”these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” - Buddhist Priest Shinran

Tokyo Skytree Tower 634 Meters High

Buddhist Priest Shinran

One of the most influential Buddhist monks in the Japanese history is Shinran (1173 - 1263).

Shinran was born at the end of the era of the old imperial regime and worked hard through the beginning of the samurai era.  

Buddhism in Japan had been under protection of the imperial court since the religion was first introduced into Japan in the 6th century or before.  But along with the fall of the imperial regime (actually aristocracy) and the start of the rule by the samurai sword, Japan came to have new types of Buddhist factions.  They all concentrated on preaching teachings of the Buddha through adaption to the need of the general public, though Buddhism had been mostly possessed and studied by noble people before.  Buddhism had been used to enhance authority of the imperial court as it had been thought to be a higher level of philosophy or a cultural product imported from China, the then most advanced empire in East Asia.

The era of the first samurai regime in the Japanese history is called the Kamakura Period, since the samurais who took over power built their capital in Kamakura, 70 km west of Tokyo, though the emperor and other noble class members stayed in Kyoto with their ritualistic authority.  All through the subsequent samurai eras that continued for 700 years, Japan had virtually two capitals: the imperial capital Kyoto and the samurai regime's capital, such as Kamakura and Edo (Tokyo).

The Kamakura Period produced some unique leading Buddhist monks who became founders of new Buddhist schools.  One of them was Shinran.

Once Max Weber studied the history of the Japanese Buddhism to find that old Buddhist schools strongly connected to the imperial courts were a kind of Catholic while those new schools of Buddhists were a kind of protestant.  So, the teaching by Shinran was radical.

Shinran taught mainly:

"One cannot reach a state of goodness or righteousness only through his effort."

"Anybody can be saved by praying to Amida Buddha or reciting Namu Amida Butsu."

"Amida Buddha saves especially those who cannot be excellent in their practices of Buddhism."

Put simply, Shinran said that the poorer or the more foolish one was in line with a value system in conventional Buddhism, the more probably he would be saved by Amida Buddha, since anybody could not satisfy the very high standard the Buddha had basically requested.

Shinran thought that everyone was evil.  But when he realized that he was evil, he could find a chance to be saved by Amida Buddha.  If one thought that he was good enough to be praised by Amida Buddha, his arrogance would be hated by Amida.  A bad man was in a different phase from a self-judged good man in terms of his religious status; hence he could be saved through a different path than a selfish good man.  And such a path to salvation of the soul of a bad man is more blessed that the path of such a good man to any salvation.  

Christ Jesus said, "Nobody is good.  Only the God is good."  He also asserted that if a sinful man repent, the joy in Heaven would be greater.   Accordingly, the teaching of Shinran is not so far from Jesus' teachings.


                                        
Shinran
http://labo.wikidharma.org/index.php/%E8%A6%AA%E9%B8%9E

Finally, it is important to know that the Japanese public had been familiar with the same teaching as what Christians in Europe learnt from the Bible since the start of the samurai era in the 12th century.




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Luk 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

"Ye must be born again"

Ueno Museum, Tokyo







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Joh 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Joh 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Joh 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

"baptized of him in Jordan" - Chinese Red

Tokyo Ginza Shopping Street

Chinese Red

Kanji or Chinese characters are an interesting set of letters or pictographs.

We, Japanese, use kanji letters, however, without minding what their shapes originally mean.

One example is a pictograph meaning Chinese red.







This character is called "shu" or "aka" in Japanese.  It roughly means red in English.

Looking at it carefully, you can see it is composed of the following part.






This character means a cow, called "ushi" or "gyu" in Japanese.

So, the character "shu" or Chinese red consists of "gyu" or a cow.  But it has additional bar(s) in its structure.  It means a cow is cut at a throat by a knife, so that it pours out blood.  And the color of the blood is Chinese red.

Practically, when applying it to commodities, this Chinese red or "shu" was originally taken out of an ore called Cinnabar or cinnabarite (red mercury(II) sulfide (HgS), native vermilion).

Japan had abundant Cinnabar.  When the shu red was used in combination with gold, it really looked impressive especially in ancient days.  Japan had abundant deposits of Cinnabar and gold, so that ancient capitals of Japan had main buildings painted or decorated using Cinnabar and gold.  THey must have looked so vivid and vibrant.

Even today, there are many shinto shrines in Japan which abundantly use the shu red color.

Chinese also like the color red.  Temples of Taoism and even other commercial buildings in China traditionally used this color so abundantly.  Even today, the Chinese national flag is based on the red ground.

But its origins is blood gushing out of a cut cow.  It is not a Japanese sense.  It is indeed Chinese origin.  

Ancient Japanese developed a technique to crate red lacquer or red japanese, using Caesalpinia sappan, a species of flowering tree in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is native to Southeast Asia and the Malay archipelago.  It has a common name of Sappanwood.

http://mondo.alfaromeo-jp.com/design/1093
Japanese wooden tableware painted with lacquer with the ancient red

But, we had better still wonder what the ancient Chinese civilization was like as it created a character red in such a cruel manner in association with gushing blood of a cow.

