Showing titles in All Categories

上意討ちで鵜飼佐平太を討った小鹿七兵衛は、佐平太の弟から果し合いを申し込まれる。かつては英雄ともてはやされた七兵衛も酒がもとで今や体力は衰え、剣の腕は落ち、助勢も望めない。もはや自分しかないと悟った七兵衛が秘伝「残月」の技に賭けて決闘に向かうと…

若い頃には単身で３人組の強盗を退治して賞賛されたこともあった佐治惣六だが、今は風采が上がらない中年男。最初の妻とは死別、その後３度も妻に逃げられ藩中の物笑いになっているところへ、上司の服部から紹介を受け願ってもない美人と再婚したが、相手は服部の妾だった。

伊三郎の一家が老女一人を残して忽然と姿を消した。残された老女は近所の人の世話を拒否して何も食べようとしないが、少年の信次がその心を和らげていく。ある夜逃げ事件の顛末を子供の目を通して描く、市井ものの秀作。

刃参次が悪童仲間に米屋の娘を誘惑して棄てたと自慢話をしていると、当の娘の父親が来て参次を捕まえ、参次は朝から晩まで米を搗かされる羽目となる。そして２年後、参次は...。無頼の生活から抜け出し、一人前の社会人として自立する若者の姿を感動的に描く。

再婚同士の清兵衛とお仲は、仲睦まじく暮らしている。ところが清兵衛は女房が他の男と一緒にいたと聞かされ、心穏やかでなくなってしまう。信じていた妻の過去に疑いを抱き始めた夫の心の葛藤を、女下駄を小道具に、見事な筆致で描き切る。

清次郎が再会した女おいしは、度々の不幸に見舞われ今は零落の身。昔不良達の暴力から救ったことのあるおいしを、清次郎は再びその境遇から救い出す。過去のある中年男女が寄り添って人生をやり直そうとする、心温まる物語。

藤沢作品市井ものの中でも、もっとも江戸情緒の濃い作品と評される傑作。極道者の弟のせいで離縁された過去を持つおもんは、無口だが実直そうな桶職人重吉に密かな思いを抱く。弟の金の使い込みが原因でやくざに脅されるが、そこに助けに現れたのが重吉だった…

刃傷沙汰により座敷牢に幽閉されていた狭間弥市郎が脱獄、討手にかつて藩主の御前試合で負けた相手、片桐宗蔵を指名して恨みを晴らそうとする。対決の日の前夜、宗蔵は狭間の美貌の妻の訪問を受け、夫の助命を乞われるが…

３年前家老の命令でその政敵を暗殺した５人。秘密は固く守られているはずなのに、その仲間が次々と闇討ちにあって殺される。犯人は相当な剣の遣い手で、何者か見当もつかない。唯一生き残った三崎修助も襲われるが、間一髪相手を斬る。その相手は意外にも…。

Each fairy tale starts in Japanese, then slowly "morphs" into English! Learn 20 words in a new language! This audio file contains narration, pronunciations of new words, sound effects, and fully orchestrated original music composed, arranged, and performed by "Slangman" David Burke.

Each fairy tale starts in Japanese, then slowly "morphs" into English! Learn 20 words in a new language! This audio file contains narration, pronunciations of new words, sound effects, and fully orchestrated original music composed, arranged, and performed by "Slangman" David Burke.

Each fairy tale starts in Japanese, then slowly "morphs" into English! Learn 20 words in a new language! This audio file contains narration, pronunciations of new words, sound effects, and fully orchestrated original music composed, arranged, and performed by "Slangman" David Burke.

From the dawn of time, Man has cherished the hope he could achieve a greater freedom. That hope, articulated by the greatest religious leaders across thecenturies, has time and again renewed his strength to face the future. But with no practical means to convert hope to reality, the goal of a greater freedom remained, for most if not all, a distant and unattainable dream. Then, with the onset of the twentieth century, came the rapid and unprecedented advance ofthe physical sciences.

Here is a story that begins with Ron’s immersion in a deeply spiritual, deeply traditional Asia, where he met and befriended - among other savants - the last of the great magicians whose predecessors served in the court of Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. Yet notwithstanding the feats that testified to remarkable powers, here was a land where wisdom was deemed sacred - so sacred, in fact, these Oriental holy men declined to use their considerable abilities to solve the real and urgent problems of living.

Today weapons exist powerful enough to annihilate whole nations. And violence has become commonplace, often in disregard of human life. Why has there been such a lessening of moral responsibility and, most important, what can be done about it? In providing the answers to these questions, Ron explores the history of Man’s research and investigation in the field of the human spirit.

What motivates life? What motivates Man? Those were the questions Ron posed when seeking workable answers to the problems of both the individual and society. After examining the whole of life in its variety and complexity, he isolated a common denominator to all living things - the Dynamic Principle of Existence: Survive! Here was a watershed breakthrough in Man’s understanding of Man. For while "everyone knows" that life forms are surviving, survival as their sole motivation was a brand-new discovery.

When still a young man attending university, Ron observed that those working in the humanitieshad no training in the exact sciences. Believingthat the precision of the scientific method might furnish asolution to the problems of life and livingness, he urged facultymembers of the psychology department to apply the principlesof physics to the field of the mind.It was an entirely novel approach. And when no one tookup the challenge - either then or in later years - Ron undertook the task himself.

Through his extraordinary journey to the founding of Dianetics and Scientology, Ron did just that. From his adventurous youth in a rough-and-tumble American West to his far-flung trek across a still mysterious Asia; from his two-decade search for the essence of life to the triumph of Dianetics and Scientology - such is the story Ron recounts in a lecture so legendary, it has been heard by millions.

It has been bought and sold in a thousand dramas. It has been preached about from every pulpit - debated, contested, condemned, and exalted. And with no means to accurately measure or quantify it, the physical sciences either ignored it or denied its very existence. The human soul. Here, then, is a discovery all the more remarkable for being grounded not merely on faith and belief, but on proofs as irrefutable as any in science.

Your mind: it is your constant companion. You live with it 24 hours a day, every day of your life. Yet Man has known practically nothing about how it works. And from marriages that end in divorce to careers that wind up in frustration, from tensions that interfere with work to conflicts that divide nations, virtually every human crisis can be traced to Man’s ignorance of the mind. Imagine, then, the potential benefits of finding the answers.