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In other countries around the world, Japan is not always synonymous with possessing a rich sporting history. This is presumably attributable to, and likely rightfully so, many other views of the country that overshadow this culture. If it is technical growth, thousands of years of unique culture, or even video games and anime. Its sporting tradition is always an after-thought. That said, without a doubt, Japan has an affinity for athletics that rivals any other country.

You will also notice the ubiquitous sporting culture when wandering around Japan. If it's the baseball bars you can find curious about, or the soccer team you get stuck with in the afternoon on the same train car. You will see students coming home from school sometimes with Kendo or Kyudo tools, something very peculiar to Japan. Outrageously large driving range nets are spread all over Tokyo prefecture, and without passing at least one baseball diamond or soccer pitch, it's very difficult to stroll around in a city for fifteen minutes.

In order to understand the basis of Japan's sports culture, one must first look at the country's religious and historical growth. Stuff such as Shintoism's native faith, and the resulting Buddhist combination. The activities of the Bakfu Nation, the Japanese feudal monarchy, also play a staggering role in Japan's athletics. Finally, the undeniable presence of countries such as the USA, China and Canada from overseas.

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Historical Influences on Japanese Sports: Culture

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Historical Influences on Japanese Sports: Culture

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The history of Japan was heavily dictated by warfare, similar to many other civilizations. For Japan, Samurai is one of the most familiar cultural icons. The term "Samurai" means "to wait on" in traditional Chinese Kanji and was first introduced during the Asuka and Nara periods as a social class. For different classes of people, from traders, to fishermen, and aristocracy, they acted as bodyguards. Samurai will gradually develop into daimyo-led clans. Throughout Japan, the daimyo were able to acquire sufficient influence and gradually became the country's de facto rulers, despite the emperor formally being its figurehead. At this period, there were three separate Shogunates. Power was a persistent source of dispute until the Tokugawa Clan conquered the Edo period's final civil war, which was nearly seven hundred years of rule and culture focused on samurai ruling the land, so it would seem very clear that these origins would still lie in modern-day culture.

There was no open warfare during the Edo period and it was mostly a time of prosperity. The art of swordplay and archery would not be forgotten, while no pitched wars between opposing samurai clans would take place. Such martial talents have evolved from a purely realistic use to one with a sporting or ritualistic display. In non-lethal cases, this would occur more frequently, but full-sprung duels were not exceedingly rare. It was named Shinken Shobu. Nevertheless, society began to focus on these open shows of lethal aggression and most tried a more civilized version to try to refine these talents. One such direction was the rise of Kendo and Kyudo.

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Japan's earliest settlers probably arrived thousands of years ago from mainland China, so  Japanese art has a long history of Chinese influence. Many foreign techniques have been adopted with a distinctive character and then integrated with local culture.  As Japan opened up to the western

world in the late 19th century, its

art became extremely diverse but still obtained its own features and dominant types in each historical period.

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Foreign nation’s impact on Japanese Sports

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Foreign nation’s impact on Japanese Sports

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The presence of other nations should not be ignored, considering the apparent special attributes of Japanese athletics. The most famous are those from overseas, despite Sumo being an iconic sport. As with much of the world, soccer is one of the most popular sports. However, in Japan, baseball is the most popular professional sports league. Some other practiced athletics are also cricket, golf, soccer, basketball and a plethora of Olympic sports.

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Kaleidoscope Museum Project is a worldwide project which deals with the preservation of Japanese culture. The project represents a list made by padlet and presented in columns. The project studies the Japanese culture after World War II as it preserves Japanese culture which accumulates not only a long history but also tremendous traditional influences. To this day, Japan has demonstrated the value of its culture and the ability to preserve its culture, and 3 Japanese has inherited and then passed on these traditions to the next generation. The idea of cultural preservation plays an important role in Japan as nowadays, traditional Japanese restaurants sell Ramen and sushi, sports channels play baseball, museums display Japanese ceramics, and architectures possess sliding doors and tatami, all of which show the preservation of Japanese culture. Hence, the action of conserving Japanese culture is essential for its uniqueness and value.

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People often associate the venerable samurai warrior with Japan, but more than just fighting, these professional warriors were strictly trained. The warrior class of pre-modern Japan was the Samurai (also

known as bushi). According to a carefully designed code of

ethics known as bushido, samurai lived their lives and were expected to follow both bu and bun – the arts of war and culture. The Samurai amor was professionally designed by hand and made of materials that is considered to be opulent, such as weather-proofing lacquer and leather (and eventually silk lace) to connect the individual scales.

