1.
Mount Gusuku
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Mount Gusuku is a mountain located on the Ie Island in the village of Ie, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The mountain rises 172.2 m on Iejima to the northwest of Okinawa Island and is the highest point on the island, Mount Gusuku is considered a symbol of Iejima due to its distinctive conical shape. It rises above east of the island and is visible from the main island of Okinawa. The outline of Mount Gusuku can be seen from the Motobu Peninsula on Okinawa Island. The mountain has historically served as a landmark and appears in Japanese nautical charts from the medieval period. The traditional Japanese reading for the mountain is Shiro-yama, however, in Okinawan, the meaning of 城 in both languages is castle. Locally, the mountain is referred to as Tatchuu. Mount Gusuku is 70 million years older than the rest of Iejima, the mountain is formed by a unique offscrape phenomenon, an older level of bedrock was displaced by newer bedrock to form an admixture of the two. Mount Gusuku is a site considered sacred in the Ryukyuan religion, an utaki, or shrine of the Ryukyuan religion, is located halfway to the summit of the mountain, and the path leading to the shrine is marked by torii gates. Historically the utaki at Mount Gusuku has been utilized for prayers for safe sea voyages and crops
2.
Shuri Castle
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Shuri Castle is a Ryukyuan gusuku in Shuri, Okinawa. Between 1429 and 1879, it was the palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom, in 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa, it was almost completely destroyed, but was later re-purposed as a university campus. Beginning in 1992, the citadel and walls were largerly reconstructed on the original site based on historical records, photographs. The date of construction is uncertain, but it was clearly in use as a castle during the Sanzan period and it is thought that it was probably built during the Gusuku period, like many other castles of Okinawa. When King Shō Hashi unified the three principalities of Okinawa and established the Ryukyu Kingdom, he used Shuri Castle as a residence, at the same time, Shuri flourished as the capital and continued to do so during the Second Shō Dynasty. For 450 years from 1429, it was the royal court and it was the focal point of foreign trade, as well as the political, economic, and cultural heart of the Ryukyu Islands. According to records, Shuri Castle was burned several times. During the reign of Shō Nei, samurai forces from the Japanese feudal domain of Satsuma seized Shuri Castle on 6 May 1609. The American Commodore Perry, when he came to Okinawa in the 1850s, later, the Kingdom was annexed by Japan in 1879, and the king was removed and the castle was used as a barracks by the Imperial Japanese Army. The Japanese garrison withdrew in 1896, but not before having created a series of tunnels, in 1908, Shuri City bought the castle from the Japanese government, however they did not have funding to renovate it. In 1923, thanks to Japanese architect Ito Chuta, the Seiden survived demolition after being re-designated a prefectural Shinto shrine known as Okinawa Shrine, in 1925, it became a national treasure. Despite its decline, historian George H, beginning on May 25,1945, and as the final part of the Okinawa campaign, the American battleship USS Mississippi shelled it for three days. Due to this, the 32nd Japanese Army withdrew to the south, after the war, the University of the Ryukyus was established in 1950 on the castle site, where it remained until 1975. In 1958, Shureimon was reconstructed and, starting from 1992, the 20th anniversary of reversion, at present, the entire area around the castle has been established as Shuri Castle Park. In 2000, along with other gusuku and related sites, it was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, unlike Japanese castles, Shuri Castle was greatly influenced by Chinese architecture, with functional and decorative elements similar to that seen primarily in the Forbidden City. However, given that Nanden and Bandokoro were both used for reception and entertainment of the Satsuma clan, a Japanese style design was used here only. Similarly, Okushoin-en is the only surviving garden in a gusuku in the Ryukyu Islands, the current renovation is designed with a focus on the castles role as a cultural or administrative/political center, rather than one for military purposes. The buildings that have been restored as original wooden buildings are only in the main citadel, Seiden was rebuilt using wood from Taiwan and elsewhere after rituals blessing the removal of large trees from mountains in the Yanbaru region of Okinawa took place
3.
Okinawan language
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Central Okinawan distinguishes itself from the speech of Northern Okinawa, which is classified independently as the Kunigami language. Both languages have been designated as endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger since its launch in February 2009. Within Japan, Okinawan is often not seen as a language itself but is referred to as the Okinawan dialect or more specifically the Central. Okinawan speakers are undergoing language shift as they switch to Japanese, Okinawan is still spoken by many older people. It is also alive in popular music, tourist shows, and in theaters featuring a local drama called uchinaa shibai. Pre-Ryukyu Kingdom Okinawan is a Japonic language, derived from Old Japanese, the split between Old Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages has been estimated to have occurred as early as the first century AD to as late as the twelfth century AD. Chinese and Japanese characters were first introduced by a Japanese missionary in 1265, Ryukyu Kingdom Era Pre-Satsuma Hiragana was much more popular than kanji, poems were commonly written solely in hiragana or with little kanji. Post-Satsuma to Annexation After Ryukyu became a vassal of Satsuma Domain, kanji gained more prominence in poetry, Japanese Annexation to End of World War II When Ryukyu was annexed by Japan in 1879, the majority of people on Okinawa Island spoke Okinawan. Within ten years, the Japanese government began a policy of Japanization. The education system was the heart of Japanization, where Okinawan children were taught Japanese and punished for speaking their native language, by 1945, many Okinawans spoke Japanese, and many were bilingual. During the Battle of Okinawa, some Okinawans were killed by Japanese soldiers for speaking Okinawan, American Occupation Under American administration, there was an attempt to revive and standardize Okinawan, however this proved difficult and was shelved in favor of Japanese. There have been attempts to revive Okinawan by notable people such as Byron Fija and Seijin Noborikawa, Okinawan is sometimes grouped with Kunigami as the Okinawan languages, however some linguists dont use this grouping or claim that Kunigami is a dialect of Okinawan. Okinawan is also grouped with Amami as the Northern Ryukyuan languages, dialect of the Japanese language Since the creation of Okinawa Prefecture, Okinawan was labeled a dialect of Japanese as part of a policy of assimilation. Later, Japanese linguists, such as Tōjō Misao, who studied the Ryukyuan languages argued that they are indeed dialects and this is due to the misconception that Japan is a homogeneous state, and classifying the Ryukyuan languages as such would discredit this belief. The policy of assimilation, coupled with increased interaction between Japan and Okinawa through media and economics, has led to the development of Okinawan Japanese, dialect of the Ryukyuan language Okinawan linguist Seizen Nakasone states that the Ryukyuan languages are in fact groupings of similar dialects. As each community has its own dialect, there is no one language. Nakasone attributes this diversity to the isolation caused by immobility, citing the story of his mother who wanted to visit the town of Nago and its own distinct language Outside Japan, Okinawan is considered a separate language from Japanese. This was first proposed by Basil Hall Chamberlain, who compared the relationship between Okinawan and Japanese to that of the Romance languages, UNESCO has marked it as an endangered language
4.
Castle
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A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. Usage of the term has varied over time and has applied to structures as diverse as hill forts. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with different features, although some, such as curtain walls. A European innovation, castles originated in the 9th and 10th centuries, after the fall of the Carolingian Empire resulted in its territory being divided among individual lords and princes. Although their military origins are often emphasised in castle studies, the structures served as centres of administration. Many castles were built from earth and timber, but had their defences replaced later by stone. Early castles often exploited natural defences, lacking features such as towers and arrowslits, in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, a scientific approach to castle defence emerged. This led to the proliferation of towers, with an emphasis on flanking fire, many new castles were polygonal or relied on concentric defence – several stages of defence within each other that could all function at the same time to maximise the castles firepower. These changes in defence have been attributed to a mixture of castle technology from the Crusades, such as concentric fortification, not all the elements of castle architecture were military in nature, so that devices such as moats evolved from their original purpose of defence into symbols of power. Some grand castles had long winding approaches intended to impress and dominate their landscape, while castles continued to be built well into the 16th century, new techniques to deal with improved cannon fire made them uncomfortable and undesirable places to live. As a result, true castles went into decline and were replaced by artillery forts with no role in civil administration, and country houses that were indefensible. From the 18th century onwards, there was a renewed interest in castles with the construction of castles, part of a romantic revival of Gothic architecture. The word castle is derived from the Latin word castellum, which is a diminutive of the word castrum, meaning fortified place. The Old English castel, Old French castel or chastel, French château, Spanish castillo, Italian castello, the word castle was introduced into English shortly before the Norman Conquest to denote this type of building, which was then new to England. In its simplest terms, the definition of a castle accepted amongst academics is a fortified residence. Feudalism was the link between a lord and his vassal where, in return for service and the expectation of loyalty. Castles served a range of purposes, the most important of which were military, administrative, as well as defensive structures, castles were also offensive tools which could be used as a base of operations in enemy territory
5.
