The culture of Japan has changed greatly over the millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jōmon period, to its contemporary modern culture, which absorbs influences from Asia and other regions of the world.[1]
Since the Jomon period, ancestral groups like the Yayoi and Kofun, who arrived to Japan from Korea and China, respectively, have shaped Japanese culture. Rice cultivation and centralized leadership were introduced by these groups, shaping Japanese culture. Chinese dynasties, particularly the Tang dynasty, have influenced Japanese culture throughout history. After 220 years of isolation, the Meiji era opened Japan to Western influences, enriching and diversifying Japanese culture. Popular culture shows how much contemporary Japanese culture influences the world.[2]
There are two competing hypotheses that try to explain the lineage of the Japanese people.[3][4]
The first hypothesis proposes a dual-structure model, in which Japanese populations are descendants of the indigenous Jōmon people and later arrivals of people from the East Eurasian continent, known as the Yayoi people. Japan's indigenous culture originates primarily from the Yayoi people who settled in Japan between 1000 BCE and 300 CE. Yayoi culture spread to the main island of Honshu, mixing with the native Jōmon culture.[5] Modern Japanese have an estimated 80% Yayoi and 20% Jōmon ancestry.[6]
The second hypothesis proposes a tripartite model of genomic origin.[3] This hypothesis proposes that contemporary Japanese people are from three distinct ancestral groups: Jōmon, Yayoi and Kofun, with 13%, 16% and 71% of genetic ancestry, respectively.[3] During the Kofun period, it is said that migrant groups from China came to Japan and settled on the island, bringing with them various cultural advances and centralized leadership.[3] The migrants who came to Japan during the Kofun period appear to have had ancestry that mainly resembles the ancestry of the Han Chinese population of China.[3][7][8] The Jomon people were hunter-gathers; the Yayoi people introduced rice cultivation; and the Kofun migrants introduced imperial state formation.[3]
Today, the culture of Japan stands as one of the most influential cultures around the world, mainly because of the global reach of its popular culture.[11][12][13][14] In 2023, U.S. News & World Report ranked Japan's cultural influence as the highest in Asia and 4th worldwide.[15]
Japanese is the national and primary language of Japan. The language is a lexically distinct pitch-accent system. Early Japanese is known primarily by its state in the 8th century when the three major works of Old Japanese were compiled. The earliest attestation of the Japanese language was found in a Chinese document from 256 CE. However, the Japanese language has no genetic relationship with Chinese, nor any clear affiliation with any other language.[10] While there are a number of theories about the origins of Japanese, the strongest arguments for affiliation are with Korean on the basis of similar syntax. More controversially, it has also been paired with Altaic languages due to a similar number of systems and verb forms.[10] While Japanese is the only official language of Japan, other languages such as Ainu[16] and Ryukyuan[17] are spoken on the Japanese islands.
Written Japanese uses a combination of three scripts: Chinese characters pronounced as "kanji" (漢字) in Japanese, hiragana, and katakana. Japan had no writing system prior to adopting kanji from China in 751 CE,[18] and like Chinese, kanji are used extensively in Japanese as logograms.[19] Presently, there is a notable number[clarification needed] of kanji in modern Japanese with a different meaning from the corresponding hanzi character used in modern Chinese. Modern Japanese also features far fewer simplified Chinese characters in comparison to modern Chinese as Japanese typically uses fewer kanji, mainly for nouns, adjective stems, and verb stems.[20] Both hiragana and katakana are phonetic syllabaries derived from the Chinese man'yōgana of the 5th century.[21] Hiragana and katakana were developed from simplified kanji; hiragana emerged somewhere around the 9th century[22] and were mainly used by women for informal language while katakana was mainly used by men in formal language. By the 10th century, both systems were used commonly by everyone.[23]
Japanese vocabulary consists of 49% words of Chinese origin, 33% words of Japanese origin, and 18% loanwords from other languages, including European languages, words of mixed origin, and the made-in-Japan pseudo-English known as wasei-eigo.[24] The Latin alphabet is often used in modern Japanese, especially for company names, logos, advertising, and when inputting Japanese into a computer. The Hindu–Arabic numerals are often used for numbers and can be read in either Japanese or English, but traditional Sino–Japanese numerals are also common.[25] The influence of Japanese culture in the Western world over the past few centuries has led to many of its terms, such as origami, tsunami, karaoke, and pop cultural terms like shonen and shōjo being incorporated into the English language. Words like these have also been added to the Oxford English Dictionary.[26][27]
Shinto and Buddhism are the primary religions of Japan. According to the annual statistical research on religion in 2018 by the Government of Japan's Agency for Culture Affairs, 66.7 percent of the population practices Buddhism, 25.6 percent practices Shintoism, 7.7 percent other religions.[28] According to the annual statistical research on religion in 2018 by the Government of Japan's Agency for Culture Affairs, about two million or around 1.5% of Japan's population are Christians.[28] Other religions include Islam (70,000) and Judaism (2,000), which are largely immigrant communities with some ethnic Japanese practitioners.[29][30]
