1.
Nagoya, Batam
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Nagoya, also known as Lubuk Baja, is the main town of Batam, Indonesia, and administratively a district, covering 10.8 square kilometers. The population was 80,780 in 2010 Census, however, like other fastest growing cities, Batam Island is becoming a continuous urban sprawl. Nagoya Hill Mall is the biggest shopping mall in the region, you can find the most popular fast food such as A&W, Pizza Hut, KFC. Wide ranges of home appliances, fashions, and electronic gadgets are also available, hypermart is the only grocery store in the mall. The area surrounded by a number of hotels, ranging from 2 to 4 stars, right outside the mall, there are many small roadside eateries offering grilled seafood, satay, otak-otak, and other local fare
2.
Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan
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The city government is generally delegated the various minor administrative functions in each area, and the prefectural government retains authority over major decisions. For instance, pharmaceutical retailers and small clinics can be licensed by designated city governments, in some cities, ward offices are responsible for business licensing, construction permits and other administrative matters. The structure and the authorities of the wards are determined by municipal ordinances, the 23 special wards of Tokyo are not part of this system, as Tokyo is a prefecture, and its wards are effectively independent cities. No cities designated by government ordinance have ever lost that status, cities designated by government ordinance have been established since 1956. To become a candidate for designated city status, a city must have a greater than 500,000. An application for designation is made by a city with the approval of both the city and the prefectural assemblies, the following cities have populations greater than 500,000 but have not yet been nominated. The first form of the city system was enacted under Japan local government system in 1878 with the introduction of wards. Under that system, wards existed in every city, most cities had only one ward, but the largest cities at the time were divided into 15,4, and 2 wards, respectively. In 1898, the three cities were allowed to form city assemblies, the ward system was adopted by three more cities prior to World War II, Nagoya, Yokohama, and Kobe. Under a 1911 statute, wards were granted a corporate personality, following the war, the 1947 Local Autonomy Law grandfathered in the five subdivided cities as special cities. The system was replaced by the city system when the Local Autonomy Law was amended. Administrative divisions of Japan Urban area Japans Evolving Nested Municipal Hierarchy, The Race for Local Power in the 2000s, by A. J
3.
Port of Nagoya
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The Port of Nagoya, located in Ise Bay, is the largest and busiest trading port in Japan, accounting for about 10% of the total trade value of Japan. Notably, this port is the largest exporter of cars in Japan and it has piers in Nagoya, Tōkai, Aichi, Chita, Aichi, Yatomi, Aichi, and Tobishima, Aichi. Its mascots are Potan and Mitan, according to Japanese media sources, Kodo-kai, a Yakuza faction in the Yamaguchi-gumi group, earns large revenues by controlling the stevedoring and warehousing companies at the port. The port draws tourists from the Chūkyō Metropolitan Area as one of its primary tourist attractions, the main attraction is the ports famous Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium. Nearby is also an amusement park and the now-retired Antarctic survey ship Fuji which moors at the Port of Nagoya as a museum of the South Pole, the Isewangan Expressway includes three impressive bridges, collectively known as the Meikō Triton, which span the port. In the waters of the port on an artificial island
4.
Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens
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The Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens is a joint zoo and botanical garden located at Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan. It is open every day except Monday, and charges a modest admission fee, established in 1937, the Higashiyama Zoo is one of Asias largest attractions, featuring a botanical garden and an amusement park. Garden collections include Aconitum, Camellia, Gentiana, Glycyrrhiza, Papaver, Rheum, and native flora, as well as a greenhouse, insect hall. The Higashiyama Sky Tower gives visitors a view of Nagoya from its observation decks. As of 2010, Higashiyama Zoo had the 2nd most annual park visits of any zoo in Japan, list of botanical gardens in Japan Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens Higashiyama information Yahoo Travel article AsiaRooms article BGCI entry
5.
Nagoya Castle
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Nagoya Castle is a Japanese castle located in Nagoya, central Japan. Another way of pronouncing Nagoya Castle is Meijō and this name is used for many city institutions, such as Meijō Park, the metros Meijō Line and Meijo University, reflecting the cultural influence of this historic structure. It was located near the site of the later Ninomaru residence, Oda Nobuhide seized it from Imagawa Ujitoyo in March 1532, residing there and changing the name to Nagoya Castle. His son, Oda Nobunaga, was born there in 1534. After he defeated Oda Nobutomo at Kiyosu Castle in April 1555, around 1582, the castle at Nagoya was abandoned. After various upheavals in Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu emerged victorious and decided in November 1609 to rebuild the castle at Nagoya, up until the Meiji Restoration, Nagoya Castle flourished as the castle where the Owari branch, the foremost of the three Tokugawa clan lineages, resided. Castle construction technology had been developed and consolidated since the construction of Azuchi Castle in 1576 by Oda Nobunaga. One of the architects who designed and directed the building of the castle was Nakai Masakiyo, who was previously involved in the construction of the Nijō, Fushimi, Edo. In January 1610, the site was roped off and work began, Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered various daimyōs to help with the construction of what was to become the new capital of the existing Owari Province. Katō Kiyomasa, Fukushima Masanori, and Maeda Toshimitsu were among the 20 feudal lords from the northern and western part of Japan who were assigned to assist in the project. The inscriptions of feudal lords and their vassals, carved on the stones they carried, are visible today. In June 1611 a canal that today is the Hori River was built, the source for much of the building material for the new castle was the smaller Kiyosu Castle, including its tenshu, which was rebuilt as the northwest turret. In mid-1612, the construction of Honmaru Palace began, and the donjon was completed in December of that year. Artists including Kano Sadanobu painted the walls, ceilings, and sliding doors of Honmaru Palace in 1614, construction of the gates and the Sannomaru moat were completed in July, and in November of that year the Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada came for an inspection. Honmaru Palace was finished in February 1615 and Ninomaru Palace in 1617, the Tōshō-gū shrine was established in the Sannomaru enceinte in 1619, and the northwest turret, the former Kiyosu Tower of the Ofukemaru, was completed. In 1620, Tokugawa Yoshinao moved into Ninomaru Palace, where in 1627, overall renovation began on Honmaru Palace in May 1633 in preparation of the upcoming visit of Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu on his way to the imperial capital at Kyoto. Additional chambers, bathrooms, and halls, such as Jorakuden, kanō Tanyū and other artists painted the walls, ceilings, and sliding doors in the new extensions in 1634. Work was completed in June, just in time for the visit in July of that year
6.
Nagoya TV Tower
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The Nagoya TV Tower is a TV tower in Nagoya, central Japan. It is the oldest TV tower in Japan, and was completed in 1954 and it is located in the centre of Hisaya Ōdori Park. The tower is 180 metres high, and has two observation decks at the heights of 90 metres and 100 metres. The tower also includes a restaurant and gallery at 30 metres, Nagoya TV Tower closely resembles the Eiffel Tower. Recently, the became known under the nickname of Thunder Tower due to the nighttime illumination. The famous movie monster, Godzilla pulled the tower down in Mothra vs. Godzilla and this time around, it is demolished by the monster Battra, when the creature attacks Nagoya. Official Website Nagoya TV Tower at Structurae
7.
Aichi Prefecture
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Aichi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region. The region of Aichi is also known as the Tōkai region and it is the focus of the Chūkyō Metropolitan Area. Originally, the region was divided into the two provinces of Owari and Mikawa, after the Meiji Restoration, Owari and Mikawa were united into a single entity. Nagoya Prefecture was renamed to Aichi Prefecture in April 1872, and was united with Nukata Prefecture on November 27 of the same year, the government of Aichi Prefecture is located in the Aichi Prefectural Government Office in Nagoya, which is the old capital of Owari. The Expo 2005 World Exposition was held in Seto and Nagakute, ayuchi is the original form of the name Aichi, and the Fujimae tidal flat is all that remains of the earlier Ayuchi-gata. It is now a protected area and it measures 106 km east to west and 94 km south to north and forms a major portion of the Nōbi Plain. With an area of 5,153.81 km2 it accounts for approximately 1. 36% of the surface area of Japan. The highest spot is Chausuyama at 1,415 m above sea level, due to its robust economy, for the period from October 2005 to October 2006, Aichi was the fastest growing prefecture in terms of population, beating Tokyo, at 7.4 per cent. Thirty-eight cities are located in Aichi Prefecture and these are the towns and villages in each district, Companies headquartered in Aichi include the following. Companies such as Fuji Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Motors, Pfizer, Sony, Suzuki, Bodycote, as of 2001, Aichi Prefectures population was 50. 03% male and 49. 97% female. 139,540 residents are of foreign nationality, the sports teams listed below are based in Aichi. Other popular sites in Aichi include the tour of the Toyota car factory in the city by the name, the monkey park in Inuyama, and the castles in Nagoya, Okazaki, Toyohashi. Most attractions are man-made destinations, dealing with the history or modern marvels. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5, OCLC58053128 Aichi travel guide from Wikivoyage Official website Aichi Now-Official Site for Tourism Aichi Aichi, HOME of the Samurai Spirit Oda, Nobunaga Tokugawa, Ieyasu
8.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
9.