Chinese people or the Han Chinese must have been a very wild tribe using a bleeding cow for some ritual.  They must be still bellicose.  Truly China occupies Tibet and part of central Asia by force and intends to invade territories of other countries the East China Sea and the South China Sea.  Red China can be so dangerous.



Finally, for ordinary red (called "aka" in Japanese), the Japanese people usually use the following character.






Originally ancient Chinese invented this letter by combining a pictograph indicating "large" and "fire."    So, another red is from fire, probably observed in a big flaming torch or a bonfire used also in a ritual.



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Mat 3:6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
Mat 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

"grieved for the hardness of their hearts" - Chinese Buddhism

Ueno Park, Tokyo

Chinese Buddhism

When the Gospels were edited in or around the Roman Empire in the first century, Buddhism reached China.

But the development in China of this religions originated in India 500 years before the birth of Christ Jesus was very different from that of Christianity in Europe.

Even unlike in India where Buddhism was supported by ordinary people, Buddhism was protected and promoted by courts of successive dynasties of China.  Accordingly, development and diffusion of Buddhism in China could be studied along with changes in dynasties which ruled all or part of China in the proceeding of the history.  

Traditionally Chinese did not accept Buddhism as it was.  They selected contents of the religion in light with their tradition and culture.  Chinese Buddhists, monks, or scholars never abandoned Sinocentrism.  Rather, teachings of Buddhism which did not fit with Sinocentrism were neglected.  Instead, they created their version of Buddhist scriptures based on their philosophy.  They also mistranslated original sutras.  In addition, they added their writings to original Buddhist literature or deleted some part of sutras so as to make Buddhism serve their culture and tradition.

What is remarkable is that various Buddhist factions came to emerge as study of Buddhism developed over time.  Different interpretation led to formation of different factions.  So, it was very complicated that Chinese Buddhist schools handled Chinese versions of sutras, which were complicated due to interaction with Chinese philosophies, based on their unique philosophies.  Accordingly, the Chinese version of Buddhism, as a hole, became very special extension,  expansion, or even application of Buddhism practiced in India.    

And what is more complicated is that Japanese imported Buddhism from China (or through the Korean Peninsula in an early stage).

And finally, the Japanese unique Buddhism was established since the 12th century, which was also very different from the Chinese Buddhism, though this religion Gautama Buddha (circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE) started in India reached Japan in the sixth century or earlier.

However, one thing true is that Chinese believe a spiritual world as is seen in traditional Taoism and the philosophies of Lao-tse and Chuang-tse, legendary Chinese scholars in the 5th century BCE.





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Mar 3:5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.

"not blot out his name out of the book of life" - Association of Fractal

Tokyo Ginza Street

Association of Fractal

There is an interesting pattern of stories in traditional Chinese novels.

Hundreds years ago, Chinese people wrote and read stories where another world was found to exist in a tiny vase or such a vessel.  And, a hero living in this real world went into another world in a vessel or sometimes a human ear to experience an extraordinary incident.

It might remind you of  a fractal, a geometric feature of this universe.

Fractal 

A fractal is a mathematical set that typically displays self-similar patterns, which means it is "the same from near as from far".[1] Fractals may be exactly the same at every scale, or, as illustrated in Figure 1, they may be nearly the same at different scales. The concept of fractal extends beyond trivial self-similarity and includes the idea of a detailed pattern repeating itself.
Fractals are distinguished from regular geometric figures by their fractal dimensional scaling.

One often cited description that Mandelbrot published to describe geometric fractals is "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole";[2] this is generally helpful but limited. Authorities disagree on the exact definition of fractal, but most usually elaborate on the basic ideas of self-similarity and an unusual relationship with the space a fractal is embedded in.

Figure 2. Koch snowflake, a fractal that begins with an equilateral triangle and then replaces the middle third of every line segment with a pair of line segments that form an equilateral "bump"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal

So, there are similar conditions in smaller spaces around us to those at the level of our real living space.

But also in the human mind, there is such structure.  Conversely, if you have become rich, your basic mind structure or internal structure must be the same as that you had when you were poor.

Money cannot change the internal structure of a man, though he would become more coarse internally while expanding its size and upgrading its level in terms of interaction with the material world.  While a poor man could see various exquisite things around him in the world and in other human beings, he would lose ability to see them when he has become rich.  So, to enjoy similar  exquisite things, he has to pay big money to buy costly work of art, a leisure home built at a place of scenic beauty, or association with talented people.

It is also why still people can learn a great deal of human wisdom, foolishness, truth, evil, tragedies, happiness, and so on by reading the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Some pious people might today even believe there is another live universe in the Book as some old Chinese thought that there could be another live world in a vase.

   




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Rev 3:3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
Rev 3:4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

"Peter and John about to go into the temple" - Marega Collection to Prove Old Persecution in Japan

A Tokyo Subway Station

Marega Collection to Prove Old Persecution in Japan

The world does not wonder why Japan is not a Christian country.

