1.
Okinawan name
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Okinawan names today have only two components, the family names first and the given names last. Okinawan family names represent the historical and cultural background of the islands which now comprise Okinawa Prefecture in Japan. Expatriates originally from Okinawa also have these names, as Japanese citizens, Okinawans today comply with the Japanese family register system. Accordingly, an Okinawan name has two components, a family name and a given name. A family name is called myōji, uji or sei, the family name precedes the given name. The given name may be referred to as the name because, in vertically-written Japanese. Japanese family names generally show regional variation, but Okinawan family names are known for its distinctiveness, in contrast it becomes increasingly difficult to find unique Okinawan given names. This top 10 list is based on the name as written in kanji, since the Japanese language allows for multiple possible readings for each character, the reading of Okinawan family names written with the same characters varies. In addition, the Okinawan language has its own means of reading Japanese kanji, as in mainland Japan, historical names in Okinawa are more complicated. People with different social statuses bore different kinds of names, maintained several names to use in different occasions, Okinawan names underwent great changes after the Ryūkyū Kingdom fell under the Satsuma Domains control. For example, the warabi-naa of Tamagusuku Chōkun was Umi-guraa, warabi-naa were most prevalent among Okinawans, from the king to commoners, both male and female. They were the oldest component of Okinawan names as, like people in mainland Japan and they were used as the official names during the early era of the Ryukyu Kingdom. They appeared even in appointment letters by the king, written mostly in hiragana and it was during the 17th century that other name components prevailed among the pechin class. A warabi-naa was given soon after birth, although literally meaning childhood name, it was used by commoners for their entire life. While it was overshadowed by other components, even adult male members of the pechin class used warabi-naa at home. Later in history, stylized use of prefixes and suffixes differentiated social statuses, a commoner used neither a prefix nor suffix, a samurai used either a prefix or suffix, and an aristocrat used both a prefix and a suffix. For example, Tukū was a name for commoners, Umi-tukū for samurai, a set of warabi-naa appeared in the very beginning of recorded history and has not been changed since then. The number of warabi-naa pooled in society was extremely small and it was not uncommon for a warabi-naa to be shared by more than one person in a household
2.
Ryukyu Kingdom
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The Ryukyu Kingdom was an independent kingdom that ruled most of the Ryukyu Islands from the 15th to the 19th century. The kings of Ryukyu unified Okinawa Island and extended the kingdom to the Amami Islands in modern-day Kagoshima Prefecture, despite its small size, the kingdom played a central role in the maritime trade networks of medieval East and Southeast Asia. In the 14th century, small domains scattered on Okinawa Island were unified into three principalities, Hokuzan, Chūzan and Nanzan and this was known as the Three Kingdoms or Sanzan period. Hokuzan, which constituted much of the half of the island, was the largest in terms of land area and military strength. Nanzan constituted the southern portion of the island, Chūzan lay in the center of the island, and was economically the strongest. Its political capital at Shuri, Nanzan was adjacent to the port of Naha and Kume-mura. These sites, and Chūzan as a whole, would continue to form the center of the Ryukyu Kingdom until its abolition, many Chinese moved to Ryukyu to serve the government or to engage in business during this period. At the request of the Ryukyuan King, the Ming Chinese sent 36 Chinese families from Fujian to manage oceanic dealings in the kingdom in 1392 during the Hongwu emperors reign, many Ryukyuan officials were descended from these Chinese immigrants, being born in China or having Chinese grandfathers. They assisted the Ryukyuans in advancing their technology and diplomatic relations, according to statements by Qing imperial official Li Hongzhang in a meeting with Ulysses S. These three principalities, or tribal federations, led by major chieftains, battled, and Chūzan emerged victorious, the Chūzan leaders were officially recognized by Ming dynasty China as the rightful kings over those of Nanzan and Hokuzan, thus lending great legitimacy to their claims. The ruler of Chūzan passed his throne to King Hashi, Hashi conquered Hokuzan in 1416 and Nanzan in 1429, uniting the island of Okinawa for the first time, Hashi received the surname Shō 尚 from the Ming emperor in 1421, becoming known as Shō Hashi 尚巴志. Shō Hashi adopted the Chinese hierarchical court system, built Shuri Castle and the town as his capital, and constructed Naha harbor. When in 1469 King Shō Toku, who was a grandson of Shō Hashi, died without a male heir and this pretender, Shō En, began the Second Shō Dynasty. Ryukyus golden age occurred during the reign of Shō Shin, the king of that dynasty. For nearly two hundred years, the Ryukyu Kingdom would thrive as a key player in trade with Southeast and East Asia. In the late 16th century, however, the commercial prosperity fell into decline. The decline of the wokou threat among other factors led to the loss of Chinese preferential treatment. Around 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi asked the Ryukyu Kingdom to aid in his campaign to conquer Korea, if successful, Hideyoshi intended to then move against China
3.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
4.
