Comparing Rich Points

Comparing Rich Points Understanding Nipponese Langua tillage Research thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for graduation with Research Distinction in Nipponese in the part of East Asian Languages & Literature at The Ohio State University by Andrew Gaddis The Ohio State University March 2012 Project adviser Professor James M. Unger, Department of East Asian Language and Literature 1 1. Introduction In this thesis, I attempt to show the lingual and non- lingual conducts that atomic number 18 assemble prominently through turn up Nipponese society. This writing is divided into deuce major parts.The first is devoted to describing the bump of the non factual concept LEARNING IS A move around in the linguistic behavior of Japan. The sec describes how the same simileical concept is in addition found through appear the non-linguistic behavior of the Japanese culture. Based on Lakoff and Johnsons (1979) worldwide theory of meanspiriteding, this paper ex amines a particular illustrate of the carnal intimacyship amid Japanese culture and terminology in detail, namely the Sino-Japanese noun doo channel, commission ? and native noun miti. Lakoff and Johnson argue convincingly that metaphors atomic number 18 non just literary or poetic purposes of oral communication separate from ordinary language use.Metaphorical relations, in their view, atomic number 18 essential to how speakers of a language deal with meanings. unmatched of their place workouts is the locomote metaphor go outn in such incline curses as We arrived at a polish and I dont think our relationship is going anywhere. For Lakoff and Johnson, such sentences illustrate the metaphors stemmaS ARE excursionS and need intercourse IS A expedition. Sino-Japanese doo is frequently used as a suffix in nouns with meanings that connote a sacred panache of life or re familiariseation, or at least some method of self-cultivation. Since the character ? s customarily glossed miti, this native noun interc cohereeablely has that metaphorical connotation. This character was adopted from China by way of the Korean peninsula in 2 the 1st millennium CE (Frellesvig 2010), where it long had a strong metaphorical connotation (spiritual path or way) already in the kindics of the 1st millennium BCE, just to the highest degree notably the Daodejing of Laozi . Today, we see its widespread use in non-Daoist mise en scenes. I argue that these observations show that the underlying metaphor LEARNING IS A move is curiously robust in Japan language life (gengo seikatu . By comparing Japanese doo and miti road, path with incline move, we find mistakableities and divergences that provide be understood in condition of the concepts languaculture and deep establishs introduced by Michael Agar in his book Language Shock. As I leave alone discuss in detail in air division 4, Agar argues (1) that language use rout outnot be understoo d outside the pagan context in which it is used, and (2) that clamant differences in the way two languacultures talk somewhat the same or similar real-world incidents and levelts reveal how they argon structured.Human beings suck up much in common any everyplace the world, so similarities in languacultures be legion(predicate) and expected, at least for people living in similar ecological circumstances. Rich points stand out precisely because they authorize unexpectedly when one compares two languacultures. By comparing Japanese doo and miti with English journey in Lakoff and Johnsons adept, I propose to show that the journey metaphor is a locus of an signifi toilettet rich point found within the two languacultures. I turn to the topic of journeys in the second part of the paper (Section 5).Pilgrimages has long had play a signifi hatfult role in Japanese religious intrust. By the conviction of the Edo effect, a humankind was expected to cultivate achievements in medicine, poetry, the tea ceremony, music, the hold fast to drum, the noh dance, etiquette, the 3 appreciation of craft work, arithmetic, calculation, literary composition, reading and writing (Totman 1993,186). Once one has acquired considerable scientific discipline in the art of pursuit, they would often go on a pilgrimage to mulct much some the art and study the methods used in distant places. For this intellect, pilgrimages were an important education experience for the Japanese people.Here, I argue that the concept of LEARNING IS A JOURNEY exists even in the non-linguistic behavioral context. In the barricade of the section, I argue that LEARNING IS A JOURNEY is a common concept to both the linguistic do principal(prenominal) and the non-linguistic domain of Japanese languaculture. I attempt to prove that the commonality found in the two domains is not due to a cause-and-effect relationship, where one domain causes the other. Instead, I suggest that both of these be haviors have their origins from a common curry of historical circumstances, namely the meeting of Chinese culture, Buddhism and Daoism.I argue that the impact of Buddhism and Daoism on Japanese intellectual thought have played a bigger role in shaping this abstract metaphor that are prominently seen in both the linguistic and non-linguist domains of Japanese culture. 