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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >In the movie SHOGUN, with Richard Chamberlain, I recall one or more  
> chickens hanging from a line in a back yard, just essentially rotting  
> until deemed ready for kitchen preparation.
> 

They were pheasants.  And they were central to the story line.  Most of the 
Japanese in the story were Buddhists and didn't eat meat, so when they went 
falconing for sport, they gave the dead birds to the non-Buddhists such as 
Blackthorne (Chamberlain).  He explained to the Japanese, much to their 
disgust and 
horror, that the custom was to hand the pheasant by the tail feathers until 
it 
rotted enough for the feathers to release and the pheasant to fall.  He then 
added that some people liked to hang them by the neck until the pheasant 
fell, 
but that was a bit too gamey for his taste.

He had given orders for no one to touch the pheasant but him and then forgot 
about it and was called away.  It rotted and stank and had to be removed, so 
Old Gardener volunteered to bury it, but then submitted to having his head 
cut 
off for disobeying his lord.  While it devastated Blackthorne, it established 
that he was Samurai.

James       Shi gata ga-nai?