Kyoto
Kyoto Kyoto City, is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture, located in the Kansai region of Japan. It is best known in Japanese history for being the former Imperial capital of Japan for more than one thousand years, as well as a major part of the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe metropolitan area. In Japanese, Kyoto was called Kyō, Miyako, or Kyō no Miyako. In the 11th century, the city was renamed Kyoto, from the Chinese calligraphic, jingdu. After the city of Edo was renamed Tokyo in 1868, the seat of the Emperor was moved there, Kyoto was for a short time known as Saikyō. Kyoto is sometimes called the thousand-year capital; the National Diet never passed any law designating a capital. Foreign spellings for the city's name have included Kioto and Meaco, utilised by Dutch cartographers. Another term used to refer to the city in the pre-modern period was Keishi, meaning "urba" or "capital". Ample archaeological evidence suggests human settlement in Kyoto began as early as the Paleolithic period, although not much published material is retained about human activity in the area before the 6th century, around which time the Shimogamo Shrine is believed to have been established.
During the 8th century, when powerful Buddhist clergy became involved in the affairs of the Imperial government, Emperor Kanmu chose to relocate the capital in order to distance it from the clerical establishment in Nara. His last choice for the site was the village of Uda, in the Kadono district of Yamashiro Province; the new city, Heian-kyō, a scaled replica of the Tang capital Chang'an, became the seat of Japan's imperial court in 794, beginning the Heian period of Japanese history. Although military rulers established their governments either in Kyoto or in other cities such as Kamakura and Edo, Kyoto remained Japan's capital until the transfer of the imperial court to Tokyo in 1869 at the time of the Imperial Restoration; the city suffered extensive destruction in the Ōnin War of 1467–1477, did not recover until the mid-16th century. During the Ōnin War, the shugo collapsed, power was divided among the military families. Battles between samurai factions spilled into the streets, 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, numerous buildings burned. The city has not seen such widespread destruction since. In the late 16th century, Toyotomi Hideyoshi reconstructed the city by building new streets to double the number of north-south streets in central Kyoto, creating rectangle blocks superseding ancient square blocks. Hideyoshi 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 which showed the rebels' dissatisfaction towards the Tokugawa Shogunate. The subsequent move of the Emperor to Tokyo in 1869 weakened the economy; the modern city of Kyoto was formed on April 1, 1889. The construction of Lake Biwa Canal in 1890 was one measure taken to revive the city.
The population of the city exceeded one million in 1932. There was some consideration by the United States of targeting Kyoto with an atomic bomb at the end of World War II because, as an intellectual center of Japan, it had a population large enough to persuade the emperor to surrender. In the end, at the insistence of Henry L. 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, such as the traditional townhouses known as machiya. 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.
Kyoto is located in a valley, part of the Yamashiro Basin, in the eastern part of the mountainous region known as the Tamba highlands. The Yamashiro Basin is surrounded on three sides by mountains known as Higashiyama and Nishiyama, with a height just above 1,000 metres above sea level; this interior positioning results in cold winters. There are three rivers in the basin, the Ujigawa to the south, the Katsuragawa to the west, the Kamogawa to the east. Kyoto City takes up 17.9% of the land in the prefecture with an area of 827.9 square kilometres. The original city was arranged in accordance with traditional Chinese feng shui following the model of the ancient Chinese capital of Chang'an; the Imperial Palace faced south. The streets in the modern-day wards of Nakagyō, Shimogyō, Kamigyō-ku still follow a grid pattern. Today, the main business district is located to the south of the old Imperial Palace, with the less-populated northern area retaining a fa
Hatakeyama Shigeyasu
Hatakeyama Rokurō Shigeyasu was a Kamakura-period warrior who fell victim of political intrigue in 1205. The grave under a tabu no ki tree near the Yuigahama end of Wakamiya Ōji Avenue in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture and next to Tsurugaoka Hachimangū's first torii is traditionally supposed to be his; the relationship between the grave and Hatakeyama Shigeyasu is, the traditional attribution notwithstanding, unclear. The reasons for the attribution are that it lies within the former Hatakeyama estate, that Shigeyasu is known to have been killed in battle by Hōjō soldiery in Yuigahama. Next to the hōkyōintō stands a black stele erected in 1920 which explains the circumstances of his death, its text reads: Hatakeyama Shigeyasu's residence Hatakeyama Shigeyasu was Hatakeyama Shigetada's eldest son. He had had a quarrel with Hiraga Tomomasa, Hōjō Tokimasa's son-in-law. Tomomasa so spoke to Tokimasa against both the Hatakeyama. Tokimasa himself hadn't forgotten how Shigetada had, following Minamoto no Yoritomo's will, tried to protect the shōgun's son and heir Yoriie, was looking for an excuse to kill them.
