Feliz Navidad! http://www.amazon.co.jp/Feliz-Navidad-Tatiana/dp/B00000161M/ref=pd_rhf_p_2
A Christmas Eve Story
(Une histoire à la veille de Noël)
Around 1615 in Japan, though its 100-year-long Civil War Age had been over 30 years before with the victory of Hideyoshi of the Toyotomi Family who had even tried to invade China through the Korean Peninsula (to punish a Chinese dynasty for their arrogance), the final civil war by samurais for the hegemony of Japan was fought between the Tokugawa clan coming down from Suruga (300 km east of Kyoto) and the Toyotomi family in Osaka (30km west of Kyoto) after the death of Civil- War-Age Hero Hideyoshi.
When Ieyasu won this war, where 300,000 Tokugawa samurai soldiers and 100,000 Toyotomi samurai soldiers were engaged in mortal battles, to seize the power all over Japan, he as a matter of course purged all the feudal lords who had joined the Toyotomi camp and fought confining themselves around the massive Osaka Castle during battles.
But, there were two exceptions. Two samurai feudal lords were exceptionally forgiven by Ieyasu, so that their clans could enjoy the title and position as well as prosperity under the Tokugawa samurai regime until 1868.
One samurai is Kazushige Aoki who had once served Ieyasu before he rendered homage to Hideyoshi. Ieyasu knew how brave and strong Aoki was so that Ieyasu engineered a plot to keep Aoki under restraint in Kyoto when Aoki visited Ieyasu in Suruga as an emissary from the Toyotomi Family. Eventually, Aoki could not join the battle in the Osaka Castle for the Toyotomis where tens of thousands of various sizes of matchlock guns were used (the largest harquebus-based war in the world).
After the war, Aoki was pardoned by Ieyasu who admired the past valor of Aoki and gave a fief or a territory in the north of the Yodogawa River of Osaka. The Aokis enjoyed prosperity under the Tokugawa samurai regime until 1868.
Another samurai is Nagatsugu Ito who actually fought until the end against the Tokugawa samurais around the Osaka Castle, but finally left for a mountain area after the fall of the Castle so as to commit a suicide with his own sword (called "seppuku" or "harakiri").
When Ito was waiting for an inspector of his seppuku, there came was a pardon issued by Ieyasu. Ito could secure his old fief and the position of a feudal lord. The Itos enjoyed prosperity under the Tokugawa samurai regime until 1868.
Taking into consideration the well-known severity of the samurai world 400 years ago, these two cases tell how much Ieyasu Tokugawa appreciated the valor of Kazushige Aoki and a certain merit of Nagatsugu Ito.
But, as for Ito, what merit did he have?
One theory is that Nagatsugu Ito was a samurai spy who had been working covertly for Ieyasu since another battle fiercely fought by the two camps in Sekigahara east of Kyoto 15 years before the decisive war in Osaka.
While joining the Toyotomi Family in the Osaka Castle, Nagatsugu Ito must have continued to provide critical information for the Tokugawa camp for 15 years, which led to the overwhelming victory of Ieyasu in Osaka, allowing him to set the foundation of the Tokugawa samurai regime, based in Edo (Tokyo), that lasted 250 years till 1868.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ieyasu
(http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%AA%E5%9F%8E%E5%85%AC%E5%9C%92)
( http://www.infonet.co.jp/ueyama/ip/episode/nagatsugu.html )
* * *
After the Magi or three Wise Men from the East confirmed that a Messiah was born among Israelites and returned to their home, did they just keep silent on the fact or forget about it?
My interpretation is that they sent a kind of agents or spies to Palestine after their return so as to monitor how the baby Jesus would grow up and act.
Probably, about 20 years after their return to home, Magi sent an agent to Israelites to witness how grown-up Jesus would act.
The name of the agent might have been Judas.