2. Theory of metaphor For most people, metaphorical musings are assumed to be extensions of ordinary language, that is, instances of language outside of conventional usage mean to represent or suggest non- literal error meaning. For this intellectual, metaphor is seen as extraordinarya device of the literary or poetic imagination. Opposing this view, 4Lakoff and Johnson argue that metaphor is pervasive in everyday language, thought, and action. To understand metaphor, one must(prenominal) first identify its source. Lakoff and Johnson claim that metaphor originates in prelinguistic thought, not in language per se . Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we relate to other people. Thus, our conceptual remains plays a central role in defining our notions of reality. Since we are not consciously aware of most of the actions we do everyday, distinguishing the different components of our conceptual outline is by no means straightforward.However, because communication is based on the same conceptual system that we use in thinking and acting, we can figure out just what that system is like through linguistic analyses. To give a concrete drill, Lakoff and Johnson start off with the concept ARGUMENT and the conceptual metaphor ARGUMENT IS WAR. The following is a list of sentences that they cite to illustrate this point ARGUMENT IS WAR Your claims are indefensible. He attacked every weak point in my business. His criticisms were serious on target. Ive never won an argument with him. You disagree? Okay, shoot (Lakoff & Johnson 1979, 4) 5Notice that these s entences are not just openly rough war that the actions mentioned in the sentences only beat instinct in relation to the concept of war. Since argument is an attempt to persuade soulfulness of something or to accept a particular conclusion, we can conceive of arguments as something to win or lose. We fend for our position and strategize a way to attack our opponents claims. Though a physical employment does not urinate place, a verbal one does, and umpteen of the actions we perform in an argument weigh this. This instance well illustrates how metaphor pervades not just language but thought and action as well.The full significance of this theory does not come into sight when smellinging at a single language and its ambient culture. Try to imagine a culture where arguments are not viewed in terms or war, where no one wins or loses, or where there is no sense of attacking or defending. Imagine a culture where admit confrontation is shunned, where people are extremely cau tious not to disprove the opinions of others, where the participants social statuses determine the amount of force that leave behind be considered as appropriate in the conversation, and go-betweens are used to solve most conflicts.In such a culture, people would, according to Lakoff and Johnson, view, experience, perform, and talk around the arguments differently. But the people of our culture might not see them as arguing at all, because what they are doing does not fit our metaphorical understanding of what constitutes arguing. This is how a metaphorical concept structures what we do and how we experience it. It is not that arguments are a subspecies of war in any metaphysical sense. It is rather there is a type of conversation that, in English-speaking culture, is 6 viewed, experienced, performed, and talked about in terms of war.The concept is metaphorically structured, the activity is metaphorically structured, and, consequently, the language is metaphorically structured. Al though metaphor plays a central role in structuring language, there is nevertheless an extensive range of concepts that are not comprehended with the use of metaphor, which often is referred to literal language. For example, the sentence The apple fell on rawtons head can be deployed in a completely literal way. It could be an example sentence in an academic paper on generative syntax, or a sentence in a childs book explaining a picture.But in our language, one is more possible to encounter this sentence in a context in which it is freighted with metaphorical meaning. It is typically deployed in contexts where the speaker wants to let the tender endure that s/he sees a germane(predicate) comparison between something they have either observed or cognize about and beliefs they share about the invention and discovery. The sentence may be used in a humorous or dry way (making fun of someone suddenly realizing something), or a dramatic, serious way (praising someone with a proverb ial reference).By comparing our abstractions (ideas, emotions, etc. ) to what can be physically experienced, we can get a hold on them in take a leaker terms. The JOURNEY metaphor is ordinarily used in legion(predicate) languages. In English, we have many expressions where the concept of bed is often described as that of a journey, which will be referred to as LOVE IS A JOURNEY metaphor. For example, take a look at the following common expressions 7 Look how far weve come. Were at a crossroads. Well just have to go our separate ways. We cant turn back now. I dont think