This is a very rare PFM Crown model in HO scale. This represents one of only twenty five models made in the first run (1958). Made under the United Models name plate, the premier Japanese maker, Toby Models, made these semi-hand made models to extreme precision and high quality. For it's time, this was one of the top of the line models. Stamped #10 on the left side of the rear frame rail, this model has many features that the subsequent runs did not have (or, where in various stages of these features). Highly detailed cab interior for one. Other details which point to the run year is the hand built train control box mounted on the boiler, the absence of window sashes (all of the following runs had window sashes), a single generator (although two later runs had a single generator, this combination of details gives it away as the 1958 model.

 

Scale: HO

Category: Steam

Subcategory:

Road: Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q)

Whyte: 4-8-4

Description: O-5 NORTHERN

Importer: Pacific Fast Mail (PFM)

Catalog: CROWN

MANUFACTURE

Builder: Toby

Year(s): 1958

Qty Made: 25

 

NOTES: UNPAINTED - SERIAL # ON LEFT REAR OF FRAME - GREEN BOX - NO WINDOW SASHES IN CAB - SINGLE GENERATOR - BUILT-UP ATC BOX ON TOP OF BOILER - UNITED PLATE ON RETAINER PLATE

Persona Series.

 

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

~ The Tunnel ~

 

Zenkai, the son of a samurai, journeyed to Edo and there became the retainer of a high official. He fell in love with the official’s wife and was discovered. In self-defense, he slew the official. Then he ran away with the wife.

 

Both of them later became thieves. But the woman was so greedy that Zenkai grew disgusted. Finally, leaving her, he journeyed far away to the province of Buzen, where he became a wandering mendicant.

 

To atone for his past, Zenkai resolved to accomplish some good deed in his lifetime. Knowing of a dangerous road over a cliff that had caused the death and injury of many persons, he resolved to cut a tunnel through the mountain there.

 

Begging food in the daytime, Zenkai worked at night digging his tunnel. When thirty years had gone by, the tunnel was 2,280 feet long, 20 feet high, and 30 feet wide.

 

Two years before the work was completed, the son of the official he had slain, who was a skillful swordsman, found Zenkai out and came to kill him in revenge.

 

“I will give you my life willingly,” said Zenkai. “Only let me finish this work. On the day it is completed, then you may kill me.”

 

So the son awaited the day. Several months passed and Zenkai kept on digging. The son grew tired of doing nothing and began to help with the digging. After he had helped for more than a year, he came to admire Zenkai’s strong will and character.

 

At last the tunnel was completed and the people could use it and travel in safety.

 

“Now cut off my head,” said Zenkai. “My work is done.”

 

“How can I cut off my own teacher’s head?” asked the younger man with tears in his eyes.

  

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

Thank you, you make me stronger and stronger .....

_____________________________________________________________________________

  

Source: www.101zenstories.com/

Photo Copyright 2012, dynamo.photography.

All rights reserved, no use without license

 

++++ FROM WIKIPEDIA ++++

 

Jiufen, also spelled Jioufen or Chiufen (Chinese: 九份; pinyin: Jiǔfèn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Káu-hūn; literally: "nine portions"), is a mountain area in Ruifang

History

 

During the first years of the Qing Dynasty, the isolated village housed nine families, thus the village would request "nine portions" every time shipments arrived from town. Later Kau-hun (meaning "nine portions" in Hokkien) would become the name of the village.

 

Despite the earliest reference to the production of gold in the island dating to 1430,[1] and multiple rediscoveries by early inhabitants, visiting Japanese, Dutch occupiers, and Koxinga's retainers, awareness of the wealth of Taiwan's gold districts did not develop until the late Qing era. In 1890, workmen discovered flakes of gold while constructing the new Taipeh-Kelung railway,[2] and in 1893 a rich placer district was discovered in the hills of Kau-hun that produced several kilograms[a] of gold a day. In the next year, the promise became greater than ever after a Chinese "expert" with experience gained in California found gold-bearing quartz in the said hills.

 

The resulting gold rush hastened the village's development into a town, and reached its peak during the Japanese era. In The Island of Formosa, Past and Present (1903), American diplomat James W. Davidson wrote, "Kyu-fun [Kau-hun] is as odd looking a settlement as one could find. [...] never before has the writer seen so many houses in such a small space. Some appear to be partially telescoped in adjoining buildings, other standing above as though unable to force their way to the group, and each structure seems to be making a silent appeal to its neighbor to move over."[4] Water ran "in many small streams, directed so as to provide each building with a little rivulet, passing sometimes by the doorway or even over the floor of the building." The claim was owned by the Fujita Company, the first Japanese company to mine quartz in Taiwan and which occasionally made an income of a few thousand yen per month from the Kau-hun gold operations.

 

Many present features of Jiufen reflect the era under Japanese colonization, with many Japanese inns surviving to this day. During World War II, a POW camp named Kinkaseki was set up in the village, holding Allied soldiers captured in Singapore (including many British) who worked in the nearby gold mines. Gold mining activities declined after World War II, and the mine was shut off in 1971. Jiufen quickly went into decline, and for a while the town was mostly forgotten.

 

In 1989, Hou Hsiao-hsien's A City of Sadness, the first film to touch on the February 28 Incident, then a taboo subject in Taiwan, became a big hit in the theatres. As a result, Jiufen, where the film was set, revived due to the film's popularity. The nostalgic scenery of Jiufen as seen in the film, as well as appearances in other media, charmed many people into visiting Jiufen. For the beginning of the 1990s, Jiufen experienced a tourist boom that has shaped the town as a tourist attraction. Soon retro-Chinese style cafés, tea houses, and souvenir stores bearing the name "City of Sadness" were built.

 

Jiufen also became popular in 2001 due to its resemblance to the downtown in the anime movie Spirited Away. Jiufen soon attracted Japanese tourists. Many Japanese travel magazines and guide books about Taiwan introduced Jiufen. It became a must visit place among Japanese tourists. However, Miyazaki himself denied that Jiufen was the model city of the movie.[5] [6]

 

At present, Jiufen is a renowned tourist attraction representative of Taiwan. It draws many tourists from Taipei during the weekends.

  

Transportation

As Jiufen is a mountain town, the roads that lead there are mostly steep, curving, narrow, and possibly dangerous.

The town is served by buses that run from Keelung, Taipei, etc.

The nearest train station is Rueifang Station of the TRA Yilan Line, which is 15 minutes away by bus.

  

Taiwan /ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ (About this sound listen)), officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a state in East Asia. Its neighbors include the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the west, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taiwan is the most populous state and largest economy that is not a member of the United Nations.

 

The island of Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, was inhabited by aborigines before the 17th century, when Dutch and Spanish colonies opened the island to mass Han immigration. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the last dynasty of China. The Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China (ROC) was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty. Following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROC's loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. Although the ROC continued to claim to be the legitimate government of China, its effective jurisdiction has, since the loss of Hainan in 1950, been limited to Taiwan and its surrounding islands, with the main island making up 99% of its de facto territory. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, when the PRC assumed China's seat, causing the ROC to lose its UN membership.

 

In the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with a semi-presidential system. Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, healthcare,[16] public education, economic freedom, and human development.[d][14][17] The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most highly educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree.[18][19]

 

The PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refuses diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC. Today, 20 countries maintain official ties with the ROC but many other states maintain unofficial ties through representative offices and institutions that function as de facto embassies and consulates. Although Taiwan is fully self-governing, most international organizations in which the PRC participates either refuse to grant membership to Taiwan or allow it to participate only as a non-state actor. Internally, the major division in politics is between the aspirations of eventual Chinese unification or Taiwanese independence, though both sides have moderated their positions to broaden their appeal. The PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible.[20]

 

Etymology

See also: Chinese Taipei, Formosa, and Names of China

Taiwan

Taiwan (Chinese characters).svg

(top) "Taiwan" in Traditional Chinese characters and Kyūjitai Japanese Kanji. (bottom) "Taiwan" in Simplified Chinese characters and Japanese Kanji.