Having received from shōgun Sanetomo the order to arrest the Hatakeyama, he surrounded Shigeyasu's residence with his soldiers. Shigeyasu fought well; the day was June 22, 1205, this is where the residence stood. The day after, Shigetada himself was tricked into going to Musashinokuni's Futamatagawa, where he was killed. Erected in March 1922 by the Kamakurachō Seinendan Shigeyasu was one of the samurai who, in December 1204, was chosen to go to Kyoto to pick up shōgun Sanetomo's wife, it was in that occasion that, at a feast, he had a verbal fight with Hiraga Tomomasa, responsible for the capital's defenses, it appears that this fact, plus the hostility existing between Shigetada and Tomomasa, who had neighboring fiefs, offered the Hōjō a pretext to get rid of the Hatakeyama clan, that became extinct. It would be revived by Hōjō Tokimasa. A legend ties a large rock called Bofuseki on a hill called Ishikiriyama behind Jufuku-ji to Hatakeyama Shigeyasu's wife; the legend says that, when Shigeyasu was killed in battle at Yuigahama his wife climbed to the top of the hill to see what was happening and was turned into hard stone by her grief.
Hatakeyama clan Mutsu, Iso. Kamakura. Fact and Legend. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 0-8048-1968-8. OCLC 33184655. "Nihon Rekishi Chimei Taikei, online version". Hatakeyama Shigeyasu no Haka. Heibonsha. Retrieved 2008-09-18. Kamiya, Michinori. Fukaku Aruku - Kamakura Shiseki Sansaku Vol. 1. Kamakura: Kamakura Shunshūsha. ISBN 4774003409. Yuigahama by the Kamakura Citizen's Net, accessed on September 21, 2008
Ashikaga shogunate
The Ashikaga shogunate known as the Muromachi shogunate, was a dynasty originating from one of the plethora of Japanese daimyō which governed Japan from 1338 to 1573, the year in which Oda Nobunaga deposed Ashikaga Yoshiaki. The heads of government were the shōgun; each was a member of the Ashikaga clan. This period is known as the Muromachi period, it gets its name from the Muromachi district of Kyoto. The third shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, established his residence on Muromachi Street; this residence, constructed in 1379, is nicknamed "Flower Palace" because of the abundance of flowers in its landscaping. During the preceding Kamakura period, the Hōjō clan enjoyed absolute power in the governing of Japan; this monopoly of power, as well as the lack of a reward of lands after the defeat of the Mongol invasions, led to simmering resentment among Hōjō vassals. In 1333, the Emperor Go-Daigo ordered local governing vassals to oppose Hōjō rule, in favor of Imperial restoration, in the Kenmu Restoration.
To counter this revolt, the Kamakura shogunate ordered Ashikaga Takauji to quash the uprising. For reasons that are unclear because Ashikaga was the de facto leader of the powerless Minamoto clan, while the Hōjō clan were from the Taira clan the Minamoto had defeated, Ashikaga turned against Kamakura, fought on behalf of the Imperial court. After the successful overthrow of the Kamakura regime in 1336, Ashikaga Takauji set up his own military government in Kyoto. After Ashikaga Takauji established himself as the shōgun, a dispute arose with Emperor Go-Daigo on the subject of how to govern the country; that dispute led Takauji to cause Prince Yutahito, the second son of Emperor Go-Fushimi, to be installed as Emperor Kōmyō. Go-Daigō fled, Japan was divided between a northern imperial court, a southern imperial court; this period of "Northern and Southern Courts" continued for 56 years, until 1392, when the South Court gave up during the reign of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. The Ashikaga shogunate was the weakest of the three Japanese military governments.