Fortification
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Fortifications are military constructions or buildings designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and also used to solidify rule in a region during peace time. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs, the term is derived from the Latin fortis and facere. From very early history to modern times, walls have been a necessity for cities to survive in a changing world of invasion. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were the first small cities to be fortified, in ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae. A Greek Phrourion was a collection of buildings used as a military garrison. These construction mainly served the purpose of a tower, to guard certain roads, passes. Though smaller than a fortress, they acted as a border guard rather than a real strongpoint to watch. The art of setting out a camp or constructing a fortification traditionally has been called castramentation since the time of the Roman legions. Fortification is usually divided into two branches, permanent fortification and field fortification, there is also an intermediate branch known as semi-permanent fortification. Castles are fortifications which are regarded as being distinct from the fort or fortress in that they are a residence of a monarch or noble. Roman forts and hill forts were the antecedents of castles in Europe. The Early Middle Ages saw the creation of towns built around castles. Medieval-style fortifications were made obsolete by the arrival of cannons in the 14th century. Fortifications in the age of black powder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb, Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes. The arrival of explosive shells in the 19th century led to yet another stage in the evolution of fortification, steel-and-concrete fortifications were common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However the advances in warfare since World War I have made large-scale fortifications obsolete in most situations. Demilitarized zones along borders are arguably another type of fortification, although a passive kind, many military installations are known as forts, although they are not always fortified. Larger forts may be called fortresses, smaller ones were known as fortalices
6.
Ryukyu Islands
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The larger are mostly high islands and the smaller ones are mostly coral islands. The largest of the islands is Okinawa, the climate of the islands ranges from humid subtropical climate in the north to tropical rainforest climate in the south. Precipitation is very high, and is affected by the rainy season, the islands beyond the Tokara Strait are characterized by their coral reefs. The Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama Islands have a native population collectively called the Ryukyuan people, the varied Ryukyuan languages are traditionally spoken on these islands, and the major islands have their own distinct languages. In modern times, the Japanese language is the language of the islands. The northern islands are called the Satsunan Islands, while the southern part of the chain are called the Ryukyu Islands in Japanese. Following are the grouping and names used by the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department of the Japan Coast Guard, the islands are listed from north to south where possible. Nansei Islands Satsunan Islands Ōsumi Islands with, Tanegashima, Yaku, Kuchinoerabu, Mageshima in the North-Eastern Group and they agreed on February 15,2010, to use Amami-guntō for the Amami Islands, prior to that, Amami-shotō had also been used. The English and Japanese uses of the term Ryukyu differ, in English, the term Ryukyu may apply to the entire chain of islands, while in Japanese Ryukyu usually refers only to the islands that were previously part of the Ryūkyū Kingdom after 1624. Nansei-shotō is the name for the whole island chain in Japanese. Japan has used the name on nautical charts since 1907, based on the Japanese charts, the international chart series uses Nansei Shoto. Nansei literally means southwest, the direction of the chain from mainland Japan. Some humanities scholars prefer the uncommon term Ryūkyū-ko for the island chain. In geology, however, the Ryukyu Arc includes subsurface structures such as the Okinawa Trough, the name of Ryūkyū is strongly associated with the Ryūkyū Kingdom, a kingdom that originated from the Okinawa Islands and subjected the Sakishima and Amami Islands. The name is considered outdated in Japanese although some entities of Okinawa still bear the name. In Japanese, the Ryukyu Islands cover only the Okinawa, Miyako, the northern half of the island chain is referred to as the Satsunan Islands in Japanese, as opposed to Northern Ryukyu Islands in English. Humanities scholars generally agree that the Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, there is, however, no good name for the group. The native population do not have their own name, since they do not recognize themselves as a group this size, Ryukyu is the principal candidate because it roughly corresponds to the maximum extent of the Ryūkyū Kingdom
7.
Okinawa Prefecture
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The larger are mostly high islands and the smaller ones are mostly coral islands. The largest of the islands is Okinawa, the climate of the islands ranges from humid subtropical climate in the north to tropical rainforest climate in the south. Precipitation is very high, and is affected by the rainy season, the islands beyond the Tokara Strait are characterized by their coral reefs. The Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama Islands have a native population collectively called the Ryukyuan people, the varied Ryukyuan languages are traditionally spoken on these islands, and the major islands have their own distinct languages. In modern times, the Japanese language is the language of the islands. The northern islands are called the Satsunan Islands, while the southern part of the chain are called the Ryukyu Islands in Japanese. Following are the grouping and names used by the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department of the Japan Coast Guard, the islands are listed from north to south where possible. Nansei Islands Satsunan Islands Ōsumi Islands with, Tanegashima, Yaku, Kuchinoerabu, Mageshima in the North-Eastern Group and they agreed on February 15,2010, to use Amami-guntō for the Amami Islands, prior to that, Amami-shotō had also been used. The English and Japanese uses of the term Ryukyu differ, in English, the term Ryukyu may apply to the entire chain of islands, while in Japanese Ryukyu usually refers only to the islands that were previously part of the Ryūkyū Kingdom after 1624. Nansei-shotō is the name for the whole island chain in Japanese. Japan has used the name on nautical charts since 1907, based on the Japanese charts, the international chart series uses Nansei Shoto. Nansei literally means southwest, the direction of the chain from mainland Japan. Some humanities scholars prefer the uncommon term Ryūkyū-ko for the island chain. In geology, however, the Ryukyu Arc includes subsurface structures such as the Okinawa Trough, the name of Ryūkyū is strongly associated with the Ryūkyū Kingdom, a kingdom that originated from the Okinawa Islands and subjected the Sakishima and Amami Islands. The name is considered outdated in Japanese although some entities of Okinawa still bear the name. In Japanese, the Ryukyu Islands cover only the Okinawa, Miyako, the northern half of the island chain is referred to as the Satsunan Islands in Japanese, as opposed to Northern Ryukyu Islands in English. Humanities scholars generally agree that the Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, there is, however, no good name for the group. The native population do not have their own name, since they do not recognize themselves as a group this size, Ryukyu is the principal candidate because it roughly corresponds to the maximum extent of the Ryūkyū Kingdom
8.
Sanzan period
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The Sanzan Period is a period in the history of the Okinawa Islands when three polities, namely Hokuzan, Chūzan and Nanzan, are said to have co-existed on Okinawa. It is said to have started during King Tamagusukus reign and, according to Sai Ons edition of the Chūzan Seifu, historical records of the period are fragmentary and mutually conflicting. Some even question the co-existence of the three polities, Okinawa does not have their own contemporary records of the Sanzan period. Contemporary sources are limited to Chinese and, to a far lesser extent and they are in a fragmentary fashion and probably overshadowed by diplomatic fictions. Since the Chinese sources simply records local rulers who contacted China, for this reason, Okinawas real situation remains largely a mystery. According to the Veritable Records of the Ming, the newly formed Ming dynasty sent an envoy to what it called the State of Ryūkyū, among other countries. In response, a ruler who was referred to as Satto, King of Chūzan, in 1380, the King of Nanzan Ofusato sent a mission to Ming China, which was followed by the King of Hokuzan Haniji in 1383. The names of Hokuzan and Nanzan are apparently Chūzan-centric and it is not clear who coined these names. Ming Chinas perception of the co-existence of the Sanzan can be found in an article of 1383 of the Veritable Records, the Ming considered that there were three rulers in the region who engaged in conflict. It recognized them as kings and called for peace, as for the King of Hokuzan, the Veritable Records record the un-Okinawan-looking names of three kings, Haniji, Min and Hananchi, but make no mention of their blood relations. The last diplomatic contact of Hokuzan was of 1416, the records of Nanzan are more complicated. The diplomatic missions under the name of the King of Nanzan Ofusato lasted from 1380 to 1396, an unusual characteristic of Nanzan was that the Kings fathers younger brother Ōeiji also sent envoys from 1388 to 1397. In 1403, Ououso, who claimed to be Ofusatos younger brother or cousin, in 1415, Crown Prince Taromai reported that King Ououso had been murdered by his elder brother Tafuchi. Taromais blood relationship with Ououso was not mentioned, as the King of Nanzan, Taromai sent envoys from 1416 to 1429. The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea records mysterious events about Nanzan, in 1394, the King of Chūzan Satto requested Korea to return the Nanzan Prince Ofusato, who had supposedly fled to Korea. In 1398, the King of Nanzan Oueishi fled to Korea after reportedly being banished by the King of Chūzan and he died there in the same year. These records clearly contradict with the Veritable Records, raising questions about the reliability of Okinawas diplomatic reports to foreign countries, Chūzan sent envoys to China much more frequently than Hokuzan and Nanzan. The King of Chūzan paid tribute biennially from 1372 to 1382, Chūzans missions were also unusual in that some of them were sent under the name of the crown prince although it should have been done by the king
9.
