Performing Arts In Japan
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Performing Arts In Japan
Japanese culture has changed greatly over the millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jōmon period, to its contemporary modern culture, which absorbs influences from Asia and other regions of the world. Since the Jomon period, ancestral groups like the Yayoi and Kofun, who arrived to Japan from Korea and China, respectively, have shaped Japanese culture. Rice cultivation and centralized leadership were introduced by these groups, shaping Japanese culture. Chinese dynasties, particularly the Tang dynasty, have influenced Japanese culture throughout history and brought it into the Sinosphere. After 220 years of isolation, the Meiji era opened Japan to Western influences, enriching and diversifying Japanese culture. Popular culture shows how much contemporary Japanese culture influences the world. Identity There are two competing hypotheses that try to explain the lineage of the Japanese people. The first hypothesis proposes a dual-structure model, in which Japanese popu ...
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Osechi
(御節料理, お節料理 or おせち) are traditional Japanese New Year foods. are easily recognizable by their special boxes called '' jūbako'' (重箱), which resemble '' bentō'' boxes. Like ''bentō'' boxes, ''jūbako'' are often kept stacked before and after use. However not all parts of Japan, such as Suzu in Ishikawa, practice the custom of eating ''osechi''. Osechi is a food eaten to wish the family good health for the year, and the various dishes that make up osechi have their own roles to bring good luck in terms of longevity, prosperity of descendants, bountiful harvest, success in life, and financial success. Originally, osechi was rice served high in a bowl to celebrate the five annual ceremonies ('' gosekku'') from the Nara (610-794) to Kamakura periods (1185-1333). Osechi is influenced by the ritual of '' naorai'' (also known as ''kyōshoku''), in which a person who prays eats with the Shinto ''kami''. The old custom of offering osechi to the '' toshigam ...
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Meiji Era
The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudalism, feudal society at risk of colonization by Western world, Western powers to the new paradigm of a modern, industrialized nation state and emergent great power, influenced by Western scientific, technological, philosophical, political, legal, and aesthetic ideas. As a result of such wholesale adoption of radically different ideas, the changes to Japan were profound, and affected its social structure, internal politics, economy, military, and foreign relations. The period corresponded to the reign of Emperor Meiji. It was preceded by the Keiō era and was succeeded by the Taishō era, upon the accession of Emperor Taishō. The rapid modernization during the Meiji era was not without its opponents, as the rapid changes to society cause ...
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Sinosphere
The Sinosphere, also known as the Chinese cultural sphere, East Asian cultural sphere, or the Sinic world, encompasses multiple countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia that were historically heavily influenced by Chinese culture. The Sinosphere comprises Greater China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Other definitions may include the regions of modern-day Mongolia and Singapore, due either to historical Chinese influence or a contemporary overseas Chinese population. The Sinosphere is different from the Sinophone world, which indicates regions where the Chinese language is spoken. Imperial China was a major regional power in Eastern Asia and exerted influence on tributary states and neighboring states, including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. These interactions brought ideological and cultural influences rooted in Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. The four cultures were ruled by their respective emperors under similar imperial systems. Chinese inventions influenced, and were in tu ...
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Tang Dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Historians generally regard the Tang as a high point in Chinese civilisation, and a Golden age (metaphor), golden age of cosmopolitan culture. Tang territory, acquired through the military campaigns of its early rulers, rivalled that of the Han dynasty. The House of Li, Li family founded the dynasty after taking advantage of a period of Sui decline and precipitating their final collapse, in turn inaugurating a period of progress and stability in the first half of the dynasty's rule. The dynasty was formally interrupted during 690–705 when Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne, proclaiming the Wu Zhou dynasty and becoming the only legitimate Chinese empress regnant. The An Lushan rebellion (755 ...
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Rice Cultivation
The history of rice cultivation is an interdisciplinary subject that studies archaeological and documentary evidence to explain how rice was first domesticated and cultivated by humans, the spread of cultivation to different regions of the planet, and the technological changes that have impacted cultivation over time. The current scientific consensus, based on archaeological and linguistic evidence, is that ''Oryza sativa'' rice was first domesticated in the Yangtze River basin in China 9,000 years ago. Cultivation, migration and trade spread rice around the world—first to much of east Asia, and then further abroad, and eventually to the Americas as part of the Columbian exchange. The now less common ''Oryza glaberrima'' rice, also known as African Rice, was independently domesticated in Africa around 3,000 years ago. ''O. glaberrima'' spread to the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade. It is still commonly grown in West Africa and is grown in a number of countrie ...
