1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. 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 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
3.
Headlands and bays
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Headlands and bays are two related coastal features. Headlands and bays are found on the same coastline. A bay is a body of water, either seawater or fresh water, headlands are characterized by high, breaking waves, rocky shores, intense erosion, and steep sea cliffs. Bays generally have less activity, and often less wind activity than the areas of water outside the bay. Headlands and bays form on discordant coastlines, where the land consists of bands of rock of alternating resistance run perpendicular to the coast. Refraction of waves occurs on headlands concentrating wave energy on them, so many other landforms, such as caves, natural arches, and stacks, form on headlands. Wave energy is directed at angles to the wave crest. Orthogonals converge on headlands and diverge in bays, which concentrates wave energy on the headlands, in the formation of sea cliffs, wave erosion undercuts the slopes at the shoreline, which retreat landward. This increases the stress in the cliff-forming material and accelerates mass movement. The debris from these landslides collects at the base of the cliff and is removed by the waves, usually during storms. This debris provides sediment, which is transported through longshore current for the nearby bay, joints in the headlands are eroded back to form caves, which erode further to form arches. These gaps eventually collapse and leave tall stacks at the ends of the headlands, eventually these too are eroded by the waves. Wave refraction disperses wave energy through the bay, and along with the effect of the headlands this protects bays from storms. This effect means that the waves reaching the shore in a bay are weaker than the waves reaching the headland, through the deposition of sediment within the bay and the erosion of the headlands, coastlines eventually straighten out. But then the process starts all over again. Beaches are dynamic geologic features that can fluctuate between advancement and retreat of sediment, the natural agents of fluctuation include waves, tides, currents, and winds. Man-made elements such as the interruption of sediment supply, such as a dam, a headland bay beach can be classified as being in three different states of sedimentation. Static equilibrium refers to a beach that is stable and does not experience littoral drift or sediment deposition or erosion, waves generally diffract around the headland and near the beach when the beach is in a state of static equilibrium
4.
Estuary
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An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a zone between river environments and maritime environments. They are subject both to marine influences—such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water—and to riverine influences—such as flows of fresh water and sediment. The inflows of sea water and fresh water provide high levels of nutrients both in the water column and in sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world. Most existing estuaries formed during the Holocene epoch with the flooding of river-eroded or glacially scoured valleys when the sea began to rise about 10. Estuaries are typically classified according to their geomorphological features or to water-circulation patterns, the banks of many estuaries are amongst the most heavily populated areas of the world, with about 60% of the worlds population living along estuaries and the coast. The word estuary is derived from the Latin word aestuarium meaning tidal inlet of the sea, there have been many definitions proposed to describe an estuary. However, this definition excludes a number of water bodies such as coastal lagoons. This broad definition also includes fjords, lagoons, river mouths, an estuary is a dynamic ecosystem having a connection to the open sea through which the sea water enters with the rhythm of the tides. The sea water entering the estuary is diluted by the water flowing from rivers. The pattern of dilution varies between different estuaries and depends on the volume of water, the tidal range. Drowned river valleys are known as coastal plain estuaries. In places where the sea level is rising relative to the land, sea water progressively penetrates into river valleys and this is the most common type of estuary in temperate climates. Well-studied estuaries include the Severn Estuary in the United Kingdom and the Ems Dollard along the Dutch-German border, the width-to-depth ratio of these estuaries is typically large, appearing wedge-shaped in the inner part and broadening and deepening seaward. Water depths rarely exceed 30 m, examples of this type of estuary in the U. S. are the Hudson River, Chesapeake Bay, and Delaware Bay along the Mid-Atlantic coast, and Galveston Bay and Tampa Bay along the Gulf Coast. They are relatively common in tropical and subtropical locations and these estuaries are semi-isolated from ocean waters by barrier beaches. Formation of barrier beaches partially encloses the estuary, with only narrow inlets allowing contact with the ocean waters, bar-built estuaries typically develop on gently sloping plains located along tectonically stable edges of continents and marginal sea coasts. They are extensive along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U. S. in areas with active coastal deposition of sediments, barrier beaches form in shallow water and are generally parallel to the shoreline, resulting in long, narrow estuaries
5.
Romanization of Japanese
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The romanization of Japanese is the application of the Latin script to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is referred to in English as rōmaji. There are several different romanization systems, the three main ones are Hepburn romanization, Kunrei-shiki romanization, and Nihon-shiki romanization. Variants of the Hepburn system are the most widely used, Japanese is normally written in a combination of logographic characters borrowed from Chinese and syllabic scripts which also ultimately derive from Chinese characters. It is also used to transliterate Japanese terms in text written in English on topics related to Japan, such as linguistics, literature, history, and culture. Rōmaji is the most common way to input Japanese into word processors and computers, all Japanese who have attended elementary school since World War II have been taught to read and write romanized Japanese. The word rōmaji literally means Roman letters, and in Japan it is often used to refer to the Latin alphabet itself than to any specific form of romanized Japanese. The earliest Japanese romanization system was based on the Portuguese orthography and it was developed around 1548 by a Japanese Catholic named Yajiro. Jesuit priests used the system in a series of printed Catholic books so that missionaries could preach and teach their converts without learning to read Japanese orthography. The most useful of these books for the study of early modern Japanese pronunciation and early attempts at romanization was the Nippo jisho, in general, the early Portuguese system was similar to Nihon-shiki in its treatment of vowels. The latter continued to be printed and read after the suppression of Christianity in Japan, the Hepburn system included representation of some sounds that have since changed. The Nihon-shiki romanization was an outgrowth of that movement, several Japanese texts were published entirely in rōmaji during this period, but it failed to catch on. Today, the use of Nihon-shiki for writing Japanese is advocated by the Oomoto sect, during the Allied occupation of Japan, the government of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers made it official policy to romanize Japanese. However, that failed and a more moderate attempt at Japanese script reform followed. Hepburn romanization generally follows English phonology with Romance vowels and it is an intuitive method of showing Anglophones the pronunciation of a word in Japanese. It was standardized in the USA as American National Standard System for the Romanization of Japanese, Hepburn is the most common romanization system in use today, especially in the English-speaking world. The Revised Hepburn system of romanization uses a macron to indicate long vowels. For example, the name じゅんいちろう, is written with the kana characters ju-n-i-chi-ro-u, without the apostrophe, it would not be possible to distinguish this correct reading from the incorrect ju-ni-chi-ro-u
6.
Geographical renaming
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Geographical renaming is the changing of the name of a geographical feature or area. This can range from the change of a street name to a highly disputed change to the name of a country. Some names are changed locally but the new names are not recognised by other countries, other names may not be officially recognised but remain in common use. Many places have different names in different languages, and a change of language in official or general use has resulted in what is arguably a change of name. There are many reasons to undertake renaming, with political motivation being the cause, for example many places in the former Soviet Union. Sometimes a place reverts to its former name, one of the most common reasons for a country changing its name is newly acquired independence. When borders are changed, sometimes due to a splitting or two countries joining together, the names of the relevant areas can change. This, however, is more the creation of a different entity than an act of geographical renaming, often the older name will persist in colloquial expressions. For example, the known in English as Peking duck retained that name even when the Chinese capital changed its transliteration to Beijing. Names in non-Roman characters can also be spelled differently when Romanised in different European languages. China developed and adopted the pinyin romanisation system in February 1958 in place of previous systems such as the postal romanization, many Chinese geographical entities thus had their English names changed. Pinyin was adopted by the International Organization for Standardisation in 1982, the system is not used by North Korea. Transfer of a city between countries with different patterns of phonology can result in seeming changes of name. Changes can be so slight as Straßburg and Strasbourg, some are translations, Karlsbad became Karlovy Vary. When the formerly-German city of Danzig came under Polish rule, it known in English by its Polish name of Gdańsk. The pattern is far from uniform, and it takes time, decolonisation in India saw a trend to change the established English names of cities to the names in the local language. Since then, changes have included Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai, for example, it changed Dihua to Ürümqi and Zhenxi to Barkol. It peacefully dissolved into the Czech and Slovak Republics in 1993, yugoslavia was originally Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, created by joining Kingdom of Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro and parts of Austro-Hungarian Empire inhabited by South Slavs
7.
