focus on small events. This approach to history is exemplified by The Cheese and the Worms (1976), a book where a 16th century dialogue between an eccentric miller and his Catholic inquistors becomes symbolic of a so-called “popular culture” of the lower classes being suppressed by “high culture”.

Here’s the problem: microhistory is neither useful nor applicable. It’s not useful because it doesn’t actually tell you what parahistory means, it just implies that it could be relevant as a “symbol” of the times. What is it a symbol of, and why? Microhistory doesn’t give you any hints; Ginzburg, for example, considers a focus on small things necessary to obtain his Marxist portrait of “the people”, a construct that he believes has been silenced by the major events of history, but I don’t think he means to limit other historians to that purpose. You can fill in the blank with whatever you like, and Harada only provides inklings of what that might be.

More importantly, microhistory is not applicable, because parahistory is not a simple instance of an ordinary event, like the miller interacting with inquisitors. In fact, parahistory is purposefully entangled with the “grand narrative” of the official Japanese histories, and as a subject of study it cannot be isolated from Japan’s “megahistory”. If any parahistory is true, the entire narrative of Japan will be changed! So, I do not consider his historiographical suggestion at all useful. In fact, this was really the worst possible paradigm to suggest for parahistory.

藤野七穂　「上記鈔訳」と”古史古伝”の派生関係
Nonao Fujio, “Deriving Connections to ‘Parahistory’ from the Uetsufumi Shouyaku“

This actually contains no explanation whatsoever of why the topic the author is studying is important. It’s a mere analysis of some of the common themes shared by the Ugaya Dynasty branch of parahistories, and the author appears to present it to readers as a sort of logic puzzle inviting further analysis, which has no meaning beyond being a fun game for old men.

北山耕平　歴史にとってヴィジョンとはなにか　～私が「偽書」から学んでいること～
Kouhei Kitayama, “What is a Historical Vision? What I Learned from the ‘Forgeries’”

I really wanted to like this essay, since the author’s tone is very clear and readable. Unfortunately, he’s also totally insane. Here’s the beginning of his “academic” rant:

私たちや、私たちの子供が学校で学ぶ「日本国の歴史」ではなく、まったく視点の異なるところから眺めている別のヴァージョンの「日本列島の歴史」がいくつか存在しているのは、私が気がつかされたのは今から２０年以上も前のことだえる。それまでは、私は「日本の歴史はひとつである」と思っていた。いや、正確には「思い込まされていた」と言うべきか。学校における一貫した日本人化のための差別教育は、人間にたいするプログラミング以外のなにものでもないと、私は今では考える。これまでの２０００年間、私たちは人間として生まれ、生まれた国の人間になるように、日本人になるように、教育されてきた。

Over 20 years ago, I noticed that there exists several different histories of the Japanese archipelago, looking from a different viewpoint from the “history of the Japanese nation” we and our children learn in school. Up until then, I too thought “there is only one Japanese history.” No, I should say rather “I had been convinced”. I can’t call it anything but my school’s integrated Japanization brainwashing. For the past 2000 years, we who are born as human have been educated to believe we are Japanese, humans of our country.

Basically, the author has stumbled upon an amazing revelation that education involves learning things, and when you learn a thing that means you didn’t know it before. He presents this to the world as a stunning finding which obviously implies that

いわゆるわたしたちのような「弥生期の日本人」とはまるで異なる人たちではなかろうか。にもかかわらず、縄文期まで続く数万年のサイクルを持って地球を守る生き方を保ってきた（略）縄文以前の人たちの存在を間抜けな野蛮人として差別しつづけているのは誰か。日本における歴史教育はそのはじまりから今日の文部省指導の学校歴史まで一貫してファシズム的なものを中心に持っている

us so-called “Yayoi period Japanese” are the weird ones! [Before us, Japanese people] up to the Jomon period preserved a way of life that protected the Earth for cycles of tens of thousands of years … Who is it who has been constantly discriminating against the people who lived before the Jomon period as stupid savages? Japanese history education, from that beginning until the present day’s government-administered school education, has been centered in this fascism.

I don’t know what would happen if I pointed out to the author that the existence of the Jomon people is not just an idea which fell into his head, but is another thing that was researched and taught to him, and is therefore also fascism or whatever. Would he explode? Anyway, he goes on to explain that nuclear power is akin to invading Hokkaido, because a shrinekeeper conducted a safety ceremony at a nuclear plant which proves that the Jomon period AHHHH SCREW THIS GUY

久米晶文　近代日本の異端史家とフェティシズ
Masafumi Kume “Heretical History Fetishism in Kindai Japan”

Kume begins by explaining the concept of “fetishism” backwards, starting with Alfred Binet’s 19th century sexual fetishism, and then moving back to the original anthropological concept proposed by Brosses, which he then fetishizes to claim that history itself could be a fetish. The subject is not returned to, which makes me wonder why he introduced it in the first place if not to obliquely insult the concept of history. The essay continues with useful facts about parahistory but no overarching structure. In the concluding paragraph, Kume winds down his discussion with, “Therefore, parahistory is fetishism. I guess there might be some problems with that, but I think it’s a cool idea. Welp, hope you enjoyed my essay!” I don’t really have much to add to that stunning insight. Like the previous writers, he doesn’t make an effective apology for his own research.

