Ishigaki Rin’s poem “Gake (Cliff)” in translation: Rin, Ishigaki. “Cliff.” Ed. Makoto Ooka and Shuntaro Tanikawa. Modern Japanese Poetry: One Hundred Years (n.d.): n. pag. Cirje: Centre of International Research on the Japanese Economy. Web. A reader who interpreters / analyzes the translation above may not come quite the same Read more…
Iroha is an older Japanese poem with deep connections to Japanese culture and religion. There are a number of different versions – the original cannot be read by the vast majority of modern Japanese readers. It has been translated in a number of languages but the translations lose much of Read more…
A TOK essay on Prescribed Title #6 is based on the question of whether or not present knowledge is completely dependent on past knowledge. The Japanese creation myth told in the Kojiki. There are parts of this myth that seem quite sexist by modern standards. A TOK essay on Prescribed Read more…
https://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poem/item/3779/auto/0/CLIFF The original poem (written in Japanese) is about women on Saipan who jumped off of a cliff during the latter stages of WWII as U.S. forces approached. There are a number of different translations in English that in some ways differ from the original. One such translation adds variation Read more…
The Kojiki is a collection of ancient Japanese myths and other stories that dates back about 1500 years. There are aspects of the text that have connections to Japanese culture and society now. One male individual in the extract below states that “It is not proper that the woman speak Read more…
A solid TOK essay should have RLEs that can be directly linked to the Prescribed Title. Within each RLE there are a multiple Different Perspectives that need to be discussed and analyzed. Successful TOK essays include Different Perspectives of individuals that have a unique view on a particular RLE. The Read more…
Utagawa Hiroshige’s ukiyoe “Hara on the Tokaido” is a RLE that can explored in a number of ways in a TOK essay on May 2020 TOK Essay Prescribed Title #4 RLE. One could argue that a particular theory is more important or is sufficient in understanding Hiroshige’s work. On the Read more…
The New York Times opinion article “War and Analogy” discusses how different U.S leaders used different analogies to described the situation in Kosovo in the late 1990’s The op-ed also notes that the politicians used the analogies to argue for a particular kind of response by the United States government. Read more…
Iroha is a Japanese poem that is roughly 1000 years old. It was originally written in an older writing system (Man’yōgana) that many Japanese people now cannot read. The poem has deep and complex links to Japanese language, culture, and religion. There are a number of different translations in English Read more…
“Last weekend [April 2007] the Japanese Ministry of Education instructed publishers of school textbooks to alter descriptions of the mass suicide of Okinawa civilians during the battle. The order included eliminating all references to the Japanese military’s direct role in the tragedies, erasing accounts in earlier texts that claimed the Read more…