Shinto is an ethnic religion focusing on ceremonies and rituals. In Shinto, followers believe that kami – Shinto deities or spirits – are present throughout nature, including rocks, trees, and mountains. Humans can also be considered to possess a kami. One of the goals of Shinto is to maintain or strengthen the connection between humans, nature, and kami. The religion developed in Japan prior to the 6th century CE, after which point followers built shrines to worship kami.[31]
Buddhism developed in India around the 6th and 4th centuries BCE and eventually spread through the Sinosphere and South East Asia. It arrived in Japan during the 6th century CE, where it was initially unpopular. Most Japanese people were unable to understand the difficult philosophical messages present in Buddhism; however, an appreciation for the religion's art is believed to have led to Buddhism later growing in popularity.[citation needed]
Buddhism is concerned with the cycle of rebirth and karma. In Buddhism, a person's status in society is considered unimportant, instead their good or bad deeds are valued, as every person eventually becomes ill, ages, dies, and is eventually reincarnated into a new life, a cycle known as saṃsāra; the suffering people experience during life is considered to be one way for people to ensure a better future, with the ultimate goal of Buddhism being to escape the cycle of death and rebirth by attaining true insight.[31]
A minority of Japanese are Muslims. Cultural differences and a predominantly non-Muslim society present unique challenges for Japan's Muslim community, mostly immigrants from Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Iran.[36]
Muslims are scattered in Japan. Mosques and halal food are scarce due to their dispersion. Family-linked long-term residents are assimilating into Japanese society despite language and cultural barriers. Analysts say the small Muslim community and cultural differences between Islam and Japan reduce future conflicts. Syncretic Sufi Islam may increase Japan's Muslim population.[36]
The Japanese "national character" has been written about under the term Nihonjinron, literally meaning 'theories/discussions about the Japanese people' and referring to texts on matters that are normally the concerns of sociology, psychology, history, linguistics, and philosophy, but emphasizing the authors' assumptions or perceptions of Japanese exceptionalism; these are predominantly written in Japan by Japanese people,[37] though examples have also been written by foreign residents, journalists and even scholars.
Early works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Eventually, Japanese literature developed into a separate style in its own right as Japanese writers began writing their own works about Japan. The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu during the Heian period, is known worldwide as a unique Japanese literature. Since Japan reopened its ports to Western trading and diplomacy in the 19th century, Western and Eastern literature have strongly affected each other and continue to do so.
Japanese calligraphy, rendered using flowing, brush-drawn strokes, is considered to be a traditional art form, as well as a means of conveying written information. Typical calligraphic works can consist of phrases, poems, stories, or even characters represented by themselves; the style and format of the calligraphy can mimic the subject matter through aspects such as the texture of the writing and the speed of the brush strokes. Several different styles of Japanese calligraphy exist, with considerable effort put into the outcome; in some cases, it can take over one hundred attempts to produce the desired result of a single character. This form of calligraphy is known as shodō (書道), literally meaning 'the way of writing or calligraphy', or more commonly, shūji (習字), 'learning how to write characters'. Commonly confused with calligraphy is the art form of sumi-e (墨絵), literally meaning 'ink painting', which is the art of painting a scene or object using diluted black ink.
Painting has been an art in Japan for a very long time: the brush is a traditional writing and painting tool, and the extension of that to its use as an artist's tool was probably natural. Japanese painters are often categorized by what they painted, as most of them constrained themselves solely to subjects such as animals, landscapes, or figures. Chinese papermaking was introduced to Japan around the 7th century. Later, washi was developed from it. Native Japanese painting techniques are still in use today, as well as techniques adopted from continental Asia and from the West. Schools of painting such as the Kano school of the 16th century became known for their bold brush strokes and contrast between light and dark, especially after Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu began to use this style. Famous Japanese painters include Kanō Sanraku, Maruyama Ōkyo, and Tani Bunchō.[38]
Ukiyo-e, literally means 'pictures of the floating world', is a genre of woodblock prints that exemplifies the characteristics of pre-Meiji Japanese art. Because these prints could be mass-produced, they were available to a wide cross-section of the Japanese populace – those not wealthy enough to afford original paintings – during their heyday, from the 17th to 20th century.
Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement. It has gained widespread international fame for its focus on harmony, color use, rhythm, and elegantly simple design. It is an art centered greatly on expressing the seasons and is meant to act as a symbol to something greater than the flower itself.
Newly-wed Emperor Naruhito, then Crown Prince, wearing a sokutai and Empress Masako, then-Crown Princess, wearing a jūnihitoe. Costumes of these styles have been worn by the Imperial family since the Heian period, when a unique Japanese style developed.Woman in kimono at Fukuoka City Hall
The kimono is the national garment of Japan, having developed from Chinese court clothing in the Nara period following the exchange of diplomatic envoys between the two countries at that time. The word kimono translates literally as 'thing to wear on the shoulders'; however, this term developed some time around the Edo period, before which most kimono-like garments were referred to as the kosode ('short sleeve'), with longer-sleeved garments being known as furisode ('swinging sleeve').
The earliest versions of the kimono were heavily influenced by traditional Chinese clothing, known today as hanfu (kanfuku (漢服) in Japanese). This influence was spread through Japanese envoy missions to China, resulting in extensive Chinese cultural adoption by Japan as early as the 5th century CE.[41] It was during the 8th century, however, that Chinese fashions came fully into style, and following the cancellation of the 20th mission to Tang dynasty China, these fashions developed independently, with the overlapping, V-shaped collar becoming women's fashion and the precursor to the modern kimono.[41]
Kimono, alongside all other items of traditional Japanese clothing, are known collectively as wafuku, meaning 'Japanese clothing', as opposed to yōfuku, Western-style clothing. Kimono come in a variety of colors, styles, and sizes. Men mainly wear darker or more muted colors, while women tend to wear brighter colors and pastels, and, especially for younger women, often with complicated abstract or floral patterns.
In previous decades, married women wore short sleeved kimono, whereas unmarried women wore long sleeved kimono to both formal and informal occasions; however, the rise in both the average age of marriage and the numbers of women never marrying in Japan has led to the divide between sleeve length becoming one more of age, with most women in their early twenties wearing long sleeved kimono only to formal occasions, and most women past their early twenties wearing short sleeved kimono to formal events, regardless of marriage status. Other developments include the abandoning of layered kimono and the standardisation of the length of short sleeved women's kimono to a range of roughly 49–52 centimetres (19–20in) in length, both developments driven by fabric shortages in WWII.
The happi coat is another form of traditional clothing. A happi (commonly Anglicised as "happy") coat is a straight sleeved coat typically decorated with a family crest and/or kanji along the collar. In previous centuries, happi-style coats known as hikeshi sashiko banten or simply hikeshi banten were commonly worn by firefighters; the coats would be constructed from several layers of heavy cotton stitched together, and would be soaked in water to provide protection from fire.
Alongside traditional clothing, Japan also has distinct footwear; tabi, ankle-length split-toed socks, are commonly worn with the kimono, and are designed to be worn with traditional shoes such as geta and zōri. Geta are thonged sandals mounted on wooden blocks extending from the base of the shoe to the floor, and are worn by men and women with kimono or yukata; zōri are flat-based or sloping sandals made of a number of different materials, and are considered to be more formal than geta.
Fashion trends and consumer apathy have hurt the Japanese kimono industry. Kimono sales and traditional tailors suffered after WWII due to Western fashion. Innovative and diverse kimono makers have revived the declining industry. Internationally, the industry has tried casual styles. Cultural appropriation is hard. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts' "Kimono Wednesdays" led to cultural appropriation debates. Asian-American protesters cited Orientalism, racism, and cultural appropriation. Protests sparked global cultural debate and appropriation. The protests lacked Japanese and Japanese-American representation, say critics. Scholars say Edward Said's "Orientalism" may not always apply (O'Dwyer, 2015).[42]
Cultural appropriation could harm kimono exhibitions. War can hinder cultural exchange and Japanese fashion abroad. Japanese mainstream media and cultural commentators rarely mention it. Cultural appropriation may lead to kimono experimentation, say Japanese commentators. Cultural appropriation and Japanese fashion remain hot topics. Globally, the industry must balance cultural integrity and innovation (O'Dwyer, 2015).[42]
Japanese architecture was originally heavily influenced by Chinese architecture and later developed many unique aspects indigenous to Japan. Examples of traditional architecture are seen at temples, Shinto shrines, and castles in Kyoto and Nara. Some of these buildings are constructed with traditional gardens, which are influenced by Zen ideas. Some modern architects, such as Yoshio Taniguchi and Tadao Ando are known for their amalgamation of Japanese traditional and Western architectural influences.
