In my debut Shinobi mystery, Claws of the Cat, ninja detective Hiro Hattori must protect–and literally save the life–of Father Mateo Avila de Santos, a Portuguese Jesuit working as a missionary to Kyoto’s lower classes. Father Mateo is fictitious, but real Jesuit missionaries were living and working in Kyoto in 1565. The first Portuguese Jesuits arrived in Japan in 1549, and shortly thereafter, Father Francis Xavier established Japan’s first mission, at Kagoshima. Ten years later, after an audience with Jesuit Father Gaspar Vilela (who appears in the Shinobi novels as Father Mateo’s superior, even though Father Mateo’s work is separate
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A Measure of Peace
Every rose variety has an individual name, granted by the developer and used by growers around the world to identify the cultivar. One of my father’s favorites (and mine) is known as “peace.” Just before the German invasion of France during World War II, French horticulturalist Francis Meilland sent cuttings from his newest hybrid tea rose to colleagues in allied nations, so the rose could be protected and cultivated. The rose was officially named “Peace” on April 29, 1945, a date which coincided with the fall of Berlin and the end of World War II. A fitting name for such
Read moreA Salyut to Space Stations, Old and New
April 19, 1971: The USSR launches the first space station, Salyut-1. Salyut-1 launched unmanned. Its first inhabitants arrived on June 7, 1971, as part of the Soyuz-11 space mission. The cosmonauts lived on Salyut-1 until June 30, at which time they attempted to return to earth, but perished when their capsule accidentally depressurized shortly before re-entry to earth’s atmosphere. Six months later, Salyut-1 ran out of fuel and “de-orbited” (essentially suffering the same fate as its original human crew). As a space station, Salyut-1 didn’t offer much room. It measured only 20 meters long and 4 meters in diameter at its
Read moreA Word or Two About Seppuku
Seppuku (sometimes also referred to as hara-kiri) is a form of Japanese ritual suicide. Throughout most of Japanese history, only samurai were allowed to commit seppuku. The first recorded seppuku was that of Minamoto no Yorimasa, a warrior and poet who committed suicide by slashing his stomach open with his sword after suffering defeat in battle. During the medieval period, samurai committed seppuku for several reasons, most commonly to avoid being captured after suffering a defeat (in the manner of Minamoto no Yorimasa), as a penalty for shameful or criminal activity, or to expunge the shame of surviving a battle in which
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