1.
Core cities of Japan
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A core city is a class or category of Japanese city. It is an administrative division created by the national government. Core cities are delegated many functions normally carried out by prefectural governments, application for designation is made by a city with the approval of both the city and prefectural assemblies. The term core city was created by the first clause of Article 252, as of February 2017,48 cities have been designated core cities, The following cities have populations greater than 300,000 but have not yet been nominated. Nagaoka, Niigata - Seeking merger with Ojiya and Mitsuke, administrative division Urban area Japans Evolving Nested Municipal Hierarchy, The Race for Local Power in the 2000s, by A. J
2.
Shuri Castle
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Shuri Castle is a Ryukyuan gusuku in Shuri, Okinawa. Between 1429 and 1879, it was the palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom, in 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa, it was almost completely destroyed, but was later re-purposed as a university campus. Beginning in 1992, the citadel and walls were largerly reconstructed on the original site based on historical records, photographs. The date of construction is uncertain, but it was clearly in use as a castle during the Sanzan period and it is thought that it was probably built during the Gusuku period, like many other castles of Okinawa. When King Shō Hashi unified the three principalities of Okinawa and established the Ryukyu Kingdom, he used Shuri Castle as a residence, at the same time, Shuri flourished as the capital and continued to do so during the Second Shō Dynasty. For 450 years from 1429, it was the royal court and it was the focal point of foreign trade, as well as the political, economic, and cultural heart of the Ryukyu Islands. According to records, Shuri Castle was burned several times. During the reign of Shō Nei, samurai forces from the Japanese feudal domain of Satsuma seized Shuri Castle on 6 May 1609. The American Commodore Perry, when he came to Okinawa in the 1850s, later, the Kingdom was annexed by Japan in 1879, and the king was removed and the castle was used as a barracks by the Imperial Japanese Army. The Japanese garrison withdrew in 1896, but not before having created a series of tunnels, in 1908, Shuri City bought the castle from the Japanese government, however they did not have funding to renovate it. In 1923, thanks to Japanese architect Ito Chuta, the Seiden survived demolition after being re-designated a prefectural Shinto shrine known as Okinawa Shrine, in 1925, it became a national treasure. Despite its decline, historian George H, beginning on May 25,1945, and as the final part of the Okinawa campaign, the American battleship USS Mississippi shelled it for three days. Due to this, the 32nd Japanese Army withdrew to the south, after the war, the University of the Ryukyus was established in 1950 on the castle site, where it remained until 1975. In 1958, Shureimon was reconstructed and, starting from 1992, the 20th anniversary of reversion, at present, the entire area around the castle has been established as Shuri Castle Park. In 2000, along with other gusuku and related sites, it was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, unlike Japanese castles, Shuri Castle was greatly influenced by Chinese architecture, with functional and decorative elements similar to that seen primarily in the Forbidden City. However, given that Nanden and Bandokoro were both used for reception and entertainment of the Satsuma clan, a Japanese style design was used here only. Similarly, Okushoin-en is the only surviving garden in a gusuku in the Ryukyu Islands, the current renovation is designed with a focus on the castles role as a cultural or administrative/political center, rather than one for military purposes. The buildings that have been restored as original wooden buildings are only in the main citadel, Seiden was rebuilt using wood from Taiwan and elsewhere after rituals blessing the removal of large trees from mountains in the Yanbaru region of Okinawa took place
3.
Shureimon
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Shureimon is a gate in the Shuri neighborhood of Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It is the second of Shuri Castles main gates and it was first built in the 16th century, and the structure of the gate is similar to that of Chinese three-bay turret gates, and is covered with a red tiled hip roof. The four Hanzi framed on the gate - Shu, rei, no, and kuni and it was also called Shurimon and Wī nu Aijō in the local dialect. The gate reflects strong Chinese influence, alongside indigenous religious traditions, the gate was destroyed in 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa and reconstructed through local campaigns and support in the 1950s and 1960s. It became the first part of the Shuri Castle to be reconstructed, the main columns are 7.94 meters apart. The top layer of the gate is 7.05 meters high, the 4 pillars stand on foundation stones, and they are supported on front and back by slanting accessory pillars for better stability. A picture of the gate appears on the 2000 yen note issued in 2000 to commemorate the 26th G8 summit held in Okinawa. Media related to Shureimon at Wikimedia Commons
4.