山田雅晴　新宗教の教義に隠された古史古伝
Masaharu Yamada “Parahistory Hidden in Cult Doctrines”

I have to admit, I don’t know why this person is included in this supposedly academic book, because he himself is involved in the sale of magical amulets and other spurious items. Anyway, he just talks about the influence of the Takenouchi Documents on Mahikari, a link so prominent that American scholars have already noted it; it’s hardly “hidden”. The motive for studying parahistory would ostensibly be to help stamp out cults, but this would seem to infringe on Yamada’s own turf, as it were.

井村宏次　荒深道斉の有史以前研究への超心理的アプローチ
Kouji Imura “Arafuka Michinari’s Parapsychological Approach
to Prehistory Research”

And here, finally, is the good essay. Yes, “Arafuka Michinari’s Parapsychological Approach to Prehistory Research” is the good essay, the only one that actually had an influence on the small readership of this book. Sakai, founder of the Life Energy Research Institute (生体エネルギー研究所), introduces the virtually unknown spirtualist Michinari, by way of an anecdote about a pyramid-shaped rock he found while hiking in Aomori. 「私が気付いたでなく、この巨石が気付かせたのであろうか？」 “Did I notice the rock, or was the rock brought to my attention?” he asks, segueing into a discussion of the difference between material-scientific and spiritual knowledge. I note with no small amusement that this guy is the only writer among these “academics” to actually use full citations and footnotes.

For Imura, the process of reading the ancients becomes progressively more difficult as we move backwards from medieval into classical times. Medieval writers can be sometimes understood by literate people. For the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, we have almost unintelligible language, which can be read only by specialists who constantly argue about meaning. For the Yayoi and Jomon people, though, we pass out of specialization entirely and into an entirely different, transcendental realm of knowledge: the era of the kamiyo moji, scripts of the age of the gods, whose scientific truth value is clearly in doubt, but which seem to hint at some knowledge earlier than the Kojiki. The distortion is greater as you go further back, but the “romance” increases as well.

The rest of this essay will be included in my book!

1. Himiko and Yamatai, the current academic consensus about Japan’s ancient civilization (circa 300 BCE-300 CE). This will mostly be drawn from sources already available in English.
2. Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, the two ancient histories of Japan which provide us with a glimpse of the heroes of prehistory. This will be drawn from Japanese sources, which are somewhat translated in English but can only be found at academic libraries or rare bookstores.
3. Parahistories or koshi-koden, a dozen or so documents attesting to ancient affairs on the East Asian continent, and rumors of Japan’s influence around the world. Very little of this has been translated into English so far and I will be working 70% from Japanese sources.
4. Hitsuki Shinji, a channeled document with strong ties to the parahistories. This topic has never been mentioned before in English. I will be doing all of the translation myself.

If you are interested in these topics, whether you are researching them yourself or you want to know more, drop me a comment on this page, or email me at and I will get back to you shortly.

Aka アカ, “Red”. Meaning a leftist. Because this does not refer to a stated political leaning but is rather a generalization, it is insufficiently accurate for Japanese news reports. This term can only be used when it is necessary to provide historical accuracy, to report the views of non-communists of the past. As such, it is marked on lists of banned phrases along with other politically insensitive terms.

Chosen 朝鮮 The name for Korea when it was ruled by Japan, the current name of the Korean peninsula, and the current name of the imaginary single Korean republic according to North Korea. However, South Korea refers to Korea as Kankoku 韓国. If you use Chosen, you offend South Koreans; if you use Kankoku, you offend North Koreans (and Japan has many). I recommend people use the word Chosen at all times, because North Koreans are scarier when offended, but people appearing on television must read 2 pages about the appropriate situations when each of the two words may be used. The name of the single Korean language used in both North and South Korea is especially delicate. On the NHK the Korean language is referred to as “that language” or “the language written in Hangul”.

Inchiki, Detarame, Usotsuki インチキ・デタラメ・うそつき: “Bogus, Irresponsible, Liars”. News commentators are prohibited from saying these libelous words when referring to organizations.

