First Letter from a Reader!!

(Background: In case you haven't heard, at the beginning of June, I began working as an editor/translator/reporter/photographer/designer at a tiny bilingual English/Japanese newspaper in Japantown called the Hokubei Mainichi News.)

I got my first reader response today for the article I wrote about the opening of a samurai exhibit at the Asian Art Museum. (You can read the article here)

I was forwarded an email by the main English editor this morning (the two of us do the two-page English section everyday) from a reader who wanted to know if the Nine-Planet Crest, the family crest of the Hosokawa (samurai lord) family, is based on a Hindu symbol called navagraha.

After I a little googling, I replied:

My information on the Hosokawa family crest came from Mr. Morihiro Hosokawa, the current head of the family. He told me the crest was bestowed upon his ancestors by Oda Nobunaga and that he believed the "Nine Planet Crest" came from India, so it does seem to correspond with the Navagraha you mentioned.

Assistant Curator of Japanese Art Melissa Rinne, of the Asian Art Museum agrees with this assumption. She said on the Asian Art Museum Blog, the crest "design actually derives from a concept in Indian cosmology known as the nine grahas." You can read the rest of the blog here

I hope this information helps.

Then, this afternoon I receive the person's response:

Thanks for your quick response and the great article on "Lord of the Samurais."
Since our grandparents came from Kyushu, we're especially interested in the exhibition.

Could you, please, put the article on the online edition of the Hokubei? It wasn't on there this morning. We'd like to share your article with others.

Thanks again for the wonderful coverage of the new Asian Art exhibition.

(and I sent them the link.)

Isn't that cool?? I'm so excited!!


P.S. I'm going to try and start blogging again. My friend Raiman inspired me with his great blog, raamenchan.com