Chinese name

Traditional Chinese 臺灣 or 台灣

Simplified Chinese 台湾

[show]Transcriptions

Japanese name

Kanji 台湾

Kana たいわん

Kyūjitai 臺灣

[show]Transcriptions

Republic of China

ROC (Chinese characters).svg

"Republic of China" in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters

Traditional Chinese 中華民國

Simplified Chinese 中华民国

Postal Chunghwa Minkuo

[show]Transcriptions

China

Traditional Chinese 中國

Simplified Chinese 中国

Literal meaning Middle or Central State[21]

[show]Transcriptions

 

There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, derived from explorers or rulers by each particular period. The former name Formosa (福爾摩沙) dates from 1542,[verification needed] when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means "beautiful island".[22] The name "Formosa" eventually "replaced all others in European literature"[23] and was in common use in English in the early 20th century.[24]

 

In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established a commercial post at Fort Zeelandia (modern-day Anping, Tainan) on a coastal sandbar called "Tayouan",[25] after their ethnonym for a nearby Taiwanese aboriginal tribe, written by the Dutch and Portuguese variously as Taiouwang, Tayowan, Teijoan, etc.[26] This name was also adopted into the Chinese vernacular (in particular, Hokkien, as Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tāi-oân/Tâi-oân) as the name of the sandbar and nearby area (Tainan). The modern word "Taiwan" is derived from this usage, which is seen in various forms (大員, 大圓, 大灣, 臺員, 臺圓 and 臺窩灣) in Chinese historical records. The area of modern-day Tainan was the first permanent settlement by Western colonists and Chinese immigrants, grew to be the most important trading centre, and served as the capital of the island until 1887. Use of the current Chinese name (臺灣) was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture. Through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as "Taiwan".[27][28][29][30]

 

In his Daoyi Zhilüe (1349), Wang Dayuan used "Liuqiu" as a name for the island of Taiwan, or the part of it near to Penghu.[31] Elsewhere, the name was used for the Ryukyu Islands in general or Okinawa, the largest of them; indeed the name Ryūkyū is the Japanese form of Liúqiú. The name also appears in the Book of Sui (636) and other early works, but scholars cannot agree on whether these references are to the Ryukyus, Taiwan or even Luzon.[32]

 

The official name of the state is the "Republic of China"; it has also been known under various names throughout its existence. Shortly after the ROC's establishment in 1912, while it was still located on the Chinese mainland, the government used the short form "China" Zhōngguó (中國), to refer to itself, which derives from zhōng ("central" or "middle") and guó ("state, nation-state"), [e] A term which also developed under the Zhou Dynasty in reference to its royal demesne[f] and the name was then applied to the area around Luoyi (present-day Luoyang) during the Eastern Zhou and then to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qingera .[34] During the 1950s and 1960s, after the government had fled to Taiwan due to losing the Chinese Civil War, it was commonly referred to as "Nationalist China" (or "Free China") to differentiate it from "Communist China" (or "Red China").[36] It was a member of the United Nations representing "China" until 1971, when it lost its seat to the People's Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become commonly known as "Taiwan", after the island that comprises 99% of the territory under its control. In some contexts, especially official ones from the ROC government, the name is written as "Republic of China (Taiwan)", "Republic of China/Taiwan", or sometimes "Taiwan (ROC)."[37] The Republic of China participates in most international forums and organizations under the name "Chinese Taipei" due to diplomatic pressure from the People's Republic of China. For instance, it is the name under which it has competed at the Olympic Games since 1984, and its name as an observer at the World Health Organization.[38]

History

Main articles: History of Taiwan and History of the Republic of China

See the History of China article for historical information in the Chinese Mainland before 1949.

Prehistoric Taiwan

Main article: Prehistory of Taiwan

A young Tsou man

 

Taiwan was joined to the mainland in the Late Pleistocene, until sea levels rose about 10,000 years ago. Fragmentary human remains dated 20,000 to 30,000 years ago have been found on the island, as well as later artefacts of a Paleolithic culture.[39][40][41]

 

Around 6,000 years ago, Taiwan was settled by farmers, most likely from mainland China.[42] They are believed to be the ancestors of today's Taiwanese aborigines, whose languages belong to the Austronesian language family, but show much greater diversity than the rest of the family, which spans a huge area from Maritime Southeast Asia west to Madagascar and east as far as New Zealand, Hawaii and Easter Island. This has led linguists to propose Taiwan as the urheimat of the family, from which seafaring peoples dispersed across Southeast Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans.[43][44]

 

Han Chinese fishermen began settling in the Penghu islands in the 13th century.[45] Hostile tribes, and a lack of valuable trade products, meant that few outsiders visited the main island until the 16th century.[45] By the 1700's visits to the coast by fishermen from Fujian, as well as Chinese and Japanese pirates, became more frequent.[45]

Opening in the 17th century

 

The Dutch East India Company attempted to establish a trading outpost on the Penghu Islands (Pescadores) in 1622, but were militarily defeated and driven off by the Ming authorities.[46]

 

In 1624, the company established a stronghold called Fort Zeelandia on the coastal islet of Tayouan, which is now part of the main island at Anping, Tainan.[30] David Wright, a Scottish agent of the company who lived on the island in the 1650s, described the lowland areas of the island as being divided among 11 chiefdoms ranging in size from two settlements to 72. Some of these fell under Dutch control, while others remained independent.[30][47] The Company began to import labourers from Fujian and Penghu (Pescadores), many of whom settled.[46]

 

In 1626, the Spanish Empire landed on and occupied northern Taiwan, at the ports of Keelung and Tamsui, as a base to extend their trading. This colonial period lasted 16 years until 1642, when the last Spanish fortress fell to Dutch forces.

 

Following the fall of the Ming dynasty, Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong), a self-styled Ming loyalist, arrived on the island and captured Fort Zeelandia in 1662, expelling the Dutch Empire and military from the island. Koxinga established the Kingdom of Tungning (1662–1683), with his capital at Tainan. He and his heirs, Zheng Jing, who ruled from 1662 to 1682, and Zheng Keshuang, who ruled less than a year, continued to launch raids on the southeast coast of mainland China well into the Qing dynasty era.[46]

Qing rule

In 1683, following the defeat of Koxinga's grandson by an armada led by Admiral Shi Lang of southern Fujian, the Qing dynasty formally annexed Taiwan, placing it under the jurisdiction of Fujian province. The Qing imperial government tried to reduce piracy and vagrancy in the area, issuing a series of edicts to manage immigration and respect aboriginal land rights. Immigrants mostly from southern Fujian continued to enter Taiwan. The border between taxpaying lands and "savage" lands shifted eastward, with some aborigines becoming sinicized while others retreated into the mountains. During this time, there were a number of conflicts between groups of Han Chinese from different regions of southern Fujian, particularly between those from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, and between southern Fujian Chinese and aborigines.

 

Northern Taiwan and the Penghu Islands were the scene of subsidiary campaigns in the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885). The French occupied Keelung on 1 October 1884, but were repulsed from Tamsui a few days later. The French won some tactical victories but were unable to exploit them, and the Keelung Campaign ended in stalemate. The Pescadores Campaign, beginning on 31 March 1885, was a French victory, but had no long-term consequences. The French evacuated both Keelung and the Penghu archipelago after the end of the war.

 

In 1887, the Qing upgraded the island's administration from Taiwan Prefecture of Fujian to Fujian-Taiwan-Province (福建臺灣省), the twentieth in the empire, with its capital at Taipei. This was accompanied by a modernization drive that included building China's first railroad.[48]

Japanese rule

Main articles: Taiwan under Japanese rule and Republic of Formosa

Japanese colonial soldiers march Taiwanese captured after the Tapani Incident from the Tainan jail to court, 1915.

 

As the Qing dynasty was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), Taiwan, along with Penghu and Liaodong Peninsula, were ceded in full sovereignty to the Empire of Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Inhabitants on Taiwan and Penghu wishing to remain Qing subjects were given a two-year grace period to sell their property and move to mainland China. Very few Taiwanese saw this as feasible.[49] On 25 May 1895, a group of pro-Qing high officials proclaimed the Republic of Formosa to resist impending Japanese rule. Japanese forces entered the capital at Tainan and quelled this resistance on 21 October 1895.[50] Guerrilla fighting continued periodically until about 1902 and ultimately took the lives of 14,000 Taiwanese, or 0.5% of the population.[51] Several subsequent rebellions against the Japanese (the Beipu uprising of 1907, the Tapani incident of 1915, and the Musha incident of 1930) were all unsuccessful but demonstrated opposition to Japanese colonial rule.

