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Kyôto, Kyôto

Kyôto, Kyôto

:This page is about the city Kyoto. For the convention see Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto (Japanese: 京都市; Kyōto-shi) is a city in Japan, which has a population of a little more than 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.

History

Though archaeological evidence places the first human settlement on the islands of Japan to approximately 10,000 BC, the Kyoto area was not settled until the 7th century. During the 8th century, when the powerful Buddhist clergy became meddlesome in the affairs of the Imperial government, the Emperor chose to relocate the capital to a region far from the Buddhist influence. The new city, Heiankyō ("Heian capital") became the seat of Japan's imperial court in 794. Later, the city was renamed to Kyoto ("capital city"). Kyoto remained Japan's capital until the transfer of the government to Edo in 1868 at the time of the Imperial Restoration. (Some believe that it is still the legal capital: see Capital of Japan.) After Edo was renamed to Tokyo (meaning "Eastern Capital"), Kyoto was known for a short time as Saikyo (西京 Saikyō, meaning "Western Capital"). An obsolete spelling for the city's name is Kioto; it was formerly known to the West as Meaco (Japanese: 都; miyako "capital"). Japanese Although there was some consideration by the United States of targeting Kyoto with the atomic bomb at the end of World War II, in the end it was decided to remove the city from the list of targets. (See Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) Kyoto is the only large Japanese city that still has an abundance of prewar buildings, such as machiya (traditional townhouses). However, modernization is continually breaking down the traditional Kyoto in favor of newer architecture, such as the controversial Kyoto Station complex. Kyoto became a city designated by government ordinance on September 1, 1956. In 1997, Kyoto hosted the conference that resulted in the protocol on greenhouse gas emissions that bears the city's name. A common English pronunciation of Kyoto has three sounds as key-oh-toe; however, the Japanese pronunciation is kyoh and to ().

Geography

Kyoto is located on the middle-western portion of the island of Honshu. Due to the surrounding mountains on all sides, Kyoto is famous for its stifling summer nights with no air movement. The city is laid out in a grid pattern in accordance with traditional Chinese geomancy. Today, the main business district is located in the south and center of town, with the less populated northern area retaining a far greener feel.

Wards

geomancy in Japan.]] Kyoto has 11 wards (ku). For a list, see the article Wards of Kyoto.

Demographics

As of 2003, the city has an estimated population of 1,466,163 and the density of 2,402.68 persons per km². The total area is 610.22 km².

Culture

Kyoto is considered the cultural center of Japan. During World War II when firebombing was conducted throughout the country, Kyoto and its 1600 Buddhist temples, 400 Shinto shrines, palaces, gardens and architecture were spared, leaving it one of the best preserved cities in Japan. The Kyoto area has some of the most famous temples, shrines, palaces and gardens in Japan, including:
- Kiyomizu-dera, a magnificent wooden temple supported by pillars off the slope of a mountain;
- Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion;
- Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion;
- Heian Jingu, a Shinto shrine celebrating the Imperial family (built in 1895)
- Ryoan-ji, famous for its rock garden
- [http://www.shunkoin.com/ Shunkoin Temple]
- Kyoto Imperial Palace, home of the Emperors of Japan for many centuries;
- Katsura Imperial Villa, one of Japan's finest architectural treasures;
- Shugaku-in Imperial Villa, one of Japan's best Japanese gardens Japanese gardens Japanese gardens Inari Shrine]] Other notable sites in and around Kyoto include Arashiyama and its picturesque lake, the Gion and Pontochō geisha quarters, the Philosopher's Walk, and the canals which line some of the older streets. The "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto" are listed by the UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. These include the Kamo Shrines (Kami and Shimo), Kyo-O-Gokokuji (Toji), Kiyomizu-dera, Daigoji, Ninnaji, Saihoji (the Moss Temple), Tenryuji, Rokuonji (Kinkaku-ji), Jishoji (Ginkaku-ji), Ryoan-ji, Honganji, Kozan-ji and the Nijo Castle. Other sites outside the city are also on the list. Kyoto is renowned for its abundance of delicious ethnic foods and cuisine. The history of Kyoto have allowed to retain a variety of vegetables. Kyoto natives also speak a Japanese dialect called Kyoto-ben, a variation on the Kansai dialect spoken throughout western Japan. One typical example is the word "ookini," meaning "thank you." Japanese dialect at the Kyoto National Museum]]

Economy

Tourism forms a large base of Kyoto's economy. The city's cultural heritages are constantly visited by school groups from across Japan, and many foreign tourists also stop in Kyoto. The city's industry is mainly comprised of small plants, most of which are run by artisans who produce traditional Japanese crafts. Kyoto's kimono weavers are particularly renowned, and the city remains the premier center of kimono manufacturing. Such businesses, vibrant in past centuries, have declined in recent years as sales of traditional goods stagnate. Kyoto's only sizable heavy industry is electronics: the city is home to the headquarters of Nintendo, as well as the headquarters of OMRON Corporation, Kyocera (Kyoto Ceramic) Corporation, and Murata Manufacturing. The apparel giant Wacoal Corporation also operates in Kyoto. However, the growth of high-tech industry has not outpaced the decline in traditional industry, and as a result, Kyoto's total output has declined relative to other cities in Japan.

Colleges and universities

Kyoto is known as one of the academic centers of the country, and is home to thirty-seven institutions of higher education. The three largest and best-known local universities are Doshisha University, Kyoto University, and Ritsumeikan University. Among them, Kyoto University is considered to be one of the top universities in Japan, with several Nobel laureates such as Yukawa Hideki. Kyoto also has a unique higher education network called the Consortium of Universities in Kyoto, which consists of three national, five public (prefectural and municipal), and 41 private universities, as well as the city and four other organizations. The consortium does not offer a degree; hence is not a federal body like University of London, but offers the courses as part of a degree at participating universities. University of London

Transportation

Kansai International Airport is 72 minutes from Kyoto by train (the Haruka Express). Many foreign visitors to Kyoto arrive by Shinkansen from Tokyo, which takes just over two hours. There are also regular JR, Keihan Railway, Hankyu Railway, and Kintetsu services to other cities in the Kansai region. The subway and bus systems (see Kyoto Municipal Transportation Bureau) are fairly extensive. Most tourist points in the city are not a walkable distance away from each other, making the bus a practical transportation option. Kyoto is quite flat, so renting a bicycle is also an idea worth thinking about. Buses within the city cost 220 Yen per ride (200 Yen if you buy a book of 5 tickets for 1000 yen). The most cost effective way to travel in Kyoto by bus is to purchase a 500 Yen one day pass which allows unlimited rides. Central Kyoto has streets in a grid pattern. Many large east-west avenues have numbers, including Nijo and Sanjo (ni means "two" and san means "three"). Kyoto Station lies along Hachijo. Major north-south roads have names such as Karasuma and Horikawa. The subway has two lines. The Karasuma Line follows Karasuma Street from Kyoto Station north, with stops at many numbered avenues, and also at Imadegawa (a major street). The other line, Tozai Line, runs east-west partly under Oike Street.

Festivals

Tozai Line]]
- Aoi Matsuri
- Gion Matsuri
- Jidai Matsuri
- Gozan Okuribi

Sports

In football (soccer), Kyoto is represented by Kyoto Purple Sanga in the J. League's Division 2 or J2. With the popularity of the nearby Hanshin Tigers, Kyoto has never had a team in Japanese professional baseball, though the Tigers play several neutral-site games at Kyoto's Nishi Kyogoku stadium every year. Additionally, Kyoto's high school baseball teams are strong, with Heian and Toba in particular making strong showings recently at the annual tournament held in Koshien Stadium, Nishinomiya, near Osaka.