Prefectures of Japan
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The Prefectures of Japan consist of 47 prefectures. They form the first level of jurisdiction and administrative division of Japan and they consist of 43 prefectures proper, two urban prefectures, one circuit or territory and one metropolis. The Meiji Fuhanken sanchisei administration created the first prefectures to replace the provinces of Japan in 1868, each prefectures chief executive is a directly-elected governor. Ordinances and budgets are enacted by an assembly whose members are elected for four-year terms. Under the current Local Autonomy Law, each prefecture is subdivided into cities and districts and each district into towns, for example, Hokkaido has 14 subprefectures that act as branch offices of the prefecture. Some other prefectures also have offices that carry out prefectural administrative functions outside the capital. Tokyo, the capital of Japan, is a merged city-prefecture, the Wests use of prefecture to label these Japanese regions stems from 16th-century Portuguese explorers and traders use of prefeitura to describe the fiefdoms they encountered there. Its original sense in Portuguese, however, was closer to municipality than province and those fiefs were headed by a local warlord or family. Though the fiefs have long since been dismantled, merged, and reorganized multiple times, and been granted legislative governance and oversight, the Meiji government established the current system in July 1871 with the abolition of the Han system and establishment of the prefecture system. Although there were initially over 300 prefectures, many of them being former Han territories, this number was reduced to 72 in the part of 1871. The Local Autonomy Law of 1947 gave more power to prefectures. In 2003, then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi proposed that the government consolidate the current prefectures into about 10 regional states, the plan called for each region to have greater autonomy than existing prefectures. This process would reduce the number of administrative regions and cut administrative costs. As of August 2012, no reorganization has been scheduled, the central government delegates many functions to the prefectures and municipalities, but retains the overall right to control them. Although local government expenditure accounts for 70 percent of government expenditure, the central government controls local budgets, tax rates. Historically, during the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate established bugyō-ruled zones around the nine largest cities in Japan, and 302 township-ruled zones elsewhere. When the Meiji government began to create the system in 1868, the nine bugyō-ruled zones became fu, while the township-ruled zones. Later, in 1871, the government designated Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto as fu, during World War II, in 1943, Tokyo became a to, a new type of pseudo-prefecture
10.
Takashi Kawamura (politician)
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Takashi Kawamura is a Japanese politician of the Nagoya-based Genzei Nippon party, and a former member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. Kawamura is currently serving as Mayor of Nagoya, a native of Nagoya, Aichi and graduate of Hitotsubashi University, he was elected for the first time in 1993 as a member of Morihiro Hosokawas Japan New Party after an unsuccessful run in 1990. He resigned from his office of a member of House of Representatives, ran for mayor of Nagoya, on February 6,2011 he won a landslide re-election victory. Voters in Nagoya gave him three times the votes of his DPJ rival, the mayor announced plans in 2009 to completely reconstruct the main towers of Nagoya Castle that were destroyed during the Second World War in wood, just as in the original structure. The incident led to the suspension of all exchange between the two cities of Nagoya and Nanjing on 21 February. Some Nagoya citizens oppose Takashi Kawamuras denial by organising lectures and setting a website
11.
House of Representatives (Japan)
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The House of Representatives is the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors is the upper house, the House of Representatives has 475 members, elected for a four-year term. Of these,180 members are elected from 11 multi-member constituencies by a party-list system of proportional representation,238 seats are required for a majority. The overall voting system used to elect the House of Representatives is a parallel system, under a parallel system the allocation of list seats does not take into account the outcome in the single seat constituencies. Therefore, the allocation of seats in the House of Representatives is not proportional. In contrast, in such as the German Bundestag the election of single-seat members and party list members is linked. The House of Representatives is the powerful of the two houses, able to override vetoes on bills imposed by the House of Councillors with a two-thirds majority. It can be dissolved by the Prime Minister at will, the most recent was by Shinzō Abe on November 21,2014, japanese nationals aged 18 years and older may vote. Japanese nationals aged 25 years and older may run for office in the lower house, the House of Representatives has several powers not given to the House of Councillors. If a bill is passed by the house but is voted down by the upper house the House of Representatives can override the decision of the House of Councillors by a two-thirds vote in the affirmative. However, in the case of treaties, the budget, and the selection of the minister, the House of Councillors can only delay passage. As a result, the House of Representatives is considered the more powerful house. Members of the House of Representatives, who are elected to a maximum of four years, sit for a shorter term than members of the House of Councillors, who are elected to full six-year terms. The lower house can also be dissolved by the Prime Minister or the passage of a nonconfidence motion, thus the House of Representatives is considered to be more sensitive to public opinion, and is termed the lower house. While the legislative term is nominally 4 years, early elections for the house are very common. Parties who vote with the government in the Diet, but are not part of the cabinet are not shaded, the elected House of Representatives served as the lower house of the Imperial Diet. The government and the minister leading it were neither responsible to nor elected by the Imperial Diet. But the right to vote on legislation and more importantly the budget gave the House of Representatives leverage to force the government into negotiations
12.
Metropolitan area
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As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions. The Greater São Paulo is a term for one of the multiple definitions the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil. A metropolitan area combines an urban agglomeration with zones not necessarily urban in character and these outlying zones are sometimes known as a commuter belt, and may extend well beyond the urban zone, to other political entities. For example, El Monte, California is considered part of the Los Angeles metro area in the United States, in practice, the parameters of metropolitan areas, in both official and unofficial usage, are not consistent. Population figures given for one area can vary by millions. A polycentric metropolitan area is one not connected by continuous development or conurbation, in defining a metropolitan area, it is sufficient that a city or cities form a nucleus that other areas have a high degree of integration with. The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines statistical divisions as areas under the influence of one or more major towns or a major city. However, this definition has become obsolete with the conurbation of several statistical divisions into a larger metropolitan areas. In Brazil, metropolitan areas are called metropolitan regions, each State defines its own legislation for the creation, definition and organization of a metropolitan region. The creation of a region is not intended for any statistical purpose, although the Brazilian Institute of Geography. Their main purpose is to allow for a management of public policies of common interest to all cities involved. They dont have political, electoral or jurisdictional power whatsoever, so living in a metropolitan region do not elect representatives for them. Statistics Canada defines a metropolitan area as an area consisting of one or more adjacent municipalities situated around a major urban core. To form a CMA, the area must have a population of at least 100,000. To be included in the CMA, adjacent municipalities must have a degree of integration with the core. As of the Canada 2011 Census, there were 33 CMAs in Canada, including six with a population over one million—Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton. In Denmark the only area is Greater Copenhagen, consisting of the Capital Region of Denmark along with the neighboring regions Region Zealand. Greater Copenhagen has an population of 1.25 million people
13.