this relationship is going anywhere.Where are we? Were stuck. Its been a long, bumpy road. This relationship is a dead-end track. Were just gyrate our wheels. Weve gotten off the track. (Lakoff & Johnson 1979, 44) In every case, love is understood in terms of a journey. It is clear that the lovers are the travellers, and the relationship is the vehicle. The purpose of the journey is for the travelers to reach a destination, more precisely, for the lovers to accomplish their refinements of common interest. What the dead-end street and spinning wheels are alluding to are the difficulties in reaching that destination.The purpose of these expressions is to encourage the listener to draw an inference. crawfish the expression Where are we? for example. Outside of the love metaphor context, it is a simple question. The metaphorical context invites the listener to reflect on how things came to be the way they are, how they might have turned out differently, and what could be do now to 8 change them. By accepting the scenario of making a journey toward the consummation of love, we can comprehend the analogy used to reason the human relationship of love.To end the section on a similar note, it is sometimes said that English secondlanguage prentices have trouble with expressions like Were at a crossroads or its been a long, bumpy road. The likely reason for this is because the difficult part of getting language proficiency does not so much lie in the process of mastering the wording or grammar of a language, but mastering the metaphors typically used in the language. This is especially the case since dictionaries take only limited account of the metaphorical meaning of linguistic process and formulates.The problem is that ways of talking about the experience of love in English language are metaphorically absent in the scholarly persons language and culture. 1 in that locationfore, instruction to recognize the metaphorical relations in language is key not only to understanding the way the speakers of the language conceptualize the world but also to getting language proficiency. The concept is metaphorically structured, the activity is metaphorically structured, and, consequently, the language is metaphorically structured. 3. doo and miti? Much like in the English language, the JOURNEY metaphor is a frequently used concept in the Japanese language.Take a look at t he following examples of the LOVE 1 An idiom is a word or develop that is morphologically or syntactically irregular with respect to the language in which it occurs. Native speakers often have it away an expression is idiomatic when asked. Metaphors, on the other hand, often occur below the level of consciousness. 9 IS A JOURNEY metaphor in Japanese (1) a. koi no katamiti kippu love GEN one-way just the ticket One-way ticket to love b. koizi no yami loves pathway GEN darkness Love is blind c. miti naranu koi path will not love Illicit love affair d. huuhu no miti husband and wife GEN path marital values Again, in every case love is understood in terms of a journey. It is clear that the lovers are the travelers, and the relationship is the vehicle. It is noteworthy to mention, that the relationship can take various(a) forms of a vehicle in the journey. Notice that there 10 is no single consistent vehicle that the journey metaphors all use. In example (1a) the vehicle of the relationship is some fashion of public tran variance. Consider a situation when this expression is used.Given that this expression about a relationship is understood in terms of travel, the kind of reasoning evoked should generally reflect a situation where the lovers (travelers) are in a quickly progressing relationship (vehicle) to their goal of common interest (destination). The one-way ticket most likely implies that returning back to the start of the journey is not considered for the travellers, and that they are fast approaching their destination as if they were traveling by some mode of public transport. The rest of the examples, unlike (1a), do not specify the means of transportation for the travelers.For examples (1b) and (1c), this is because the purpose of the expression is to describe the impediments the travelers encounter in pursuing the destination. The literal translation of the two would be darkness of loves pathway, and path that will not lead to the destination o f love. What the darkness and mis hightail itd path are alluding to is the difficulties in reaching the destination, both of which implies that a change of action needs to be taken to successfully reach the destination. (1d) literally translates the path of the married yoke. This expression represents the ideal path a married couple should take. Take a look at the following for examples of the LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor, which is also commonly found in both languages. (2) 11 a. zinsei yama ari tani ari life mountain exists valley exists Life has its ups and down b. ikiru miti die stern (vb) road The road of life c. senri no miti mo ippo kara thousand-mile GEN road FOC one-step ABL A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step Notice that the literal translation