|
Cleyera Japonica
''Cleyera japonica'' (sakaki) is a flowering evergreen tree native to warm areas of Japan, Taiwan, China, Myanmar, Nepal, and northern India (Min and Bartholomew 2015). It can reach a height of 10 m. The leaves are 6–10 cm long, smooth, oval, leathery, shiny and dark green above, yellowish-green below, with deep furrows for the leaf stem. The bark is dark reddish brown and smooth. The small, scented, cream-white flowers open in early summer, and are followed later by berries which start red and turn black when ripe. Sakaki is one of the common trees in the second layer of the evergreen oak forests. It is considered sacred to Japanese Shintō faith, and is one of the classical offerings at Shintō shrines. Uses Sakaki wood is used for making utensils (especially combs), building materials, and fuel. It is commonly planted in gardens, parks, and shrines. Sakaki is considered a sacred tree in the Shinto religion, along with other evergreens such as and . Shinto shrines ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Peter Thunberg
Carl Peter Thunberg, also known as Karl Peter von Thunberg, Carl Pehr Thunberg, or Carl Per Thunberg (11 November 1743 – 8 August 1828), was a Swedish naturalist and an "apostle" of Carl Linnaeus. After studying under Linnaeus at Uppsala University, he spent seven years travelling in southern Africa and Asia, collecting and describing many plants and animals new to European science, and observing local cultures. He has been called "the father of South African botany", "pioneer of Occidental Medicine in Japan", and the "Japanese Linnaeus". Early life Thunberg was born and grew up in Jönköping, Sweden. At the age of 18, he entered Uppsala University where he was taught by Carl Linnaeus, regarded as the "father of modern taxonomy". Thunberg graduated in 1767 after 6 years of studying. To deepen his knowledge in botany, medicine and natural history, he was encouraged by Linnaeus in 1770 to travel to Paris and Amsterdam. In Amsterdam and Leiden Thunberg met the Dutch botanist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chamaecyparis Obtusa
''Chamaecyparis obtusa'' (Japanese cypress, hinoki cypress or hinoki; ja, 檜 or , ) is a species of cypress native to central Japan in East Asia, and widely cultivated in the temperate northern hemisphere for its high-quality timber and ornamental qualities, with many cultivars commercially available. Description It is a slow-growing tree which may reach tall with a trunk up to in diameter. The bark is dark red-brown. The leaves are scale-like, long, blunt tipped (obtuse), green above, and green below with a white stomatal band at the base of each scale-leaf. The cones are globose, in diameter, with 8–12 scales arranged in opposite pairs. Related species The plant is widespread in Japan. The related '' Chamaecyparis pisifera'' (sawara cypress) can be readily distinguished in its having pointed tips to the leaves and smaller cones. A similar cypress found on Taiwan is treated by different botanists as either a variety of this species (as ''Chamaecyparis obtusa'' va ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Konjaku Monogatarishū
, also known as the , is a Japanese collection of over one thousand tales written during the late Heian period (794–1185). The entire collection was originally contained in 31 volumes, of which 28 remain today. The volumes cover various tales from India, China and Japan. Detailed evidence of lost ''monogatari'' exist in the form of literary critique, which can be studied to reconstruct the objects of their critique to some extent. Title Each tale in the ''Konjaku Monogatarishū'' starts with the phrase (lit. now long ago), which in its Japanese reading is pronounced ''ima wa mukashi''. The Sino-Japanese reading of this phrase is ''konjaku'', and it is from the Chinese-style reading that the collection is named. The ''Konjaku Monogatarishū'' is commonly known by the shorter name "''Konjaku Monogatari''". Since it is an anthology rather than a single tale, however, the longer title is more accurate. Structure The ''Konjaku Monogatarishū'' is divided according to the region of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kokuji
are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequently-derived syllabic scripts of ''hiragana'' and ''katakana''. The characters have Japanese pronunciations; most have two, with one based on the Chinese sound. A few characters were invented in Japan by constructing character components derived from other Chinese characters. After World War II, Japan made its own efforts to simplify the characters, now known as shinjitai, by a process similar to China's simplification efforts, with the intention to increase literacy among the common folk. Since the 1920s, the Japanese government has published character lists periodically to help direct the education of its citizenry through the myriad Chinese characters that exist. There are nearly 3,000 kanji used in Japanese names and in common communic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ideograph
An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek "idea" and "to write") is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familiarity with prior convention; others convey their meaning through pictorial resemblance to a physical object, and thus may also be referred to as ''pictograms''. The numerals and mathematical symbols are ideograms – 1 'one', 2 'two', + 'plus', = 'equals', and so on (compare the section "Mathematics" below). In English, the ampersand & is used for 'and' and (as in many languages) for Latin ' (as in &c for '), % for 'percent' ('per cent'), # for 'number' (or 'pound', among other meanings), § for 'section', $ for 'dollar', € for 'euro', £ for 'pound', ° for 'degree', @ for 'at', and so on. The reason they are ideograms rather than logograms is that they do not denote fixed morphemes: they can be read in many different languages, not just E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kanji
