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UTUSN

(70,435 posts)
Sat Jan 14, 2023, 02:22 AM Jan 2023

Navy "art" - tourist knickknacks from ports of call

Last edited Tue Jan 17, 2023, 12:42 PM - Edit history (1)



So on Liberty in Japan - like, 50 years ago - was instantly attracted to the souvenir of this figurine of an old man reading a book with a load on his back, snapped it up, and at home my mother said it fit me perfectly - aspiration (the book) with a load on the back. So years later a cousin told me she was attracted to Japan and wanted to learn Japanese, and I gave it to her. Regretted it ever since and sporadically looked for it on eBay and Etsy, no luck for 50 years.

The other is a voodoo priestess from my second ship and a stop in Haiti. We went to a brandy factory, free samples, and to a demonstration of 7 young males and 7 young females, all dressed in white with red sashes, procession single file leading a goat on a leash, at the end of which they mimed sacrificing the goat. It was explained that whatever negative vibes had been transferred to the goat and expunged by the slaughter.

*** This week *FOUND* the man/book!





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Navy "art" - tourist knickknacks from ports of call (Original Post) UTUSN Jan 2023 OP
You found the first one? Hermit-The-Prog Jan 2023 #1
Yip, the one I gave away UTUSN Jan 2023 #2
That is cool! Reunited! Hermit-The-Prog Jan 2023 #3
The figure is a boy named Ninomiya Sontoku. Kablooie Jan 2023 #4
Wow, thanks! UTUSN Jan 2023 #5

Kablooie

(18,547 posts)
4. The figure is a boy named Ninomiya Sontoku.
Sat Jan 14, 2023, 04:55 AM
Jan 2023

Ninomiya Sontoku was a poor peasant from the Ashigarakami district of Kanagawa who lived in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Sontoku (whose actual name was Kinjiro) is revered as one of the great teachers and thought leaders of Japanese history.

UTUSN

(70,435 posts)
5. Wow, thanks!
Sat Jan 14, 2023, 05:38 AM
Jan 2023

Last edited Tue Jan 17, 2023, 12:23 PM - Edit history (6)

*****QUOTE******

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninomiya_Sontoku
Ninomiya Sontoku

.... Philosophy
Though he did not leave written philosophical work, his ideas were later transcribed by his disciples: Tomita Takayoshi, Fukuzumi Masae and Saitō Takayuki. Ninomiya combined three strands of traditional teachings — Buddhism, Shintōism and Confucianism — and transformed them into practical ethical principles that matured out of his experiences. He saw agriculture as the highest form of humanity because it was the cultivation of resources given by the Kami. ....

Popular culture
It is not uncommon to see statues of Ninomiya in or in front of Japanese schools, especially elementary schools. Typically they show him as a boy reading a book while walking and carrying firewood on his back. These statues depict popular stories that said Ninomiya was reading and studying every moment he could. ....

War loot
In October 1994, Rollins College, a small private liberal arts college in Winter Park, Florida, United States made international headlines when the government of Japan, per a request from Okinawa Prefecture, asked for the return of a statue that was taken as war loot. It was taken by Clinton C. Nichols, a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy and Rollins graduate, after the Battle of Okinawa. Nichols presented the statue of Ninomiya Sontoku in 1946 to then Rollins President Hamilton Holt who promised to keep it in the main lobby of the college's Warren Administration Building forever.[3]

At first, the college rejected the offer made by Okinawan officials, who suggested that a replica of the statue would be presented to the school if the original was returned. However, after consulting with the U.S. State Department and the college's board of trustees, then Rollins President Rita Bornstein accepted the offer. The statue was returned to Okinawa in 1995 in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.[4] In addition to providing the college with a replica of the original statue, the government of Okinawa and Rollins signed an "agreement of cooperation" that pledges to develop cooperative projects between the college and Shogaku Junior and Senior High School — where the original statue has been placed.[5]

*******UNQUOTE*****

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