It is because the Vatican which sent many missionaries to Japan for 100 years from the middle of the 16th century could not understand its significance.

But recently, the Vatican has realized that it possesses about 10,000 Japanese documents related to movements and incidents of Japanese Christians since 1600s.  To make sure, the samurai regime of Japan at the time almost successfully suppressed growth of Christina communities in Japan.  Till the Meiji Restoration for modernization of Japan in 1860s, there had been nominally or officially no Christians in Japan under the rule of the samurai sword, though it is said that there were 300,000 Christians in Japan around 1600, accounting for 1.7% of the whole Japanese population at the time.      

VATICAN LETTER Jan-30-2014 (710 words) Backgrounder. xxxi
The Salesian and the Shogun: Documents discovered in Vatican Library
By Cindy Wooden 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Just a few days before the feast of St. John Bosco, founder of the Salesians, the Vatican Library announced a major project to inventory, digitalize, catalogue and study unique historical documents collected by a Salesian missionary to Japan. 

The estimated 10,000 original documents, dating from early in the 1600s to the mid-1800s, provide cold bureaucratic details about the persecution of Christians in Japan during that period. 

Salesian Father Mario Marega, who first arrived in Japan in 1930, gathered the documents, along with a smaller, but more varied collection preserved at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome. He died in Italy in 1978. 

The Vatican Library has begun a six-year project to organize and safeguard the material, working with the National Institute of Japanese Literature, the National Museum of Japanese History, the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo and the historical archives of the Oita prefecture on Japan's Kyushu Island. 

The collection held at the Vatican is made up mostly of local government records -- from what was the Bungo province in eastern Kyushu -- documenting the monitoring and persecution of Christians, according to an article in the Vatican newspaper written by Msgr. Cesare Pasini, prefect of the Vatican Library.
"Because the simple prohibition of professing the Christian faith did not have the hoped-for effect of stemming the missionary fervor and zeal of the Christian population, the shogunate administration decreed the obligation of apostasy," or the public renunciation of the faith, Msgr. Pasini wrote.
The resistance of the local Christians and the Tokugawa shoguns' awareness that Christianity was not dying out can be seen in the fact that the apostasy order was issued in 1614 and again in 1635 and 1646. 

Residents of Christian villages were required to register as members of their local Buddhist temple, signing documents renouncing Christianity. The registry and the apostasy declarations were forwarded to the local government archive. 

The Bungo civic archive also received official reports about the annual "fumi-e" ritual, in which local residents were forced to step on a crucifix or images of Jesus or Mary to prove that they were not Christians. 

Father Marega's collection of documents from the Bungo archive "reminds us of the Christian martyrs, along with those who could not withstand the trials, and constitutes extraordinary documentation for the study of Christianity in Japan," Msgr. Pasini said. "In fact, experts on the subject know of no other collections of this size and breadth." 

Which leaves the question: Why didn't anyone do something with the documents before? After all, groups of Japanese martyrs were beatified and canonized as recently as 2008, demonstrating the interest of the universal church. 

Cardinal Raffaele Farina, retired prefect of the Vatican Library and himself a Salesian, said the documents at the Vatican were discovered "when the library was closed for restructuring from 2007 to 2010." 

"We began studying what kind of documents there were and how many -- at first we did not realize how much was there," Cardinal Farina told Catholic News Service Jan. 30, the eve of the feast of St. John Bosco. 

Cardinal Farina already was familiar with Father Marega's life as a selective and astute historical hoarder. 

As archivist of the Salesian order for a decade before moving to the Vatican, the cardinal said, "I did what I could" to gather papers from Father Marega that were stored at the former Salesian generalate in Turin, Italy, and at the Salesian University in Rome. The gathering and study of the Salesian collection took a leap forward as the order prepared for the celebration in 2012 of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of its Japanese province. 

Cardinal Farina credits Delio Proverbio, an orientalist at the Vatican Library, and retired Bishop Francis Xavier Mizobe of Takamatsu, Japan -- another Salesian -- for discovering just how extraordinary the documents at the Vatican were. 

The Vatican Library houses some 80,000 manuscripts, nearly 1.6 million books and approximately 8,400 incunabula (books and pamphlets printed before 1501). 

The Marega collection, written in a style of Japanese hundreds of years old, wasn't exactly a popular focus of scholars visiting the library, the cardinal said. 

So what led to the discovery of the importance of the Marega documents? 
"It was just their turn," the cardinal said.
END

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1400416.htm

More correctly or specifically, most of those documents had been kept in Japan.  Bishop Mizobe held them for many years, and then the documents were transferred to the Salesian seminar in Chohu, Tokyo.  These documents were discovered there in the summer of 2005.  And in the end of 2005, they were sent to Italy to establish the Marega Collection.

One thing important is that Father Marega did not provide all the documents he had collected to the Vatican in 1950s, though it was so believed for long.  He sent only the Material No. 342 to the Vatican.  So, it was in 2005 that the Vatican obtained the full 10,000 documents when it received most of the documents from Japan.