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Kofun Period
The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is the earliest era of recorded history in Japan, but studies depend heavily on archaeology since the chronology of historical sources tends to be distorted. ''Kofun'' is Japanese for the type of tumulus, burial mound dating from this era. It was a period of cultural import. Continuing from the Yayoi period, the Kofun period is characterized by influence from China and the Korean Peninsula; archaeologists consider it a shared culture across the southern Korean Peninsula, Kyūshū and Honshū. On the other hand, the most prosperous keyhole-shaped burial mounds in Japan during this period were approximately 5,000 in Japan from the middle of the 3rd century in the Yayoi period to the 7th century in the Asuka period, and many of them had huge tom ...
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Yayoi Period
The Yayoi period (弥生時代, ''Yayoi jidai'') (c. 300 BC – 300 AD) is one of the major historical periods of the Japanese archipelago. It is generally defined as the era between the beginning of food production in Japan and the emergence of keyhole-shaped burial mounds (前方後円墳, ''zenpō-kōen-fun''). Chronologically, it spans from around the 10th century BCE or 9th–8th century BCE to the mid-3rd century CE. Following the Jōmon period, which was characterized by a hunter-gatherer economy, the Yayoi period marked the transition to a productive economy based on wet-rice agriculture. In the latter half of the late Yayoi period (around the 1st century CE), large regional powers emerged throughout western Japan, including the Tokai and Hokuriku regions. By the end of the 2nd century, the political entity known as Wa-koku (倭国) had formed. It is generally considered that the Yayoi period transitioned into the Kofun period around the mid-3rd century, although the ...
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Jōmon Period
In Japanese history, the is the time between , during which Japan was inhabited by the Jōmon people, a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united by a common culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism and cultural complexity. The name "cord-marked" was first applied by the American zoologist and orientalist Edward S. Morse, who discovered Glossary of archaeology#potsherd, sherds of pottery in 1877 and subsequently translated "straw-rope pattern" into Japanese language, Japanese as ''Jōmon''.Mason, 14 The pottery style characteristic of the first phases of Jōmon culture was decorated by impressing cords into the surface of wet clay and is generally accepted to be among the oldest in the world. The Jōmon period was rich in tools and jewelry made from bone, stone, shell and antler; Jōmon pottery, pottery figurines and vessels; and lacquerware.Imamura, K. (1996) ''Prehistoric Japan: New Perspectives on Insular East Asia''. Honolulu: Unive ...
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Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands—Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu—and List of islands of Japan, thousands of smaller islands, covering . Japan has a population of over 123 million as of 2025, making it the List of countries and dependencies by population, eleventh-most populous country. The capital of Japan and List of cities in Japan, its largest city is Tokyo; the Greater Tokyo Area is the List of largest cities, largest metropolitan area in the world, with more than 37 million inhabitants as of 2024. Japan is divided into 47 Prefectures of Japan, administrative prefectures and List of regions of Japan, eight traditional regions. About three-quarters of Geography of Japan, the countr ...
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Teaism
The Japanese tea ceremony (known as or lit. 'Hot water for tea') is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of , powdered green tea, the procedure of which is called . The term "Japanese tea ceremony" does not exist in the Japanese language. In Japanese the term is ''Sadō'' or ''Chadō'', which literally translated means "tea way" and places the emphasis on the Tao (道). The English term "Teaism" was coined by Okakura Kakuzō to describe the unique worldview associated with Japanese way of tea as opposed to focusing just on the presentation aspect, which came across to the first western observers as ceremonial in nature. In the 1500s, Sen no Rikyū revolutionized Japanese tea culture, essentially perfecting what is now known as the Japanese tea ceremony and elevating it to the status of an art form. He redefined the rules of the tea house, tea garden, utensils, and procedures of the tea ceremony with his own interpretation, introdu ...
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Ikebana
is the Japanese art of flower arrangement. It is also known as . The origin of ikebana can be traced back to the ancient Japanese custom of erecting Evergreen, evergreen trees and decorating them with flowers as yorishiro () to invite the gods. Later, flower arrangements were instead used to adorn the (alcove) of a traditional Japanese home. is counted as one of the three classical Japanese arts of refinement, along with for incense appreciation and for tea and the tea ceremony. Etymology The term comes from the combination of the Japanese and . Possible translations include and . History The pastime of viewing plants and appreciating flowers throughout the four seasons was established in Japan early on from the aristocracy. poetry anthologies such as the and from the Heian period (794–1185) included many poems on the topic of flowers. With the introduction of Japanese Buddhism, Buddhism, offering flowers at Buddhist altars became common. Although the l ...
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