Stewardess, Indian, Gypsy, Eskimo, Dutchman, etc. The Japanese news stations keep up to date with the latest developments in people being offended overseas, and advise their commentators on prohibited foreign words as they come to notice.

Gaijin 外人 Became offensive in the 1990s thanks to the exhausting efforts of Arudou Debito. “Gaikokujin” is now used in the media. However, the word gaijin is not censored when gaijin themselves say it.

Kuronobou 黒ん坊 “Blackie” Formerly used to refer to people with a nice tan; some beaches even had blackie competitions. But its misuse by some people to refer to black-skinned folks has led to its being weeded out.

Taiwan seifu 台湾政府 “Taiwanese government” This expression was explicitly banned in 1972 when Japan recognized Red China. People who appear on TV must use the designated alternate phrase 台湾当局, “Taiwanese authorities”.

Uranihon 裏日本 “Back of Japan”; South Pacific Mandate Kindai terms for the Japan Sea coastline and Micronesia, respectively. Both sound a little off to the modern ear.

日本のチベット “Tibet of Japan” An off-the-cuff term used sometimes for sparsely inhabited parts of the countryside. Inappropriate for use by politicians and news commentators.

Onanie, chinko, manko オナニー, ちんこ, まんこ Rude words for sexual acts and body parts. One of Japan’s baseball imports was named Frank Mankovitch, but his official name as reported by the team and the government was “Frank Manny”. The port (kou) of the Okinawan village Itoman 糸満 is only ever called Itomangyokou.

Ai no ko あいのこ, “child of miscegenation”. Refers to the product of a mixed marriage between a pure Japanese and another race, but became offensive many decades ago. Up until the 1970s, the replacement word was konketsu 混血, “mixed blood”. This is also now offensive. In the 1970s this was replaced with the word “half” ハーフ, meaning half-Japanese. Recently the term “half” is also being found offensive by someone somewhere, on grounds I do not understand; probably just the euphemism treadmill at work. It is being replaced with three English words I find more offensive: “colored”, “mixed”, and “double”. The first two are mistaken borrowings, using old and slightly rude-sounding English words for what we would now call multiracial, and therefore improving nothing. But “double” is extremely annoying to me. A person cannot have double the heritage of another person. This is condescending to the family, and I would prefer people use “half”.

Honya 本屋, “the bookseller” Since the 1960s it has become inadvisable to use this without -san, i.e. 本屋さん “Mr. Bookseller”.

Kichigai, 気違い “crazy” One of the most offensive words in Japan, despite its ubiquitous use in American English. Other words like “schizophrenic” are also banned.

知恵遅れ retarded, 白痴 idiot Not for use on television except when you are talking about a Dostoevsky novel.

“Fools don’t catch colds”, “Illness starts with the mind” These incredibly common Japanese phrases are banned from Japanese television because they go against scientific medicine. The word “cold” is itself sometimes referred to as “the so-called cold” 「いわゆる風邪」 on television.

将棋倒し “Falling like chess pieces” After the 2001 Akashi pedestrian bridge accident when it was repeatedly used to refer to people crushed in a stampede, the Japan Chess Federation requested that people stop using this phrase, and it was dutifully added to the list of banned phrases.

Turkish bath In 1984, Turkish seismologist Nusret Sancakli led a campaign in Japan to ban this phrase and replace it with “soapland”. It is now considered offensive.

Motel Japanese news announcers cannot say the word “motel” because of the implications of being a hotel for lovers.

Slave, slavery It’s rude to former slaves, duh.

Description of the synthesis of illegal drugs

Blaming someone for declining marriage and birth rates

Let’s start with my favorite thing anyone has ever said about the world we live in today. G.K. Chesterton said it.

If we all floated in the air like bubbles, free to drift anywhere at any instant, the practical result would be that no one would have the courage to begin a conversation. It would be so embarrassing to start a sentence in a friendly whisper, and then have to shout the last half of it because the other party was floating away into the free and formless ether. The two must hold each other to do justice to each other. If Americans can be divorced for “incompatibility of temper” I cannot conceive why they are not all divorced. I have known many happy marriages, but never a compatible one. The whole aim of marriage is to fight through and survive the instant when incompatibility becomes unquestionable. For a man and a woman, as such, are incompatible.

Now, onto Heretics:

If we were to-morrow morning snowed up in the street in which we live, we should step suddenly into a much larger and much wilder world than we have ever known. And it is the whole effort of the typically modern person to escape from the street in which he lives. First he invents modern hygiene and goes to Margate. Then he invents modern culture and goes to Florence. Then he invents modern imperialism and goes to Timbuctoo. He goes to the fantastic borders of the earth. He pretends to shoot tigers. He almost rides on a camel. And in all this he is still essentially fleeing from the street in which he was born; and of this flight he is always ready with his own explanation. He says he is fleeing from his street because it is dull; he is lying. He is really fleeing from his street because it is a great deal too exciting. It is exciting because it is exacting; it is exacting because it is alive.

