Shin-Ōkubo Station
Shin-Ōkubo Station is a railway station on the Yamanote Line in Shinjuku, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company. Opened on November 15, 1914, it is close to the large local Korean ethnic neighborhood. Shin-Ōkubo Station has only one exit. Shin-Ōkubo Station is served by the circular Yamanote Line, with trains running every four minutes during the daytime off-peak, it is one of only two stations on the Yamanote Line that does not provide a direct connection to any other line, the other being Mejiro Station. The elevated station consists of a single island platform serving two tracks; the Yamanote Freight Line tracks used by Saikyō Line and Shōnan-Shinjuku Line services lie to the east of the Yamanote Line tracks. Platform edge doors are scheduled to be installed on the Yamanote Line platforms during fiscal 2013. Less than a kilometer north of the sprawling Shinjuku Station, Shin-Ōkubo Station is located 5 minutes' walk from Shinjuku's Kabukichō district, it is about a 3-minute walk from Ōkubo Station on the Chūō-Sōbu Line.
Near the station, Okubo-dori and surrounding side streets are lined with all kinds of small shops, most of them selling Korean food and pop-culture items. In the vicinity are Korean-themed bars and restaurants; the station opened on 15 November 1914. During the late 1940s, while Seibu Railway was planning the extension of the Seibu Shinjuku Line from Takadanobaba to Shinjuku, Seibu planned to open a station at Shin-Okubo. Among several plans considered, one option called for the existing JR station to be moved to the west and for Seibu to take over the existing station. Toyama Park, at that time under US occupation, was being considered as a location for a new freight yard, the rerouting of the Yamanote and Seibu lines was intended to accommodate freight traffic to and from the new yard. However, the freight yard plan was abandoned, the Seibu extension opened in 1952 with no stop at Shin-Okubo. In fiscal 2011, the station was used by an average of 42,433 passengers daily; the passenger figures for previous years are as shown below.
On 26 January 2001, a 47-year-old photographer from Yokohama and a 26-year-old Korean student died at the station when they were hit by a Yamanote Line train while trying to save a drunken Japanese man who had fallen off the platform onto the tracks and was killed in the accident. The Korean student's life story formed the basis for the film 26 Years Diary, released in 2007 in Japan and in 2008 in Korea. List of railway stations in Japan Transportation in Greater Tokyo JR East station information
Theatre of ancient Greece
The ancient Greek drama was a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece from 700 BC. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural and military power during this period, was its center, where it was institutionalised as part of a festival called the Dionysia, which honored the god Dionysus. Tragedy and the satyr play were the three dramatic genres to emerge there. Athens exported the festival to its numerous colonies; the word τραγῳδία, from which the word "tragedy" is derived, is a compound of two Greek words: τράγος or "goat" and ᾠδή meaning "song", from ἀείδειν, "to sing". This etymology indicates a link with the practices of the ancient Dionysian cults, it is impossible, however, to know with certainty how these fertility rituals became the basis for tragedy and comedy. The classical Greek valued the power of spoken word, it was their main method of communication and storytelling. Bahn and Bahn write, "To Greeks the spoken word was a living thing and infinitely preferable to the dead symbols of a written language."
Socrates himself believed that once something has been written down, it lost its ability for change and growth. For these reasons, among many others, oral storytelling flourished in Greece. Greek tragedy as we know it was created in Athens around the time of 532 BC, when Thespis was the earliest recorded actor. Being a winner of the first theatrical contest held in Athens, he was the exarchon, or leader, of the dithyrambs performed in and around Attica at the rural Dionysia. By Thespis' time, the dithyramb had evolved far away from its cult roots. Under the influence of heroic epic, Doric choral lyric and the innovations of the poet Arion, it had become a narrative, ballad-like genre; because of these, Thespis is called the "Father of Tragedy". Thus, Thespis's true contribution to drama is unclear at best, but his name has been given a longer life, in English, as a common term for performer — i.e. a "thespian." The dramatic performances were important to the Athenians – this is made clear by the creation of a tragedy competition and festival in the City Dionysia.
