Torii - Blog Posts
🏯 Building My Japanese-Inspired Minecraft Home! 🎌✨
Hey everyone! I’ve been working on planning my next Minecraft build, and I’m super excited (and a little nervous) about it. I’m attempting to create a Japanese traditional home with a U or C-shaped layout, featuring tatami rooms, a tea area, an open courtyard, and a cozy kitchen. 🍵🌿
I mapped out the floor plan in advance to make sure everything fits within my 28x17 block space (with maybe a pagoda-style roof? 🤔) It took some brainstorming, but I think I’ve got something solid!
I also used this floor planner tool to help visualize the build: 🔗 https://mcdesign.michd.me/
Now, all that’s left is to actually build it in Minecraft… which is the fun but possibly frustrating part. 😅 Wish me luck, and if you have any ideas for decor, materials, or small details, feel free to drop a comment!
🏯✨ ありがとう ~! ✨🏯
The New Year shrine visit: Meiji-jingû
A common New Year ritual in Japan is to go to a shrine, possibly a large one, a visit known as 初詣, hatsumôde. NHK reported that Meiji-jingû in particular was very busy. Of course, I would avoid that, so here we are with a more tranquil time, closer to the Autumn festival.
Meiji-jingû was, as its name suggests, founded to enshrine the spirit of Emperor Meiji after his death. The first Emperor of the post-Edo period presided over sweeping societal reforms, such as the abolishment of classes like the samurai, as Japan re-opened to the rest of the world and sought to catch up. The Imperial attachment is symbolised by the Chrysanthemum crests on the torii.
One of the things that can be wished for at Meiji-jingû is a happy marriage and family life, particularly at this dedicated spot with two camphor trees planted in 1920, linked with sacred rope - these are called "married trees", 夫婦楠 Meoto Kusu.
Sangaku Saturday #4
In the previous info post, we went over the debate on the religious aspect of sangaku, and the fact that the absence of prayers on these tablets was more puzzling to some than the mathematics. As such, the tablets are not ema prayer tablets, but donations, which usually don't feature prayers on them. Case in point, some consecrated sake and French wine seen at Meiji-jingû in 2016.
Beyond wishing for good fortune and health, such donations serve two very worldly purposes: to contribute to the life and prestige of the shrine or temple (having a famous contributor makes the shrine famous by association), and to advertise the donor in return, as their name is on display. See this large torii at Fushimi Inari Taisha paid for by TV Asahi (テレビ朝日).
With that in mind, Meijizen's cynical comment from 1673 that sangaku aim "to celebrate the mathematical genius of their authors" may not far from the truth. The authors of sangaku are looking to gain notoriety through the publicity that the shrine or temple provides. But was the bemused Meijizen the target audience?
More on that in a couple of weeks. Below the cut is the solution to last week's problem.
The solution to the first problem (below the cut in this post) is the key. Name K, L and M the intersections of the three circles with the horizontal line. Then, by using that previous result,
Indeed, as in that problem, we can construct three right triangles, ABH, ACI and BCJ and apply Pythagoras's theorem in each.
Now, it suffices to note that KL = KM + LM, so
or, dividing by 2*squareroot(pqr), we get the desired result:
Inverting and squaring this yields the formula for r:
This gives us the means to construct this figure on paper using a compass and a marked ruler. Having chosen two radii p and q and constructed the two large circles (remember that AB=p+q) and a line tangent to both, placing M and C is done after calculating the lengths IK=CM=r and IC=KM=2*sqrt(pr).