Unlike its predecessor, the Kamakura shogunate, or its successor, the Tokugawa shogunate, when Ashikaga Takauji established his government he had little personal territory with which to support his rule. The Ashikaga shogunate was thus reliant on the prestige and personal authority of its shōgun; the centralized master-vassal system used in the Kamakura system was replaced with the de-centralized daimyōs system, because of the lack of direct territories, the military power of the shōgun depended on the loyalty of the daimyō. On the other hand, the Imperial court was no longer a credible threat to military rule; the failure of the Kenmu Restoration had rendered the court weak and subservient, a situation the Ashikaga Takauji reinforced by establishing within close proximity of the Emperor at Kyoto. The authority of the local daimyō expanded from its Kamakura times. In addition to military and policing responsibilities, the shogunate appointed shugos now absorbed the justice and taxation powers of the local Imperial governors, while the government holdings in each province were absorbed into the personal holdings of the daimyō or their vassals.
The loss of both political clout and economic base deprived the Imperial court of much of its power, which were assumed by the Ashikaga shōgun. This situation reached its peak under the rule of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. After Yoshimitsu however, the structural weakness of the Ashikaga shogunate were exposed by numerous succession troubles and early deaths; this became more acute after the Ōnin War, after which the shogunate itself became reduced to little more than a local political force in Kyoto. The Ashikaga shogunate's foreign relations policy choices were played out in evolving contacts with Joseon on the Korean Peninsula and with imperial China; as the daimyō feuded among themselves in the pursuit of power in the Ōnin War, that loyalty grew strained, until it erupted into open warfare in the late Muromachi period known as the Sengoku period. When the shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiteru was assassinated in 1565, an ambitious daimyō, Oda Nobunaga, seized the opportunity and installed Yoshiteru's brother Yoshiaki as the 15th Ashikaga shōgun.
However, Yoshiaki was only a puppet of Nobunaga. The Ashikaga shogunate was destroyed in 1573 when Nobunaga drove Ashikaga Yoshiaki out of Kyoto. Yoshiaki fled to Shikoku. Afterwards, he received protection from the Mōri clan in western Japan. Toyotomi Hideyoshi requested that Yoshiaki accept him as an adopted son and the 16th Ashikaga shōgun, but Yoshiaki refused; the Ashikaga family survived the 16th century, a branch of it became the daimyō family of the Kitsuregawa domain. The shogunal residence known as the "Flower Palace", was in Kyoto on the block now bounded by Karasuma Street, Imadegawa Street, Muromachi Street, Kamidachiuri Street; the location is commemorated by a stone marker at the southwest corner, the Kanbai-kan of Dōshisha University contains relics and excavations of the area. Ashikaga Takauji, ruled 1338–1357 Ashikaga Yoshiakira, r. 1359–1368 Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, r. 1368–1394 Ashikaga Yoshimochi, r. 1395–1423 Ashikaga Yoshikazu, r. 1423–1425 Ashikaga Yoshinori, r. 1429–1441 Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, r.
1442–1443 Ashikaga Yoshimasa, r. 1449–1473 Ashikaga Yoshihisa, r. 1474–1489 Ashikaga Yoshitane, r. 1490–1493, 1508–1521 Ashikaga Yoshizumi, r. 1494–1508 Ashikaga Yoshiharu, r. 1521–1546 Ashikaga Yoshiteru
Hepburn romanization
Hepburn romanization is a system for the romanization of Japanese that uses the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language. It is used by most foreigners learning to spell Japanese in the Latin alphabet and by the Japanese for romanizing personal names, geographical locations, other information such as train tables, road signs, official communications with foreign countries. Based on English writing conventions, consonants correspond to the English pronunciation and vowels approximate the Italian pronunciation; the Hepburn style was developed in the late 19th century by an international commission, formed to develop a unified system of romanization. The commission's romanization scheme was popularized by the wide dissemination of a Japanese–English dictionary by commission member and American missionary James Curtis Hepburn, published in 1886; the "modified Hepburn system" known as the "standard system", was published in 1908 with revisions by Kanō Jigorō and the Society for the Propagation of Romanization.