Traditional Japanese garden architecture is considered to hold the same importance as traditional building architecture, and both are influenced by similar historical and religious backgrounds. A primary design principle of a traditional garden is the creation of the landscape based on, or at least greatly influenced by, the style of three-dimensional monochrome ink (sumi) landscape painting known as sumi-e or suibokuga; as such, garden landscaping is elevated to the status of an artform in Japan.[43]
Traditional Japanese sculptures mainly focused on Buddhist images, such as Tathagata, Bodhisattva, and Myō-ō. The oldest sculpture in Japan is a wooden statue of Amitābha at the Zenkō-ji temple. In the Nara period, Buddhist statues were made by the national government to boost its prestige. These examples are seen in present-day Nara and Kyoto, most notably a colossal bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana in the Tōdai-ji temple.
Wood has traditionally been used as the chief material in Japan, along with traditional Japanese architecture. Statues are often lacquered, gilded, or brightly painted, although there are commonly few traces of this on the surface. Bronze and other metals are generally not used. Other materials, such as stone and pottery, have had extremely important roles in traditional sculpture.
Installation arts
Hōryū-ji is widely known to be the oldest wooden architecture existing in the world.
The music of Japan includes a wide array of styles both distinctly traditional and modern. Traditional Japanese music is quite different from Western music and is based on the intervals of human breathing rather than mathematical timing;[44] traditional music also typically slides between notes, a feature also not commonly found in Western music. The word for music in Japanese is ongaku (音楽), combining the kanji on (音, "sound") with the kanji gaku (楽, "enjoyment").[45] Major aesthetic concepts are jo-ha-kyū and ma. Jo-ha-kyū (序破急) roughly translates to "beginning, break, rapid", it essentially means that all actions or efforts should begin slowly, speed up, and then end swiftly. Ma literally means a space or interval between two points (in space or time).[46] In music, it refers to rhythm. In nagauta (長唄, literally "long song") (played on the shamisen and used in kabuki theater),[47]uki-ma implies a slight lengthening of the first of a pair of beats, while tsume-ma implies the reverse.[46] It is this meaning of timing that is seen as a unique aesthetic to explain otherwise inexplicable aspects of Japanese performing arts.[46] Japanese music stresses sound quality and prizes the richness and complexity of each instrument's sound spectrum.[46] Noise is also used in a highly formalized manner to imitate "nature" and the expressive energy and artistic potential of noise are accepted and incorporated.[48]
History of Traditional Music
Traditional Japanese music finds its first major historic periods in the Nara (710–794)[49] and Heian (794–1185)[50] periods. The two most common kinds of music during this time were the music of the court (Gagaku) and the music of Buddhist rituals (shōmyō).[50] The music of the Nara period can be classified as belonging to the first international period in Japanese music history.[51] The court music was all of Chinese, Korean, or Indian origin and was played primarily by foreign musicians in its original style.[51]Gagaku classical music has been performed at the Imperial court since the Heian period.[52] At the same time, Buddhist ritual music exerted some influence on the native vocal style.[51] While poetry anthologies indicate that folk music had continued its steady pace, the historical records and relics show us music that was primarily instrumental and often connected with dance.[51] By the time of the Kamakura period, most traces of the international character of Japanese music had disappeared.[53] Court music in general was declining, while there was a steady growth of more theatrical arts.[53] The indigenous folk ritual music of flute and drums here encountered the aristocratic aesthetic of poetry and literary tales.[54] Japan's indigenous musical culture can still be found in much of folk music and the music of Shinto festivals in local communities.[54]
Traditional Instruments
Several traditional instruments were adopted and assimilated into Japanese culture from various sources.[55] They were further experimented with and developed by Japan.[55] One of the imported end-blown bamboo flutes from China developed into the shakuhachi,[56] which became the ritual instrument of the Fuke sect of Zen monks.[57] By the middle of the eighteenth century, in secular performances, the shamisen lute and koto, invented in China and brought to Japan during the Nara Period,[58] 13-string zither as used for genteel entertainment and professionally controlled by blind musicians who had the rights to heike narrative.[57] The shamisen, modified from the Chinese sanxian introduced via the Ryukyu Islands in the late sixteenth century, came into its own in the theatrical contexts of bunraku puppet drama and kabuki drama.[57]
Modern Music
Japan is the second largest music market in the world behind the United States, and is the largest in Asia,[59][60] with most of the market dominated by Japanese artists.[61] Local music often appears at karaoke venues on lease from record labels.