are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequently-derived syllabic scripts of ''hiragana'' and ''katakana''. The characters have Japanese pronunciation, pronunciations; most have two, with one based on the Chinese sound. A few characters were invented in Japan by constructing character components derived from other Chinese characters. After World War II, Japan made its own efforts to simplify the characters, now known as shinjitai, by a process similar to China's simplified Chinese characters, simplification efforts, with the intention to increase literacy among the common folk. Since the 1920s, the Japanese government has published character lists periodically to help direct the education of its citizenry through the myriad Chinese characte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese Language
is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as the Ainu, Austroasiatic, Koreanic, and the now-discredited Altaic, but none of these proposals has gained widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), there was a massive influx of Sino-Japanese vocabulary into the language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese. Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords. The basis of the standard dialect moved f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yata No Kagami
is a sacred bronze mirror that is part of the Imperial Regalia of Japan. Name and significance The represents "wisdom" or "honesty," depending on the source. Its name literally means "The Eight wikt:咫#Japanese, Mirror," a reference to its size. Mirrors in ancient Japan represented truth because they merely reflected what was shown, and were objects of mystique and reverence (being uncommon items). According to Shinsuke Takenaka at the Institute of Moralogy, is considered the most precious of the three sacred treasures. History In the year 1040 ( 1, 9th month), the compartment which contained the Sacred Mirror was burned in a fire. Whether that mirror was irrevocably lost or not, it is said to be housed today in Ise Grand Shrine, in Mie Prefecture, Japan, although a lack of public access makes this difficult to verify. Presently, a replica is enshrined in Three Palace Sanctuaries of the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Mythology In Shinto, the mirror ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tamagushi
is a form of Shinto offering made from a ''sakaki''-tree branch decorated with shide strips of washi paper, silk, or cotton. At Japanese weddings, funerals, miyamairi and other ceremonies at Shinto shrines, ''tamagushi'' are ritually presented to the ''kami'' (spirits or gods) by parishioners, shrine maidens or kannushi priests. Linguistic history The Japanese word ''tamagushi'' is usually written with the ''kanji'' ''tama'' 玉 "jade; gem; jewel; precious; ball; bead" and ''kushi'' 串 "string together; skewer; spit; stick", or sometimes written 玉ぐし with ''hiragana'' since the official Tōyō kanji do not include 串. The earliest recorded transcription of ''tamagushi'' is 玉籤, using ''kuji'' 籤 "bamboo slip; (divination) lot; written oracle; raffle; lottery" instead of ''kushi''. The (c. 720 CE) '' Nihon Shoki'' "Chronicles of Japan", which repeatedly mentions a 500-branched ''masakaki'' 真榊 "true ''sakaki''" tree (tr. Aston 1896:43, 47, 121), is the ''locus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shide (Shinto)
are zigzag-shaped paper streamers, often seen attached to or , and used in Shinto rituals in Japan. A popular ritual is using a , or "lightning wand", named for the zig-zag paper that adorns the wand. A similar wand, used by for purification and blessing, is the with two . A Shinto priest waves the over a person, item, or newly bought property, such as a building or a car. The wand is waved at a slow and rhythmic pace, but with a little force so that the strips make a rustling noise on each pass of the wand. For new properties, a similar ritual known as is performed with a , an enclosed part of the land (enclosed by ), and sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ..., or ritually purified sake known as . The has been used for centuries in Shinto ceremonies and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kami
are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the spirits of venerated dead people. Many ''kami'' are considered the ancient ancestors of entire clans (some ancestors became ''kami'' upon their death if they were able to embody the values and virtues of ''kami'' in life). Traditionally, great leaders like the Emperor could be or became ''kami''. In Shinto, ''kami'' are not separate from nature, but are of nature, possessing positive and negative, and good and evil characteristics. They are manifestations of , the interconnecting energy of the universe, and are considered exemplary of what humanity should strive towards. ''Kami'' are believed to be "hidden" from this world, and inhabit a complementary existence that mirrors our own: . To be in harmony with the awe-inspiring aspects of nature ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Himorogi
in Shinto terminology are sacred spaces or altars used to worship.Sugiyama, "Himorogi" In their simplest form, they are square areas with green bamboo or ''sakaki'' at the corners without architecture. These in turn support sacred ropes (''shimenawa'') decorated with streamers called '' shide''. A branch of ''sakaki'' or some other evergreen at the center acts as a ''yorishiro'', a physical representation of the presence of the ''kami'', a being which is in itself incorporeal. During the Aoi Festival in Kyoto the ''himorogi'' is a square space surrounded by green branches with an evergreen tree at the center as a ''yorishiro''. A more elaborate ''himorogi'' can also be made with a straw mat on the ground with on it a ceremonial 8-legged stand called an ' decorated with ''shimenawa'' and sacred emblems. The etymology of the word is unclear, but it appears already in the '' Nihon Shoki'' and in the ''Man'yōshū''. The term "himorogi" refers equally to the focal point "tree" and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_2088.jpg "Click for more on -> Ideograph")
