Myths and Legends of Japan by F. Hadland Davis(part 2)
Hmm...is it unreasonable for me to be annoyed that the author insists on using "knight" instead of "samurai," and used "doughty knight" to describe Minamoto no Raiko(who he never bothered to identity beyond "Raiko," but i recognized the stories from Otogi Zoshi)? Despite their being distinctly european terms and thus having no place in a book about asian history and mythology, I doubt I'd be as annoyed if the author didn't freely use "sake" and "daimyo," or drop words like "koto" and "samisen" without context. You'd think that if they were using those freely, they'd go ahead and use "samurai" as well.
After all the gushing over Yoshitsune, the author kind of glossed over the rest of the Heroes and Warriors chapter, which was kind of disappointing, giving the stories straightup and without background or context, which Yoshitsune received. A large part of why it was disappointing was because the hero I was most interested in reading about was Minamoto no Raiko, and he was very glossed over and his retainers barely mentioned...only Watanabe no Tsuna was mentioned, and it was almost just in passing. Plus, Raiko was referred to as a "doughty knight."
On the other hand, there was handing out of more Special Swords, which is always a joyous event, and in My Lord Bag of Rice, the hero, Hidesato, after firing endless arrows at a giant centipede, remembered once he was down to his last arrow that HUMAN SALIVA HAS MAGICAL PROPERTIES and he stuck the arrowhead in his mouth before notching it, and the arrow struck andthe centipede fell down dead. It helped with the "doughty knight."
After all the gushing over Yoshitsune, the author kind of glossed over the rest of the Heroes and Warriors chapter, which was kind of disappointing, giving the stories straightup and without background or context, which Yoshitsune received. A large part of why it was disappointing was because the hero I was most interested in reading about was Minamoto no Raiko, and he was very glossed over and his retainers barely mentioned...only Watanabe no Tsuna was mentioned, and it was almost just in passing. Plus, Raiko was referred to as a "doughty knight."
On the other hand, there was handing out of more Special Swords, which is always a joyous event, and in My Lord Bag of Rice, the hero, Hidesato, after firing endless arrows at a giant centipede, remembered once he was down to his last arrow that HUMAN SALIVA HAS MAGICAL PROPERTIES and he stuck the arrowhead in his mouth before notching it, and the arrow struck andthe centipede fell down dead. It helped with the "doughty knight."