 

Japanese colonial rule was instrumental in the industrialization of the island, extending the railroads and other transportation networks, building an extensive sanitation system, and establishing a formal education system.[52] Japanese rule ended the practice of headhunting.[53] During this period the human and natural resources of Taiwan were used to aid the development of Japan and the production of cash crops such as rice and sugar greatly increased. By 1939, Taiwan was the seventh greatest sugar producer in the world.[54] Still, the Taiwanese and aborigines were classified as second- and third-class citizens. After suppressing Chinese guerrillas in the first decade of their rule, Japanese authorities engaged in a series of bloody campaigns against the mountain aboriginals, culminating in the Musha Incident of 1930.[55] Intellectuals and laborers who participated in left-wing movements within Taiwan were also arrested and massacred (e.g. Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水) and Masanosuke Watanabe (渡辺政之輔)).[56]

 

Around 1935, the Japanese began an island-wide assimilation project to bind the island more firmly to the Japanese Empire and people were taught to see themselves as Japanese under the Kominka Movement, during which time Taiwanese culture and religion were outlawed and the citizens were encouraged to adopt Japanese surnames.[57] The "South Strike Group" was based at the Taihoku Imperial University in Taipei. During World War II, tens of thousands of Taiwanese served in the Japanese military.[58] For example, former ROC President Lee Teng-hui's elder brother served in the Japanese navy and was killed in action in the Philippines in February 1945. The Imperial Japanese Navy operated heavily out of Taiwanese ports. In October 1944, the Formosa Air Battle was fought between American carriers and Japanese forces based in Taiwan. Important Japanese military bases and industrial centres throughout Taiwan, like Kaohsiung, were targets of heavy American bombings.[59] Also during this time, over 2,000 women were forced into sexual slavery for Imperial Japanese troops, now euphemistically called "comfort women."[60]

 

In 1938, there were 309,000 Japanese settlers in Taiwan.[61] After World War II, most of the Japanese were expelled and sent to Japan.[62]

Republic of China

 

On 25 October 1945, the US Navy ferried ROC troops to Taiwan in order to accept the formal surrender of Japanese military forces in Taipei on behalf of the Allied Powers, as part of General Order No. 1 for temporary military occupation. General Rikichi Andō, governor-general of Taiwan and commander-in-chief of all Japanese forces on the island, signed the receipt and handed it over to General Chen Yi of the ROC military to complete the official turnover. Chen Yi proclaimed that day to be "Taiwan Retrocession Day", but the Allies considered Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to be under military occupation and still under Japanese sovereignty until 1952, when the Treaty of San Francisco took effect.[63][64] Although the 1943 Cairo Declaration had envisaged returning these territories to China, in the Treaty of San Francisco and Treaty of Taipei Japan has renounced all claim to them without specifying to what country they were to be surrendered. This introduced the problem of the legal status of Taiwan.

 

The ROC administration of Taiwan under Chen Yi was strained by increasing tensions between Taiwanese-born people and newly arrived mainlanders, which were compounded by economic woes, such as hyperinflation. Furthermore, cultural and linguistic conflicts between the two groups quickly led to the loss of popular support for the new government, while the mass movement led by the working committee of the Communist Party also aimed to bring down the Kuomintang government.[65][66] The shooting of a civilian on 28 February 1947 triggered island-wide unrest, which was suppressed with military force in what is now called the February 28 Incident. Mainstream estimates of the number killed range from 18,000 to 30,000. Those killed were mainly members of the Taiwanese elite.[67][68]

The Nationalists' retreat to Taipei: after the Nationalists lost Nanjing (Nanking) they next moved to Guangzhou (Canton), then to Chongqing (Chungking), Chengdu (Chengtu) and Xichang (Sichang) before arriving in Taipei.

 

After the end of World War II, the Chinese Civil War resumed between the Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang), led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong. Throughout the months of 1949, a series of Chinese Communist offensives led to the capture of its capital Nanjing on 23 April and the subsequent defeat of the Nationalist army on the mainland, and the Communists founded the People's Republic of China on 1 October.[69]

 

On 7 December 1949, after the loss of four capitals, Chiang evacuated his Nationalist government to Taiwan and made Taipei the temporary capital of the ROC (also called the "wartime capital" by Chiang Kai-shek).[70] Some 2 million people, consisting mainly of soldiers, members of the ruling Kuomintang and intellectual and business elites, were evacuated from mainland China to Taiwan at that time, adding to the earlier population of approximately six million. In addition, the ROC government took to Taipei many national treasures and much of China's gold reserves and foreign currency reserves.[71][72][73]

 

After losing most of the mainland, the Kuomintang held remaining control of Tibet, the portions of Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Yunnan provinces along with the Hainan Island until 1951 before the Communists subsequently captured both territories. From this point onwards, the Kuomintang's territory was reduced to Taiwan, Penghu, the portions of the Fujian province (Kinmen and Matsu Islands), and two major islands of Dongsha Islands and Nansha Islands. The Kuomintang continued to claim sovereignty over all "China", which it defined to include mainland China, Taiwan, Outer Mongolia and other areas. On mainland China, the victorious Communists claimed they ruled the sole and only China (which they claimed included Taiwan) and that the Republic of China no longer existed.[74]

A Chinese man in military uniform, smiling and looking towards the left. He holds a sword in his left hand and has a medal in shape of a sun on his chest.

Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang from 1925 until his death in 1975

Chinese Nationalist one-party rule

 

Martial law, declared on Taiwan in May 1949,[75] continued to be in effect after the central government relocated to Taiwan. It was not repealed until 1987,[75] and was used as a way to suppress the political opposition in the intervening years.[76] During the White Terror, as the period is known, 140,000 people were imprisoned or executed for being perceived as anti-KMT or pro-Communist.[77] Many citizens were arrested, tortured, imprisoned and executed for their real or perceived link to the Communists. Since these people were mainly from the intellectual and social elite, an entire generation of political and social leaders was decimated. In 1998 law was passed to create the "Compensation Foundation for Improper Verdicts" which oversaw compensation to White Terror victims and families. President Ma Ying-jeou made an official apology in 2008, expressing hope that there will never be a tragedy similar to White Terror.[78]

 

Initially, the United States abandoned the KMT and expected that Taiwan would fall to the Communists. However, in 1950 the conflict between North Korea and South Korea, which had been ongoing since the Japanese withdrawal in 1945, escalated into full-blown war, and in the context of the Cold War, US President Harry S. Truman intervened again and dispatched the US Navy's 7th Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent hostilities between Taiwan and mainland China.[79] In the Treaty of San Francisco and the Treaty of Taipei, which came into force respectively on 28 April 1952 and 5 August 1952, Japan formally renounced all right, claim and title to Taiwan and Penghu, and renounced all treaties signed with China before 1942. Neither treaty specified to whom sovereignty over the islands should be transferred, because the United States and the United Kingdom disagreed on whether the ROC or the PRC was the legitimate government of China.[80] Continuing conflict of the Chinese Civil War through the 1950s, and intervention by the United States notably resulted in legislation such as the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty and the Formosa Resolution of 1955.

With President Chiang Kai-shek, the US President Dwight D. Eisenhower waved to crowds during his visit to Taipei in June 1960.

 

As the Chinese Civil War continued without truce, the government built up military fortifications throughout Taiwan. Within this effort, KMT veterans built the now famous Central Cross-Island Highway through the Taroko Gorge in the 1950s. The two sides would continue to engage in sporadic military clashes with seldom publicized details well into the 1960s on the China coastal islands with an unknown number of night raids. During the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in September 1958, Taiwan's landscape saw Nike-Hercules missile batteries added, with the formation of the 1st Missile Battalion Chinese Army that would not be deactivated until 1997. Newer generations of missile batteries have since replaced the Nike Hercules systems throughout the island.

 

During the 1960s and 1970s, the ROC maintained an authoritarian, single-party government while its economy became industrialized and technology oriented. This rapid economic growth, known as the Taiwan Miracle, was the result of a fiscal regime independent from mainland China and backed up, among others, by the support of US funds and demand for Taiwanese products.[81][82] In the 1970s, Taiwan was economically the second fastest growing state in Asia after Japan.[83] Taiwan, along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore, became known as one of the Four Asian Tigers. Because of the Cold War, most Western nations and the United Nations regarded the ROC as the sole legitimate government of China until the 1970s. Later, especially after the termination of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, most nations switched diplomatic recognition to the PRC (see United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758).

 

Up until the 1970s, the government was regarded by Western critics as undemocratic for upholding martial law, for severely repressing any political opposition and for controlling media. The KMT did not allow the creation of new parties and those that existed did not seriously compete with the KMT. Thus, competitive democratic elections did not exist.[84][85][86][87][88] From the late 1970s to the 1990s, however, Taiwan went through reforms and social changes that transformed it from an authoritarian state to a democracy. In 1979, a pro-democracy protest known as the Kaohsiung Incident took place in Kaohsiung to celebrate Human Rights Day. Although the protest was rapidly crushed by the authorities, it is today considered as the main event that united Taiwan's opposition.[89]

Democratization

 

Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek's son and successor as the president, began to liberalize the political system in the mid-1980s. In 1984, the younger Chiang selected Lee Teng-hui, a Taiwanese-born, US-educated technocrat, to be his vice-president. In 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was formed and inaugurated as the first opposition party in the ROC to counter the KMT. A year later, Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law on the main island of Taiwan (martial law was lifted on Penghu in 1979, Matsu island in 1992 and Kinmen island in 1993). With the advent of democratization, the issue of the political status of Taiwan gradually resurfaced as a controversial issue where, previously, the discussion of anything other than unification under the ROC was taboo.

