Japan is all about fascinating and multifaceted culture; meanwhile, at the same time, the country is steeped deeply in traditions that date back even from the samurai age. Today, Japanese society is in a continual state of rapid flux, with the continuous development of technology that continually pushes boundaries. Overall, Japanese culture and tradition is beautiful and intricate.
Firstly, Japan is pronounced in Japanese as Nippon or Nihon, but most people who are interested in this culture will know Japan as Nippon. The country is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of mainland Asia. Japan has always called itself the Land of the Rising Sun because the Japanese saw the country as being close to the sun.
The country is compromised of approximately 6,900 islands, and the most prominent and populous islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku and Kyushu. Most of the country is mountainous, around 73% more precisely; however, the majority of people live on the coastlines. Because of this, Japan is one of the most densely populated countries in the world.
Japanese Language
The national language of Japan is, of course, Japanese. The Old Japanese or Kanbun has originated from China, and the earliest text in Japanese called Kojiki was written in the early 8th century. The characters used were primarily ancient Chinese characters. However, the modern Japanese we know today was developed during the Edo period, between 1603 and 1868.
Modern Japanese consists of three alphabets, the well-known Kanji which are Chinese characters, Hiragana which is a Japanese phonetic alphabet, and Katakana which is the phonetic alphabet used for foreign words. The development of Katakana was possible because Japan has recently adopted Western ideas, words and some culture.
Japanese Culture
China influenced the early Japanese culture; however, during the Edo Era, Japan has closed its doors to the outside world. During this time, the country has developed its distinct Japanese culture. After the fall of the Edo period in 1868, Japan has opened its doors, and it started to adopt other cultural practices and to mix them with the ones from the Edo era. Over the years, Western culture has influenced all the aspects of the Japanese culture, including art, lifestyle and food. However, what is even more interesting is that while Japan has mixed their culture with the Western one, it also happened the same to Western culture. It all happened during the Second World War, where American soldiers got to know the local culture of Japan. However, before the war, in the world of art, the artists have travelled and started to create artworks of a mysterious and remote land which was extremely exciting. With the introduction of the modern contemporary world, the influence of Japanese culture was spreading through anime and manga.
Today, manga and anime are among the most popular forms of comics and cartoons. The manga books are usually printed in black and white, and only the cover may contain colour. The manga comics have a wide variety of genres and subjects which are available to anyone. For example, western comics have their main target on young boys. It is not the same for manga comics, however. In Japan, manga makes up a large section of Japan’s publishing industry. The books can be found everywhere.
Another way that manga has proved its worth in popularity is the natural progression to the animated TV series, where manga has served as the source of inspiration for anime. Of course, there were other ways of inspiration for an animated series. For example, Pokemon started first as a video game, and then manga and anime series. The difference between anime and manga is colours, movement and sound that brings anime to life. One of the most important aspects of anime is the theme songs. Many Japanese musicians from the world of J-pop and J-rock are competing to land a song into an anime.
Another distinct element of Japan that matches the Western are the toys, especially brick toys. Everyone knows about Lego because Lego is a typical Western company (Denmark, Europe) that is extremely popular in the West for its ability to use bricks to build and play. Japan has answered to Lego with Nanoblock. Even though the format is similar and it serves the same purpose, there are still differences.
Lego has bigger bricks, while Nanoblock has smaller bricks. Lego, for example, takes much more space, while Nanoblock is perfect for the office. Lego isn’t very complicated when children build stuff, but Nanoblocks, on the other hand, require more focus, lucky for that instruction sheet. Both have instruction sheets, but Lego is easier to build and understand than Nanoblock.
However, when it comes to characters, Lego already has them made. You know the tiny yellow Lego humans. Nanoblock, however, you have to build the characters, and these brick toys have characters starting from Pokemon and other popular anime characters. Anime is also heavily involved in Nanoblock because many anime characters are also available as bricks. Just like you can find any manga book store in Japan, the same applies to Nanoblock, because the nanoblock shop can be located in every city in Japan. Meanwhile, in the West, not many shops have nanoblocks, but they have Lego.
Another culture aspect that Japan is known for is the geishas. A geisha is an artist because the word “geisha” consists of two kanji, which is “gei” that means “art” and “sha” that means “person”. If you have ever heard of “Memoirs of a Geisha”, the book or the movie, there you will see one of the true meaning of a geisha in lifestyle, tradition and the artist itself, that is trained to do art in either dancing, conversation, and music. The role of a geisha is to make guests feel at ease during a geiko dinner and feel welcomed to the teahouse, often called ochaya.
Japanese Philosophy
Japan is known for way more many cultural aspects than just manga/anime, toys and geishas. Let’s not forget the samurai, which were famous Japanese warriors. The samurai culture and its role in the military class have played a significant role in shaping Japan. Although they no longer exist, the influence of the samurai and the way of the warrior still manifests deeply in the Japanese culture. It is seen all over Japan, and it is seen in architecture, carefully planned gardens and even in the psyche of the Japanese people.
The samurai philosophy is called bushido or the “way of the warrior”. It is a unique philosophy that values honour, reckless bravery and selflessness. However, the samurai philosophy also involved the duty of the warrior’s masters was to embrace death. The way of the warrior has no place for fear, and it conducts in self-discipline, being respectful, and the ethical behaviour has to be an example for everyone. This philosophy has shaped Japan in every way possible, and today in the modern world, the Japanese population is heavily into the word of “we” and respecting the person/community.
Leaving behind the samurai philosophy, the samurai was a warrior that was often dressed in heavy armour during battles, depending on the rank of the samurai. However, the Western world has believed that the samurai was just a warrior wielding a katana. But the truth is that a samurai was an archer, they were adept in archery and trained to wield the bow even on horseback. Only during close combat, the katana was taken out.
During wars, samurai were feared because of their knowledge of war and weapons. One single samurai could wield up to 6 weapons which were the katana (a curved longsword), the wakizashi (a short version of a katana), the tanto (a double-edged decorative dagger, also used in rituals such as seppuku), naginata (a long-bladed pole weapon), there is also a short version of naginata, called ko-naginata which were used by female samurai. Yumi (a longbow), just like the katana, yumi was another essential Japanese weapon, mentioned above, samurai were in fact archers. The sixth weapon samurai used was the kabutowari which was a type of knife-shaped weapon, similar to a small sword.