The human race, according to religion, fell once, and in falling gained knowledge of good and of evil. Now we have fallen a second time, and only the knowledge of evil remains to us.

Every one of the popular modern phrases and ideals is a dodge in order to shirk the problem of what is good. We are fond of talking about “liberty”; that, as we talk of it, is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. We are fond of talking about “progress”; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. We are fond of talking about “education”; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. The modern man says, “Let us leave all these arbitrary standards and embrace liberty.” This is, logically rendered, “Let us not decide what is good, but let it be considered good not to decide it.” He says, “Away with your old moral formulae; I am for progress.” This, logically stated, means, “Let us not settle what is good; but let us settle whether we are getting more of it.” He says, “Neither in religion nor morality, my friend, lie the hopes of the race, but in education.” This, clearly expressed, means, “We cannot decide what is good, but let us give it to our children.”

“Democ­racy is the worst form of Gov­ern­ment except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Winston Churchill

Finally, Orthodoxy:

The madman’s explanation of a thing is always complete, and often in a purely rational sense satisfactory. Or, to speak more strictly, the insane explanation, if not conclusive, is at least unanswerable; this may be observed specially in the two or three commonest kinds of madness. If a man says (for instance) that men have a conspiracy against him, you cannot dispute it except by saying that all the men deny that they are conspirators; which is exactly what conspirators would do. His explanation covers the facts as much as yours. Or if a man says that he is the rightful King of England, it is no complete answer to say that the existing authorities call him mad; for if he were King of England that might be the wisest thing for the existing authorities to do. Or if a man says that he is Jesus Christ, it is no answer to tell him that the world denies his divinity; for the world denied Christ’s.

Oddities only strike ordinary people. Oddities do not strike odd people. This is why ordinary people have a much more exciting time; while odd people are always complaining of the dulness of life.

The old fairy tale makes the hero a normal human boy; it is his adventures that are startling; they startle him because he is normal. But in the modern psychological novel the hero is abnormal; the centre is not central.

There’s a lot more from this last book that I’m currently chewing on.

To my dear friend Theophilus,

and what a fine choice of name you have taken! Not “knower of hearts”, but “lover of kami”. For the hearts of men are fickle, and reflect selfish desires as well as sacrifices, and in this era especially, true sacrifice seems impossible while selfish indulgence is available on every corner. No, it is no great achievement to see into hearts and know their flaws. But to love the spirit that moves beneath those hearts, inspiring them to greatness, is good indeed. In this age when kami has been removed from the public squares, when we suffer for having severed our relations to it, to pursue and chase after kami is admirable.

I wrote this book to deepen your understanding. Do not think that I write merely to inform. Information is a price-list of goods from a foreign port. You may judge whether you think they are properly valued, or think deeply about what caused them to be made; but they are not yours until you take action. Kami is not a thing that you come to know through reading. You understand it before any information about it is known. Some of my readers want facts, but you and I love all kinds of kami, which lie beneath the fluctuations of the heart. To you, Theophilus, who wish to embrace kami by learning the forms that it takes in the world, to you I say: greetings!

I am yours in friendship,
Avery Morrow
March 20, 2012

David Thayne

（概要）ベストセラー漫画 「日本人のへんな英語」 の、いろんな英語の間違いや逆効果の教え方を紹介します。

My supervisor at a Japanese middle school purchased a somewhat fraudulent book called 「日本人のへんな英語」 (The Strange English of the Japanese) which purports to “correct” English teachers’ “weird” English. This bestselling book has also been appearing in Japanese newspapers and media. It’s really a bunch of scare stories: the sort of mistakes that people would laugh off in real conversation, cast as world-ending errors that could throw friendships into disorder.

The author, David A. Thayne, has written a bunch of books like this trying to scare Japanese people away from learning English. Also, although he would obviously make pretenses to being a native speaker not all of the “correct” sentences in the book are native-level English. Either he has forgotten some of his English himself, which would be honest but amazing, or else he allowed the book to be edited by non-fluent Japanese people, which is a downright fraud on the book’s readers considering its subject. Anyway, the subject of the book is inane. He just takes a bunch of standard ESL sentences and structures that all language learners go through on their first steps to fluency, and ridicules them.

The basic structure of the book is that in every chapter a Japanese person tries to speak English, but turns out to make a horrible mistake and bring incredible shame on themselves and their families by accidentally insulting their friends and referring to themselves as prostitutes, dogs, etc. Luckily, Mr. Thayne himself, the English expert, is there to rescue them, but it is implied that if they had gone on speaking they would have only made things worse. The book is more than pointless, it actually attacks the reader’s willingness to learn. It’s also downright scummy, constantly touting the eternal superiority of native English speakers to non-natives working at any level, and mocking anyone who even tries to speak a foreign language.