Tokyo
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Tokyo, officially Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan and one of its 47 prefectures. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous area in the world. It is the seat of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government, Tokyo is in the Kantō region on the southeastern side of the main island Honshu and includes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands. Formerly known as Edo, it has been the de facto seat of government since 1603 when Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu made the city his headquarters. It officially became the capital after Emperor Meiji moved his seat to the city from the old capital of Kyoto in 1868, Tokyo Metropolis was formed in 1943 from the merger of the former Tokyo Prefecture and the city of Tokyo. The Tokyo metropolitan government administers the 23 Special Wards of Tokyo, the metropolitan government also administers 39 municipalities in the western part of the prefecture and the two outlying island chains. The population of the wards is over 9 million people. The prefecture is part of the worlds most populous metropolitan area with upwards of 37.8 million people, the city hosts 51 of the Fortune Global 500 companies, the highest number of any city in the world. Tokyo ranked third in the International Financial Centres Development IndexEdit, the city is also home to various television networks such as Fuji TV, Tokyo MX, TV Tokyo, TV Asahi, Nippon Television, NHK and the Tokyo Broadcasting System. Tokyo ranked first in the Global Economic Power Index and fourth in the Global Cities Index. The city is considered a world city – as listed by the GaWCs 2008 inventory – and in 2014. In 2015, Tokyo was named the Most Liveable City in the world by the magazine Monocle, the Michelin Guide has awarded Tokyo by far the most Michelin stars of any city in the world. Tokyo ranked first in the world in the Safe Cities Index, the 2016 edition of QS Best Student Cities ranked Tokyo as the 3rd-best city in the world to be a university student. Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics, the 1979 G-7 summit, the 1986 G-7 summit, and the 1993 G-7 summit, and will host the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tokyo was originally known as Edo, which means estuary. During the early Meiji period, the city was also called Tōkei, some surviving official English documents use the spelling Tokei. However, this pronunciation is now obsolete, the name Tokyo was first suggested in 1813 in the book Kondō Hisaku, written by Satō Nobuhiro. When Ōkubo Toshimichi proposed the renaming to the government during the Meiji Restoration, according to Oda Kanshi, Tokyo was originally a small fishing village named Edo, in what was formerly part of the old Musashi Province. Edo was first fortified by the Edo clan, in the twelfth century
8.
Tokugawa shogunate
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The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the Tokugawa bakufu and the Edo bakufu, was the last feudal Japanese military government, which existed between 1600 and 1868. The head of government was the shogun, and each was a member of the Tokugawa clan, the Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle and the years of the shogunate became known as the Edo period. This time is called the Tokugawa period or pre-modern. Following the Sengoku period, the government had been largely re-established by Oda Nobunaga during the Azuchi–Momoyama period. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, central authority fell to Tokugawa Ieyasu, society in the Tokugawa period, unlike the shogunates before it, was supposedly based on the strict class hierarchy originally established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The daimyō were at the top, followed by the warrior-caste of samurai, with the farmers, artisans, and traders ranking below. In some parts of the country, particularly smaller regions, daimyō and samurai were more or less identical, since daimyō might be trained as samurai, otherwise, the largely inflexible nature of this social stratification system unleashed disruptive forces over time. Taxes on the peasantry were set at fixed amounts which did not account for inflation or other changes in monetary value, as a result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants, ranging from simple local disturbances to much bigger rebellions. None, however, proved compelling enough to challenge the established order until the arrival of foreign powers. The Tokugawa Shogunate came to an end in 1868 with the resignation of the 15th Tokugawa Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu. The bakuhan taisei was the political system in the Edo period of Japan. Baku is an abbreviation of bakufu, meaning military government—that is, the han were the domains headed by daimyō. Vassals held inherited lands and provided service and homage to their lords. The bakuhan taisei split feudal power between the shogunate in Edo and provincial domains throughout Japan, provinces had a degree of sovereignty and were allowed an independent administration of the han in exchange for loyalty to the shogun, who was responsible for foreign relations and national security. The shogun and lords were all daimyō, feudal lords with their own bureaucracies, policies, the shogun also administered the most powerful han, the hereditary fief of the House of Tokugawa. Each level of government administered its own system of taxation, the emperor, nominally a religious leader, held no real power, this was invested in the shogun. The shogunate had the power to discard, annex, and transform domains, the sankin kōtai system of alternative residence required each daimyō to reside in alternate years between the han and the court in Edo
9.
Ukiyo
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Ukiyo describes the urban lifestyle, especially the pleasure-seeking aspects, of Edo-period Japan. A prominent author of the genre was Ihara Saikaku, who wrote The Life of an Amorous Woman. The ukiyo culture also arose in cities such as Osaka. The term ukiyo is also an allusion to the homophone ukiyo
10.
Edo period
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The Edo period or Tokugawa period is the period between 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when Japanese society was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the countrys 300 regional daimyō. The period was characterized by growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies. The shogunate was established in Edo on March 24,1603. The period came to an end with the Meiji Restoration on May 3,1868, instrumental in the rise of the new bakufu was Tokugawa Ieyasu, the main beneficiary of the achievements of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Already powerful, Ieyasu profited by his transfer to the rich Kantō area, after Hideyoshis death, Ieyasu moved quickly to seize control from the Toyotomi family. Ieyasus victory over the western daimyōs at the Battle of Sekigahara gave him control of all Japan. He rapidly abolished numerous enemy daimyō houses, reduced others, such as that of the Toyotomi, Ieyasu still failed to achieve complete control of the western daimyōs, but his assumption of the title of shogun helped consolidate the alliance system. After further strengthening his base, Ieyasu installed his son Hidetada as shogun. The Toyotomi were still a significant threat, and Ieyasu devoted the next decade to their eradication, in 1615, the Tokugawa army destroyed the Toyotomi stronghold at Osaka. The Tokugawa period brought 250 years of stability to Japan, the political system evolved into what historians call bakuhan, a combination of the terms bakufu and han to describe the government and society of the period. In the bakuhan, the shogun had national authority and the daimyōs had regional authority and this represented a new unity in the feudal structure, which featured an increasingly large bureaucracy to administer the mixture of centralized and decentralized authorities. The feudal hierarchy was completed by the classes of daimyō. Closest to the Tokugawa house were the shinpan, or related houses and they were twenty-three daimyōs on the borders of Tokugawa lands, all directly related to Ieyasu. The shinpan held mostly honorary titles and advisory posts in the bakufu, the second class of the hierarchy were the fudai, or house daimyōs, rewarded with lands close to the Tokugawa holdings for their faithful service. By the 18th century,145 fudai controlled such smaller han, members of the fudai class staffed most of the major bakufu offices. Ninety-seven han formed the group, the tozama, former opponents or new allies. The tozama were located mostly on the peripheries of the archipelago, because the tozama were least trusted of the daimyō, they were the most cautiously managed and generously treated, although they were excluded from central government positions. The Tokugawa not only consolidated their control over a reunified Japan, they also had unprecedented power over the emperor, the court, all daimyōs and the religious orders
11.
Kyoto
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Kyoto is a city located in the central part of the island of Honshu, Japan. It has a close to 1.5 million. Kyoto is also known as the thousand-year capital, in Japanese, the city has been called Kyō, Miyako, or Kyō no Miyako. In the 11th century, the city was renamed Kyoto, after the Chinese word for capital city, after the city of Edo was renamed Tokyo in 1868, and the seat of the Emperor was transferred there, Kyoto was known for a short time as Saikyō. Obsolete spellings for the name include Kioto, Miaco and Meaco. Another term commonly used to refer to the city in the period was Keishi. His last choice for the site was the village of Uda, the new city, Heian-kyō, a scaled replica of the then Tang capital Changan, became the seat of Japans imperial court in 794, beginning the Heian period of Japanese history. The city suffered destruction in the Ōnin War of 1467–1477. Battles between samurai factions spilled into the streets, and came to involve the court nobility and religious factions as well, nobles mansions were transformed into fortresses, deep trenches dug throughout the city for defense and as firebreaks, and numerous buildings burned. The city has not seen such widespread destruction since, Hideyoshi also built earthwork walls called odoi encircling the city. Teramachi Street in central Kyoto is a Buddhist temple quarter where Hideyoshi gathered temples in the city, throughout the Edo period, the economy of the city flourished as one of three major cities in Japan, the others being Osaka and Edo. The Hamaguri rebellion of 1864 burnt down 28,000 houses in the city, the modern city of Kyoto was formed on April 1,1889. The construction of Lake Biwa Canal in 1890 is one taken to revive the city. The population of the city exceeded one million in 1932, stimson, Secretary of War in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, the city was removed from the list of targets and replaced by Nagasaki. The city was spared from conventional bombing as well, although small-scale air raids did result in casualties. As a result, the Imperial City of Kyoto is one of the few Japanese cities that still have an abundance of prewar buildings, however, modernization is continually breaking down the traditional Kyoto in favor of newer architecture, such as the Kyōto Station complex. Kyoto became a city designated by government ordinance on September 1,1956, in 1997, Kyoto hosted the conference that resulted in the protocol on greenhouse gas emissions that bears the citys name. Kyoto is located in a valley, part of the Yamashiro Basin, in the part of the mountainous region known as the Tamba highlands
12.