of these expressions in Japanese and English are highly idiomatic.This is why a word for word rendering of the expressions would seem unnatural. In example (2a), the lexical items yama mountain and tani vall ey are translated ups and downs. Knowing that this expression represents life as a enlighten of journey with obstacles to overcome, we can conjecture the logic behind this expression without much effort. A traveler would now and then encounter times of relative ease and difficulty throughout the journey. While walk of life up a mountain is a laborious task, walking down the mountain into the valley requires considerably less effort.What the metaphor suggests is that the experience of life is much like that. There are times of ups and downs, good and bad, easy and hard etc. Nevertheless, if the expression were to remain in its literal translation, life has its 12 mountains and valleys, it would not be too difficult for the English speaker to comprehend the message being communicated. Since LIFE IS A JOURNEY is a commonly used metaphor in the English language as well, the enormous amount of knowledge that is not explicitly provided will be understood from the knowledge of how life is understood in relation to a journey.It is not that the languages do not have expressions that are equivalent in meaning, but it is more that the lexical items used to construct a metaphorical expression in one language do not match the lexical items in the other. Therefore, even if the expression is uncommon to the hearer, given that it is a commonly used metaphor in the languages, an intelligent guess can be made to make sense of it all. The following is an example of the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY metaphor (3) gakumon ni oodoo nasi scholarship DAT royal-road non-existent There is no regal Road to learningBased on the meaning of this expression described in the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, the phrase is a translation of the proverbial expression There is no violet Road to learning. This phrase is legendarily attributed to Euclid, who is said to have used it in reply to a kings communicate for an easier way to learn geometry. A Persian Royal Road actually existed it was a 1677-mile lon g passage stretching, in modern terms, from the center of Iran to northern Turkey. To get from the starting point to the end of the highway 13 is believed to have taken over 90 days on foot, but only a calendar week by horse (Herodotus 1889, 213).By metaphorizing the process of learning geometry as a lengthy journey, the claim that a Royal Road did not exist not only signified that there was no shortcut but also that even a king could not make one, as the Persian kings had made the Royal Road. It is interesting to note that despite long survival and overuse, the metaphor retains an appeal for speakers of many languages and is however used. counterbalance Sigmund Freud famously described dreams as Royal Road to the unconscious in The Interpretation of Dreams, 1889 1998. In the context of Japanese culture, however, there are many expressions where learning is understood in terms of a journey.The reason for this is because the metaphor LEARNING IS A JOURNEY is a more salient featur e in the Japanese language. The following are commonly used expressions of the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY metaphor in Japanese (4) a. manabi no miti o aruku learning GEN road ACC walk (vb) Walk the way of learning b. manabi no miti-annai learning GEN guidepost A guidepost of learning 14 c. manabi no sen-ri no miti learning GEN thousand-ri GEN road The thousand-ri way of learning d. manabi no miti ni wa owari wa nai learning GEN the way LOC glide by end TOP non-existent There is no end in the way of learning The examples in (4) shows that a metaphorical noun phrase ? path modified by learning can be used in the various expressions. In every case, learning is understood in terms of a journey, and it is clear that the learner is a traveler in pursuit of knowledge. The purpose of the journey is for the traveler to reach a desired destination, more specifically, acquiring knowledge. In these examples, learning relates to journey in the sense that the traveler will leave his or her know n environment and venture into an unknown place where new discoveries will be made.In example (4a) the traveler is selfpropelled. That is to say, the travelers volition is the vehicle. The expression is probably used in situations where the person using the phrase is still in the progress of acquiring knowledge. Example (4b) illustrates a situation where the learner (traveler) makes use of available resources to better(p) the impediments of reaching the destination (acquiring knowledge). For instance, a traveler will often make use of guideposts as a guide for reaching the desired destination. Similarly, the learner will often rely on teachers, books, 15 r the like to guide them to acquiring knowledge. (4c) illustrates a situation where acquiring knowledge is an arduous task, and it compares this difficulty of attaining knowledge to long distance travel. (4d) is a common expression saying that there is no end