Many of Mr. Thayne’s “corrections” are not really correct, and many of his “mistakes” are not really mistakes. Here are the worst of these bizarre so-called corrections:

SO-CALLED MISTAKE –> SO-CALLED CORRECT ENGLISH

My name is Kengo Takahashi. –> I’m Kengo. Kengo Takahashi.

The former is allegedly Victorian English. Not making this up. The accidental James Bond reference goes unnoticed by the author.

I’m fine, thank you. –> I’m really good.

Allegedly Victorian English.

What time is it now? –> Do you have the time?

Allegedly rude.

What’s your name? –> I’m Taro Yamada. And you are?

Allegedly rude.

A department is nearby. –> There’s a department nearby.

Referring to a department STORE. Again, not making this up.

Thank you very much. –> Thanks.

The former is falsely glossed as どうもどうもありがとうございましたね with no explanation of when English speakers express thanks.

I ate the delicious cake. –> I ate a delicious cake.

No real explanation is given for this change, but the first is apparently “NG”.

She’s dry. –> She’s businesslike.

The writer thinks that the first always refers to dry skin in English.

Q. What color are your eyes?
A. I have black eyes. –> I have dark-brown eyes.

Apparently the former implies, to the writer, that the speaker was battered and given “black eyes”.

I do not like strawberries. –> I don’t like strawberries.
I am not interested. –> I’m not interested.

Both of these are allegedly rude.

You had better use meatballs. –> How about trying the meatballs?

The former is apparently a grave insult that will cause people to break down in tears. The latter has a grammatical error that changes the meaning, but the writer doesn’t realize this.

May I have more cake? –> Could I have more cake?

Allegedly childish.

I think it won’t rain. –> I don’t think it’ll rain.

Allegedly incomprehensible.

My leg was broken. –> I broke my leg.

Allegedly implies malice.

Sorry. –> Sorry, I’m late.

This is not a mistake on my part, the latter is supposedly correct and the former is supposedly a mistake.

You have unusual manners. –> You have an unusual manner.

Ditto

I want coffee. –> I’ll take coffee.

Ditto

I have free time tomorrow. –> I’m free tomorrow.

The writer believes that “free time” means “unpaid time”. (see p. 71)

I can’t hear. –> I’m afraid I can’t hear you.

The writer believes that the former means “I’m deaf.” (p. 84)

Please sit down. –> Please have a seat.

Allegedly condescending.

Can I have the same dish as that one? –> I’d like the same thing that he’s having.

The former is falsely glossed as あれと同じ皿をもらってください, i.e. “Can I eat from the same dish as him?”

It’s good. –> It’s really good.

Allegedly sarcastic.

Would you pass the salt? –> Could you pass the salt?

Allegedly condescending.

Could you change this for a different one? –> Could you exchange this?

The former is falsely glossed as 作り変え, i.e. “Could you stitch a new one?”

Which team are you supporting? –> Which team are you rooting for?

The former allegedly supplies that you are a financial sponsor of the team.

You’ve probably noticed that the former sentences are not totally fluent English, but they’re not so dangerous that they had to be written up in a book, and most of the actual mistakes, e.g. “Did you go all the way with Keiko?” instead of “Did you go to the station with Keiko?” are unlikely and if they happened would make for great humor, at least with Americans. Linguistic misunderstandings at such a beginning level are the cause of embarrassing but pleasant memories, unless if the speaker’s friends hated English learners in which case they wouldn’t make very good friends anyway.

Furthermore, it’s ridiculous to think that Japanese people should try to take note of all these “mistakes” if they aren’t already fluent in English, and the book is written in Japanese and includes きまり文句 such as “How are you?” so it’s clearly aimed at absolute beginners. This is simply not how to learn a language. There are infinite ways to construct mistaken or incomprehensible English sentences; I’ve never seen one of my students write one of the specific sentences in this book, but they’ve certainly written innumerable other types of gibberish which could fill endless books. Can one out of those infinite books really be called English education? Only through actual communication can you come to understand what gets your thoughts across and what doesn’t.

Really the entire purpose of this book is to try to get Japanese people to fear speaking English. It even encourages people who DON’T want to speak English to dissuade their friends from trying it out. The only path to really learning a foreign language, through constantly making mistakes and improving yourself based on experience, is mentioned nowhere in this book.

edit: Thanks to A-K.R. for pointing out to me that the author previously wrote a book called 「その英語ネイティブは笑ってます」 (“Native Speakers Are Laughing At Your English”).