* * *
After the crucifix of Jesus, Roman Governor of Palestine Pontius Pilate experienced some mysterious incidents from a view point of today:
"In approximately 36, Pilate used arrests and executions to quash what appears to have been a Samaritan religious procession in arms that may have been interpreted as an uprising. [5] Pilate's behaviour was so offensive to the morals of the time that, after complaints to the Roman legate of Syria, Pilate was recalled to Rome, where he disappears from historic record. Pilate's supposed suicide [citation needed] is merely a legend, and not derived from any historical account."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontius_Pilate
According to description of Roman Emperor Tiberius Caesar Augustus in Wikipedia, "The Gospels record that during Tiberius' reign, Jesus of Nazareth preached and was executed under the authority of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. In the Bible, Tiberius is mentioned by name only once, in Luke 3:1, stating that John the Baptist entered on his public ministry in the fifteenth year of his reign. Many references to Caesar (or the emperor in some other translations), without further specification, actually refer to Tiberius."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius_Caesar_Augustus
Pontius Pilate might have, by mistake, killed somebody Roman Emperor or his direct subjects had sent as special agent to Palestine.
* * *
On February 22, 2007, I wrote in EEE Reporter:
"According to a recent astronomical study, a great eclipse of Jupiter by the new moon or the crescent occurred, in a manner that captured great attention of then astrologers, that is, on the horizon, on March 20 and April 17, 6 B.C.
(In 6 B.C., a Roman Governor in Syria is said to have held a census count.)
There is also a description that the parents of Child Jesus traveled due to a census count, and gave His birth in a not so cold environment.
Therefore, Jesus Christ might have been born in April 17, 6 B.C."
But, it also looks like an authentic thought that Jesus was born on the 360th day of the year and also in the 12th month of the year, since he had a duty to glorify Abraham and other ancestors, namely descendants of the Sumerian Civilization that had introduced the duodecimal calculation method, that is, based on the base number 12 or 60.
Then we have two Jesus' born on December 25, 7 B.C. and April 17, 6 B.C., respectively.
* * *
It is still a fantasy or a simple speculation, but we had better take note of the following theory:
(a) Judas might have been an agent sent by the Magi some 20 years after the birth of Jesus, since Judas' story was too drastic as an ordinary follower and betrayer.
(b) There might have been a special agent the Roman Emperor sent to Palestine almost for the same reason as the Magi did, since the Emperor had a certain reason to do so as the God chose the specific era with the specific Roman Emperor for His great plan.
(c) The Roman Governor might not have known existence of any of those two agents above described while he for himself was using a spy to monitor Jesus called King of Israelites by His followers.
(d) Eventually, the old Magi got a report that both Jesus and their agent died in a tragic manner each, while the Roman Emperor also got a report that both the so-called Israelite Messiah and his special agent died in a tragic manner each, probably on a cross on the same occasion outside Jerusalem.
(e) So, the Magi continued to help Israelites revolt against Romans in a different manner, while the Roman Emperor had his Governor take the blame.
* * *
In the era of the cold war in the 20th century, there are tens of thousands of spies and agents between the Soviet Union and the U.S.
So, in the era of the hot war in the first century, there must have been at least two agents or spies between ancient Persia and the Roman Empire, especially in strategically critical Palestine, since it was just one or two generations after the death of Cleopatra.
* * *
The emergence of Jesus Christ allowed for, among all, eventual avoidance of the all-out catastrophic war between the West and the East in the ancient world, in my interpretation respectfully being offered to my Lord.
But, the rigorous intelligence war must have been going on even in those days, which must have been reflected in the Gospel.
And, I think that this way of interpretation of the Gospel must be meaningful for us living today.
Indeed, still the war is going on in Iraq with a certain covert involvement of Iran.
Truly, armed conflicts are still going on in Palestine with a certain overt involvement of the U.S.
(Japan is the first country to celebrate the Christmas Eve on the earth among major countries, since it is situated at the end of the east.
Japanese must be also the first to present the new way of pious interpretation of the Bible.
And, I may be the first to extend the greeting of this season to you, since some of these days you will miss me honey.)
"Where, Death, is your victory?"
(Wo, Tod, ist dein Sieg?)