(Refer to http://eajrs.net/files-eajrs/Rejime%202.pdf#search='%E3%83%9E%E3%83%AA%E3%82%AA%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9E%E3%83%AC%E3%82%AC')

Anyway, it is said Japan under the samurai regime between the 17th and the middle 19th century forbade exhaustively Christianity with the greatest effort to find and punish Christians by scrutinizing detailed part of people's living.   This extent and degree of severity in the samurai effort has never been observed in any other places in the world since the Roman Empire before its adoption of Christianity.



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Act 3:1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.
Act 3:2 And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;
Act 3:3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.
Act 3:4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.
Act 3:5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
Act 3:6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

"whether he would heal him on the sabbath day" - Before the Expected Death

Tokyo Ginza Street

Before the Expected Death

There is a novel in Japan

A man, 50 years old or so, found that he would die of a cancer in half a year.

But he had nothing to do.  He didn't really have nothing he wanted to do in six months till his diagnosed death.

One day he was in a bus as he returned from a hospital.  There he heard two old men taking about their health.  One of them said that he would kill some guys he really hated if he had been sentenced to death expected in months or a year for any illness; "I will kill my enemies and then I can die peacefully."  

So, the hero started to think whether he had such enemies he had to kill before he died due to cancer. And, the story went on...

One thing we have to associate this story with is the story or the life of Christ Jesus.

He must have known that He would be killed by henchmen of Satan sooner or later.  But He decided to make His best to save Israelites as many as possible till His death.

Indeed it is very unlikely that Christ Jesus thought that He would live for decades to conquer His enemies and liberate Isralites from the rule of Roman troops.  But He did not even order His disciples to record His deeds and miracles into a book.  Christ did not even instruct them to build a church.  He simply talked to and taught people, performed miracles, and faced brutal power of the Roman authority and wicked priests of Judaism.

Nonetheless it is likely that He knew beforehand that He would be restored to life in three days after the crucifxion.  If so, what did Christ Jesus really plan to do at the time?  To destroy Satan?




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Mar 3:1 And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.
Mar 3:2 And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.
Mar 3:3 And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth.
Mar 3:4 And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.

"preaching in the wilderness of Judaea" - Religious Conditions in Modern Western History

The Sumida River, Tokyo

Religious Conditions in Modern Western History

Protestantism worked so well in some countries in Western Europe.

For example Calvinism prevailed from Switzerland to England after the religious reformation.

It is also interesting that Calvin was born in 1509, 17 years after the discovery of America by Columbus.

Contrary to general or prevailing understanding, Protestantism requested a stronger tie between individuals and God.  Catholicism was rather tolerant to lukewarm faith of people so long as they admitted and accepted the absolute authority of the Vatican.

But, Protestantism introduced a strong distinction between Heaven and this world.  The Vatican assumed that everything was under rule of God under the sun, and thus a Pope should govern nations and peoples like a Roman emperor.  Anyway peoples in Protestant countries came to concentrate on worldly matters, especially politics and economy, while leaving spiritual matters to the Bible or familiar churches.

It is said that this is the very key to success of the UK in developing democracy and promoting science and expanding business in the global scale.    

However, American people took some unique course in their living based on Christianity.  They started to work hard to earn money endlessly.  As if they had been ordered by God to make more money to prove their faith, they never hated money, business, and innovation.

That is why the great power was established in North America but not in South America with all the Catholic countries, though it had untapped natural resources as much as North American had at the beginning of its modern history.

And North America also has provided favorable society for Judaists whose religion does never forbid them pursuing any worldly wealth even beyond the material glory of King Solomon.

In this way the US has become the richest country in the world.

  
   


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Mat 3:1 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
Mat 3:2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

"the Son of man is Lord" - Aristotle and Theocracy

Tokyo Downtown and The Sumida River

Aristotle and Theocracy

Aristotle said that there are two types of equality.

One is numerical equity.  For example, the difference between two and one is equal to that between three and two.

Another is equity concerning value.  For example, the difference between the ratio of four over two is equal to the one of two over one.

According to Aristotle, a great teacher of Alexander the Great, a political system of a nation should be based on both the types of equality.

And, he extended his thought to the difference between democracy and oligarchy.  There are more troubles in oligarchy than in democracy.  It is because there will be more strife in oligarchy than in democracy.  Oligarch cannot get rid of conflicts among elite members of the political circle and those between the elites and the general public.  On the other hand, democracy is featured only by struggles between the elite and the general public.  However a majority of society do not necessarily make a better decision than the elite do.    

Anyway, if people do not admit that they are living under power or rule of God, they will surely fail in politics being exercised in any form of government.



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Mar 2:28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

"Have ye never read what David did" - PM Hashimoto and Okinawa

Old Town on Tokyo Bay

PM Hashimoto and Okinawa

In February 1996 or so, when Prime Minister of Japan Ryutaro Hashimoto fondled an idea of asking US President Bill Clinton to return the US Marines' Futenma base, Okinawa, to Japan, he called some high-ranking bureaucrats to the PM office.