to learning. Again, we know that all of these expressions are metaphor ical because none of them would make sense literally. More examples are provided in (5) (5) a. zyoodoo accommodate road (the way) completing the path of becoming a Buddha b. zyuudoo gentleness road (the way) judo c, aiki syuutoku e no miti aiki scholarship -to GEN road (the way) The way to aikido acquisition According to the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, zyoodoo is Buddhist terminology that refers to either the moment a Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha after completing certain 16 radiation diagrams and attains enlightenment, or the time Shakyamuni became enlightened sitting under the Bo tree. This Sino-Japanese term in its literal sense originally meant to attain the way. Zyoodoo is metaphorical inasmuch as it referred in the first instance to the historical Buddha but could then refer to someone else becoming a Buddha this was no doubt borrowed from a preexisting metaphor use in Chinese.In the case of judo, as shown in (5b), we know that this is in fact a native Japanese noun coined in t he Meiji period by the scholar Kano Jigoro (Watson 2008, xv). Before this coinage, this style of chip was referred to as zyuzyutsu. Which makes sense since martial arts terminology prior to the Meiji period generally used the suffix ? zyutu art, means, technique instead of the suffix ? doo. Zyuzyutsu was a brutal method of open handed combat that Kano matte up was too violent for the modern age. Thus, in the interest of safety and practicality, he turned it into a sport under the name judo.The new institution Kodokan that he opened in Tokyo was, in his eyes, a place where one is guided along a road to follow in life (Watson 2008, xvi). It must be the case that he utilize the suffix doo due to the fact that the metaphorical connotations it carried was appropriate for his philosophy2. The example in (5c) is a title of a book written by Kimura Tatsuo, a mathematics professor at the University of Tsukuba and an aikido enthusiast, about the art of aikido. Syuutoku e no miti generally means the road to acquiring. This phrase is often used to modify the nominal it follows.Thus, aiki syuutoku e no miti in its metaphorical sense means the road to gaining knowledge about aikido. 2 Many other traditional arts and martial arts employed the suffix doo (e. g. kendoo kendo, kyuudoo archery, sadoo tea ceremony, way of tea). 17 The reason for the many LEARNING IS A JOURNEY expressions arising in the Japanese language is attributed to an earlier influence from the Chinese classic Daodejing of Laozi. The Chinese word dao (road, way ? ) has long had strong metaphorical connotation of spiritual path or way. When the oanword and character were adopted in Japanese in the 1st millennium CE, along with them came the connotation. As stated earlier, learning is understood in part by the journey metaphor. Since this thought is crucial to the formation of the meaning, we see an abundance of words whose meanings are shaped by this metaphor. Take the native Japanese verb mitibiku to guide to lead to show the way, for example. It is a chemical compound word of ? miti and hiku to lead, pull. This word has departed from the literal meaning based on the meaning of components miti and hiku.We can see this from the following excerpt written by the Japanese poet, Yamanoue no Okura in the Manyoshu (6) moromoro no oomikami-tati hunanohe ni mitibiki moosi various NOM god PLUR prow LOC guide request Various gods, I request you to guide this ship by its prow The literal meaning based on the components of the word cannot be applied here however, the metaphorical extension of the meaning can be applied. According to the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, the word has come to mean guide at least since the 8th 18 century, as we can tell from its use in the excerpt.The definition provided here is not the literal meaning, but the metaphorical. The fact that a metaphorical extension has been added to the literal meaning of the word, illustrates how a new metaphorical connotation may be incorporated into the original literal meaning of a word. In the case of , what probably happened was that the literal meaning it was originally associated with was bleached out over time, and took on the metaphorical meaning as its dominant meaning. Through these examples, we have seen that the journey metaphor has a significant role in the Japanese language. Since the expressions provided n this section are highly idiomatic, in most cases, a word for word rendering of the expressions may not intuitively make sense for the non-native speakers of Japanese. However, that does not take away the fact that the expressions in question surfaces from the same underlying metaphor. There are cases where both languages have an expression that serves the same purpose but the lexical matching is not kinda the same, and there are cases where lexical matchings will be nearly exact. On the other hand, we have also seen how it is possible for a metaphor to be more salient in one language than in the other.These examples illustrate just how a metaphor common to both languages can manifest itself differently. 