1.
Ninja
A ninja or shinobi was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of the ninja included espionage, infiltration and their covert methods of waging irregular warfare were deemed dishonorable and beneath the samurai-caste, who observed strict rules about honor and combat. Following the unification of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate, the ninja faded into obscurity, a number of shinobi manuals, often based on Chinese military philosophy, were written in the 17th and 18th centuries, most notably the Bansenshukai. By the time of the Meiji Restoration, the tradition of the shinobi had become a topic of popular imagination, Ninja figured prominently in legend and folklore, where they were associated with legendary abilities such as invisibility, walking on water and control over the natural elements. As a consequence, their perception in popular culture is based more on such legend. Ninja is a reading of the two kanji 忍者. In the native kunyomi reading, it is pronounced shinobi. The word shinobi appears in the record as far back as the late 8th century in poems in the Manyōshū.
The underlying connotation of shinobi means to steal away, to hide and — by extension — to forbear, hence its association with stealth and invisibility. Historically, the ninja was not in common use. Along with shinobi, some examples include monomi, rappa, kusa, in historical documents, shinobi is almost always used. Kunoichi, meaning a female ninja, supposedly came from the characters くノ一, in the West, the word ninja became more prevalent than shinobi in the post-World War II culture, possibly because it was more comfortable for Western speakers. In English, the plural of ninja can be either unchanged as ninja, reflecting the Japanese languages lack of grammatical number, despite many popular folktales, historical accounts of the ninja are scarce. Historian Stephen Turnbull asserts that the ninja were recruited from the lower class. Instead, war epics such as the Tale of Hōgen and the Tale of the Heike focus mainly on the aristocratic samurai, the title ninja has sometimes been attributed retrospectively to the semi-legendary 4th-century prince Yamato Takeru.
In the Kojiki, the young Yamato Takeru disguised himself as a charming maiden, these records take place at a very early stage of Japanese history, and they are unlikely to be connected to the shinobi of accounts. The first recorded use of espionage was under the employment of Prince Shōtoku in the 6th century, such tactics were considered unsavory even in early times, according to the 10th century Shōmonki, the boy spy Koharumaru was killed for spying against the insurgent Taira no Masakado. Later, the 14th century war chronicle Taiheiki contained many references to shinobi and it was not until the 15th century that spies were specially trained for their purpose
2.
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, known as the Tokugawa bakufu and the Edo bakufu, was the last feudal Japanese military government, which existed between 1600 and 1868. The head of government was the shogun, and each was a member of the Tokugawa clan, the Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle and the years of the shogunate became known as the Edo period. This time is called the Tokugawa period or pre-modern. Following the Sengoku period, the government had been largely re-established by Oda Nobunaga during the Azuchi–Momoyama period. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, central authority fell to Tokugawa Ieyasu, society in the Tokugawa period, unlike the shogunates before it, was supposedly based on the strict class hierarchy originally established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The daimyō were at the top, followed by the warrior-caste of samurai, with the farmers and traders ranking below. In some parts of the country, particularly smaller regions, daimyō and samurai were more or less identical, since daimyō might be trained as samurai, the largely inflexible nature of this social stratification system unleashed disruptive forces over time.
Taxes on the peasantry were set at fixed amounts which did not account for inflation or other changes in monetary value, as a result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants, ranging from simple local disturbances to much bigger rebellions. None, proved compelling enough to challenge the established order until the arrival of foreign powers. The Tokugawa Shogunate came to an end in 1868 with the resignation of the 15th Tokugawa Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu. The bakuhan taisei was the political system in the Edo period of Japan. Baku is an abbreviation of bakufu, meaning military government—that is, the han were the domains headed by daimyō. Vassals held inherited lands and provided service and homage to their lords. The bakuhan taisei split feudal power between the shogunate in Edo and provincial domains throughout Japan, provinces had a degree of sovereignty and were allowed an independent administration of the han in exchange for loyalty to the shogun, who was responsible for foreign relations and national security.
The shogun and lords were all daimyō, feudal lords with their own bureaucracies, the shogun administered the most powerful han, the hereditary fief of the House of Tokugawa. Each level of government administered its own system of taxation, the emperor, nominally a religious leader, held no real power, this was invested in the shogun. The shogunate had the power to discard and transform domains, the sankin kōtai system of alternative residence required each daimyō to reside in alternate years between the han and the court in Edo
3.
