[PDF] Topsy Turvy 1585 eBook

Author : Robin D. Gill
Publisher : Paraverse Press
Page : 740 pages
File Size : 40,38 MB
Release : 2004
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0974261815

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In 1585, Luis Frois, a 53 year old Jesuit who spent all of his adult life in Japan listed 611(!) ways Europeans and Japanese were contrary (completely opposite) to one another. Robin D. Gill, a 53 year old writer who spent most of his adulthood in Japan, translates these topsy-turvy claims - we sniff the top of our melons to see if they are ripe / they sniff the bottom of theirs (10% of the book), examines their validity (20% of the book), and plays with them (70% of the book). Readers with the intellectual horsepower to enjoy ideas will be grateful for pages discussing things like the significance of black and white clothing or large eyes vs. small ones, while others with a ken to collect quirky facts will be delighted to find, say, that the women in Kyoto were known to urinate standing up, or Japanese horses had their stale gathered by long-handled ladles, etc., and serious students of history and comparative culture will gain a better understanding of the nature of radical difference (exotic, by definition) and its relationship with the farsighted policy of accommodation pioneered by Valignano in the Far East.

Author : Robin D. Gill
Publisher :
Page : 460 pages
File Size : 14,41 MB
Release : 2005
Category : History
ISBN : 9780974261836

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At 460 pages, this is the short version of Topsy-turvy 1585, a critical yet entertaining essay of the 611 ways Europeans and Japanese were considered contrary to one another, according to Luis Frois S.J. (1532-1597), a prolific letter writer who sent more information about Japan to Europe than anyone before or since. The book includes a full English translation of his treatise (Tratado em que se contem . . .), of the 611 topsy-turvy items, each only two-lines long (a distich)in the original, and hundreds of additional topsy-turvy items in the Foreword on the history of Topsy-turvy and within the much longer annotations by translator-critic robin d. gill. The Tratado was not an exercise in what we now call Orientalism, but precocious cultural relativism born in connection with the revolutionary new Jesuit policy of Accommodation. Note that Herodotus made dozens of black and white contrasts between Egypt and the Greco-Roman civilization he called "the rest of the world;" Alberuni (Il Biruni) did the same for India and the West (mostly what Occidentals now call the Middle East); but no one found hundreds as did Frois for Europe and Japan. Some of Frois's contrasts are almost expected: We paid to have night-soil removed; They paid for the night-soil. Some are a surprise: Our (European) women were far less free than Japanese women at that time. And some are just plain fun: We sniff melons on the top to see if they are ripe; Japanese do so on the bottom. (There is a reason for this, but you must buy the book to learn it). This is a book that is meant to educate and entertain. The author is known in Japan for writing books against stereotypes, explaining how differences between cultures and people are exaggerated. So, he is the perfect person to introduce the most radical book of difference ever written."

Author : Mouse Works
Publisher :
Page : 5 pages
File Size : 11,63 MB
Release : 1996
Category : Fairs
ISBN : 9781570822940

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Quasimodo leaves the bell tower for the first time to watch the celebration of Topsy Turvy Day, when everything is turned upside down, and ends up being crowned King of Fools.

Author : HardPress
Publisher : Hardpress Publishing
Page : 138 pages
File Size : 22,6 MB
Release : 2013-06
Category :
ISBN : 9781314547856

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Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.