Japan Standard Time
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Japan Standard Time or JST is the standard timezone in Japan, and is 9 hours ahead of UTC, i. e. it is UTC+09,00. There is no daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated several times, during World War II, it was often called Tokyo Standard Time. Japan Standard Time is the same as Korean Standard Time, Indonesian Eastern Standard Time, before the Meiji era, each local region had its own timezone in which noon was when the sun was exactly at its zenith. As modern transportation methods, such as trains, were adopted, in 1886, Ordinance 51 was issued in response to this problem, which stated, Ordinance 51 - July 13,1886 The prime meridian passes through Englands Greenwich Observatory. Longitudes are calculated using the prime meridian, counting 180 degrees either east or west, positive degrees are east, negative degrees are west. On January 1,1888,135 degrees east longitude will be set as the meridian for all of Japan. According to this, the time was set 9 hours ahead of GMT. In the ordinance, the first clause mentions GMT, the second defines east longitude and west longitude, the city of Akashi in Hyōgo Prefecture is located exactly on 135 degrees east longitude and subsequently became known as Toki no machi. While Korea came under Japanese rule in 1910, Korea Standard Time of UTC+8,30 continued to be used until 1912, when it was changed to Central Standard Time. Western Standard Time, which was used in Taiwan and some parts of Okinawa, was abolished by Ordinance 529 in 1937 and replaced by Central Standard Time in those areas. Territories occupied by Japan during World War II, including Singapore and Malaya, adopted Japan Standard Time for the duration of their occupation, more recently there have been efforts to bring back DST in Japan, but so far this has not happened. The two-time-zone system was implemented in Japan between January 1896 and September 1937, From October 1937, Central Standard Time was also used in western Okinawa, the IANA time zone database contains one zone for Japan in the file zone. tab, named Asia/Tokyo. From 1948–51, Japan observed DST between May and September every year under an initiative of the U. S. -led occupation army, since then, DST has never been officially implemented nationwide in Japan. Starting in the late 1990s, a movement to reinstate DST in Japan gained some popularity, aiming at saving energy, in the early 2000s, a few local governments and commerce departments promoted unmandated hour-earlier work schedule experiments during the summer without officially resetting clocks. The Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy is expected to propose that the Japanese government begin studying DST in an attempt to combat global warming. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe made a significant effort to introduce daylight saving time, however, it is not clear that DST would conserve energy in Japan. JJY Japanese calendar UTC+09,00 Japanese clock
14.
Cinnamomum camphora
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Cinnamomum camphora is a large evergreen tree that grows up to 20–30 m tall. The leaves have a glossy, waxy appearance and smell of camphor when crushed, in spring, it produces bright green foliage with masses of small white flowers. It produces clusters of black, berry-like fruit around 1 cm in diameter and its pale bark is very rough and fissured vertically. Cinnamomum camphora is native to China south of the Yangtze River, Taiwan, southern Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, and has been introduced to many other countries. In Japan, where the tree is called kusunoki, five camphor trees are known with a circumference above 20 m, with the largest individual, Kamō no Ōkusu. Camphor laurel contains volatile compounds in all plant parts. Camphor laurel has six different chemical variants called chemotypes, which are camphor, linalool,1, 8-cineole, nerolidol, safrole, in China, field workers avoid mixing chemotypes when harvesting by their odour. The cineole fraction of camphor laurel is used in China to manufacture fake Eucalyptus oil, the chemical variants seem dependent upon the country of origin of the tree. The tree is native to China, Japan, and Taiwan and it has been introduced to the other countries where it has been found, and the chemical variants are identifiable by country. E. g. C. camphora grown in Taiwan and Japan is normally high in linalool. In India and Sri Lanka, the high camphor variety/chemotype remains dominant, C. camphora grown in Madagascar, though, is high in 1,8 cineole. The essential oil from the Madagascar trees is known as ravintsara. Camphor is a crystalline substance, obtained from the tree C. camphora. Camphor has been used for centuries as a culinary spice, a component of incense. It is also an insect repellent and a flea-killing substance, C. camphora is native to Jeju off the coast of Korea, Taiwan, southern Japan, southeast China, and Indochina, where it is also cultivated for camphor and timber production. The production and shipment of camphor, in a solid, waxy form, was an industry in Taiwan prior to. It was used medicinally and was also an important ingredient in the production of smokeless gunpowder, primitive stills were set up in the mountainous areas in which the tree is usually found. The wood was chipped, these chips were steamed in a retort, allowing the camphor to crystallize on the inside of a crystallization box and it was then scraped off and packed out to government-run factories for processing and sale
15.
Lilium
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Lilium is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world, most species are native to the temperate northern hemisphere, though their range extends into the northern subtropics. Many other plants have lily in their name but are not related to true lilies. Lilies are tall perennials ranging in height from 2–6 ft and they form naked or tunicless scaly underground bulbs which are their overwintering organs. In some North American species the base of the bulb develops into rhizomes, most bulbs are deeply buried, but a few species form bulbs near the soil surface. With these, the bulb grows naturally at some depth in the soil and these roots are in addition to the basal roots that develop at the base of the bulb. The flowers are large, often fragrant, and come in a range of colours including whites, yellows, oranges, pinks, reds, markings include spots and brush strokes. The plants are late spring- or summer-flowering, flowers are borne in racemes or umbels at the tip of the stem, with six tepals spreading or reflexed, to give flowers varying from funnel shape to a Turks cap. The tepals are free from other, and bear a nectary at the base of each flower. The ovary is superior, borne above the point of attachment of the anthers, the fruit is a three-celled capsule. They exhibit varying and sometimes complex patterns, many adapted to cool temperate climates. Naturally most cool temperate species are deciduous and dormant in winter in their native environment, the basic chromosome number is twelve. 2007, the taxonomy of Chinese species follows the Flora of China and these genera include Cardiocrinum, Notholirion, Nomocharis and Fritillaria. The botanic name Lilium is the Latin form and is a Linnaean name, the Latin name is derived from the Greek λείριον, leírion, generally assumed to refer to true, white lilies as exemplified by the Madonna lily. The word was borrowed from Coptic hleri, from standard hreri, from Demotic hrry, meillet maintains that both the Egyptian and the Greek word are possible loans from an extinct, substratum language of the Eastern Mediterranean. The Greeks also used the word κρῖνον, krīnon, albeit for non-white lilies, all English translations of the Bible render the Hebrew shūshan, shōshan, shōshannā as lily, but the lily among the thorns of Song of Solomon, for instance, may be the honeysuckle. For a list of species described as lilies, see Lily. The range of lilies in the Old World extends across much of Europe, across most of Asia to Japan, south to India, and east to Indochina, in the New World they extend from southern Canada through much of the United States
16.
Kanji
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Kanji, or kanji, are the adopted logographic Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana and katakana. The Japanese term kanji for the Chinese characters literally means Han characters and is using the same characters as the Chinese word hànzì. Chinese characters first came to Japan on official seals, letters, swords, coins, mirrors, the earliest known instance of such an import was the King of Na gold seal given by Emperor Guangwu of Han to a Yamato emissary in 57 AD. Chinese coins from the first century AD have been found in Yayoi-period archaeological sites, however, the Japanese of that era probably had no comprehension of the script, and would remain illiterate until the fifth century AD. The earliest Japanese documents were written by bilingual Chinese or Korean officials employed at the Yamato court. For example, the correspondence from King Bu of Wa to Emperor Shun of Liu Song in 478 has been praised for its skillful use of allusion. Later, groups of people called fuhito were organized under the monarch to read, during the reign of Empress Suiko, the Yamato court began sending full-scale diplomatic missions to China, which resulted in a large increase in Chinese literacy at the Japanese court. The Japanese language had no form at the time Chinese characters were introduced. Chinese characters also came to be used to write Japanese words, around 650 CE, a writing system called manyōgana evolved that used a number of Chinese characters for their sound, rather than for their meaning. Manyōgana written in cursive style evolved into hiragana, or onna-de, that is, ladies hand, major works of Heian-era literature by women were written in hiragana. Katakana emerged via a path, monastery students simplified manyōgana to a single constituent element. Thus the two writing systems, hiragana and katakana, referred to collectively as kana, are descended from kanji. Katakana are mostly used for representing onomatopoeia, non-Japanese loanwords, the names of plants and animals, and for emphasis on certain words. In 1946, following World War II and under the Allied Occupation of Japan and this was done with the goal of facilitating learning for children and simplifying kanji use in literature and periodicals. The number of characters in circulation was reduced, and formal lists of characters to be learned during each grade of school were established, some characters were given simplified glyphs, called shinjitai. Many variant forms of characters and obscure alternatives for common characters were officially discouraged and these are simply guidelines, so many characters outside these standards are still widely known and commonly used, these are known as hyōgaiji. The kyōiku kanji are 1,006 characters that Japanese children learn in elementary school, originally the list only contained 881 characters. This was expanded to 996 characters in 1977 and it was not until 1982 the list was expanded to its current size
17.