Okinawa Island
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Okinawa Island is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. The island is approximately 70 miles long and an average 7 miles wide and it is roughly 640 kilometres south of the rest of Japan, roughly the same distance off the coast of China, and 500 km north of Taiwan. Okinawa has been a strategic location for the United States Armed Forces since the end of World War II. The island hosts around 26,000 US military personnel, about half of the complement of the United States Forces Japan. Okinawa contains 96% of the US military stationed in Japan, US bases in Okinawa played critical roles in the Korean War, Vietnam War, War in Afghanistan and Iraq War. The presence of the US military in Okinawa has caused controversy both on the island and elsewhere in Japan. The time when human beings first appeared in Okinawa remains unknown, Early Okinawan history is defined by midden or shell heap culture, and is divided into Early, Middle, and Late Shell Mound periods. The Early Shell Mound period was a society, with wave-like opening Jomon pottery. In the latter part of period, archaeological sites moved near the seashore. In Okinawa, rice was not cultivated until the Middle Shell Mound period, Shell rings for arms made of shells obtained in the Sakishima Islands, namely Miyakojima and Yaeyama islands, were imported by Japan. In these islands, the presence of shell axes,2500 years ago, after the Late Shell Mound period, agriculture started about the 12th century, with the center moving from the seashore to higher places. This period is called the Gusuku period, Gusuku is the term used for the distinctive Ryukyuan form of castles or fortresses. Many gusukus and related cultural remains in the Ryukyu Islands have been listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites under the title Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu. There are three perspectives regarding the nature of gusukus, 1) a holy place, 2) dwellings encircled by stones, in this period, porcelain trade between Okinawa and other countries became busy, and Okinawa became an important relay point in eastern-Asian trade. Ryukyuan kings, such as Shunten and Eiso, were important rulers, an attempted Mongolian invasion in 1291 during the Eiso Dynasty ended in failure. Hiragana was imported from Japan by Ganjin in 1265, noro, village priestesses of the Ryukyuan religion, appeared. The Sanzan period began in 1314, when the kingdoms of Hokuzan and Nanzan declared independence from Chūzan, the three kingdoms competed with one another for recognition and trade with Ming China. King Satto, leading Chūzan, was successful, establishing relations with Korea
10.
World Heritage Site
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A World Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some form of significance. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the interests of humanity. The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture, under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage, since then,192 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments. As of July 2016,1052 sites are listed,814 cultural,203 natural, in 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested UNESCO to assist their countries to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites. In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the Member States for an International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the campaign, which ended in 1980, was considered a success. The project cost $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries, the projects success led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, the Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of June 2016, it has been ratified by 192 states, including 188 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, a country must first list its significant cultural and natural sites, the result is called the Tentative List. A country may not nominate sites that have not been first included on the Tentative List, next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File. The Nomination File is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and these bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. There are ten selection criteria – a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list, up to 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so there is now only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of outstanding value and meet at least one of the ten criteria. Thus, the Geneva Convention treaty promulgates, Article 53, PROTECTION OF CULTURAL OBJECTS AND OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. There are 1,052 World Heritage Sites located in 165 States Party, of these,814 are cultural,203 are natural and 35 are mixed properties
11.
Hiragana
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Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and in some cases rōmaji. It is a lettering system. The word hiragana literally means ordinary or simple kana, Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems. With one or two exceptions, each sound in the Japanese language is represented by one character in each system. Because the characters of the kana do not represent single consonants, words that do have common kanji renditions may also sometimes be written instead in hiragana, according to an individual authors preference, for example to impart an informal feel. Hiragana is also used to write furigana, a reading aid that shows the pronunciation of kanji characters, There are two main systems of ordering hiragana, the old-fashioned iroha ordering and the more prevalent gojūon ordering. Of the 50 theoretically possible combinations, yi and wu do not exist in the language, wo is usually pronounced as a vowel in modern Japanese, and is preserved in only one use, as a particle. Romanization of the kana does not always follow the consonant-vowel scheme laid out in the table. For example, ち, nominally ti, is very often romanised as chi in an attempt to represent the actual sound in Japanese. These basic characters can be modified in various ways, by adding a dakuten marker, a voiceless consonant is turned into a voiced consonant, k→g, ts/s→z, t→d, h→b and ch/sh→j. Hiragana beginning with an h can also add a handakuten marker changing the h to a p, a small version of the hiragana for ya, yu or yo may be added to hiragana ending in i. This changes the i vowel sound to a glide to a, u or o, for example, き plus ゃ becomes きゃ. Addition of the small y kana is called yōon, a small tsu っ, called a sokuon, indicates that the following consonant is geminated. In Japanese this is an important distinction in pronunciation, for example, the sokuon also sometimes appears at the end of utterances, where it denotes a glottal stop, as in いてっ. However, it cannot be used to double the na, ni, nu, ne, no syllables consonants – to double these, Hiragana usually spells long vowels with the addition of a second vowel kana, for example, おかあさん. In informal writing, small versions of the five vowel kana are used to represent trailing off sounds. Standard and voiced iteration marks are written in hiragana as ゝ and ゞ respectively, the following table shows the complete hiragana together with the Hepburn romanization and IPA transcription in the gojūon order. Hiragana with dakuten or handakuten follow the gojūon kana without them, obsolete and normally unused kana are shown in gray
12.
Chinese characters
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Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and some other Asian languages. In Standard Chinese, and sometimes also in English, they are called hànzì. They have been adapted to write a number of languages including, Japanese, where they are known as kanji, Korean, where they are known as hanja. Collectively, they are known as CJK characters, in English, they are sometimes called Han characters. Chinese characters constitute the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world, Chinese characters number in the tens of thousands, though most of them are minor graphic variants encountered only in historical texts. Studies in China have shown that literacy in written Chinese requires a knowledge of between three and four thousand characters. In Japan,2,136 are taught through secondary school, the characters used in Japan are distinct from those used in China in many respects. There are various national standard lists of characters, forms, in South Korea, when Chinese characters are used they are of the traditional variant and are almost identical to those used in places like Taiwan and Hong Kong. In Old Chinese, most words were monosyllabic and there was a correspondence between characters and words. Rather, a character almost always corresponds to a syllable that is also a morpheme. However, there are a few exceptions to this correspondence, including bisyllabic morphemes. Modern Chinese has many homophones, thus the same syllable may be represented by many characters. A single character may also have a range of meanings, or sometimes quite distinct meanings, cognates in the several varieties of Chinese are generally written with the same character. They typically have similar meanings, but often quite different pronunciations and these foreign adaptations of Chinese pronunciation are known as Sino-Xenic pronunciations, and have been useful in the reconstruction of Middle Chinese. When the script was first used in the late 2nd millennium BC, words of Old Chinese were generally monosyllabic, increasing numbers of polysyllabic words have entered the language from the Western Zhou period to the present day. The process has accelerated over the centuries as phonetic change has increased the number of homophones and it has been estimated that over two thirds of the 3,000 most common words in modern Standard Chinese are polysyllables, the vast majority of those being disyllables. The most common process has been to form compounds of existing words, words have also been created by adding affixes, reduplication and borrowing from other languages. Polysyllabic words are written with one character per syllable
13.
Kumi Odori
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Kumi odori is a form of narrative traditional Ryūkyūan dance. Kumi odori or Kumi wudui means combination dance or ensemble dance, Tamagusuku Chokun, a Ryūkyūan courtier who lived from 1684–1734, is credited with the establishment of kumi odori as a frequently presented court demonstration. In 2010 it was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and it remains today a prime example of native art sustained by the people of Okinawa. The Ryūkyū Islands are composed of more than 140 islands,40 of which inhabited, a point of contention throughout the years, ownership of Ryūkyū was often disputed by major powers. The island of Okinawa was first ruled by warlords, called either aji or anji, eventually Okinawa conquered the rest of the Ryūkyū Islands, expanding its small kingdom. Trade was booming in East Asia in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and Ryūkyū’s position as a middleman helped foster relationships with Japan. Once trade diminished, Ryūkyū faced the threat of invasion by Japan, in 1609, the Satsuma domain invaded the Ryūkyū Kingdom and forced the King to become their vassal in order to take advantage of its connections with China, and ruled only indirectly until the 1872. Coincidentally, this served to promote Chinese culture. The ambiguity of Ryūkyū’s political status while under Japanese control was a debate that concerned most of the elite, even though it was under Japanese domination and its leaders were aware of this, it maintained its autonomy until 1879. By this time, Ryūkyū began to come under more formal Japanese control, in 1972 it was finally returned to Japan as a result of years of friction between the Okinawans and the U. S. military. Kumi odori was born out of the necessity of diplomatic acts and it was essential that these important visitors be entertained, so kumi odori was developed in 1719 by the odori bugyo, or minister of dance, Tamagusuku Chokun. Appointed to the position in 1715, his responsibility was to commission entertainment for the lavish banquets held for the visiting emissaries. He had previously made five trips to Japan, stopping in both Satsuma and Edo, while there, he studied all the fine arts, gaining knowledge of kyogen, kabuki and Noh, which greatly influenced his work. With the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate and the rise of Meiji Rule in 1868, kumi odori was all, even the common people now had the chance to enter the schools and become performers. After the American occupation of Okinawa came to an end and Okinawa was ceded back to Japan in 1972, the Japanese support of local Okinawan arts is a source of much debate. Kumi odori was the performing art to be selected as such, joining gagaku, bunraku, no. After its inception, gidayu bushi, tokiwazu bushi, itchu bushi, kato bushi, miyazono bushi, after a decade of petitioning for an arts complex to house the prefecture’s native arts, the National Theatre Okinawa was built in Urasoe-shi, near the city of Naha in 2004. The reasons for this are not entirely clear, but despite government funding shortages, not only does the theatre attach importance to the city of Okinawa, but it is also a tourist attraction, which gives a more rational basis for their support
14.