Western music has been adopted and adapted to the Japanese context and has often in the process become Japanized (domesticated) and different from its model.[62] Hybrid music has resulted, such as enka, J-pop, and ‘contemporary Japanese music’ (gendai hōgaku) or ‘new Japanese music’ (shin-hōgaku).[62] Famous enka singers include Hibari Misora, Saburo Kitajima, Ikuzo Yoshi, and Haruo Minami. One notable contemporary influence on Japanese musical music came from Ainu music and the so-called nationalist composer Ifukube Akiraa (b. 1914 in Hokkaido) who brought the tonkori zither onto the World Music scene.[62]
The four traditional theatres from Japan are noh (or nō), kyōgen, kabuki, and bunraku. Noh had its origins in the union of the sarugaku, with music and dance made by Kan'ami and Zeami Motokiyo.[67] Among the characteristic aspects of it are the masks, costumes, and the stylized gestures, sometimes accompanied by a fan that can represent other objects. The Noh programs are presented in alternation with the ones of kyōgen, traditionally in numbers of five, but currently in groups of three.
The kyōgen, of a humorous character, had an older origin, in 8th century entertainment brought from China, developing itself in sarugaku. In kyōgen, masks are rarely used and even if the plays can be associated with the ones of noh, currently many are not.[67]
Kabuki appears in the beginning of the Edo period from the representations and dances of Izumo no Okuni in Kyoto.[68] Due to concerns over the number of actresses engaged in selling sex, the participation of women in the plays was forbidden by the government in 1629, and the feminine characters had passed to be represented only by men (onnagata). Recent attempts to reintroduce actresses in kabuki had not been well accepted.[68] Another characteristic of kabuki is the use of makeup for the actors in historical plays (kumadori) and the performance of nagauta ballads.
Japanese puppet theater (bunraku) developed in the same period as kabuki, in both competition with and collaboration with its actors and authors. The origin of bunraku, however, is older, beginning in the Heian period.[69] In 1914, the Takarazuka Revue was founded, a company solely composed by women who introduced the revue to Japan.[70]
Sports and leisure
Two students practicing kendo at Hiroshima University
In the long feudal period governed by the samurai class, some methods that were used to train warriors were developed into well-ordered martial arts, in modern times referred to collectively as koryū. Examples include kenjutsu, kendo, kyūdō, sōjutsu, jujutsu, and sumo, all of which were established in the Edo period. After the rapid social change in the Meiji Restoration, some martial arts changed into modern sports, called gendai budō. Judo was developed by Kanō Jigorō, who studied some sects of jujutsu. These sports are still widely practiced in present-day Japan and other countries.
Baseball, association football, and other popular Western sports were imported to Japan in the Meiji period.[71] These sports are commonly practiced in schools, along with traditional martial arts. Baseball, soccer, football, and ping pong are the most popular sports in Japan. Association football gained prominence in Japan after the J League (Japan Professional Football League) was established in 1991. Japan also co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup with Korea.[72] In addition, there are many semi-professional organizations, which are sponsored by private companies: for example, volleyball, basketball, rugby union, table tennis, and so on.
Through a long culinary past, the Japanese have developed sophisticated and refined cuisine. In more recent years, Japanese food has become fashionable and popular in the United States, Europe, and many other areas. Dishes such as sushi, tempura, noodles, and teriyaki are some of the foods that are commonly known. The Japanese diet consists principally of rice; fresh, lean seafood; and pickled or boiled vegetables. The Japanese diet is often believed to be related to the longevity of Japanese people.[73]
Despite the traditional cuisine (和食 washoku) being very important and present, western cuisine (洋食 yōshoku) has influenced Japanese eating culture tremendously.