1. His Majesty’s first article about gobies appeared in 1963, when he was Prince Akihito.
2. In the researches, His Majesty displays fluency in English and a good grasp of French.
3. The research, especially the single-author papers published in the 1960s and 1970s, shows that His Majesty grasped problems of goby taxonomy well, and introduced new methods of systematizing goby species which were controversial but have been proven correct by the test of time.
4. His Majesty assisted in naming the following new species: Pandaka trimaculata (1975), Glossogobius aureus (1975), Glossogobius sparsipapillus (1976), Cristatogobius aurimaculatus (2000), and Cristatogobius rubripectoralis (2003). All of these papers were jointly authored.
5. In 1992, Science magazine invited him to contribute an article on “early cultivators of science in Japan“.
6. In the 1990s, two goby species were named after him: Exyrias akihito and Platygobiopsis akihito.
7. In 2007, a goby genus was named after him, in the family Sicydiinae. It contains the species Akihito vanuatu and Akihito futuna. The authors comment: “The new genus name honors Emperor Akihito for his many contributions to goby systematics and phylogenetic research and is defined here as a masculine noun.”
8. His Majesty displays an interest in taxonomy generally and the history of science in Japan, and wrote a quite readable English lecture on the subject in 2007.
9. In 2008, the National Science Museum published a paper on tanuki at the Imperial Palace, which His Majesty coauthored; but I do not see that he had much to do with the research here, as opposed to the goby papers.

I think there is an interesting point to be made in the fact that Prince Charles has spent his free time designing and marketing a line of homeopathic sugar pills while Prince Akihito made legitimate contributions to science.

The Great Internet Conspiracy: The Role of Technology and Social Media in the 9/11 Truth Movement

The Boy Who Cried Wolf is, in modern parlance, a simple “troll.” He delights in posting inflammatory material in public spaces to cause unnecessary concern, and he then laughs at the angry reactions he provokes. In the fable, he only gets away with this once before his village brands him as a troublesome nut. The rest quickly ignore him, leaving him to experience poetic justice in short order. But on the Internet, this could not happen.

With social media at his fingertips, the Boy’s alarm message would spread well beyond his village. Some people would find his initial posting at once, while others would find it much later. A few would accidentally revive it years after the fact. But to pick a time at random, say one week after he had his fun, both the initial “fake” alert and the later “real” warning would be available simultaneously, with no way to predict which would be more widespread and more likely to come up on a search engine. Both would also be mixed in with a bewildering array of angry posts, some by people who had been duped, others noting that he was actually right.

The Broken Buddha: Critical Reflections on Theravada and a Plea for a New Buddhism (Some knowledge of Theravada Buddhism is a must.)

A man I know attended a Thai temple in Singapore for fifteen years before becoming one of my students. He could chant the five Precepts but couldn’t name any of them and didn’t know that what he was chanting referred to morality. He did know however, that every time he went to the temple that he should give an hung pow (monetary donation) to the monks. Young well-educated Asians have often told me that they got their first real understanding of Dhamma when they joined a Buddhist group at the university where they were studying in the West…

The Esperanto Book

Esperanto is sometimes criticized for using compound words where a “real” or “natural” language would have a “real” word. What constitutes a “real” word, as distinct from a compound word, turns out not always to be apparent to such critics. One Esperantist reported the case of a woman who, informed of the use of mal- to create antonyms, cried out in dismay: “You mean Esperanto has no basic word for unhappy?”

June 30, 1974

A group of students calling themselves the “Buraku Liberation Study Group” request permission to form as a school club at Yoka High School, superseding the existing “Buraku Issues Study Group”. The reason for this name change is debated:

The Buraku Liberation League claims that the previous “study group” was ineffective at combating widespread bigotry and a new group was necessary.

The Japanese Communist Party claims that the Buraku Liberation League was pushing students to “come out” as burakumin and to engage in political activism within an official school club, which is illegal at Japanese public schools.

July 30, 1974

The “Buraku Liberation Study Group” is approved by the headmaster and vice headmaster, but not by the school. The reason for this disapproval is debated:

The Buraku Liberation League claims that the teachers at the school were universally opposed to the new group because of their bigotry.

The Japanese Communist Party claims that members of the “Buraku Liberation Study Group” were bullying other students, “impeaching” them, and making them confess to “crimes” against burakumin, and the teachers were opposed to a club that would facilitate this.

July-November

“Buraku Liberation Study Group” students hold over a dozen meetings with teachers.

November 18

“Buraku Liberation Study Group” students begin a sit-in in front of the teacher’s room.

The Japanese Communist Party claims that “Buraku Liberation Study Group” students were pressuring teachers to admit wrongdoing.