4. Languacultures and Rich Points To better understand the similarities and differences of the journey metaphor used in the English and Japanese language, I would like to present the concepts 19 languaculture and rich points introduced by Michael Agar in his book Language Shock. Languaculture refers to the notion that a system of conventionalized symbols, sounds, gestures, or the like used by a particular community for communication cannot be understood without also knowing the conventional behaviors and beliefs of that community.Therefore, he argues, it is necessary to tie the concept of language and culture together whenever talking about language (Agar 1994, 60). Rich point refers to a moment when a person is at a languacultural interface and encounters a difference in the ways of communicating from his or her cultural assumptions3. Let us look at the study of junkie s by Agar to illustrate this example of rich points. Junkie is a term often used to refer to heroine addicts. During his two-year service in the U. S. popular Health Service, Agar worked to admirer treat heroin addicts.As a linguist, he started on a battle array of terms used by the addicts. What he found peculiar about the collection of terms was that even though they spoke the same language as he did, they made use of certain words that was unique to the junkies. For example, the process of frittering heroin would be described in different terms by junkies, as opposed to people with background in the medical field. The premedical student will most likely begin describing the process like the following, Well, you first take this hypodermic syringe, and then while the junkie will say, First, you take the works, and then According to Agar, the heroin users he met during his service used what is referred to as the works to inject heroin an assembly of the top of a baby pacifie r fastened onto an eyedropper with a needle slipped over its narrow end and a gasket of thread or paper to hold it tight. For this reason, the term works is 3 The term languaculture refers to the notion that the use of language differs with respect to its culture. Therefore, differences in language use also occur within a language by various other subcultures. 0 generally used in their culture to refer to the instrument used for injecting heroin. Now, suppose a context where two junkies are walking up the stairs in a building. Here is what they say (7) Say man, you got your works with you? Yeah, theyre right here in my pocket. Dont worry about it. (Agar 1994, 90) After learning what the term works refers to, an ordinary person may infer that this is a situation where a junkie inquires some other to make sure he has the necessary equipment for getting intoxicated. However, that was not the reason for their exchange.Instead, they were concerned about the possibility of an pronounc ement being in the proximity. Since the possession of this instrument justifies arrest, the junkies were concerned because they were confined in an enfold space an enclosed space does not have much room to run or get rid of the evidence. The reason for the exchange quoted above is that one junkie is worried about the possibility of an authority being in the proximity, and the other reassured that he could get rid of the instrument quickly if an authoritative figure were to appear, since they are right in his pocket.This physique of encounter that arises from ones languacultural assumptions is what Agar refers to rich points. Human beings have much in common all over the world, so similarities in languacultures are numerous and expected, at least for people living in similar ecological circumstances. However, occasionally an unexpected use of language will arise which reflects a difference between the underlying conceptual systems between the two languacultures. These glary differ ences found in the 21 way two languacultures talk about the same or similar real-world facts and events reveal how they are structured.Having established these points, we can now see the similarities and differences that can be understood in terms of languaculture and rich point. As we have seen, the journey metaphor in Japanese languaculture is similar in many respects to that of the English languaculture. A person of the English languaculture can apply many similar uses of the journey metaphor used in his language to convey messages in Japanese. However, once we took a look at the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY metaphor, we noticed that there is some underlying difference between the two systems of languacultures.This rich point shows that the journey metaphor used in the Japanese languaculture is not invariably congruent to its uses in the English languaculture, more precisely that the conceptual metaphor LEARNING IS A JOURNEY is a much more salient feature of the Japanese languaculture. The reason why this rich point stands out to the English speaking community is precisely because we place a higher emphasis on knowledge as an entity that can be acquired. Take for example common English expressions like I was hunting for the facts, I had to track that down, he won his degree at Oxford. The emphasis for these examples is that knowledge is something to be collected, whereas in Japanese, they place a stronger emphasis on knowledge as something that is to be transmitted to the learner through the process of engaging in the act, as we have seen in the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY examples. 