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Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! You find the stories of famous Japanese historical figures inspiring, and you wonder whether modern-day Japanese figures will leave a mark on Japanese culture. Many Japanese heroes you study lived in Japan thousands of years ago. How is it that their stories, so many years later, have survived and affect Japanese people of today? You can’t imagine how Japanese people centuries from now will learn about today’s Japanese leaders. Will the stories be inspiring or cautionary? And will they resemble reality?

In this lesson, you’ll learn about Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a Japanese historical figure well-known as a tragic hero. We’ll tell you about the struggles he faced in his life and how he came to be remembered in death. Visit us at JapanesePod101.com, where you will find Japanese lesson notes (remember—this Advanced Audio Blog lesson is spoken entirely in Japanese!) and many more fantastic lessons and learning resources! Leave us a message while you are there!


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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 28th, 2012 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Advanced Audio Blog 5 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “Advanced Audio Blog S5 #17 - Top 10 Japanese Historical Figures: Minamoto no Yoshitsune”

JapanesePod101.com says:

源義経

「悲劇の英雄」として知られている源義経の名前を皆さんは聞いた事があるでしょうか。今回は、数多くの逸話とその悲劇的な人生によって大変有名な人物、源義経を紹介したいと思います。

義経は1159年に源氏の家に生まれました。当時は平安時代後期で、権力の中心が貴族から武士へと移行していた時期。平氏と源氏という武士の二大勢力が台頭しますが、この二つの勢力は常にいがみ合い、戦を繰り返します。

義経の父は義経が二歳のときに、平氏との戦に敗れ亡くなってしまいます。身の安全を図るために義経は寺に預けられますが、16歳のとき僧になることを嫌い寺を飛び出し、源氏と縁の深かった藤原秀衡を頼り奥州平泉(現在の岩手県)に向かいました。義経の非凡さを見抜いた秀衡は義経をかくまい息子同然に育てたと言われています。

数年後、義経の腹違いの兄、源頼朝が平氏打倒の声を上げたと聞き、義経は頼朝の元に駆けつけます。兄、頼朝のために献身的に働き、数々の戦で大きな功績を残した義経の人気は当然うなぎのぼり。が、皮肉なことにその人気故に頼朝から疎まれ、命を狙われてしまうことに。

兄から追われた義経は、再び秀衡を頼り平泉に向かいますが、間もなく秀衡は病死。その後、秀衡の息子の裏切りにあい、屋敷を包囲されてしまった戦の天才・義経は戦うことなく、自害してその31年の短い生涯を閉じました。

このような悲劇に満ちた義経の生涯は、多くの人々の同情を呼び、当時義経が判官という役職についていたため、彼に同情する気持ちのことを、判官贔屓 (ほうがんびいき)と言うようになりました。現在では、判官贔屓は、弱者・敗者に同情し味方する気持ちのことを指します。

 

 


 

 

みなさんの国に、悲劇のヒーローはいますか。

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Jack says:

Hi, I’ve used this site for around 3 years and always find it useful. I mainly use the advanced course, but I am now covering the intermediate and beginner just to brush up on knowledge I’m missing.
Possible topics I would like to see in the advanced section would be
Mongolian invasions in the 12th century. Can you provide some historical accounts and some interesting facts.
How about recent topics such as recent geinojin`s or recent events that we can use as conversation pieces when we converse with Japanese people at an advanced level.
Can you talk about recent dramas, recent movies?
The sections you did on historical figures and temples was very informative but would now like to see dialogue that can be used in current conversation in which most people would find interesting.

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Bob1 says:

Having just received a formal introduction to negative supposition -mai verbal constructions in last week’s upper intermediate lesson, I came across the following sentence in this week’s advanced audio blog, and thought at first that I had stumbled across another instance.

「義経の非凡さを見抜いた秀衡は義経をかくまい息子同然に育てたと言われています。」

Try as I might, though, I could not figure out how any element of negative supposition could come into play here, especially since you translated  「かくまい」 as “sheltered.” A dictionary search of the many meanings of 「かく」didn’t come up with any good candidates, either. Finally I discovered that there is a transitive verb, 「かくまう」, which means to hide, to shelter, to harbor, and it dawned on me that 「かくまい」is just the -masu stem of this verb. Mystery solved.

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JapanesePod101.com says:

Jack-san kon’nichiwa,
Thank you for using JPOD and your useful suggestions.
We’d like to think about them and reflect them on producing the following seasons.

Bob1-san kon’nichiwa.
Good catch! Yes, かくまい is the masu-stem of かくまう.
In written language, like the Audio Blog seasons, masu-stem can be used for connecting sentences, as te-form does.
Since Audio Blog series use the authentic/native level Japanese, you would see some unknown patterns.
You got the answer this time. It was really awesome of you. :wink:
If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask us.

Motoko
Team JapanesePod101.com

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Bob1 says:

Thank-you for your reminder that the masu-stem of a verb is used in writing to connect verbal phrases the same way that the -te form is used in spoken Japanese. Another question popped up, though.

The kanji 戦 is read differently in the following two sentences:

「戦を繰り返します。」
「平氏との戦に敗れ亡くなってしまいます。」

In the first it is read as 「たたかい」, and in the 2nd as 「いくさ」.
Both are Japanese readings meaning “battle.” The 「たたかい」is normally indicated by writing it 「戦い」, but here the hiragana is omitted. How can you tell which reading is appropriate?

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JapanesePod101.com says:

Bob1-san,
As you mentioned, 戦 is usually read as いくさ except it is in the ancient Chinese literature and 戦い is たたかい.
In this dialogue, the first one can be read as いくさ so it doesn’t have a big difference here.
One tip would be that いくさ tends to be used with metaphorical expressions and refined diction. For example, 敗れる means “to lose” but 負ける would be more direct word which has the same meaning.

To be honest, this reading can be depend on the reader’s sense. As far as you know both readings and the meaning of kanji, it’s enough. Even native Japanese people become confused which reading is appropriate in a context.
I hope this helps.

Motoko
Team JapanesePod101.com

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Bob1 says:

詳しい説明をありがとうございました, Motoko-先生。

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JapanesePod101.com says:

Bob1さん
いいえ、どういたしまして。お役に立ててうれしいです。

Motoko
Team JapanesePod101.com

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