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Kōwakamai
is a Japanese recitative dance, originating in the 15th century and popular during the Sengoku and early Edo periods (late 16th to early 17th centuries). Although kōwakamai has dance and musical components, scholars consider its textual component as an independent literary genre. Kōwakamai may have evolved from the dance form called '' kusemai'' of the 14th century, sharing its origins in traditional court dance and music with '' nō'' and ''kabuki''. Little is actually known about how the dance was performed in the warlord to shogunate periods. A remnant of the kōwakamai is performed every year on January 20 at Tenman-jinja, a shintō shrine in Ōe. History Kōwakamai (along with Noh) is a form of entertainment enjoyed by warrior-class families during Japan's medieval age. Kōwakamai performances were celebratory but also the cause for sorrow. Many of the pieces are sorrowful tales, ranging from resoundingly sympathetic tales dealing with the loss of life and defeat. The piec ...
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Taira No Atsumori
(1169–1184) was a ''samurai'' of the late Heian period of Japan. He was a member of the Taira clan (Heike) who fought in the Genpei War against the Minamoto (Genji). He is mostly known for his early death at the Battle of Ichi-no-Tani and his appearance in the Epic poetry, epic ''The Tale of the Heike'', in which he was killed by the remorseful warrior Kumagai Naozane. He is also the subject of the famous Noh play Atsumori (play), ''Atsumori''. Career Atsumori was a son of Taira no Tsunemori, a younger half-brother of the powerful lord and regent Taira no Kiyomori. Atsumori fought as a warrior during the Genpei War. At the age of either 15 or 16, he was killed in the Battle of Ichi-no-Tani. During the battle, Atsumori engaged Kumagai Naozane, a retainer of the Minamoto, and was killed. Kumagai had a son the same age as Atsumori. Kumagai's great remorse as told in ''The Tale of the Heike, The Tale of Heike'', coupled with his taking of a monk's vows, caused this otherwise ob ...
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Sengoku Period
The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as the period's start date, but there are many competing historiographies for its end date, ranging from 1568, the date of Oda Nobunaga#Ise campaign, Omi campaign, and march to Kyoto, Oda Nobunaga's march on Kyoto, to the suppression of the Shimabara Rebellion in 1638, deep into what was traditionally considered the Edo period. Regardless of the dates chosen, the Sengoku period overlaps substantially with the Muromachi period (1336–1573). This period was characterized by the overthrow of a superior power by a subordinate one. The Ashikaga shogunate, the ''de facto'' central government, declined and the , a local power, seized wider political influence. The people rebelled against the feudal lords in revolts known as . The period saw a break ...
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Buddhist Chant
Tibetan illustration of veena.html" ;"title="Saraswati holding a veena">Saraswati holding a veena, the main deity of music and musicians in Mahayana Buddhism Buddhist music is music (, ) created for or inspired by Buddhism and includes numerous ritual and non-ritual musical forms.Mross, Michaela (2022). Memory, Music, Manuscripts: ''The Ritual Dynamics of Kōshiki in Japanese Sōtō Zen,'' p. 7''.'' Michaela Mross University of Hawaii Press. As a Buddhist art form, music has been used by Buddhists since the time of early Buddhism, as attested by artistic depictions in Indian sites like Sanchi. While certain early Buddhist sources contain negative attitudes to music, Mahayana sources tend to be much more positive to music, seeing it as a suitable offering to the Buddhas and as a skillful means to bring sentient beings to Buddhism. Buddhist music retains a prominent place in many Buddhist traditions, and is usually used for ceremonial and devotional purposes. Buddhist music ...
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Miyama, Fukuoka
270px, Kiyomizu-dera Main Hall is a city located in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 34,907 in 14658 households, and a population density of 330 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Miyama is located in southern Fukuoka Prefecture, about 100 kilometers south of Kitakyushu City, about 50 kilometers south of Fukuoka City, and about 20 kilometers south of Kurume City. Yanagawa City and Chikugo City lie across the Yabe River, a first-class river. Much of the city area is flat land included in the Chikushi Plain (Chikugo Plain), and the southwestern part of the city faces the Ariake Sea. Neighboring municipalities Fukuoka Prefecture * Chikugo * Ōmuta * Yame * Yanagawa Kumamoto Prefecture * Nagomi * Nankan Climate Miyama has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Miyama is 15.8 °C. The average annu ...
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Meiji Period
The was an era of 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 feudal society at risk of colonization by 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 caused many disaffected traditionalists from the former samu ...