The Japanese Communist Party claims that the Buraku Liberation League filled six trucks with supporters and drove them inside the school gates to hold a demonstration.

The Buraku Liberation League claims that “concerned members of the League and PTA” were gathering at the school gate.

November 19

Teachers at Yoka High School move into group housing and begin carpooling to school in a shared bus.

The Buraku Liberation League claims that the Japanese Communist Party forced the teachers to move in together to prevent “defections”.

The Japanese Communist Party claims that members of the Buraku Liberation League were threatening teachers and they moved in together to ensure the safety of their families.

The Japanese Communist Party claims that police were informed about these threats but declined to act.

November 20

The Japanese Communist Party claims that the Buraku Liberation League occupied a school office and formed a “Joint Struggle Committee for the Impeachment of Discriminatory Education”, and “Buraku Liberation Study Group” students went through the school announcing the names of teachers who needed to be “impeached”.

The Japanese Communist Party claims that police were informed about these threats but declined to act.

November 21

The leader of the local branch of the Buraku Liberation League (Yoshiaki Maruo 丸尾良昭) enters the teacher’s room and threatens the teachers, then goes outside and tells the student body that he will never resort to violence. After this, he joins the entire League marching through the main streets of Yoka City in a show of strength.

The Buraku Liberation League’s account does not explain how this happened or what was going on during this time period.

November 22, 10:00AM

Classes are canceled and the teachers attempt to leave the school.

The Buraku Liberation League claims that teachers instructed students to yell “drop dead Buraku scum” at Buraku Liberation League activists standing outside the gates.

The Japanese Communist Party claims that no students said any such thing.

The Buraku Liberation League claims that there was a struggle, and “some on both sides” were injured.

The Japanese Communist Party claims that many teachers were injured, but no one from the Buraku Liberation League was taken to hospital.

November 22, 11:00AM

Remaining students flee the school.

The Japanese Communist Party claims that teachers who had not been beaten unconscious are at this point physically dragged back into the school.

The Buraku Liberation League claims that teachers had an extended dialogue outside the gates and were “persuaded” to return to the school.

The Buraku Liberation League claims that the Japanese Communist Party instructed teachers to leave the school, and that a memo was found instructing the teachers on how to behave.

The Japanese Communist Party claims that this memo was fabricated by the Buraku Liberation League.

November 22, 11:00AM-1:00AM

According to the findings of the Japanese Supreme Court, during this entire period of thirteen hours, the teachers of Yoka High School, including many women and old men, were confined to the clubroom of the unapproved “Buraku Liberation Study Group”, where instruments of torture had apparently been prepared for this day. They were verbally assaulted, beaten, strangled, had buckets of filth poured on their heads, had spoiled milk poured into their shirts, had their heads locked and punched, had tobacco butts put out on their faces, and were threatened with further violence and death.

The Buraku Liberation League’s account does not explain how this happened or what was going on during this time period.

November 22, roughly 11:00AM-12:30PM

The student council of Yoka High School enters the central office of the city police and reports a crime in progress. The police respond that they are uninterested in investigating.

The students confer, and apply for and receive a permit to protest on a section of riverbank in the center of the city from 1PM to 5PM.

November 22, 1:00PM

The roughly 1,000 students who had fled the school assemble on the riverbank and begin chanting, “Give us back our teachers!” and “Stop the violence!”

A black van owned by the Buraku Liberation League suddenly appears, playing the Liberation Anthem, and blasts through its megaphone that the protest is an act of ugly discrimination and racism. Students yell back at the van.

November 22, 3:00PM

The leader of the local branch of the Buraku Liberation League (Yoshiaki Maruo 丸尾良昭) personally appears at the protest and intimidates some of the students. The students ask him why he promised them no violence; he responds that some things just happen, and that anyway they brought the violence on themselves.

November 22, 5:00PM

Students stand on their permitted section of riverbank until 5PM, calling “Give us back our teachers!” and singing the school anthem. This area is now known to locals as the “Square of Courage”.

A “meeting” is held in the school gymnasium by members of the Buraku Liberation League to “impeach discriminatory education”.

Twenty-three teachers write self-criticisms at the request of the Buraku Liberation League.

November 23, 1:00AM

Sixty teachers arrive at the local hospital with injuries; forty-eight are seriously injured and are admitted for extended treatment. Masatoshi Katayama, the most seriously injured, has had his ribs and hips broken in several places.

The Buraku Liberation League’s account does not explain how this happened or what was going on during this time period.

It is not clear what the city police were doing at this time.

December 1

Thirteen members of the Buraku Liberation League are arrested.

17,500 residents of Yoka City hold a meeting to discuss how the city and school can prevent further violence by Yoshiaki Maruo and his gang.