Okinawan martial arts
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Okinawan martial arts refers to the martial arts, such as karate, tegumi and Okinawan kobudō, which originated among the indigenous people of Okinawa Island. In 1429, the three kingdoms on Okinawa unified to form the Kingdom of Ryukyu, when King Shō Shin came into power in 1477, he banned the practice of martial arts. Tō-te and Ryukyu kobudō continued to be taught in secret, the ban was continued in 1609 after Okinawa was invaded by the Satsuma Domain of Japan. The bans contributed to the development of kobudō which uses common household, the Okinawans combined Chinese martial arts with the existing local variants to form Tōde, sometimes called Okinawa-te. By the 18th century, different types of Te had developed in three different villages – Shuri, Naha and Tomari, the styles were named Shuri-te, Naha-te, and Tomari-te, respectively. Well into the 20th century, the arts of Okinawa were generally referred to as te and tii 手 in Japanese. Te often varied from one town to another, so to distinguish among the types of te. Shuri-te, Naha-te and Tomari-te belong to a family of martial arts that were defined as Tode-jutsu or To-de. Karate was systematically taught in Japan after the Taisho era, Shuri-te is a pre-World War II term for a type of indigenous martial art to the area around Shuri, the old capital city of the Ryukyu Kingdom. Tomari-te refers to a tradition of martial arts originating from the village of Tomari, Okinawa Karate Japanese martial arts Peichin
5.
Kata
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Kata, a Japanese word, are detailed choreographed patterns of movements practised either solo or in pairs. The term form is used for the concept in non-Japanese martial arts in general. Kata are used in many traditional Japanese arts such as theatre forms like kabuki and schools of tea ceremony, kata are used by most Japanese and Okinawan martial arts, such as aikido, judo, kendo and karate. Kata originally were teaching and training methods by which successful combat techniques were preserved and passed on, practicing kata allowed a company of persons to engage in a struggle using a systematic approach, rather than as individuals in a disorderly manner. The basic goal of kata is to preserve and transmit proven techniques, by practicing in a repetitive manner the learner develops the ability to execute those techniques and movements in a natural, reflex-like manner. Systematic practice does not mean permanently rigid, the goal is to internalize the movements and techniques of a kata so they can be executed and adapted under different circumstances, without thought or hesitation. A novice’s actions will look uneven and difficult, while a master’s appear simple, in Japanese martial arts practice, kata is often seen as an essential partner to randori training with one complementing the other. However, the type and frequency of kata versus randori training varies from art to art. In iaido, solo kata using the Japanese sword comprises almost all of the training, whereas in judo, kata training is de-emphasized and usually only prepared for dan grading. In kenjutsu, paired kata at the level can appear to be stilted. At higher levels serious injury is prevented only by a sensitivity of both participants to important concepts being taught and trained for. These include timing and distance, with the kata practiced at high speed and this adjustability of kata training is found in other Japanese arts with roles of attacker and defender often interchanging within the sequence. Many martial arts use kata for public demonstrations and in competitions, awarding points for such aspects of technique as style, balance, timing, the most popular image associated with kata is that of a karate practitioner performing a series of punches and kicks in the air. The kata are executed as a series of approximately 20 to 70 moves, generally with stepping and turning. There are perhaps 100 kata across the forms of karate. The number of moves in a kata may be referred to in the name of the kata, e. g. Gojū Shiho, the number of moves may also have links with Buddhist spirituality. The number 108 is significant in Buddhism & Hinduism, signifying the 108 ways the mind can behave and kata with 54,36, or 27 moves are common. The practitioner is generally counselled to visualize the enemy attacks, and his responses, as actually occurring, kata can contain techniques beyond the superficially obvious ones
6.