Odawara
Odawara is a city located in western Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of February 2015, the city had an population of 194,672. The total area is 113.79 km2, the area around present day Odawara has been settled since prehistoric times, and archaeological evidence indicates that the area had a high population density in the Jōmon period. From the Ritsuryō system of the Nara period, the became part of Ashigarashimo District of Sagami Province. It was divided into shōen during the Heian period, mostly controlled by the Hatano clan, during the Genpei War between the Heike clan and Minamoto no Yoritomo, the Battle of Ishibashiyama was fought near present-day Odawara. During the Sengoku period, Odawara developed as a town and capital of the domains of the late Hōjō clan. The Hōjō were defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the Battle of Odawara in 1590, despite the reputation of Odawara Castle. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, Odawara was the center of Odawara Domain, the castle town prospered as Odawara-juku, a post station on the Tōkaidō highway connecting Edo with Kyoto.
After the Meiji Restoration, Odawara Domain briefly became Odawara Prefecture, the epicenter of the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923 was deep beneath Izu Ōshima Island in Sagami Bay. It devastated Tokyo, the city of Yokohama, surrounding prefectures of Chiba and Shizuoka Prefectures. Ninety percent of the buildings in Odawara collapsed immediately, and fires burned the rubble along with anything else left standing, Odawara regained some measure of prosperity with the opening of the Tanna Tunnel in 1934, which brought the main routing of the Tōkaidō Main Line through the city. Odawara was raised from the status of town to city on December 20,1940, on August 15,1945, Odawara was the last city in Japan to be bombed by Allied aircraft during World War II. On November 1,2000 Odawara exceeded 200,000 in population and was proclaimed a special city with increased autonomy from the central government. Odawara occupies the Ashigara Plains, in the far western portion of Kanagawa Prefecture and it is bordered by the Hakone Mountains to the north and west, the Sakawa River to the east and Sagami Bay of the Pacific Ocean to the south.
Kanagawa Prefecture Minamiashigara Ninomiya Ōi, Nakai Hakone, Manazuru and commercial fishing play a relatively minor role in the local economy. Manufacturing includes light industry, chemicals and food processing, Odawara is a bedroom community for Yokohama and Tokyo. Companies headquartered in Odawara include, Meganesuper Co. Ltd, wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd Odawara Auto Machine MFG. Co. Ltd. Odakyu Sharyo Kogyo Co Ltd Odakyu Hakone Holdings Co. Ltd, within the city itself, the Yugawara area is a well-known hot spring resort
4.
Japanese people
Japanese people are an ethnic group native to Japan. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of the population of their country. Worldwide, approximately 129 million people are of Japanese descent, of these, people of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries are referred to as the Japanese diaspora. The term ethnic Japanese may be used in some contexts to refer to ethnic groups, including the Yamato, Ainu. The Japanese language is a Japonic language that in the past was treated as a language isolate, the Japanese language has a tripartite writing system using Hiragana and Kanji. Domestic Japanese people use primarily Japanese for daily interaction, the adult literacy rate in Japan exceeds 99%. Japanese religion has traditionally been syncretic in nature, combining elements of Buddhism, Shinto, a polytheistic religion with no book of religious canon, is Japans native religion. Mahayana Buddhism came to Japan in the century and evolved into many different sects. Today, the largest form of Buddhism among Japanese people is the Jōdo Shinshū sect founded by Shinran, most Japanese people profess to believe in both Shinto and Buddhism.
Japanese peoples religion functions mostly as a foundation for mythology, Christianity in Japan is among the nations minority religions. Just under 2%, or about 2.5 million, of Japans population are Christians, many Japanese practice Christianity in the diaspora in Brazil, which is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan. About 60% of Japanese Brazilians are Roman Catholics, while 90% of Japanese Mexicans are Roman Catholic, certain genres of writing originated in and are often associated with Japanese society. These include the haiku, and I Novel, although modern writers generally avoid these writing styles, many works have sought to capture or codify traditional Japanese cultural values and aesthetics. Twentieth-century Japanese writers recorded changes in Japanese society through their works, some of the most notable authors included Natsume Sōseki, Junichirō Tanizaki, Osamu Dazai, Yasunari Kawabata, Fumiko Enchi, Yukio Mishima, and Ryōtarō Shiba. In contemporary Japan, popular authors such as Ryū Murakami, Haruki Murakami, decorative arts in Japan date back to prehistoric times.