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A long period of extraordinary peace was enjoyed in the Edo era (1615-1868). Edo culture was thriving, and on an unparalleled scale, cities grew. Ukiyo-e simply means images of the floating world. These impressive woodblock prints highlighted the cultivated urban lifestyle, fashionability and the ephemeral elegance in their Edo background. It was also during this time that printing techniques became extremely sophisticated. Talking about the purpose of kiyo-e prints, it was to reflect the fashionable lifestyles of the Edo urbanities.

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Japanese pottery dates back to the Neolithic period. Japanese art's earliest pieces came from the Jomon Period (about 14,000 to 300 BCE), which was originally named after the corded rope used to imprint designs on earthenware clay (jomon can be translated as rope-marked). During the Edo period, the development of what is called modern ceramics started.

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Japanese contemporary art reflects the conscious efforts by its makers towards creativity and experimentations in the 21st century. For the emergence of modern Japanese women artists, creative autonomy rings particularly true. In the artistic fields, there is an unprecedented number of professional women employed.

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Yakushima, an island containing the remains of an ancient warm-temperate forest, is the last Japanese cedar-dominated ecosystem.  Up to 20,00 meter, high peaks are all covered in thick forests. The Japanese cedar, native to the island (Cryptomeria japonica) or Yakusugi, is a very large evergreen tree that can grow as high as 70 meters and some of the trees are 1,000 years old.

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Since the early decades, the island of Itsukushima in the Seto Inland Sea has been the holiest place of Shintoism. The first shrine buildings were erected during the 6th century. The current shrine dates back to the 12th century and the houses, harmoniously arranged, display great artistic and technical skills. The shrine plays on the differences between mountains and sea in color and shape and reflects the Japanese notion of scenic beauty, which blends nature and human imagination together.

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Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)

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Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)

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Constructed in A.D. 794, Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan. For more than 1,000 years, and it has been the center of Japanese culture, demonstrating the growth of Japanese wooden architecture, particularly religious architecture, and the art of Japanese gardens, which has influenced landscape gardening around the world.

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The only construction left standing in the area was the first atomic bomb exploded on 6 August 1945 was the Genbaku Dome, also known as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. It has been preserved in the same condition as immediately after the bombing, through the efforts of several individuals, including those of the city of Hiroshima. It is not only a strong and powerful symbol of humanity's most destructive force ever created, but it also reflects the desire for world peace and the ultimate prohibition of all nuclear weapons.

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In Himeji City,  Himeji Castle

is situated on a hilltop. The castle is considered to be the richest surviving example of Japanese prototypical castle architecture, comprising a network of 83 feudal-era buildings with sophisticated defense systems.

Because of its  white exterior and supposed resemblance to a bird taking flight, the castle is also called Hakuro-jo or Shirasagi-jo ("White Egret Castle" or "White Heron Castle").

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1. JUDO
Judo is a type of wrestling that is based on the self-defense principle. In judo, with each move, the power of an enemy is used as a directive. By redirecting a competing force, their influence may be used against them to beat the enemy. Many of the same movements of jiu-jitsu, however, are also applicable to judo, but there is greater emphasis on throwing moves and tactics for ground combat. Unbalancing the opponent is one of the objectives of judo.

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2. YABUSAME
In conventional Japanese archery, Yabusame is a form of mounted archery. An archer on a running horse fires three unusual "turnip-headed" arrows at three wooden targets in succession.

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3. KARATE
Karate is a martial art that was founded in the Kingdom of Ryukyu. It evolved under the influence of Kung Fu, particularly Fujian White Crane, from the indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts.  Using punching, kicking, knee strikes, elbow strikes and open-hand techniques such as knife-hands, spear-hands and palm-heel strikes, Karate is now mainly a striking art. Grappling, throws, joint locks, controls and vital-point attacks are also taught traditionally and in some contemporary styles. A practitioner of karate is called a karateka.

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1. Baseball
Baseball is the most dominant professional sports league within Japan. Horace Wilson, who taught at the Kaisei School in Tokyo, brought it to Japan in 1872. The first baseball team was named the Shimbashi Athletic Club and was set up in 1878. Ever since then, baseball has become a popular sport.

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2. Soccer
Soccer is the second popular sport among youth males in Japan. Soccer has be brought in Japan at 1873, by a British man who is a Lieutenant-Commander call Archibald Lucius Douglas.