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
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Katakana
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Katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin script. The word katakana means fragmentary kana, as the characters are derived from components of more complex kanji. Katakana and hiragana are both kana systems, with one or two minor exceptions, each syllable in the Japanese language is represented by one character, or kana, in each system. Katakana are characterized by short, straight strokes and sharp corners, there are two main systems of ordering katakana, the old-fashioned iroha ordering, and the more prevalent gojūon ordering. The gojūon inherits its vowel and consonant order from Sanskrit practice, in vertical text contexts, which used to be the default case, the grid is usually presented as 10 columns by 5 rows, with vowels on the right hand side and ア on top. Katakana glyphs in the row or column do not share common graphic characteristics. The 50-sound table is often amended with a character, the nasal stop ン. This can appear in positions, most often next to the N signs or, because it developed from one of many mu hentaigana. It may also be appended to the row or the a column. Here, it is shown in a table of its own, the script includes two diacritic marks that change the initial sound of a syllabogram. Both appear mutually exclusive at the right of the base character. A double dot, called dakuten, indicates a primary alteration, most often it voices the consonant, k→g, s→z, t→d and h→b, for example, secondary alteration, where possible, is shown by a circular handakuten, h→p, For example, ハ becomes パ. Diacritics, though used for over a thousand years, only became mandatory in the Japanese writing system in the half of the 20th century. Their application is limited in proper writing systems, but may be more extensive in academic transcriptions. Furthermore, some characters may have special semantics when used in smaller size after a normal one, but this does not make the script truly bicameral. The layout of the gojūon table promotes a systematic view of kana syllabograms as being pronounced with the same single consonant followed by a vowel. As a particle, it is written in hiragana and the katakana form. A small version of the katakana for ya, yu or yo may be added to katakana ending in i and this changes the i vowel sound to a glide to a, u or o, e. g. キャ /kja/
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Romanization of Japanese
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The romanization of Japanese is the application of the Latin script to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is referred to in English as rōmaji. There are several different romanization systems, the three main ones are Hepburn romanization, Kunrei-shiki romanization, and Nihon-shiki romanization. Variants of the Hepburn system are the most widely used, Japanese is normally written in a combination of logographic characters borrowed from Chinese and syllabic scripts which also ultimately derive from Chinese characters. It is also used to transliterate Japanese terms in text written in English on topics related to Japan, such as linguistics, literature, history, and culture. Rōmaji is the most common way to input Japanese into word processors and computers, all Japanese who have attended elementary school since World War II have been taught to read and write romanized Japanese. The word rōmaji literally means Roman letters, and in Japan it is often used to refer to the Latin alphabet itself than to any specific form of romanized Japanese. The earliest Japanese romanization system was based on the Portuguese orthography and it was developed around 1548 by a Japanese Catholic named Yajiro. Jesuit priests used the system in a series of printed Catholic books so that missionaries could preach and teach their converts without learning to read Japanese orthography. The most useful of these books for the study of early modern Japanese pronunciation and early attempts at romanization was the Nippo jisho, in general, the early Portuguese system was similar to Nihon-shiki in its treatment of vowels. The latter continued to be printed and read after the suppression of Christianity in Japan, the Hepburn system included representation of some sounds that have since changed. The Nihon-shiki romanization was an outgrowth of that movement, several Japanese texts were published entirely in rōmaji during this period, but it failed to catch on. Today, the use of Nihon-shiki for writing Japanese is advocated by the Oomoto sect, during the Allied occupation of Japan, the government of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers made it official policy to romanize Japanese. However, that failed and a more moderate attempt at Japanese script reform followed. Hepburn romanization generally follows English phonology with Romance vowels and it is an intuitive method of showing Anglophones the pronunciation of a word in Japanese. It was standardized in the USA as American National Standard System for the Romanization of Japanese, Hepburn is the most common romanization system in use today, especially in the English-speaking world. The Revised Hepburn system of romanization uses a macron to indicate long vowels. For example, the name じゅんいちろう, is written with the kana characters ju-n-i-chi-ro-u, without the apostrophe, it would not be possible to distinguish this correct reading from the incorrect ju-ni-chi-ro-u
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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
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Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
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Honshu
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Honshu is the largest and most populous island of Japan, located south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Straits. The island separates the Sea of Japan, which lies to its north and west, from the North Pacific Ocean to its south and it is the seventh-largest island in the world, and the second-most populous after the Indonesian island of Java. Honshu had a population of 103 million as of 2005, mostly concentrated in the coastal lowlands, as the historical center of Japanese culture and political power, the island includes several past Japanese capitals, including Kyoto, Nara, and Kamakura. Much of the southern shore forms part of the Taiheiyō Belt. The island is linked to the three major Japanese islands by a number of bridges and tunnels. Its climate is humid and mild, the island is roughly 1,300 km long and ranges from 50 to 230 km wide, and its total area is 225,800 km2, 60% of the total area of Japan, making it slightly larger than Great Britain. Its land area has been increasing with land reclamation and coastal uplift in the north, Honshu has 5,450 kilometres of coastline. Mountainous and volcanic, Honshu experiences frequent earthquakes, the highest peak is the active volcano Mount Fuji at 3,776 m, which makes Honshu the worlds 7th highest island. There are many rivers, including the Shinano River, Japans longest, the northernmost point on Honshu is the tip of the Shimokita Peninsula in Ōma, Aomori, Cape Kure lies at the southern extreme in Kushimoto, Wakayama. The islands eastern extremity is Todogasaki in Miyako, Iwate, and its western one is Bishanohana in Shimonoseki, Honshu spans more than eight degrees of latitude and 11 degrees of longitude. Honshu is connected to the islands of Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku by tunnels or bridges, the island is divided into five nominal regions and contains 34 prefectures, including metropolitan Tokyo. Administratively, some islands are included within these prefectures, notably including the Ogasawara Islands, Sado Island, Izu Ōshima. Fruits, vegetables, grains, rice and cotton are grown in Honshu, niigata is noted as an important producer of rice. The Kantō and Nōbi plains produce rice and vegetables, yamanashi is a major fruit-growing area, and Aomori is famous for its apples. Rare species of the lichen genus Menegazzia are found only in Honshu, yields of zinc, copper, and oil have been found on Honshu
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Capital city
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A capital city is the municipality exercising primary status in a country, state, province, or other region, usually as its seat of government. A capital is typically a city that encompasses the offices and meeting places of its respective government. In some jurisdictions, including countries, the different branches of government are located in different settlements. In some cases, a distinction is made between the capital and the seat of government, which is in another place. The word capital derives from the Latin caput, meaning head, in several English-speaking states, the terms county town, county seat, and borough seat are also used in lower subdivisions. In unitary states, subnational capitals are known as administrative centres. The capital is often, but not necessarily, the largest city of its constituent, historically, the major economic centre of a state or region often becomes the focal point of political power, and becomes a capital through conquest or federation. Examples are Ancient Babylon, Abbasid Baghdad, Ancient Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Changan, Ancient Cusco, Madrid, Paris, London, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Vienna, and Berlin. Some of these cities are or were also religious centres, e. g. Constantinople, Rome, Jerusalem, Ancient Babylon, Moscow, Belgrade, Paris, and Peking. A capital city that is also the economic, cultural. The convergence of political and economic or cultural power is by no means universal, traditional capitals may be economically eclipsed by provincial rivals, e. g. Nanking by Shanghai, Quebec City by Montreal, and numerous US state capitals. The decline of a dynasty or culture could also mean the extinction of its city, as occurred at Babylon. Although many capitals are defined by constitution or legislation, many long-time capitals have no legal designation as such, for example Bern, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London, Paris, are located in or near them. In Canada, there is a capital, while the ten provinces. The states of such countries as Mexico, Brazil, and Australia all have capital cities, for example, the six state capitals of Australia are Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. In Australia, the capital cities is regularly used, to refer to the aforementioned state capitals plus the federal capital Canberra and Darwin. Abu Dhabi is the city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. In unitary states which consist of multiple constituent countries, such as the United Kingdom or the Kingdom of Denmark, the national capitals of Germany and Russia, the Stadtstaat of Berlin and the Federal City of Moscow, are also constituent states of both countries in their own right