Jōmon pottery includes examples with elaborate ornamentation, in the Yayoi period, artisans produced mirrors and ceremonial bells known as dōtaku. Later burial mounds, or kofun, preserve characteristic clay haniwa, beginning in the Nara period, painting and sculpture flourished under strong Confucian and Buddhist influences from China. Among the architectural achievements of this period are the Hōryū-ji and the Yakushi-ji, after the cessation of official relations with the Tang dynasty in the ninth century, Japanese art and architecture gradually became less influenced by China
5.
Nioh
Nioh is an action role-playing video game developed by Team Ninja for the PlayStation 4. It was released worldwide in February 2017, and was published by Koei Tecmo in Japan, gameplay revolves around navigating levels and defeating monsters that have infested an area. Nioh takes place in the early 1600s during a fictionalized version of the Sengoku period, when Japan was in the midst of civil war prior to the ascension of the Tokugawa shogunate. A sailor named William, in pursuit of an enemy, arrives in Japan and is enlisted by Hattori Hanzo, servant to Tokugawa Ieyasu, Team Ninja was given the project, and the subsequent development lasted four years. The story was based on the life of historic Western samurai William Adams, first announced in the year it began development, information became sporadic until 2015, when it was reintroduced as a PlayStation 4 exclusive. Alpha and beta demos were released during 2016, to gauge public reaction to the title and make adjustments based on feedback.
Initially scheduled for a 2016 release, the adjustments pushed the release into the following year, upon release, Nioh received critical acclaim, with most critics favorably comparing it to the Souls series. Nioh is an action role-playing game set in Japan during the year 1600, while navigating environments, William can find various collectables both in crates scattered through the environment and in other places within the environments such as fallen soldiers. These collectables include Amrita, the experience points, the in-game currency, new weapons and armor. Weapons and armor found in the environment can be taken to a blacksmith, skill points acquired in combat are assigned at shrines. Fighting is based around hack and slash combat, with William being able to attack enemies, William can run and sprint with these and combat actions draining his Ki stamina bar. When his Ki has been depleted, William is left vulnerable to attack, if timed right, William is able to replenish lost Ki with an action called Ki pulse.
The Ki pulse grants status buffs onto William, and dispels patches of miasma generated by yokai, defeated enemies drop loot, which includes money and weapons. The speed at which William can move through levels depends on the weight of his armor, the heavier it is. William has access to multiple types of weapons, these include single and dual swords, polearms. In addition to weapons, William has access to ranged weapons such as a bow, a rifle. The more each weapon is used, the stronger and more effective it becomes and these Stances consume different amounts of Ki depending on their attack strength. William can summon Guardian Spirits, animals which combine his health, each Guardian Spirit boosts different stats, and can only be switched out at shrines
6.
Routledge
Routledge is a British multinational publisher. The company publishes approximately 1,800 journals &5,000 new books each year, Routledge is claimed to be the largest global academic publisher within humanities and social sciences. Following the merger of Informa and T&F in 2004, Routledge become a publishing unit, the firm originated in 1836, when Camden bookseller George Routledge published an unsuccessful guidebook, The Beauties of Gilsand with his brother-in-law W H Warne as assistant. The company was restyled in 1858 as Routledge, Warne & Routledge when George Routledges son, Robert Warne Routledge, Frederick Warne eventually left the company after the death of his brother W. H. Warne in May 1859. Gaining rights to titles, he founded Frederick Warne & Co in 1865. In July 1865, his son Edmund Routledge became a partner, by 1902 the company was running close to bankruptcy. Following a successful restructuring, however, it was able to recover and began to acquire and merge with other publishing companies including J. C.
In 1912 the company merged with Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. the descendant of companies founded by Charles Kegan Paul, Alexander Chenevix Trench, Nicholas Trübner and it was soon particularly known for its titles in the social sciences. In 1985, Routledge & Kegan Paul joined with Associated Book Publishers, just two year later and Routledges directors accepted a deal for Routledges acquisition by Taylor & Francis Group, with the Routledge name being retained as an imprint and subdivision. In 2004, T&F became a division within Informa plc after a merger, Routledge has grown considerably as a result of organic growth and acquisitions of other publishing companies and other publishers titles by its parent company. Humanities and social sciences acquired by T&F from other publishers are rebranded under the Routledge imprint. The famous English publisher Fredric Warburg was an editor at Routledge during the early 20th century. Novelist Nina Stibbe author of Love, Nina worked at the company as a Commissioning Editor in the 1990s, the republished works of these authors have appeared as part of the Routledge Classics and Routledge Great Minds series.