Great fire of Meireki
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The Great fire of Meireki, also known as the Furisode Fire, destroyed 60–70% of the Japanese capital city of Edo on March 2,1657, the third year of the Meireki Imperial era. The fire lasted for three days, and is estimated to have claimed over 100,000 lives, the fire was said to have been started accidentally by a priest who was cremating an allegedly cursed kimono. The kimono had been owned in succession by three girls who all died before ever being able to wear it. When the garment was being burned, a large gust of wind fanned the flames causing the temple to ignite. The fire began on the day of the year, in Edos Hongō district. Edo, like most Japanese cities and towns at the time, on the second evening, the winds changed, and the fire was pushed from the southern edges of the city back towards its center. The homes of the shoguns closest retainers, in Kōjimachi, were destroyed as the fire made its way towards Edo castle, ultimately, the main keep was saved, but most of the outer buildings, and all of the retainers and servants homes were destroyed. Finally, on the day, the winds died down, as did the flames, but thick smoke prevented movement about the city, removal of bodies. There, pits were dug and the buried, the Ekō-in was then built on the site. Reconstruction efforts took two years, as the shogunate took the opportunity to reorganize the city according to practical considerations. Commoners and samurai retainers alike were granted funds from the government for the rebuilding of their homes, each of these 20th-century events, like the Meireki fire less than three centuries earlier, saw roughly 100,000 deaths, and the destruction of the majority of the city. The Fire Kimono, a 2008 mystery novel by Laura Joh Rowland, was inspired by the event, media related to Great fire of Meireki at Wikimedia Commons
13.
Machiya
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Machiya are traditional wooden townhouses found throughout Japan and typified in the historical capital of Kyoto. Machiya and nōka constitute the two categories of Japanese vernacular architecture known as minka, Machiya originated as early as the Heian period and continued to develop through to the Edo period and even into the Meiji period. Machiya housed urban merchants and craftsmen, a class collectively referred to as chōnin, the word machiya is written using two kanji, machi meaning “town”, and ya meaning “house” or “shop” depending on the kanji used to express it. Machiya in Kyoto, sometimes called kyōmachiya defined the architectural atmosphere of downtown Kyoto for centuries, the typical Kyoto machiya is a long wooden home with narrow street frontage, stretching deep into the city block and often containing one or more small courtyard gardens or tsuboniwa. Machiya incorporate earthen walls and baked tile roofs, and could be one, one, the front of the building traditionally served as the retail or shop space, generally having sliding or folding shutters that opened to facilitate the display of goods and wares. A hibukuro above the kitchen serves as a chimney, carrying smoke and heat away and as a skylight, bringing light into the kitchen. The plots width was traditionally an index of wealth, and typical machiya plots were only 5.4 to 6 meters wide, but about 20 meters deep, leading to the nickname unagi no nedoko, or eel beds. One occasion when rooms are altered significantly is during the Gion Matsuri, Machiya also provide space for costumes, decorations, portable shrines, floats, and other things needed for the festival, as well as hosting spectators along the festivals parade route. Kyoto can be cold in winter, and extremely hot. The open air garden courtyards likewise aid in air circulation and bring light into the house, the front of a machiya features wooden lattices, or kōshi, the styles of which were once indicative of the type of shop the machiya held. Silk or thread shops, rice sellers, okiya, and liquor stores, among others, the types or styles of latticework are still today known by names using shop types, such as Itoya-gōshi or Komeya-gōshi. These lattices sometimes jut out from the front of the building, normally unpainted, the kōshi of hanamachi were frequently painted in bengara, a vermillion or red ochre color. The facade of the story of a machiya is generally not made of wood. The main entrance into a machiya consists of two doors. The Ō-do was generally used only to goods, or large objects, into the building, while the smaller kugurido, or side door, was for normal, everyday use, i. e. for people to enter. Machiya communities can be compared to the hutongs of Beijing, small neighborhoods made up of closely grouped homes organized on both sides of a narrow street, sometimes with small alleyways in between the homes, help to create a strong sense of community. In addition, many areas were defined by a single craft or product. The Nishijin neighborhood, for example, is famous for its textiles, in a survey conducted in 2003, over 50% of machiya residents noted that it is financially difficult to maintain a machiya
14.
Emperor Meiji
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Emperor Meiji, or Meiji the Great, was the 122nd Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from February 3,1867 until his death on July 30,1912. By the time of his death in 1912, Japan had undergone a political, social, and industrial revolution at home and emerged as one of the great powers on the world stage. The New York Times summed up this transformation at his funeral in 1912, with the words, before it went old Japan, after it came new Japan. Having ruled during the Meiji period, the Emperor is thus known as the Meiji Emperor or simply Emperor Meiji. His personal name, which is not used in any formal or official context, the Tokugawa shogunate had established itself in the early 17th century. Under its rule, the shogun governed Japan, about 180 lords, known as daimyō, ruled autonomous realms under the shogun, who occasionally called upon the daimyō for gifts, but did not tax them. The shogun controlled the daimyō in other ways, only the shogun could approve their marriages, and the shogun could divest a daimyō of his lands. In 1615, the first Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had retired from his position, and his son Tokugawa Hidetada. Under it, the Emperor was required to devote his time to scholarship, the Emperors under the shogunate appear to have closely adhered to this code, studying Confucian classics and devoting time to poetry and calligraphy. They were only taught the rudiments of Japanese and Chinese history, the shogun did not seek the consent or advice of the Emperor for his actions. Emperors almost never left their compound, or Gosho in Kyoto. Few Emperors lived long enough to retire, of the Meiji Emperors five predecessors, only his grandfather lived into his forties, dying aged forty-six. The Imperial Family suffered very high rates of infant mortality, all five of the Emperors brothers and sisters died as infants, soon after taking control in the early seventeenth century, shogunate officials ended much Western trade with Japan, and barred missionaries from the islands. In addition to the substantial Chinese trade, only the Dutch continued trade with Japan, however, by the early 19th century, European and American vessels appeared in the waters around Japan with increasing frequency. Prince Mutsuhito was born on November 3,1852 in a house on his maternal grandfathers property at the north end of the Gosho. At the time, a birth was believed to be polluting, so imperial princes were not born in the Palace, the boys mother, Nakayama Yoshiko, was a concubine to his father Emperor Kōmei, and was the daughter of the acting major counselor, Nakayama Tadayasu. The young prince was given the name Sachinomiya, or Prince Sachi, the young prince was born at a time of change for Japan. This change was symbolized dramatically when Commodore Matthew Perry and his squadron of what the Japanese dubbed the Black Ships, Perry sought to open Japan to trade, and warned the Japanese of military consequences if they did not agree
15.