Sister cities


- Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Paris, France
- Cologne, Germany
- Florence, Italy
- Kyiv, Ukraine
- Xi'an, People's Republic of China
- Guadalajara, Mexico
- Zagreb, Croatia
- Yogyakarta, Republic of Indonesia

External links


-
- [http://www.city.kyoto.jp/koho/index_e.html www.city.kyoto.jp] - Official site of Kyoto City (in English)
- [http://homepage.mac.com/japanpodguides/index.html Kyoto Podcast]
- category:Cities in Japan Category:Holy cities Category:Cities in Kyoto Prefecture ko:교토 시 ja:京都市 simple:Kyoto



Japanese language

Japanese (Japanese: 日本語（にほんご Nihongo, ) is a language spoken by over 127 million people, mainly in Japan, but also by Japanese emigrant communities around the world. It is considered an agglutinative language and is distinguished by a system of honorifics reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and particular vocabulary which indicate the relative status of speaker and listener. The sound inventory of Japanese is relatively small, and it has a lexically-distinctive pitch accent system. Though the two languages are completely unrelated, Japanese has been heavily influenced by Chinese over a period of at least 1,500 years. Japanese is written with a mix of Chinese characters (kanji) and a modified syllabary, kana, also originally based on Chinese characters. Much vocabulary has been imported from Chinese, or created on Chinese models.

Classification

Historical linguists who specialize in Japanese agree that it is one of the two members of the Japonic language family, but remain divided as to the origins of the Japonic languages. An older view, still widely held by some linguists and many non-linguists, is that Japanese is a language isolate. As for its relation to other languages, there are several theories (presented roughly in descending order of certainty):
- Japanese is a relative of extinct languages spoken by historic cultures in what are now the Korean peninsula and Manchuria. The best attested of these is the language of Goguryeo (a.k.a. Koguryo), with the more poorly-attested languages of Baekje (a.k.a. Paekche) and Buyeo (a.k.a Puyo) hypothesized to also be related. The limited data on these languages, as well as these cultures' historic ties, are the primary evidence.
- Japanese is a relative of Korean. This theory is based on the high degree of similarity between Japanese and Korean grammar. Proponents of this theory have also put proposed Japanese-Korean cognates. The idea of a Japanese-Korean relationship has been largely subsumed into the Altaic theory.
- Japanese is a member of the Altaic language family. Other languages in this group include Mongolian, Tungusic, Turkish, and (according to most proponents) Korean. Evidence for this theory lies in the fact that like Turkish and Korean, Japanese is an agglutinative language. Additionally, there are a suggestive number of apparently regular correspondences in basic vocabulary, such as ishi "stone" to Turkic daş, yon "four" to Turkic dört, kura "saddle" to Turkic kürtün, kiru "to cut" to Turkic kir-, inu "dog" to Turkic it, kumo "cloud" to Turkic köl "shadow", etc. These examples originate from [http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/query.cgi?root=config&basename=\data\alt\altet this database], which contains a comprehensive list of comparisons and theoretical Altaic etymologies.
- Japanese is a creole language. Phonological similarities and geographical proximity to Austronesian languages have led to the theory that Japanese may be a kind of creole, with an Altaic substratum and an Austronesian superstratum, or vice versa.
- Japanese is a purely Austronesian language. This theory enjoys little currency, since the grammar and lexis of Japanese are vastly different from those of any known Austronesian language.
- Ono Susumu has suggested a possible relationship between Japanese and Tamil, a member of the Dravidian language family spoken in southern India. Specialists in Japanese historical linguistics all agree that Japanese is related to the Ryukyuan languages (including Okinawan); together, Japanese and Ryukyuan are grouped in the Japonic languages. Among these specialists, the possibility of a genetic relation to Goguryeo has the most evidence; relationship to Korean is considered plausible but is still up to debate; the Altaic hypothesis has somewhat less currency, though it has grown significantly more respectable in recent years, primarily due to the work of Sergei Starostin, et al. Almost all specialists reject the idea that Japanese could be genetically related to Austronesian/Malayo-Polynesian languages or Sino-Tibetan languages, and the idea that Japanese could be related to Tamil is almost entirely excluded. It should be noted that linguistic studies, like all fields, can be strongly affected by national politics and other non-academic factors. For example, most linguists would say that Romanian and Moldovan are essentially the same language, and that they are known as two different languages for political reasons. Japan's long-standing rivalries and enmities with virtually all of its neighbours make the study of linguistic connection particularly fraught with such political tensions. However, these tensions are less prevalent among non-Japanese researchers.

Geographic distribution

Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has been and is still sometimes spoken in countries besides Japan. When Japan occupied Korea, Taiwan, parts of China, and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries were forced to learn Japanese in empire-building programmes. As a result, there are still many people in these countries who speak Japanese instead of or as well as the local languages. In addition, emigrants from Japan, the majority of whom are found in Brazil, where the biggest Japanese community outside Japan is found, Australia (especially Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne), and the United States (notably California and Hawaii), also frequently speak Japanese. There is also a small community in Davao, Philippines. Their descendants (known as nikkei 日系, literally Japanese descendants), however, rarely speak Japanese fluently. There are estimated to be several million non-Japanese studying the language as well.

Official status

Japanese is the de facto official language of Japan, and Japan is the only country to have Japanese as an official working language. There are two forms of the language considered standard: or standard Japanese, and or the common language. As government policy has modernized Japanese, many of the distinctions between the two have blurred. Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications, and is the version of Japanese discussed in this article.

Dialects

Dozens of dialects are spoken in Japan. The profusion is due to the mountainous island terrain and Japan's long history of both external and internal isolation. Dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent, inflectional morphology, vocabulary, particle usage, and pronunciation. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this is uncommon. Dialects from less central regions, such as the Tōhoku or Tsushima dialect may be unintelligible to speakers from other parts of the country. The dialect used in Kagoshima in southern Kyūshū is famous for being unintelligible not only to speakers of standard Japanese but to speakers of nearby dialects elsewhere in Kyūshū as well. Kagoshima dialect is 84% cognate with standard Tokyo dialect. The Ryukyuan languages are spoken in the islands of Okinawa Prefecture. Not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryukyuan languages. Due to the close relationship of Ryukyuan and Japanese, they are still sometimes said to be only dialects of one language, but modern scholars consider them to be separate languages. Recently, Standard Japanese has become prevalent nationwide, due not only to television and radio, but also to increased mobility within Japan due to its system of roads, railways, and airports. Young people usually speak their local dialect and the standard language, though in most cases, the local dialect is influenced by the standard, and regional versions of "standard" Japanese have local-dialect influence.

Sounds

Japanese vowels are "pure" sounds, similar to their Italian or Spanish counterparts. The only unusual vowel is the high back vowel , which is like , but unrounded. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, so each one has both a short and a long version. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones, which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese of the first half of the twentieth century, was palatalized to , approximately chi; however, now and are distinct, as evidenced by words like paatii "party" and tii "tea." The syllabic structure and the phonotactics are very simple: the only consonant clusters allowed within a syllable consist of one of a subset of the consonants plus /y/. However, consonant clusters across syllables within the word are common, though limited in type.