Forty years later, in 1921, the Japan National Football Association was formed and the JSL (Japan Soccer League) started to shape an early form of professionalism in the sport. Since soocer is the most popular sport in the world, and also it helped to inspire Japan's team to be competitive in order to win international respect. In 1968, the Japan national team captured an Olympic bronze medal in Mexico and were at the height of their accomplishments to date. In terms of both popularity and talent, this will also be the highest point of the JSL.

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3. Basketball
Basketball has experienced a recent revival since the advent of Yuta Tabuse and Takuya Kawamura and has become a common sport in Japan.

The Japan national basketball team is administered by the Japan Basketball Association (JBA). There is a founding member of FIBA Asia in 1936, also Japan has one of the oldest basketball traditions in Asia.

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1. Sumo
One of Japan's most popular

and well-known sports in Japan is sumo. Sumo is a wrestling sport in general, but the rules are kind of different from wrestling in the Western style.

As its origin are based in the Shinto religion, Sumo wrestling has religious components. It's not as closely related to Shinto, though, as it once was, while in sumo traditions you can still see a lot of its influence.

Sumo wrestlers often reside in places called heya where rigid discipline is trained and studied, and there is often often a hierarchy that affects how each wrestler is managed and the duties they have to perform. The top wrestlers gain a star like status and are regarded as such, as there are ranks in sumo between the wrestlers.

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2. Boxing
The history of boxing in Japan is started in 1854, shortly after the Kanagawa Convention, Matthew Perry landed in Shimoda, Shizuoka. At the time, American sailors, with their fists covered in thin leather, frequently engaged in sparring matches on board their bows. It was Japan's first example of boxing.

The Japanese heavyweight title was created by the JBC once in 1957, but that division did not last long because at the time there were few heavyweight boxers in Japan. Therefore, for over fifty years, they have only accepted the names and grades of thirteen weight categories from minimum to middle weight. From September 2009, four weight classes were added, namely super middleweight, light heavyweight, cruiserweight and heavyweight.

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3. Figure skating
All four reigning World Championship singles skaters were from Japan during the 2009-10 season. In Japan, figure skating competitions are well attended and a wide audience is drawn by TV broadcasts. With the success of its native skaters, the big surge in its popularity has come mostly in the last decade, but there have been ardent fans for foreign skaters in the country for much longer. It is known that skater Dorothy Hamill got pearls in the 1970s from the Japanese royal family. In Japan, figure skaters also experience some degree of fame - some like Mao Asada and Yuzuru Hanyu, the first Japanese male figure skater to earn an Olympic gold medal, becoming household names and receiving significant sponsorships. Every year, the NHK Trophy, a major Grand-Prix figure skating event, is held in Japan.

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Most of the soup base of ramen has basic seasoning ingredients, and different additional ingredients are added to make a variety of soups. In addition, the use of different ingredients from different regions also produces unique local flavors, making ramen a popular food in all parts of Japan.

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Another kind of noodle dish that has been consumed for decades in Japan is call soba. Crafted from buckwheat flour, soba is very nutritious and has a long, slender form and strong texture. Soba can be eaten in a hot broth or chilled with a dipping sauce, much like udon noodles, making it a tasty and nutritious choice at any time of year.

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Kaiseki is the ultimate tasting course in Japanese fine dining, consisting of delicate, seasonally themed dishes designed with the utmost precision and attention to detail. Kaiseki was born from the conventional tea ceremony, where alongside the bitter green tea, small morsels of food were served, and over time these offers grew into a multi-course haute cuisine dinner.

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Sushi is, without a doubt, one of Japan's most popular dishes. Sushi, a cuisine that was born in ancient times, evolved from the fermented rice method of storing tuna. It's made today with vinegared rice and fresh seafood, presented in a range of ways and types.

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Chankonabe is a Japanese stew that, as part of a weight-gain diet, is usually consumed in large amounts by sumo wrestlers.

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One of the most popular festivals in Japan is Gion Matsuri. It takes place in the month of July, but on the 17th and 24th, the highlight is the grand parade of floats named "Yamaboko Junko" It takes place in Kyoto's Kawaramachi and Oike avenues.

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Kanda Matsuri is one of Tokyo's most popular festivals too, and is the festival of the Shrine of Kanda Myojin. During the middle of May, the main event occurs. Around a thousand people are joined by the portable shrines, or Mikoshi, and after they depart the Kanda Myojin Shrine in the morning, the procession proceeds through the districts of Kanda, Nihonbashi and Akihabara and returns in the evening to the shrine.

