Ōno Castle (Chita District, Owari Province)
Ōno Castle is a Japanese castle located in Ōno, Chita District, former Owari Province. It is known as Miyayama Castle; the area is since 1954 a part of the town of Tokoname in Aichi Prefecture. Media related to Ōno Castle at Wikimedia Commons http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~qb2t-nkns/owarioono.htm
Dazaifu, Fukuoka
Dazaifu is a city located in Fukuoka Prefecture, part of the greater Fukuoka metropolitan area. Nearby cities include Chikushino. Although mountainous, it does have arable land used for paddy fields and market gardening; as of October 2018, the city has an estimated population of 72,231 with 29,355 households and a population density of 2,440 persons per km². The total area is 29.58 km². The city was founded on April 1, 1982, although it has been important for more than a thousand years, it was a administrative capital of Fukuoka at around 663 CE. Dazaifu was the imperial office governing Kyūshū after it was moved from present-day Fukuoka City in 663. According to the Taiho Code of 701, an attempt by the Yamato state to exert further control over its territories, Dazaifu was given two principal administrative functions: to supervise the affairs of Tsukushi and to receive foreign emissaries. Dazaifu hosted foreign embassies from Korea. Kōrokan, a guesthouse for foreign embassies, was established.
The Korokan featured in contemporary literature, such as the Man'yōshū, as a place of departure for ocean voyages. From the Nara period through the Heian period and until the Kamakura period, Dazaifu was one of the military and administrative centers of Japan. Government records indicate that the disastrous Japanese smallpox epidemic that took place from 735 to 737 first took hold in Dazaifu. In the Heian period, Dazaifu was a place of exile for high-ranking courtiers. Nobles exiled, his grave is at Dazaifu Tenman-gū. Dazaifu was sometimes attacked by rebels. At other times the head of Dazaifu himself raised a rebellion. In 739 the powerful nobleman Fujiwara Hirotsugu was appointed to Dazaifu, he soon organised a rebellion. After three months, the uprising was suppressed by 17,000 court troops. In 939 another nobleman, Fujiwara Sumitomo, rebelled against the court. Allying himself with pirates, in 941 he landed in Kyushu, he defeated the troops guarding Dazaifu and burned the state buildings. Due to this and other developments, Dazaifu never regained its earlier prestige.
With the invasions of the Mongols and the decline of imperial authority, Dazaifu became less politically significant. In the Muromachi period the political center of Kyūshū was moved to Hakata. In medieval times, Dazaifu was the base of the Shōni clan; the Shōni were expelled by the Ōuchi clan. In the Edo period, Dazaifu was a part of the Kuroda han until its abolition in 1873; the Kyushu National Museum opened on October 16, 2005. A wood and glass building in a hilly landscape, it hosts collections of Japanese artifacts related to the history of Kyūshū. Kōmyōzen-ji is a Zen temple famous for its stone garden, it was built during the Kamakura period just next to Dazaifu Tenman-gū. Another temple, Kanzeon-ji, was built in the 8th century, it was once the chief Buddhist temple on Kyūshū and houses a number of historical and religious treasures. All three are within walking distance of Nishitetsu Dazaifu Station; the ruins of the medieval Dazaifu Administrative Buildings located within walking distance of Dazaifu Station, are today a public park.
There is small museum about Sugawara no Michizane, who died in exile in Dazaifu in 903. The starbucks coffeeshop in Dazaifu has a unique design by Kengo Kuma. There are several universities in the city: Chikushi Jogakuen University Fukuoka International University Fukuoka University of Economics Fukuoka Social Medical Welfare UniversityArea primary and junior high schools are administered by the Dazaifu Board of Education. Dazaifu Minami Elementary School Dazaifu Higashi Elementary School Dazaifu Nishi Elementary School Dazaifu Elementary School Mizuki Nishi Elementary School Mizuki Elementary School Kokubu Elementary School Gakugyouin Junior High School Dazaifu Higashi Junior High School Dazaifu Nishi Junior High School Dazaifu Junior High SchoolThe prefecture operates senior high schools Chikushidai High School Fukuoka Prefectural Dazaifu High School Dazaifu Dazaifu Line Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth.. Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5.
Ōno Castle (Echizen Province)
Ōno Castle was a Japanese castle located in the city of Ōno Fukui Prefecture, in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Built in the Sengoku period, it was occupied by a succession of daimyō of Ōno Domain under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. Ōno Castle is located in northeastern Echizen Province on the main highway connecting Echizen with Mino Province. The castle is sited on the ridgeline of Kameyama Hill, extending east-to-west for 300 meters; the inner bailey is located at the peak of the hill and is reinforced by stone ramparts made of unmodified natural boulders. Secondary enclosures were located at lower levels and were protected by water moats. During the early Sengoku period, the area around Ōno was under the control of the Asakura clan. After both the Asakura and the Ikkō-ikki were destroyed by Oda Nobunaga in 1575, he assigned the area to his general Kanamori Nagachika under the regional control of Shibata Katsuie. Kanamori began the construction of Ōno Castle using the latest contemporary designs, the castle was completed by 1580.