Basil Hall Chamberlain
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Basil Hall Chamberlain was a professor of Japanese at Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost British Japanologists active in Japan during the late 19th century. He also wrote some of the earliest translations of haiku into English and he is perhaps best remembered for his informal and popular one-volume encyclopedia Things Japanese, which first appeared in 1890 and which he revised several times thereafter. His interests were diverse, and his works include an anthology of poetry in French, Chamberlain was born in Southsea on the south coast of England, the son of an Admiral William Charles Chamberlain and his wife Eliza Hall, the daughter of the travel writer Basil Hall. His younger brother was Houston Stewart Chamberlain and he was brought up speaking French as well as English, even before moving to Versailles to live with his maternal grandmother in 1856 upon his mothers death. Once in France he acquired German as well, Chamberlain had hoped to study at Oxford, but instead started work at Barings Bank in London. He was unsuited to the work and soon had a nervous breakdown and it was in the hope of a full recovery that he sailed out of Britain, with no clear destination in mind. Chamberlain landed in Japan on 29 May 1873 and he taught at the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in Tokyo from 1874 to 1882. His most important position, however, was as professor of Japanese at Tokyo Imperial University beginning in 1886 and it was here that he gained his reputation as a student of Japanese language and literature. His many works include the first translation of the Kojiki into English, A Handbook of Colloquial Japanese, Things Japanese, a keen traveller despite chronic weak health, he cowrote the 1891 edition of A Handbook for Travellers in Japan, of which revised editions followed. Chamberlain was a friend of the writer Lafcadio Hearn, once a colleague at the University, percival Lowell dedicated his travelogue Noto, An Unexplored Corner of Japan to Chamberlain. Chamberlain also translated the works of Fukuzawa Yukichi and other Japanese scholars into English, during his tenure at the Tokyo Imperial University, he sent many Japanese artifacts to the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford. He left Japan in 1911 and moved to Geneva, where he lived until his death in 1935, the Classical Poetry of the Japanese. A Translation of the Ko-ji-ki, or Records of Ancient Matters, transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan. The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, With an Historical Survey, the Language, Mythology, and Geographical Nomenclature of Japan Viewed in the Light of Aino Studies. A Handbook for Travellers in Japan, 6th ed.1901 7th ed.1903. Essay in Aid of a Grammar and Dictionary of the Luchuan Language 1895, bashō and the Japanese Poetical Epigram. Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol, the Invention of a New Religion. Incorporated within the 1927 edition of Things Japanese, anglo-Japanese relations O-yatoi gaikokujin Ōta, Yūzō
15.
Old Japanese
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Old Japanese is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language. Old Japanese was an member of the Japonic family, no conclusive links to other language families have been drawn. Old Japanese was written using Chinese characters, using an increasingly standardized, typically for a Japonic language and for a step in the evolutionary line of modern Japanese, Old Japanese was a primarily agglutinative language with subject–object–verb word ordering. However, the language was marked by a few differences from later forms of Japanese. It distinguished between a few pairs of syllables with identical pronunciations—a phenomenon known as Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai—but the function of this differentiation is not known, linguistic changes are gradual, and the periodization of Japanese is both delicate and controversial, with multiple competing methods and criteria for division. For both practical and conventional reasons, these divisions often correlate to political events, the lower boundary, i. e. the latest possible date for the end of the Old Japanese period, is AD794, when the capital Heijōkyō moved to Heiankyō. However, the boundary is more difficult. A limited number of Japanese words, mostly personal names and place names, are recorded phonetically in ancient Chinese texts such as the Wei Zhi portion of the Records of the Three Kingdoms, wooden tablets and relics with fragments of text written on them have also been excavated. However, the first extant written text of substantial length is the Kojiki of 712, without necessarily excluding such fragmentary early evidence, the upper boundary is generally discussed as from circa 712 for practical reasons. This coincides well with the Nara period, a more formal dating would not recognize an upper boundary and merely date it as through 794. Besides Kojiki, the other oldest literary sources include Fudoki, Nihon Shoki, the earliest texts found in Japan are written in Classical Chinese, although they may have been meant to be read as Japanese by the kanbun method. Some of these Chinese texts show the influences of Japanese grammar, in these hybrid texts, Chinese characters are occasionally used phonetically to represent Japanese particles. Over time, the usage of Chinese characters became more and more prevalent, until Manyōgana. This system was already in use in the part of Kojiki. Some of these differences are still found today. Old Japanese differed phonetically from later periods of the language, an analysis of Manyōgana reveals a peculiar system known as Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai. See the Syllables section for details, the transcriptions of Old Japanese words given in Kojiki differ from those found in Nihon Shoki and Manyōshū in that it distinguishes the syllables /mo1/ and /mo2/ whereas the latter two do not. This has been correlated with the record of Kojiki being compiled earlier than Nihon Shoki
16.
Curtain wall (fortification)
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A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two towers of a castle, fortress, or town. In medieval castles, the area surrounded by a curtain wall, the outermost walls with their integrated bastions and wall towers together make up the enceinte or main defensive line enclosing the site. In earlier designs of castle and town, the walls were often built to a considerable height and were fronted by a ditch or moat to make assault difficult. Evidence for curtain walls or a series of walls surrounding a town or fortress can be found in the sources from Assyria. Some notable examples are ancient Lachish and Buhen, enceinte Curry, Anne, Hughes, Michael, eds. The Popular Encyclopedia, or, Conversations Lexicon, I, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London, Blackie & Son, p.444
17.
Nakijin Castle
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Nakijin Castle is a Ryukyuan gusuku located in Nakijin, Okinawa. In the late 14th century, the island of Okinawa consisted of three principalities, Nanzan to the south, Chūzan in the area, and Hokuzan in the north. Nakijin was the capital of Hokuzan, the fortress includes several sacred Utaki groves, reflecting the castles role as a center of religious activity. It is today known for the Hikan cherries which bloom in northern Okinawa between mid-January and early February, providing the first cherry blossoms each year in Japan and it is located on the Motobu Peninsula, on a rocky outcropping, facing out over the East China Sea. The castle is separated from the mountain mass of Motobu on the east by a steep drop into a gorge with a stream at the bottom. A steep drop to the north and northeast from the castle drops down to the shoreline, a small harbor inlet here once served the castle, while Unten harbor, the main port of the Hokuzan kingdom, lay roughly 5 to 6 miles to the east. The royal residence was located at the highest and innermost part of the complex and was surrounded by a garden with a spring. Three shrines stood at the highest point of the precipice, as was typical of gusuku construction at this time, the stonework of the walls was very solid, but quite rough, with a relative lack of precision fitting or fine cutting. Roughly 1500 meters of limestone castle wall remain today, the castle saw three generations of rulers before being attacked and destroyed by the armies of Chūzan in 1416. Lords of Hokuzan governing in subordination to the capital at Shuri would continue to make their residence here for several centuries afterwards. In 1609, the Japanese feudal Domain of Satsuma invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom, after fierce fighting in the Amami Islands, they landed on Okinawa Island at Unten harbor. They attacked Nakijin Castle with heavy casualties on both sides, but the Japanese prevailed and burned the castle. Hokuzan in general was characterized by wider spaces, or at least less dense settlement and population, than Nanzan and Chūzan, Nakijin is also consistently among the first places in the country to see, and celebrate, the blooming of the cherry blossoms each year. Wonder Okinawa, Nakijin Castle Nakijin Castle Remains
18.