 

After the death of Chiang Ching-kuo in January 1988, Lee Teng-hui succeeded him as president. Lee continued to democratize the government and decrease the concentration of government authority in the hands of mainland Chinese. Under Lee, Taiwan underwent a process of localization in which Taiwanese culture and history were promoted over a pan-China viewpoint in contrast to earlier KMT policies which had promoted a Chinese identity. Lee's reforms included printing banknotes from the Central Bank rather than the Provincial Bank of Taiwan, and streamlining the Taiwan Provincial Government with most of its functions transferred to the Executive Yuan. Under Lee, the original members of the Legislative Yuan and National Assembly(a former supreme legislative body defunct in 2005）,[90] elected in 1947 to represent mainland Chinese constituencies and having held the seats without re-election for more than four decades, were forced to resign in 1991. The previously nominal representation in the Legislative Yuan was brought to an end, reflecting the reality that the ROC had no jurisdiction over mainland China, and vice versa. Restrictions on the use of Taiwanese Hokkien in the broadcast media and in schools were also lifted.[citation needed]

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Taiwan's special envoy to the APEC summit, Lien Chan, November 2011

 

Democratic reforms continued in the 1990s, with Lee Teng-hui re-elected in 1996, in the first direct presidential election in the history of the ROC.[91] During the later years of Lee's administration, he was involved in corruption controversies relating to government release of land and weapons purchase, although no legal proceedings commenced. In 1997,"To meet the requisites of the nation prior to national unification",[92] the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China was passed and then the former "constitution of five powers" turns to be more tripartite. In 2000, Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party was elected as the first non-Kuomintang (KMT) President and was re-elected to serve his second and last term since 2004. Polarized politics has emerged in Taiwan with the formation of the Pan-Blue Coalition of parties led by the KMT, favouring eventual Chinese reunification, and the Pan-Green Coalition of parties led by the DPP, favouring an eventual and official declaration of Taiwanese independence.[93][clarification needed] In early 2006, President Chen Shui-bian remarked: “The National Unification Council will cease to function. No budget will be ear-marked for it and its personnel must return to their original posts...The National Unification Guidelines will cease to apply."[94]

The ruling DPP has traditionally leaned in favour of Taiwan independence and rejects the "One-China policy".

 

On 30 September 2007, the ruling DPP approved a resolution asserting a separate identity from China and called for the enactment of a new constitution for a "normal country". It also called for general use of "Taiwan" as the country's name, without abolishing its formal name, the Republic of China.[95] The Chen administration also pushed for referendums on national defence and UN entry in the 2004 and 2008 elections, which failed due to voter turnout below the required legal threshold of 50% of all registered voters.[96] The Chen administration was dogged by public concerns over reduced economic growth, legislative gridlock due to a pan-blue, opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan and corruption involving the First Family as well as government officials.[97][98]

 

The KMT increased its majority in the Legislative Yuan in the January 2008 legislative elections, while its nominee Ma Ying-jeou went on to win the presidency in March of the same year, campaigning on a platform of increased economic growth and better ties with the PRC under a policy of "mutual nondenial".[96] Ma took office on 20 May 2008, the same day that President Chen Shui-bian stepped down and was notified by prosecutors of possible corruption charges. Part of the rationale for campaigning for closer economic ties with the PRC stems from the strong economic growth China attained since joining the World Trade Organization. However, some analysts say that despite the election of Ma Ying-jeou, the diplomatic and military tensions with the PRC have not been reduced.[99]

 

On 24 May 2017, the Constitutional Court ruled that current marriage laws have been violating the Constitution by denying Taiwanese same-sex couples the right to marry. The Court ruled that if the Legislative Yuan does not pass adequate amendments to Taiwanese marriage laws within two years, same-sex marriages will automatically become legitimate in Taiwan.[100]

Geography

Taiwan is mostly mountainous in the east, with gently sloping plains in the west. The Penghu Islands are west of the main island.

 

The total area of the current jurisdiction of the Republic of China is 36,193 km2 (13,974 sq mi),[9] making it the world's 137th-largest country/dependency, smaller than Switzerland and larger than Belgium.

 

The island of Taiwan has an area of 35,883 km2 (13,855 sq mi), and lies some 180 kilometres (110 mi) from the southeastern coast of mainland China across the Taiwan Strait.[9] The East China Sea lies to the north, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Bashi Channel of the Luzon Strait directly to the south, and the South China Sea to the southwest. Its shape is similar to a sweet potato, giving rise to the name sweet potato used by Taiwanese Hokkien speakers for people of Taiwanese descent.[101]

 

The island is characterized by the contrast between the eastern two-thirds, consisting mostly of rugged mountains running in five ranges from the northern to the southern tip of the island, and the flat to gently rolling Chianan Plains in the west that are also home to most of Taiwan's population. Taiwan's highest point is Yu Shan (Jade Mountain) at 3,952 metres (12,966 ft),[102] making Taiwan the world's fourth-highest island.

 

The Penghu Islands, 50 km (31.1 mi) west of the main island, have an area of 126.9 km2 (49.0 sq mi). More distant islands controlled by the Republic of China are the Kinmen, Wuchiu and Matsu Islands off the coast of Fujian, with a total area of 180.5 km2 (69.7 sq mi), and the Pratas Islands and Taiping Island in the South China Sea, with a total area of 2.9 km2 (1.1 sq mi) and no permanent inhabitants.[9] The ROC government also claims the Senkaku Islands to the northeast, which are controlled by Japan.

Climate

 

Taiwan lies on the Tropic of Cancer, and its general climate is marine tropical.[8] The northern and central regions are subtropical, whereas the south is tropical and the mountainous regions are temperate.[103] The average rainfall is 2,600 millimetres (100 inches) per year for the island proper; the rainy season is concurrent with the onset of the summer East Asian Monsoon in May and June.[104] The entire island experiences hot, humid weather from June through September. Typhoons are most common in July, August and September.[104] During the winter (November to March), the northeast experiences steady rain, while the central and southern parts of the island are mostly sunny.

Geology

Main article: Geology of Taiwan

Dabajian Mountain

 

The island of Taiwan lies in a complex tectonic area between the Yangtze Plate to the west and north, the Okinawa Plate on the north-east, and the Philippine Mobile Belt on the east and south. The upper part of the crust on the island is primarily made up of a series of terranes, mostly old island arcs which have been forced together by the collision of the forerunners of the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate. These have been further uplifted as a result of the detachment of a portion of the Eurasian Plate as it was subducted beneath remnants of the Philippine Sea Plate, a process which left the crust under Taiwan more buoyant.[105]

 

The east and south of Taiwan are a complex system of belts formed by, and part of the zone of, active collision between the North Luzon Trough portion of the Luzon Volcanic Arc and South China, where accreted portions of the Luzon Arc and Luzon forearc form the eastern Coastal Range and parallel inland Longitudinal Valley of Taiwan respectively.[106]

 

The major seismic faults in Taiwan correspond to the various suture zones between the various terranes. These have produced major quakes throughout the history of the island. On 21 September 1999, a 7.3 quake known as the "921 earthquake" killed more than 2,400 people. The seismic hazard map for Taiwan by the USGS shows 9/10 of the island as the highest rating (most hazardous).[107]

Political and legal status

Main article: Political status of Taiwan

 

The political and legal statuses of Taiwan are contentious issues. The People's Republic of China (PRC) claims that the Republic of China government is illegitimate, referring to it as the "Taiwan Authority" even though current ROC territories have never been controlled by the PRC.[108][109] The ROC has its own constitution, independently elected president and armed forces. It has not formally renounced its claim to the mainland, but ROC government publications have increasingly downplayed it.[110]

 

Internationally, there is controversy on whether the ROC still exists as a state or a defunct state per international law due to the lack of wide diplomatic recognition. In a poll of Taiwanese aged 20 and older taken by TVBS in March 2009, a majority of 64% opted for the "status quo", while 19% favoured "independence" and 5% favoured "unification".[111]

Relations with the PRC

 

The political environment is complicated by the potential for military conflict should Taiwan declare de jure independence; it is the official PRC policy to use force to ensure unification if peaceful unification is no longer possible, as stated in its anti-secession law, and for this reason there are substantial military installations on the Fujian coast.[112][113][114][115][116]

 

On 29 April 2005, Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan travelled to Beijing and met with Communist Party of China (CPC) Secretary-General Hu Jintao,[117] the first meeting between the leaders of the two parties since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. On 11 February 2014, Mainland Affairs Council Head Wang Yu-chi travelled to Nanjing and met with Taiwan Affairs Office Head Zhang Zhijun, the first meeting between high-ranking officials from either side.[118] Zhang paid a reciprocal visit to Taiwan and met Wang on 25 June 2014, making Zhang the first minister-level PRC official to ever visit Taiwan.[119] On 7 November 2015, Ma Ying-jeou (in his capacity as Leader of Taiwan) and Xi Jinping (in his capacity as Leader of Mainland China) travelled to Singapore and met up,[120] marking the highest-level exchange between the two sides since 1949.

