The Last Tea Bowl Thief
Jeopardy!
Everybody who has read The Last Tea Bowl Thief will have a pretty good shot at answering these twelve questions, but there are enough clues in the questions themselves that those who haven't finished it can still make a pretty good guess.
Here are the questions:
THE EIGHT ATTACHMENTS
$100
The English translation of this tea bowl’s name is said to go before a fall, and also figures in the title of an 1813 English novel that famously chronicles the marital prospects of the five Bennet daughters.
$200
The English translation of this tea bowl’s name has been described as being "best served cold," and "living well" supposedly delivers the best version of it.
$300
The English translation of this tea bowl’s name is the subject of Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet,” the title of a novella by Ivan Turgenev published in 1860, and a song released on Adele’s first album in 2008.
$400
One of the two most widely practiced religions in Japan, this faith is known for its magnificent bronze temple bells, its many-armed saints, and the belief that one can only break the cycle of rebirth by letting go of attachments to this world.
PLACES
$100
From its founding by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan’s capital city of Tokyo was known by this name.
$200
Robin does her graduate work on a tea bowl found in the treasure house at Jakko-in—a 1200-year-old Buddhist convent that was a famous pilgrimage site for those seeking healing—which is outside which major Japanese city?
$300
People who work in this industry shop in the Tokyo neighborhood where Nori lives, which takes its name from Kappabashi Street, its main thoroughfare. They go there to buy everything from plastic food models to the modern products made by former swordsmiths.
$400
Near Kappabashi Street is a shrine dedicated to rakugo, which is the kind of traditional Japanese comic storytelling where a single actor sits on stage playing every part, using only a hand towel and a fan as props. This reason is why 53 famous rakugo stories were buried beneath a stone monument there in 1940.
LUCKY DAYS
$100
The twelve animals of the Japanese astrology zodiac were used to tell time in samurai era Japan, with the midnight “hour of the Rat” spanning the time period from 11:00 pm to 1:00 am. This seventh period of time corresponds to the noontime “hour of the Horse.”
$200
Long journeys, business openings and product launches are all scheduled on the astrological day known as taian, which is famous for what kind of luck, all day long?
$300
In the book, Saburo is summoned to meet Lord Inaba on the astrological day called butsumetsu, which is named after the day Buddha died. His wife frets about this meeting because the astrological forecast predicts an entire day of what?
$400
The astrological day known as tomobiki means “friend pulling,” and good luck is predicted all day, except at noon. For those reasons, it’s known as an especially auspicious day for a wedding, but is a bad day for what other life event?
SAMURAI ARTS
$100
The shortest and most famous type of Japanese poetry, with only three lines and a strict 5-7-5 syllable count.
$200
A highly choreographed ritual involving a bamboo whisk, a square of cloth, and an iron kettle is now primarily an aesthetic pursuit, but was previously used as a religious practice and a weapon of statecraft.
$300
This highly stylized art takes years to master and is one of the three traditionally showcased in a teahouse’s tokonoma alcove, along with poetry and painting.
$400
Haiku, tanka and waka poems all traditionally contain a seasonal reference. A poem set in this season might mention the annual cries of the cicada known as semi or the flowering of the lotus plant.