Meiji period
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The Meiji period, also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from October 23,1868 through July 30,1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan during which Japanese society moved from being a feudal society to its modern form. Fundamental changes affected its structure, internal politics, economy, military. The period corresponded with the reign of Emperor Meiji after 1868 and it was succeeded by the Taishō period upon the accession of Emperor Taishō to the throne. On February 3,1867, the 14-year-old Prince Mutsuhito succeeded his father, Emperor Kōmei, on November 9,1867, then-Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu tendered his resignation to the Emperor, and formally stepped down ten days later. Imperial restoration occurred the year on January 3,1868. The fall of Edo in the summer of 1868 marked the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, and a new era, Meiji, was proclaimed. The first reform was the promulgation of the Five Charter Oath in 1868, implicit in the Charter Oath was an end to exclusive political rule by the bakufu, and a move toward more democratic participation in government. To implement the Charter Oath, a rather short-lived constitution with eleven articles was drawn up in June 1868, the Meiji government assured the foreign powers that it would follow the old treaties negotiated by the bakufu and announced that it would act in accordance with international law. Mutsuhito, who was to reign until 1912, selected a new reign title—Meiji, to further dramatize the new order, the capital was relocated from Kyoto, where it had been situated since 794, to Tokyo, the new name for Edo. Confirmed in their positions, the daimyo became governors. The han were replaced with prefectures in 1871, and authority continued to flow to the national government, officials from the favored former han, such as Satsuma, Chōshū, Tosa, and Hizen staffed the new ministries. Formerly old court nobles, and lower-ranking but more radical samurai, replaced bakufu appointees, in as much as the Meiji Restoration had sought to return the Emperor to a preeminent position, efforts were made to establish a Shinto-oriented state much like it was 1,000 years earlier. Furthermore, a new State Shinto had to be constructed for the purpose, in 1871, the Office of Shinto Worship was established, ranking even above the Council of State in importance. The kokutai ideas of the Mito school were embraced, and the ancestry of the Imperial House was emphasized. The government supported Shinto teachers, a small but important move, although the Office of Shinto Worship was demoted in 1872, by 1877 the Home Ministry controlled all Shinto shrines and certain Shinto sects were given state recognition. Shinto was released from Buddhist administration and its properties restored, although Buddhism suffered from state sponsorship of Shinto, it had its own resurgence. Christianity also was legalized, and Confucianism remained an important ethical doctrine, increasingly, however, Japanese thinkers identified with Western ideology and methods
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Castle town
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A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe, some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, and England particularly, it is common for cities, towns organized around Japanese castles are called jōkamachi. Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd
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Edo Castle
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Edo Castle, also known as Chiyoda Castle, is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan. It is today part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace and is located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, then known as Edo, Toshima District, Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa shogunate here. It was the residence of the shogun and location of the shogunate, after the resignation of the shogun and the Meiji Restoration, it became the Tokyo Imperial Palace. Some moats, walls and ramparts of the castle survive to this day, however, the grounds were more extensive during the Edo period, with Tokyo Station and the Marunouchi section of the city lying within the outermost moat. It also encompassed Kitanomaru Park, the Nippon Budokan Hall and other landmarks of the surrounding area, the warrior Edo Shigetsugu built his residence in what is now the Honmaru and Ninomaru part of Edo Castle, around the end of the Heian or beginning of the Kamakura period. The Edo clan perished in the 15th century as a result of uprisings in the Kantō region, and Ōta Dōkan, the castle later came under the control of the Late Hōjō clan in 1524 after the Siege of Edo. The castle was vacated in 1590 due to the Siege of Odawara, Tokugawa Ieyasu made Edo Castle his base after he was offered eight eastern provinces by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He later defeated Toyotomi Hideyori, son of Hideyoshi, at the Siege of Osaka in 1615, Tokugawa Ieyasu received the title of Seii Taishōgun in 1603, and Edo became the center of Tokugawas administration. Initially, parts of the area were lying under water, the sea reached the present Nishinomaru area of Edo Castle, and Hibiya was a beach. The landscape was changed for the construction of the castle, most construction started in 1593 and was completed in 1636 under Ieyasus grandson, Tokugawa Iemitsu. By this time, Edo had a population of 150,000, the existing Honmaru, Ninomaru, and Sannomaru areas were extended with the addition of the Nishinomaru, Nishinomaru-shita, Fukiage, and Kitanomaru areas. The daimyōs were required by the shōgun to supply building materials or finances, large granite stones were moved from afar, the size and number of the stones depended on the wealth of the daimyōs. The wealthier ones had to contribute more and those who did not supply stones were required to contribute labor for such tasks as digging the large moats and flattening hills. The earth that was taken from the moats was used as landfill for sea-reclamation or to level the ground, thus the construction of Edo Castle laid the foundation for parts of the city where merchants were able to settle. At least 10,000 men were involved in the first phase of the construction, when construction ended, the castle had 38 gates. The ramparts were almost 20 meters high and the walls were 12 meters high. Moats forming roughly concentric circles were dug for further protection, some moats reached as far as Ichigaya and Yotsuya, and parts of the ramparts survive to this day. This area is bordered by either the sea or the Kanda River, various fires over the centuries damaged or destroyed parts of the castle, Edo and the majority of its buildings being made of timber
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Samurai
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Samurai were the military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan. In Japanese, they are referred to as bushi or buke. In both countries the terms were nominalized to mean those who serve in close attendance to the nobility, the pronunciation in Japanese changing to saburai. According to Wilson, a reference to the word samurai appears in the Kokin Wakashū. By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, the samurai were usually associated with a clan and their lord, and were trained as officers in military tactics and grand strategy. While the samurai numbered less than 10% of then Japans population, following the Battle of Hakusukinoe against Tang China and Silla in 663 AD, which led to a retreat from Korean affairs, Japan underwent widespread reform. One of the most important was that of the Taika Reform and this edict allowed the Japanese aristocracy to adopt the Tang dynasty political structure, bureaucracy, culture, religion, and philosophy. As part of the Taihō Code of 702 AD, and the later Yōrō Code, the population was required to regularly for census. With an understanding of how the population was distributed, Emperor Monmu introduced a law whereby 1 in 3–4 adult males were drafted into the national military and these soldiers were required to supply their own weapons, and in-return were exempted from duties and taxes. This was one of the first attempts by the Imperial government to form an organized army modeled after the Chinese system and it was called Gundan-Sei by later historians and is believed to have been short-lived. The Taihō Code classified most of the Imperial bureaucrats into 12 ranks and those of 6th rank and below were referred to as samurai and dealt with day-to-day affairs. Although these samurai were civilian public servants, the word is believed to have derived from this term. Military men, however, would not be referred to as samurai for many more centuries, Emperor Kanmu introduced the title of seii-taishōgun, or Shogun, and began to rely on the powerful regional clans to conquer the Emishi. Skilled in mounted combat and archery, these clan warriors became the Emperors preferred tool for putting down rebellions, though this is the first known use of the Shogun title, it was a temporary title, and was not imbued with political power until the 13th century. At this time, the Imperial Court officials considered them to be merely a military section under the control of the Imperial Court, ultimately, Emperor Kanmu disbanded his army. From this time, the Emperors power gradually declined, while the Emperor was still the ruler, powerful clans around Kyoto assumed positions as ministers, and their relatives bought positions as magistrates. To amass wealth and repay their debts, magistrates often imposed heavy taxes, through protective agreements and political marriages, they accumulated, or gathered, political power, eventually surpassing the traditional aristocracy. Some clans were formed by farmers who had taken up arms to protect themselves from the Imperial magistrates sent to govern their lands
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Osaka