Grammar

The basic Japanese word order is Subject Object Verb. Subject and object are usually marked by particles which come after the word. The basic sentence structure is topic-comment. For example, Kochira wa Tanaka san desu. Kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by the particle wa. The verb is desu ("be"). As a phrase, Tanaka san desu is the comment. This sentence loosely translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mr./Mrs./Ms. Tanaka". Thus Japanese, like Chinese and Korean, is often called a topic-prominent language, which means it indicates the topic separately from the subject, and the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai. literally means, "As for elephants, the nose is long." The topic is zō "elephant," and the subject is hana "nose." Japanese nouns have neither number nor gender. Thus hon may mean "book" or "books". It is possible to explicitly indicate more than one, either by using numbers, often with a counter. Words for people are usually singular. Thus Tanaka san usually means Mr/Ms Tanaka. Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate groups with noun suffixes that indicate groups, such as -tachi. Though some words, like hitobito "people," always refer to more than one, Japanese has no true plurals. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present, or non-past, which is used for the present and the future. For some verbs, that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) tense. For others, that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect tense. For example, kite iru means "He has come (and is still here)", but tabete iru means "He is eating". Questions are formed by adding a question element to the end of the verb, usually ka. For example, :Kore de ii desu. "This is OK." becomes :Kore de ii desu ka. "Is this OK?" Negatives are formed with verb endings. For example, :Pan o taberu. "I will eat bread." becomes :Pan o tabenai. "I will not eat bread." with taberu "to eat" changing to the negative form tabenai "to not eat". The word desu/da is the copula verb. It corresponds approximately to the English be, but often takes on other roles. A separate function of "to be" is to indicate existence, as in "there is", for which the verbs aru and iru are used for inanimate and animate things, respectively. For example, :Neko ga iru. "There's a cat.", and :Ii kangae ga nai. "I haven't got a good idea." The verb "to do" (suru, polite form shimasu) is often used to make verbs from nouns (ai suru "to love", benkyō suru "to study", etc.). Japanese also has a huge number of compound verbs (e.g. tobidasu "to fly out, to flee," from tobu "to fly, to jump" + dasu "to go out"). There are three types of adjective: #keiyōshi, or i adjectives, which have a conjugating ending i which can become, for example, past, or negative. For example atsui ("to be hot") #:atsui hi "a hot day". #keiyōdōshi, or na adjectives, which are followed by a form of the copula, usually na. For example hen (strange) #:hen na hito "a strange person". #rentaishi, also called true adjectives, such as onaji "the same" #:onaji hi "the same day". Both keiyōshi and keiyōdōshi may predicate sentences. For example, :Gohan ga atsui. "The rice is hot." :Kare wa hen da. "He's strange." Both inflect, though they do not show the full range of conjugation found in true verbs. The rentaishi are few in number, and unlike the other words, are limited to modifying nouns. They never predicate sentences. Examples include ookina "big" and onaji "the same" (although there is a noun onaji that can be followed by da, as in onaji da). Both keiyōdōshi and keiyōshi form adverbs, by following with ni in the case of keiyōdōshi: :hen ni naru "become strange", and by changing i to ku in the case of keiyōshi: :atsuku naru "become hot". The grammatical function of nouns is indicated by postpositions, also called particles. These include
- no for possession, :watashi no kamera "my camera"
- ga for subject, :Kare ga yatta. "He did it."
- o for direct object :Nani o tabemasu ka? "What will (you) eat?"
- ni for indirect object, :Tanaka san ni kiite kudasai "Please ask Mr./Ms. Tanaka",
- wa for the topic and many others. Japanese has many words that are translated as pronouns in English, such as watashi or boku, both meaning "I". Which is used depends upon many factors, including the sex and status of the speaker, who is being spoken to, and the social setting. Their use is often optional, since Japanese is described as a so-called pro-drop language, i.e., one in which the subject of a sentence does not always need to be stated. For example, instead of saying :Watashi wa byōki desu. "I am sick.", if the speaker is understood to be the subject, one could simply say Byōki desu. A single verb can be a complete sentence: :yatta! "(I / we / they / etc) did (it)!".

Politeness

Unlike most western languages, Japanese has an extensive grammatical system to express politeness and formality. Broadly speaking, there are three main politeness levels in spoken Japanese: the plain form (kudaketa 砕けた), the simple polite form (teineigo 丁寧語) and the advanced polite form (keigo 敬語). Since most relationships are not equal in Japanese society, one person typically has a higher position. This position is determined by a variety of factors including job, age, experience, or even psychological state (e.g., a person asking a favour tends to do so politely). The person in the lower position is expected to use a polite form of speech, whereas the other might use a more plain form. Strangers will also speak to each other politely. Japanese children rarely use polite speech until they are teens, at which point they are expected to begin speaking in a more adult manner. See uchi-soto The plain form in Japanese is recognized by the shorter, dictionary form of verbs, and the da form of the copula. At the teinei level, verbs end with the helping verb -masu, and the copula desu is used. The advanced polite form, keigo, actually consists of two kinds of politeness: honorific language (sonkeigo) and humble (kenjōgo) language. Whereas teineigo is an inflectional system, keigo often employs many special (often irregular) honorific and humble verb forms. The difference between honorific and humble speech is particularly pronounced in the Japanese language. Humble language is used to talk about oneself or one's own group (company, family) whilst honorific language is mostly used when describing the interlocutor and his group. For example, the -san suffix ("Mr", "Mrs" or "Ms") is an example of honorific language. It is not used to talk about oneself or when talking about someone from one's company to an external person, since the company is the speaker's "group". Most nouns in the Japanese language may be made polite by the addition of o- or go-; as a prefix. o- is generally used for words of native Japanese origin, whereas go- is affixed to words of Chinese derivation. In some cases, the prefix has become a fixed part of the word, and is included even in regular speech, such as gohan 'cooked rice; meal.' Such a construction often indicates deference to either the item's owner or to the object itself. For example, the word tomodachi 'friend,' would become o-tomodachi when referring to the friend of someone of higher status (though mothers often use this form to refer to their children's friends). On the other hand, a female speaker may sometimes refer to mizu 'water' as o-mizu merely to show politeness; this contrasts with the more abrupt speech of men (though men may also use very polite forms when speaking to superiors). See Gender differences in spoken Japanese. Many researchers report that since the 1990s, the use of polite forms has become rarer. Needless to say, many older people disapprove of this trend. Most Japanese people employ politeness to indicate a lack of familiarity. That is, they use polite forms for new acquaintances, but if a relationship becomes more intimate, they no longer use them. This occurs regardless of age, social class, or gender. Young people usually receive extensive training in the "proper" use of polite language when they start to work for a company.

Vocabulary

The original language of Japan was the so-called yamato kotoba. In addition to this original language, Japanese also has a great number of words that were either borrowed from Chinese or constructed on Chinese patterns. These words entered the language from the fifth century onwards via contact with Chinese culture. Chinese based words comprise as much as seventy percent of the total vocabulary of the Japanese language and form as much as thirty to forty percent of words used in speech. A much smaller number of words has been borrowed from Korean and Ainu. Japan has also borrowed a number of words from other languages, gairaigo. This began with borrowings from Portuguese in the 16th century, followed by borrowing from Dutch during Japan's long isolation of the Edo period. With the Meiji restoration and the reopening of Japan in the 19th century, borrowing occurred from German, French and English. Currently, words of English origin are the most commonly borrowed. In the Meiji era, the Japanese also coined many neologisms using Chinese patterns to translate Western concepts. The Chinese and Koreans imported many of these pseudo-Chinese words into Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese via their kanji characters in the late 19th and early 20th century. For example, 政治 seiji ("politics"), and 化学 kagaku ("chemistry"). As a result, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese share a large common corpus of vocabulary in the same way a large number of Greco-Roman words is shared among European languages. In the past few decades, wasei-eigo (made-in-Japan English) has become a prominent phenomenon. Words such as wanpataan (< one + pattern, "to be in a rut", "to have a one-track mind") and sukinshippu (< skin + -ship, "physical contact"), although coined from English, are nonsensical in a non-Japanese context. A small number of such words, such as anime and cosplay, have been borrowed back into English. Additionally, many native Japanese words have become commonplace in English, due to the popularity of many Japanese cultural exports. Words such as sushi, judo, karate, sumo, karaoke, origami, samurai, haiku, ninja, sayonara, rickshaw (from 人力車 jinrikisha), futon, and many others have become part of the English language. See list of English words of Japanese origin for more.

Writing system

Modern Japanese is written in a mixture of three main scripts: kanji, characters of Chinese origin used to represent both Chinese loanwords into Japanese and a number of native Japanese morphemes; and two syllabaries: hiragana and katakana. The Roman alphabet (romaji) is also sometimes used.

