Thursday, August 16, 2012

Personalities

I pointed out earlier that where was a story about three of the five greatest Japanese, which can be found in the front of Taiko (yes its worth $80).

What if the bird will not sing?

Oda Nobunaga: "Kill it."
Toyotomi Hideyoshi: "Make it want to sing."
Tokugawa Ieyasu: "Wait."

After reading Heartsie's  "The Right Game For Your Body Type" I am considering the parallels between the three body types, endomorph, mesomorph, and ectomorph.

Oda Nobunaga clearly fits the mesomorph description, in Taiko, is said to have been very athletic. "Kill it."

Toyotomi Hideyoshi clearly fits the ectomorph description, with his great intelligence and frail body.

Tokugawa Ieyasu fits into the endomorph category, he is said to have been a large man (for Japanese of the time).  I don't know how jovial he was, even after reading Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu by Stephan Turnbull, which is also a good book, but I think he was more fun than the other two.

In any case it is interesting how there are parallels and how great success can be achieved in many ways.

2 comments:

  1. Yeah, those three Japanese you mentioned (Oda, Toyotomi, and Tokugawa) were really, really cool. Who were the other 2 who made up the "Great 5"?

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    1. According to the introduction, in "Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu": "In the course of Japanese medieval and modern history there have been five great military administrators who by common consent stand out above the rest, numerous though the type has always been. Of these two lived in the twelfth century, Taira Kiyomori and Minamoto Yoritomo, the latter the founder of the institution of the Shogunate or Hereditary Military Dictatorship,..."

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