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Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Japan. Historically a merchant city, Osaka has also known as the nations kitchen. Some of the earliest signs of habitation in the Osaka area at the Morinomiya ruins comprise shell mounds, sea oysters. It is believed that what is today the Uehonmachi area consisted of a land with an inland sea in the east. During the Yayoi period, permanent habitation on the plains grew as rice farming became popular, by the Kofun period, Osaka developed into a hub port connecting the region to the western part of Japan. The large numbers of increasingly larger tomb mounds found in the plains of Osaka are seen as evidence of political-power concentration, in 645, Emperor Kōtoku built his Naniwa Nagara-Toyosaki Palace in what is now Osaka, making it the capital of Japan. The city now known as Osaka was at this time referred to as Naniwa, although the capital was moved to Asuka in 655, Naniwa remained a vital connection, by land and sea, between Yamato, Korea, and China. Naniwa was declared the capital again in 744 by order of Emperor Shōmu, and remained so until 745, in 1496, Jōdo Shinshū Buddhists established their headquarters in the heavily fortified Ishiyama Hongan-ji, located directly on the site of the old Naniwa Imperial Palace. Oda Nobunaga began a siege campaign on the temple in 1570 which ultimately resulted in the surrender of the monks. Toyotomi Hideyoshi constructed Osaka Castle in its place in 1583, Osaka was long considered Japans primary economic center, with a large percentage of the population belonging to the merchant class. Over the course of the Edo period, Osaka grew into one of Japans major cities and returned to its ancient role as a lively and its popular culture was closely related to ukiyo-e depictions of life in Edo. By 1780 Osaka had cultivated a vibrant arts culture, as typified by its famous Kabuki, in 1837 Ōshio Heihachirō, a low-ranking samurai, led a peasant insurrection in response to the citys unwillingness to support the many poor and suffering families in the area. Approximately one-quarter of the city was razed before shogunal officials put down the rebellion, Osaka was opened to foreign trade by the government of the Bakufu at the same time as Hyōgo on 1 January 1868, just before the advent of the Boshin War and the Meiji Restoration. Osaka residents were stereotyped in Edo literature from at least the 18th century, jippenisha Ikku in 1802 depicted Osakans as stingy almost beyond belief. Edo writers aspired to samurai culture, and saw themselves as poor but generous, chaste, Edo writers by contrast saw zeeroku as obsequious apprentices, stingy, greedy, gluttonous, and lewd. The modern municipality was established in 1889 by government ordinance, with an area of 15 square kilometres, overlapping todays Chūō. Later, the city went through three major expansions to reach its current size of 223 square kilometres, Osaka was the industrial center most clearly defined in the development of capitalism in Japan. It became known as the Manchester of the Orient, the rapid industrialization attracted many Korean immigrants, who set up a life apart for themselves
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Yamanote and Shitamachi
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Yamanote and Shitamachi are traditional names for two areas of Tokyo, Japan. Yamanote refers to the affluent, upper-class areas of Tokyo west of the Imperial Palace, the two regions have always been vaguely defined, as their identity was more based on culture and caste than on geography. While Tokugawa vassals of the warrior caste lived in the hilly Yamanote and this dual class and geographic division has remained strong through the centuries while evolving with the times, and is still in common use today. Indeed, the two terms are now used also in parts of the country. The term Yamanote still indicates a higher status, and Shitamachi a lower one. Both the Yamanote and the Shitamachi have grown gradually over the years, although neither of the two was ever an official name, both stuck and are still in use. Both words are used with the meaning in other parts of the country too. The term Yamanote is also used for example in Hokkaido, Oita, Yokohama, there are several theories about the etymology of the term Yamanote, in addition to its hilly location. However, with the construction of landfills in the Sumida estuary. The pairing of Yamanote - Shitamachi is well attested in records of the language as early as 1650. The warrior/merchant distinction between Yamanote and Shitamachi was also established early on. The terms usage as geographic terms in modern times has changed, in Metropolis Magazine, translator and scholar Edward Seidensticker believes that the dividing line goes from Ginza to Shinjuku, and north and south are more accurate terms. Seidensticker also describes how the economic and cultural centers have moved from Ginza and Nihonbashi to Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Shibuya, Yamanote was originally considered more rustic and Shitamachi more sophisticated. It was only with the Meiji restoration that this changed because of the influx of intellectuals into its wards, the extent of the Yamanote changed little during the Meiji era. In 1894 it was described as consisting of Hongo, Koishikawa, Ushigome, Yotsuya, Akasaka, after the great earthquake of 1923 and again after the second world war, the Yamanote started to expand. As a result, todays Yamanote extends, in the eyes of the young, even further than Shinjuku, Bunkyo and Minato, to Suginami, Setagaya, Nakano, what used to be the hilly area within the Yamanote line has now expanded west on the Musashino Plateau. Today, the Yamanote Line is one of Tokyos busiest and most important commuter rail lines, Tokyo Municipal Route 317 is colloquially known as Yamate Dōri, or sometimes Yamate Street, after the Yamanote region, as well. The term originally indicated just the three areas of Kanda, Nihonbashi and Kyōbashi but, as the city grew, it came to also the areas mentioned above
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Asakusa
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Asakusa is a district in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan, famous for the Sensō-ji, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon. There are several temples in Asakusa, as well as various festivals. The development of Asakusa as an entertainment district during the Edo period came about in part because of the neighboring district, Kuramae was a district of storehouses for rice, which was then used as payment for servants of the feudal government. The keepers of these storage houses initially stored the rice for a small fee, through such trading, many fudasashi came to have a considerable amount of disposable income and as result theaters and geisha houses began to spring up in nearby Asakusa. For most of the century, Asakusa remained a major entertainment district in Tokyo. The rokku or Sixth District was in famous as a theater district. The golden years of Asakusa are vividly portrayed in Yasunari Kawabatas novel The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa, the area was heavily damaged by US bombing raids during World War II, particularly the March 1945 firebombing of Tokyo. The area was rebuilt after the war, but has now surpassed by Shinjuku and other colorful areas in the city. Asakusa is on the north-east fringe of central Tokyo, at the end of the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line subway. It is central to the area referred to as Shitamachi. As the name suggests, the area has a more traditionally Japanese atmosphere than other neighborhoods in Tokyo do. With so many religious establishments, there are frequent matsuri in Asakusa, as temple or shrine hosts at least one matsuri a year. The largest and most popular is the Sanja Matsuri in May, Asakusa has many restaurants and places to try traditional Japanese foods. One of the most popular treats is satsuma imo, sweet potatoes, another special treat is chikuwa kamaboko, grilled fish cakes. The Suzuhiro store serves local craft beer with traditional kamaboko, there are traditional ryokan, homes, and small-scale apartment buildings throughout the district. In keeping with a peculiarly Tokyo tradition, Asakusa hosts a major cluster of domestic kitchenware stores on Kappabashi-dori, next to the Sensō-ji temple grounds is a small amusement park called Hanayashiki, which claims to be the oldest amusement park in Japan. The neighborhood theaters specialize in showing classic Japanese films, as many of the tourists are elderly Japanese, cruises down the Sumida River depart from a wharf a five-minute walk from the temple. Asakusa is Tokyos oldest geisha district, and still has 45 actively working geisha, because of its colourful location, downtown credentials, and relaxed atmosphere by Tokyo standards, Asakusa is a popular accommodation choice for budget travelers
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Sumida River