Learning Japanese

Learning Japanese involves understanding grammar, pronunciation, the writing system, and acquiring adequate vocabulary. While the sound system is simple to master compared with those of other languages, the writing system poses a challenge for those not used to Chinese characters. On the other hand one learns a lot about Japanese culture by studying kanji characters. Japanese students begin to learn kanji characters from their first grade of an elementary school. A guideline created by the Japanese Ministry of Education, the kyōiku kanji, specifies the 1,006 simple characters a child is to learn by the end of sixth grade. Children continue to study another 939 characters in a junior high school, which totally covers 1,945 jōyō kanji (common kanji) characters, which are usually considered sufficient for everyday life. Japanese can be learned without studying Chinese characters. However, Japanese borrowed thousands upon thousands of words from Chinese, and for various reasons, many of these Chinese-based words are now homophones (words pronounced identically) in Japanese. This may make it necessary to learn the characters if one wants to learn an extended vocabulary, although blind Japanese people who cannot read any characters are able to function in the spoken language without problems, since most words, even if not written down, can be understood by the context. "Nihon" (にほん) can mean "two long, thin objects" (二本) as well as "Japan" (日本). However, these two words have different accents, and are distinct even in isolation. Major universities throughout the world provide Japanese language courses. Moreover, South Korea, Australia, France, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Denmark and some states of the United States provide the language course at high schools or lower level schools. About 2.3 million people studied the language worldwide in 2003. 900,000 South Koreans, 389,000 Chinese people, 381,000 Australians, and 140,000 Americans study Japanese in lower and higher educational institutions. The Japanese government provides standard tests to measure spoken and written comprehension of Japanese for second language learners; the most prominent is the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). The Japanese External Trade Organization JETRO organizes the Business Japanese Proficiency Test, to test ability to understand Japanese in a business setting. In Japan, more than 90,000 foreign students study at Japanese universities and Japanese language schools, including 77,000 Chinese and 15,000 South Koreans in 2003. Furthermore, local governments and some NPO groups provide free Japanese language classes for foreign residents, including Japanese Brazilians and foreign wives married to Japanese nationals. See also List of resources for learning Japanese.

See also


- Common phrases in different languages (Japanese)
- Henohenomoheji
- Japanese culture
- Japanese language and computers
- Japanese literature
- Japanese name
- The lists of Japanese words and words in other languages that have been derived from Japanese at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sibling project
- Japanese dictionaries

External links


- [http://users.tmok.com/~tumble/jpp/japor.html Origin of the Japanese People and Language]
- [http://web.archive.org/web/20030618070124/http%3A//www-lib.icu.ac.jp/LibShuppan/lecture/6-2-1.html North Kyushu Creole] – A hypothesis concerning the multilingual formation of Japanese
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=1263 Ethnologue report for Japanese]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=jpn Ethnologue report for language code JPN]

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- Mizutani, Osmau; & Mizutani, Nobuko. (1987). How to be polite in Japanese: 日本語の敬語 [Nihongo no keigo]. Tokyo: Japan Times. ISBN 4-7890-0338-8; ISBN 4-7890-0338-9.
- Shibatani, Masayoshi. (1990). Japanese. In B. Comrie (Ed.), The major languages of east and south-east Asia. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-4150-4739-0.
- Shibatani, Masayoshi. (1990). The languages of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-5213-6070-6 (hbk); ISBN 0-5213-6918-5 (pbk).
- Shibamoto, Janet S. (1985). Japanese women's language. New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-1264-0030-X. Graduate Level
- Tsujimura, Natsuko. (1996). An introduction to Japanese linguistics. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-6311-9855-5 (hbk); ISBN 0-6311-9856-3 (pbk). Upper Level Textbooks
- Tsujimura, Natsuko. (Ed.) (1999). The handbook of Japanese linguistics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-6312-0504-7. Readings/Anthologies zh-min-nan:Ji̍t-pún-oē ko:일본어 ms:Bahasa Jepun ja:日本語 simple:Japanese language th:ภาษาญี่ปุ่น

Cities of Japan

A is a local administrative unit in Japan. They are ranked on the same level as towns (machi) and villages (mura), but cities are not part of Districts (gun). Like other contemporary administrative units, they were by with the Local Autonomy Law of 1947. Generally, a village or town can be promoted to a city when its population increases above fifty thousand, and a city can (but need not) be demoted to a town or village when its population decreases below fifty thousand. The least-populated city, Utashinai, Hokkaido, has population of mere six thousand, while a town in the same prefecture, Otofuke, Hokkaido, has nearly forty thousand. Larger cities of at least 200,000 inhabitants can achieve a special status, special city, core city or designated city. See List of cities in Japan and List of cities in Japan by population for a complete list.



Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto

Ōsaka-Kōbe-Kyōto is the name of a metropolitan area that is centered on the cities of Osaka in the Osaka prefecture, Kobe in the Hyogo prefecture, and Kyoto in the Kyoto prefecture. This area has a population of 17,510,000 over an area of 11,170 square kilometers. The centre of this metropolian area is Osaka City. It is the world's ninth most populated metropolitan area. It is also Japan's second most populated metropolitan area after the Greater Tokyo Area, containing roughly 15% of Japan's population. The area is often known as Keihanshin (京阪神) in the Japanese language. This name is based on the kanji of Kyoto (京都), Osaka (大阪), and Kobe (神戸), with on readings instead of kun readings.

Prefectures


- Osaka Prefecture - entire prefecture
- Hyogo Prefecture - southern part
- Kyoto Prefecture - southern part
- Nara Prefecture - northern part
- Shiga Prefecture - southern and western parts

Cities

In addition to the three major cities of Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto, the official metropolitan area (2000 census definition) includes the following cities:

Osaka Prefecture

Hyogo Prefecture

Kyoto Prefecture

Nara Prefecture

Shiga Prefecture

Other cities


- Hashimoto (Wakayama prefecture)
- Iga (Mie prefecture)
- Nabari (Mie prefecture)

Transportation

Major Airports


- Osaka International Airport
- Kansai International Airport

Major Railways


- JR West Kobe Line / Kyoto Line / Biwako Line (Sanyo Main Line / Tokaido Main Line)
- JR West Osaka Loop Line
- JR Central Tokaido Shinkansen / JR West Sanyo Shinkansen
- JR West Hanwa Line
- JR West Kansai Main Line
- JR West Tozai Line / Gakkentoshi Line
- Hanshin Main Line
- Hankyu Kobe Line
- Hankyu Takarazuka Line
- Hankyu Kyoto Line
- Keihan Main Line
- Kintetsu Osaka Line
- Kintetsu Nara Line
- Nankai Main Line
- Nankai Koya Line
- Osaka Municipal Subway
- Osaka Monorail Category:Metropolitan areas Category:Kansai region ja:京阪神

10,000 BC

(Pleistocene, Paleolithic – 10th millennium BC – 9th millennium BC – other millennia) :Beginning of the Mesolithic, or Epipaleolithic time period, which is the first part of the Holocene epoch. :Bubalus Period in the Sahara

Events


- Circa 10,000 BC– Europe: Azilian (Painted Pebble Culture) people occupy Spain, France, Switzerland, Belgium, and Scotland.
- Circa 10,000 BC– Europe: Sami people occupy Scandinavia and intermarry with peoples already living in Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Russia.
- Circa 10,000 BC– Europe: Magdalenian culture flourishes and creates cave paintings in France
- Sometime before 9000 BC– First stone structures at Jericho, built during the pre-agricultural Natufian culture period
- Circa 10,000 BC– Norway: First traces of population in Randaberg
- Circa 10,000 BC– Egypt: Early sickle blades & grinding disappear and are replaced by hunting, fishing and gathering peoples who use stone tools
- Circa 10,000 BC– Asia: Cave sites near the Caspian Sea are used for human habitation.
- Circa 10,000 BC– Japan: The Jomon people use pottery, fish, hunt and gather acorns, nuts and edible seeds. There are 10,000 known sites. Pottery would not appear in the Near East until 6500 BC.
- Circa 10,000 BC– Mesopotamia: Three or more linguistic groups, including Sumerian and Semitic peoples share a common political and cultural way of life.
- Circa 10,000 BC– Mesopotamia: People begin to collect wild wheat and barley probably to make malt then beer
- Circa 10,000 BC– Korea: First pottery appears, probably associated with the beginning of single location agrarian life.
- Circa 10,000 BC– North America: Alabama and Paleo Indians hunter-gatherer societies live seminomadically in the countryside.
- Circa 10,000 BC– North America: Blackwater Draw forms in eastern New Mexico, evidencing human activity
- Circa 10,000 BC– North America: Folsom people flourish throughout the Southwestern United States.
- Circa 10,000 BC– North America: Settlement at the Nanu site in the Haida Gwaii of modern day British Columbia begins, starting the longest continual occupation in territory now belonging to Canada.
- Circa 10,000 BC– The dog is domesticated.
- 9560 BC – Taking Plato literally (assuming that his figure of 9,000 years before 560 BC was accurate and exact), the city-state of Atlantis sank into the ocean.
- Circa 9,000 BC– Near East: First stone structures are built at Jericho.