Okinawa Prefecture
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The larger are mostly high islands and the smaller ones are mostly coral islands. The largest of the islands is Okinawa, the climate of the islands ranges from humid subtropical climate in the north to tropical rainforest climate in the south. Precipitation is very high, and is affected by the rainy season, the islands beyond the Tokara Strait are characterized by their coral reefs. The Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama Islands have a native population collectively called the Ryukyuan people, the varied Ryukyuan languages are traditionally spoken on these islands, and the major islands have their own distinct languages. In modern times, the Japanese language is the language of the islands. The northern islands are called the Satsunan Islands, while the southern part of the chain are called the Ryukyu Islands in Japanese. Following are the grouping and names used by the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department of the Japan Coast Guard, the islands are listed from north to south where possible. Nansei Islands Satsunan Islands Ōsumi Islands with, Tanegashima, Yaku, Kuchinoerabu, Mageshima in the North-Eastern Group and they agreed on February 15,2010, to use Amami-guntō for the Amami Islands, prior to that, Amami-shotō had also been used. The English and Japanese uses of the term Ryukyu differ, in English, the term Ryukyu may apply to the entire chain of islands, while in Japanese Ryukyu usually refers only to the islands that were previously part of the Ryūkyū Kingdom after 1624. Nansei-shotō is the name for the whole island chain in Japanese. Japan has used the name on nautical charts since 1907, based on the Japanese charts, the international chart series uses Nansei Shoto. Nansei literally means southwest, the direction of the chain from mainland Japan. Some humanities scholars prefer the uncommon term Ryūkyū-ko for the island chain. In geology, however, the Ryukyu Arc includes subsurface structures such as the Okinawa Trough, the name of Ryūkyū is strongly associated with the Ryūkyū Kingdom, a kingdom that originated from the Okinawa Islands and subjected the Sakishima and Amami Islands. The name is considered outdated in Japanese although some entities of Okinawa still bear the name. In Japanese, the Ryukyu Islands cover only the Okinawa, Miyako, the northern half of the island chain is referred to as the Satsunan Islands in Japanese, as opposed to Northern Ryukyu Islands in English. Humanities scholars generally agree that the Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, there is, however, no good name for the group. The native population do not have their own name, since they do not recognize themselves as a group this size, Ryukyu is the principal candidate because it roughly corresponds to the maximum extent of the Ryūkyū Kingdom
5.
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
6.
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
7.
Kyushu
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Kyushu is the third biggest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternative ancient names include Kyūkoku, Chinzei, and Tsukushi-no-shima, the historical regional name Saikaidō referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands. In the 8th century Taihō Code reforms, Dazaifu was established as an administrative term for the region. As of 2016, Kyushu has a population of 12,970,479, the island is mountainous, and Japans most active volcano, Mt Aso at 1,591 metres, is on Kyushu. There are many signs of tectonic activity, including numerous areas of hot springs. The most famous of these are in Beppu, on the east shore, the island is separated from Honshu by the Kanmon Straits. The name Kyūshū comes from the nine ancient provinces of Saikaidō situated on the island, Chikuzen, Chikugo, Hizen, Higo, Buzen, Bungo, Hyūga, Osumi, excepting Oita and Miyazaki cities, the eastern seaboard shows a general decline in population. Designated cities Fukuoka Kitakyushu Kumamoto Core cities Kagoshima Ōita Nagasaki Miyazaki Naha Kurume Parts of Kyushu have a climate, particularly Miyazaki. Major agricultural products are rice, tea, tobacco, sweet potatoes, the island is noted for various types of porcelain, including Arita, Imari, Satsuma, and Karatsu. Heavy industry is concentrated in the north around Fukuoka, Kitakyushu, Nagasaki, and Oita and includes chemicals, automobiles, semiconductors, in 2010, the graduate employment rate in the region was the lowest nationwide, at 88. 9%. Besides the volcanic area of the south, there are significant mud hot springs in the part of the island, around Beppu. These springs are the site of occurrence of certain extremophile micro-organisms, the Kanmon Bridge also connects the island with Honshu. Railways on the island are operated by the Kyushu Railway Company, and Nishitetsu Railway
8.