Zakimi Castle
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Zakimi Castle is a Ryukyuan gusuku in Yomitan, Okinawa. It is in ruins, but the walls and foundations have been restored, zakimi Castle oversaw the northern portion of cental Okinawa Island. The gusuku fortress has two courts, each with an arched gate. This is Okinawas first stone arch gate featuring the unique keystone masonry of the Ryukyus, before and during World War II, the castle was used as a gun emplacement by the Japanese, and after the war it was used as a radar station by the US forces. Some of the walls were destroyed in order to install the radar equipment, zakimi Castle and Okinawas other castles were named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in November 2000
19.
Parapet
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A parapet is a barrier which is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian parapetto, the German equivalent Brustwehr has the same meaning. Parapets were originally used to defend buildings from attack, but today they are primarily used as guard rails. Parapets may be plain, embattled, perforated or panelled, which are not mutually exclusive terms, plain parapets are upward extensions of the wall, sometimes with a coping at the top and corbel below. Embattled parapets may be panelled, but are pierced, if not purely as stylistic device, perforated parapets are pierced in various designs such as circles, trefoils, or quatrefoils. Panelled parapets are ornamented by a series of panels, either oblong or square, and more or less enriched and these are common in the Decorated and Perpendicular periods. The Mosaic law prescribed parapets for newly constructed houses as a safety measure, the Mirror Wall at Sigiriya, Sri Lanka built between 477 and 495 AD is one of the few surviving protective parapet walls from antiquity. Built onto the side of Sigiriya Rock it ran for a distance of approximately 250 meters and provided protection from inclement weather. Only about one hundred meters of this exists today, but brick debris. Parapets surrounding roofs are common in London and this dates from the Building Act of 1707 which banned projecting wooden eaves in the cities of Westminster and London as a fire risk. Instead an 18-inch brick parapet was required, with the set behind. This was continued in many Georgian houses, as it gave the appearance of a roof which accorded with the desire for classical proportions. Many firewalls are required to have a parapet, a portion of the wall extending above the roof, the parapet is required to be as fire resistant as the lower wall, and extend a distance prescribed by building code. Parapets on bridges and other highway structures prevent users from falling off where there is a drop and they may also be meant to restrict views, to prevent rubbish passing below, and to act as noise barriers. Bridge parapets may be made any material, but structural steel, aluminium, timber. They may be of solid or framed construction, in European standards, parapets are defined as a sub-category of vehicle restraint systems or pedestrian restraint systems. In terms of fortification, a parapet is a wall of stone, wood or earth on the edge of a defensive wall or trench. In medieval castles, they were often crenellated, in later artillery forts, parapets tend to be higher and thicker
20.
Nakagusuku Castle
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Nakagusuku Castle is a gusuku in the village of Kitanakagusuku, Okinawa, Japan. It is one of a number of built on the island of Okinawa by the Ryukyu Kingdom now in ruins. The legendary Ryukyuan commander, Gosamaru, built the fortress in the early 15th century to defend against attacks from the east by Lord Amawari of Katsuren Castle, Amawari attacked the castle in 1458 and defeated Gosamaru shortly before his own castle was attacked by Uni-Ufugusuku. The castle was visited by Commodore Matthew C. Perry in 1853, the six courtyards of this fortress with stacked stone walls make it a prime example of a gusuku. It was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2000 and it is regarded as one of the 100 most famous castles in Japan. Less than 50 meters away from the castle is the Nakagusuku Hotel ruins, short history and directions to Nakagusuku Castle from Japan Guide Nakagusuku Castle site run by Nakamura-ke, located near the gusuku
21.
Bailey (castle)
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An outer bailey or outer ward is the defended outer enclosure of a castle. It protects the inner bailey and usually contains those buildings used for the management of the castle or the supply of its occupants. In many cases there was also a brewery, a bakehouse, an outer bailey was often called a base court in England. Depending on topography it could also be referred to as a bailey or lower ward. Chepstow Castle has lower, middle and upper baileys, the domestic buildings of the continental schloss, often a stately home or palace, may also be referred to as an outer ward. These frequently contained a house or a cavalier house, buildings that were not common in medieval castles. Large castles often have more than one bailey, examples include Monschau, at some larger castles, markets were held in the outer bailey. Outer baileys were usually enclosed and protected by a wall and separated from the actual living area of the castle - the inner ward and keep - by a moat, a wall. In lowland castles, the bailey is usually arranged in a half-moon shape around the main castle. Rudelsburg Castle in Saxony-Anhalt is one of the cases of a hill castle where both baileys are at the same level. This explains why the castle chapel was found in the bailey. Ward Inner bailey Motte and bailey Horst Wolfgang Böhme, Reinhard Friedrich, Barbara Schock-Werner, reclam, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-15-010547-1, page 255-256. Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe, Castles and tower houses of the German Middle Ages, volume 1 Thorbecke, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-7995-0104-5, page 53-55. Reprint of the edition of 1912, weltbild, Augsburg 1994, ISBN 3-89350-554-7, pp. 10–11
22.
Utaki
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Utaki is an Okinawan term for a sacred place, often a grove, cave, or mountain. They are central to the Ryukyuan religion and the noro priestess system. Although the term utaki is used throughout the Ryukyu Islands, the terms suku and on are heard in the Miyako, utaki are usually located on the outskirts of villages and are places for the veneration of gods and ancestors. Most gusuku have places of worship, and it is theorized that the origins of both gusuku and utaki are closely related, biinudaki, Naha Misaki-on, Ishigaki Miyatori-on, Nago Pyarumizu-utaki, Miyako Sefa-utaki, Nanjō Sunuhyan-utaki, Naha Tohaya-uganju, Nago Tsunoji-utaki, Miyako Upugusuku-utaki, Miyako
23.
Iha Castle
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Iha Castle is a Ryukyuan gusuku in Uruma, Okinawa. It sits on a cliff that separates Iha from Ishikawa, with a view of the Ishikawa Isthmus. The castle is in ruins, with nothing left of the original save the walls. There are also multiple Ryukyuan shrines in the bailey, based on artifacts found in and around the castle, it has been estimated to have been in use around the 13th to 15th centuries. The Okinawa Prefectural government erected a stone Torii in front of one of the castle gates, along with a plaque describing it
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Gatehouse
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A gatehouse, in architectural terminology, is a building enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a castle, manor house, fort, town or similar buildings of importance. Gatehouses made their first appearance in the early antiquity when it became necessary to protect the entrance to a castle or town. Over time, they evolved into very complicated structures with many lines of defence, strongly fortified gatehouses would normally include a drawbridge, one or more portcullises, machicolations, arrow loops and possibly even murder-holes where stones would be dropped on attackers. In some castles, the gatehouse was so strongly fortified it took on the function of a keep, examples of such gate keeps can be found at Bodiam Castle and Beaumaris Castle. In the late Middle Ages, some of these arrow loops might have converted into gun loops. Sometimes gatehouses formed part of fortifications, perhaps defending the passage of a bridge across a river or a moat. York has four important gatehouses, known as Bars, in its city walls, the French term for gatehouse is logis-porche. This could be a large, complex structure that served both as a gateway and lodging or it could have composed of a gateway through an enclosing wall. A very large gatehouse might be called a châtelet, at the end of the Middle Ages, many gatehouses in England and France were converted into beautiful, grand entrance structures to manor houses or estates. Many of them became a separate feature free-standing or attached to the manor or mansion only by an enclosing wall, by this time the gatehouse had lost its defensive purpose and had become more of a monumental structure designed to harmonise with the manor or mansion. On the continent of Europe, there are examples of surviving gatehouses in France, Austria. Bargate, in Hampshire is a gatehouse in the city centre of Southampton. Constructed in 1180 as part of the Southampton town walls Ightham Mote, Durham Castle, in Durham has an 11th-century gatehouse that is now used as accommodation for students attending University College, Durham. Layer Marney Tower, the apotheosis of the Tudor gatehouse, stokesay Castle, a 13th-century fortified manor house in Shropshire has a Jacobean half-timbered gatehouse. Stanway House, Stanway, Gloucestershire, where the gatehouse measures 44 ft. by 22 ft. and has three storeys, westwood House, Worcestershire, which has a frontage of 54 ft. with two storeys. Burton Agnes Hall, East Riding of Yorkshire, which has three storeys and is flanked by octagonal towers at the angles. Hylton Castle, Hylton, Sunderland, although it is an actual castle, château de Châteaubriant, two gatehouses, one for the lower bailey, one for the upper ward. Château de Suscinio, a large 15th-century gatehouse in the style, Morbihan
25.
