Japanese Culture
Created | Updated Oct 28, 2008
Japan is a culture noted for its independence and individualily. Not individuality as individual people, for which it is not, but individuality as a nation, set aside in culture and communications, as a result of its history and geography. These lead us to make conclusions based on a history which shows a disticntion as a result of a very geographically isolated culture.
As I mentined before, Japan was an isolated culture. At the time when our earths populations' culture was derived from a mainly singular source (the Greeks and Romans), the populations of such countries such as India and even more Asian countries found themselves not so much on the recieving end of this cultural "exchange," and more indepent , having the majority of the conquest, which was enevitable at this stage, within their own relitive land barriers, theirs being distinct as islands off the coast of Korea in nigh unnavigatable waters.
Regardless of this, some things did manage to get to Japan, especailly from Korea. Even People. Several waves of immigrants have been documented, as well as some Korean and Chinese objects, and even the introduction of wet-field rice as early as 350 B.C.
A chinese hitorian wrote one account of Japanese life in 297 A.D.
The Land of Wa (Japan) is warm and mild. In winter as in summer the people live on raw vegtables
and go barefooted. They live in houses: father and mother, elder and younger, sleep seperately.
They smear their bodies with pink and scarlet, just as the chinese use powder. They serve food on
bamboo and wooden trays, helping themselves with their fingers.
As you can see, even from some of their closest neighbors, their culture is distict and original, developed from isolation.
Some examples of things that developed as a result of this isolation would be religion, language, and literature.
Their origial creation myths center on the Japanese imperial family, and their devine orgins. This is understandable, since theirs was a society divided into warrior-arisotratic clans, much like Korea. The native religion Shinto, was easily accepted because it centered on happiness, beauty of nature, and cleanliness. the introduction of Buddism by Korea from China ended up in with the slaughter of the non-buddist factions of the imperial court, and the adoption of buddism and other chinese influence.
Writing in Japan was influenced heavily by that of china. Most of thier original literiture was writen in Chinese, or in Japanese using Chinese symbols to represent the sound, as there was no alphebet.
Poetry was developed with an emphasis on sylabols as opposed to rhyme, because rhyme is apperantly easy in Japanese. The dominate form the tanka had 31 syllables in five lines. An example is by Kakinomoto Hitomaro, who, knowing he was to die, wrote this poem:
Not knowing I am pillowed
Among the crags of Kamo Mountain
My wife must still be waiting for my return.
As I mentined before, Japan was an isolated culture. At the time when our earths populations' culture was derived from a mainly singular source (the Greeks and Romans), the populations of such countries such as India and even more Asian countries found themselves not so much on the recieving end of this cultural "exchange," and more indepent , having the majority of the conquest, which was enevitable at this stage, within their own relitive land barriers, theirs being distinct as islands off the coast of Korea in nigh unnavigatable waters.
Regardless of this, some things did manage to get to Japan, especailly from Korea. Even People. Several waves of immigrants have been documented, as well as some Korean and Chinese objects, and even the introduction of wet-field rice as early as 350 B.C.
A chinese hitorian wrote one account of Japanese life in 297 A.D.
The Land of Wa (Japan) is warm and mild. In winter as in summer the people live on raw vegtables
and go barefooted. They live in houses: father and mother, elder and younger, sleep seperately.
They smear their bodies with pink and scarlet, just as the chinese use powder. They serve food on
bamboo and wooden trays, helping themselves with their fingers.
As you can see, even from some of their closest neighbors, their culture is distict and original, developed from isolation.
Some examples of things that developed as a result of this isolation would be religion, language, and literature.
Their origial creation myths center on the Japanese imperial family, and their devine orgins. This is understandable, since theirs was a society divided into warrior-arisotratic clans, much like Korea. The native religion Shinto, was easily accepted because it centered on happiness, beauty of nature, and cleanliness. the introduction of Buddism by Korea from China ended up in with the slaughter of the non-buddist factions of the imperial court, and the adoption of buddism and other chinese influence.
Writing in Japan was influenced heavily by that of china. Most of thier original literiture was writen in Chinese, or in Japanese using Chinese symbols to represent the sound, as there was no alphebet.
Poetry was developed with an emphasis on sylabols as opposed to rhyme, because rhyme is apperantly easy in Japanese. The dominate form the tanka had 31 syllables in five lines. An example is by Kakinomoto Hitomaro, who, knowing he was to die, wrote this poem:
Not knowing I am pillowed
Among the crags of Kamo Mountain
My wife must still be waiting for my return.
