Heian Japan
Oct. 28th, 2021 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ndrosenOur club president was looking for a speaker for this week’s Toastmasters meeting, so I signed up, and proceeded to speak on “The Growth of Private Estates and Private Armies in Heian Japan,” reusing the title and some the content from a paper I wrote as a seventeen year old college sophomore taking a Japanese history course.
This seemed to go over well. I spoke while sitting in front of a computer, communicating with people by a Zoom-equivalent. The evaluator praised me for, among other things, my use of hand gestures, which I had not been aware of making.
As to the substance of talk, I began by quoting Gibbon that, had there not been a single barbarian in Europe, the West Roman Empire could not have survived, or would have survived without honor. Heian-kyo provides confirmation of a sort, as it never fell to external barbarians. Decadence, the appropriation of public land as private estates (which became not only tax-exempt but immune from all entry by imperial officials), and the development of relationships of vassalage between fighting man and lord led to Japan creating its own internal barbarians.
This seemed to go over well. I spoke while sitting in front of a computer, communicating with people by a Zoom-equivalent. The evaluator praised me for, among other things, my use of hand gestures, which I had not been aware of making.
As to the substance of talk, I began by quoting Gibbon that, had there not been a single barbarian in Europe, the West Roman Empire could not have survived, or would have survived without honor. Heian-kyo provides confirmation of a sort, as it never fell to external barbarians. Decadence, the appropriation of public land as private estates (which became not only tax-exempt but immune from all entry by imperial officials), and the development of relationships of vassalage between fighting man and lord led to Japan creating its own internal barbarians.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-30 01:28 am (UTC)Intersting. And perhaps a lesson for ourselves in modern times (if anyone ever did learn from history other than by falling flat on their faces and/or swords).
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Date: 2021-10-30 04:39 pm (UTC)I've only only attended one TM meeting. My best friend (former girlfriend and was best man at my wedding) suckered me into going, promised I wouldn't have to make a speech, and broke the promise by having people make impromptus in the form of a chain story (pretty much an Exquisite Corpse form of story telling). I was the last one to go. Well, I had a couple of decades experience in playing and running tabletop role-playing games, plus experience leading IT training classes, so thinking on my feet wasn't a problem. I took the story by the proverbial teeth, ran with it, brought it to a rousing conclusion using the mascot of the local NBA franchise - the Phoenix Suns' Gorilla - and not only got a standing ovation, got a little card award for Best Speech. And no bell dings.