At 11:04 PM 7/5/99 -0500, Scott Johnson wrote:

On Mon, 5 Jul 1999, William Morse wrote:

Hi all.
I'm doing a bit of research for a Ranma idea I'm playing around with as a 
respite from my current major work which will be posted sometime next week 
(God willing) Anyway I was hoping to pick the collective brains of the

FFML 

for some directions to go on this questions.

Can anyone think of a plausible explanation for a Japanese family (you

know 

which one) to be living in an insula in republican Rome?

The best (okay, only) thing I've been able to think of is that Soun and

his 

wife took the silk road but since I know next to nothing about Japanese 
history before Tales of the Genji I don't want to open up that can of

worms 

just yet.

It's pretty unlikely.  Keep in mind, first of all, that the oldest
recorded Japanese history is around 600 CE.  Mythological history
(unverified except through semi-legendary sources) goes a bit farther,
back to around 660 BC.  In either case, however, what existed at the time
would be barely recognizable as Japanese culture to a modern observer.
-- 
Scott Johnson |
zagyg@io.com  |       This space intentionally left blank.

	Ahem.. for what it's worth, Rome was founded in the
year 753 BC, using the Christian Era dating system. (side
note: using the Roman calender, next year, 2000 AD, would 
be the year 2754 AUC <"ab urbe condita," or "The Founding
of the City">

	As much as the Japanese would LIKE to brag about
having an ancient civilization, they simply don't have
one. So sorry. ^_^  Rome was founded some 1200 years
before the date Scott mentioned above, with lots of nice
_recorded_, non-mythical history that was and is clearly
documented. And the Greeks came before the Romans. Only
the Chinese and Indus Valley (India) civilizations are
older and have documentation to prove it. By the standards
of the Indians, Chinese, and the Roman/Greek empires,
we're ALL a bunch of Johnny-come-lately's. Heh.

	Now, according to the book "Samurai", by 
H. Paul Varley, archeological work in Japan has shown that
the Japanese had SOME sort of reasonably well organized
civilization by the 4th century CE (Christian Era). It 
wasn't fully recorded, however, and what little is known
comes from weapons, personal belongings, and figurines that
were found in burial mounds and tombs.

	Recorded history in Japan (according to the same
book) didn't really take off until China began to take an
interest in Japan sometime in the 6th century CE when, 
according to Mr. Varley, the Japanese "had succeeded in
forming a surprisingly similar replica, in miniature, of
the Grand Chinese Empire of East Asia."

	Altho I'd suspect that the Japanese would rather
have a national root canal operation than admit that.
Heheheh.

	Anyway, I hope these facts, gleaned from the
internet (www.askjeeves.com) and the book "Samurai"
have proved helpful.

	Take care.

	Ed Becerra

	"Dreamers may die, but the Dream is eternal.."