Trivia & Miscellaneous - 1

Hi guys! This is a trivia chapter, firstly to anybody who's reading, thank you so much. There's a lot to look forward to as the world around our boy Jinko is being built. I tend to keep the chapters within a 1000 words usually for the sake of attention span, so this story might stretch to around 70 chapters or so perchance. I really hope you'll continue reading and recommend the series to everyone! This chapter will be of Trivia, I think I will do one of these every 5 or 10 chapters, I haven't decided on that yet, but I thought giving a little hindsight with the culture and specific words that are used would help elevate the experience, so I'm doing just that! I will start with a couple facts of events that took place at the time then give facts about the characters we are familiar with. Here we go.

- Every location and said event in the story is real, the Tokugawa Shogunate were the leading military government of Japan until 1868. The Shinsengumi served the Kyoto Shogunate under them until 1869, both were abolished when Emperor Meiji took over with some help.

- The Boshin war immediately took place after the takeover with the Meiji coming out victorious.

- In 1877, Saigo Takamori, the one who put Emperor Meiji to power rebelled against the government with as much samurai help as possible (although many stayed loyal to the new government), but he died on September 24 ending the samurai class for good, this story is based around the time period of 3 months after that, where samurai who didn't participate in the rebel are still trying to find their place in society.

- "Gassho-zukuri" is the name of the building type of the houses in Shirakawa-go that makes it a tourist spot. They look really nice.

- Jinko's full name "Saitou Jinko (斎藤 仁子)" translates to a lot of things, it could mean "unified together" or "purity wisteria", personally I'm looking to both, but it can be stated as “The benevolent child of the purifying wisteria.” Which I thought would be perfect for a character who represents isolation with innate goodness.

- In Chapter 2 "A Friend To All Is A Friend To None" the word Tsuka-ito  is used, it's the Japanese name for handle cord, the cloth wrapped around a samurai's katana handle.

- Danjiki's name directly translate to Fasting, this is a reference to my close friend that he's physically based on.

- On the topic of based-on-characters, all of the main cast introduced so far is based on a close friend of mine, and so are their names. The pattern of important characters who are based on a close friend will continue, though their personalities might differ often. The same does not go for Jinko as he is someone who's not based on anybody particular.

- Danjiki's reasoning to leave Ainokura was comically "Mabu Sodas". This was a lemonade carbonated drink that was around from 1876 in Japan and it translates to Marble Sodas. The soda is still around and goes by the name Ramune.

- At the end of Chapter 2 Danjiki and Jinko share a moment of recollecting their interests with "Marumaru Chinbun". This was a newspaper caricature series at the time, kind of like a manga, which had political inneundos.

- In Chapter 2 Don't Look Back, or Should You? The character Tenmichi is introduced, her name directly translates to "The pathway to heaven".

- In Chapter 3 Formalities Aside, Please! We are introduced to Michinori and Tenkai. "Michinori" directly translates to "The one who follows the rightful path" while "Tenkai" means "Heaven's Door".

- You've probably realized by now, besides Danjiki and Jinko, the main cast's names are related in a way to either Heaven or to a Pathway. This is a coincidence.

- 3 of the 5 characters of the main cast have curly hair. Tenmichi, Michinori and Danjiki.

- In Chapter 3 Tenkai uses the word "loincloth", if you're not familiar with it, it was a type of underwear the men used to wear at the time, usually always being white in colour.

- In Chapter 4 A Conflict's Arrival, Tenmichi suggests to go and eat kakigori with Jinko after he pouts. Kakigori is an ice desert where ice is shaved into a bowl and flavoured syrup is poured on top of it. It's eaten in the summer but the joke is that Tenmichi wants to go eat it while it's freezing cold in Shirakawa-go, supposedly cause she's a food craze.

- Several notes are made of the rebel rider who came in Chapter 4, the first one is his horse's saddle colour being white and blue, this was the colour the Shinsengumi would use, same for their haori  being light blue which was a jacket they'd wear, and lastly he was wearing a Hachimaki, which is a headband the Shinsengumi would wear with the colour being white.

- Michinori mentions in Chapter 4 he's the most respected upcoming fighter, which is true. He has a lot of publicity, he's also the most good looking of the cast's men.

- In Chapter 5 Chase The Solitude, "Nagase's House" is mentioned, this place dates back to the Edo period and was home to generations of the Nagase family, who served as doctors to the powerful Maeda lords. It's currently a tourist spot in Shirakawa-go.

- All the main cast characters have a different accent, Japanese is a language that pronouncing words in different ways and adding prefixes like "no" changes the way your speech is perceived. Jinko speaks in a very hick Regional Japanese, exactly how we see him speak in English, this makes him sound like a person displaced from his home region or someone outside the formal city structure.

- Tenmichi speaks in the most common, casual form of Japanese today (similar to a young, urban speaker). This gives her a modern, sometimes excitable, and universally understood voice.

- Michinori uses keigo (honorific/polite speech) even when arguing. His vocabulary is often stiff and academic, highlighting his social standing and arrogance.

- Danjiki uses highly refined, historical aristocratic speech patterns, but layers it with modern profanity and intense sarcasm. This creates a deeply condescending and venomous tone.

- Tenkai speaks using rough, blunt, and often abbreviated delinquent language, marking him as an outsider or someone from a lower social class.

I think for now that's all the Trivia I can provide regarding the published chapters! Please look forward to reading Dream Seclusion.