Life is a journey.
To accompany you on your journey…
Welcome to Miamott’s journey.
This is the official site of ” ONCE UPON A TIME CATS TAROT and “Ukiyo-e cats” which jumped out of the frame of tarot cards. There, various unique cats including ” Miamott, THE FOOL card, are living. ……or rather, they are traveling.
Life is like a journey.
Once upon a time in the Edo period, there was a man who wrote, “The months and days are the travellers of eternity. The years that come and go are also voyagers.”
“The months and days” at the beginning of this article refers, of course, to the calendar and time…but if we dig a little deeper, we can also think of it as literally referring to the “moon” and the “sun”…. Because “time” is created by the earth, a star, revolving around the sun with its companion, the moon.
In this sense, the earth is truly the “the travellers of eternity”…in other words, it may be the eternal traveler.
You and I will all continue to “journey” aboard such a globe-trotter.
If you like, please bring your favorite ” Ukiyo-e cats ” along on your journey.
It might be useful for something, or it might just be cute… (lol)
What one feels at the end of the journey
People who have completed a long journey seem to have a common “awareness” that has been shared by people from all over the world since ancient times, regardless of whether they are in the East or the West. They feel miracles, the supernatural, enlightenment, truth…etc., and become aware of their own smallness as well as the existence that has been called “God” or “Creator.
In the Chinese story “Journey to the West,” there is an episode in which Sun Wukong thought he was flying around at super speed in a muscular cloud, but he ended up in the hands of the Buddha… Perhaps it is the same thing. It may be the same thing. It seems as if he is traveling far away, but in fact, he is going around the same place.
Seasons that go around, causes and effects that go around, history that goes around…. People have always had the same worries, the same greed, the same joys and missteps, and when they finally seem to see something, they may have completed their life’s journey.
Suits are connected to the four seasons and the basis of the Japanese sense of beauty.
There are four suits of Tarot, just like playing cards.
The clubs, hearts, diamonds, and spades of a playing card correspond to the wands, cups, pentacles, and swords of the tarot, respectively.
And that, when you think about it, seems to signify the four seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter.
- The wand that gives a sense of budding clubs and the will to depart is “spring”.
- Hearts and cups symbolize women and love, and “summer” the season of love and growth.
- Diamonds and pentacles symbolize rewards and fruits, and the fruitful season “autumn”.
- Spades and swords symbolize power and the destruction of the next creation, “winter.”
Speaking of seasons, Japan is a country of four splendid seasons, a rarity in the world. A sense of seasonality is a major influence on Japanese culture and Japanese thought. In addition, the “way of dealing with nature” and the “view of impermanence,” which sees beauty in the ever-changing nature, are unique to the Japanese way of thinking, different not only from the West, but also from China and the Korean peninsula.
In ” Miamott’s Journey ” we hope to develop our own worldview by incorporating many Eastern and Japanese ideas and worldviews into the concept of tarot, which was developed in the West.
Relationship to the elements that make up this world
This is a bit philosophical, but have you ever wondered what elements make up this world?
In ” Team Miamott’s Journey“, when we were talking about the sign of the “four suits” of cards and tarot and the “four seasons,” we realized that they are also connected to the four elements, as has been said for a long time.
Relationship with the four elements that were major in ancient Greece, Rome, etc.
The four elements have been conscious in ancient Greece and Rome, in the Islamic world, and in India. Fire, water, earth, wind (air), these are the so-called “four elements”, which are wands, cups, pentacles, and swords, respectively….
Aristotle further emphasized “properties” in his thought. These are heat, humidity, dryness, and coldness.
It could also be likened to spring, summer, fall, and winter, and would also be signed by the direction.
Assigning a single Chinese characters (word) to each of them resulted in the following table.
| suit | symbol | mind | chemical element | nature | season | object being sought | direction |
| wand | pilgrim’s staff | meaning | fire | heat | spring | honor | eastern Japan (esp. Kamakura or Edo, from perspective of Kyoto or Nara) |
| cup (drinking vessel, measure, brassiere, prize, etc.) | counter for ships, octopuses and squid | the way things really are | water (esp. cool, fresh water, e.g. drinking water) | dampness | summer | good | south |
| pentacle | one-thousandth of a kan (as a unit of currency) | will | (in Japanese music) basic phrase (usu. repetitive) | drying | autumn | (in broth) pieces of meat, vegetable, etc. | west |
| sword | sword (originally esp. a doubled-edged sword) | philosophy | unsewn part of a hanging sleeve on a traditional Japanese woman’s garment | cold | winter | wisdom | north |
What do you think? Hopefully this information will help guide you on your journey.
However, this table is still incomplete.
We invite you to share with us what you feel on your journey.
And the fifth element is…
Then, upon further examination, I began to sense a “fifth element” that did not fit into the four elements or the four suits.
Those who do not doubt that there are four directions, east, west, north, south, and south, will be surprised when they return to their starting point from the west if they continue their journey to the east. There are things that are invisible to the eyes of people and animals on earth, but can be seen from a bird’s eye view with the eyes of the universe, aren’t there?
It is exactly like the palm of the Buddha’s hand that Sun Wukong traveled in, but in Buddhist thought, the fifth element has long been considered the “five great” elements.
The “Five Great Rings” that were major in ancient Indian Buddhism.
In ancient Buddhism, the fifth element in addition to the four elements (fire, water, earth, and wind) was considered to be “sky. Fire, water, earth, wind, and sky are called the “five elements” or “five rings. This is where the original five rings of the “Book of Five Rings,” to which Musashi Miyamoto likened his swordsmanship, were originally written.
Interesting, don’t you think? And how very Indian.
It was an Indian mathematician who discovered the number “0,” and it was this idea of counting nothingness as a number that led to a great development for mankind.
The sky is “nothingness” and the sky is also “space.
Literally, what we can see from a cosmic perspective is not easily conceived of on Earth.
In the near future, human beings will travel to outer space, but will we be able to hold the “sky” in our hands? Perhaps the “sky” will slip through the hands of those who can only see what they can see, and disappear somewhere.
Surprisingly, the cat might find it first.