Competitors to the series are Verso Books Radical Thinkers, Penguin Classics and Francis closed down the Routledge print encyclopaedia division in 2006. Some of its publications were, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, by Edward Craig, in 10 volumes, Encyclopedia of Ethics, by Lawrence C. Reference Works by Europa Publications, published by Routledge, Europa World Year Book, many of Routledges reference works are published in print and electronic formats as Routledge Handbooks and have their own dedicated Web site, Routledge Handbooks Online. Records of Routledge & Kegan Paul - Correspondence files covering the period 1935 to 1990, as well as review files 1950s-1990s, Special Collections, archives of George Routledge & Company 1853-1902, Chadwyck-Healey Ltd,1973. 6 reels of microfilm and printed index, archives of Kegan Paul, Trench and Henry S. King 1858-1912, Chadwyck-Healey Ltd,1973
7.
Ashikaga Yoshiteru
Ashikaga Yoshiteru, known as Yoshifushi or Yoshifuji, was the 13th shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1546 to 1565 during the late Muromachi period of Japan. He was the eldest son of the 12th shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiharu, when he became shogun in 1546 at age 11, Yoshiterus name was Yoshifushi, but some years in 1554, he changed his name to the one by which he is conventionally known today. His younger brother Ashikaga Yoshiaki would become the fifteenth shogun, after his father, was forced to retire in 1546 over a political struggle with Hosokawa Harumoto, Yoshiteru became Seii Taishogun, albeit a puppet shogun like his father. Yoshiteru was only 11 at the time and his ceremony was held at Sakamoto, Ōmi Province. Yoshiteru had barely been confirmed as shogun when his father Yoshiharu made a truce with Harumoto in order to return to Kyoto, in 1550, Yoshiharu died in Ōmi, unable to return to Kyoto. In 1552, Yoshiteru made a peace with Nagayoshi to return to Kyoto, the next year and Harumoto started a war against Nagayoshi to remove his influence.
With the help of Rokkaku Yoshikata, the war went well for Yoshiteru. Nagayoshi did not press on after the victory to kill Yoshiteru for fear of being accused of killing a shogun, Nagayoshi continued as the real power in Kyoto, with Yoshiteru nothing more than a rubber stamp. Significant events shaped the period during which Yoshiteru was shogun,1550 – Yoshiharu dies in exile,1551 – Sue Harukata rebels against Ōuchi Yoshitaka. 1552 – Yoshiteru returns to Kyoto, actual power being held by Miyoshi Nagayoshi, 1554–1564 – Ōuchis retainer Mōri Motonari succeeds him and consolidates his power. 1558 – Nagayoshi drives out Yoshiteru who, however, is reinstated,1560 – Oda Nobunaga slays Imagawa Yoshimoto. 1564 – Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen reach a stalemate at Kawanakajima after continuous battles,1565 – Matsunaga invests Kyoto, Yoshiteru commits suicide. Lacking resources, Yoshiteru nevertheless saw opportunities to assign his kanji 輝 on various samurai such as Mōri Terumoto to become something close to a godfather, Yoshiteru was well respected for his actions and many researchers credit him as being the last effective shogun to hold the post.
Oda Nobunaga and Uesugi Kenshin were among the many daimyōs and samurai who travelled to Kyoto to pay their respects to the shogun, in 1564, Nagayoshi died of illness and Yoshiteru saw an opportunity to fully reclaim the shoguns authority. In 1565, and Miyoshi Yoshitsugu laid siege against a collection of buildings where Yoshiteru lived, with no help arriving in time from the daimyōs that could have supported him and the few troops under him were overrun by Miyoshi. Three years passed before his cousin Ashikaga Yoshihide became the fourteenth shogun, one of his sword-fighting instructors was Tsukahara Bokuden, the founder of Kashima Shintō-ryū. His governance was highly credited but to have killed in spite of his efforts completely destroyed what little recognition. The waka Yoshiteru was said to have left on his death shows the extent of his aspirations compared with the limits of achievements, there were more than one era name or nengō in which Yoshiteru was identified as Shogun