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The Yuki Matsuri of Sapporo takes place in February. Six snow statues created by local high school students in 1950 were the roots of this festival, and now it has become a worldwide exhibition for giant snow sculptures.

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Tenjin Matsuri is a festival sponsored by Osaka's Tenmangu Temple, which takes place on July 24 and 25. For both a ground procession and a river procession, the highlights are on the second day. The lit boats bounce off the water during the river parade, the fireworks go off in the sky.

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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The Nebuta Matsuri takes place in Aomori City from August 2nd to 7th. Nebuta are floats with lanterns representing human beings and surrounded by thousands of dancers singing. At dusk, the procession begins and lasts for hours.

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The Japanese tea ceremony is a traditional ritual in Japan that involves the preparation and introduction of matcha, powdered green tea, the craft of which is called temae.

In the production of the Japanese tea ceremony, Zen Buddhism was a key influence. Japanese tea tradition uses leaf tea even less often, primarily sencha, a practice known in Japanese as senchadō, as opposed to chanoyu or chadō.

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Here’s how to host a proper Japanese tea ceremony | Your Morning

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Here’s how to host a proper Japanese tea ceremony | Your Morning

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So called "Flower town", Hanamachi is basically a city in which geisha entertainment is focused. There are okiya (geisha households), ochaya (teahouses for entertainment) and kaburenjo in each district (geisha district office). Each hanamachi had its own ranking and long legacy in the high days of geisha history; titles, kimonos, dances and culture were passed on between generations. Several districts remain today, and although the disparities are mitigated, each district still has loyalty and pride.

The reason why there face is painted very white is because that there were no lights in the past, only have candles. So, only when they painted like that will look more beautiful.

Hanamachi society has very standardized precepts. For example, can't get married (but can find a man to be "Danna (funder)")

In now moderns day, this work has turn it in to a male-oriented service industry, so this industry has become a declining industry.

the differences between prostitutes and geishas

Prostitute: a person who engages in sexual intercourse in exchange for pay.

Geishas: a Japanese hostess trained to entertain men with conversation, dance, and song.

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Beautiful Kyoto: Being a Maiko (featuring Fukunae-san)

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Beautiful Kyoto: Being a Maiko (featuring Fukunae-san)

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Tōrō nagashi is a ritual in which participants float paper lanterns down a river; tōrō is the Japanese term for "lantern," while nagashi means "cruise" or "flow." In the expectation that it will help direct the spirits of the dead to the spirit world, this practice is usually conducted on the final evening of the Bon Festival. For purposes such as the commemoration of those killed in the Hiroshima bombing and those who died on Japan Airlines Flight 123, the ceremony can be held on other days of the year. It is also done to celebrate the conclusion of World War II in other parts of the world, such as Hawaii. Depending of the calendar used, the Bon Festival takes place on the thirteenth to sixteenth of August or July. Traditional Japanese beliefs say that humans come from water, so the lanterns represent the return of their bodies to water and to the sea in particular. To represent those who died in the past year, white paper lanterns are used.

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Japanese lantern ritual on Hirose River, Sendai

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Japanese lantern ritual on Hirose River, Sendai

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Kimono is a traditional Japanese garment and Japan's national wear. The kimono, with its square sleeves and rectangular frame, is a T-shaped, wrapped-front fabric and is worn with the left side wrapped over the right side until the wearer is dead. Traditionally, the kimono is worn with an obi and is often worn with accessories including zōri sandals and tabi socks.

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Setsubun is a Japanese holiday that is celebrated in Japan the day before spring. The Japanese claim on this holiday that the spirit world is nearest to our world. One game is called mamemaki during the holiday, where the kids are given the chance to scare the demons out of their home. A parent can put on an oni mask to reflect the demons during mamemaki and they fear their children. Then, by tossing soy beans (mame), the children fend off the demons! This is still a common Japanese household tradition, but as part of their spring festival, many people visit a shrine or temple where mamemaki takes place.

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Shomyo, a form of Buddhist singing, and gagaku, orchestral court music, are the oldest types of classical Japanese music. In popular Japanese music, all kinds of music are seldom available and are mostly heard by the older generations.

Musical theatre has also evolved from an early age in Japan and can now be appreciated by visitors and others interested in such theatres. Noh theatre, which emerged around the 14th century and is still practiced today, is the most popular genre of traditional Japanese music theatre. Many of the actors are male, and most are veiled, playing both male and female roles.