Kanamori was subsequently promoted to governor of Hida Province in 1586, the area was assigned to Aoki Kazunori followed by Oda Hidekatsu by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After the Battle of Sekigahara, the entire province of Echizen was assigned by Tokugawa Ieyasu to his second son, Yūki Hideyasu in 1601 as Fukui Domain. In 1624, Fukui Domain was divided, with Yūki Hideyasu's third son, Matsudaira Naomasa being awarded a 55,000 koku fief centered at Ōno; this became Ōno Domain. Naomasa was transferred to Matsumoto Domain in 1633 and was replaced by his younger brother Matsudaira Naomoto in 1635. Naomoto was transferred to Yamagata Domain in 1644, was replaced by his younger brother, Matsudaira Naoyoshi. Naoyoshi's son Matsudaira Naoakira was in turn transferred to Himeji Domain in 1682; the domain was assigned to a cadet branch of the Doi clan under Doi Toshifusa. The Doi clan would rule Ōno for the next eight generations until the Meiji restoration; the castle burned down in 1775, but with the exception of the donjon was reconstructed by 1795.
Throughout its history, Ōno suffered from severe financial problems. Although a small domain, Ōno was noted in the Bakumatsu period for its westernised army and its han school. Following the Meiji restoration, the castle was pulled down, with the exception of a couple of gates which were given to nearby Buddhist temples, the area was used for government buildings; some remnants of the original stone ramparts remain, parts of the old jōkamachi with traditional samurai houses and merchant houses remain. In 1968, a faux-donjon was built for use as a local history museum. Ōno Castle Ōno Castle Schmorleitz, Morton S.. Castles in Japan. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co. pp. 144–145. ISBN 0-8048-1102-4. Motoo, Hinago. Japanese Castles. Tokyo: Kodansha. P. 200 pages. ISBN 0-87011-766-1. Mitchelhill, Jennifer. Castles of the Samurai: Power and Beauty. Tokyo: Kodansha. P. 112 pages. ISBN 4-7700-2954-3. Turnbull, Stephen. Japanese Castles 1540-1640. Osprey Publishing. P. 64 pages. ISBN 1-84176-429-9. Official website JNTO
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south; the kanji that make up Japan's name mean "sun origin", it is called the "Land of the Rising Sun". Japan is a stratovolcanic archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands; the four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido and Shikoku, which make up about ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area and are referred to as home islands. The country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions, with Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one; the population of 127 million is the world's tenth largest. 90.7 % of people live in cities. About 13.8 million people live in the capital of Japan. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world with over 38 million people. Archaeological research indicates; the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD.
Influence from other regions China, followed by periods of isolation from Western Europe, has characterized Japan's history. From the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shōguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a long period of isolation in the early 17th century, ended in 1853 when a United States fleet pressured Japan to open to the West. After nearly two decades of internal conflict and insurrection, the Imperial Court regained its political power in 1868 through the help of several clans from Chōshū and Satsuma – and the Empire of Japan was established. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victories in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism; the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the Japanese surrender. Since adopting its revised constitution on May 3, 1947, during the occupation led by SCAP, the sovereign state of Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with an Emperor and an elected legislature called the National Diet.
Japan is a member of the ASEAN Plus mechanism, UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the G20, is considered a great power. Its economy is the world's third-largest by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by purchasing power parity, it is the world's fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer. Japan benefits from a skilled and educated workforce. Although it has renounced its right to declare war, Japan maintains a modern military with the world's eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a developed country with a high standard of living and Human Development Index, its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, but is experiencing issues due to an aging population and low birthrate. Japan is renowned for its historical and extensive cinema, influential music industry, video gaming, rich cuisine and its major contributions to science and modern technology; the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, pronounced Nihon or Nippon and means "the origin of the sun".
The character nichi means "sun" or "day". The compound therefore means "origin of the sun" and is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun"; the earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, the Old Book of Tang. At the end of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan requested that Nihon be used as the name of their country; this name may have its origin in a letter sent in 607 and recorded in the official history of the Sui dynasty. Prince Shōtoku, the Regent of Japan, sent a mission to China with a letter in which he called himself "the Emperor of the Land where the Sun rises"; the message said: "Here, I, the emperor of the country where the sun rises, send a letter to the emperor of the country where the sun sets. How are you". Prior to the adoption of Nihon, other terms such as Yamato and Wakoku were used; the term Wa is a homophone of Wo 倭, used by the Chinese as a designation for the Japanese as early as the third century Three Kingdoms period.
Another form of Wa, Wei in Chinese) was used for an early state in Japan called Nakoku during the Han dynasty. However, the Japanese disliked some connotation of Wa 倭, it was therefore replaced with the substitute character Wa, meaning "togetherness, harmony"; the English word Japan derives from the historical Chinese pronunciation of 日本. The Old Mandarin or early Wu Chinese pronunciation of Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. In modern Shanghainese, a Wu dialect, the pronunciation of characters 日本; the old Malay word for Japan, Japun or Japang, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect Fukienese or Ningpo – and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia in the 16th century. These Early Portuguese traders brought the word
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