Japanese popular culture not only reflects the attitudes and concerns of the present day but also provides a link to the past. Popular films, television programs, manga, music, anime and video games all developed from older artistic and literary traditions, and many of their themes and styles of presentation can be traced to traditional art forms. Contemporary forms of popular culture, much like the traditional forms, provide not only entertainment but also an escape for the contemporary Japanese from the problems of an industrial world. Many anime and manga series are very popular around the world and continue to become popular, as well as Japanese video games, fashion, and game shows.[74]
In the late 1980s, the family was the focus of leisure activities, such as excursions to parks or shopping districts. Although Japan is often thought of as a hard-working society with little time for leisure, the Japanese seek entertainment wherever they can. It is common to see Japanese commuters riding the train to work, enjoying their favorite manga, or listening through earphones to the latest in popular music. A wide variety of types of popular entertainment are available. There is a large selection of music, films, and the products of a huge manga and anime industry, among other forms of entertainment, from which to choose. Game centers, bowling alleys, and karaoke are popular hangout places for teens while older people may play shogi or go in specialized parlors. Together, the publishing, film/video, music/audio, and game industries in Japan make up the growing Japanese content industry.[75]
There are 51 official cultural landscapes (文化的景観, bunkateki keikan) in Japan. These landscapes evolved with the way of life and geocultural features of a region, and which are indispensable for understanding the lifestyle of the Japanese people.[76][77][78][79][80]
The Three Views of Japan (日本三景, Nihon Sankei) is the canonical list of Japan's three most celebrated scenic sights, attributed to 1643 scholar Hayashi Gahō.[81] These are the pine-clad islands of Matsushima in Miyagi Prefecture, the pine-clad sandbar of Amanohashidate in Kyoto Prefecture, and Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima Prefecture. In 1915, the New Three Views of Japan were selected with a national election by the Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha (株式会社実業之日本社, Kabushiki Kaisha Jitsugyō no Nihon Sha). In 2003, the Three Major Night Views of Japan were selected by the New Three Major Night Views of Japan and the 100 Night Views of Japan Club (新日本三大夜景・夜景100選事務局).
Mount Fuji and sakura (cherry blossoms) are national symbols of Japan.
The Japanese archipelago is located to the east of the Asian continent. Japan is regarded as the most eastern Asian country, because east of Japan is the vast Pacific Ocean. Minamitorishima is Japan's easternmost island. Thus Japan is the land where the sun rises before the Asian continent. The kanji that make up the name of Japan literally mean 'sun origin' (日本). It is pronounced as 'Nihon' or 'Nippon' in Japanese,[82] and is often referred to by the epithet "Land of the Rising Sun".[83] The Nisshōki (日章旗, "sun-rise flag") is the national flag of Japan. It symbolizes the rising sun and corresponds with the name of Japan. The earliest accounts of the rising sun flag is in the 7th century CE. In 607, an official correspondence that began with "from the Emperor of the rising sun" was sent to Chinese Emperor Yang of Sui.[84] Thus the central importance of the sun in Japanese culture is represented in the national flag and other cultural goods. Similarly, the Japan Self-Defense Forces have flags that symbolize the sun.
The Sun also plays an important role in Japanese mythology and religion as the emperor is said to be the direct descendant of the Sun goddess Amaterasu, the personification of Japan. She is seen as the goddess of the Sun and the universe in Shinto religion. The emperor is "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people." Emperor Jimmu (神武天皇, Jinmu-tennō) is the national founder of Japan.
Mount Fuji (富士山, Fujisan) is the national mountain of Japan. It is one of Japan's "Three Holy Mountains" (三霊山, Sanreizan) along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku. It is also a Special Place of Scenic Beauty and one of Japan's Historic Sites.[89] The summit is considered a sacred place since ancient times. As a national symbol of the country, Mount Fuji has been depicted in various art and media such as painting, woodblock prints (such as the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji), poetry, music, theater, film, manga, anime and pottery.[90]
The kimono is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn left side wrapped over right, unless the wearer is deceased. The kimono is traditionally worn with a broad sash, called an obi, and is commonly worn with accessories such as zōri sandals and tabi socks.
There are typically two types of clothing worn in Japan: traditional clothing known as Japanese clothing, including the national dress of Japan, the kimono, and Western clothing, which encompasses all else not recognised as either national dress or the dress of another country.