This was organized to foster loyalty among the tribes of Attica. The festival was created around 508 BC. While no drama texts exist from the sixth century BC, we do know the names of three competitors besides Thespis: Choerilus and Phrynichus; each is credited with different innovations in the field. Some is known about Phrynichus, he won his first competition between 511 BC and 508 BC. He produced tragedies on themes and subjects exploited in the golden age such as the Danaids, Phoenician Women and Alcestis, he was the first poet we know of to use a historical subject – his Fall of Miletus, produced in 493-2, chronicled the fate of the town of Miletus after it was conquered by the Persians. Herodotus reports that "the Athenians made clear their deep grief for the taking of Miletus in many ways, but in this: when Phrynichus wrote a play entitled "The Fall of Miletus" and produced it, the whole theatre fell to weeping, he is thought to be the first to use female characters. Until the Hellenistic period, all tragedies were unique pieces written in honour of Dionysus and played only once, so that today we have the pieces that were still remembered well enough to have been repeated when the repetition of old tragedies became fashionable.
After the Great Destruction of Athens by the Persian Empire in 480 BCE, the town and acropolis were rebuilt, theatre became formalized and an greater part of Athenian culture and civic pride. This century is regarded as the Golden Age of Greek drama; the centre-piece of the annual Dionysia, which took place once in winter and once in spring, was a competition between three tragic playwrights at the Theatre of Dionysus. Each submitted a satyr play. Beginning in a first competition in 486 BC each playwright submitted a comedy. Aristotle claimed that Aeschylus added the second actor, that Sophocles introduced the third; the Greek playwrights never used more than three actors based on what is known about Greek theatre. Tragedy and comedy were viewed as separate genres, no plays merged aspects of the two. Satyr plays dealt with the mythological subject matter of the tragedies, but in a purely comedic manner; the power of Athens declined following its defeat in the Peloponnesian War against the Spartans.
From that time on, the theatre started performing old tragedies again. Although its theatrical traditions seem to have lost their vitality, Greek theatre continued into the Hellenistic period. However, the primary Hellenistic theatrical form was not tragedy but'New Comedy', comic episodes about the lives of ordinary citizens; the only extant playwright from the period is Menander. One of New Comedy's most important contributions was its influence
Hamlet
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark shortened to Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1602. Set in Denmark, the play depicts Prince Hamlet and his revenge against his uncle, who has murdered Hamlet's father in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet's mother. Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play and is considered among the most powerful and influential works of world literature, with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others", it was one of Shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetime and still ranks among his most performed, topping the performance list of the Royal Shakespeare Company and its predecessors in Stratford-upon-Avon since 1879. It has inspired many other writers—from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Charles Dickens to James Joyce and Iris Murdoch—and has been described as "the world's most filmed story after Cinderella"; the story of Shakespeare's Hamlet was derived from the legend of Amleth, preserved by 13th-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum, as subsequently retold by the 16th-century scholar François de Belleforest.
Shakespeare may have drawn on an earlier Elizabethan play known today as the Ur-Hamlet, though some scholars believe Shakespeare wrote the Ur-Hamlet revising it to create the version of Hamlet we now have. He certainly wrote his version of the title role for his fellow actor, Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeare's time. In the 400 years since its inception, the role has been performed by numerous acclaimed actors in each successive century. Three different early versions of the play are extant: the First Quarto; each version includes entire scenes missing from the others. The play's structure and depth of characterisation have inspired much critical scrutiny. One such example is the centuries-old debate about Hamlet's hesitation to kill his uncle, which some see as a plot device to prolong the action but which others argue is a dramatisation of the complex philosophical and ethical issues that surround cold-blooded murder, calculated revenge, thwarted desire. More psychoanalytic critics have examined Hamlet's unconscious desires, while feminist critics have re-evaluated and attempted to rehabilitate the maligned characters of Ophelia and Gertrude.
The protagonist of Hamlet is Prince Hamlet of Denmark, son of the deceased King Hamlet, nephew of King Claudius, his father's brother and successor. Claudius hastily married King Hamlet's widow, Hamlet's mother, took the throne for himself. Denmark has a long-standing feud with neighbouring Norway, in which King Hamlet slew King Fortinbras of Norway in a battle some years ago. Although Denmark defeated Norway and the Norwegian throne fell to King Fortinbras's infirm brother, Denmark fears that an invasion led by the dead Norwegian king's son, Prince Fortinbras, is imminent. On a cold night on the ramparts of Elsinore, the Danish royal castle, the sentries Bernardo and Marcellus discuss a ghost resembling the late King Hamlet which they have seen, bring Prince Hamlet's friend Horatio as a witness. After the ghost appears again, the three vow to tell Prince Hamlet; as the court gathers the next day, while King Claudius and Queen Gertrude discuss affairs of state with their elderly adviser Polonius, Hamlet looks on glumly.
