User:Tenmei/Sandbox/Awaji

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3. When there are two or more "Navbox" templates on a page, the opening default ensures that all are "closed"; however, when there is only one "Navbox" template on the page, the default is "open" or expanded. I want to modify the default setting for the templates identified above at #2. How can I create a "closed" default setting so that for the most part, there is only a colored bar at the bottom of the page - "open" only when specifically wanted or needed? See -- Wikipedia:Collapsible tables? I can and did read the words, but their cumulative meaning escapes me. I want to create a family tree for Isaac Titsingh from Nederland's Patriciaat (1923), but in my view, it would be unwelcome and over-powering unless the default is collapsed.

  • 2 April 2008

Contents

[edit] Museums

Encyclopædia Britannica Article, p. 121 of 168. History > Early modern Japan (1550–1850) > The last years of the bakuhan > The Tempo reforms

    • Thus beset by crises in both domestic and foreign affairs, the chief senior councillor (tairo), Mizuno Tadakuni, instituted the Tempo reforms, named for the Tempo era (1830–44). Based on the earlier Kohyo and Kansei reforms and equally conservative, Tadakuni's efforts lasted only from 1841 to 1843. He revised the regulations for the government officials and encouraged the samurai to practice frugality and diligently study the literary and martial arts. He also aimed to restore the farming villages devastated by the great famine. Stricter than earlier reformers, Tadakuni planned to force temporary residents in Edo to return to their home villages and to restrict the commercial-goods production of the farmers to make them concentrate on rice farming. He tried to lower the prices of commodities in the cities through detailed regulations on the lives of townspeople. Tadakuni further ordered the dissolution of kabu nakama, the merchant and artisan guilds, since he regarded them as the cause of rising commodity prices. Concerned as well with the foreign threat, he planned to reclaim the Imba Swamp (in modern Chiba prefecture) so that food supplies could easily be conveyed to nearby Edo if Edo Bay were blockaded by foreign ships. Plans for the defense of the bay also were formulated. Tadakuni also promulgated a land-requisition (agechi) order to bring daimyo and hatamoto domains surrounding Edo and Osaka under direct bakufu control: the stated object of this was the defense of Edo, but it also was designed to supplement the finances of the bakufu. The agechi order was finally withdrawn, however, in the face of fierce opposition from the daimyo, hatamoto, and people of the domains affected; and, as a direct result of this failure, Tadakuni was driven from power in 1845.

[edit] Hispanics in the USNA

Hi Tenmei, I have never had the pleasure of inter-acting with you before and would like you to know that I thank you and appreciate your edits to the article. I'm just curious, how did you become interested in the article? Tony the Marine (talk) 16:39, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Explaining becomes a bit of a stretch -- but I'll give it a try:
I was following a attenuated train of thought from Matthew C. Perry. As you know, Commodore Perry "opened up" Tokugawa Japan in 1853, and my oblique interest in the U.S. Navy derives from my more direct curiosity about Daigaku-no-kami Hayashi Akira who was the Japanese chief negotiator during this crucial Japanese-American encounter. One of Akira's clan forebears was Hayashi Gahō, who wrote Nihon Ōdai Ichiran. I'm translating Hayashi Gahō's 1652 history of Japan into English using Isaac Titsingh's 1834 French translation; and I'm posting that translation across the range of relevant Wikipedia articles -- a kind of metastasis of a 17th century Japanese viewpoint across a 21st century array.
My primary Wikipedia focus has to do with pre-modern Japanese history. Gahō's seven-volume work doesn't go beyond 1600. In order to better appreciate the text, it only makes sense to try to figure out a little bit about the author; but the available data is limited. In a Japanese context, it makes sense to try to understand someone by learning more about their family and clan; hence my attention to the Hayashi clan (Confucian scholars) ... which led to focusing a little bit of attention on the negotiations which preceded the Kanagawa Convention (1854). The chronology of events -- who did what and when -- is irrelevant in the context of Japan's Heian period or its Muromachi period, for example; but the somewhat vague American naval title of "Commodore" does appear roughly congruent with something almost Japanese-like.
As you may already know, prior to 1862, the U.S. Congress refused to authorize the Navy to promote captains to admirals. It seems that the Secretary of the Navy offered Perry the title "Commodore" when he became Commandant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Even though this "promotion" meant nothing tangible in terms of rank or pay grade, it doubtless meant very much to Perry and to his peers. This odd discrepancy -- this curious promotion ow whatever it was -- caught my attention because it mirrors much of what is recorded in Titsingh's Annales des empereurs du Japon, especially during the periods in which the bureaucracy of the Kamakura shogunate was competing for power and prestige with the Imperial Daijō-kan.
The Wikipedia category, "American Commodores," led to Commodore David Conner (naval officer) and to Commodore Robert F. Lopez ... and it immediately occurred to me that I might begin to better understand and parse the complex spectrum of relationships between fudai and tozama daimyō, particularly in terms of the Shimazu clan, if I looked a bit more closely at the integration of Hispanic officers in the U.S. Navy.
This isn't quite so strange as it may first appear. The process of compare-and-contrast offers the prospect that something unanticipated will come from a re-examination of the familiar in a deliberately unfamiliar context. This kind of peripheral learning strategy is a bit of a risk, but the process is often produces useful results for me.
Not quite the answer you were expecting, I'd guess ... but perhaps that illustrates the point.--Tenmei (talk) 17:55, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Books

[edit] CP Ships

You've questioned whether the image I've recently uploaded is properly documented. Perhaps not -- but I would have thought the question should have been whether or not this specific image was a priori in the public domain, even if I did fail to describe it as well as you yourself would have done. As a context, please allow me to establish a context. The following is a list of ships added to the Canadian Pacific Steamships fleet in the early years of the 20th century:

The image in question is postcard artwork created in Canada for this Canadian company -- specifically, an image of the SS Empress of China. In the context below, I wonder if a sufficiently clear case is made for the image to remain on Wikipedia?

  • 1. Postcard artwork of RMS Empress of China (1891) from Simplon (UK) is not identified as being specifically out-of-copyright; rather, the web site claims all material is covered under copyright. In the context established at #2 and #3 below, I am persuaded that Simplon's claim was over-broad in regard to the specific image which is now posted with the Wikipedia article RMS Empress of China (1891).
  • 2. Photograph of RMS Empress of Japan (1891) from the City of Vancouver Archives is in the public domain: This Canadian work is in the public domain in Canada because its copyright has expired due to one of the following: (a) it was subject to Crown copyright and was first published more than 50 years ago, or (b) it was not subject to Crown copyright, and the creator died more than 50 years ago. Please see en:WP:PD#Canadian images: Yousuf Karsh
  • 3. Photograph of RMS Empress of India (1891) from the E. Chambré Hardman Archive in Liverpool is identified by the curators as "out-of-copyright" or public domain. In this instance, the public domain is construed by Wikipedia to mean that this image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired ... [which] applies to ... Canada ... and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years."
  • I noticed that some other editor uploaded postcard artwork of [[RMS Empress of Asia (1913)|RMS Empress of Asia] (1913) to the English Wikipedia; and I think that image from the Simplon web site is adequately documented. Do you agree?

If I need to do something more or different, please help me understand what I need to do now and what I will need to do in the future so that I will avoid causing questions like yours to arise. --Tenmei (talk) 01:22, 27 May 2008 (UTC)