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Konnichi wa,
I am a 19 year old American citizen who has always had an interest in
the Samurai and 16th century Japan. It is not until within the last 2
years, however, that I have begun to really look into it. I am a rather
good writer and plan to use the late Sengoku period in one of the episodes
of a series my friends and I are going to begin writing. I wish to know
where I can get ALL of the info I need such as Historical data, Language
and systems of counting used by the people, as well as all of their
important customs. I've read "SHOGUN" by James Clavell, but besides the
obvious renaming of historical figures such as Will Adams (James
Blackthorne in the book) and Tokugawa Ieyasu (the character Yoshi
Toranaga) a few things were kind of inaccurate and even I picked up on it
with my limited knowledge. Things such as -san and -sama for polite
conversation and addression superiors instead of using -sama and -dono as
I understand they are the correct way of seperating politeness from
respect. Also they said "Domo" could be used instead of "Domo Arigato" by
men to say "Thanks". This was the first thing that caught my eye as a
problem since "Domo" means "Very much" it didn't make sense to me. Am I
mistaken?? I wish to know how much of the counting systems given were
correct as well (a Koku is the amount of rice needed to feed 1 man for 1
year, and days are divided into 12 sets of 2 hours each and named in order
of the Oriental Zodiac, etc.) Also the correct measurement of "Ri" is
important. The book said it was "1 mile" the glossary of the samurai
archives said it was "2.445 miles" I'm more inclined to believe the
Archive though. It being official and all. Is there any other advise as
to what I should incorporate into my book and places where I could accuire
this info. Any information that any of you could give me would be greatly
appreciated. My intention is to make this as Historically accurate as
humanly (or Americanly ::sigh::) possible.
P.S. By the way, any infant can speak better Japanese than me which is a
big problem so I have a question about a certain title. If I was to call
someone "Shogun of the Six Divine Virtues" would it be writen as "Roku
Shintoku no Shogun" or the other way around???
Domo Arigato,
Torakami Bloodfang
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