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It became increasingly popular in Japan after the arrival of Western music during the restoration of Meiji. Democratic officials would recruit musicians during the late 1900s to sell versions of songs that had a theme close to their own. They were known as enka-shi by these artists. Pre-WWII, this style of music was very popular, but the advent of jazz soon shadowed it.

Jazz became immensely popular and is now a part of the Japanese music scene, aside from during WWII.

With people like Shinichi Mori and Keiko Fuji paving the way for the enka genre, Post WWII saw the resurgence of enka. During the 1990s, however, the enka format started to decline, dropping to J-pop in the Western style. It was only in the late 2000s that Enka saw another rise in popularity. Artists such as 'the prince of enka' Hikawa Kiyoshi also contributed to promote the enka genre. Enka has also achieved worldwide attention, with the arrival of the first black enka singer in Japan, Jero, in 2008.

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Japanese rock is rooted in bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan in the 1960s. J-rock started as a simple parody of Western rock music at first, then gradually began to branch out into many sub-genres. Each genre incorporates distinctive sounds and styles for that genre, with each genre being rather Japanese.

Visual kei, a style of rock music featuring dark themes, based on the artist's aesthetics, arrived in the 1990s. Visual kei artists, many aiming for an androgynous look, prefer to wear heavy make-up and extravagant clothes. Dir en Grey, Luna Sea, Malice Mizer, Gackt and X Japan include some of the founders of visual kei. While Visual Kei originated as a very underground genre, with bands such as The GazettE, Girugamesh, Miyavi and Gackt touring the world, it has become more popular internationally over the last few years.

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Japanese indie rock songs I think you should listen at least once/playlist

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The most popular genre of music is Japanese pop, which entered Japan during the 1990s. J-pop has evolved, becoming more of a way of life rather than a musical form. Bands and singers who have been 'idols' have been pumped out by firms such as Avex and Johnny's associates, artists such as Arashi, KAT-TUN, Utada Hikaru, Ayumi Hamasaki and NewS etc, leading the way, climbing the Oricon rankings.

With singers from the Korean music industry moving over into Japan, the advent of J-pop in anime and gaming has expanded international success, building a fan base in South East Asia as well as the Western world.

Despite its small scale, Japan has the second biggest music industry, with its music and media overflowing globally across the border. It's only a matter of time before Japan, in music and film terms, takes over from the US.

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Best J-POP Songs 2020 - ベストJ-POPソング2020 - Souメドレーベストヒットフルプレイリスト

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1. Koto
Each string with its own bridge is a 13 stringed instrument koto. Usually, it is made of Paulownia wood and ranges from very simple to heavily decorated. In order to pluck the strings, three finger picks are used. There are also koto orchestras, in addition to being conducted as a solo instrument or in a small ensemble. Players are either standing alongside the instrument or kneeling in the conventional style. In jazz, the five note scale that the koto uses has been an influence, and in western pop and rock music, the sound of the koto is heard.

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さくら(Sakura) 25絃箏 (25 strings koto)

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2. Shakuhachi
Traditionally constructed from a single piece of bamboo, the Shakuhachi is a wind instrument. It has a flute-like tone and dates back to about 700 AD. Blowing over the end, it is played and is often tuned to a small scale that gives the usually melancholic appearance. In addition to its place in traditional Japanese music, since a synthesized version was available, the sound became popular in western pop and rock culture.

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尺八 SHAKUHACHI flute - Rodrigo Rodriguez - contemporary Japanese music

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尺八 SHAKUHACHI flute - Rodrigo Rodriguez - contemporary Japanese music

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3. Shamisen
Shamisen is a 3-stringed weapon plucked with a triangular plectrum called a bachi (literally, three taste strings). With a long neck leading to large tuning pegs, the body is short. With several local variants, the instrument is found all over Japan and is used to play music in many different genres. To have a contrasting theme, it is now beginning to be used in some popular Western music. And at the lower end of the guitar, the lowest string runs over a slight hump. This generates a pulse that flows beneath the music or 'buzz'.

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Momotaro is one of the most beloved folktales in Japan, as well as one of the most popular.

An old couple lived in a small village a long time ago. The old couple wanted a child, but they couldn't. She caught a large peach one day while the old woman was washing clothes by the river. She took the peach home happily, but a boy popped out of the peach and called him "Momotaro." Momotaro went to the ghost island after growing up to remove the damage to the inhabitants. Momotaro used glutinous rice dumplings (steamed rice dumplings) along the way to protect little white dogs, small monkeys, and pheasants, and ultimately united and eliminated the nasty ghosts successfully. He lived a happy life with his parents after Momotaro brought back several treasures.