Great hall
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At that time the word great simply meant big, and had not acquired its modern connotations of excellence. Great halls were found especially in France, England and Scotland, a typical great hall was a rectangular room between one and a half and three times as long as it was wide, and also higher than it was wide. It was entered through a passage at one end, and had windows on one of the long sides. There was often a gallery above the screens passage. At the other end of the hall was the dais where the table was situated. The lords familys more private rooms lay beyond the end of the hall. Even royal and noble residences had few living rooms until late in the Middle Ages, and a great hall was a multifunctional room. It was used for receiving guests and it was the place where the household would dine together, including the lord of the house, his gentleman attendants, at night some members of the household might sleep on the floor of the great hall. The hearth was used for heating and also for some of the cooking, commonly the fireplace would have an elaborate overmantel with stone or wood carvings or even plasterwork which might contain coats of arms, heraldic mottoes, caryatids or other adornment. In the upper halls of French manor houses, the fireplaces were usually very large, typically, the great hall had the most beautiful decorations in it, as well as on the window frame mouldings on the outer wall. Many French manor houses have very beautifully decorated external window frames on the large mullioned windows that light the hall and this decoration clearly marked the window as belonging to the lords private hall. In western France, the manor houses were centered on a central ground-floor hall. Later, the reserved for the lord and his high-ranking guests was moved up to the first-floor level. This was called the salle haute or upper hall, in some of the larger three-storey manor houses, the upper hall was as high as second storey roof. The smaller ground-floor hall or salle basse remained but was for receiving guests of any social order and it is very common to find these two halls superimposed, one on top of the other, in larger manor houses in Normandy and Brittany. Access from the hall to the upper hall was normally via an external staircase tower. The upper hall often contained the bedroom and living quarters off one end. Occasionally the great hall would have a listening device system
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Aji (Ryukyu)
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An aji, anji, or azu was a ruler of a petty kingdom in the history of the Ryukyu Islands. The word later became a title and rank of nobility in the Ryukyu Kingdom and it has been theorized to be related to the Japanese aruji, and the pronunciation varied throughout the islands. It ranked next below a prince among nobility, the sons of princes and the eldest sons of aji became aji. An aji established a noble family equivalent to a miyake of Japan, the aji arose around the twelfth century as local leaders began to build gusuku. Shō Hashi was an aji who later unified Okinawa Island as king, the title aji variously designated sons of the king and regional leaders. During the Second Shō Dynasty, when the aji settled near Shuri Castle, a pattern for addressing a male aji began with the place he ruled and ended with the word aji, for example, Nago Aji. For women, the suffix ganashi or kanashi followed, Nago Aji-ganashi, nanto fudoki, Tokyo, Okinawa Bunka Kyokai Okinawa Zaidan
27.
Katsuren Castle
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Katsuren Castle is a Ryukyuan gusuku in Uruma, Okinawa. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Katsuren Castle was built on a large hill of Ryukyuan limestone,98 meters above sea level on the Katsuren Peninsula. With the Pacific Ocean on two sides, it is called the Ocean Gusuku. Its golden age was in the century, under the powerful Aji of Katsuren. The castle was destroyed in 1458 by the Ryukyuan army, precious tile and Chinese porcelain of the era have been excavated from Katsuren. Such remains testify to the magnificence of the ancient structure and the robust entrepôt trade between Japan, Korea, China, and Southeast Asia, the castle also has an active shrine of the Ryukyuan religion within the first bailey dedicated to Kobazukasa. In the 2010 Okinawa earthquake an outer wall at the northeast of the bailey of Katsuren Castle was damaged. Katsuren Castle was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000 as part of one of the nine Gusuku Sites, Katsuren Castle was designated a Designated Historical Monument by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs in 1972. In 2016, both ancient Roman currency and medieval Ottoman currency were excavated there and this was the first time that Roman coins were excavated in Japan. Katsuren Castle can be reached from the Naha Bus Terminal at Naha Airport via the Number 52 bus route, the castle is a five-minute walk from the Katsuren Danchimae stop. The castle site can also be reached by the Okinawa Expressway via the Okinawa Minami IC, Katsuren Castle Ruins, Uruma City Office Website Japan-Guide. com The Amawari-Gosamaru dramatic episode that led to the waning of the power of Katsuren gusuku
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Ryukyuan religion
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The Ryukyuan religion is the indigenous belief system of the Ryukyu Islands. Over time, Ryukyuan religious practice has influenced by Chinese religions, Buddhism. This differs greatly from Japanese Shinto where men are seen as the embodiment of purity, Ryukyuan religion, with its focus on demonstrating respect of and reverence toward ancestors, is naturally based in the family home. The oldest female relative acts as a celebrant, officiating rituals concerning ancestors, household gods. Daily incense offerings are made and prayer reports are delivered aloud, the oldest female relative is also responsible for cleaning and upkeep of the buchidan, hinukan, and furugan. The Ultimate Ancestors, those from all life springs, are Utin, Jiichi. They originate and exist, along with kami, or the gods of the world, during the Usachi-yu and they are held in highest regard as the originators of all things and are worshiped in the communitys utaki. These ancestors are worshipped as collective spirits called futuchi, whose worship is focused usually in Buddhist temples, other, more immediate ancestors are those who lived between the present day and the twenty-fifth generation into the past, a time period called Ima-ga-yuu, the Present Age. They are those enshrined in the family homes buchidan, and it is these ancestors who visit on special occasions in the home, the buchidan is the primary focus of ancestor worship. It is a space, usually a small closet, dedicated to the family altar, incense and alcohol are offered to ancestors at the butsudan. In the Ryukyus the buchidan or butsudan does not house a statue of Buddha, the butsudan is placed in a room called the ichibanza. The practice of placing ancestral tablets in the butsudan is believed to derive from the influence of Confucianism, the butsudan is passed from generation to generation, first son to first son and only those who have inherited the parental house and carried on the main line possess a butsudan. The butsudan serves as the gathering place on special holidays. Normally the butsudan receives offerings of incense, tea, water, during festivals the butsudan is lavishly adorned with offerings of pineapple, mango, apples, tangerines, exotic tropical fruits, sugar cane, and rice cakes. During these times, families may occasionally offer alcohol in the form of sake or awamori, the hinukan is a hearth god, represented by three small stones and usually located in the kitchen. As his name suggests, he is essentially a fire god, a community hinukan, by extension, is the guardian of sacred communal fire, his worship is officiated by the community priestess. The hinukan, while he inhabits the family home, doesnt call it his own home and he may be compared with Kamui Fuchi, hearth goddess of the Ainu Religion. The fuuru nu kami, or god of the toilet, is the protector of the area of waste
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Amami Islands
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The Amami Islands is an archipelago in the Satsunan Islands, which is in turn part of the Ryukyu Islands. Administratively, the group belongs to Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan and the Japan Coast Guard agreed on February 15,2010, to use the name of Amami-guntō for the Amami Islands. Prior to that, Amami-shotō was also used, the name of Amami is probably cognate with Amamikyu, the goddess of creation in the Ryukyuan creation myth. The Amami Islands are limestone islands of origin and have a total area of approximately 1,240.28 square kilometres. The highest elevation is Yuwandake with a height of 694 metres on Amami Ōshima, the climate is a humid subtropical climate with very warm summers and mild winters. Precipitation is high throughout the year, but is highest in the months of May, June, the area is subject to frequent typhoons. Islanders started to produce earthenware from 6000 years ago, affected by the Jōmon culture in Kyushu, initially, the styles were similar to those of the main islands of Japan, but later, a style original to Amami, known as “Usuki Lower Style”, was developed. Among Japanese literature, mention of the islands first appeared in the 7th century, the Nihon Shoki contains an entry dated 657 referring to Amami-shima, and to the Amami-bito in 682. The Shoku Nihongi refers to Amami in 699 and Amami in 714, all of these are believed to be identical to the current Amami. The tenth kentō-shi mission traveled to Tang Dynasty China via Amami Ōshima, among locals, this prehistoric period is called the Amami period. Agriculture came to the islands around the 12th century, and the people shifted to farming from hunting, as on Okinawa Island, this resulted in the development of a nobility class called the aji, who resided in castles called gusuku. Famous gusuku included Beru Castle in Kasari, Amami, and Yononushi Castle in Wadomari, stronger aji battled each other to expand their territories. Local folklore states that some of Taira clan members, having lost the Battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185, the historical accuracy of this is unknown. This gusuku period is called the Aji period. Eventually the Amami aji were forced to pay tribute to stronger nations to retain autonomy, Ryukyuan records state that Amami aji paid tribute to Eiso, the king of Chūzan in Sanzan period Okinawa. Okinoerabu and Yoron fell under Hokuzans control, however, since Okinawa itself was still rife with civil wars, it could not control the Northern Amami Islands. Aji from Tokuno and further north just paid tribute to Okinawan kingdoms, after 1429, Shō Hashi unified Okinawa Island, founding the Ryukyu Kingdom. During the 1430s and 1440s, Ryukyu expanded into the Amami Islands, by 1450, Ryukyuan forces had reached deep into the Tokara Islands and conquered all but Kikai Island, which was invaded in 1466