Environmental changes


- Circa 10,000 BC– North America: Dire Wolf, Smilodon, Giant beaver, Ground Sloth, Mammoth, and American Lion all become extinct.
- Circa 10,000 BC– Bering Sea: Land bridge from Siberia to North America sinks.
- Circa 10,000 BC– North America: Long Island becomes an island when waters break through on the western end to the interior lake
- Circa 10,000 BC– Homo floresiensis, the human's last known surviving close relative, becomes extinct.
- Circa 10,000 BC– World: Sea levels rise abruptly and massive inland flooding occurs due to glacier melt.
- Circa 9700 BC – Lake Agassiz forms.
- Circa 9600 BC– Younger Dryas cold period ends. Pleistocene ends and Holocene begins. Paleolithic ends and Mesolithic begins. Large amounts of previously glaciated land become habitable again.
- Circa 9500 BC – Ancylus Lake, part of the modern-day Baltic Sea, forms. -0 ja:紀元前1万年紀

8th century

Events


- The Iberian peninsula is conquered by Arab and Berber Muslims, thus ending the Visigothic rule, and starting almost eight centuries of Muslim presence there.
- Sometime this century, Beowulf is probably composed.
- Borobodur, the famous Indonesian Buddhist structure, begins construction, probably as a non-Buddhist shrine.
- Buddhist Jataka stories are translated into Syriac and Arabic as Kalilag and Damnag.
- An account of Buddha's life is translated into Greek by Saint John of Damascus, and widely circulated to Christians as the story of Barlaam and Josaphat.
- The Nara period begins in Japan.
- The Moravian principality and Nitrian principality arise in central Europe (see Great Moravia)
- Many Volga Bulgarians convert to Islam.
- The very first Viking raid is carried out on the abbey of Lindisfarne in northern England in 793.
- Kanem-Bornu arises north of Lake Chad.

Significant persons


- Alcuin, English monk, scholar, and teacher
- Charlemagne, king of the Franks from 771 to 814
- Charles Martel
- The Venerable Bede, English scholar
- Pippin the Younger
- Harun al-Rashid, fifth Abbasid Caliph
- Li Po, Chinese poet
- Du Fu, Chinese poet

Inventions, discoveries, introductions


- heavy plow in use in the Rhine valley
- horsecollar in use in Northern Europe in 8th or 9th century - perhaps introduced from Asia
- papermaking introduced from China to Arabs
- beginning of the decline of the Classical Maya civilization
- ca. 770: iron horseshoes come into common use

Decades and years

Category:8th century 08th century ko:8세기 ja:8世紀 simple:8th century th:คริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 8

Heian period

The Heian period (Japanese: 平安時代, Heian-jidai) is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The Heian period is considered the peak of the Japanese imperial court and noted for its art, especially poetry and literature. The name Heian is a word that means "peace" in Japanese.

History

The Heian period is preceded by the Nara period and began in 794 after the movement of the capital of Japanese civilization to Heian-kyō (present-day Kyoto) by the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu. It is considered a high point in Japanese culture that later generations have always admired. Also, the time period is also noted for the rise of the samurai class, which would eventually take power and start the feudal period of Japan. The capital was also named after this period of peace and prosperity. Nominally, sovereignty lay in the emperor but in fact power was wielded by the Fujiwara nobility. However, to protect their interests in the provinces, the Fujiwara and other noble families required guards, police and soldiers. The warrior class made steady gains throughout the Heian period. As early as 939, Taira no Masakado threatened the authority of the central government, leading an uprising in the eastern province of Hitachi, and almost simultaneously, Fujiwara no Sumitomo rebelled in the west. Still, military takeover was centuries away. Soon much of the strength of the government lay within the private armies of the shogunate. The entry of the warrior class into court influence was a result of the Hogen disturbance. At this time Taira no Kiyomori revived the Fujiwara practices by placing his grandson on the throne to rule Japan by regency. Their clan would not be overthrown until after the Genpei War, which marked the start of the shogunates. The Kamakura period began in 1185 when Minamoto no Yoritomo seized power from the emperors and established a bakufu, the Kamakura Shogunate, in Kamakura.

Developments in Buddhism

Buddhism began to spread throughout Japan during the Heian period, primarily through two major esoteric sects, Tendai (Heavenly Terrace) and Shingon (True Word). Tendai originated in China and is based on the Lotus Sutra, one of the most important sutras of Mahayana Buddhism. Shingon is an indigenous sect with close affiliations to original Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese Buddhist thought founded by Kukai (also called Kobo Daishi). Kukai greatly impressed the emperors who succeeded Emperor Kammu (782-806), and also generations of Japanese, not only with his holiness but also with his poetry, calligraphy, painting, and sculpture. Kammu himself was a notable patron of the otherworldly Tendai sect, which rose to great power over the ensuing centuries. A close relationship developed between the Tendai monastery complex on Mount Hiei and the imperial court in its new capital at the foot of the mountain. As a result, Tendai emphasized great reverence for the emperor and the nation. The Heian period also saw the flowering of the Jodo Shinshu, or True Pure Land, school, founded by Shinran.

Heian period literature

Although written Chinese remained the official language of the Heian period imperial court, the introduction and wide use of kana saw a boom in Japanese literature. Despite the establishment of several new literary genre such as the novel and narrative monogatari (物語) and essays, literacy was only common among the court and Buddhist clergy. The lyrics of the modern Japanese national anthem, "Kimi Ga Yo," were written in the Heian period, as was The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, one of the first novels in Japanese. Murasaki Shikibu's contemporary and rival Sei Shonagon's revealing observations and musings as an attendant in the Empress' court were recorded collectively as The Pillow Book in the 990s. The famous Japanese poem known as the iroha was also written during the Heian period.

Heian period economics

While on one hand the Heian period was indeed an unusually long period of peace, it can also be argued that the period weakened Japan economically and led to poverty for all but a tiny few of its inhabitants. The aristocratic beneficiaries of Heian culture, the Yokibito meaning the Good People, numbered about five thousand in a land of perhaps five million. One reason the samurai were able to take power was that the ruling nobility proved incompetent at managing Japan and its provinces. By the year 1000 the government no longer knew how to issue currency and money was gradually disappearing . The lack of a solid medium of economic exchange is implicitly illustrated in novels of the time, for instance messengers are rewarded with useful objects, e.g. an old silk kimono, rather than paid a fee. The Fujiwara rulers also failed to maintain adequate police forces, which left robbers free to prey on travellers. This is again implicitly illustrated in novels by the terror that night travel inspired in the main characters.

