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Gyokusen-ji Temple
is a Buddhist temple located in the city of Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is noteworthy in that it served as the first American consulate in Japan. The temple and its grounds were designated as a National Historic Site of Japan in 1951. History The exact date of the foundation of Gyokusen-ji is uncertain, but temple records indicate that it was originally a Shingon sect hermitage converted to the Sōtō Zen sect in the Tenshō period (1573–1592). The current ''Hondō'' was built in 1848, but soon after its completion it was commandeered by the Tokugawa shogunate for use as a residence for foreign visitors to Shimoda during negotiations to end Japan's national isolation policy. It hosted officers from American Commodore Matthew Perry’s flotilla of Black Ships, and Japanese authorities allowed the bodies of dead American sailors to be buried in its graveyard. Visit by Admiral Putyatin Gyokusen-ji was selected by officials of the Tokugawa shogunate to host Imp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gradually spread throughout much of Asia via the Silk Road. It is the world's fourth-largest religion, with over 520 million followers (Buddhists) who comprise seven percent of the global population. The Buddha taught the Middle Way, a path of spiritual development that avoids both extreme asceticism and hedonism. It aims at liberation from clinging and craving to things which are impermanent (), incapable of satisfying ('), and without a lasting essence (), ending the cycle of death and rebirth (). A summary of this path is expressed in the Noble Eightfold Path, a training of the mind with observance of Buddhist ethics and meditation. Other widely observed practices include: monasticism; " taking refuge" in the Buddha, the , and the ; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flotilla
A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small ''flota'' (fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet. Composition A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same class of warship, such as frigates, destroyers, torpedo boats, submarines, gunboats, or minesweepers. Groups of larger warships are usually called squadrons, but similar units of non-capital ships may be called squadrons in some instances, and flotillas in others. Formations including more than one capital ship, e.g. men-of-war, battleships, and aircraft carriers, typically alongside smaller ships and support craft, are typically called fleets, each portion led by a capital ship being a squadron or task force (see reference below). A flotilla is usually commanded by a rear admiral, a commodore or a captain, depending on the importance of the command (a vice admiral would normally command a squadron). A flotilla is often divided into two or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russian Frigate Diana
''Diana'' was a frigate of the Imperial Russian Navy. She was built in 1853, and was the flagship of the Russian explorer Yevfimy Putyatin when he visited Japan in 1854 to negotiate what would become the Treaty of Shimoda. Putyatin's fleet was damaged in a tsunami, following the powerful Ansei-Tōkai earthquake of 23 December 1854. ''Diana'' was spun round 42 times on its moorings and was so badly damaged that it sank in a later storm in the bay of Miyajima-mura (宮島村) (modern Fuji-shi, 富士市), while sailing from Shimoda to Heda for repairs. Three hundred Japanese carpenters worked with the Russian sailors to build a Western-style ship in two months, with the help of plans salvaged from ''Diana''. They eventually built a two-masted schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iturup
, other_names = russian: Итуру́п; ja, 択捉島 , location = Sea of Okhotsk , coordinates = , archipelago = Kuril Islands , total_islands = , major_islands = , area_km2 = 3139 , length_km = 200 , width_km = 27 , coastline = , highest_mount = Stokap , elevation_m = 1634 , country_claim = , country_claim_divisions_title_1 = Prefecture , country_claim_divisions_1 = Hokkaido , country_claim_divisions_title_2 = Subprefecture , country_claim_divisions_2 = Nemuro , country = , country_admin_divisions_title_1 = Federal subject , country_admin_divisions_1 = Sakhalin Oblast , country_admin_divisions_title_2 = District , country_admin_divisions_2 = Kurilsky , population = 7,500 , population_as_of = 2003 , density = , ethnic_groups = , additional_info = Iturup (russian: Остров Итуру́п, Ostrov Iturúp; ain, エツ゚ヲロㇷ゚ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Urup
Urup ( ja, 得撫島, Uruppu-to; russian: Уру́п, Urúp, ain, ウルㇷ゚, Urup) is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Kuril Islands chain in the south of the Sea of Okhotsk, northwest Pacific Ocean. Its name is derived from the Ainu language word for salmon trout. It was formerly known as Company's Land. Geography and climate Urup has a roughly rectangular shape, measuring along its long axis and approximately along its narrow axis. It is the fourth largest of the Kuril Islands, with an area of . The highest point is Gora Ivao at . The strait between Urup and Iturup is known as the Vries Strait, after Dutch explorer Maarten Gerritsz Vries, the first recorded European to explore the area. The strait between Urup and Simushir is known as Bussol Strait, after the French word for "compass", which was the name of one of La Pérouse's vessels. This French mariner explored the area of the Kuril Islands in 1787. Urup consists of four major groups of active or dormant stra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kurile Islands