Having heard the idea, an elite official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said to Hashimoto, "Sir, it is not a good idea!"  Another one of the Defense Agency (now the Ministry of Defense) also stressed, "Sir, it is too sudden for us to get prepared for this issue."

As a horrible assault on a school girl by US soldiers happened in Okinawa in 1995, Okinawa people were then strongly against the presence of US troops in Okinawa Island.  The Japanese Government was then taking every measure to soften anti-US sentiment in Okinawa.

US military bases in Okinawa Island facing China and Taiwan over the East China Sea have key strategic values.  No matter how much Okinawa people want to get rid of crimes and inconveniences US troops have brought on them, it is impossible to drive Americans out of the Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost prefecture among 47 ones in Japan.  Since June of 1945 when the Battle of Okinawa was fought by the US and the Empire of Japan, the US military have kept very wide and big bases, naval ports, and air stations in Okinawa.  The US Marine Corps has its air base in Futenma at almost the central part of the island.  The base is surrounded by residential areas, business streets, and schools, making it the most dangerous base in Okinawa or in the world.                

So, PM Hashimoto wanted to improve the situation in Okinawa.  He wanted to convince Okinawa people that his Cabinet was very much concerned about the plight Okinawa had to bear for national defense and security of Japan.  But as high-ranking officials of the Japanese Government suggested that it was too premature to take up the Futenma issue in the coming meeting with the US President, Hashimoto held back from this diplomatic idea.

The logic the elite officials took was that without full coordination and consent among officials on both the Japanese and American sides in charge of Japan-US security issues a negotiation between the Japanese prime minister and the US President about the US Marine Corps Base in Okinawa cannot be successful; if it fails, it will harm honor and reputation of Prime Minister Hashimoto, since the Media would surely report it.  

But in the (unofficial) meeting with President Clinton held in California, Clinton asked Hashimoto whether he had any other topics, after having discussed some main theme.  So, Hasimoto dared to bring up the Okinawa issue.  "Can we discuss whether the US can return a US Marines base in Okinawa to Japan?" said Hashimoto.  Clinton responded smartly to help Hasimoto save face.  Subsequently, US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma became an official issue between the two Governments.

And finally in April 1996, both the Governments agreed that the Futenma base should be totally returned to Japan in seven years, though the US Marine Corps could get an alternative base some less-populated place in Okinawa.

Though for various reasons still the US Marines continue to use the Futenma base, the direction has never been changed.  Incumbent Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intends to fulfill the plan to relocate the US Marine Corps base as soon as possible, though there some strong opposition from Okinawa people who request complete abolition of US Marine Corps' bases but not relocation.

Nonetheless, those Japanese elite bureaucrats who did not help PM Hashimoto launch the agenda on the Futenma base never showed regret, so lamentably, though they of course cooperated with PM Hashimoto for the Futenma project after the Clinton's decision to return the base to Japan in exchange of a new one to be established in an area posing less burdens to Okinawa.

The lesson is that the enemy of Okinawa is elite bureaucrats in Tokyo rather than the White House.


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Mar 2:24 And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?
Mar 2:25 And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him?
Mar 2:26 How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him?

"A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons" - Memory of Hershey's

Tokyo Subway Train

Memory of Hershey's

Decades ago, when a Japanese musician Masahi Sada was a school boy living in Nagasaki, he sometimes visited a humble museum for the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Attack.

As it was just about 15 years or so after the end of WWII, the museum was not so big and well facilitated. But it displayed real things, such as a burnt baby in the womb and fingers exposed to strong radiation.

The US attacked this port city in the southwest part of mainland Japan with an atomic bomb or a nuclear bomb on August 9, 1945.  A week later the Empire of Japan surrendered.  Today, the museum was replaced by a modern one with advanced equipment and sophisticated displays.    

So, the boy Masashi sometimes thought how terrible Americans were.  But in fact, after the end of WWII, many American naval ships came to Port Nagasaki.  And US sailors and soldiers were often seen walking on the streets of Nagasaki.  Masashi's friends and other children found that America soldiers were generous.  When poor Japanese children shouted at them, "Chocolate!" they gave casually chocolates and chewing gum .   However, Masashi could not simply follow other children.  He never joined them asking for snacks from US soldiers, though his family was not rich at all.  His father was moving around other cities for some jobs while his wife and children were waiting in Nagasaki still in the aftermath of the 1945 Atomic Bomb Attack.

One day, the flagship of the US 7th Fleet came into port Nagaski.  One of his friends was excited.  He said to Masashi, "A big ship has come.  Japanese are being invited to observe it on board.  We can get snacks as much as we want.  Let's go and join the ceremony!"

Masashi thought that he might find truth of the US military if he had been there.  It was the main ship of the US Fleet.  He could surely see how terrible American officers were, since they had dropped that horrible Atomic Bomb.

They went to a pier through a big yard of a huge destroyed factory. But as they got in the US naval shop with other Japanese citizens, Masashi found his friend changed his look.  His friend who was usually modest and humble suddenly changed to a kind of hunter.  He walked to US sailors without hesitation and asked for chocolates so boldly.  After getting some sweets, he further caught another sailor to ask for any snacks.