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Another famous tale is Kaguyahime, also known as The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. And it has been adapted into other formats many times.

This tale is talking about a princess who come from the moon and it has been found inside the stalk of the glowing bamboo. When she grew up, and there were 5 suitors seeking attract by her beauty. She offers each of them a impossible challenge. Later on, she has also attracts the attention of the Emperor of Japan. At the end of the story, Kaguya-hime reveals her celestial origins and returns to the Moon.

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Kintarō, that was also as known as the "Golden Boy", is one of Japan’s popular folk heroes.

Kintaro's is about a powerful and adventurous boy who was raised on Mount Ashigara by a yama-uba. And then he became a companion of the mountain animals, a leader of his animal mates.

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In the 8th century, Tanabata emerged from a Chinese legend called Qixi and was introduced to Japan.

Tanabata originated from a Chinese legend called Qixi and was brought to Japan in the 8th century. It's the tale of two lovers. The seamstress, Princess Orihime, wove lovely clothes along the celestial river depicted by the Milky Way. Since Orihime was working so hard to weave pretty fabrics, she grew depressed and anxious to find love forever. Her father, a heavenly deity, loved her dearly and arranged to meet Hikoboshi, the cow herder who lived on the other side of the Milky Way. The two instantly fell in love and married. They were so deep in their love and devotion that Orihime stopped weaving, and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to roam into the heavens.

The father of Orihime became furious and forbade the lovers to be together, but Orihime pleaded with him to allow them to live. He loved his daughter, so he decreed that it would be possible for the two star-crossed lovers to meet once a year—on the seventh day of the seventh month if Orihime would return to weaving her. They considered the river (Milky Way) to be too rough to navigate on the first day they were to be reunited. Orihime grew so despondent that there came a flock of magpies and made her a bridge.

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Urashima Taro is a Japanese tale that teaches the importance of pleasure over compliance.

One day, Urashima Tarō, a young fisherman, is fishing when he sees a group of children torturing a tiny turtle. Tarō rescues it and helps it to return to the sea. An immense turtle visits him the next day, telling him that the little turtle he had rescued was the daughter of the Emperor of the Sea, Ryūjin, who would like to see him give thanks to him. The turtle gives Tarō gills mysteriously and takes him to the bottom of the sea, to the Dragon God's (Ryūgū-jō) Palace. There, he encounters the Emperor and the little turtle, Otohime, now a pretty princess. There is a separate season for each of the four sides of the palace.

Tarō remains with Otohime for three days, but then needs to return to his village to visit his elderly mother, so he asks for permission to go. The princess says she's sad to see him go, but she wishes him well and gives him a mysterious tamatebako box to shield him from hurt, but she warns him never to open it. Tarō takes up the crate, climbs on the back of the same turtle that took him in, and he's on the seashore fast.

When he goes home, it has all changed. His house is gone, his mother has died, and there is nowhere to see the people he loved. He wonders whether a guy named Urashima Tarō is known to someone. They respond that they learned that someone by that name had died long ago at sea. He learns that from the day he leaves for the bottom of the sea, 300 years have passed. Struck with sorrow, he opens absent-mindedly the package the princess had sent him, from which a cloud of white smoke bursts out. He unexpectedly became old, his beard white and long, and his back bent. The sad voice of the Princess emerges from the sea: "I told you not to open that box. In it was your old age ...".

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Japanese literature traces its origins to oral traditions which, after a writing system was

introduced from China, were first documented in written form in the early eighth century. In 712 and 720, respectively, the Kojiki

and Nihon shoki  were completed as government works. The former is an anthology of myths, legends and other tales and the latter is a chronological record of history.

The history, geography, products and folklore of the different provinces are represented in

the Fudoki (Records of Wind and Earth), compiled by provincial officials beginning in 713. The Kokin wakashu or Kokinshu (Collection of Poems from Ancient and Modern Times) was published in 905 as

the first anthology of poetry commissioned by an emperor; Its preface paid high tribute to literature's immense possibilities.