1975

The Japanese Communist Party’s favored candidate for mayor wins election in Yoka City.

Students allied with the “Buraku Liberation Study Group”, who are continuing to meet in their clubroom despite lack of official approval, inform the Buraku Liberation League that they are not experiencing any active discrimination at school, but that teachers sometimes glare at them and this makes them feel uncomfortable.

1975-1995

The wheels of Japanese justice churn. Slowly.

1996

The thirteen arrested League members lose their Supreme Court appeal and are ordered to pay 30 million yen ($300,000) to the injured teachers.

2007

Yoshiaki Maruo founds a “Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Network” in Hyogo Prefecture.

Please cue the X-Files theme for whenever you see that a hamlet really has no official name.

For comparison…

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Official name: 香川県高松市田村町
Location: Hellish inland Shikoku
Conclusion: Real hisabetsu buraku

This is what an actual hisabetsu buraku looks like. I found it on a list of list of historical ones here, most of which are nonexistent today, but this one clearly still exists. It’s hard not to tell that this area is full of burakumin, because it’s a large mass of identical housing developments surrounded by fields, and there are a lot of violent criminals living there, according to Google. However, it’s not strictly segregated from the businesses around it, and it has a proper name.

Without further ado…

The “off-the-map” villages

I found these examples of “weird, off-the-map” locations on 2ch and investigated each of them as far as public documents would take me.

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Official name: 精進民宿村
Location: Northwest of Mount Fuji
Conclusion: It’s a little village of hotels.

This place was actually on Japanese television. There was a typhoon here in 1966 which destroyed all the hotels along the lakeside. To prevent this from happening again all of them moved to this preplanned space along the highway, which is why there’s an old schoolhouse and a post office here.

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Official name: 京都市北区衣笠開キ町
Location: North of Kyoto
Conclusion: Korean slum

This is a really weird little slum inside a Korean village in Kyoto. It’s hard to tell from the overhead map, but the entire thing is located in a depression made by a dam. If you try to look at it on Google Maps there are no official roads, and the view from a nearby road is blocked by purposefully planted trees.

If you like this place you’ll love Utoro, another zainichi Korean village in Kyoto. The signs on that slum say things like “Utoro is every zainichi’s hometown” and “protect our Utoro”.

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Official name: 千葉県大多喜町横瀬
Location: Mountains of Chiba
Conclusion: Very, very small village

It looks to be about 6 people living by themselves in the mountains. Someone even visited there and was refreshed by the countryside scenery, although he didn’t take photos, for privacy reasons. Hisabetsu buraku don’t look like this, unless if we’re living in a Princess Mononoke universe or something. It doesn’t have a name on Google Maps, which is spooky for 2ch’s sake, but the local government has given it the perfectly cromulent name of Yokose, and this appears on the national map service’s website. There are 3 buildings here and, allegedly, a statue of the bodhisattva Kokūzō Bosatsu, which the itinerant blogger says was really a shrine.

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Official name: None
Location: Genpei-cho, Kobe City
Conclusion: Possible Korean slum

I don’t know what exactly this is but these people are literally living on the wrong side of the tracks. There’s also all kinds of junk lying around. And to deepen the mystery further, when you look at Yahoo Maps none of these buildings exist and there is something inexplicable in their place.

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Official name: 福岡県北九州市若松区北湊町１３−１８
Location: A port in Kitakyushu
Conclusion: Boatyard belonging to North Korea

Apparently Japanese readers are kind of shocked by the decrepit state of this boatyard, but it’s not exactly creepy.

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Official name: None
Location: Kakamigahara City, Gifu
Conclusion: None Shrinekeeper’s household

edit: I spoke to someone from Kakamigahara and this is apparently the residence of an old shrinekeeping family. It’s hard to tell from the data on the Internet but it’s actually on the top of a small hill, which explains why there is nothing built on the sides.

This is an inexplicable group of segregated residences. They lie outside the officially designated blocks for the area, as you can see here, and have no name. Military photography shows that it existed in 1975. Recently someone bulldozed part of the forest near this buraku, as if aiming to build a development there. If you look around there’s a lot of other weird stuff in the area too. It seems like most residents of Kakamigahara did not historically build in this area.

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Official name: 山梨県巨摩群身延町八坂
Location: Mountains of Yamanashi
Conclusion: Formerly a village, now abandoned

This place is actually well-documented by the people of a town 2km away, as a former rural village. It was visited by the same blogger who went to the other mysterious places.

The total count of “weird places 2ch found in Japan”

Rural villages or remains thereof: 2
Planned communities: 1
Shrinekeeper families: 1
Things Koreans made: 3
Segregated buraku: 0