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The Sumida River is a river that flows through Tokyo, Japan. It branches from the Arakawa River at Iwabuchi and flows into Tokyo Bay and its tributaries include the Kanda and Shakujii rivers. What is now known as the Sumida River was previously the path of the Ara-kawa, however, towards the end of the Meiji era work was carried out to divert the main flow of the Ara-kawa to prevent flooding. The kabuki play, Sumida-gawa — Gonichi no Omokage, is better known by the title Hokaibo. This stage drama was written by Nakawa Shimesuke, and it was first produced in Osaka in 1784, the play continues to be included in kabuki repertoire in Japan, and it is also performed in the West. It was recreated by the Heisei Nakamura-za in the Lincoln Center Festival in New York in the summer of 2007, the poet Matsuo Bashō lived by the Sumida River, alongside the famous banana tree from which he takes his nom de plume. Amongst these, the ones are, The Ryōgoku-bashi, dating from 1932. This bridge was immortalized many times by Hiroshige, the Nihonbashi or Nihon bridge, dating from the 17th century, was the bridge at which the Naksendō and Tōkaidō terminated during the Edo period. In those days, this bridge was called the Edo-bashi or Edo Bridge, the Eitai-bashi, dating from 1924, replaces a bridge built in 1696. The Senju Bridge, dating from 1921, replaced an earlier bridge initially constructed in 1594, which was for a long time the only bridge across the river. The Sakura Bridge, dating from 1985. -- link to recent, digitized photograph of Kototoi Bridge The Azuma Bridge, dating from 1931, the Shin Ohashi, dating from 1976, replaced a bridge built in 1693. The Chuo Bridge, dating from 1994, is the most recently built of the bridges across the Sumida, see photo here The Tsukuda Bridge, dating from 1964, was the first bridge built after World War II, crossing the river from Tsukiji to Tsukishima. The Kachidoki Bridge was constructed in 1940 for the commemoration of the victory of the Japanese army at Lushun during the Russo-Japanese War. This bridge is the only drawbridge on the Sumida, and has not been raised since 1970. -- link to recent, digitized photograph of Kachidoki Bridge Titsingh, paris, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland
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Ukiyo-e
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The ukiyo-e genre of art flourished in Japan from the 17th through 19th centuries. The term ukiyo-e translates as picture of the floating world, Edo became the seat of government for the military dictatorship in the early 17th century. The merchant class at the bottom of the social order benefitted most from the rapid economic growth. Many indulged in the entertainments of kabuki theatre, courtesans, the term ukiyo came to describe this hedonistic lifestyle. The earliest success was in the 1670s with Moronobus paintings and monochromatic prints of beautiful women, colour in prints came gradually—at first added by hand for special commissions. By the 1740s, artists such as Masanobu used multiple woodblocks to print areas of colour, from the 1760s the success of Harunobus brocade prints led to full-colour production becoming standard, each print made with numerous blocks. Specialists have prized the portraits of beauties and actors by masters such as Kiyonaga, Utamaro, Following the deaths of these two masters, and against the technological and social modernization that followed the Meiji Restoration of 1868, ukiyo-e production went into steep decline. Some ukiyo-e artists specialized in making paintings, but most works were prints, as printing was done by hand, printers were able to achieve effects impractical with machines, such as the blending or gradation of colours on the printing block. Ukiyo-e was central to forming the Wests perception of Japanese art in the late 19th century–especially the landscapes of Hokusai, Prints since the late 20th century have continued in an individualist vein, often made with techniques imported from the West. The Kanō school of painting incorporated features of both, since antiquity, Japanese art had found patrons in the aristocracy, military governments, and religious authorities. Later works appeared by and for townspeople, including inexpensive monochromatic paintings of female beauties and scenes of the theatre and pleasure districts, the hand-produced nature of these shikomi-e limited the scale of their production, a limit that was soon overcome by genres that turned to mass-produced woodblock printing. During a prolonged period of war in the 16th century. In the early 17th century Tokugawa Ieyasu unified the country and was appointed Shogun with supreme power over Japan and he consolidated his government in the village of Edo, and required the territorial lords to assemble there in alternate years with their entourages. The demands of the growing capital drew many male labourers from the country, the village grew during the Edo period from a population of 1800 to over a million in the 19th century. The centralized shogunate put an end to the power of the machishū and divided the population into four classes, with the ruling samurai class at the top. The experience of the quarters was open to those of sufficient wealth, manners. Woodblock printing in Japan traces back to the Hyakumantō Darani in 770 CE, until the 17th century such printing was reserved for Buddhist seals and images. Movable type appeared around 1600, but as the Japanese writing system required about 100,000 type pieces, in Saga Domain, calligrapher Honami Kōetsu and publisher Suminokura Soan combined printed text and images in an adaptation of The Tales of Ise and other works of literature
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Hiroshige
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Utagawa Hiroshige, also Andō Hiroshige, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his landscapes, such as the series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō and The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō, and for his depictions of birds and flowers. The subjects of his work were atypical of the genre, whose typical focus was on beautiful women, popular actors. For scholars and collectors, Hiroshiges death marked the beginning of a decline in the ukiyo-e genre. Hiroshiges work came to have an influence on Western painting towards the close of the 19th century as a part of the trend in Japonism. Western artists closely studied Hiroshiges compositions, and some, such as van Gogh, Hiroshige was born in 1797 in the Yayosu Quay section of the Yaesu area in Edo. He was of a background, and was the great-grandson of Tanaka Tokuemon. Hiroshiges grandfather, Mitsuemon, was an instructor who worked under the name Sairyūken. Hiroshiges father, Genemon, was adopted into the family of Andō Jūemon, Hiroshige went through several name changes as a youth, Jūemon, Tokubē, and Tetsuzō. He had three sisters, one of whom died when he was three and his mother died in early 1809, and his father followed later in the year, but not before handing his fire warden duties to his twelve-year-old son. He was charged with prevention of fires at Edo Castle, a duty that left him leisure time. Not long after his parents deaths, perhaps at around fourteen, Hiroshige—then named Tokutarō— began painting and he sought the tutelage of Toyokuni of the Utagawa school, but Toyokuni had too many pupils to make room for him. A librarian introduced him instead to Toyohiro of the same school, by 1812 Hiroshige was permitted to sign his works, which he did under the art name Hiroshige. In 1823, he resigned his post as warden, though he still acted as an alternate. He declined an offer to succeed Toyohiro upon the death in 1828. It was not until 1829–1830 that Hiroshige began to produce the landscapes he has come to be known for and he also created an increasing number of bird and flower prints about this time. An invitation to join a procession to Kyoto in 1832 gave Hiroshige the opportunity to travel along the Tōkaidō route that linked the two capitals. He sketched the scenery along the way, and when he returned to Edo he produced the series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō, which contains some of his best-known prints
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Nihonbashi
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The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603. The current bridge designed by Tsumaki Yorinaka was constructed of stone on a steel frame dates from 1911, the district covers a large area to the north and east of the bridge, reaching Akihabara to the north and the Sumida River to the east. Ōtemachi is to the west and Yaesu and Ginza to the south, the Edo-era fish market formerly in Nihonbashi was the predecessor of todays Tsukiji fish market. In later years, Nihonbashi emerged as Tokyos predominant financial district, the Nihonbashi bridge first became famous during the 17th century, when it was the eastern terminus of the Nakasendō and the Tōkaidō, roads which ran between Edo and Kyoto. During this time, it was known as Edobashi, or Edo Bridge, in the Meiji era, the wooden bridge was replaced by a larger stone bridge, which still stands today. It is the point from all distances are measured to the capital. The area surrounding the bridge was burned to the ground during the massive March 9-10,1945 bombing of Tokyo, despite careful maintenance and restoration, one area of the bridge still has scars burned into the stone from an incendiary bomb. It is one of the few traces left from the bombing that leveled most of Tokyo. Shortly before the 1964 Summer Olympics, an expressway was built over the Nihonbashi bridge, in recent years, local citizens have petitioned the government to move this expressway underground. This plan was supported by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi but opposed by Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, if implemented, the construction costs are expected to total ¥500 billion. At one time Creatures Inc. had its headquarters in the Kawasakiteitoku Building in Nihonbashi, Tōkaidō Nihonbashi - Shinagawa-juku Nakasendō Nihonbashi - Itabashi-juku Kōshū Kaidō Nihonbashi - Naitō Shinjuku Ōshū Kaidō Nihonbashi - Hakutaku-juku Nikkō Kaidō Nihonbashi - Senju-juku
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Kan'ei-ji