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The dominant stream of Japanese fiction has been naturalism since the release of Hakai (1906; The Broken Commandment), by Shimazaki Tōson, and Futon (1907; The Quilt), by Tayama Katai.  While the movement was originally influenced by the works of the 19th-century French writer Émile Zola and other European naturalists, it soon took on a distinctive Japanese coloring. In place of absolute verisimilitude in the confessions of the protagonist or in the minute descriptions of the

lives of unimportant people hemmed in by circumstances beyond their control, the Japanese coloring rejects carefully crafted plots or stylistic elegance. In the decade following the end of the Russo-Japanese

War in 1905, an extraordinary burst of artistic activity occurred. There were probably never so many important authors writing

at once before in the history of Japanese literature. Furthermore, he fiction of the prewar era was split into schools by

Japanese critics, each typically consisting of one leading writer and his disciples.

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When Japan opened up in the Meiji period (1868-1912) to the rest of the world, the influence of western literary ideas and techniques was deeply felt.

'New' ideas such as socialism, idealism, and romanticism were played with by novelists and were inspired differently by French, British, or German literature.
In its scale, style, and themes,

modern Japanese literature is especially vast. More and more English is being translated and there are new independent

publishing houses dedicated to bringing to Western audiences new and obscure Japanese literature.

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Many of the greatest and strongest names in Japanese literature are women, and by discussing issues such as social systems and patriarchy, loss and loneliness, and non-romantic love, these women are breaking boundaries and shattering literary norms. The Kafkaesque genre is one popular

thematic theme of modern Japanese literature. Although this style started with the Bohemian writer Franz Kafka, Japanese writers have almost completely co-opted it. Most of the best Japanese literature contains a theme called punk, which betrays outrage at sexist, patriarchal, capitalist structures that

have been taken for granted for far too long.

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The Unique Narratives of Japanese Literature

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The Unique Narratives of Japanese Literature

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European and Asian artists, whether they are authors, poets, painters, animators, or musicians, look at the world differently from each other and capture those insights in their art differently.
From Shakespeare to Danish fairy tales, many European love stories end with a wedding. A love story does not have such a well specified beginning or end in Japanese literature, but may instead be a snippet of someone's life or relationship. This is driven by contrasting perspectives on narratives, time, and endings. To Western viewers, this different approach to telling a love story or a family drama sounds new and fresh.

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The prevalence of wood is by far

the most prominent characteristic of typical Japanese structures. Wood was preferred over than other building materials because of the ever-present possibility of earthquakes. Wood was given great respect in old Japanese houses and so it is usually used in its natural state. Instead of using nails to connect parts of the house, some of the craftsmen prefer to use wood; therefore, in dome buildings, nails have not even been used.

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To divide rooms, old Japanese

houses relied on movable screens (shoji) and sliding doors (fusuma).

The screens appear to be light and papery, allowing the rooms to have some natural light (and shadows). The screens and sliding doors were some of the exports that gain popularity in the west.

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Although it possibly reaches the realms of interior design and

decoration, tatami is a major part of traditional Japanese architecture. tatami mats were used for a large part of the flooring in households, offering a soft surface to sit and sleep on. With many new flats and houses having at least one tatami space, tatami mats remain common today.

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In older Japanese houses, they tend to have a raise wooden veranda that surrounds the house. It was often sealed off when the heavy storms go by.

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Even today, Japanese houses still have a sunken space between the

front door and the rest of the building. This place, considered dirty, separates the home from the outside and is where shoes are put (usually on a rack or in a shoebox). A genkan has been a practical way for a long time to keep the family living room tidy.

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Factual: What factors contribute to a "world culture"?

World culture contains a series of common experiences, norms, symbols and thoughts that bring people together on a global level. Basically six factors contribute to world culture: mass communications, immigration, emigration and tourism, trade, politics, and urbanization. Nowadays, mass media plays a key role in people's lives, enabling the exchange of culture, knowledge, and images between countries through international news, TV, emerging technology, film, and music broadcasts. In addition, immigrants bring multiple cultures into the target countries. Homogenisation is another characteristic of world culture suggesting that cultural diversity diminishes by popularizing and disseminating a broad variety of cultural representations, not only physical objects but also traditions, ideas and values. Also, emigration and tourism are also cultural characteristics. As world culture develops, foods, traditions, and cultures in different countries can now be enjoyed and seen everywhere around the world. For example, bubble tea from Taiwan can now be enjoyed by people in Japan, England, and the United States; hamburgers are very popular in Asia. Moreover, trading contributes to world culture. The prevalence of trading and exchange of goods let Asian goods or food display on the shelves in the supermarket in America and other European countries. Such a scene exemplifies the exchange and diffusion of different cultures. In politics, the presence of the United Nations symbolizes the role of politics in world culture. Furthermore, urbanization establishes world culture as the population shifts from rural to urban areas as people pick up similar habits, indicating that culture begins to diffuse.