The Heian period is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō. Heian (平安) means 'peace' in Japanese. It is a period in Japanese history when the Chinese influences were in decline and the national culture matured. The Heian period is also considered the peak of the Japanese imperial court, noted for its art, especially poetry and literature. Two syllabaries unique to Japan, katakana and hiragana, emerged during this time. This gave rise to Japan's famous vernacular literature, with many of its texts written by court women who were not as educated in Chinese as their male counterparts.
Religion in Japan is manifested primarily in Shinto and in Buddhism, the two main faiths, which Japanese people often practice simultaneously. According to estimates, as many as 70% of the populace follow Shinto rituals to some degree, worshiping ancestors and spirits at domestic altars and public shrines. An almost equally high number is reported as Buddhist. Syncretic combinations of both, known generally as shinbutsu-shūgō, are common; they represented Japan's dominant religion before the rise of State Shinto in the 19th century.
The Ryukyuan people are a Japonic-speaking East Asian ethnic group indigenous to the Ryukyu Islands, which stretch between the islands of Kyushu and Taiwan. Administratively, the majority live in either Okinawa Prefecture or Kagoshima Prefecture within Japan. They speak one of the Ryukyuan languages, considered to be one of the two branches of the Japonic language family, the other being Japanese and its dialects. The Ryukyuan people are included in the Jomon cultural group, along with the mainland Japanese (Yamato) and the Ainu of Hokkaido.
The Yayoi period started in the late Neolithic period in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age.
Japanese people are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Japanese archipelago. Japanese people constitute 97.4% of the population of the country of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 125 million people are of Japanese descent, making them one of the largest ethnic groups. Approximately 120.8 million Japanese people are residents of Japan, and there are approximately 4 million members of the Japanese diaspora, known as Nikkeijin (日系人).
Japanese art consists of a wide range of art styles and media that includes ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ukiyo-e paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, bonsai, and more recently manga and anime. It has a long history, ranging from the beginnings of human habitation in Japan, sometime in the 10th millennium BCE, to the present day.
The majority of funerals in Japan include a wake, the cremation of the deceased, a burial in a family grave, and a periodic memorial service. According to 2007 statistics, 99.81% of deceased Japanese are cremated.
The Yamato people or the Wajin is a term to describe the ethnic group that comprises over 98% of the population of Japan. Genetic and anthropometric studies have shown that the Yamato people represent an ethnic assimilation of the Jomon people, who lived in the Japanese archipelago since early times, and the Yayoi people, who migrated to Japan from the continent. The Yamato people are part of the Jomon cultural area, along with the Ryukyu people, located in Okinawa, and the Ainu, found in Hokkaido.
Japanese calligraphy, also called shūji (習字), is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, of the Japanese language. Written Japanese was originally based on Chinese characters only, but the advent of the hiragana and katakana Japanese syllabaries resulted in intrinsically Japanese calligraphy styles.
Semi-cursive script, also known as running script, is a style of Chinese calligraphy that emerged during the Han dynasty. The style is used to write Chinese characters and is abbreviated slightly where a character's strokes are permitted to be visibly connected as the writer writes, but not to the extent of the cursive style. This makes the style easily readable by readers who can read regular script and quickly writable by calligraphers who require ideas to be written down quickly. In order to produce legible work using the semi-cursive style, a series of writing conventions is followed, including the linking of the strokes, simplification and merging strokes, adjustments to stroke order and the distribution of text of the work.
The Yayoi people were an ancient people that immigrated to the Japanese archipelago during the Yayoi period and are characterized through Yayoi material culture. Some argue for an earlier start of the Yayoi period, between 1000 and 800 BC, but this date is controversial. The people of the Yayoi culture are regarded as the spreaders of agriculture and the Japonic languages throughout the whole archipelago, and were characterized by both local Jōmon hunter-gatherer and mainland Asian migrant ancestry.
In Japanese mythology, Takamagahara, also read as Takaamanohara, Takamanohara, Takaamagahara, or Takaamahara, is the abode of the heavenly gods (amatsukami). Often depicted as located up in the sky, it is believed to be connected to the Earth by the bridge Ame-no-ukihashi.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Japan:
In Japanese history, the Jōmon period is the time between c. 14,000 and 300 BC, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism and cultural complexity. The name "cord-marked" was first applied by the American zoologist and orientalist Edward S. Morse, who discovered sherds of pottery in 1877 and subsequently translated "straw-rope pattern" into Japanese as Jōmon. The pottery style characteristic of the first phases of Jōmon culture was decorated by impressing cords into the surface of wet clay and is generally accepted to be among the oldest in the world.