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Tōeizan Kanei-ji Endon-in is a Tendai Buddhist temple in Tokyo, Japan, founded in 1625 during the Kanei era by Tenkai, in an attempt to emulate the powerful religious center Enryaku-ji, in Kyoto. The main object of worship is Yakushirurikō Nyorai and it was named in a reference both to the Enryaku-jis location atop Mount Hiei, and also after the era during which it was erected, like Enryaku-ji. Once a great complex, it used to occupy the heights north and east of Shinobazu Pond. It had immense wealth, power and prestige, and it consisted of over 30 buildings. Of the 15 Tokugawa shōguns, six are buried here, many temple structures were destroyed in the great Meireki fire of 1657. A new hall was constructed inside the enclosure of Kanei-ji in 1698, the temple and its numerous annexes were almost completely destroyed during the Boshin Wars Battle of Ueno and never restored. Much of the site where it stood was confiscated and is now occupied by Ueno Park. What is today the main hall was taken from Kita-in in Kawagoe. Kanei-jis five-story pagoda and the Ueno Tōshō-gū shrine were amongst the gems of the old temple enclosure, both stand undisturbed by the passage of years since the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Shinobazu Pond itself and the Bentendō Temple which stands on its island used to be a part of Kanei-ji. Tenkai, liking Lake Biwa, had Benten Island built in imitation of Chikubushima, at the time the island was accessible only by boat, but later a stone bridge was added on the east, making it possible to walk to it. The Bentendō Temple was destroyed during World War II, and the present one is a reconstruction, Tenkai wanted to create a powerful religious center and, to achieve that, he built Kanei-ji imitating Enryaku-ji. The temple was therefore erected north-east of Edo Castle to ward off evil spirits that were believed to come from that unlucky direction, Tenkais project enjoyed from the beginning the shogunate support, so much so that Tokugawa Hidetada in 1622 donated the land on which it was built. At the time, on land there were the suburban residences of three daimyos, but the land was expropriated and donated to Tenkai for the temple. He was also given 50 thousand silver Ryō and a building as a contribution, the chief abbots residence, the Honbō, was built in 1625, which is considered the year of foundation of the temple. After that, several daimyos contributed with the construction of other buildings, the main hall, called as in Enryaku-jis case Konponchūdō, was finished only in 1697. In 1643, after Tenkais death, disciple Kōkai took his place and his successor was Emperor Go-Mizunoos third son Shuchōho Shinnō. From then on until the end of the shogunate, Kanei-jis chief abbots were chosen among the Emperors children or favorite nephews and called with the honorific Rinnōjinomiya
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Burakumin
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Burakumin is an outcast group at the bottom of the Japanese social order that has historically been the victim of severe discrimination and ostracism. Traditionally, the Burakumin lived in their own communities, hamlets or ghettos, the term 部落 buraku literally refers to a small, generally rural, commune or a hamlet. People from regions of Japan where discriminated communities no longer exist may refer to any hamlet as a buraku, historically the term was used for an outcast community that was heavily discriminated against officially and formally. A widely used term for buraku settlements is dōwa chiku, a term for districts designated for government. The social issue surrounding discriminated communities is usually referred to as dōwa mondai or less commonly, in the feudal era, the outcaste were called eta, a term now considered derogatory. Some burakumin refer to their own communities as mura and themselves as mura-no-mono, other outcaste groups from whom Buraku may have been descended included the hinin. In the 19th century the umbrella term burakumin was coined to name the eta, the term burakumin does not refer to any ethnic minorities in Japan. There are many theories as to how and in which era the outcaste communities came into existence, the social status and typical occupations of outcaste communities have varied considerably according to region and over time. A burakumin neighborhood within metropolitan Tokyo was the last to be served by streetcar and is the site of butcher and leather shops to this day, like the rest of the population, they were bound by sumptuary laws based on the inheritance of their social class. The eta lived in segregated settlements, and were avoided by the rest of Japanese society. Eta were never allowed to change caste, unlike the other castes who, depending on special circumstances, when dealing with members of other castes, they were expected to display signs of subservience, such as the removal of headwear. Physical contact was considered taboo and required ritual purification for the non-eta person. In an 1859 court case described by author Shimazaki Toson, a magistrate declared that An eta is worth 1/7 of an ordinary person and they could be killed with impunity by members of the samurai caste. Historically, eta were not liable for taxation in times, including the Tokugawa period, because the taxation system was based on rice yields. Some outcasts were also called kawaramono because they lived along river banks that could not be turned into rice fields, the feudal caste system in Japan formally ended in 1869 with the Meiji restoration. In 1871, the newly formed Meiji government issued a decree called Senmin Haishirei giving outcasts equal legal status and it is currently better known as the Kaihōrei. However, the elimination of their economic monopolies over certain occupations actually led to a decline in their living standards. For example, the ban on consumption of meat from livestock was lifted in 1871 in order to westernise the country, however, slow-changing social attitudes, especially in the countryside, meant that abattoirs and workers were met with hostility from local residents
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Yoshiwara
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For the Yoshiwara nightclub in the 1927 Fritz Lang film see Metropolis. For the locality in Mumbai, see Oshiwara Yoshiwara was a famous yūkaku in Edo, present-day Tōkyō, in the early 17th century, there was widespread male and female prostitution throughout the cities of Kyoto, Edo, and Osaka. To counter this, an order of Tokugawa Hidetada of the Tokugawa shogunate restricted prostitution to designated city districts and these districts were Shimabara for Kyōto, Shinmachi for Ōsaka and Yoshiwara for Edo. A leading motive for the establishment of districts was the Tokugawa shogunate attempt to prevent the nouveau riche chōnin from engaging in political intrigue. The Yoshiwara was created in the city of Edo, near what is known as Nihonbashi. The Yoshiwara was home to some 1,750 women in the 18th century, the area had over 9,000 women in 1893, many of whom suffered from syphilis. These girls were often indentured to the brothels by their parents between the ages of seven to twelve. If she was lucky, she would become an apprentice to a high-ranking courtesan, when the girl was old enough and had completed her training, she would become a courtesan herself and work her way up the ranks. The young women often had a contract to the brothel for only five to ten years. One way a woman could get out of Yoshiwara was for a man to buy her contract from the brothel. Another would be if she managed to be enough that she was able to buy her own freedom. This did not occur often, though. Many women died of sexually transmitted diseases or from failed abortions before completing their contracts, a significant number served out their contracts and married a client, went into other employments, or returned to their family homes. In these cases, the advanced payments their parents received could be used to fund her dowry, social classes were not strictly divided in Yoshiwara. A commoner with enough money would be served as an equal to a samurai, though samurai were discouraged from entering the Yoshiwara area, they often did so. The only requirement on them was all their weapons had to be left at the towns entrance gate. Also by law, brothel patrons were allowed to stay for a night. Like all official policies for Yoshiwara, this was rarely enforced, Yoshiwara became a strong commercial area
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Photochrom
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The process is a photographic variant of chromolithography, a broader term that refers to color lithography in general. The process was invented in the 1880s by Hans Jakob Schmid, Füssli founded the stock company Photochrom Zürich as the business vehicle for the commercial exploitation of the process and both Füssli and Photoglob continue to exist today. From the mid-1890s the process was licensed by companies, including the Detroit Photographic Company in the US. The photochrom process was most popular in the 1890s, when color photography was first developed but was still commercially impractical. In 1898 the US Congress passed the Private Mailing Card Act which let private publishers produce postcards and these could be mailed for one cent each, while the letter rate was two cents. Publishers created thousands of prints, usually of cities or landscapes. In this format, photochrom reproductions became popular, the Detroit Photographic Company reportedly produced as many as seven million photochrom prints in some years, and ten to thirty thousand different views were offered. After World War One, which ended the craze for collecting Photochrom postcards, the last Photochrom printer operated up to 1970. A tablet of lithographic limestone called a stone was coated with a light-sensitive surface composed of a thin layer of purified bitumen dissolved in benzene. A worker then pressed a reversed half-tone negative against the coating and exposed it to daylight for 10 to 30 minutes in summer, or up to several hours in winter. The image on the negative caused varying amounts of light to fall on different areas of the coating, causing the bitumen to harden in proportion to the amount of light. The worker then used a solvent such as turpentine to remove the unhardened bitumen and this resulted in an image being imprinted on the stone in bitumen. Each tint was applied using a stone that bore the appropriate retouched image. The finished print was produced using at least six, but more commonly 10 to 15, description of the Photochrom process The Library of Congress Public Domain Photochrom Prints Search Search at the Zurich Central Library Detroit Photographic Company’s Views of North America, ca. 1897-1924 from the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
30.