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Miyako Islands
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The Miyako Islands are a group of islands in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, east of the Yaeyama Islands. They are situated between the Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan, a bridge connects Miyako Island to Ikema Island, which has 801 people. Tarama village has 1,214 people, between the two islands of Minna and Tarama
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Yaeyama Islands
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The Yaeyama Islands are an archipelago in the southwest of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, and cover 591.46 square kilometres. The islands are located southwest of the Miyako Islands, part of the Ryukyu Islands archipelago, the Yaeyama Islands are the remotest part of Japan from the main islands and contains Japans most southern and most western inhabited islands. The city of Ishigaki serves as the political, cultural, the Yaeyama Islands are home to numerous species of subtropical plants and mangrove forests. The islands produce sugarcane and pineapples, coral reefs around the islands are ideal habitats for dolphins, sea turtles, and larger fish such as manta rays and whale sharks. Before being wiped out by humans, whales and dugongs were common as well, the islands form the southern part of the volcanic Ryukyu Islands. The administrative division of Yaeyama District covers all of the Yaeyama Islands, except Ishigaki, the Yaeyama language is the indigenous language of the rest of the islands. Japanese is widely spoken as a second language, the Yaeyama Islands are home to the production of traditional Okinawan textiles. On Hateruma Island, this harvest festival is celebrated during Obon and it features a parade of the local fertility god Miruku and his children, shishi dances, and staff dances. Category, Yaeyama islands on Wikimedia Commons Photo gallery of Yaeyama Islands
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Yakushima
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Yakushima is one of the Ōsumi Islands belonging to Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island,504.88 km² in area, has a population of 13,178, access to the island is by hydrofoil ferry, slow car ferry, or by air to Yakushima Airport. Administratively, the island is the town of Yakushima. The town also serves neighbouring Kuchinoerabujima, the majority of the island is within the borders of the Kirishima-Yaku National Park. Yakushimas electricity is more than 50% hydroelectric, and surplus power has been used to produce hydrogen gas in an experiment by Kagoshima University, the island has been a test site for Hondas hydrogen fuel cell vehicle research. In 1980 an area of 18,958 ha was designated a UNESCO Man, in 1993,10 hectares of wetland at Nagata-hama was designated a Ramsar Site. It is the largest nesting ground for the loggerhead sea turtle in the North Pacific. Yakushimas unique remnant of ancient forest has been a natural World Heritage Site since 1993. In the Wilderness core area of the World Heritage Site, no record of past tree cutting can be traced, the island is visited by 300,000 tourists every year. Yakushima is located approximately 61.3 kilometres south of the tip of Osumi Peninsula in southern Kyushu. The Vincennes Strait separates it from the island of Tanegashima. Periodic rocket launches from Tanegashima can clearly be seen from Yakushima, the bedrock of the island is granite, and as such it hosts no active volcanoes. It has an area of approximately 504.5 square kilometres, the island is roughly circular in shape, with a circumference of 89 kilometres and a diameter of 28 kilometres. There are numerous hot springs on the island, Yakushima has been settled since at least the Jomon period. It is first mentioned in documents of the Chinese Sui Dynasty of the 6th century. It formed part of ancient Tane Province and it was often mentioned in the diaries of travellers between Tang Dynasty China and Nara period Japan. During the Edo period, Yakushima was ruled by the Shimazu clan of the Satsuma Domain and was considered part of Ōsumi Province, following the Meiji restoration, the island has been administered as part of Kagoshima Prefecture. The population of Yakushima reached a peak in 1960 with 24,010 inhabitants and it thereafter declined until about 1995, but has subsequently stabilised at just over 13,000 inhabitants
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Heian period
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The Heian period is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism, the Heian period is also considered the peak of the Japanese imperial court and noted for its art, especially poetry and literature. Although the Imperial House of Japan had power on the surface, the power was in the hands of the Fujiwara clan. Many emperors actually had mothers from the Fujiwara family, the Heian period was preceded by the Nara period and began in 794 A. D. after the movement of the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō, by the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu. Kanmu first tried to move the capital to Nagaoka-kyō, but a series of disasters befell the city, prompting the emperor to relocate the capital a second time, a rebellion occurred in China in the last years of the 9th century, making the political situation unstable. The Japanese missions to Tang China was suspended and the influx of Chinese exports halted, therefore the Heian Period is considered a high point in Japanese culture that later generations have always admired. The period is noted for the rise of the samurai class. Nominally, sovereignty lay in the emperor but in power was wielded by the Fujiwara nobility. However, to protect their interests in the provinces, the Fujiwara and other noble families required guards, police, the warrior class made steady political gains throughout the Heian period. Still, a military takeover of the Japanese government was centuries away. The entry of the class into court influence was a result of the Hōgen Rebellion. At this time Taira no Kiyomori revived the Fujiwara practices by placing his grandson on the throne to rule Japan by regency and their clan, the Taira, would not be overthrown until after the Genpei War, which marked the start of the shogunate. The Kamakura period began in 1185 when Minamoto no Yoritomo seized power from the emperors, Nara was abandoned after only 70 years in part due to the ascendancy of Dōkyō and the encroaching secular power of the Buddhist institutions there. Kyōto had good access to the sea and could be reached by land routes from the eastern provinces. The early Heian period continued Nara culture, the Heian capital was patterned on the Chinese Tang capital at Changan, as was Nara, Kanmu endeavoured to improve the Tang-style administrative system which was in use. Known as the ritsuryō, this attempted to recreate the Tang imperium in Japan. Despite the decline of the Taika–Taihō reforms, imperial government was vigorous during the early Heian period, Kanmus avoidance of drastic reform decreased the intensity of political struggles, and he became recognized as one of Japans most forceful emperors
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Muromachi period
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The Muromachi period is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period ended in 1573 when the 15th and last shogun of this line, from a cultural perspective, the period can be divided into the Kitayama and Higashiyama periods. The early years from 1336 to 1392 of the Muromachi period are known as the Nanboku-chō or Northern and Southern Court period and this period is marked by the continued resistance of the supporters of Emperor Go-Daigo, the emperor behind the Kenmu Restoration. The years from 1465 to the end of the Muromachi period are known as the Sengoku period or Warring States period. Emperor Go-Daigos brief attempt to restore the power in the Kenmu Restoration alienated the samurai class. Ashikaga Takauji obtained the samurais strong support, and deposed Emperor Go-Daigo, in 1338 Takauji was proclaimed shogun and established his government in Kyoto. However, Emperor Godaigo escaped from his confinement and revived his political power in Nara, the ensuing period of Ashikaga rule was called Muromachi from the district of Kyoto in which its headquarters – the Hana-no-gosho – were located by third shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in 1378. Nevertheless, the Ashikaga shogunate was not as strong as that in Kamakura had been, not until the rule of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu did a semblance of order emerge. Yoshimitsu allowed the constables, who had had limited powers during the Kamakura period, to become strong regional rulers, in time, a balance of power evolved between the shogun and the daimyō, the three most prominent daimyō families rotated as deputies to the shogun at Kyoto. The line of shoguns gradually weakened after Yoshimitsu and increasingly lost power to the daimyō, the shoguns influence on imperial succession waned, and the daimyō could back their own candidates. In time, the Ashikaga family had its own problems, resulting finally in the Ōnin War. The power vacuum that ensued launched a century of anarchy, the Japanese contact with the Ming dynasty began when China was renewed during the Muromachi period after the Chinese sought support in suppressing Japanese pirates in coastal areas of China. Japanese pirates of this era and region were referred to as wokou by the Chinese, wanting to improve relations with China and to rid Japan of the wokou threat, Yoshimitsu accepted a relationship with the Chinese that was to last for half a century. In 1401 he restarted the system, describing himself in a letter to the Chinese Emperor as Your subject. Japanese wood, sulfur, copper ore, swords, and folding fans were traded for Chinese silk, porcelain, books, and coins, in what the Chinese considered tribute but the Japanese saw as profitable trade. Zen played a role in spreading not only religious teachings and practices but also art and culture, including influences derived from paintings of the Chinese Song, Yuan. The proximity of the court to the bakufu resulted in a commingling of imperial family members, courtiers, daimyō, samurai. Art of all kinds—architecture, literature, Noh drama, Kyōgen, poetry, sarugaku, the tea ceremony, landscape gardening, there was renewed interest in Shinto, which had quietly coexisted with Buddhism during the centuries of the latters predominance