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Genroku Era
was a after Jōkyō and before Hōei. The Genroku period spanned the years from September 1688 to March 1704. The reigning emperor was .Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). ''Annales des empereurs du japon'', p. 415. The period was known for its peace and prosperity, as the previous hundred years of peace and seclusion in Japan had created relative economic stability. The arts and architecture flourished. There were unanticipated consequences when the shogunate debased the quality of coins as a strategy for financing the appearance of continuing Genroku affluence. This strategic miscalculation caused abrupt inflation. Then, in an effort to solve the ensuing crisis, the introduced what were called the Kyōhō Reforms. Change of era The was 1688. The new era name was created to mark the beginning of the reign of Higashiyama. The previous era ended and the new one commenced in Jōkyō 5, on the 30th day of the 9th month. A sense of optimism is suggested in the era name choice of ''Genrok ...
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Chikugo Province
was a province of Japan in the area of northern Kyūshū, corresponding to part of southwestern Fukuoka Prefecture. Chikugo bordered on Higo and Chikugo to the southeast, and Chikuzen to the north and east, Bungo to the east and Hizen to the west. Its abbreviated form name was (a name which it shared with Chikuzen Province), although it was also called . In terms of the Gokishichidō system, Chikugo was one of the provinces of the Saikaidō circuit. Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, Chikugo was ranked as one of the "superior countries" (上国) in terms of importance, and one of the "far countries" (遠国) in terms of distance from the capital. History Early history Ancient Tsukushi Province was a major power center in the Yayoi period, with contacts to the Asian mainland and may have been the site for the Kingdom of Yamatai mentioned in official Chinese dynastic Twenty-Four Histories for the 1st- and 2nd-century Eastern Han dynasty, the 3rd-century ''Recor ...
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Tenshō (Momoyama Period)
was a after ''Genki (era), Genki'' and before ''Bunroku''. This period spanned the years from July 1573 through December 1592 during the Sengoku era.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tenshō''" i ''Japan encyclopedia'', p. 961 n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, ''see'Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * 1573 : The new era name was created to mark a number of regional wars. The era name was inspired by a passage from the Chinese classic ''Tao Te Ching by'' Laozi: :"Those who are at peace with nature bring all under Heaven into its correct pattern" (清静者為天下正). The era name ''Tenshō'' was suggested by Oda Nobunaga. The previous era ended, and a new one commenced in ''Genki'' 4, the 28th day of the 7th month. Events of the ''Tenshō'' era European dates up to October 4, 1582 are given in the Julian calendar. Dates since October 15, 1582 are given in the Gregorian calendar. ...
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Koku
The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before cooking), used to this day for the plastic measuring cup that is supplied with commercial Japanese rice cookers. The ''koku'' in Japan was typically used as a dry measure. The amount of rice production measured in ''koku'' was the metric by which the magnitude of a feudal domain ('' han'') was evaluated. A feudal lord was only considered ''daimyō'' class when his domain amounted to at least 10,000 ''koku''. As a rule of thumb, one ''koku'' was considered a sufficient quantity of rice to feed one person for one year. The Chinese equivalent or cognate unit for capacity is the ''shi'' or '' dan'' () also known as ''hu'' (), now approximately 103 litres but historically about . Chinese equivalent The Chinese 石 ''dan'' is equal to 10 ''d ...
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Tokugawa Shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars of the Sengoku period following the collapse of the Ashikaga shogunate. Ieyasu became the ''shōgun,'' and the Tokugawa clan governed Japan from Edo Castle in the eastern city of Edo (Tokyo), Edo (Tokyo) along with the ''daimyō'' lords of the ''samurai'' class. The Tokugawa shogunate organized Japanese society under the strict Edo society, Tokugawa class system and banned most foreigners under the isolationist policies of ''Sakoku'' to promote political stability. The Tokugawa shoguns governed Japan in a feudal system, with each ''daimyō'' administering a ''Han system, han'' (feudal domain), although the country was still nominally organized as provinces of Japan, imperial provinces. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, Japan experienced rapid ...
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Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga, Oda Nobunaga and fellow Oda clan, Oda subordinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The son of a minor daimyo, Ieyasu once lived as a hostage under daimyo Imagawa Yoshimoto on behalf of his father. He later succeeded as daimyo after his father's death, serving as ally, vassal, and general of the Oda clan, and building up his strength under Oda Nobunaga. After Oda Nobunaga's death, Ieyasu was briefly a rival of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, before declaring his allegiance to Toyotomi and fighting on his behalf. Under Toyotomi, Ieyasu was relocated to the Kantō region, Kanto plains in eastern Japan, away from the Toyotomi power base in Osaka. He built Edo Castle, his castle in the fishing village of ...
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