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Port
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A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land. Port locations are selected to optimize access to land and navigable water, for commercial demand, Ports with deeper water are rarer, but can handle larger ships. Since ports throughout history handled every kind of traffic, support and storage facilities vary widely, may extend for miles, some ports have an important military role. One of the worlds oldest known artificial harbors is at Wadi al-Jarf on the Red Sea, along with the finding of harbor structures, ancient anchors have also been found. Guangzhou was an important port during the ancient times as far back as the Qin Dynasty, canopus was the principal port in Egypt for Greek trade before the foundation of Alexandria. Athens port of Piraeus was the base for the Athenian fleet, lothal is one of the most prominent cities of the ancient Indus valley civilisation, located in the Bhāl region of the modern state of Gujarāt and dating from 3700 BCE. Ostia Antica was the port of ancient Rome with Portus established by Claudius, Ports often have cargo-handling equipment, such as cranes and forklifts for use in loading ships, which may be provided by private interests or public bodies. Often, canneries or other processing facilities will be located nearby, some ports feature canals, which allow ships further movement inland. Access to intermodal transportation, such as railroads and highways, is critical to a port, so that passengers, Ports with international traffic have customs facilities. Harbor pilots and tugboats may maneuver large ships in tight quarters when near docks, the terms port and seaport are used for different types of port facilities that handle ocean-going vessels, and river port is used for river traffic, such as barges and other shallow-draft vessels. An inland port is a port on a lake, river, or canal with access to a sea or ocean. An example of this is the St. Lawrence Seaway which allows ships to travel from the Atlantic Ocean several thousand kilometers inland to Great Lakes ports like Duluth-Superior, a fishing port is a port or harbor for landing and distributing fish. It may be a facility, but it is usually commercial. A fishing port is the port that depends on an ocean product. In recent decades, regulations to save fishing stock may limit the use of a fishing port, a dry port is an inland intermodal terminal directly connected by road or rail to a seaport and operating as a centre for the transshipment of sea cargo to inland destinations. A warm-water port is one where the water does not freeze in wintertime, because they are available year-round, warm-water ports can be of great geopolitical or economic interest. A seaport is further categorized as a port or a cargo port. Additionally, cruise ports are known as a home port or a port of call
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Tokyo
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Tokyo, officially Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan and one of its 47 prefectures. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous area in the world. It is the seat of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese government, Tokyo is in the Kantō region on the southeastern side of the main island Honshu and includes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands. Formerly known as Edo, it has been the de facto seat of government since 1603 when Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu made the city his headquarters. It officially became the capital after Emperor Meiji moved his seat to the city from the old capital of Kyoto in 1868, Tokyo Metropolis was formed in 1943 from the merger of the former Tokyo Prefecture and the city of Tokyo. The Tokyo metropolitan government administers the 23 Special Wards of Tokyo, the metropolitan government also administers 39 municipalities in the western part of the prefecture and the two outlying island chains. The population of the wards is over 9 million people. The prefecture is part of the worlds most populous metropolitan area with upwards of 37.8 million people, the city hosts 51 of the Fortune Global 500 companies, the highest number of any city in the world. Tokyo ranked third in the International Financial Centres Development IndexEdit, the city is also home to various television networks such as Fuji TV, Tokyo MX, TV Tokyo, TV Asahi, Nippon Television, NHK and the Tokyo Broadcasting System. Tokyo ranked first in the Global Economic Power Index and fourth in the Global Cities Index. The city is considered a world city – as listed by the GaWCs 2008 inventory – and in 2014. In 2015, Tokyo was named the Most Liveable City in the world by the magazine Monocle, the Michelin Guide has awarded Tokyo by far the most Michelin stars of any city in the world. Tokyo ranked first in the world in the Safe Cities Index, the 2016 edition of QS Best Student Cities ranked Tokyo as the 3rd-best city in the world to be a university student. Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics, the 1979 G-7 summit, the 1986 G-7 summit, and the 1993 G-7 summit, and will host the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tokyo was originally known as Edo, which means estuary. During the early Meiji period, the city was also called Tōkei, some surviving official English documents use the spelling Tokei. However, this pronunciation is now obsolete, the name Tokyo was first suggested in 1813 in the book Kondō Hisaku, written by Satō Nobuhiro. When Ōkubo Toshimichi proposed the renaming to the government during the Meiji Restoration, according to Oda Kanshi, Tokyo was originally a small fishing village named Edo, in what was formerly part of the old Musashi Province. Edo was first fortified by the Edo clan, in the twelfth century
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Osaka
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Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Japan. Historically a merchant city, Osaka has also known as the nations kitchen. Some of the earliest signs of habitation in the Osaka area at the Morinomiya ruins comprise shell mounds, sea oysters. It is believed that what is today the Uehonmachi area consisted of a land with an inland sea in the east. During the Yayoi period, permanent habitation on the plains grew as rice farming became popular, by the Kofun period, Osaka developed into a hub port connecting the region to the western part of Japan. The large numbers of increasingly larger tomb mounds found in the plains of Osaka are seen as evidence of political-power concentration, in 645, Emperor Kōtoku built his Naniwa Nagara-Toyosaki Palace in what is now Osaka, making it the capital of Japan. The city now known as Osaka was at this time referred to as Naniwa, although the capital was moved to Asuka in 655, Naniwa remained a vital connection, by land and sea, between Yamato, Korea, and China. Naniwa was declared the capital again in 744 by order of Emperor Shōmu, and remained so until 745, in 1496, Jōdo Shinshū Buddhists established their headquarters in the heavily fortified Ishiyama Hongan-ji, located directly on the site of the old Naniwa Imperial Palace. Oda Nobunaga began a siege campaign on the temple in 1570 which ultimately resulted in the surrender of the monks. Toyotomi Hideyoshi constructed Osaka Castle in its place in 1583, Osaka was long considered Japans primary economic center, with a large percentage of the population belonging to the merchant class. Over the course of the Edo period, Osaka grew into one of Japans major cities and returned to its ancient role as a lively and its popular culture was closely related to ukiyo-e depictions of life in Edo. By 1780 Osaka had cultivated a vibrant arts culture, as typified by its famous Kabuki, in 1837 Ōshio Heihachirō, a low-ranking samurai, led a peasant insurrection in response to the citys unwillingness to support the many poor and suffering families in the area. Approximately one-quarter of the city was razed before shogunal officials put down the rebellion, Osaka was opened to foreign trade by the government of the Bakufu at the same time as Hyōgo on 1 January 1868, just before the advent of the Boshin War and the Meiji Restoration. Osaka residents were stereotyped in Edo literature from at least the 18th century, jippenisha Ikku in 1802 depicted Osakans as stingy almost beyond belief. Edo writers aspired to samurai culture, and saw themselves as poor but generous, chaste, Edo writers by contrast saw zeeroku as obsequious apprentices, stingy, greedy, gluttonous, and lewd. The modern municipality was established in 1889 by government ordinance, with an area of 15 square kilometres, overlapping todays Chūō. Later, the city went through three major expansions to reach its current size of 223 square kilometres, Osaka was the industrial center most clearly defined in the development of capitalism in Japan. It became known as the Manchester of the Orient, the rapid industrialization attracted many Korean immigrants, who set up a life apart for themselves
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Kobe
