The"Love and Death" group should answer TWO of the following questions.
The students in this group are: Danielle M, Kara C, Sydney W, Bekkah T, Madison G, Erica M, Heather B, Raven J, Jack A, and Mya C
THE STORIES: The Story of Aoyagi, Jiu-Roku-Zakura, The Dream of Akinosuke, Riki-Baka, Hi-Mawari, Horai
Q1: In "The Story of Aoyagi," Aoyagi's soul is tied to a tree that, once cut down, immediately takes her life. We see the same personification of the natural world (trees, flowers, snow) throughout this collection. Why might the Japanese be interested in stories where nature itself can come to life and impersonate people--and even be your own wife?
Q2: Why do so many of the stories in this book feature a priest, or have the main character shave his head and become a priest at the end of the story? What role do priests/monks seem to play in this culture (besides the obvious one) that makes them such an important theme in these stories?
Q3: One of the great lessons of Japanese (and many Buddhist societies) is of the transience of life--how brief and fragile it is. How do the stories suggest we deal with a world that begins and ends so quickly--and unexpectedly? Use at least one story to illustrate this.
Q4: In the last story, which is more of an essay, "Horai," the author remarks that in Japanese art, "[the] atmosphere is not of our human period: it is enormously old...It is not made of air at all, but of ghost--the substance of quintillions of generations of souls blended into one immense translucency" (116). What does he mean by this? How can art (old paintings, stories, etc.) be full of the air of "ghosts," and why is it difficult for us to breathe? How does this story, or others in the collection, help explain this?
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