Dropping downgrade into Two Harbors, Minnesota a trainload of BFT - blast furnace trim in older 1950 vintage cars smokes it up with retainers set down the 2.9% grade in the last beams of sunlight of the day 10-24-17.

OK, so I'm overreacting... Just bored and stressed out with the freaking thesis. I'm missing my cigarettes SO MUCH. And the dentist says I have to use a sort of plastic retainer on my teeth during sleep for the rest of my life. Nothing too serious. I guess it's PMS.

This grand old Beech tree in Shireoaks park is still looking alright and so far hasn't lost any limbs this winter.

A long unexpected Journey (4 mile hike through the woods) brought us to this nicely paved path with a beautiful sandstone retainer wall.

Dwarven Nobles and some of their retainers in one of Hradcanny's many great halls.

Ivy Retainer set Available at the Cosmopolitan Event in Second Life

and at my store at Overdrive Island when the event ends

Ivy growing on the side of a retainer wall.

Old Beech tree at Shireoaks park.

Playing with depth of field. Straight out of camera, no edits.

This grave can be found on the grounds of Isshin-ji Temple in Osaka.

 

Honda Tadatomo (1582 - June 3, 1615) was the second son of Tokugawa Ieyasu's famous retainer and general, Honda Tadakatsu. Following the battle of Sekigahara, in 1601 Tadakatsu was given the fief of Kuwana and Tadatomo was granted control of his father's old fief of Ōtaki in Kazusa Province (present-day Chiba Prefecture), valued at 100,000 koku.

 

Tadatomo was known to be a quite valiant on the battlefield and quite a capable commander when not under the influence of sake. His love of sake earned him the ire of Ieyasu during the Winter Siege of Osaka (Osaka Fuyu no Jin) in 1614, who blamed Tadatomo's drunkenness for a defeat. As a proud samurai from an illustrious house and living in the shadow and memory of a larger-than-life father, this criticism from the shogun himself must have hit a nerve with Tadatomo, who during the Summer Siege of Osaka (Osaka Natsu no Jin) in 1615, would make up for his previous blunder and save his reputation.

 

During the final day of fighting at Osaka in Tennōji, Tadatomo's forces were in the vanguard of the main Tokugawa body when the Toyotomi launched a vicious, last-ditch general assault. The Toyotomi tore into the Tokugawa forces to the point where Osaka samurai under the command of the famed Sanada Yukimura were pressing dangerously close to Ieyasu's headquarters. Seeing the perilous situation that his liege lord was in, Tadatomo regrouped his troops and led a hammering counter-attack on Yukimura's forces, blunting his advance and changing the tide of the battle. Neither Yukimura nor Tadatomo would survive this furious clash and a few hours later, the massive Osaka Castle keep would be engulfed in flames , bringing an end to the Toyotomi clan.

 

However, before he fell in battle, Tadatomo was said to be dying and he knew it. His love of sake had nearly ruined his career and was now supposedly taking his life. Shortly before he died, he allegedly said something along the lines, "Liquor should be banned. All those who stand before my grave will undoubtedly abhor it." As a result, Tadatomo's grave became a place of worship for alcoholics trying to go sober.

Note the door retainer!

Church of St. Mary & St. Gregory, Frithelstock Devon stands next to the ruins of the earlier 13c Augustinian priory of St Gregory founded c1220 for the repose of his soul by Sir Roger de Beauchamp (or Sir Robert de Bello Campo ) and endowed for a small community of Augustinian Canons. In c 1229 he donated a large part of it to Hartland Abbey in North Devon (These are the only substantial remains of a monastic house in Devon) Bishop Walter de Stapledon who was born at Annery, the great house near Monkleigh, increased the endowments and is considered a co-founder with Sir Robert.

The church building that followed was probably built for the families of the Priory retainers and the inhabitants of the village which grew up nearby.

The village name derives from the Anglo-Saxon Frithulac's Stocc.

The church was enlarged in the 15c and restored c1870.

Built of coursed rubble, it comprises a chancel, nave, west tower south aisle , south chapel / vestry and south porch.

The north wall survives from the 13c lit with early 14c windows

The chancel was rebuilt in the early 14c when the south aisle was added.

 

The four stage tower with studded door dated 1676 & topped with 18c pinnacles, was rebuilt in 15c . It has 6 medieval bells , one dedicated to the Archangels Michael and Gabriel.

The porch followed in the late 15c - it has a reset 12c stoup and 1741 sundial with the message "Umbra Sumus" - " we are shadows".- www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/T9jfV1tU68 Its 18c panelled door has a 14c sanctuary knocker.

 

The 1086 Domesday Survey lists Frelelestoch as one of the 79 Devonshire holdings of Robert, Count of Mortain half-brother of William the Conqueror. His tenant was Robert FitzIvo.

At the 16c dissolution of the monasteries, the prior relinquished possession of the priory and its demesne lands on 27 August 1536. and these passed through the hands of John Wynslade, Sir George Carew of Mohuns Ottery, and Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle being later owned by Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford, (son of the 1st prime minister), whose wife was Margaret Rolle, 15th Baroness Clinton 1781, daughter and sole heiress of Samuel Rolle 1719 of nearby Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe. The lands later descended to Margaret Rolle's heirs, the Barons Clinton.

Henry Stevens 1748 of the wealthy and influential family of Little Torrington, lived at Smythacott in the parish. He married Christiana Maria Rolle 1780 a sister of Henry Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle.1759 of Stevenstone. Their inscribed ledger stone survives in the floor of the south aisle

 

The 16c plank and studded priest' s door in the south wall is set in a chamfered pointed arch

The interior 15c waggon roofs have moulded ribs and floral-carved bosses. three early 14c bays to the west, between the nave and south aisle, have crocketed canopies over image niches, www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/X2223120dp and foliate-carved capitals including Green Man and vine trail. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/Z69Ci0Es30

The plasterwork Royal Arms of Charles ll on the north nave wall, framed by Corinthian columns are by John Abbot of Culleigh and dated 1677 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/A10wDt5r9Q

The late 15c / early 16c bench ends and fronts in choir and south east chapel; are carved with tracery patterns, foliate ribs, heraldry, which include the arms of Hartland Abbey (owner of the Priory) and crowned double-rose of Henry VII, Instruments of the Passion, crown of thorns figures including man with liripipe; There is also the figure of a hart which recalls our connection with Hartland Abbey and the two heads of ecclesiastics facing each other with their tongues out. This is said to be an allusion to a dispute between the Bishop of Exeter and the Prior of Frithelstock in the Middle Ages. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/vde86J2L9x

 

The late 17c Jacobean pulpit may have been brought here from another church. - it has reeded pilasters framing blind arches with egg and dart carving to architraves, reset on late 19c base. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/2rs1VDYJvN

The 13c quatrefoil-shaped font with cabled herringbone decoration to stem; reset on late 19c base. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/42K74LcDZF

The late 18c west screen to the tower has 3 pointed-arched doorways and panelled doors. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/16C1T2Q4G9

2025 UPDATE - FUNDRAISING IS ONGOING FOR REPAIRS TO THE TOWER (ABOUT £300,.000 IS NEEDED)

Roger A Smith CCL www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5350535

Working on cleaning my teeth a little better. I’ve always tried to be thorough but I hate anything less than white so polish polish polish.