Although Kunrei romanization is favored by the Japanese government today, Hepburn romanization is still in use and remains the worldwide standard. The Hepburn style is regarded as the best way to render Japanese pronunciation for Westerners. Since it is based on English and Italian pronunciations, people who speak English or Romance languages will be more accurate in pronouncing unfamiliar Japanese words romanized in the Hepburn style compared to Nihon-shiki romanization and Kunrei-shiki romanization. Hepburn is based on English phonology and has competed with the alternative Nihon-shiki romanization, developed in Japan as a replacement of the Japanese script. In 1930 a Special Romanization Study Commission was appointed to compare the two; the Commission decided in favor of a slightly-modified version of Nihon-shiki, proclaimed to be Japan's official romanization for all purposes by a September 21, 1937, cabinet ordinance. The ordinance was temporarily overturned by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers during the Occupation of Japan, but it was reissued with slight revisions in 1954.
In 1972 a revised version of Hepburn was codified as ANSI standard Z39.11-1972. It was proposed in 1989 as a draft for ISO 3602 but rejected in favor of the Kunrei-shiki romanization; the ANSI Z39.11-1972 standard was deprecated on October 6, 1994. As of 1978 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, many other official organizations used Hepburn instead of Kunrei-shiki. In addition The Japan Times, the Japan Travel Bureau, many other private organizations used Hepburn instead of Kunrei-shiki; the National Diet Library used Kunrei-shiki. Although Hepburn is not a government standard, some government agencies mandate it. For example, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requires the use of Hepburn on passports, the Ministry of Land and Transport requires the use of Hepburn on transport signs, including road signs and railway station signs. In many other areas that it lacks de jure status, Hepburn remains the de facto standard. Signs and notices in city offices and police stations and at shrines and attractions use it.
English-language newspapers and media use the simplified form of Hepburn. Cities and prefectures use it in information for English-speaking residents and visitors, English-language publications by the Japanese Foreign Ministry use simplified Hepburn as well. Official tourism information put out by the government uses it, as do guidebooks, both local and foreign, on Japan. Many students of Japanese as a foreign language learn Hepburn. There are many variants of the Hepburn romanization; the two most common styles are as follows: The Traditional Hepburn, as defined in various editions of Hepburn's dictionary, with the third edition considered authoritative. It is characterized by the rendering of syllabic n as m before the consonants b, m and p: Shimbashi for 新橋. Modified Hepburn known as Revised Hepburn, in which the rendering of syllabic n as m before certain consonants is no longer used: Shinbashi for 新橋; the style was introduced in the third edition of Kenkyūsha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, was adopted by the Library of Congress as one of its ALA-LC romanizations, is the most common version of the system today.
In Japan itself, there are some variants mandated for various uses: Railway Standard, which follows the Hyōjun-shiki Rōmaji. All Japan Rail and other major railways use it for station names. Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Tourism Standard, how to spell Roman letters of road signs, which follows the modified Hepburn style, it is used for road signs. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Passport Standard, a permissive standard, which explicitly allows the use of "non-Hepburn romaji" in personal names, notably for passports. In particular, it renders the syllabic n as m before b, m and p, romanizes long o as oh, oo or ou. Details of the variants can be found below; the romanizations set out in the first and second versions of Hepburn's dictionary are of historical interest. Notable differences from the third and versions include: エ and ヱ were written as ye: Yedo ズ and ヅ were written as dzu: kudzu, tsudzuku キャ, キョ, キュ were written as kiya, kiy
Etchū Province
Etchū Province was a province of Japan in the area, today Toyama Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Etchū bordered on Noto and Kaga Provinces to the west and Hida Provinces to the south, Echigo Province to the east and the Sea of Japan to the north, its abbreviated form name was Esshū. Koshi Province was an ancient province of Japan and is listed as one of the original provinces in the Nihon Shoki; the region as a whole was sometimes referred to as Esshū. In 701 AD, per the reforms of the Taihō Code, Koshi was divided into three separate provinces: Echizen, Etchū, Echigo. However, in 702 AD, the four western districts of Etchū Province were transferred to Echigo Province. Etchū annexed Noto Province in 741 AD, but Noto was separated out again in 757 AD. In 746 AD, the noted poet Ōtomo no Yakamochi became Kokushi, left many references to the region in the poetic anthology Man'yōshū; the Nara period provincial capital and provincial temple were located in what is now the city of Takaoka, Toyama.