Masahi finally lost him in a large crowd.  He went inside the ship, walking narrow paths inside.  Some sailors passed by him without minding a poor Japanese school boy wandering inside the flagship.  Finally when he came back on the deck, his friend found Masahi, saying, "You have not yet captured chocolates at all, have you.  Ok!  I will get some for you.  See that black sailor.  A black soldier is always more generous than a white sailor."  Then he said loudly to the black sailor, "Give chocolate!"

So, his friend successfully received a bar of chocolate the black sailor tossed to him.   He said, "Thank you!" to the soldier who was smiling satisfactorily.  Then his friend gave the bar to Masahi, saying, "This is how you can get it.  Now we still have more chances to extract chocolate from them."

But Masashi soon left the ship leaving his friend.  He walked back thorough the yard facing the port.  When crossing a small iron bridge in the yard, he put the bar of chocolate on a guardrail.  He noticed a letter "Hershey's" on paper wrapper of the chocolate.  He thought that Americans on the naval ship didn't look cruel at all, but he still could not accept the chocolate, though his young brother and sister would have been glad if he had brought the bar home.

Now Masashi Sada is a successful musician in Japan.  He is good at lyric songs.  He performed a solo concert 4,000 times up to today.  He never sings war-related songs so far as I know.

Masashi Sada (1952-) is a Japanese singer, lyricist, composer, novelist, actor, and a film producer. 

Throughout his career as a musician, Sada released over 35 solo albums and 70 singles, and multiple live albums or compilations. Since the release of Shourou Nagashi published in 2001, Sada has also worked as a novelist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masashi_Sada

                  






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Luk 2:23 (As it is written in the law of the LORD, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;)
Luk 2:24 And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.
Luk 2:25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
Luk 2:26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

"new wine must be put into new bottles" - Approaching to Zero at a Speed

A Tokyo Downtown Street

Approaching to Zero at a Speed

Regrading N^m,

If N　--> 0 is faster than m　--> 0, N^m　-->　0^m　=　0.

Then 0^0 = 0. 

On the other hand, if N　--> 0 is slower than m　--> 0, 

N^m　-->　N^0　=　1.

Then 0^0 = 1.

As for multiplication,
N x 0 = 0, while N is any given number.

Then, N = 0/0.

Accordingly zero divided by zero is not constant, as N = 1, 2, 3, ..., N.

However, regarding m/N,

If N　--> 0 is faster than m　--> 0, m/N　--> m/0.　

Then 0/0 = infinity. 

If N　--> 0 is slower than m　--> 0, m/N　--> 0/N.　

Then 0/0 = 0. 

But what if both N and m approaches zero at the same speed?  Maybe N has a higher priority than m in the case of N^m, but m might  have a higher priority than N in the case of m/N.




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Mar 2:22 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.

"his name was called JESUS" - Anger of God

Old Downtown on Tokyo Bay

Anger of God

If God designed this universe, what was His purpose?

This material universe is designed so well.  There are a million of chances that this material universe could not be established if God's design had any mistakes.  And there are one billion chances that the human species could not emerge from the natural environment of the earth if God's design had any flaws..

No scientists, who are of course human beings, cannot achieve the same thing, allowing for the Big Bang of the universe and enabling formation of living things in a planet like the earth, if they could further develop their science.  But God made it as we see it today.  It is a super-great act to crate this material universe and realize evolution of living things to the level of humans.  So, it must have a concrete aim.  What is the intention of God to create this university now expanding over scores of billion light years and enable evolution of organisms to humankind?

Regardless of His intention, the world we see on the earth today is the fruit of the attempt of God.  This human world today is on the summit of proceedings of this enterprise of God.  But this world or humankind has been so much contaminated by vice and evil especially in these 2000 years.  And it is apparent that this state under the rule of evilness is against expectation of God.

As human beings fall short of expectation of God, God must be angry.  Teaching of God is not so much respected in the human world while God is the Creator of this universe.  Will God admit that His trial is failure?  Or will God directly take a decisive action against human beings to terminate their existence?

In theory, it is very likely that from the beginning there is a special mechanism embedded in this universe, the nature, or the human body or the mind and heart that would automatically start to work and destroy existence of human beings if they should fail God.

So, I am afraid that we, human species, are approaching the critical stage where such a fatal mechanism will start to work.  Indeed, it must be enough even for God to wait for 2000 years since He first appeared to human beings in Palestine when the Roman Empire occupied the region  to rule Israelis.

Put simply, this civilization of ours with ever growing power of science and technology can collapse due to wrong application of science and technology or wrong direction they are progressing.

The human species being evil should be destroyed or eradicated by God or through some secret mechanism God prepared from the beginning for this purpose.

But more significant is that people do not think this way at all.  They do not think that they are disliked by God.  They do not think that they can be crushed and purged like God would do to servants of Satan and Satan himself.  It is truly grave that people think that God will never destroy them if they act like henchmen of the Devil.    