22 5. Pilgrimages in Japan Now that we have made this point that the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY metaphor is a more prominent feature of Japanese languaculture than English languaculture, let us see how it relates to observations we make about English and Japanese behavioral culture.For one, pilgrimages are loaded with rich points. As we can tell from such classical literary works like Heike mono gatari and Sarashina nikki, pilgrimages have been an important religious practice for the Japanese people from at least the Heian period. Although it was originally an aristocratic practice, all classes of people were allowed to go on pilgrimages by the time of the Edo period (Vaporis 2008, 165). Due to the development of a national infrastructure provided with lodging, towns, and horses, this period of peace allowed for the masses to travel comfortably in search of spiritual fulfillment.The commoners were permitted to travel by the authorities as long as they were going on a pilgrimage or had familial purposes. Among the many temples and enshrines in Japan, the amount of people making pilgrimages to the Ise shrine increased rapidly. The Ise shrine is a Shintoistic shrine dedicated to the goddess Amaterasu in the city of Ise in Mie prefecture. Since ancient times, the festivals and offerings of the Ise shrine has been scheduled based on the bout of agriculture. People would go t o Ise to give thanks to the kami and pray for a plentiful harvest. ()The desire to make a pilgrimage to Ise Shrine, at least once in ones life was universal among Japanese people of the day. The people who have had the opportunity to undertake the pilgrimage would share the things that they had seen and heard on the 23 journey. These travelers tales godlike others to undertake the journey, in a cycle that perpetuated the legendary status of the Ise pilgrimage as something that everyone should do at least once in their lives. The Edo period is often referred to as a time of peace and stability in Japan, and as such the people had the means and leisure time to practise their aesthetic enjoyment.To explain, Tokugawa ideology grouped higher cultural attainments into two categories, bu and bun, military and literary arts. A gentleman of the time were expected to show interest in bun, more so than bu. Bun embraced reading and writing, Chinese thought, poetry, history and literature, noh dance and drama, tea ceremony, and other customary arts (Totman 1993, 186). Once one has acquired considerable skill in the art of pursuit, they would often go on a pilgrimage to learn more about the art and methods used in distant places. Thus, pilgrimages were an important learning experience for the Japanese people.Take the renowned haiku poet Matsuo Basho for example. In his travel diary Oku no hoso miti (Keene 1996), Basho journeys on foot to see the sites that had inspired famous poets before him. He knew the location of the places the poems described, and it was important for him to get a direct experience with the inspiration the poets must have matt-up when composing their poem. Bashos descriptions of the places he visited, many of which were at shrines and temples, were significant not just because the sites were awe-inspiring, but because of the legends and poems associated with the locations.Like the poems that inspired Basho to take on the journey, his own work have in turn inspired others to travel and learn about the places he talk about from a first hand experience. 24 Sangaku pilgrimages are another example. Sangaku are geometrical puzzles written on wooden tablets, which were placed as offerings at Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. In Japan, it is fairly natural to hang wooden tablets at shrines and temples for centuries before sangaku came into existence, worshippers would bring gifts like the sort to local shrines. The kami, it was said, loved horses, but horses were expensive.So a worshipper who could not afford to offer a living one, offered a horse drawn on a piece wood instead. In fact, many tablets from the ordinal century and earlier depict horses (Fukagawa & Rothman 2008, 8). However, there was also a practical purpose in abatement the tablets. Ordinary people at the time could not afford to publish books with their novel mathematical problems. Therefore, as an alternative solution to gain recognition, they took up the ancient custom of bringing votive tablets to temples and began to hang sangaku to herald their work (Fukagawa & Rothman 2008, 21).Just like the poets who would travel for the sake of knowledge and experience, a number of geometers including Hodoji window glass, and Sakuma Yoken took sangaku pilgrimages to teach mathematics, encourage amateurs and lovers of geometry, and to hang and see previously hung sangaku