The Fujiwara Regency

When Kammu moved the capital to Heian (Kyoto), which remained the imperial capital for the next 1,000 years, he did so not only to strengthen imperial authority but also to improve his seat of government geopolitically. Kyoto had good river access to the sea and could be reached by land routes from the eastern provinces. The early Heian period (794-967) continued Nara culture; the Heian capital was patterned on the Chinese capital at Chang'an, as was Nara, but on a larger scale. Despite the decline of the Taika-Taihō reforms, imperial government was vigorous during the early Heian period. Indeed, Kammu's avoidance of drastic reform decreased the intensity of political struggles, and he became recognized as one of Japan's most forceful emperors. Although Kammu had abandoned universal conscription in 792, he still waged major military offensives to subjugate the Emishi, possible descendants of the displaced Jomon, living in northern and eastern Japan. After making temporary gains in 794, in 797 Kammu appointed a new commander under the title seii taishogun (barbarian-subduing generalissimo; often referred to as shogun). By 801 the shogun had defeated the Emishi and had extended the imperial domains to the eastern end of Honshu. Imperial control over the provinces was tenuous at best, however. In the ninth and tenth centuries, much authority was lost to the great families, who disregarded the Chinese-style land and tax systems imposed by the government in Kyoto. Stability came to Heian Japan, but, even though succession was ensured for the imperial family through heredity, power again concentrated in the hands of one noble family, the Fujiwara. Following Kammu's death in 806 and a succession struggle among his sons, two new offices were established in an effort to adjust the Taika-Taiho administrative structure. Through the new Emperor's Private Office, the emperor could issue administrative edicts more directly and with more self-assurance than before. The new Metropolitan Police Board replaced the largely ceremonial imperial guard units. While these two offices strengthened the emperor's position temporarily, soon they and other Chinese-style structures were bypassed in the developing state. Chinese influence effectively ended with the last imperial-sanctioned mission to China in 838. Tang China was in a state of decline, and Chinese Buddhists were severely persecuted, undermining Japanese respect for Chinese institutions. Japan began to turn inward. As the Soga had taken control of the throne in the sixth century, the Fujiwara by the ninth century had intermarried with the imperial family, and one of their members was the first head of the Emperor's Private Office. Another Fujiwara became regent for his grandson, then a minor emperor, and yet another was appointed kanpaku (regent for an adult emperor). Toward the end of the ninth century, several emperors tried, but failed, to check the Fujiwara. For a time, however, during the reign of Emperor Daigo (897-930), the Fujiwara regency was suspended as he ruled directly. Nevertheless, the Fujiwara were not demoted by Daigo but actually became stronger during his reign. Central control of Japan had continued to decline, and the Fujiwara, along with other great families and religious foundations, acquired ever larger shoen and greater wealth during the early tenth century. By the early Heian period, the shoen had obtained legal status, and the large religious establishments sought clear titles in perpetuity, waiver of taxes, and immunity from government inspection of the shoen they held. Those people who worked the land found it advantageous to transfer title to shoen holders in return for a share of the harvest. People and lands were increasingly beyond central control and taxation, a de facto return to conditions before the Taika Reform. Within decades of Daigo's death, the Fujiwara had absolute control over the court. By the year 1000, Fujiwara Michinaga was able to enthrone and dethrone emperors at will. Little authority was left for traditional officialdom, and government affairs were handled through the Fujiwara family's private administration. The Fujiwara had become what historian George B. Sansom has called "hereditary dictators." Despite their usurpation of imperial authority, the Fujiwara presided over a period of cultural and artistic flowering at the imperial court and among the aristocracy. There was great interest in graceful poetry and vernacular literature. Japanese writing had long depended on Chinese ideograms (kanji), but these were now supplemented by kana, two types of phonetic Japanese script: katakana, a mnemonic device using parts of Chinese ideograms; and hiragana, a cursive form of katakana writing and an art form in itself. Hiragana gave written expression to the spoken word and, with it, to the rise in Japan's famous vernacular literature, much of it written by court women who had not been trained in Chinese as had their male counterparts. Three late tenth century and early eleventh century women presented their views of life and romance at the Heian court in Kagero nikki ("The Gossamer Years") by "the mother of Michitsuna," Makura no soshi ("The Pillow Book") by Sei Shonagon, and Genji monogatari ("Tale of Genji") by Murasaki Shikibu. Indigenous art also flourished under the Fujiwara after centuries of imitating Chinese forms. Vividly colored yamato-e (Japanese style) paintings of court life and stories about temples and shrines became common in the mid- and late Heian periods, setting patterns for Japanese art to this day. As culture flourished, so did decentralization. Whereas the first phase of shoen development in the early Heian period had seen the opening of new lands and the granting of the use of lands to aristocrats and religious institutions, the second phase saw the growth of patrimonial "house governments," as in the old clan system. (In fact, the form of the old clan system had remained largely intact within the great old centralized government.) New institutions were now needed in the face of social, economic, and political changes. The Taiho Code lapsed, its institutions relegated to ceremonial functions. Family administrations now became public institutions. As the most powerful family, the Fujiwara governed Japan and determined the general affairs of state, such as succession to the throne. Family and state affairs were thoroughly intermixed, a pattern followed among other families, monasteries, and even the imperial family. Land management became the primary occupation of the aristocracy, not so much because direct control by the imperial family or central government had declined but more from strong family solidarity and a lack of a sense of Japan as a single nation.

The Rise of the military class

Under the early courts, when military conscription had been centrally controlled, military affairs had been taken out of the hands of the provincial aristocracy. But as the system broke down after 792, local power holders again became the primary source of military strength. Shoen holders had access to manpower and, as they obtained improved military technology (such as new training methods, more powerful bows, armor, horses, and superior swords) and faced worsening local conditions in the ninth century, military service became part of shoen life. Not only the shoen but also civil and religious institutions formed private guard units to protect themselves. Gradually, the provincial upper class was transformed into a new military elite based on the ideals of the bushi (warrior) or samurai (literally, one who serves). Bushi interests were diverse, cutting across old power structures to form new associations in the tenth century. Mutual interests, family connections, and kinship were consolidated in military groups that became part of family administration. In time, large regional military families formed around members of the court aristocracy who had become prominent provincial figures. These military families gained prestige from connections to the imperial court and court-granted military titles and access to manpower. The Fujiwara, Taira, and Minamoto were among the most prominent families supported by the new military class. Decline in food production, growth of the population, and competition for resources among the great families all led to the gradual decline of Fujiwara power and gave rise to military disturbances in the mid-tenth and eleventh centuries. Members of the Fujiwara, Taira, and Minamoto families--all of whom had descended from the imperial family--attacked one another, claimed control over vast tracts of conquered land, set up rival regimes, and generally broke the peace of the Land of the Rising Sun. The Fujiwara controlled the throne until the reign of Emperor Go-Sanjō (1068-73), the first emperor not born of a Fujiwara mother since the ninth century. Go-Sanjo, determined to restore imperial control through strong personal rule, implemented reforms to curb Fujiwara influence. He also established an office to compile and validate estate records with the aim of reasserting central control. Many shoen were not properly certified, and large landholders, like the Fujiwara, felt threatened with the loss of their lands. Go-Sanjo also established the Incho, or Office of the Cloistered Emperor, which was held by a succession of emperors who abdicated to devote themselves to behind-the-scenes governance, or insei (cloistered government). The Incho filled the void left by the decline of Fujiwara power. Rather than being banished, the Fujiwara were mostly retained in their old positions of civil dictator and minister of the center while being bypassed in decision making. In time, many of the Fujiwara were replaced, mostly by members of the rising Minamoto family. While the Fujiwara fell into disputes among themselves and formed northern and southern factions, the insei system allowed the paternal line of the imperial family to gain influence over the throne. The period from 1086 to 1156 was the age of supremacy of the Incho and of the rise of the military class throughout the country. Military might rather than civil authority dominated the government. A struggle for succession in the mid-twelfth century gave the Fujiwara an opportunity to regain their former power. Fujiwara Yorinaga sided with the retired emperor in a violent battle in 1158 against the heir apparent, who was supported by the Taira and Minamoto. In the end, the Fujiwara were destroyed, the old system of government supplanted, and the insei system left powerless as bushi took control of court affairs, marking a turning point in Japanese history. Within a year, the Taira and Minamoto clashed, and a twenty-year period of Taira ascendancy began. The Taira were seduced by court life and ignored problems in the provinces. Finally, Minamoto Yoritomo (1147–1199) rose from his headquarters at Kamakura (in the Kanto region, southwest of modern Tokyo) to defeat the Taira, and with them the child emperor, Emperor Antoku they controlled, in the Genpei War (1180–1185). Category:Ancient Japan Category:Japanese eras ko:헤이안 시대 ja:平安時代