Osaka
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Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Japan. Historically a merchant city, Osaka has also known as the nations kitchen. Some of the earliest signs of habitation in the Osaka area at the Morinomiya ruins comprise shell mounds, sea oysters. It is believed that what is today the Uehonmachi area consisted of a land with an inland sea in the east. During the Yayoi period, permanent habitation on the plains grew as rice farming became popular, by the Kofun period, Osaka developed into a hub port connecting the region to the western part of Japan. The large numbers of increasingly larger tomb mounds found in the plains of Osaka are seen as evidence of political-power concentration, in 645, Emperor Kōtoku built his Naniwa Nagara-Toyosaki Palace in what is now Osaka, making it the capital of Japan. The city now known as Osaka was at this time referred to as Naniwa, although the capital was moved to Asuka in 655, Naniwa remained a vital connection, by land and sea, between Yamato, Korea, and China. Naniwa was declared the capital again in 744 by order of Emperor Shōmu, and remained so until 745, in 1496, Jōdo Shinshū Buddhists established their headquarters in the heavily fortified Ishiyama Hongan-ji, located directly on the site of the old Naniwa Imperial Palace. Oda Nobunaga began a siege campaign on the temple in 1570 which ultimately resulted in the surrender of the monks. Toyotomi Hideyoshi constructed Osaka Castle in its place in 1583, Osaka was long considered Japans primary economic center, with a large percentage of the population belonging to the merchant class. Over the course of the Edo period, Osaka grew into one of Japans major cities and returned to its ancient role as a lively and its popular culture was closely related to ukiyo-e depictions of life in Edo. By 1780 Osaka had cultivated a vibrant arts culture, as typified by its famous Kabuki, in 1837 Ōshio Heihachirō, a low-ranking samurai, led a peasant insurrection in response to the citys unwillingness to support the many poor and suffering families in the area. Approximately one-quarter of the city was razed before shogunal officials put down the rebellion, Osaka was opened to foreign trade by the government of the Bakufu at the same time as Hyōgo on 1 January 1868, just before the advent of the Boshin War and the Meiji Restoration. Osaka residents were stereotyped in Edo literature from at least the 18th century, jippenisha Ikku in 1802 depicted Osakans as stingy almost beyond belief. Edo writers aspired to samurai culture, and saw themselves as poor but generous, chaste, Edo writers by contrast saw zeeroku as obsequious apprentices, stingy, greedy, gluttonous, and lewd. The modern municipality was established in 1889 by government ordinance, with an area of 15 square kilometres, overlapping todays Chūō. Later, the city went through three major expansions to reach its current size of 223 square kilometres, Osaka was the industrial center most clearly defined in the development of capitalism in Japan. It became known as the Manchester of the Orient, the rapid industrialization attracted many Korean immigrants, who set up a life apart for themselves
7.
Boxing
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Boxing is a combat sport in which two people wearing protective gloves throw punches at each other for a predetermined set of time in a boxing ring. Amateur boxing is both an Olympic and Commonwealth Games sport and is a fixture in most international games—it also has its own World Championships. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of one- to three-minute intervals called rounds, in the event that both fighters gain equal scores from the judges, the fight is considered a draw. In Olympic boxing, due to the fact that a winner must be declared, in the case of a draw - the judges use technical criteria to choose the most deserving winner of the bout. While people have fought in combat since before the dawn of history. The earliest evidence for fist fighting with any kind of gloves can be found on Minoan Crete, in Ancient Greece boxing was a well developed sport and enjoyed consistent popularity. In Olympic terms, it was first introduced in the 23rd Olympiad,688 B. C, the boxers would wind leather thongs around their hands in order to protect them. There were no rounds and boxers fought until one of them acknowledged defeat or could not continue, weight categories were not used, which meant heavyweights had a tendency to dominate. It was the head of the opponent which was primarily targeted, Boxing was a popular spectator sport in Ancient Rome. In order for the fighters to protect themselves against their opponents they wrapped leather thongs around their fists, eventually harder leather was used and the thong soon became a weapon. The Romans even introduced metal studs to the thongs to make the cestus which then led to a more sinister weapon called the myrmex, Fighting events were held at Roman Amphitheatres. The Roman form of boxing was often a fight until death to please the spectators who gathered at such events, however, especially in later times, purchased slaves and trained combat performers were valuable commodities, and their lives were not given up without due consideration. Often slaves were used against one another in a circle marked on the floor and this is where the term ring came from. In AD393, during the Roman gladiator period, boxing was abolished due to excessive brutality and it was not until the late 17th century that boxing re-surfaced in London. Records of Classical boxing activity disappeared after the fall of the Western Roman Empire when the wearing of weapons became common once again, however, there are detailed records of various fist-fighting sports that were maintained in different cities and provinces of Italy between the 12th and 17th centuries. There was also a sport in ancient Rus called Kulachniy Boy or Fist Fighting, as the wearing of swords became less common, there was renewed interest in fencing with the fists. The sport would later resurface in England during the early 16th century in the form of bare-knuckle boxing sometimes referred to as prizefighting. The first documented account of a fight in England appeared in 1681 in the London Protestant Mercury
8.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
9.
