A Mathematician, a Different Kind of Mathematician, and a Statistician
There is an interesting story of social change during the Meiji Restoration of how Shinto was forced, by circumstance, to change. During the Meiji period, from 1868 to 1912, the fundamental relationship between the Japanese state and Shinto establishment changed. In fact, while Buddhism had long held a privileged place
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The Mongolian invasions of Japan marked an interesting turning point in the history of the Mongolian Empire. Kublai Khan, the great Mongolian general tried invading in 1274 CE. Kahn’s invasion force launched from the Korean peninsula and included Chinese, Korean, and other forces, previously subjugated by Kahn. Starting with 600
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I am taking a course on Japanese history for funsies so expect to see a fair bit of Japanese history popping up here over the next few months… The Jomon and Yayoi cultures predated modern Japanese culture on the Japanese islands. It is important to understand these are not proto-Japanese
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For those of us brought up in a traditional Western society, religion is well-defined. It is a core belief system that includes some sort of god or gods and some sort of moral code or direction. A key feature of these religions is that one cannot be a member of
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This is a really fun little narrow bit of amusement I got out of this, but it is worth sharing. I was watching a video from LangFocus about kanji. I really like the presenter, and this is a neat video: But never one to watch just one video when one
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An open question in history is why Japan was able to successfully modernize following Commodore Perry’s “opening of Japan.” In a recent discussion of this, I proposed that three reasons drove Japan’s success. First is the adoption of free-market economics. Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Emperor implemented market
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Like Buddhism, Jainism sprang from the fount of dharmic religions in India, more than two thousand years ago. Each stands apart from traditional Hinduism in that they reject the Vedas as written and find authoritative teachings in new writings and philosophies. Distinct from each other, the two philosophies developed rigorous
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