794

Events
- Kyoto becomes the Japanese capital. Begin of the Heian period.
- Council of Frankfurt - oldest known mentioning of Frankfurt. Births Deaths Category:794 ko:794년

Edo

:This article is about the former city name of Tokyo, for the Nigerian state or language, see Edo State or Edo language Edo (Japanese: 江戸, literally: bay-door, "estuary"), once also spelled Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo. The pronunciation is "eh-doh." While there had been early settlements on the hills at Tokyo Bay for several centuries, the first major event in the history of Edo was the building of the Edo Castle in 1457 by Ota Dokan. The Tokugawa shogunate was established in 1603 with Edo as its seat of government (de facto capital). The emperor's residence, and formal capital, remained in Kyoto; that city had been the actual capital of Japan until that time. Edo was devastated repeatedly by fires, the Meireki no Taika of 1657 perhaps having been the most serious one: an estimated 100,000 people perished in the flames. During the Edo period, there were about one hundred fires, typically caused by accidents when the mostly wooden townhouses (Machiya) were heated with charcoal fires in winter. In 1868, when the shogunate came to an end, the city was renamed "Tokyo" which means "Eastern Capital"; during the restoration, the emperor moved to Tokyo, making the city the formal as well as de facto capital of Japan. During the Edo period, the Shogunate appointed administrators (machi bugyo) to oversee the government of Edo. They oversaw the police and (from the time of Yoshimune onward) the commoner fire department (machibikeshi), heard criminal and civil suits, and performed other administrative functions necessary in a city of a million inhabitants.

See also


- Tokyo
- Edo period
- History of Tokyo
- iki (one of Japanese aesthetic ideals)
- Edokko (native of Edo)

Sources

Alternate spelling from 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Category:history of Tokyo Category:Edo period ja:江戸

Meiji Restoration

The Meiji Restoration (Japanese: 明治維新, Meiji-ishin), also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution or Renewal, was a chain of events that led to a change in Japan's political and social structure. It occurred from 1866 to 1869, a period of 4 years that transverses both the late Edo (often called Late Tokugawa shogunate) and beginning of the Meiji Era. Probably the most important foreign account of the events of 1862-69 is contained in A Diplomat in Japan by Sir Ernest Satow. The formation in 1866 of the Satcho Alliance between Saigo Takamori, the leader of the Satsuma domain, and Kido Takayoshi, the leader of the Choshu domain, marks the beginning of the Meiji restoration. These two leaders supported the emperor and were brought together by Sakamoto Ryoma for the purpose of challenging the ruling Tokugawa Shogunate (bakufu) and restoring the emperor to power. The Tokugawa bakufu came to an official end on November 9, 1867, when the 15th Tokugawa Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu "put his prerogatives at the emperor's disposal" (Beasley, 52) and then resigned his position 10 days later. This was effectively the "restoration" (Taisei Hōkan) of imperial rule, although Yoshinobu retained considerable power. Shortly thereafter in January 1868, the Boshin War (War of the Year of the Dragon) started with the Battle of Toba Fushimi in which an army led by forces from Choshu and Satsuma defeated the ex-shogun's army and forced the Emperor to strip Yoshinobu of all power. Some shogunate forces escaped to Hokkaido, where they attempted to set up the breakaway Republic of Ezo, but this came to an early end in May 1869 with the siege of Hakodate, Hokkaido. The defeat of the armies of the former shogun (led by Hijikata Toshizo) marked the end of the Meiji Restoration; all defiance to the emperor and his rule ended. The leaders of the Meiji Restoration, as this revolution came to be known, claimed that their actions restored the emperor's powers. This is not in fact true. Power simply moved from the Tokugawa Shogun to a new oligarchy of the daimyo who defeated him. These oligarchs were mostly from the Satsuma Province (Okubo Toshimichi and Saigo Takamori), and the Choshu province (Ito Hirobumi, Yamagata Aritomo, and Kido Koin.)

Leaders

These were leading figures in the Meiji Restoration when the Japanese emperors retook power from the Tokugawa shoguns. Some of them went on to become Prime Minister of Japan.
- Okubo Toshimichi (1830-1878)
- Kido Takayoshi (1833-1877)
- Saigo Takamori (1827-1877)
- Iwakura Tomomi (1825-1883)
- Ito Hirobumi (1841-1909)
- Kuroda Kiyotaka (1840-1900)
- Matsukata Masayoshi (1835-1924)
- Oyama Iwao (1842-1916)
- Saigo Tsugumichi (1843-1902)
- Yamagata Aritomo (1838-1922)
- Inoue Kaoru (1835-1915)
- Saionji Kinmochi (1849-1940)

Effects

The Meiji Revolution was the catalyst towards industrialization in Japan that led to the rise of the island nation as a military power by 1905, under the slogan of "National Wealth and Military Strength" (fukoku kyohei). The Meiji oligarchy that formed the government under the rule of the Emperor first introduced measures to consolidate their power against the remnants of the Edo period government, the shogunate, daimyo and the samurai class. In 1868, the Emperor took all land from the Tokugawa and put is under his own control. In 1869, the daimyos of the Toza han, Hizen han, Satsuma han and Choshu han domains, who were pushing most fiercely against the shogunate, were persuaded to return their domains to the Emperor. Other damiyos were subsequently persuaded to do so. Finally, in 1871, the daimyos, past and present, were summoned before the Emperor, where it was declared that all domains were now to be returned to the Emperor. The about 300 domains (han) were turned into prefectures, each under the control of a state-appointed governor. Until 1888, several prefectures were merged in several steps to reduce their number to 75. The damiyo were promised 1/10 of their fiefs income as private income. Furthermore, their debts and payments of samurai stipends were to be taken over by the state. The oligarchs also endeavoured to abolish the four divisions of society. Together, the samurai accounted for 1.9 million of the population, more than 10 times the size of the French privileged class at the 1789 French Revolution. With each samurai being paid fixed stipends, their upkeep presented a tremendous financial burden. Whatever their true intentions, the oligarchs embarked on a similarly slow and deliberate process to abolish the samurai class. First, in 1873, it was announced that the samurai stipends were to be taxed on a rolling basis. Later, in 1874, the samurai were given the option to convert their stipends into government bonds. Finally, in 1876, this commutation was made compulsory. To reform the military, the government instituted nation-wide conscription in 1873, mandating that every 21-yr-old male serve in the armed forces for 3 years. One of the primary difference between the samurai and peasant class was the right to bear arms; this ancient privilege was suddenly extended to every male in the nation. There was a series of riots. The one led by Saigo Takamori, the Satsuma rebellion, even turned in to a civil war. This rebellion was however put down swiftly by the newly formed imperial army, trained in Western tactics and weapons, even though the core of the new army was the Tokyo Police force, which was formed in great parts of former samurai. This sent a strong message to the dissenting samurai that their time was indeed up.

