| Culture History Culture The Japanese language and calligraphy play a large role in Japanese culture. Although there are few sounds in the Japanese language, they use a pitch-accent system, which allows the same word to have different meanings by placing the accent in different parts of the word. Calligraphy is seen as an art form as well as a way to document information.
Many people are familiar with kimono, which means “something one wears” and are the traditional garments of Japan. Kimonos, or nagagi, are full-length garments that are still worn on special occasions by women, men and children. Kimono come in a variety of colors, styles and sizes, where women generally wear the more vibrant and colorful patterns.
Even more well-known and popular to the western culture is sushi, a main cuisine in Japan. Sushi, tempura and teriyaki chicken have become exceedingly popular in Europe and the U.S. Rice and noodles are a staple in the Japanese cuisine and it is often believed that the diet is directly related to the longevity of the Japanese people. There are many customs and strict etiquette associated in Japanese style eating and drinking. The traditional tea ceremony, strongly influenced by Zen Buddhism, is such an involved ceremony that it can almost be thought of as a play or dance.
Some Japanese sports, such as Sumo, also involve a lot of ritual elements, such as the use of salt for purification. Although the Japan Sumo Association refers to Sumo as the national sport of Japan, legally Japan does not have an official sport. Baseball is actually the most popular spectator sport in the country. Some other popular, traditional, sports in Japan include different types of martial arts with Kenjutsu, Kyūdō, Sōjutsu, Jujutsu and Sumo being the more common ones and were developed during the Edo Period, 1603 to 1868.
The architecture in Japan also has a long standing history in Japanese Culture. Traditional Japanese architecture is widely seen throughout Japan in the form of Temples, Shinto shrines, and castles. Accenting some of the buildings are traditional Zen style gardens History Recorded Japanese history begins in approximately A.D. 400, when the Yamato clan, eventually based in Kyoto, managed to gain control of other family groups in central and western Japan. Contact with Korea introduced Buddhism to Japan at about this time. Through the 700s Japan was much influenced by China, and the Yamato clan set up an imperial court similar to that of China.
First contact with the West came in about 1542, when a Portuguese ship off course arrived in Japanese waters. Portuguese traders, Jesuit missionaries, and Spanish, Dutch, and English traders followed. Suspicious of Christianity and of Portuguese support of a local Japanese revolt, the shoguns of the Tokugawa period (1603–1867) prohibited all trade with foreign countries; only a Dutch trading post at Nagasaki was permitted.
Japan quickly made the transition from a medieval to a modern power. An imperial army was established with conscription, and parliamenta efforts government was formed in 1889. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Japan succeeded in a series of offensive wars with large world powers (Russia and China), including the Pearl Harbor attack on the U.S. on Dec. 7, 1941. Japan won its first military engagements during the war, extending its power over a vast area of the Pacific. Yet, after 1942, the Japanese were forced to retreat, island by island, to their own country. The dropping of atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 by the United States finally brought the government to admit defeat. Japan surrendered formally on Sept. 2, 1945, aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands reverted to the USSR, and Formosa (Taiwan) and Manchuria to China. The Pacific islands remained under U.S. occupation.
In 1952, Japan regained full sovereignty. Japan's postwar economic recovery was nothing short of remarkable. New technologies and manufacturing were undertaken with great success. A shrewd trade policy gave Japan larger shares in many Western markets, an imbalance that caused some tensions with the U.S. The close involvement of Japanese government in the country's banking and industry produced accusations of protectionism. Yet economic growth continued through the 1970s and 1980s, eventually making Japan the world's second-largest economy (after the U.S.).
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