♫ Highway to Hell ♫'s definitions

Shimabara Rebellion

The Shimabara Rebellion was a peasant revolt (consisting of mostly Japanese Catholics) against Matsukura Katsuie of the Shimabara Domain and Terasawa Katataka of the Karatsu Domain.

Fought between December 17, 1637 and April 15, 1638, the Shimabara Rebellion lasted four months. It lead to a Tokugawa victory and Christianity in Japan was driven underground.

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ July 23, 2011

Shinto

A religion native to Japan, characterized by veneration of nature spirits and ancestors and by a lack of formal dogma. Shinto is actually from the Chinese word for Japanese religion, shen-dao, the Way of the Higher Gods. The Japanese term for traditional religion is kami-no-michi, the Way of the Kami. Kami are spirits, gods, sacred powers and so on. It is very animistic. All things derive from the power of the kami. Once, Japan was only inhabited by kami. As all things derive from the kami, so do human beings derive from the kami and may become kami upon death. This belief forms the traditional history of the origins of Japan and its people. In the beginning the kami were generated on the Plain of High Heaven. The most important were Izanagi and Izanami. Their creative power brought about the land of Japan and the people. Izanagi and Izanami descended to the Floating Bridge of Heaven and stirred the salt water to create an island to which they descended to give birth to the kami of the world. The universe is interpreted in terms of the power of the kami. The myths discuss 800 myriads of kami on the Plain of High Heaven, much less the kami of Earth, the Central Land of Reed Plains. The myths set the pattern for Japanese concerns for purity, the veneration of the sun kami, the festivals and rituals, and the traditions that provide the distinctive Japanese identity.

Izanami died after giving birth to Kaga-Tsuchi, the kami of fire and went to Yomi, the underworld. Izanagi tried to break in and bring her back. He was horrified at her appearance in death and repelled. Even more, she was angry that he had broken in to see her polluted by death and she pursued him to destroy him. Izanagi escaped and blocked the hole to the Underworld with a huge rock to prevent Izanami from being unleashed on the world. She threatened to bring death to all things. He responded that he would make sure that things were born faster than she could destroy them. He escaped but was now polluted by the experience and so washed in the ocean to purify himself and exorcise the evil. This set the pattern for purification rituals. Ritually unclean, Izanagi bathed in the ocean. When Izanagi washed his left eye, Amaterasu (the Heavenly Illuminating Kami, or Sun Kami) was born. In washing his right eye, Tsukiyomi (the Moon Kami) was born and in washing his nose Susanoo (Valiant Raging Male Kami, or Storm Kami) was born. Izanagi was pleased by these kami of sun, moon and storm. He placed Amaterasu to rule the Plain of High Heaven and gave her his sacred necklace. So she came to rule all the kami. Tsukiyomi was to rule the night and Susanoo the sea. Purification inside and out becomes important in Shinto and the model is Izanagi’s bath. Pollution comes from the darkness and the kami help take it back to the darkness.

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ July 15, 2010

Osiris

Osiris was king of the gods. His wife Isis was goddess of fertility and magic and their son Horus was the falcon-headed god of the sky. Osiris was sacrificed by his brother Set in a bid to usurp him. Set cut him into pieces and scattered them across Egypt. Isis and Horus found the pieces and restored Osiris to life. Horus remained to rule the Land of the Living and Osiris went to the Underworld to rule the Land of the Dead. The Pharaoh was an incarnation of Horus.

In his original form, a green-skinned man dressed in the raiment of a pharaoh. Following the Legend of Osiris, he appears as a green-skinned man in the form of a mummified pharaoh. He is often depicted wearing the atef crown with a pair of ram horns at its base.

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ August 4, 2010

Krishna

In Hinduism and Indian mythology Krishna is the eighth avatar or reincarnation of the god Vishnu. Also Krishna is one of the most popular Hindu gods. Tradition holds that Krishna saw Vishnu in a vision in which the former deity told Krishna to destroy Kamsa son of a demon, a tyrannical ruler of the world. Krishna's mother, Devaki, was Kamsa's half-sister. Kamsa already killed her first six sons because he had been told one of her sons would kill him. Krishna' brother, Devaki's seventh child, Balarama was miraculously saved by Vishnu. Krishna was also saved when exchanged by his parents for the daughter of a herdsman Nanda and his wife Yasoda (the daughter was also a divine being, an incarnation of Maya). With his foster parents Krishna spent a happy life playing boyish pranks and seducing the gopis (cow girls) and other rustic maidens. They found his flute playing irresistible. Legend has it he may have had 16,000 wives. But his favorite was Radha, daughter of his foster father, and his childhood lover, although they did not marry.