A perfect example of the smaller type of fortified manor house, Penhow was developed from a heavily-built keep necessary to protect the knightly retainers of the local earl, who lived in almost impregnable majesty at nearby Chepstow Castle. This great Norman stronghold and bridgehead into Wales was the first castle with a stone keep to be built in Britain by the conquering Normans in 1070. "Knight's Fee" manors and castles like Penhow were established to protect the outlying farmlands and give advance warning of any Welsh uprising. The area that is now known as Gwent was settled by families that had come over from France with or in the wake of William the Conqueror, and we know that Sir Roger de St Maur was at Penhow by 1129, for he witnessed the charter that founded the priory of Monmouth in that year. In return for the task of keeping down the Welsh, providing a quota of men for guard duty at Chepstow every month, and for supplying one man mounted on a horse in times of War, Sir Roger was permitted to usurp the Manor of Penhow from its native Welsh prince, and gain a toehold on the feudal ladder. Sir Roger's home was a cold stone Pele tower that stood alone on its rocky knoll, and directly overlooked the conquered natives in their 'Welshry' at Talgarth. It was the first home in Britain of a family destined to become one of the greatest in the land.

 

Source: www.castlewales.com/penhow.html

For TOTW: Tiny Words

 

For tHe VeNt: Anything but blood? Jamie rocks.

 

Round 2 bitches.

 

I wore braces as a teenager. I didn’t wear my retainer. My stupid teeth shifted back to their dumb ass original placement. And at the age of 31, single father, full blown adult, very much a MAN, in charge of many people at my job, I today got my braces on.

 

Bam!!!

 

A 31-year-old man with braces. Suck it baby.

 

But I couldn’t help but think I could pull the “cute” look off. Some girls dig the braces look. Or at least I heard that when I was 17. My kid thinks they are hilarious. Almost scary.

 

This reminds me back when I was a teenager. A high school kid. Those were by far the worst years of my life.

 

I was always a quiet kid in high school. I walked around in fear. I kept to myself. I didn’t understand anything. I was petrified of the other kids. I hated life. I was confused. I didn’t understand my penis any more than did I understand these girls I was suddenly much attracted to.

 

It was so confusing. I hated all those fucks I was surrounded by everyday. High school for me was a complete nightmare. I was unhappy, confused, and dorky. I didn’t have much friends. And the friends I did have were nerds like me. I guess I wasn’t a “nerd” in the true sense of the word, but I sure was quiet. I hated the peer pressure. I hated the assholes that seemed to rule me till I got out of high school.

 

I’m 31 now. I’m an adult. I’m so far removed from that high school horseshit. I love being 31. My teenage years were so confusing and fucked up. I hated every minute of it. Seriously.

 

And it’s so funny. People that I meet right now in my life that LOVED high school typically end up to be losers and people who HATED high school typically end up to be rock stars.

 

Not true across the board, but that’s just my experience.

 

High school kids can suck my cock. They are usually immature dickwads who are a pain in my ass.

 

In any case, here I am with my BRAND NEW braces looking like a total high school kid. By next year my teeth will be PERFECTLY straight.

 

I CAN’T WAIT!!!!! Actually it sucks right now. I have a headache. My teeth hurt. I can’t eat carrots or hard nuts anymore (my favorite snack foods?).

 

Yeah…It’s worth it.

 

STRAIGHT TEETH HERE I COME!!

 

This time I’ll wear my retainer when I’m done. Fuck me for not doing it the first time I had braces. This time it’s costing my $6000 out of pocket.

 

ARGHGHHGHGHHHGHGHHGHGHHGHG!!!!

 

June 2nd, 2009

*=lapse

I hate this but it kept going wrong and Lightroom was playing up and I have a million other things (that are wayyy more important!) to do.

 

The is the beginning of my kinda theme week. I'm doing a week of cliche 365 shots, the ones that you see so many of in the pool. I'm not sure who did any of them first but they've all since been done hundreds of times. With only a couple of months left I thought I should make sure to include them all in my set!

This is where the 47 Rōnin of Akō, along with their lord, Asano Naganori, are interred. Sengaku-ji is located in the Takanawa are of Minato-ku, Tokyo, near Shinagawa Station.

 

Ōishi Kuranosuke was the chief retainer of the Asano clan during the turmoil associated with the 47 Rōnin incident, in which the feudal lord, Asano Naganori, attacked and wounded Kira Yoshinaka within Edo Castle. As drawing a weapon within the shogun's castle was a capital offence, Asano was sentenced to commit seppuku the same day.

 

As a result of Asano's impulsive behavior, the Shogunate disbanded the Asano clan and seized their lands. Ōishi and 46 other former Asano retainers waited and unleashed their misguided revenge on Kira, attacking his home in the dead of night in December 1703, killing his body guards as well as taking his head and placing it in front of Asano's tomb in Sengaku-ji Temple in Takanawa, Tokyo.

 

All the Akō rōnin were sentenced to death by seppuku (harakiri). Actually, recent scholarship is saying that the rōnin may have not been allowed the honor of death by seppuku, but were actually beheaded like common criminals. The promise of the right of death by seppuku may have been a sugar-coated lie told by the shogunate to help the public more easily swallow the death sentence imposed on the Akō rōnin.

 

Anyway, the loyalty that these guys showed to their foolish lord by committing what can only be described as what me and some of my friends refer to as a feudal "drive-by"- Japanese style, has been lauded by the Japanese public ever since. The facts behind the actual events have been buried in the countless puppet and kabuki plays as well as movies that have been made about this.

 

I'm not a terribly big fan of Asano Naganori, nor do I think the Akō rōnin were particularly "brave" by carrying out a night attack after a party and fighting a small group of drunk bodyguards and taking the head of a feeble old man. But, this perspective is from modern, western eyes. In reality, night attacks of this nature have always been a staple of samurai warfare, being documented since the Heian period. As much as I don't partake in the 47 Rōnin Kool Aid drinking parties, I do admit to enjoying watching a good fictional film or kabuki play about these guys.

La 11ème Convention Manga Geek du Centre Bretagne à Pontivy : Rencontre avec White-haired Cloud Retainer du manga Genshin Impact.

This was taken at the Glencoe Campground in Sturgis during the motorcycle rally. Our friend Kirk about had the paint washed off his bike. He kept taking it back for another wash.

dr. vlakova: an elegant, driven, no-nonsense evil scientist, working for the brotherhood of makuta (on retainer, though this hasn't stopped her from referring to herself as "makuta vlakova" occasionally in conversation and on her business cards) alongside mutran. not typically a people person, she has a soft spot for her homunculus, zygor (not that she'd let anyone else see it, reputation and all that)

 

zygor (pronounced zee-gor): a homunculus and vlakova's first successful attempt at creating life back during childhood. energetic, friendly, and clumsy, zygor was originally the pet vlakova was never allowed to have, and is supposed to be the doctor's lab assistant... if not for the fact that his massive eye is constantly distracted by shiny things due to his childlike nature. he also has a tendency to wander off when the pair go out in public, much to her frustration.

 

for mitch henry's two-of-a-kind contest. two complimentary characters. tried to think of something less obvious than "opposite elements" or "x and y things that go together," so i wound up on a mad scientist and their creation. also i finally got to use that stupid soccer ball and nestle top for something and that makes me happy. additional photos on my page.

Fresh From my Garden!!!

The unusually warm weather this season ensured that pockets of autumn foliage remained well into mid-December here in Tokyo. This was taken at Sengaku-ji.

 

This is where the 47 Rōnin of Akō, along with their lord, Asano Naganori, are interred. Sengaku-ji is located in the Takanawa are of Minato-ku, Tokyo, near Shinagawa Station.

 

Ōishi Kuranosuke was the chief retainer of the Asano clan during the turmoil associated with the 47 Rōnin incident, in which the feudal lord, Asano Naganori, attacked and wounded Kira Yoshinaka within Edo Castle. As drawing a weapon within the shogun's castle was a capital offence, Asano was sentenced to commit seppuku the same day.

 

As a result of Asano's impulsive behavior, the Shogunate disbanded the Asano clan and seized their lands. Ōishi and 46 other former Asano retainers waited and unleashed their misguided revenge on Kira, attacking his home in the dead of night in December 1703, killing his body guards as well as taking his head and placing it in front of Asano's tomb in Sengaku-ji Temple in Takanawa, Tokyo.

 

All the Akō rōnin were sentenced to death by seppuku (harakiri). Actually, recent scholarship is saying that the rōnin may have not been allowed the honor of death by seppuku, but were actually beheaded like common criminals. The promise of the right of death by seppuku may have been a sugar-coated lie told by the shogunate to help the public more easily swallow the death sentence imposed on the Akō rōnin.

 

Anyway, the loyalty that these guys showed to their foolish lord by committing what can only be described as what me and some of my friends refer to as a feudal "drive-by"- Japanese style, has been lauded by the Japanese public ever since. The facts behind the actual events have been buried in the countless puppet and kabuki plays as well as movies that have been made about this.