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Kobe is the sixth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture. It is located on the side of the main island of Honshū, on the north shore of Osaka Bay. With a population around 1.5 million, the city is part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka, the earliest written records regarding the region come from the Nihon Shoki, which describes the founding of the Ikuta Shrine by Empress Jingū in AD201. For most of its history, the area was never a political entity, even during the Tokugawa period. Kobe did not exist in its current form until its founding in 1889 and its name comes from kanbe, an archaic title for supporters of the citys Ikuta Shrine. Kobe became one of Japans 17 designated cities in 1956, Kobe was one of the cities to open for trade with the West following the 1853 end of the policy of seclusion and has since been known as a cosmopolitan port city. While the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake diminished much of Kobes prominence as a port city, the city is the point of origin and namesake of Kobe beef, as well as the site of one of Japans most famous hot spring resorts, Arima Onsen. Media related to History of Kobe at Wikimedia Commons Tools found in western Kobe demonstrate the area was populated at least from the Jōmon period. The natural geography of the area, particularly of Wada Cape in Hyōgo-ku, led to the development of a port, some of the earliest written documents mentioning the region include the Nihon Shoki, which describes the founding of the Ikuta Shrine by Empress Jingū in AD201. During the Nara and Heian periods, the port was known by the name Ōwada Anchorage and was one of the ports from which imperial embassies to China were dispatched. The city was briefly the capital of Japan in 1180, when Taira no Kiyomori moved his grandson Emperor Antoku to Fukuhara in present-day Hyōgo-ku, the Emperor returned to Kyoto after about five months. Shortly thereafter in 1184, the Taira fortress in Hyōgo-ku and the nearby Ikuta Shrine became the sites of the Genpei War battle of Ichi-no-Tani between the Taira and Minamoto clans, the Minamoto prevailed, pushing the Taira further. As the port grew during the Kamakura period, it became an important hub for trade with China, in the 13th century, the city came to be known by the name Hyōgo Port. During this time, Hyōgo Port, along with northern Osaka and it was not until the abolition of the han system in 1871 and the establishment of the current prefecture system that the area became politically distinct. Hyōgo Port was opened to trade by the government of the Bakufu at the same time as Osaka on January 1,1868, just before the advent of the Boshin War. The region has since been identified with the West and many residences from the period remain in Kobes Kitano area. Kobe, as it is today, was founded on April 1,1889. The history of the city is tied to that of the Ikuta Shrine, and the name Kobe derives from kamube
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Yokohama
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Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan by population and most populous municipality of Japan. It is the city of Kanagawa Prefecture. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the island of Honshu. It is a commercial hub of the Greater Tokyo Area. Yokohamas population of 3.7 million makes it Japans largest city after the Special Wards of Tokyo, Yokohama was a small fishing village up to the end of the feudal Edo period, when Japan held a policy of national seclusion, having little contact with foreigners. It was initially agreed that one of the ports to be opened to ships would be the bustling town of Kanagawa-juku on the Tōkaidō. However, the Tokugawa shogunate decided that Kanagawa-juku was too close to the Tōkaidō for comfort, the Port of Yokohama was officially opened on June 2,1859. Yokohama quickly became the base of trade in Japan. Kannai, the trade and commercial district, was surrounded by a moat. To protect British commercial and diplomatic interests in Yokohama a military garrison was established in 1862, with the growth in trade increasing numbers of Chinese also came to settle in the city. Recreational sports introduced to Japan by foreign residents in Yokohama included European style horse racing in 1862, cricket in 1863, after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the port was developed for trading silk, the main trading partner being Great Britain. In 1887, a British merchant, Samuel Cocking, built the citys first power plant, at first for his own use, this coal-burning plant became the basis for the Yokohama Cooperative Electric Light Company. The city was incorporated on April 1,1889. The early 20th century was marked by growth of industry. Entrepreneurs built factories along reclaimed land to the north of the city toward Kawasaki, much of Yokohama was destroyed on September 1,1923 by the Great Kantō earthquake. The Yokohama police reported casualties at 30,771 dead and 47,908 injured, fuelled by rumours of rebellion and sabotage, vigilante mobs thereupon murdered many Koreans in the Kojiki-yato slum. Many people believed that Koreans used black magic to cause the earthquake, martial law was in place until November 19. Rubble from the quake was used to land for parks
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Chiba, Chiba
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Chiba is the capital city of Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It sits about 40 kilometres southeast of the center of Tokyo on Tokyo Bay, Chiba City became a government-designated city in 1992. In February 2016, its population was 972,861, with a density of 3,580 people per square kilometer. The city had an area of 271.76 square kilometres, Chiba City is one of the Kantō regions primary seaports, and is home to Chiba Port, which handles one of the highest volumes of cargo in the nation. Much of the city is residential, although there are factories and warehouses along the coast. Chiba is famous for the Chiba Urban Monorail, the longest suspended monorail in the world, the name of Chiba in the Japanese language is formed from two kanji characters. The first, 千, means thousand and the second, 葉 means leaves, the name first appears as an ancient kuni no miyatsuko, or regional command office, as the Chiba Kuni no Miyatsuko. The name was adopted by a branch of the Taira clan, the branch of the Taira adopted the name and became the Chiba clan, which held strong influence over the area of the prefecture until the Azuchi–Momoyama period. Tsuneshige was appointed as administrator of Sōma District, but was transferred to the same position in Chiba District two years later. Tsuneshiges son, Chiba Tsunetane was instrumental in aiding Minamoto Yoritomo with the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate, tsuneshige built a spacious residence and numerous temples in present-day Chiba City, and in the same period he transferred his power base from Ōji Castle to Inohana Castle on Mount Inohana. The area of present-day Chiba City became jōkamachi, or castle town, the clans power extended in the region until the Muromachi period. The Chiba clans power and influence declined because of wars around the Kantō region during the Nanboku-cho, in the 16th century, instead of the Chiba clan, the Hara clan, which was one of the servants of Chiba clan, wielded power in this region. In the Sengoku period, the Hara clan was removed by Ashikaga Yoshiaki. Then, Ashikaga Yoshiaki was also removed by the Sakai clan, finally both the Chiba and Sakai clans were annihilated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In the Edo period, the Oyumi, Morikawa clan, a part of the area was also governed directly by the Tokugawa Bakufu. The Oyumi clan governed their territory stably, finally the Hotta clan stabilized the governance of their territory. Chiba prospered in this period as a shukuba post-town of the Tokugawa shogunate, after the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and the advent of the railroad in Japan Chiba became the political, economic, and cultural capital of the Chiba Prefecture. Chiba City founded on January 1,1921, numerous small villages and towns were merged into the previous town of Chiba, a process that continued until 1944
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Kitakyushu
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Kitakyushu is one of two designated cities in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, together with Fukuoka, with a population of over 1 million people. Kokura Prefecture was founded separately from Fukuoka Prefecture in 1871 when the system was abolished. The old wooden-built Kokura Prefectural Office is still standing and is being restored, in 1876, Kokura Prefecture was absorbed by Fukuoka Prefecture. The city of Kokura was founded in 1900, Yahata in Kitakyushu was the target for the beginning of the US bombing raids on the home islands on June 16,1944, when 75 Boeing B-29 Superfortresses flew out from mainland China. Kokura was the target of the nuclear weapon Fat Man on August 9,1945. Major Charles Sweeney had orders to drop the bomb visually, all three attempts failed due to clouds and smoke from Yahata, which is only 7 km west of Kokura and had air raids on the previous day, preventing him from identifying the target clearly. Additionally, a screen was created by industrial workers burning barrels of coal tar and/or electric plant workers releasing steam. The bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, the secondary target. The city of Kitakyushu was founded on February 10,1963 and was designated on April 1,1963 by government ordinance, the city was born from the merger of five municipalities centered around the ancient feudal city of Kokura. The citys symbol mark is a flower with the north in the middle. Kitakyushu has seven wards, The city of Nakama, Fukuoka was to become the ward of Kitakyushu in 2005. However, the merger was rejected on December 24,2004 by Nakamas city council, as of April 1,2014, the city had an estimated population of 963,267 and a total area of 489.60 km². The average population density is thus 1,967 persons per km² and it is now the countrys 15th most populated city. It has a larger total area than that of Fukuoka which is only 340.03 km². The 1986 family movie Koneko Monogatari was filmed here, the English version of the film, which is the story of the friendship of a kitten and a pug dog, was released in America in 1989 as The Adventures of Milo and Otis. The 1958 comedy Rickshaw Man is based on a folk hero of Kokura called Muhomatsu or Wild Pine and has been called the Japanese Desperado. He is celebrated in the Kokura Gion Yamagasa festival, toshiro Mifune plays the taiko drum in this movie. There are festivals held in the summer in the city, including the Tobata Gion Yamagasa festival in Tobata-ku, kurosaki Gion It has been designated as an intangible cultural asset of Fukuoka Prefecture