Nonetheless God is omnipotent.  He will never fail.        




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Luk 2:21 And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Luk 2:22 And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;

"go into the land of Israel"

A Shinto Shrine in Tokyo Established in the 17th Century







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Mat 2:19 But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,
Mat 2:20 Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life.
Mat 2:21 And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.

"as long as they have the bridegroom" - Zero, Constant or Variable

Ueno Station, Tokyo

Zero, Constant or Variable

The number is a key to understanding how this universe was designed by God.

What is 0 to the power 0? 

The problem is similar to that with division by zero. No value can be assigned to 0 to the power 0 without running into contradictions. Thus 0 to the power 0 is undefined 

How could we define it? 0 to any positive power is 0, so 0 to the power 0 should be 0. But any positive number to the power 0 is 1, so 0 to the power 0 should be 1. We can't have it both ways. 

Underlying this argument is the same idea as was used in the attempt to define 0 divided by 0. Consider a to the power b and ask what happens as a and b both approach 0. Depending on the precise way this happens the power may assume any value in the limit.
http://www.math.utah.edu/~pa/math/0to0.html

They explain how any positive number to the power 0 gets 1 in the following way.

N^0 = N^(m-m) = N^m/N^m = 1

Specifically, if N = 2 and m = 3,
2^0 = 2^(3-3) = 2^3/2^3 = 8/8 = 1

So, it can be claimed that 0^0 = 0^(0-0) = 0^0/0^0 =1, no matter what value 0^0 has, since both the denominator and the numerator must have the same value 0^0, namely 0 to power 0.

But if 0 to power 0 is considered indefiniteness, 0^0 and 0^0 can have different values.  The above tautology can be effective only if the value of 0^0 is constant.

In other approach, for example, 8 = 2+2+2+2 = 2^3, but 0 = 0, 0+0, 0+0+0, 0+0+0+0, etc.  Therefore 0 = 0^1, 0^2, 0^3, 0^4, etc.  Since 0 is indefiniteness, 0^0 must be also indefiniteness.

But we may think that 2^m means 1x2x2x2...x2.

If so, when m=3, 2^3 = 1x2x2x2 = 8.  In this scheme, 2^0 = 1; 3^0 = 1; and N^0 = 1.

Even, 0^3 = 1x0x0x0 = 0.  Then, 0^0 = 1.  

Anyway, the number zero is essentially indefinite, since 0 = 0-0, 0-0-0, etc.

In contrast, 8/2 = 4, since 8-2-2-2-2 = 0 definitely.

But 0/0 = indefinite; if 0-0 =0, then 0/0 = 1; if 0-0-0 = 0, then 0/0 = 2, and so on.

You can subtract 0 from 0 any times.

So, we may well think that it is one that is the basis of the number system.  With one, only zero has meaning arithmetically. Then we might have to think as follows:
0^3 = 1x0x0x0 = 0.  Then, 0^0 = 1.

Even 0/0 = 1x0/1x0 = 1/1 = 1.

Today's arithmetic system seems to have two different systems in it: one to regard 0 simply as indefiniteness and another to regard 0 as 1x0 since 1 is the basis.

***

So, zero seems to be closer to God than one.

Zero as a state of naught is different from zero as a number for arithmetic operation.

What we can understand easily is the zero as a number for arithmetic operation supported by one, the basis.


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Mar 2:19 And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

"and they shall prophesy" - Expected Disasters on Tokyo

Ginza Shopping Street, Tokyo

Expected Disasters on Tokyo

For 2020 the Tokyo Olympics is slated.

But there are some serious concerns about its safety.  Tokyo can suffer a local earthquake, probably of an M8 class, which might take on more than 20,000 lives and can be covered by inches of volcanic ashes if Mt. Fuji, 100 km west of Tokyo, should erupt.  Further Nankai Trough in the Pacific Ocean can cause a huge tsunami to Pacific coast lines where Tokyo is located.  This tsunami is estimated to take on more than 200,000 lives.

In addition, two nuclear power plants, now halted after the Fukushima Daiichi accident, are expected to restart their operation in a few years.  One, the Hamaoka Plant, is 200 km southwest of Tokyo and another, the Kashiwazaki-Kariya Plant, is 200 km north of Tokyo.  As the Fukushima Daiichi Plant is situated 200 km northeast of Tokyo, any accident in those two nuclear power plants can pose a threat as dangerous as one posed by Fukushima Daiichi.

So, Tokyo should give up the Olympics so that it can concentrate on making itself more resistant to any natural or man-made disasters.

Then, Turkey might host the 2020 Olympics as the first among Islamic nations.  Even Syrian Muslims in refugee camps would be glad.




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Act 2:18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
Act 2:19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:

"the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" - After a Snowing Day

Around Tokyo Bay after Snow Falling

After a Snowing Day

Two consecutive weekends in Japan experienced heavy snowing.

Even the water flowing in a big river toward Tokyo Bay showed a different surface feeling.


A Haiku Poem:

After a snowing day,
None feels a turn to spring,
But a silky river is flowing to the bay.