 

I'm not a terribly big fan of Asano Naganori, nor do I think the Akō rōnin were particularly "brave" by carrying out a night attack after a party and fighting a small group of drunk bodyguards and taking the head of a feeble old man. But, this perspective is from modern, western eyes. In reality, night attacks of this nature have always been a staple of samurai warfare, being documented since the Heian period. As much as I don't partake in the 47 Rōnin Kool Aid drinking parties, I do admit to enjoying watching a good fictional film or kabuki play about these guys.

Aboriginal History of Wilcannia:

 

Wilcannia is located on the Darling River, about halfway between Bourke and Wentworth. The river is known as Barka by the local Aboriginal people or Barkandji, literally people belonging to the Barka, and it is surrounded on all sides by Barkandji speaking people. The people from along the Barka and varying distances either side from near Bourke down to Wentworth all recognised the Barkandji language as their primary language, but they were divided into subgroups with different dialects of this one language. The Barkandji language is very different from all the neighbouring languages including the adjoining Ngiyampaa/Ngemba to the east, the Kulin, and Murray River languages to the south, and the Yardli and Thura-Yura language groups to the west and north.

 

Barkandji have a unique culture and depended heavily on the grinding or pounding of seeds on large grinding dishes or mortars and pestles, such as grass, portulaca, and acacia seeds. In the riverine areas, there is a strong emphasis on aquatic plant food tubers and corms, and fish, yabbies, turtles, mussels, and shrimps as well as water birds and their eggs. Insect foods were also important, such as parti or witchetty grubs along the rivers and creeks, and termite larvae in the Mallee country. Large and small canoes were cut out, necessitating ground edge axes, and string manufacture for fish nets, hunting nets, bags, and belts was an important part of the culture. The Wilcannia area still shows tangible evidence of traditional life in the form of canoe trees, coolamon trees, middens, heat retainer ovens, ashy deposits, stone tool quarries and artefacts.

 

Thomas Mitchell led the first exploring party to reach Wilcannia and gave the Barkandji their first unpleasant taste of what was to come. Mitchell travelled via the Bogan to the Darling River near Bourke and then down the river to Wilcannia then Menindee, reaching it in July 1835. Mitchell was harassed by Barkandji as he did not understand that he had to properly negotiate permission for use of water, grass, land to camp on etc., and in addition his men were abusing women behind his back and breaking all the rules. He gave them names such as the Fire Eaters and the Spitting Tribe as they tried to warn him off. His comments show that the Barkandji groups he met occupied "different portions of the river", and that they owned the resources in their territories including the water in the river. The exclusive possession enjoyed by the Barkandji and the need to obtain permission before using any of their resources is demonstrated by the following comment about the "Spitting Tribe" from the river near Wilcannia:

 

"The Spitting Tribe desired our men to pour out the water from their buckets, as if it had belonged to them; digging, at the same time a hole in the ground to receive it when poured out; and I have more than once seen a river chief, on receiving a tomahawk, point to the stream and signify that we were then at liberty to take water from it, so strongly were they possessed with the notion that the water was their own"

 

A hill 15 kilometres north of Wilcannia was named Mount Murchison by Mitchell and this became the name of the very large original station that included the location that was to become Wilcannia township.

 

In 1862 the area northwest of Mount Murchison Station was still frontier country with continual conflict. Frederic Bonney was based at Mount Murchison homestead and then nearby Momba homestead from 1865 to 1881 and he bluntly states in his notebooks that in this period "natives killed by settlers - shot like dogs"

 

Bonney recorded extensive detail about the lives, language, culture, and personalities of the Aboriginal people at Mount Murchison/Momba and left us with extremely significant series of photos of Aboriginal people taken in this period. He does not elaborate about the way the station was set up except for his comment above. Frederic Bonney not only respected and looked after the local people but he sympathised with them, worked with them, and respected them. The Bonney papers and photographs are a treasure of information about the Aboriginal people living there between 1865 and 1881. Bonney published a paper in 1884 but long after he had returned to England to live he campaigned for the better treatment of the Aboriginal people, and he tried to educate the public about the complexity of Aboriginal culture.

 

Bonney names about 44 individual Aboriginal people living at Momba in this period, and one group photo from the same period shows a total of 38 people. Descendants of some of the people Bonney describes still live in Wilcannia and surrounding areas today.

 

Aboriginal people worked on Moomba and Mount Murchison Station, and from very early times fringe camps grew up around Wilcannia. The land straight across the River from the Wilcannia post office was gazetted as an Aboriginal Reserve, and this became the nucleus of a very large fringe camp that grew into a substantial settlement spaced out along the river bank in the 1930s to the 1970s. By 1953 the Aboriginal Welfare Board had built a series of 14 barrack-like and inappropriately designed houses in an enlarged reserve, now an attractive tree lined settlement known as the Mission (although never a mission it was beside a Catholic School and clinic, thus the name). Today Aboriginal people are the majority of the population of the vibrant, creative, and culturally active town of Wilcannia, and the main users of the post office facilities.

 

Wilcannia History:

 

The first secure pastoralists at Mount Murchison were the brothers Hugh and Bushby Jamieson of Mildura Station on the Murray, who in 1856 took up Tallandra and Moorabin blocks, later extended with other blocks and named Mount Murchison Station. Captain Cadell's paddlesteamer Albury was the first to travel up the Darling, landing flour and other stores for the Jamiesons at Mount Murchison in February 1859. The Albury then loaded 100 bales of wool from their woolshed and brought it down to Adelaide. At this time there were no other stations on the Darling between Mt Murchison and Fort Bourke. A little later:

 

"An enterprising attempt has just been made by Mr. Hugh Jamieson, of Mount Murchison, to bring fat sheep speedily to Adelaide. Mr. Jamieson having chartered Captain Cadell's steamer, Albury, that vessel was prepared, and received on board at Mildura 550 fine fat sheep. These were landed at Moorundee last Tuesday, after a rapid passage of two days, all the sheep being in splendid condition when put ashore"

 

Jamiesons sold in 1864 to Robert Barr Smith and Ross Reid from Adelaide. The brothers Edward and Frederic Bonney were leasing some adjacent blocks and possibly worked at Mount Murchison for these owners. In 1875 they bought the Mount Murchison/Momba complex, one of the largest stations in New South Wale. In 1865 it was known as Mount Murchison, in 1881 it was all known as Momba, later splitting into smaller stations. The original Mount Murchison Station homestead block was also known as Head Station or Karannia, the Barkandji name for the area just north of the town near where the Paroo River comes into the Barka. The original Mount Murchison woolshed was located on what is now Baker Park, Wilcannia, which is adjacent to the current Post Office.

 

The site of Wilcannia was selected on Mount Murchison Station in 1864 by John Chadwick Woore, who was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands of the Albert District in 1863 and was based at Wilcannia. The town was proclaimed in 1866 and in the 1870s it became a coaching centre for prospectors exploiting the region's gold, copper, silver, and opal resources, and the administrative, service, and shipping centre for the pastoral industry. Wilcannia was incorporated as a municipality in 1881, and around this time it became New South Wales biggest inland port and Australia's third largest inland port (after Echuca Victoria and Morgan South Australia). 'The Queen of the River' or 'Queen City of the West'. At the height of its prosperity around 1880, the town boasted a population of 3,000. According to the Register of the National Estate, during 1887 alone, 222 steamers took on 26,550 tonnes of wool and other goods at Wilcannia wharves. The value of goods coming down the Darling River in 1884 was 1,359,786 pounds, and included over 30,000 bales of wool. The customs house, another Wilcannia stone building now demolished, located immediately between the Post office and the river bank and wharfs, took 17,544 pounds in customs duties in 1889. Paddlesteamers gradually declined, particularly after the 1920s, although a few continued to trade up and down the river into the 1940's, still remembered by elderly Wilcannia residents.

 

Wilcannia in the 1870s and into the 1900s was the centre of the pastoral and mining boom of the far west of New South Wales, and it was the centre of the paddlesteamer river trade from the Upper Darling to the Murray River and outlets such as Adelaide and Melbourne. The frequent dry seasons and lack of water in the river led to other methods of transporting goods being used, such as camel trains, but when the water came down the river trade always returned. The river trade built Wilcannia's fine buildings, but it was also its undoing, as the New South Wales government intervened to reduce the river trade because goods were moving to and from Adelaide and Melbourne, not Sydney.