The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East. It stretches approximately northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the north Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many minor rocks. The Kuril Islands consist of the Greater Kuril Chain and the Lesser Kuril Chain. They cover an area of around , with a population of roughly 20,000. The islands have been under Russian administration since their 1945 invasion as the Soviet Union towards the end of World War II. Japan claims the four southernmost islands, including two of the three largest ( Iturup and Kunashir), as part of its territory, as well as Shikotan and the Habomai islets, which has led to the ongoing Kuril Islands dispute. The disputed islands are kno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nagasaki, Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region have been recognized and included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Part of Nagasaki was home to a major Imperial Japanese Navy base during the First Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War. Near the end of World War II, the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki made Nagasaki the second and, to date, last city in the world to experience a nuclear attack (at 11:02 am, August 9, 1945 'Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)'). , the city has an estimated population of 407,624 and a population density of 1,004 people per km2. The total area is . History Nagasaki as a Jesuit port of call The first contact with Portuguese explorers occurred in 1543. An early visitor was Fernão Mendes Pinto, who came from Sagres on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hakodate
is a city and port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture. As of July 31, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 279,851 with 143,221 households, and a population density of 412.83 persons per km2 (1,069.2 persons per sq. mi.). The total area is . The city is the third biggest in Hokkaido after Sapporo and Asahikawa. History Hakodate was Japan's first city whose port was opened to foreign trade in 1854, as a result of Convention of Kanagawa, and used to be the most important port in northern Japan. Also, the city had been the biggest city in Hokkaido before the Great Hakodate Fire of 1934. Pre-Meiji restoration Hakodate (like much of other parts of Hokkaido), was originally populated by the Ainu. They lived in the Oshima Peninsula. The name "Hakodate" may have originated from an Ainu word, "hak-casi" ("shallow fort"). Another possibility is that it means "box" or "building" in Japanese which refers to the castl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Treaty Of Shimoda
The Treaty of Shimoda (下田条約, ''Shimoda Jouyaku'') (formally Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between Japan and Russia 日露和親条約, ''Nichi-Ro Washin Jouyaku'') of February 7, 1855, was the first treaty between the Russian Empire, and the Empire of Japan, then under the administration of the Tokugawa shogunate. Following shortly after the Convention of Kanagawa signed between Japan and the United States, it effectively meant the end of Japan's 220-year-old policy of national seclusion (''sakoku''), by opening the ports of Nagasaki, Shimoda and Hakodate to Russian vessels and established the position of Russian consuls in Japan and defined the borders between Japan and Russia. The isolation of Japan Since the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Tokugawa shogunate pursued a policy of isolating the country from outside influences. Foreign trade was maintained only with the Dutch and the Chinese and was conducted exclusively at Nagasaki under a strict government m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heda, Shizuoka
was a List of villages in Japan, village located in Tagata District, Shizuoka, Tagata District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Shizuoka, Japan on the Suruga Bay coast of Izu Peninsula. Views of Mount Fuji can be seen from the village, which is a tourist resort. As of March 1, 2005, the village had an estimated population of 3,681 and a population density, density of 105.4 persons per km2. The total area was 34.92 km2. On April 1, 2005, Heda was merged into the expanded city of Numazu, Shizuoka, Numazu. On December 23, 1854, ''Diana'', the flagship of the Imperial Russia, Russian fleet bearing Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin and his delegation for the negotiation of the Treaty of Shimoda was struck by a tsunami from the Ansei great earthquakes, Ansei Tōkai earthquake and sank. The survivors stayed in Heda, where they cooperated with Japanese carpenters and shipbuilders to construct a new vessel (christened ''Heda (schooner), Heda'') to take them back to Russia. This marked the first cooper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1854 Tōkai Earthquake
The 1854 Tōkai earthquake was the first of the Ansei great earthquakes (1854–1855). It occurred at about 09:00 local time on 23 December 1854. It had a magnitude of 8.4 and caused a damaging tsunami. More than 10,000 buildings were destroyed and there were at least 2,000 casualties. It was the first of the three Ansei great earthquakes; the 1854 Ansei-Nankai earthquake of similar size hit southern Honshu the following day. Background The southern coast of Honshu runs parallel to the Nankai Trough, which marks the subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate beneath the Eurasian Plate. Movement on this convergent plate boundary leads to many earthquakes, some of them of megathrust type. The Nankai megathrust has five distinct segments (A-E) that can rupture independently, the segments have ruptured either singly or together repeatedly over the last 1300 years. Megathrust earthquakes on this structure tend to occur in pairs, with a relatively short time gap between them. In addition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions (including detonations, landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and other disturbances) above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami. Unlike normal ocean waves, which are generated by wind, or tides, which are in turn generated by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun, a tsunami is generated by the displacement of water from a large event. Tsunami waves do not resemble normal undersea currents or sea waves because their wavelength is far longer. Rather than appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead initially resemble a rapidly rising tide. For this reason, it is often referred to as a tidal wave, although this usage is not favoured by the scientific community because it might give ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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