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Sakae, Nagoya
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Sakae is an area in Naka-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. It refers to the areas around Sakae intersection, Sakae Station on the Nagoya Municipal Subway, Sakae is located in the heart of Nagoya and as such is, along with Nagoya Station, one of Nagoyas main commercial districts. Parallel to Otsu-dori is Hisaya-odori, this runs from Yaba-cho to Sakae except for Sotobori-dori. Popular events are held in this park on the weekend, also, inside Hisaya-odori Park is the 180-meter Nagoya TV Tower, built in 1954, which is often mentioned as a symbol of Nagoya. At night, the tower is lit and can be all over Sakae. Adjacent to the tower is a facility called Oasis 21, which has restaurants, stores. Adjacent to Oasis 21 is the cultural facility Aichi Fine Arts Center. In recent years, high-end luxury import brand stores as have been increasing one after another along Otsu-dori, along with those, the number high-end furniture and home interior stores has also been increasing. Generally, what is known as Sakae was the area denoted before as Sakae Town, in this way, Sakae District has a wide range, encompassing many well-known places. There are areas known by the names of streets like Hirokoji or Hisaya-odori. Sakae also includes Nishiki 3-chōme or sankin, a red light district, the area is divided into the North District and the South District, in the same manner as Osaka. For this reason, the Sakae 1-chome and Sakae 2-chome around Fushimi Station are Fushimi, Sakae 3-chome and Sakae 5-chome around Yaba-cho station are Yaba-cho, houses were also scattered around the area. In 1902, Hirokoji-dori road to Chikusa was made, and which increased traffic to. In 1910 Ito Dry Goods transferred and started business, and in 1915 Juichiya Department Store opened for business, Maruei traces its origins to 1615, but the store known as Maruei opened when Juichiya Department Store and another department store merged on August 27,1943. During the final period of World War II, although only for a period of less than two years, the half of Naka Ward was established as Sakae Ward. Media related to Sakae, Nagoya at Wikimedia Commons
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Chukyo Racecourse
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Chukyo Racecourse is located in Toyoake, Aichi, Japan. It is used for horse racing and it has a capacity of 58,400. Chukyo Racecourse has a grass courses, a course. Races can be run on the A Course rail setting, the B Course setting, 1000m, 1200m, 1700m, 1800m, 2000m, 2500m and 2800m races run on the oval. The dirt course measures 1418 meters, 1000m, 1600m, 1700m, 2300m races run on the oval. The closest train station is Chūkyō-keibajō-mae Station, which is named after this racecourse
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Atsuta Shrine
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Atsuta Shrine is a Shinto shrine traditionally believed to have been established during the reign of Emperor Keikō located in Atsuta-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture in Japan. The shrine is known as Atsuta-Sama or simply as Miya. Since ancient times, it has been revered, ranking with the Great Shrine of Ise. The 200,000 m² shrine complex draws over 9 million visitors annually, the Kojiki explains that Atsuta Shrine was founded to house the Kusanagi no Tsurugi, a legendary sword. According to traditional sources, Yamato Takeru died in the 43rd year of Emperor Keikos reign, the possessions of the dead prince were gathered together along with the sword Kusanagi, and his widow venerated his memory in a shrine at her home. Sometime later, these relics and the sword were moved to the current location of the Atsuta Shrine. Nihonshoki explains that this occurred in the 51st year of Keikos reign. From 1872 through 1946, the Kasuga Shrine was officially designated one of the Kanpei-taisha, the shrines buildings were maintained by donations from a number of benefactors, including well-known Sengoku period figures like Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the Tokugawas. For example, the Nobunaga-Bei, a 7.4 m high roofed mud wall, was donated to the shrine in 1560 by Nobunaga as a token of gratitude for his victory at the Battle of Okehazama. In 1893, it was remodeled using the Shinmeizukuri architectural style, before a celebration in 1935, the shrines buildings as well as other facilities were completely rearranged and improved in order to better reflect the history and cultural significance of the shrine. During the bombings of World War II, however, many of Atsuta Shrines buildings were destroyed by fire, the shrines main buildings, such as the honden, were reconstructed and completed in 1955. Following the completion of buildings, construction of other buildings continued on the shrine grounds. In 1966 the Treasure Hall was completed in order to house the collection of objects, manuscripts and documents. This Shinto shrine is dedicated to the veneration of Atsuta-no-Ōkami, Atsuta is the traditional repository of Kusanagi no Tsurugi, the ancient sword that is considered one of the Three Sacred Treasures of Japan. Central to the Shinto significance of Atsuta Shrine is the sword which is understood to be a gift from Amaterasu Ōmikami. This unique object has represented the authority and stature of Japans emperors since time immemorial, Kusanagi is imbued with Amaterasus spirit. During the reign of Emperor Sujin, duplicate copies of the Imperial regalia were made in order to safeguard the originals from theft. This fear of theft proved to be justified during the reign of Emperor Tenji when the sword was stolen from Atsuta
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Kusanagi
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Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi is a legendary Japanese sword and one of three Imperial Regalia of Japan. It was originally called Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, but its name was changed to the more popular Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. In folklore the sword represents the virtue of valor, the history of the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi extends into legend. According to Kojiki, the god Susanoo encountered a family of kunitsukami headed by Ashinazuchi in Izumo Province. Susanoo investigated the creature, and after an encounter he returned with a plan to defeat it. In return, he asked for Kushinada-himes hand in marriage, which was agreed, transforming her temporarily into a comb to have her company during battle, he detailed his plan into steps. He instructed the preparation of eight vats of sake to be put on individual platforms positioned behind a fence with eight gates, the monster took the bait and put one of its heads through each gate. With this distraction, Susanoo attacked and slew the beast and he chopped off each head and then proceeded to the tails. In the fourth tail, he discovered a great sword inside the body of the serpent which he called Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi and these gifts came in handy when Yamato Takeru was lured onto an open grassland during a hunting expedition by a treacherous warlord. The lord had fiery arrows loosed to ignite the grass and trap Yamato Takeru in the field so that he would burn to death and he also killed the warriors horse to prevent his escape. In triumph, Yamato Takeru renamed the sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi to commemorate his narrow escape, eventually, Yamato Takeru married and later fell in battle with a monster, after ignoring his wifes advice to take the sword with him. Although the sword is mentioned in the Kojiki, this book is a collection of Japanese myths and is not considered an historical document, the first reliable historical mention of the sword is in the Nihonshoki. In the Nihonshoki, the Kusanagi was removed from the Imperial palace in 688, along with the jewel and the mirror, it is one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan, the sword representing the virtue of valor. Kusanagi is allegedly kept at Atsuta Shrine but is not available for public display, per his account, a stone box was inside a wooden box of length 150 cm, with red clay stuffed into the gap between them. Inside the stone box was a log of a camphor tree, acting as another box. Above that was placed a sword, red clay was also stuffed between the stone box and the camphor tree box. The sword was about 82 cm long and its blade resembled a calamus leaf. The middle of the sword had a thickness from the grip about 18cm with an appearance like a fish spine, the sword was fashioned in a white metallic color, and well maintained
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Owari branch
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The Owari branch of the Tokugawa clan is the seniormost house of the Gosanke. Originally descended from Tokugawa Yoshinao, the son of Tokugawa Ieyasu. It has since kept in existence through repeated adoptions from the two remaining houses, and is currently headed by a member of the Kishu branch. For over 250 years, the Owari family ruled Owari Domain, another residence was the Ōzone Shimoyashiki. The treasures of the Owari branch are kept in the Tokugawa Art Museum in Nagoya, the present head of the family is Tokugawa Yoshitaka
36.
