http://www.enpitu.ne.jp/usr3/bin/day?id=36502&pg=20051103
there are pics
reason #1,000 why fan blogs are amazing
please insert the page into
http://www.nifty.com/globalgate
she writes about the journey to Kondou's grave at Aizu and speculates
on the hardship Hijikata must have endured to arrive at the location
(recall he was injured at Utsunomiya) prior to arriving at Aizu.
She omitted posting the photo of Kondou's grave out of courtesy
the photo is here
http://www.shinsengumihq.com/photos2.htm
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http://www.shinsengumihq.com/shinsenresearch.htm
is done (as far as my own suggestions)
the issue is I didn't research the Shinsengumi in the most efficient
way possible because of the language barrier--and thus everything was
very haphazard
I also included the very very best public databases possible and even
walk throughs for using google.co.jp to navigate the huge Japanese
fansites and narrow down searches
People who have experience w/ library research please feel free to add
more suggestions by emailing me at secretarytocapt3(a)hotmail.com
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The Meiji Era Policeman
is ::stereotyped:: as always "SMILING"
think about RK Fujita Goro's grinning (^_^)
yes they had to be well mannered but...in literature right from that
time period...I found 3 instances of the term smiling for example:
"The smiling officer returned my umbrella" (paraphrased from Hani
Motoko's memoirs). I found mention of the smiling ONCE---now I'm
finding more examples---a disturbing pattern
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Epilogue (work in progress for Tokio page
http://www.shinsengumihq.com/TakagiTokioinfo.htm)
I recently viewed the film Twenty-Four Eyes
http://tinyurl.com/a74np
I didn't expect it to totally reflect upon Tokio's career/life!
The film dealt with a completely different generation of female
teachers we're talking late 20s to post WWII. The film by the way
clobbered an action movie called 7 SAMURAI in the box office.
Twenty-Four Eyes is an antiwar film expressed through the biography of
the teacher and her students.
In the film the heroine rides a bicycle out of necessity and wear's a
"man's suit".
The principal at the school is worried because she is "from the normal
school"** "serious about teaching" and "very smart"
**(likely prefectural normal school)
The heroine had to deal with people judging her based on exterior
symbols of "modernity" (just as during the Meiji E. students would
wear western clothing, interact with men and study English). The
heroine in fact made her suit from a kimono and rides a bicycle to
work to avoid taking a boat. The film is often deceptively simple.
She teaches folksongs (as opposed to JUST state songs) folk songs were
preserved and taught at Tokyo Women's Normal School (this has more to
do with Yamaguchi Yukiko--Goro's niece) during the 1880s. Folk tunes
were "converted" into western notes at the TWNS.
Futhermore the film captures the partnership between the only 2
careers available to women: nursing and teaching. One of the students
in the film has a sister who is nurse--she promises to support the
sibling if she can manage to test into the normal school. During
Tokio's time many graduates of the normal school also pursued nursing.
The incredibly hard life of female teachers.
I believe it was in Hani Motoko's narrative that she went to Aomori
and met a graduate of the Women's Normal School teaching in this
desolate area. Again, Tokio would've mentored young women who had to
move away very far away from home based on their appointments (this is
why choosing this career was viewed as an act of rebellion). This
TOTALLY WAS AGAINST cultural norms of the time where women moved in
with the family of their husbands---and moved wherever he went.
I had to smile when I realized how Tokio was involved with this
monumental progress. As a dorm mother her job was to mentor, educate
and restrain some young women from going "overboard" with all these
new ideas---but to even be part of this progress implied an
understanding and approval of the changes going on.