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Conceptual: What is the concept of “cultural imperialism”?

Cultural imperialism indicates that a powerful culture dominates the relatively weaker counterpart. Such a dominance contains values, practices, tradition, religion, language, and norms. Also, the cultural influence is  imposed through exportation of cultural products and commodities  in different forms such as film, music, and fast food.

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Debatable: Is the eventual creation of a world culture inevitable?

I agree that the emerger of world culture is inevitable because different cultures learn from one another. As time goes by, each culture contains some of the other ones. Hence, cultural homogenization reduces cultural diversity by popularizing and disseminating a wide variety of cultural symbols, not only physical artifacts but also traditions, ideas and values. Besides, though every country holds its own cultures, those cultures slowly evolve to contain some characteristics of other cultures. Thus, cultural homogeneity is significant because it allows people to know each other better. For example, when a person visits another country, he or she would definitely find out that many traditions and things of that country are particularly novel; when he returns to his country, he shares those novel things with people around in a verbal way. Once words pass through people’s ears, they start to spread to everywhere.  The spread of the information may ignite the development of another similar but different culture. Hence, I am assured that world culture is important.

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Kyoto Festival: Spring Ogre Purification (Oni Yarai Shinji)

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Kyoto Festival: Spring Ogre Purification (Oni Yarai Shinji) [4K]

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Shamisen Girls Ki&Ki - Tsugaru Jongara Bushi

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Shamisen Girls Ki&Ki - Tsugaru Jongara Bushi

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Tanizaki Jun'ichirō, (born July 24, 1886, Tokyo, Japan-died July 30, 1965, Yugawara), major modern Japanese novelist, whose writing is characterized by eroticism and ironic wit.

His earliest short stories, of which "Shisei" (1910; "The Tattooer") is an example, have affinities with Edgar Allan Poe and the French Decadents. After moving from Tokyo to the more conservative Ōsaka area in 1923, however, he seemed to turn toward the exploration of more traditional Japanese ideals of beauty. Tade kuu mushi (1929; Some Prefer Nettles), one of his finest novels, reflects the change in his own system of values; it tells of marital unhappiness that is in fact a conflict between the new and the old, with the implication that the old will win. Tanizaki began in 1932 to render into modern Japanese one of the monuments of classical Japanese literature, Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji) of Murasaki Shikibu. This work undoubtedly had a deep influence on his style, for during the 1930s he produced a number of discursive lyrical works that echo the prose of the Heian period, in which Genji monogatari is set. The Tale of Genji continued to hold a deep fascination for him, and through the years he produced several revisions of his original rendition. Another of his major novels, Sasame-yuki (1943-48; The Makioka Sisters), describes-in the leisurely style of classical Japanese literature-the harsh inroads of the modern world on aristocratic traditional society. His postwar writings, including Kagi (1956; The Key) and Fūten rōjin nikki (1961-62; Diary of a Mad Old Man), show an eroticism that suggests a return to his youth. His Bunshō Tokuhon (1934; "A Style Reader") is a minor masterpiece of criticism. Tanizaki's work has been characterized as a literary quest for "the eternal female."

Learn More in these related Britannica articles:

Japanese literature: The novel between 1905 and 1941

time were Nagai Kafū, Tanizaki Jun'ichirō, and Akutagawa Ryūnosuke. Nagai Kafū was infatuated with French culture and described with contempt the meretricious surface of modern Japan. In later years, however, though still alienated from the Japanese present, he showed nostalgia for the Japan of his youth, and his most...

Satō met the novelist Tanizaki Jun'ichirō in 1916, the beginning of a friendship that ended several years later when he became involved with Tanizaki's wife. His first independent volume of poetry, Junjō shishū (1921; "Poems of Innocence"), was inspired by his sorrow at parting from her; but eventually they...

...Prefer Nettles, autobiographical novel by Tanizaki Jun'ichirō, published in Japanese in 1928-29 as Tade kuu mushi. It originally appeared as a newspaper serial, and it is generally considered one of the author's finest works....

born

July 24, 1886
Tokyo, Japan

died

July 30, 1965 (aged 79)
Yugawara, Japan

notable works

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Tanizaki Jun'ichirō, major modern Japanese novelist, whose writing is characterized by eroticism and ironic wit. His earliest short stories, of which "Shisei" (1910; "The Tattooer") is an example, have affinities with Edgar Allan Poe and the French Decadents. After moving from Tokyo to the more