Ryukyu Islands
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The larger are mostly high islands and the smaller ones are mostly coral islands. The largest of the islands is Okinawa, the climate of the islands ranges from humid subtropical climate in the north to tropical rainforest climate in the south. Precipitation is very high, and is affected by the rainy season, the islands beyond the Tokara Strait are characterized by their coral reefs. The Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama Islands have a native population collectively called the Ryukyuan people, the varied Ryukyuan languages are traditionally spoken on these islands, and the major islands have their own distinct languages. In modern times, the Japanese language is the language of the islands. The northern islands are called the Satsunan Islands, while the southern part of the chain are called the Ryukyu Islands in Japanese. Following are the grouping and names used by the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department of the Japan Coast Guard, the islands are listed from north to south where possible. Nansei Islands Satsunan Islands Ōsumi Islands with, Tanegashima, Yaku, Kuchinoerabu, Mageshima in the North-Eastern Group and they agreed on February 15,2010, to use Amami-guntō for the Amami Islands, prior to that, Amami-shotō had also been used. The English and Japanese uses of the term Ryukyu differ, in English, the term Ryukyu may apply to the entire chain of islands, while in Japanese Ryukyu usually refers only to the islands that were previously part of the Ryūkyū Kingdom after 1624. Nansei-shotō is the name for the whole island chain in Japanese. Japan has used the name on nautical charts since 1907, based on the Japanese charts, the international chart series uses Nansei Shoto. Nansei literally means southwest, the direction of the chain from mainland Japan. Some humanities scholars prefer the uncommon term Ryūkyū-ko for the island chain. In geology, however, the Ryukyu Arc includes subsurface structures such as the Okinawa Trough, the name of Ryūkyū is strongly associated with the Ryūkyū Kingdom, a kingdom that originated from the Okinawa Islands and subjected the Sakishima and Amami Islands. The name is considered outdated in Japanese although some entities of Okinawa still bear the name. In Japanese, the Ryukyu Islands cover only the Okinawa, Miyako, the northern half of the island chain is referred to as the Satsunan Islands in Japanese, as opposed to Northern Ryukyu Islands in English. Humanities scholars generally agree that the Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, there is, however, no good name for the group. The native population do not have their own name, since they do not recognize themselves as a group this size, Ryukyu is the principal candidate because it roughly corresponds to the maximum extent of the Ryūkyū Kingdom
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.
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
11.
Bougainvillea
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Bougainvillea is a genus of thorny ornamental vines, bushes, and trees with flower-like spring leaves near its flowers. Different authors accept between four and 18 species in the genus and they are native plants of West Africa Gambia, South America from Brazil west to Peru and south to southern Argentina. Bougainvillea are also known as buganvilla, bugambilia, pokok bunga kertas, bougenville, Napoleón, jahanamiya, veranera, trinitaria, the vine species grow anywhere from 1 to 12 m tall, scrambling over other plants with their spiky thorns. The thorns are tipped with a black, waxy substance and they are evergreen where rainfall occurs all year, or deciduous if there is a dry season. The leaves are alternate, simple ovate-acuminate, 4–13 cm long, Bougainvillea glabra is sometimes referred to as paper flower because the bracts are thin and papery. The fruit is a narrow five-lobed achene, Bougainvillea are relatively pest-free plants, but they may suffer from worms, snails and aphids. The larvae of some Lepidoptera species also use them as food plants and it is possible that the first European to observe these plants was Jeanne Baré, Commerçons lover and assistant who was an expert in botany. Because she was not allowed on ship as a woman, she disguised herself as a man in order to make the journey, twenty years after Commerçons discovery, it was first published as Buginvillæa in Genera Plantarum by A. L. de Jussieu in 1789. The genus was subsequently spelled in several ways until it was corrected to Bougainvillea in the Index Kewensis in the 1930s. Originally, B. spectabilis and B. glabra were hardly differentiated until the mid-1980s when botanists recognized them to be distinct species. Meanwhile, Kew Gardens distributed plants it had propagated to British colonies throughout the world, soon thereafter, an important event in the history of bougainvillea took place with the discovery of a crimson specimen in Cartagena, Colombia, by Mrs. R. V. Originally thought to be a species, it was named B. buttiana in her honour. However, it was discovered to be a natural hybrid of a variety of B. glabra. Natural hybrids were found to be common occurrences all over the world. Bougainvillea are popular plants in most areas with warm climates. Locarno in Switzerland, with its mild Mediterranean climate, is famous for its bougainvillea, although it is frost-sensitive and hardy in USDA Hardiness Zones 9b and 10, bougainvillea can be used as a houseplant or hanging basket in cooler climates. In the landscape, it makes an excellent hot season plant and its high salt tolerance makes it a natural choice for color in coastal regions. It can be pruned into a standard, but is grown along fence lines, on walls, in containers and hanging baskets
12.