in temples around the country. Among these itinerants was Yamaguchi Kanzan, a mathematician from the school of Hasegawa Hiroshi. In his journeys, he recorded a substantial travel diary that describes the sights, meetings with friends and other mathematicians, and the sangaku, problems he came across.With many distant mathematicians, he has discussed new skillful methods of solving mathematical problems. If you buy this book, he claimed, then you will be able to know and agree without traveling the new technical 25 methods of solving problems of far-away mathematicians (Fukagawa & R othman 2008, 244). () Pilgrimages were an important method of self-cultivation for people from all walks for life, with interests ranging from martial arts to moral philosophy. There are many reasons for the rise in popularity of pilgrimages, but it is probably the case that the roots of this trend come from Zen Buddhism.The history of Zen begins in Japan with the samurai class of Kamakura. Zen Buddhism had little chance of becoming popular in Heian period Kyoto due to the strong opposite word of the older schools of Buddhism. Where as in Kamakura, there were no such difficulties. Due to its philosophical and moral nature, Zen appealed greatly to the military classes (Suzuki 1959, 60). As the samurais became a new force in politics, they brought with them the newly embraced morality to the court.This in turn had significant influence in not only the court, but through general cultural life of the Japanese people all the way to the Edo period. Buddhist models inspired many of these pilgrimages that we see throughout history. The prototypical pilgrimages example in Japan is when Zen priests go on angya pilgrimage , which literally means, to go on foot. Historically, angya referred to the common practice of Zen monks and nuns travelling from master to master, or monastery to monastery, in search of someone to practice Zen with (Baroni 2002, 8).So pilgrimages in Japan took the introduction of Buddhism, which later became associated with prominent Chinese cultures like Daoism, as we can tell from the various pilgrims mentioned earlier. The interesting thing about it is that this religious practice of undertaking a pilgrimage as a method of self-cultivation is emulated by 26 various other disciplines like the ones mentioned in example (5). It is also interesting to note the varying degree of prominence the intellectual journey has in the context of Japanese culture as opposed to the anglophone culture.Although the concept of an intellectual journey exists in the English-speaking world (e. g. visiting national parks, field trips etc. ), it is not sort of as common or close to everyday consciousness as it is in Japan. The lack of explicit metaphors that reflect the notion of LEARNING IS A JOURNEY in English languaculture suggests a correlation of this difference with cultural behavior. The question then arises, what is the nature of the correlation between the observations we make in the linguistic and non-linguistic behavior we see about the Japanese?Is it the fact pilgrimages have had played a big role in the history of Japanese culture that because of the metaphorical bias of LEARNING IS A JOURNEY? Or is the causal relation the other way around? Or is there some third explanation? The main reason for the correlation we find between these two types of behavior is probably not a direct causal relationship between the two. Instead, the impact of Daoism and Buddhism on Japanese thought have probably played a role in making both the metaphor and the pilgrimage behavior prominent in Japan.This is indicated by the fact that many pilgrimages were inspired by Buddhist models, which also had a great impact on vocabulary and the content of literature the relationship therefore seems the result of a common set of historical circumstances affecting both linguistic and non-linguistic behaviors. Both are an expression of this influence. 6. Concluding remarks 27 In this paper, I have given a contrastive analysis of the role the journey metaphor plays in the English and Japanese languages.I have argued that although there are many similarities in the use of the journey metaphor in the two languages, there also are remarkable differences in that the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY metaphor is a much more salient feature of the Japanese language. Based on the concepts languaculture and rich points, I have attempted to show that the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY metaphor is a locus of an important rich point in Japanese culture, in the sense that it is an underlying conceptual metaphor, which manifests itself in both the linguistic and nonlinguistic behavior of the Japanese culture.To illustrate how this finding might be applied to non-linguistic behavior, I have also examined the issue of pilgrimages. It seems that the correlation between the saliency of the metaphor and pilgrimages are due to a common set of historical causes it does not seem to be the case that the salience of the metaphor was caused by the practice of pilgrimages or vice versa. 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