A humble request

[leanne]

May I enquire of those dear to me, particularly kaifu and jenett if they might be willing to use their powers and knowledge for my purposes?

I am pretty well settled on an idea for a new SCA persona; I am thinking about a 1200s-1210s (Kamakura period) Japanese persona, theoretically from what is now (and was then, more or less, but called Hizen), Saga Prefecture. The interwebs is not being helpful with regards to finding any significant history of Saga in the 1200s; it's all later than that. The random reference to the Matsuratou clan in Wikipedia's Saga Prefecture entry turns up next to nothing on searches except that they might have been pirates; no other clans are listed by name.

I would be very grateful for any help -- not sure where to get started looking, and my inability to read Japanese is something I really, really need to fix one of these days.

Arigatou gozaimasu -- thank you so much. (:

And as a random piece of fun: bits of modern Saga dialect. (:

Comments

[kaifu]

Yes, Kamakura is probably the best time within the SCA's timeframe for doing any kind of plausible strong female persona - I have an article about women in the Kamakura that I'll email you.

The SCA requirement for Asian personae to be visiting European holdings is kind of a pain in the ass, especially before the Portugese showed up, but wandering off through Mongol territory from Hakata is as likely a way to get there as any, I'd say. It really was a quite well-connected trade port as far as ties to the rest of Asia go, and so you can always have intended to take a look at somewhere in China, Korea, or Mongol territory and then just kept going until you reached Europe. Travel Hint - "Mongol age" section of this article on the silk road.

[leanne]

Sweet, thank you! *goes to read more* (: Looks like I will definitely be digging into background info on Hakata. (:

[leanne]

I read through the article yesterday! Really interesting. It sounds like I can probably choose to run a persona that's in a slightly later time period. The original suggestion to me had been from the Genpei War to the Jokyu Disturbance. From that article, it sounds like I could probably have a strong female persona up until the Mongol invasions without too much trouble. Which means more available research material! (:

I'll definitely be requesting the book on Hakata from the library as soon as I get back from AnimeExpo. For my reference, is that HAkata or haKAta? I want to read it as HAkata.

[kaifu]

I thought it was a pretty cool article, I'm glad it helped.

As for Hakata, all three syllables have about equal stress.