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Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

"with the sword of my mouth" - Japanese and Koreans in Real History

Shinkansen Trains around Tokyo

Japanese and Koreans in Real History

Most of Japanese are angry with the South Korean Government as it has virtually launched a diplomatic war against Japan.

South Koreans think their status in the US will be promoted higher as they are blaming Japan for matters in and before WWII.

Put simply Koreans could not modernize and Westernize their society between the late 19th century and the early 20th century, while Russians were trying to invade and occupy any part of the Far East.  Even China, or  Qing Dynasty, which was a suzerain state for the then Korean Kingdom, was powerless before modernized Russian troops.

Without military strength of the Empire of Japan in the Far East at the time, Russians could have colonized Manchuria, North China, and the Korean Peninsula.

So, to build a defense line against Russians, the Empire of Japan helped Koreans get independent from the Chinese rule and modernize its society.  But to the eyes of some Imperial politicians of Japan, Koreans were not effective or wise in this effort.  Though there were some strong objections inside the political community of the Empire, Tokyo decided to integrate Korea as part of the Japanese Empire which had already put Taiwan and some Pacific islands under its rule.

This annexation of Korea in 1910 was achieved through official diplomatic procedures between Tokyo and the Korean Government.  It was based on a treaty endorsed by politicians of both the countries.  And, no large-scale armed resistance occurred in Korea on this annexation.

Nonetheless, it is a big shame for Koreans.  They had once enjoyed rich culture, especially, in terms of Buddhism and Confucianism.  More than 1000 years ago, Japan welcomed Korean immigrants with some cultural skills.  They fled the war-torn Peninsula to the Japanese Archipelago to survive.  Japanese welcomed them and lived peacefully with immigrant Koreans.  Even today there are local places whose names are Korean origin since Korean immigrants settled various parts of Japan (especially a region west of Tokyo is notable in this context).
    
But as time went by, the Korean society came to become rigid society due to extreme influence of Confucianism.  As China was the homeland of Confucianism, Korea got subject to China religiously, culturally, and politically.  It was a situation not found in Japan.  Japan cut an official diplomatic tie with China in the 9th century, though cultural and commercial ties were maintained.  But Korea actually became a tributary of China.

So, when Western Powers, such as the UK, France, the US, and Russia, expanded their overseas activities to build more colonies in Asia in the late 19th century, three major countries in the Far East, namely Japan, China and Korea, were put in trial.  China was partly colonized.  Korea had no strength and means to prevent Western invasion, being destined to be colonized soon.  But Japanese carried out reformation of the state and society (called the Meiji Restoration), advancing to modernization and Westernization.  And Japanese could finally achieved their own version of the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century.  The gap of national power between Japan and Korea was ever increasing since then.  And finally, Japanese politicians decided to annex Korea to the Empire for efficient modernization of the Korean society.

(And the Empire of Japan invested more into Korea before WWII than it exploited Korea so as to make Korea a strong part of the Empire and also a reasonable market for Japanese industry.)

This is another face of the so called colonization of Korea by the Empire of Japan.  And it is very unfair for the US to neglect it when it shows any compassion to Korean people.

In fact, many old South Koreans who lived the era before WWII and after WWII admitted that the Japanese rule had some reasonable bases.  Without the Empire of Japan, South Korea today must be part of North Korea at best.        

So, South Koreans living in the US must not try to harm friendly relationship between Japan and the US by telling Americans a lie about special types of Korean women who served Imperial troops of Japan while Korean men opted to get money in exchange rather than to keep their women.

In May 1910, the Minister of War of Japan, Terauchi Masatake, was given a mission to finalize Japanese control over Korea after the previous treaties (the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1904 and theJapan–Korea Treaty of 1907) had made Korea a protectorate of Japan and had established Japanese hegemony over Korean domestic politics. On 22 August 1910, Japan effectivelyannexed Korea with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 signed by Lee Wan-yong, Prime Minister of Korea, and Terauchi Masatake, who became the first Japanese Governor-General of Korea. 

The treaty became effective the same day and was published one week later. The treaty stipulated:

Article 1: His Majesty the Emperor of Korea concedes completely and definitely his entire sovereignty over the whole Korean territory to His Majesty the Emperor of Japan.

Article 2: His Majesty the Emperor of Japan accepts the concession stated in the previous article and consents to the annexation of Korea to the Empire of Japan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_under_Japanese_rule#Japan.E2.80.93Korea_annexation_treaty.2C_1910

Anyway, it was an era when the US colonized the Philippines, the UK colonized Part of China, Malaysia, Burma, and India; France colonized Vietnam; and the Netherlands colonized Indonesia without expecting that.their rule in Asia would someday end, though it was ended with the Pearl Harbor Attack so successfully and bravely carried out by the Imperial Navy of Japan in 1941.

The State of Colonization in Asia before WWII


Refer to the following posting:
http://eereporter.blogspot.jp/2010/07/he-sighed-and-saith-unto-him-ephphatha.html



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Rev 2:16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.