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Chushingura
Kanadehon Chushingura (A Treasury of Loyalty of Loyal Retainers or The Story of the Forty-Seven Samurai) is the most popular play in the history of Japanese theatre, first performed in 1748. It is a work of fiction, but the details of the...
Definition
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709) governed Japan as the fifth shogun of the Edo period (1603-1876). He has often been ridiculed as the 'dog shogun' because of the laws he enacted to protect the lives of animals. Economically, however, the period...
Definition
Edo Period
The Edo period refers to the years from 1603 until 1868 when the Tokugawa family ruled Japan. The era is named after the city of Edo, modern-day Tokyo, where the Tokugawa shogunate had its government. It is also sometimes referred to as the...
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Sakuradamon Incident
Sakuradamon Incident, 1860, by an unknown Japanese artist.
Definition
Black Hole of Calcutta
The Black Hole of Calcutta refers to a prison cell which was used to hold 146 mostly British prisoners captured after the Nawab of Bengal had taken over the city from the East India Company. Interred on 20 June 1756 in a tiny cell in Fort...
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47 Ronin Attacking Kira's Mansion
The ronin attack the principal gate of Kira's mansion, by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Act XI, Scene 2 of the Chushingura.
Article
Jesus & the Law of Moses
New Testament studies now place Jesus Christ within the parameters of Second Temple Judaism in the 1st century CE, attempting to go behind the layers of later Christian theology and philosophy (such as the trinity) to understand how his message...
Definition
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre, or the Incident on King Street, occurred in Boston, Massachusetts, on 5 March 1770, when nine British soldiers fired into a crowd of American colonists, ultimately killing five and wounding another six. The massacre was...
Definition
Gaspee Affair
The Gaspee Affair was an incident that occurred on 10 June 1772, when a group of American colonists from Rhode Island seized and burned the Royal Navy schooner HMS Gaspee after it had run aground. The affair contributed to the worsening of...
Definition
Sadducees
The Sadducees were part of the upper-class aristocrats and provided much of the priesthood, categorized through the lineage of priestly houses. They served on the Sanhedrin, the city council that organized law courts and regulations, which...