Because I can never remember the stuff about plants and animals I need
in order to parse sophisticated poetry allusions stuff in Japanese classical literature, which is because I suck.
So! I'm totally starting a list with pictures and stuff, but first:
比翼 HIYOKU
A type of mythical bird in Japanese and Chinese literature, each bird possessing only one eye, one wing and one leg, they have to always fly in pairs. Often used as a simile of a very strong love between man and woman, so says my dictionary, but I actually spotted it first in Ihara Saikaku's Nanshoku ookagami, vel The Great Mirror or Male Love, so nope, not really*.
Saikaku seemed very fond of the simile, too. I wonder why, hmm (actually, considering his taste for the grotesque~~).
I tried to find pictures, but unfortunately, I didn't have any. Google didn't deliver, either. I'm disappoint, Google :\
I wonder if I should write about zashiki warashi** next~~
(I'm going to Krakow on the weekend, away again <3. Hopefully, I won't come back completely sick this time though =_=)
* A more well-known metaphor for love, at least in the West, it seems, is the red string of fate. But hiyoku is so much cooler <3
** I MISS IWATE AND MIYAGI SO MUCH THERE ARE NO WORDS. THERE'S NO BETTER PLACE THAN SENDAI, AND NO PRETTIER CITY THAN MORIOKA T__T
So! I'm totally starting a list with pictures and stuff, but first:
比翼 HIYOKU
A type of mythical bird in Japanese and Chinese literature, each bird possessing only one eye, one wing and one leg, they have to always fly in pairs. Often used as a simile of a very strong love between man and woman, so says my dictionary, but I actually spotted it first in Ihara Saikaku's Nanshoku ookagami, vel The Great Mirror or Male Love, so nope, not really*.
Saikaku seemed very fond of the simile, too. I wonder why, hmm (actually, considering his taste for the grotesque~~).
I tried to find pictures, but unfortunately, I didn't have any. Google didn't deliver, either. I'm disappoint, Google :\
I wonder if I should write about zashiki warashi** next~~
(I'm going to Krakow on the weekend, away again <3. Hopefully, I won't come back completely sick this time though =_=)
* A more well-known metaphor for love, at least in the West, it seems, is the red string of fate. But hiyoku is so much cooler <3
** I MISS IWATE AND MIYAGI SO MUCH THERE ARE NO WORDS. THERE'S NO BETTER PLACE THAN SENDAI, AND NO PRETTIER CITY THAN MORIOKA T__T