During the court, Claudius grants permission for Polonius's son Laertes to return to school in France and sends envoys to inform the King of Norway about Fortinbras. Claudius scolds Hamlet for continuing to grieve over his father and forbids him to return to his schooling in Wittenberg. After the court exits, Hamlet despairs of his mother's hasty remarriage. Learning of the ghost from Horatio, Hamlet resolves to see it himself; as Polonius's son Laertes prepares to depart for a visit to France, Polonius gives him contradictory advice that culminates in the ironic maxim "to thine own self be true." Polonius's daughter, admits her interest in Hamlet, but Laertes warns her against seeking the prince's attention, Polonius orders her to reject his advances. That night on the rampart, the ghost appears to Hamlet, telling the prince that he was murdered by Claudius and demanding that Hamlet avenge him. Hamlet agrees, the ghost vanishes; the prince confides to Horatio and the sentries that from now on he plans to "put an antic disposition on", or act as though he has gone mad, forces them to swear to keep his plans for revenge secret.
However, he remains uncertain of the ghost's reliability. Soon thereafter, Ophelia rushes to her father, telling him that Hamlet arrived at her door the prior night half-undressed and behaving erratically. Polonius resolves to inform Claudius and Gertrude; as he enters to do so, the king and queen finish welcoming Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two student acquaintances of Hamlet, to Elsinore. The royal couple has requested that the students investigate the cause of Hamlet's mood and behaviour. Additional news requires that Polonius wait to be heard: messengers from Norway inform Claudius that the King of Norway has rebuked Prince Fortinbras for attempting to re-fight his father's battles; the forces that Fortinbras had conscripted to march against Denmark will instead be sent against Poland, though they will pass through Danish territory to get there. Polonius tells Claudius and Gertrude his theory regarding Hamlet's behaviour and speaks to Hamlet in a hall of the castle to try to uncover more information.
Hamlet feigns madness but subtly insults Polonius all the while. When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive, Hamlet greets his "friends" warm
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south; the kanji that make up Japan's name mean "sun origin", it is called the "Land of the Rising Sun". Japan is a stratovolcanic archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands; the four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido and Shikoku, which make up about ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area and are referred to as home islands. The country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions, with Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one; the population of 127 million is the world's tenth largest. 90.7 % of people live in cities. About 13.8 million people live in the capital of Japan. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world with over 38 million people. Archaeological research indicates; the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD.
Influence from other regions China, followed by periods of isolation from Western Europe, has characterized Japan's history. From the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shōguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a long period of isolation in the early 17th century, ended in 1853 when a United States fleet pressured Japan to open to the West. After nearly two decades of internal conflict and insurrection, the Imperial Court regained its political power in 1868 through the help of several clans from Chōshū and Satsuma – and the Empire of Japan was established. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victories in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism; the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the Japanese surrender. Since adopting its revised constitution on May 3, 1947, during the occupation led by SCAP, the sovereign state of Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with an Emperor and an elected legislature called the National Diet.
Japan is a member of the ASEAN Plus mechanism, UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the G20, is considered a great power. Its economy is the world's third-largest by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by purchasing power parity, it is the world's fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer. Japan benefits from a skilled and educated workforce. Although it has renounced its right to declare war, Japan maintains a modern military with the world's eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a developed country with a high standard of living and Human Development Index, its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, but is experiencing issues due to an aging population and low birthrate. Japan is renowned for its historical and extensive cinema, influential music industry, video gaming, rich cuisine and its major contributions to science and modern technology; the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, pronounced Nihon or Nippon and means "the origin of the sun".
The character nichi means "sun" or "day". The compound therefore means "origin of the sun" and is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun"; the earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, the Old Book of Tang. At the end of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan requested that Nihon be used as the name of their country; this name may have its origin in a letter sent in 607 and recorded in the official history of the Sui dynasty. Prince Shōtoku, the Regent of Japan, sent a mission to China with a letter in which he called himself "the Emperor of the Land where the Sun rises"; the message said: "Here, I, the emperor of the country where the sun rises, send a letter to the emperor of the country where the sun sets. How are you". Prior to the adoption of Nihon, other terms such as Yamato and Wakoku were used; the term Wa is a homophone of Wo 倭, used by the Chinese as a designation for the Japanese as early as the third century Three Kingdoms period.