Felice Beato
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Felice Beato, also known as Felix Beato, was an Italian–British photographer. He was one of the first people to take photographs in East Asia and he is noted for his genre works, portraits, and views and panoramas of the architecture and landscapes of Asia and the Mediterranean region. Beatos travels gave him the opportunity to create images of countries, people and his work provides images of such events as the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Second Opium War, and represents the first substantial oeuvre of photojournalism. He influenced other photographers, and his influence in Japan, where he taught and worked with other photographers and artists, was particularly deep. A death certificate discovered in 2009 shows that Beato was born in Venice in 1832, the death certificate also indicates that he was a British subject and a bachelor. It is likely early in his life Beato and his family moved to Corfu, at the time part of the British protectorate of the Ionian Islands. In 1983 it was shown by Chantal Edel that Felice Antonio Beato represented two brothers, Felice Beato and Antonio Beato, who worked together, sharing a signature. The confusion arising from the signatures continues to cause problems in identifying which of the two photographers was the creator of a given image. Little is certain about Felice Beatos early development as a photographer, though it is said that he bought his first and he probably met the British photographer James Robertson in Malta in 1850 and accompanied him to Constantinople in 1851. James Robertson, became his brother-in-law in 1855, superintendent of the Imperial Mint, Robertson opened one of the first commercial photography studios in the capital between 1854 and 1856. Robertson had been an engraver at the Imperial Ottoman Mint since 1843 and had taken up photography in the 1840s. Robertson and Beato were joined by Beatos brother Antonio on photographic expeditions to Malta in 1854 or 1856 and to Greece and Jerusalem in 1857. A number of the photographs produced in the 1850s are signed Robertson, Beato and Co. and it is believed that the. In late 1854 or early 1855 James Robertson married Beatos sister and they had three daughters, Catherine Grace, Edith Marcon Vergence, and Helen Beatruc. In 1855 Felice Beato and Robertson travelled to Balaklava, Crimea, in contrast to Fentons depiction of the dignified aspects of war, Beato and Robertson showed the destruction. They photographed the fall of Sevastopol in September 1855, producing about 60 images, in February 1858 Felice Beato arrived in Calcutta and began travelling throughout Northern India to document the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. During this time he produced possibly the first-ever photographic images of corpses and he was also in the cities of Delhi, Cawnpore, Meerut, Benares, Amritsar, Agra, Simla, and Lahore. Beato was joined in July 1858 by his brother Antonio, who later left India, probably for health reasons, Antonio ended up in Egypt in 1860, setting up a photographic studio in Thebes in 1862
31.
Edo society
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Society during the Edo period in Japan was ruled by strict customs and regulations intended to promote stability. Confucian ideas provided the foundation for a system of strict social prescriptions, at the top of the social order, although below the Emperor, the shogun, daimyōs, and the samurai were the ruling class. The peasants lived in villages and produced agricultural goods, increasing urbanization and rising consumerism created merchant and artisan classes in towns and cities. Social mobility during this period was highly limited, as wealth became concentrated outside of the samurai class, conflicts between class arose and the social order became increasingly challenged. The Tokugawa government intentionally created an order called the Four divisions of society. This system was based on the ideas of Confucianism that spread to Japan from China, by this system, society was composed of samurai, farming peasants, artisans and merchants. Samurai were placed at the top of society because they started an order, the system was meant to reinforce their position of power in society by justifying their ruling status. Peasants came second because they produced the most important commodity, food, according to Confucian philosophy, society could not survive without agriculture. Third were artisans because they produced nonessential goods, merchants were at the bottom of the social order because they generated wealth without producing any goods. As this indicates, the classes were not arranged by wealth or capital, in actuality, shinōkōshō does not accurately describe Tokugawa society. Buddhist and Shinto priests, or court nobles, and outcast classes including eta, in some cases, a poor samurai could be little better off than a peasant and the lines between the classes could blur, especially between artisans and merchants in urban areas. Still, the theory provided grounds for restricting privileges and responsibilities to different classes, in practice, solidified social relationships in general helped create the political stability that defined the Edo period. Samurai functioned as the class in Japan, they constituted about 7–8% of the population. The other classes were prohibited from possessing long swords such as the tachi or katana, carrying both a long and a short sword became the symbol of the samurai class. During the feudal period, samurai were warriors that fought for a lord in a feudal relationship, the Edo period, however, was largely free from both external threats and internal conflicts. Instead, the samurai maintained their fighting skills more as an art than to fight, samurai were paid a stipend from their lord, limiting their ties to the economic base. In addition, samurai could not own land, which would have given them income independent from their duty, samurai generally lived around their daimyōs castle, creating a thriving town or city environment around the middle of a domain. There were social stratifications within the samurai class, upper-level samurai had direct access to their daimyō and could hold his most trusted positions
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Fires in Edo
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Fires in Edo, the former name of Tokyo, during the Edo period of Japan were so frequent that the city of Edo was characterized as the saying Fires and quarrels are the flowers of Edo goes. Even in the days, the old Edo was still remembered as the City of Fires. Edo was something of a rarity in the world, as vast urban areas of the city were leveled by fire. The great fires of Edo were compared to the Chinese gods of fire Shukuyū and Kairoku, during the 267 years between 1601, the year after the Battle of Sekigahara, and 1867, the year of Taisei Hōkan, Edo was struck by 49 great fires. In comparison, during the period, great fires in Kyoto, Osaka and Kanazawa totaled only nine, six. If smaller fires are included, of the 1,798 fires that occurred in those 267 years,269 were in 1601–1700,541 in 1701–1800. Edo prospering as its population increased, the number of fires also increased proportionally, in particular, the 17 years between 1851 and 1867 saw 506 fires, to which unstable public order caused by the incapable administration of the Tokugawa shogunate was a major contributing factor. The following table lists some representative great fires in the history of Edo that caused casualties and damages. The three that occurred in the eras of Meireki, Meiwa and Bunka were called the Three Great Fires of Edo, apart from great fires, there were also series of continuous small fires that resulted in larger casualties and damages than a single great fire. During the Edo period, fire was an element of daily life. It was used for cooking and lighting, which in turn gave rise to accidents, arson, due to various motives, was another source of fires. After Tokugawa Ieyasu established the shogunate in Edo, daimyo and hatamoto residences were built around Edo Castle, merchants and artisans who supported the life of the samurai soon migrated to Edo in flocks and resulted in a population boom. The population of Edo grew from roughly 400,000 in 1640 to around 800,000 in 1693, in contrast to the vast residential areas of the samurai, chōnin were confined to much smaller areas. The growing population pushed their population density to an high degree. Their residences were densely arranged in compact areas, and shabby nagaya were common, the per capita living space, kitchen and closet included, was usually the size of six tatami mats. On top of that, the wood and paper construction materials easily became fuel for a fire, all these conditions naturally led to a high possibility of fire accidents. As a major cause of fires in Edo, arsons were recorded in great numbers, many of the arrested arsonists were living an impoverished life due to the high cost of living of Edo and ineligibility to work as indentured servants for not having a guarantor. Some of them had had their houses burned down and had little to lose from committing crimes, among the 102 arsonists arrested in 1723 and 1724,41 were hinin, and 22 had no registered permanent residences
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History of Tokyo
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The History of Tokyo shows the growth of Japans largest urban center. The 23 special wards, consisting of the districts of Toshima, Ebara, Adachi and Katsushika, Western Tokyo occupies the Tama district. Tokyos oldest Buddhist temple is Sensō-ji in Asakusa, the village of Edo was established In the Kamakura period. The Kanto plain was settled by the 3rd millennium BC, modern Tokyo still carries some local names of former villages. Hirakawa-mura, a farming and fishing village on the shores of the Hira river, had a location, commanding land, sea. In the Kamakura period, Edo Shigenaga, the governor of a large Kanto province, erected his castle there. The construction of Edo Castle by Ōta Dōkan, a vassal of Uesugi Mochitomo, shrines and temples grew up nearby, and merchants developed businesses and open ferry and shipping routes. Hōjō Ujitsuna entered Edo Castle in 1524, in 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu established himself in Edo. By 1590, when the shogun leader Tokugawa Ieyasu selected Edo as his military headquarters, Ieyasu assembled warriors and craftsmen, fortified the Edojuku castle with moats and bridges, and built up the town. The Edo period began when Tokugawa Ieyasu became shogun in 1603 and he was the effective ruler of Japan, and his Edo became a powerful and flourishing city as the effective national capital. However, Japans imperial seat and official capital remained in Kyoto, the outer enclosures of Edo Castle were completed in 1606. and it continues to remain at the core of the city. This period was marked by continuous growth which was interrupted by disasters, including fires, earthquakes. Fires were so commonplace that they came to be called the blossoms of Edo, in 1657, the Great Fire of Meireki destroyed much of the city, and another disastrous fire in 1668 lasted for 45 days. The Tokugawa political system rested on both feudal and bureaucratic controls, so that Tokyo lacked a unitary administration, because businessmen were excluded from government office, they nurtured a culture of entertainment, making Edo a cultural as well as a political and economic center. Edo was the worlds largest city in the 18th century, with a population of one million in 1800. Edos lead in social change and economic growth impacted all of Japan during the 1650–1860 era, Tokugawa Edo was very harsh toward outcast groups. Edo imposed severe restrictions on known as kawata, eta. Not only were the laws enforced, but officials created the Burakumin outcast order covering all of Japan
Japan
