Somehow I missed thanking you for this - it adds to the interest to know more about the facts behind Gackt's cosplay character!
I'd read a bit about Kenshin and was impessed by the English language info on the Joetsu city website: dunno why it's there in English but the language quality is good and the material looks well researched. I was particularly struck by Kenshin's efforts to improve peasant life in his area. One example is that he apparently encouraged migrant workers to come to Echigo to grow more hemp, which grew easily in the area and could be sold at a high price in Kyoto; he then used the hemp money to buy rice (which didn't have such a high yield on the West coast), so that the native workers didn't have to break their backs trying to grow rice to pay the feudal tax (paid in rice).
Anyway, I thought having your history article to read was a good contrast with other posts - to my mental digestion, the fun posts are only more fun for a bit of brain-food between!
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-08-31 10:11 am (UTC)I'd read a bit about Kenshin and was impessed by the English language info on the Joetsu city website: dunno why it's there in English but the language quality is good and the material looks well researched. I was particularly struck by Kenshin's efforts to improve peasant life in his area. One example is that he apparently encouraged migrant workers to come to Echigo to grow more hemp, which grew easily in the area and could be sold at a high price in Kyoto; he then used the hemp money to buy rice (which didn't have such a high yield on the West coast), so that the native workers didn't have to break their backs trying to grow rice to pay the feudal tax (paid in rice).
Anyway, I thought having your history article to read was a good contrast with other posts - to my mental digestion, the fun posts are only more fun for a bit of brain-food between!