Another form of Wa, Wei in Chinese) was used for an early state in Japan called Nakoku during the Han dynasty. However, the Japanese disliked some connotation of Wa 倭, it was therefore replaced with the substitute character Wa, meaning "togetherness, harmony"; the English word Japan derives from the historical Chinese pronunciation of 日本. The Old Mandarin or early Wu Chinese pronunciation of Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. In modern Shanghainese, a Wu dialect, the pronunciation of characters 日本; the old Malay word for Japan, Japun or Japang, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect Fukienese or Ningpo – and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia in the 16th century. These Early Portuguese traders brought the word
Shamisen
The shamisen or samisen sangen, is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument sanxian. It is played with a plectrum called a bachi; the Japanese pronunciation is shamisen but sometimes jamisen when used as a suffix, according to regular sound change. It is samisen in several Edo-period sources; the construction of the shamisen varies depending on the genre in which it is used. The instrument used to accompany kabuki has a thin neck, facilitating the agile and virtuosic requirements of that genre; the one used to accompany puppet plays and folk songs has a longer and thicker neck instead, to match the more robust music of those genres. The shamisen is a plucked stringed instrument, its construction follows a model similar to that of a guitar or a banjo, with a neck and strings stretched across a resonating body. The neck of the shamisen is fretless and slimmer than that of a banjo; the body, called the dō, resembles a drum, having a hollow body, covered front and back with skin, in the manner of a banjo.
The skin used depends on the skill of the player. Traditionally skins were made using dog or cat skin but use of these skins fell out of favor starting around 2006 due to social stigma and the decline of workers skilled in preparing these particular skins. Contemporary shamisen skins are prepared with synthetic materials, such as plastic; the sao, or neck of the shamisen is divided into three or four pieces that fit and lock together. Indeed, most shamisen are made so that they can be disassembled and stowed to save space; the neck of the shamisen is a singular rod that crosses the drum-like body of the instrument protruding at the other side of the body and there acting as an anchor for the strings. The pegs used to wind the strings are long and hexagonal in shape, they were traditionally fashioned out of ivory, but as it has become a rare resource, they have been fashioned out of other materials, such as various kinds of wood and plastic. The three strings are traditionally made of silk, or, more nylon.
They are stretched between the pegs at the head of the instrument, a cloth tailpiece anchored at the end of the rod which protrudes on the other side of the body. The strings are stretched across the dō, raised from it by means of a bridge, or koma, which rests directly on the taut skin; the lowest string is purposefully laid lower at the nut of the instrument, so that it buzzes, creating a characteristic timbre known as sawari. The upper side of the dō is always protected by a cover known as a dō kake, players wear a little band of cloth on their left hand to facilitate sliding up and down the neck, known as a yubikake; the head of the instrument known as a tenjin may be protected by a cover. The material of the strings will depend on the skill of the player. Traditionally, silk strings are used. However, silk breaks over a short time, so this is reserved for professional performances. Students use nylon or'tetron' strings, which last longer than silk, are less expensive; the construction of the shamisen varies in shape and size, depending on the genre in which it is used.
The bachi used will be different according to genre, if it is used at all. Shamisen are classified according to genre. There are three basic sizes. Examples of shamisen genres include nagauta, min'yo, hauta, tokiwazu, kiyomoto and tsugaru. Hosozao The hosozao, as its Japanese name implies, is the smallest kind of shamisen; the body is small and square-shaped, with a thin neck, which tapers away from the strings just as it approaches the body. The hosozao is used in nagauta, the shorter and thinner neck facilitating the agile and virtuosic requirements of Kabuki. Hosozao shamisen built for nagauta ensembles are simply known as a "nagauta shamisen." The hosozao is often used in kouta, where it is plucked with the fingernails. Chuzao The chuzao is a size up from the hosozao; as its name implies, the neck is thicker. As the neck approaches the body of the instrument, the distance between the strings and the fingerboard is maintained, unlike the hosozao, where it tapers off; the fingerboard ends abruptly, the rest of the neck curves into the body of the instrument.