Tokugawa clan
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The Tokugawa clan was a powerful daimyo family of Japan. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa and were a branch of the Minamoto clan by the Nitta clan, the early history of this clan remains a mystery. Members of the clan ruled Japan as Shoguns from 1603 to 1867, Minamoto no Yoshishige, grandson of Minamoto no Yoshiie, was the first to take the name of Nitta. He sided with his cousin Minamoto no Yoritomo against the Taira clan, Nitta Yoshisue, 4th son of Yoshishige, settled at Tokugawa and took the name of that place. Their provincial history book did not mention Minamoto clan or Nitta clan, the nominal originator of the Matsudaira clan was reportedly Matsudaira Chikauji, who was originally a poor Buddhist monk. He reportedly descended from Nitta Yoshisue in the 8th generation and witnessed the ruin of the Nitta in their war against the Ashikaga and he settled at Matsudaira and was adopted by his wifes family. Their provincial history book claimed that this clan was Ariwara clan. Because this place is said to have been reclaimed by Nobumori Ariwara, Matsudaira Nobumitsu, son of Chikauji, was in charge of Okazaki Castle, and strengthened the authority of his family in the Mikawa province. Nobumitsus great-great-grandson Matsudaira Kiyoyasu made his strong, but was assassinated. In 1567, his grandson Ieyasu obtained from the Emperor permission to revive the name Tokugawa, in so doing, he claimed descent from the Minamoto clan. The clan rose to power at the end of the Sengoku period, all in all, there were fifteen Tokugawa shoguns. Their dominance was so strong that some books use the term Tokugawa era instead of Edo period. In addition, the heads of the gosanke bore the Tokugawa surname, additional branches became the gosankyō, the Tayasu, Hitotsubashi, and Shimizu Tokugawa clans. Many daimyo with the Matsudaira surname were descended from the Tokugawa, examples include the Matsudaira of Fukui and Aizu. Members of the Tokugawa clan intermarried with prominent daimyo and the Imperial family and their principal family shrine is the Tōshō-gū in Nikkō, and principal temple is at Kanei-ji in Tokyo. Heirlooms of the clan are partly administered by the Tokugawa Memorial Foundation, the Tokugawas clan crest, known in Japanese as a mon, the triple hollyhock, has been a readily recognized icon in Japan, symbolizing in equal parts the Tokugawa clan and the last shogunate. The crest derives from a clan, the Kamo clan. Matsudaira village was located in Higashikamo District, Aichi Prefecture, although Emperor Go-Yōzei offered a new crest, Ieyasu continued to use the crest, which was not related to Minamoto clan
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Arimatsu, Aichi
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Arimatsu was a town in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It houses the Arimatsu Station of the Meitetsu-Nagoya Line, about 11 km southeast of downtown Nagoya, the town merged into Nagoya on 1 December 1964 and is now a part of Midori-ku, Nagoya. The Battle of Okehazama in 1560 located in the area of this town, oda Nobunaga defeated Imagawa Yoshimoto and established himself as one of the front-running warlords in the Sengoku period. It is a center of shibori or tie-dyeing workmanship, since the seventeenth century. Galli, Andrew and Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada, Arimatsu, Narumi shibori celebrating 400 years of Japanese artisan design. Produced by Arimatsu Shibori Mutsumi-kai, Studio Galli Productions Fremont, Calif,2007 Arimatsu-Narumi Tie-dyeing Museum Hiroshige prints of the Tokaido Road - Station 42 Narumi
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Timeline of Nagoya
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The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Nagoya, Japan. 1614 – Nagoya Castle and its Honmaru Palace built,1684 – Poet Bashō visits Nagoya. 1714 – Fugetsudo Magosuke publisher in business,1776 – Eirakuya Toshiro publisher in business. 1814 – Hokusai Manga published by Eirakuya Toshiro,1871 – Nagoya Shimbun begins publication. 1881 – Nagoya Chamber of Commerce and Industry founded,1886 – Tokaido Line begins operating, Nagoya Station opens. 1891 – October 28, Nobi earthquake occurs,1912 – Aiyu Photography Club formed. 1915 Kintetsu Nagoya Line begins operating,1916 – Catholic Nanzan University founded. 1922 Transportation Bureau City of Nagoya established, Nagoya Court of Appeals building constructed. 1929 – November, Suiheisha conference held in Nagoya,1935 – Tokugawa Art Museum opens. 1936 – Nagoya Baseball Club and Nagoya Golden Dolphins baseball team formed,1937 Nagoya Pan-Pacific Peace Exposition held. Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens founded,1938 – Kintetsu Nagoya Station opens. Meitetsu Nagoya Station and Mizuho Athletic Stadium open,1942 April 18, Bombing of Nagoya in World War II begins. 1944 – Mizuho city ward established,1948 Chunichi Dragons baseball team active. Pachinko parlor and Nagoya Baseball Stadium open, marushin Bussan pachinko manufacturer in business. 1956 – Nagoya designated a government ordinance city,1958 – Grand Sumo tournament begins at the Nagoya Kanayama gymnasium. Sister city relationship established with Los Angeles, USA,1962 – Nagoya Television Broadcasting begins. 1975 –16 Wards system established,1985 – Takeyoshi Nishio becomes mayor. 1987 – Nippon Rainbow Hall opens,1988 – Nagoya City Art Museum opens
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Oda Nobunaga
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Oda Nobunaga was a powerful Daimyō of Japan in the late 16th century who attempted to unify Japan during the late Sengoku period. Nobunaga is regarded as one of three unifiers of Japan along with his retainers Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, Nobunaga was widely known as one of the most brutal figures in history, eliminating anyone who stood in his way. He was both a ruler and keen businessman, strategizing at both the micro- and macroeconomic scales. He met his demise when his retainer Akechi Mitsuhide rebelled against him at Honnō-ji, Oda Nobunaga was the first for whom this goal seemed attainable. Nobunaga had gained control over most of Honshu before his death during the 1582 Honnō-ji incident and it is not certain whether Nobunaga was killed in the attack or else committed seppuku. The motivations behind Mitsuhides betrayal was never revealed to anyone who survived the incident, following the incident, Akechi Mitsuhide declared himself master over Nobunagas domains, but was quickly defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who regained control of and greatly expanded the Oda holdings. Oda Nobunaga was born on June 23,1534, in the Owari domain and he was the second son of Oda Nobuhide, a deputy shugo with land holdings in Owari Province. He is said to have born in Nagoya Castle, although this is subject to debate. Through his childhood and early years, he was well known for his bizarre behavior. He was known to run around with other youths from the area, with the introduction of firearms into Japan, however, he became known for his fondness of tanegashima firearms. In 1551, Oda Nobuhide died unexpectedly, Nobunaga was said to have acted outrageously during his funeral, throwing ceremonial incense at the altar. This convinced many Oda retainers of Nobunagas mediocrity and lack of discipline, alienated, they then began to side with his soft-spoken and well-mannered brother, Nobuyuki. Hirate Masahide, a mentor and retainer to Nobunaga, was ashamed by Nobunagas behavior. This had an effect on Nobunaga, who later built a temple to honor Masahide. Although Nobunaga was Nobuhides legitimate successor, the Oda clan was divided into factions. Oda Nobutomo, the deceased Nobuhides brother and deputy to the shugo, used the weak Yoshimune as his puppet, Nobutomo murdered Yoshimune when it was discovered that he supported and attempted to aid Nobunaga. This also ensured that the Imagawa clan would have to stop attacking Owaris borders, although Nobuyuki and his supporters were still at large, Nobunaga brought an army to Mino Province to aid Saitō Dōsan after Dōsans son, Saitō Yoshitatsu, turned against him. The campaign failed, as Dōsan was killed in the Battle of Nagara-gawa, a few months later Nobuyuki, with support from Shibata Katsuie and Hayashi Hidesada, rebelled against Nobunaga
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Toyotomi Hideyoshi
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Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a preeminent daimyō, warrior, general, samurai, and politician of the Sengoku period who is regarded as Japans second great unifier. He succeeded his former lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Warring States period. The period of his rule is called the Momoyama period. After his death, his young son Hideyori was displaced by Tokugawa Ieyasu, Hideyoshi is noted for a number of cultural legacies, including the restriction that only members of the samurai class could bear arms. He financed the construction, restoration and rebuilding of many temples standing today in Kyoto, Hideyoshi played an important role in the history of Christianity in Japan when he ordered the execution by crucifixion of twenty-six Christians. Very little is known for certain about Hideyoshi before 1570, when he begins to appear in surviving documents and his autobiography starts in 1577 but in it Hideyoshi spoke very little about his past. According to tradition, he was born in Owari Province, the home of the Oda clan and he was born of no traceable samurai lineage, being the son of a peasant-ashigaru named Yaemon. He had no surname, and his given name was Hiyoshi-maru although variations exist. Many legends describe Hideyoshi being sent to study at a temple as a young man, under the name Kinoshita Tōkichirō, he first joined the Imagawa clan as a servant to a local ruler named Matsushita Yukitsuna. He traveled all the way to the lands of Imagawa Yoshimoto, daimyō of Suruga Province, in 1558 he joined the Oda clan, now headed by Oda Nobunaga, as an ashigaru. According to his biographers, he supervised the repair of Kiyosu Castle, a described as apocryphal. In 1561, Hideyoshi married One who was Asano Nagakatsus adopted daughter and he carried out repairs on Sunomata Castle with his younger brother Toyotomi Hidenaga and the bandits Hachisuka Masakatsu and Maeno Nagayasu. Hideyoshis efforts were well received because Sunomata was in enemy territory and he constructed a fort in Sunomata, according to legend overnight, and discovered a secret route into Mount Inaba after which much of the garrison surrendered. Hideyoshi was very successful as a negotiator, in 1564, he managed to convince, mostly with liberal bribes, a number of Mino warlords to desert the Saitō clan. Hideyoshi approached many Saitō clan samurai and convinced them to submit to Nobunaga, including the Saitō clans strategist, the new surname included two characters, one each from Odas two other right-hand men, Niwa Nagahide and Shibata Katsuie. Hideyoshi led troops in the Battle of Anegawa in 1570 in which Oda Nobunaga allied with Tokugawa Ieyasu to lay siege to two fortresses of the Azai and Asakura clans and he participated in the 1573 Siege of Nagashima. In 1573, after victorious campaigns against the Azai and Asakura, initially based at the former Azai headquarters in Odani, Hideyoshi moved to Kunitomo, and renamed the city Nagahama in tribute to Nobunaga. Hideyoshi later moved to the port at Imahama on Lake Biwa, from there he began work on Imahama Castle and took control of the nearby Kunitomo firearms factory that had been established some years previously by the Azai and Asakura
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