Karate
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Karate is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the martial arts of Ryukyu Islands under the influence of Chinese martial arts. Karate is now predominantly a striking art using punching, kicking, knee strikes, elbow strikes and open-hand techniques such as knife-hands, spear-hands, historically, and in some modern styles, grappling, throws, joint locks, restraints, and vital-point strikes are also taught. A karate practitioner is called a karateka, Karate developed on the Ryukyu Islands in what is now Okinawa, Japan. It was brought to the Japanese mainland in the early 20th century during a time of cultural exchanges between the Japanese and the Chinese and it was systematically taught in Japan after the Taishō era. In 1922 the Japanese Ministry of Education invited Gichin Funakoshi to Tokyo to give a karate demonstration, in 1924 Keio University established the first university karate club in mainland Japan and by 1932, major Japanese universities had karate clubs. After World War II, Okinawa became an important United States military site and karate became popular among servicemen stationed there, Karate schools began appearing across the world, catering to those with casual interest as well as those seeking a deeper study of the art. Shigeru Egami, Chief Instructor of Shotokan Dojo, opined that the majority of followers of karate in overseas countries pursue karate only for its fighting techniques, depict karate as a mysterious way of fighting capable of causing death or injury with a single blow. The mass media present a pseudo art far from the real thing, shōshin Nagamine said, Karate may be considered as the conflict within oneself or as a life-long marathon which can be won only through self-discipline, hard training and ones own creative efforts. On September 28,2015, karate was featured on a shortlist along with baseball, softball, skateboarding, surfing, on June 1,2016, the International Olympic Committees executive board announced they were supporting the inclusion of all five sports for inclusion in the 2020 Games. Web Japan claims there are 50 million karate practitioners worldwide, while the World Karate Federation claims there are 100 million practitioners around the world, Karate began as a common fighting system known as te among the Pechin class of the Ryukyuans. There were few formal styles of te, but rather many practitioners with their own methods, one surviving example is the Motobu-ryū school passed down from the Motobu family by Seikichi Uehara. Early styles of karate are often generalized as Shuri-te, Naha-te, each area and its teachers had particular kata, techniques, and principles that distinguished their local version of te from the others. Members of the Okinawan upper classes were sent to China regularly to various political and practical disciplines. The incorporation of empty-handed Chinese Kung Fu into Okinawan martial arts occurred partly because of these exchanges, Traditional karate kata bear a strong resemblance to the forms found in Fujian martial arts such as Fujian White Crane, Five Ancestors, and Gangrou-quan. Many Okinawan weapons such as the sai, tonfa, and nunchaku may have originated in, Sakukawa Kanga had studied pugilism and staff fighting in China. In 1806 he started teaching an art in the city of Shuri that he called Tudi Sakukawa. This was the first known recorded reference to the art of Tudi, around the 1820s Sakukawas most significant student Matsumura Sōkon taught a synthesis of te and Shaolin styles
10.
Judo
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Judo was created as a physical, mental and moral pedagogy in Japan, in 1882, by Jigoro Kano. It is generally categorized as a martial art which later evolved into a combat. Strikes and thrusts by hands and feet as well as defenses are a part of judo. A judo practitioner is called a judoka, the philosophy and subsequent pedagogy developed for judo became the model for other modern Japanese martial arts that developed from koryū. The early history of judo is inseparable from its founder, Japanese polymath and educator Kanō Jigorō, Kano was born into a relatively affluent family. His father, Jirosaku, was the son of the head priest of the Shinto Hiyoshi shrine in Shiga Prefecture. He married Sadako Kano, daughter of the owner of Kiku-Masamune sake brewing company and was adopted by the family and he ultimately became an official in the Shogunal government. Jigoro Kano had an academic upbringing and, from the age of seven, he studied English, shodō, when he was fourteen, Kano began boarding at an English-medium school, Ikuei-Gijuku in Shiba, Tokyo. The culture of bullying endemic at this school was the catalyst that caused Kano to seek out a Jūjutsu dōjō at which to train, early attempts to find a jujutsu teacher who was willing to take him on met with little success. With the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in the Meiji Restoration of 1868, many of those who had once taught the art had been forced out of teaching or become so disillusioned with it that they had simply given up. Nakai Umenari, an acquaintance of Kanōs father and a soldier, agreed to show him kata. The caretaker of Jirosakus second house, Katagiri Ryuji, also knew jujutsu, Another frequent visitor, Imai Genshiro of Kyūshin-ryū school of jujutsu, also refused. Several years passed before he found a willing teacher. In 1877, as a student at the Tokyo-Kaisei school, Kano learned that many jujutsu teachers had been forced to pursue alternative careers, frequently opening Seikotsu-in. After inquiring at a number of these, Kano was referred to Fukuda Hachinosuke, a teacher of the Tenjin Shinyō-ryū of jujutsu, Fukuda is said to have emphasized technique over formal exercise, sowing the seeds of Kanos emphasis on randori in judo. On Fukudas death in 1880, Kano, who had become his keenest and most able student in both randori and kata, was given the densho of the Fukuda dojo, Kano chose to continue his studies at another Tenjin Shinyō-ryū school, that of Iso Masatomo. Iso placed more emphasis on the practice of kata, and entrusted randori instruction to assistants, Iso died in June 1881 and Kano went on to study at the dojo of Iikubo Tsunetoshi of Kitō-ryū. Like Fukuda, Iikubo placed much emphasis on randori, with Kitō-ryū having a focus on nage-waza