The pronounced curve that occurs just before the neck meets the body is called hatomune. The result is an extended fingerboard; the chuzao is favored with a broader, more mellow timbre. It is an "all-round" instrument that can be used across many genres. Futozao Finally, futozao are used in the robust music of gidayubushi, Joruri Min'yo, Tsugaru-jamisen. In these genres, a thicker neck facilitates the greater force used in playing the music of these styles; the futozao of Tsugaru-jamisen is quite a recent innovation, is purposefully constructed in a much larger size than traditional style shamisens, its neck is much longer and thicker than the traditional nagauta or jiuta shamisens. Variations in Bachi The bachi or plectrum used to play the shamisen differ in size and material from genre to genre; the bachi used for nagauta shamisen are made out of three possible materials, i.e. wood, plastic, or ivory. While m
Theatre of ancient Rome
Theatre of ancient Rome refers to the time period of theatrical practice and performance in Rome beginning in the 4th century B. C. following the state’s transition from Monarchy to Republic. Theatre of the era is separated into the genres of tragedy and comedy; some works by Plautus and Seneca the Younger survive to this day. Theatre would represent an important aspect of Roman society because it would come to function as the primary means through which the Roman people could express their political emotions during the republican and imperial periods of Rome. Rome was founded in 753 B. C. E as a monarchy under Etruscan rule, remained as such throughout the first two and a half centuries of its existence. Following the expulsion of Rome's last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, or "Tarquin the Proud," circa 509 B. C. E. Rome became a Republic, was henceforth led by a group of magistrates elected by the Roman people, it is believed that Roman theatre was born during the first two centuries of the Roman Republic, following the spread of Roman rule into a large area of the Italian peninsula, circa 364 B.
C. E. Following the devastation of widespread plague in 364 B. C. E, Roman citizens began including theatrical games as a supplement to the Lectisternium ceremonies being performed, in a stronger effort to pacify the gods. In the years following the establishment of these practices, actors began adapting these dances and games into performances by acting out texts set to music and simultaneous movement; as the era of the Roman Republic progressed, citizens began including professionally performed drama in the eclectic offerings of the ludi held throughout each year—the largest of these festivals being the Ludi Romani, held each September in honor of the Roman god Jupiter. It was as a part of the Ludi Romani in 240 B. C. E. that author and playwright Livius Adronicus became the first to produce translations of Greek plays to be performed on the Roman stage. The early drama that emerged was similar to the drama in Greece; this was due to extensive contact between the Romans and the Greeks, which allowed the Romans to develop an interest in a new form of expression.
Following the conclusion of the Third Macedonian War in 168 B. C. E; the Romans gained more access to Greek culture in the arts, allowing for the Romans to further develop a basis for drama in their own society. The development that occurred was first initiated by playwrights that were Greeks or half-Greeks living in Rome. While Greek literary tradition in drama influenced the Romans, the Romans chose to not adopt these traditions, instead the dominant local language of Latin was used; these Roman plays that were beginning to be performed were influenced by the Etruscan traditions regarding the importance of music and performance. The first important works of Roman literature were the tragedies and comedies written by Livius Andronicus beginning in 240 BC. Five years Gnaeus Naevius, a younger contemporary of Andronicus began to write drama, composing in both genres as well. No plays from either writer have survived. By the beginning of the 2nd century BC, drama had become established in Rome and a guild of writers had been formed.
No early Roman tragedy survives, though it was regarded in its day. One important aspect of tragedy that differed from other genres was the implementation of choruses that were included in the action on the stage during the performances of many tragedies. From the time of the empire, the work of two tragedians survives—one is an unknown author, while the other is the Stoic philosopher Seneca. Nine of Seneca's tragedies survive, all of. Seneca is well known for composing works which feature a heavy presence of horror. Seneca appears as a character in the tragedy Octavia, the only extant example of fabula praetexta, as a result, the play was mistakenly attributed as having been authored by Seneca himself. However, though historians have since confirmed that the play was not one of Seneca's works, the true author remains unknown. All Roman comedies that have survived can be categorized as fabula palliata and were written by two dramatists: Titus Maccius Plautus and Publius Terentius Afer. No fabula togata has survived.
In adapting Greek plays to be performed for Roman audiences, the Roman comic dramatists made several changes to the structure of the productions. Most notable is the removal of the prominent role of the chorus as a means of separating the action into distinct episodes. Additionally, musical accompaniment was added as a simultaneous supplement to the plays' dialogue; the action of all scenes took place in the streets outside the dwelling of the main characters, plot complications were a result of eavesdropping by a minor character. Plautus wrote between 205 and 184 B. C. and twenty of his comedies survive to present day. He was admired for his varied use of poetic meters; as a result of the growing popularity of Plautus' plays, as well as this new form of written comedy, scenic plays became a more prominent component in Roman festivals of the time, claiming their place in events which had only featured races, athletic competitions, gladiatorial battles. All six of the comedies that Terence composed between 166 and 160 BC have survived
This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies website http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/. — Japan
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