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Shunten
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Shunten, also known as Shunten-Ō, was a chief of the Ryūkyū Islands. Shunten is the earliest chief in Okinawa for whom a name is known and he is said to have taken power after defeating a usurper to the throne by the name of Riyū who had overthrown the 25th chief of the Tenson Dynasty. The Chūzan Seikan, the first official history of the Ryūkyūan Kingdom, Tametomo was exiled to a penal colony on Izu Ōshima following his defeat in the Hōgen Rebellion of 1156. According to the story, Tametomo then became lost at sea some time later, arrived on Okinawa, Ōzato is located at the south of Okinawa Island in the present-day city of Nanjō. Shunten, according to the two histories, was the son of Tametomo and the sister/daughter of the Ōzato anji, the story is inspired by political interests to connect and legitimize the relation of Japans imperial family with the Ryukyu Islands. Shunten was known as Sonton prior to becoming king and he became the became anji of Urasoe in 1180 at the age of 15 after gathering a base of popular support in the area. In 1187, he overthrew Riyū and established his seat of power at Urasoe Castle. Shuntens reign was long and progressive, by legend he is said to have ruled for 51 years, Shunten died in 1237 at the age of 71 and was succeeded by his son Shunbajunki. He is buried at Urasoe yōdore, and enshrined at Naminoue Shrine along with three other Ryukyuan kings, shuntens dynasty ended in the third generation when his grandson Gihon abdicated, went into exile, and was succeeded by Eiso, who began a new royal lineage. Ryūkyū Kingdom List of monarchs of Ryukyu Islands Kerr, George H. Okinawa, ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5, OCLC48943301 Loo, Tze May, Heritage Politics, Shuri Castle and Okinawa’s Incorporation into Modern Japan, 1879–2000, Lexington Books, ISBN 978-0-7391-8249-9
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Kuruwa
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Kuruwa is a Japanese term that refers to the walls of a Japanese castle, and the regions bounded by the arrangement of those walls. The term may also be written as 郭, and the maru is also used for castles built after the Edo period. Most castles built during the ages contain many kuruwa of small area. The western equivalent is the motte-and-bailey, the kuruwa regions were planned for after the basic layout of the castle grounds was decided. The three basic kuruwa regions are the honmaru, the core of the castle, and the ninomaru and sannomaru, there are three major styles of kuruwa arrangement, Rinkaku style The ninomaru and sannomaru surround the honmaru at the center. This arrangement increases the castles defense in every direction, but surrounding each kuruwa requires an area of land to be allotted to the castle grounds. Yamagata Castle is an example of a castle that uses this arrangement, renkaku style The honmaru and ninomaru are arranged side by side. This causes the depth of the castle to increase, but the sides and rear of the honmaru are exposed, matsuyama Castle and Morioka Castle both use this kuruwa arrangement. Teikaku style The honmaru is placed adjacent to the castle walls and this arrangement is suited for castles built along natural barriers like swamps, rivers, mountains, or cliffs, since the natural barrier can cover the exposed side of the honmaru. Many castles use a combination of the three styles, and may fit into multiple categories of arrangement. Some castles may not be categorizable at all, smaller kuruwa regions called obikuruwa and koshikuruwa were sometimes placed around the central kuruwa in some arrangements. Demaru refers to a kuruwa that is placed independent from the central kuruwa, see below for more related terms. Most of the take the form -kuruwa or -maru. Castles that use the naming -maru were built during the modern period. Many castles contain kuruwa named after people or places. Honmaru The honmaru is the region of the castle, and serves as the living quarters for the castle ruler. It may also be referred to by other names including ichi no kuruwa. Tenshumaru The tenshumaru is a smaller kuruwa often located within the honmaru which houses the tenshu, very few tenshu remain intact, and Kōchi Castle is the only castle that still contains its original tenshu
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Sakishima Islands
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The Sakishima Islands are an archipelago located at the southernmost end of the Japanese Archipelago. They are part of the Ryukyu Islands and include the Miyako Islands, the islands are administered as part of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Shigaki is believed to be the current Ishigaki, Kumi to be the current Kume or Komi settlement of Iriomote, the History of Yuan documented a castaway from Mìyágǔ arrived to Wenzhou in 1317. This is believed to be the first documentation of Miyako, stone tools and shell tools from 2,500 years ago have been excavated from shell mounds on the Sakishima Islands. Shell tools of the era are also found in Taiwan and the Philippines. Thus those islands are thought to have had a stronger or closer cultural relationship with Taiwan, the Philippines, local earthenware was made beginning in the 11th century. Many local leaders, known as aji, appeared in the 15th century, at the same time, the political authorities on Okinawa saw the outlying islands as useful stopping points along a maritime trade route, and gradually enhanced their influence. Yohanashiidu Tuyumya unified Miyako in 1365, and paid tribute to Satto, in 1500, Oyake Akahachi, Aji of Ishigaki, unified most of the Yaeyama Islands and rose up in resistance against the Ryukyu Kingdom by refusing to pay further tribute. As he was planning to invade Miyako, Nakasone Tuyumya, Aji of Miyako, discovered the plan, Oyake Akahachi was defeated at Furusutobaru Castle, and Nakasone Tuyumya went on to conquer Yonaguni. King Shō Shin of Ryukyu responded to the rebellion by sending troops. The Ryukyuan army consisted of 3,000 soldiers and 100 ships, the Shimazu clan of the Japanese feudal domain of Satsuma invaded the kingdom during the 1609 Invasion of Ryukyu. Satsuma was able to capture Shuri Castle and King Shō Nei by early May, then sent a message to the Sakishima Islands demanding their surrender, which they complied with. In the following centuries of vassalage to Satsuma, the Ryukyuan government was placed under extreme tax pressure, Yaeyama islanders were taxed even more heavily than those of Miyako, as the rebel Oyake Akahachi was from Yaeyama. The kingdom prohibited migration of islanders, isolating them to prevent group resistance, the Yaeyama earthquake in 1771 caused a tsunami which killed 12,000, or a half of the entire Sakishima population. Because the soil was adversely affected by salination, famines were frequent, after the Meiji Restoration, in 1872, the Japanese government unilaterally declared that the Ryukyu Kingdom was then Ryukyu Domain and began incorporating the islands as a part of Japan. In 1879, after the Ryukyuan government resisted and disobeyed orders from Tokyo, Japan abolished the domain, deposed the king, the Qing Dynasty of China, however, opposed the action, claiming sovereignty over the former kingdom. Japan proposed to cede the Sakishima Islands, provided China add most favored nation status of Japan to the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Amity, China agreed at first, but after objections from Viceroy Li Hongzhang, the agreement was not made. China effectively conceded its claims to sovereignty over Ryukyu, including the Sakishima Islands, the modernization of Sakishima by the Japanese government was slow compared with Japan or even Okinawa
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Miyako-jima
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Miyako-jima is the largest and the most populous island among the Miyako Islands of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Miyako-jima is administered as part of the City of Miyakojima, which not only Miyako-jima. Miyako-jima lies approximately 300 kilometres southwest of Okinawa Island and 400 kilometres east of Taipei, with an area of 158.70 square kilometres, Miyako is the fourth-largest island in Okinawa Prefecture. The island is triangular in shape and is composed of Ryukyuan limestone, Miyako-jima is subject to drought and is frequently struck by typhoons. Miyako-jima is well known for its beauty, particularly the Eastern Cape, other notable locations include Maehama beach, the German Cultural Center, Painagama Beach, and the sights on Irabu-jima. There are three islands close by which are connected by bridges to Miyako-jima, Irabujima, Ikemajima, the Miyako language, one of several Ryukyuan languages, is spoken here. Miyako is home to a festival called Paantu, which occurs in the ninth month of the old calendar. Three men dressed in grass, leaves and mud go walk around town smearing the mud on houses, cars and they carry sticks in one hand and an expressionless mask in the other. Legend holds that those who have been muddied by the Pantu will have a year of protection, owners of new homes will also invite Pantu to give a muddy blessing to their homes. Miyako has its own version of soba, Otori is a custom of drinking Awamori, a distilled beverage native to Okinawa Japan. It is performed by people sitting, one offers a toast, drinks from a small glass, and then offers some to each person at the table making a round, and usually going to the right. When the toaster makes his way back to his spot the person who passed the Otori before pours him another glass and he then announces TSUNAGIMASU and drinks his second glass. After a brief interval, it is then the turn of the person to pass the Otori. Miyako-jima is home to sugarcane cultivation, and produces brown sugar, Miyako jōfu is a locally produced hand-woven textile made from ramie fiber. It was formerly known as Satsuma jōfu, the textile traces its production to the Tensho period, 1573-92. This is part of ongoing efforts to improve the defenses of the Nansei Islands, consideration is also currently being given to deploying GSDF units equipped with anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles to the island. Miyakojima City Tropical Plant Garden Japan Airlines maintains an office on Miyako Island. It is only for domestic flights