Related links


- Cloistered rule
- History of Japan
- Lists of incumbents
- Meiji Emperor
- Meiji-era leaders
- Shogun

Reference and further reading

Beasley, W. G. The Rise of Modern Japan: Political, Economic and Social Change Since 1850. St. Martin's Press, New York 1995. The names of the Meiji Oligarchists were taken from: Murphey, Rhoades. East Asia: A New History. Addison Wesley Longman, New York 1997. Further reading: A Diplomat in Japan by Sir Ernest Satow ISBN 4925080288 Akamatsu, Paul. Meiji 1868: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Japan. Trans. Miriam Kochan. New York: Harper & Row, 1972. Beasley, W. G. The Meiji Restoration. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972. Craig, Albert M. Chōshū in the Meiji Restoration. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961. Jansen, Marius B. and Gilbert Rozman, eds. Japan in Transition: From Tokugawa to Meiji. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986. Jansen, Marius B. The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000. Wall, Rachel F. Japan's Century: An Interpretation of Japanese History since the Eighteen-fifties. London: The Historical Association, 1971.
- ja:明治維新

Capital of Japan

Tokyo, the seat of the Government of Japan and home of the Emperor, is the capital of Japan. This is generally not in dispute, but it is not legally defined. In fact, there is a dispute as to exactly when Tokyo became the capital: some say that it occurred when Tokyo prefecture was established in 1868, others say that it occurred when Edo Castle became Tokyo Castle that same year, and still others say that it occurred when Tokyo Castle became the Imperial Castle (now the Kokyo) in 1869. Historically speaking, while there was an Imperial edict transferring the capital to Heiankyo, such a basis has never been provided for the transfer from Kyoto to Tokyo. So, today, there are some people who say that since the transfer to Heiankyo was valid, Kyoto is still the capital of Japan, while some say that Tokyo and Kyoto are both simultaneously capitals of Japan. [http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC]

Conceptions of the capital of Japan before the Meiji restoration

During the Edo Era, Japan was often said to have three capitals, or miyako (京). Edo was the capital of the Tokugawa shogunate, Kyoto was the residence of the Emperor of Japan (therefore making it the capital of culture and tradition), and Osaka was the unofficial capital of the merchants. [http://www.mlit.go.jp/kokudokeikaku/daishu/online/lec16.html#b]

Arguments in favor of Tokyo as capital

The location of the Diet

After World War II, the new Constitution of Japan transferred the state's sovereignty from the Emperor to the people, as represented by the Diet of Japan. The popular logic then became that the site of the Diet denoted the capital of Japan. [http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9D%B1%E4%BA%AC] This is the most concrete basis for legally recognizing Tokyo as the sole capital of Japan, since the Emperor has no governing power and all other state institutions are based in Tokyo. It falls short of an explicit statement that Tokyo is the capital.

The "capital area" in Japanese law

While no laws have designated Tokyo as the Japanese capital, many laws have defined a "capital area" (首都圏 shutoken) that incorporates Tokyo. Article 2 of the Capital Area Consolidation Law (首都圏整備法) of 1956 states that "In this Act, the term 'capital area' shall denote a broad region comprising both the territory of Tokyo Metropolis as well as outlying regions designated by cabinet order." This clearly implies that the government has designated Tokyo as the capital of Japan, although (again) it is not explicitly stated, and the definition of the "capital area" is purposely restricted to the terms of that specific law. [http://law.e-gov.go.jp/htmldata/S31/S31HO083.html] Other laws referring to this "capital area" include the Capital Expressway Public Corporation Law (首都高速道路公団法) [http://law.e-gov.go.jp/htmldata/S34/S34HO133.html] and the Capital Area Greenbelt Preservation Law (首都圏近郊緑地保全法) [http://law.e-gov.go.jp/htmldata/S41/S41HO101.html]. This term for capital was never used to refer to Kyoto. Indeed, shuto came into use during the 1860's as a gloss of the English term "capital." [http://www.mlit.go.jp/kokudokeikaku/daishu/online/lec16.html#a]

Official government positions

In 1941, the Ministry of Education published a book called "History of the Restoration," which is still used by modern scholars. This book referred to the "designation of Tokyo as capital" (東京奠都 Tōkyō-tento) without talking about "moving the capital to Tokyo" (東京遷都 Tōkyō-sento). A contemporary history textbook states that the Meiji government "moved the capital (shuto) from Kyoto to Tokyo" without using the sento term. [http://www.mlit.go.jp/kokudokeikaku/daishu/online/lec16.html#a] Recently, there is a movement for transferring the capital from Tokyo, and the Gifu-Aichi region, the Mie-Kio region and other regions bid for it. Officially, the relocation is referred to as "capital functions relocation" instead of "capital relocation," or as "relocation of the Diet and other organizations." [http://www.mlit.go.jp/kokudokeikaku/daishu/English/english.htm]

See also


- Capital of China Category:Tokyo Category:Capitals Category:History of Japan

Tokyo

Tokyo (Japanese: 東京, , "eastern capital") is the home to the Japanese government and emperor, and so the Capital of Japan. It is also the nation's most populous urban area (12 million people, or about 10 percent of the country's population, live in Tokyo) and one of the 47 prefectures of Japan.

Structure of Tokyo

Under Japanese law, Tokyo is designated as a to (都, often translated "metropolis"), not a city (although it is often mistaken for one), and its administrative structure is similar to that of Japan's other prefectures. Within Tokyo lie dozens of cities, towns, and villages. It includes 23 special wards (特別区 -ku) which until 1943 comprised the city of Tokyo but are now separate, self-governing municipalities, each with a mayor and a council, and having the status of a city. In addition to these 23 municipalities, Tokyo also encompasses 26 more cities (市 -shi), 5 towns (町 -chō or machi), and 8 villages (村 -son or mura), each of which has a local government. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is headed by a publicly-elected governor and metropolitan assembly. Its headquarters are located in the ward of Shinjuku. Tokyo includes lakes, rivers, dams, farms, remote islands, and national parks, in addition to its famous neon jungle, skyscrapers and crowded subways.

Location

Tokyo is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. Its center is at 35°41' North, 139°46' East (35.68333, 139.7667) [http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/cntry_files.html], but its borders extend to outlying islands in the Pacific Ocean, some as far as 1,000 km south of the mainland.

Influence

As the nation's center of politics, business, finance, education, mass media, and pop culture, Tokyo has Japan's highest concentration of corporate headquarters, financial institutions, universities and colleges, museums, theaters, and shopping and entertainment establishments. It boasts a highly-developed public transportation system with numerous train and subway lines. This extreme concentration is both boon and bane, prompting an ongoing debate over moving the nation's capital to another region. There is also great fear of a catastrophic earthquake striking Tokyo, which may in effect cripple the entire nation. Nevertheless, Tokyo continues to draw people from across Japan and other countries; a substantial portion of the population is not native to the region, and Tokyo is still a place to meet people from all over the country and the world.

History

outlying islands Tokyo's rise to prominence can be largely attributed to two men: Tokugawa Ieyasu and Emperor Meiji. In 1603, after unifying the warring states of Japan, Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu made Edo (now Tokyo) his base of operations. As a result, the city developed rapidly and grew to become one of the largest cities in the world with a population topping 1 million by the 18th century. It became the de facto capital of Japan even while the emperor resided in Kyoto, the imperial capital. Since the city's early beginnings and even now, Edo/Tokyo has always had a large non-native population. Ieyasu himself was an outsider who brought many outsiders to help build the city and government. The sankin kotai system also required provincial warlords to periodically parade to Edo and keep a residence in the city along with key family members and samurai retainers. The term "Edokko" (child of Edo) was even coined (and still used today) to distinguish the natives from the non-natives. After 250 years, the shogunate was overthrown under the banner of restoring imperial rule. In 1869, the figurehead 17-year-old Emperor Meiji moved to Edo, which was renamed "Tokyo". Tokyo was already the nation's political, economic, and cultural center, and the emperor's residence made it a de facto imperial capital as well with the former Edo Castle becoming the Imperial Palace. Imperial Palace shows the old German name for Tokyo, Jedo.]] Tokyo went on to suffer two major catastrophes and has remarkably recovered from both of them. One was the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, and the other was World War II. The firebombings in 1945 were almost as devastating as the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Large areas of the city were flattened. Today, hardly a trace of the war is evident to visitors to the city, but many people still carry its emotional scars. After the war, Tokyo was rebuilt with excellent train and subway systems, which were showcased to the world during the city's 1964 Summer Olympics. The 1970s brought new high-rise developments, a new and controversial airport at Narita (1978), and a popu