According to legend Krishna was not only divine, but heroic as well. He is alleged to have defeated numerous dragons and monsters, and eventually as predicted, killed his half-uncle the tyrannical king Kamsa. In the epic poem 'Mahabharata' he helps the Pandavas against the Kauravas, two families in contention. In the poem Krishna is depicted as divine. Also in the poem he delivers his celebrated oration 'Bhagavad-Gita' on duty and life to the troubled Hero Arjuna, for who he was a charioteer, on the eve of the decisive battle. This speech persuaded Arjuna that it was right to fight against his kinsmen. His "Song of the Adorable One" is one of the great philosophical poems. There are certain parallels between his birth and infancy and that of Christ's which tend to link these two important figures together. In art Krishna is usually portrayed as blue-skinned.

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ August 4, 2010

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion based on the teachings of Buddha. Buddha taught that 1) life permates around suffering, 2) humanity suffers because of their desires, 3) to overcome desires, one must obtain nirvana, and 4) to obtain nirvana, one must follow the eight-fold path (Right Views, Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration). These are known as the four noble truths. Buddha accepted the concepts of karma and samsara, but rejected the idea of the Brahman and atman. Buddha also taught different understandings of reality and psychology which was based on the idea of anicca; that reality is not permanent and predictable but rather transient and changing. Thus all things flow according to cause and effect. The idea that there is a self, or ego, is an illusion. Buddhism teaches anatman or anatta, No Self. Acting on this illusion of the Self leads to dissatisfaction in existence - Dukkha.

Buddhism teaches that karmic cause and effect leads to the generation of energy, a process called dependent co-arising. The workings of karma cause those energies to coalesce as five bundles of energy called skandhas. The skandhas are: Body (rupa), Perception (jamjna), Feelings (vedana), Inherent Impulses (karmic predispositions, samskaras), Consciousness/Reasoning (vijnana). These are always in flux and disperse at death. Karma causes them to reform as a new existence unless the chain of cause and effect is broken.

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ June 1, 2010

Dragonball

Bulma is a girl in search of the 7 mystical dragonballs that when brought together grant any wish. In her search she bumps into the owner of one of these balls, a strange boy named Goku. The two then set off together, Bulma in search of the dragonballs and Goku on a quest to become stronger. Along the way, they meet and befriend a plethora of martial artists. Goku also undergoes rigorous training regimes and educational programs in order to fight in the World Martial Arts Tournament, a competition involving the most powerful fighters- in the world. Outside the tournaments, Goku faces diverse villains such as Emperor Pilaf, the Red Ribbon Army, the demon Piccolo Daimao (King Piccolo) and his offspring Piccolo Jr., who eventually becomes Goku's ally.

Dragonball aired in the U.S. on Toonami in 2001. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1984 through 1995; later the 509 individual chapters were published into 42 tankobon volumes by Shueisha. Dragon Ball was inspired by the Chinese folk novel Journey to the West. There are 153 episodes.

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ August 25, 2010

Eta

A derogatory term used by the Japanese to refer to the Burakumin in the feudal era. Burakumin were a Japanese social minority group. The burakumin are one of the main minority groups in Japan, along with the Ainu of Hokkaido, the Ryukyuans of Okinawa and Japanese residents of Korean and Chinese descent. The burakumin are descendants of outcast communities of the feudal era, which mainly comprised those with occupations considered "tainted" with death or ritual impurity (such as executioners, undertakers, workers in slaughterhouses, butchers or tanners), and traditionally lived in their own secluded hamlets and ghettos.

"No, you will not be allowed to commit Seppuku. That's an honor. You have no honor and no self-discipline. You will be crucified like a common criminal today. Your swords will be broken and buried in the eta village. Your son will be buried in the eta village. Your head will be put on a spike for all the population to jeer at with a sign on it: 'This man was born samurai by mistake. His name has ceased to be!'“- Lord Toranaga from the novel Shogun by James Clavell.

by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ April 20, 2011