 

Plans to improve navigation on the river were suggested in 1859 after Captain Cadell's first successful voyage up the Darling that was followed by other paddlesteamers. Cadell gave evidence at a New South Wales Select Committee that the Darling would be become reliable for boats if a system of locks were built at very reasonable cost that would hold back water during the drier seasons. The plans to build locks along the Darling River to make navigation more consistent were investigated again and again, but were not realised because the New South Wales government believed trade would benefit Victoria and South Australia.

 

After the opening of the Sydney to Bourke railway line in 1885, Wilcannia lost its status as the major commercial centre of the Darling River. The trade from the far North West New South Wales then tended to go to the railhead at Bourke and straight to Sydney. There were plans in the 1880s for the railway to be run from Cobar to Wilcannia, however this plan was continuously put off. Plans for a railway to Wilcannia continued to be made throughout the 1890's and early 1900's, and including a proposal from Cobar to Broken Hill then linking to South Australia as the Great Western Railway. In 1907 "a large petition was forwarded to Sydney from Wilcannia for presentation to the Premier urging immediate construction of the Cobar-Wilcannia Railway, and subsequent extension to Broken Hill".

 

The New South Wales government attempt to stop trade leaking out of the state resulted in their refusal to build a railway to Wilcannia (as goods tended to go to Wilcannia and down the river), or to extend the railway to South Australia for the same reasons. The bend in the river on the north side of town celebrates this government intransigence by its name "Iron Pole Bend", the iron pole said to have been placed at the surveyed location of the proposed railway bridge. New South Wales eventually built a railway through the low population Ivanhoe route to the south of Wilcannia reaching Broken Hill in 1927, and even then it stopped at Broken Hill and did not join the South Australian line until 1970. The link between Broken Hill and the South Australian railway was provided from 1884 to 1970 by the narrow gauge private railway 'the Silverton Tramway', which also took trade from Wilcannia.

 

The combination of missing out on the railway and locking of the river, the severe drought on 1900 - 1901, and the damage to the pastoral economy by drought, rabbits, and over grazing, led to a down turn in Wilcannia's prospects, leaving the fine stone buildings such as the post office languishing as tangible reminders of a time when Wilcannia was known as the "Queen City of the West" and was the largest inland port in New South Wales and the third largest inland port in Australia.

 

Post Office History:

 

During the 1850s, postal services became more regular, and the great colonial investment in postal infrastructure was underway. From the 1850s, each major rural centre had a postmaster of its own as the post office became a symbol of the presence of civilisation in many outback towns. Government architects built substantial post offices in provincial towns as statements of the authority and presence of the government. The original Wilcannia Post Office was established in 1860 under the name of Mount Murchison, the name was later officially changed to Wilcannia in 1868.

 

The Wilcannia Post Office and Post Master's Residence were designed by the Colonial Architect James Barnet, the signed plan being forwarded to Wilcannia in 1878. The Post Office and Residence were part of an official precinct in Wilcannia, with the courthouse (1880), gaol (1880), and police residence (1880) built across the road and one block south. In 1876 £1,500 was allocated to the post office project. Tenders were called in August 1878 and the builder D. Baillie accepted to erect the post office, and at the same time as the builder for the Court House, Lock-Up Gaol, and Police buildings.

 

A further £3,100 of consolidated revenue was allocated to the post office and £8,200 to the courthouse and watch house in 1879. By March 1979 the post office was "in course of erection". The complex was completed by 1880, succeeding the post office set up on Mount Murchison Station in 1860 and a second weatherboard building that was used from 1866.

 

James Johnstone Barnet (1827 - 1904) was made acting Colonial Architect in 1862 and appointed Colonial Architect from 1865 - 1890. He was born in Scotland and studied in London under Charles Richardson, RIBA and William Dyce, Professor of Fine Arts at King's College, London. He was strongly influenced by Charles Robert Cockerell, leading classical theorist at the time and by the fine arts, particularly works of painters Claude Lorrain and JRM Turner. He arrived in Sydney in 1854 and worked as a self-employed builder. He served as Edmund Blacket's clerk of works on the foundations of the Randwick (Destitute Childrens') Asylum. Blacket then appointed Barnet as clerk-of-works on the Great Hall at Sydney University. By 1859 he was appointed second clerk of works at the Colonial Architect's Office and in 1861 was Acting Colonial Architect. Thus began a long career. He dominated public architecture in New South Wales, as the longest-serving Colonial Architect in Australian history. Until he resigned in 1890 his office undertook some 12,000 works, Barnet himself designing almost 1000. They included those edifices so vital to promoting communication, the law and safe sea arrivals in colonial Australia. Altogether there were 169 post and telegraph offices, 130 courthouses, 155 police buildings, 110 lockups and 20 lighthouses, including the present Macquarie Lighthouse on South Head, which replaced the earlier one designed by Francis Greenway. Barnet's vision for Sydney is most clearly seen in the Customs House at Circular Quay, the General Post Office in Martin Place, and the Lands Department and Colonial Secretary's Office in Bridge Street. There he applied the classicism he had absorbed in London, with a theatricality which came from his knowledge of art.

 

The substantial two storey attached post office residence faces the main street and more than doubles the size of the complex. This is unusual as Barnet tended to have residences on the first floor of the main building or at the rear. It relates to the remoteness and government determination to make the job attractive to the right post master, a government representative who had to be an honest employee and trusted by this remote community. It consists of four rooms on the ground floor; parlour, sitting room, kitchen, and servant's bedroom, and three bedrooms upstairs, plus various storage rooms, and a central staircase.

 

The new post office became the focal point of town, located in the main street and immediately adjacent to the wharves and customs house. In 1896 the iron bridge with lift span over the Darling River was completed and the east-west highway re-routed to go over the bridge and directly past the post office, from then on located on the busy corner of the main street and the highway. Descriptions include:

 

"the post and telegraph offices, together with the master's residence", are "both a substantial and ornamental piece of architecture"; "the post office is a very neat building indeed" with "white stone which seems to finely glisten among the dark foliage of the river timber"; "The colonnade of the post office is the Exchange of the town, and here all the business men meet daily and discuss the news of the district. Mails do not come in every day but when Her Majesty's mail coach is seen in front of the post-office there may all the people be seen gathered together. The Sydney and Melbourne papers are four days old when they reach Wilcannia, as the town is from 24 to 30 hours coaching from any railway terminus".

 

In 1890 the tender from R. B. Spiers to erect a "verandah and balcony etc" at the Post Office and Telegraph office was accepted, referring to the two storey verandah and balcony at the post office residence and possibly the small verandah on the side of the post office as well. Drawings from 1881 and 1888 show the single storey verandah of the residence, but a photo from 1894 clearly shows the two storey verandah. The two-storey verandah was added in response to the extreme climate, the wooden lined ceilings on both levels are an attempt to prevent the heat from penetrating onto the verandah, north facing wall, and windows. The two storey verandah was probably also designed by Barnet as he held the position of government architect until 1890 and its detail is similar to the 1889 Bourke post office verandah.

 

This Post Office building was in continuous use until 1997 as a post office, telegraph, then telephone exchange, and post master's residence. The post office service was then moved and the complex was used as a residence only until 2002. It became the post office again from 2013 and provides both postal and banking services for the town and surrounding stations.

 

The remoteness of Wilcannia also meant that the central post office performed a range of significant peripheral services, such as posting up government edicts and community notices, weather measurements and warnings, flood warnings and river heights, timetables and pick-up and drop-down place for coaches, mail coaches, and later mail trucks and buses. The mail coaches/mail trucks left the post office for the remote outback laden with mail, newspapers, groceries, spare parts, school lessons for outback children, and travellers (workers, family and friends and even occasionally nurses and church people). Mail coaches/mail trucks played a unique role enabling people to exist in the outback that cannot be underestimated. Mail trucks still operate out of Wilcannia delivering mail and parcels to the remote outback stations.

 

Source: New South Wales Heritage Register.

If you don't know by now, I broke a tooth a bit back... it was surely weakened by a filling that has been there forever, and possibly a smaller cavity working its way from underneath. The solution: a crown *growl* So I spent my afternoon numbed up, while Curtis grinded off the filling and bits of tooth needed to knock out of the way for the crown to attach. I _did_ get to geek out a bit, watching him "re-create" my tooth on the compy. _That_ was pretty cool!

 

[blogged elsewhere]

Beneath the iconic (and much photographed) gas holders at Washwood Heath old retainer 08762 slowly pushes back its train of rail sleepers as Freightliner 66558 heads past with 4O09, 10.09 Trafford Park - Southampton FLT.

 

The sleepers operation turned out to be quite slick in fact - as one fork-truck unloaded those being delivered another fork-truck further down the train was loading up new / recycled ones. Before we left a class 66 had arrived ready to take out the loaded train.

 

11th March 2014