Chinese influence on Japanese culture refers to the impact of Chinese influences transmitted through or originating in China on Japanese institutions, culture, language and society. Many aspects of traditional Japanese culture such as Taoism, Buddhism, astronomy, language and food have been profoundly influenced by China over the course of centuries.
The Ōzakai cave dwelling is an archaeological site consisting of a cave dwelling in the Ōzakai neighborhood of the city of Himi, Toyama Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1986.
The Zoku-Jōmon period (続縄文時代), also referred to as the Epi-Jōmon period, is the time in Japanese prehistory that saw the flourishing of the Zoku-Jōmon culture, a continuation of Jōmon culture in northern Tōhoku and Hokkaidō that corresponds with the Yayoi period and Kofun period elsewhere. Zoku-Jōmon in turn gave way to Satsumon around the seventh century or in the Nara period (710–794). The "Yayoinisation" of northeast Honshū took place in the mid-Yayoi period; use of the term Zoku-Jōmon is then confined to those, in Hokkaidō, who did not "become Yayoi". Despite the elements of continuity emphasised by the name, which include the continuing production of cord-marked ceramics, ongoing employment of stone technology, and non-transition to rice-based agriculture, all Jōmon hallmarks, the Zoku-Jōmon period nevertheless saw a "major break in mobility and subsistence patterns".
The history of religion in Japan has been characterized by the predominance of animistic religions practiced by its mainland, Ryukyuan, and Ainu inhabitants. In addition, on the Yamato-dominated mainland, Mahayana Buddhism has also played a profoundly important role. Throughout the Japanese middle ages, many different schools of Buddhism flourished, such as Tendai, Shingon, Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren, and others. With time, Shinto and Buddhism gradually became intertwined with each other in Japanese culture, rather than being viewed as mutually exclusive. The first conclusive appearance of western religions in Japan was Christianity, which had been introduced by European travelers beginning in 1549. In the period between 1614 and 1889, Christianity and all other foreign religions were banned and its adherents persecuted, with Buddhism being co-opted by the Tokugawa authorities as a means to keep the population in check through the danka system.
References
Cwiertka, Katarzyna J. (2007). Modern Japanese Cuisine: Food, Power and National Identity. Reaktion Books. ISBN978-1-86189-298-0. Review
Goldstein-Gidoni, Ofra (Fall 1999). "Kimono and the Construction of Gendered and Cultural Identities". Ethnology. 38 (4): 351–370. doi:10.2307/3773912. JSTOR3773912.
Martin, Richard (1995). "Our Kimono Mind: Reflections on 'Japanese Design: A Survey since 1950'". Journal of Design History. 8 (3): 215–223. doi:10.1093/jdh/8.3.215.
Nakagawa, Keiichirō; Rosovsky, Henry (Spring–Summer 1963). "The Case of the Dying Kimono: The Influence of Changing Fashions on the Development of the Japanese Woolen Industry". The Business History Review. 37 (1/2): 59–80. doi:10.2307/3112093. JSTOR3112093. S2CID154748596.
Varley, Paul. Japanese Culture, 4th edn. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2000.
Nippon: The Land And Its People, 3rd edn. Tokyo: Nippon Steel Human Resources Development, 1988.
Notes
↑ Haffner, John; Klett, Tomas; Lehmann, Jean-Pierre (2009). Japan's Open Future: An Agenda for Global Citizenship. Anthem Press. p.17. ISBN978-1843313113.
↑ Takigawa, Yoshito; 滝川義人 (2001). Zukai Yudaya shakai no shikumi: gendai Yudayajin no hontō no sugata ga koko ni aru (in Japanese). Tōkyō: Chūkei Shuppan. ISBN4-8061-1442-1. OCLC85376993.
1 2 Web, Japan. "Japan Fact Sheet"(PDF). Noh and Kyogen: The world's oldest living theater. Archived from the original(PDF) on 9 April 2008. Retrieved 1 March 2008.
1 2 Web, Japan. "Japan Fact Sheet"(PDF). Kabuki: A vibrant and exciting traditional theater. Archived from the original(PDF) on 9 April 2008. Retrieved 1 March 2008.
↑ Web, Japan. "Japan Fact Sheet"(PDF). Bunraku: Puppet theater brings old Japan to life. Archived from the original(PDF) on 9 April 2008. Retrieved 1 March 2008.
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