Under the Engishiki classification system, Etchū was ranked as a "superior country" in terms of importance and "middle country" in terms of distance from the capital. Despite this classification, Etchū never developed a powerful local gōzoku clan and was controlled by its more powerful neighbours. During the Muromachi period, the Hatakeyama clan emerged as shugo of the region, but preferred to remain in Kyoto, to rule through appointed deputies, such as the Jinbō clan and the Shiina clan. Into the Sengoku period, the Hatakeyama transferred their power base to Nanao Castle in Noto province, Etchū became an area contested by the Uesugi clan and the Oda clan with the Ikkō-ikki helping play one side against the other; the area was conquered by Oda Nobunaga's general Shibata Katsuie and his deputy Sassa Narimasa, who were replaced by Maeda Toshiie under the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The Maeda clan retained control of the province under Kaga Domain during the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. During the mid-Edo period, Nei District and much of Niikawa District were separated from Kaga Domain into the 100,000 koku Toyama Domain, ruled by a branch of the Maeda clan.
Following the Meiji Restoration and the abolition of the han system in 1871, Etchū Province was divided into Kanazawa Prefecture, Toyama Prefecture, Nanao Prefecture and Niikawa Prefecture, but these areas were reconsolidated into Ishikawa Prefecture in 1876. In 1883, Ishikawa Prefecture was divided, with the original four districts of Etchū Province becoming the new Toyama Prefecture. However, the name “Etchū Province” continued to appear in official documents afterwards for some administrative purposes. For example, Etchū is explicitly recognized in treaties in 1894 between Japan and the United States and between Japan and the United Kingdom. Toyama Prefecture Imizu District – dissolved Himi District – split from Imizu District on April 1, 1896. Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5. Historical and Geographic Dictionary of Japan. Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha. OCLC 77691250 Media related to Etchu Province at Wikimedia Commons Murdoch's map of provinces, 1903
Hatakeyama Shigetada
Hatakeyama Shigetada was a samurai who fought in the Genpei War, in Japan. Fighting for the Taira clan, he switched sides to the Minamoto clan for the battle of Dan-no-ura, ended the war on the winning side. Following the war, when his son Shigeyasu was killed by Hōjō Tokimasa, Shigetada spoke up; the reward for this temerity was death, along with the rest of his family. His brave attempt to defend his honor, along with various other acts of strength and skill are recorded in the Heike Monogatari and other chronicles of the period. In an anecdote from the Heike monogatari, he is described as competing, along with a number of other warriors, to be the first across the Uji River; when his horse is shot in the head with an arrow, he abandons the creature and uses his bow as a staff to help himself across. Just as he is about to climb the bank, his godson Okushi no Shigechika asks for help, is grabbed and thrown ashore by Shigetada. After the Battle of Awazu in 1184, Shigetada is known for failing to capture Tomoe Gozen.
Joly, Henri L.. Legend in Japanese Art: a Description of Historical Episodes, Legendary Characters, Folk-lore Myths, Religious Symbolism, Illustrated in the Arts of Old Japan. Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle. ISBN 9780804803588; the Tale of the Heike. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. ISBN 0-86008-128-1 OCLC 164803926 Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth.. Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5. Warriors of Japan as Portrayed in the War Tales. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 9780824815752.