Shinjitai
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Shinjitai are the forms of kanji used in Japan since the promulgation of the Tōyō Kanji List in 1946. Some of the new forms found in shinjitai are also found in simplified Chinese, shinjitai were created by reducing the number of strokes in kyūjitai, unsimplified kanji equivalent to Traditional Chinese characters, also called seiji. There have been a few stages of simplifications made since the 1950s, the following forms were established as a result of the postwar character reforms. However, they were not completely created anew, as many were based on widely used handwritten abbreviations from the prewar era, due to the complexity of kanji, many abbreviations were used in handwriting, whose status rose to become official characters in the postwar reforms. Attention was paid to the balance of the characters in their new form. In almost all cases, characters in the new standard have fewer strokes than old forms, though in a few cases they have the same number, the most radical simplification was 廳→庁, removing 20 strokes. For example, the character 擧 was simplified as 挙, but the character 欅 which also contained 擧, simplified forms of hyōgaiji do exist, and are referred to as extended shinjitai. However, they are unofficial, a position reiterated in the National Language Council’s 2000 report on Characters Not Listed in the Jōyō Kanji Table, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper is thorough in its simplification of hyōgaiji, and its in-house simplifications are called Asahi characters. For example, 痙攣 is simplified following the model of 經→経 and this is also said to have been done because in the age of typewriter-based printing, more complicated kanji could not be clearly printed. Cursive script and semi-cursive script forms of kanji were adopted as shinjitai, examples include, 圖→図 觀→観 示 →礻 晝→昼 The aforementioned 门 handwritten simplification also originated from semi-cursive, but is not generally accepted in official Japanese writing. Characters in which there were two or more variants were standardized under one form, the character 島 also had the variant forms 嶋 and 嶌, but the 島 form became standard. The 辶 radical was once printed with two dots but was written one, so the written form with one dot became standard. The upper 丷 portion of the characters 半, 尊, and 平 was once printed as 八 and written 丷, Characters of the keisei monji group each contain a semantic part and a phonetic part. The choice was made to swap the phonetic parts with homophones which had fewer strokes, for example, 圍 was changed to 囲, because 韋 and 井 were homophones. Other simplifications of this method include 竊→窃, 廳→庁, 擔→担, there are also colloquial handwritten simplifications based on this model, in which various non-kanji symbols are used as onpu, for example 魔, 慶, 藤, and 機. In some cases, a character was replaced with a simpler character which neither had graphical resemblance, nor was homophonic. Examples include 登 → 正 and 登 → 丁, some kanji were simplified by removing entire components. Firstly, only a group of characters was simplified, with many characters outside this group retaining their earlier form
13.
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
14.
Okinawan language
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Central Okinawan distinguishes itself from the speech of Northern Okinawa, which is classified independently as the Kunigami language. Both languages have been designated as endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger since its launch in February 2009. Within Japan, Okinawan is often not seen as a language itself but is referred to as the Okinawan dialect or more specifically the Central. Okinawan speakers are undergoing language shift as they switch to Japanese, Okinawan is still spoken by many older people. It is also alive in popular music, tourist shows, and in theaters featuring a local drama called uchinaa shibai. Pre-Ryukyu Kingdom Okinawan is a Japonic language, derived from Old Japanese, the split between Old Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages has been estimated to have occurred as early as the first century AD to as late as the twelfth century AD. Chinese and Japanese characters were first introduced by a Japanese missionary in 1265, Ryukyu Kingdom Era Pre-Satsuma Hiragana was much more popular than kanji, poems were commonly written solely in hiragana or with little kanji. Post-Satsuma to Annexation After Ryukyu became a vassal of Satsuma Domain, kanji gained more prominence in poetry, Japanese Annexation to End of World War II When Ryukyu was annexed by Japan in 1879, the majority of people on Okinawa Island spoke Okinawan. Within ten years, the Japanese government began a policy of Japanization. The education system was the heart of Japanization, where Okinawan children were taught Japanese and punished for speaking their native language, by 1945, many Okinawans spoke Japanese, and many were bilingual. During the Battle of Okinawa, some Okinawans were killed by Japanese soldiers for speaking Okinawan, American Occupation Under American administration, there was an attempt to revive and standardize Okinawan, however this proved difficult and was shelved in favor of Japanese. There have been attempts to revive Okinawan by notable people such as Byron Fija and Seijin Noborikawa, Okinawan is sometimes grouped with Kunigami as the Okinawan languages, however some linguists dont use this grouping or claim that Kunigami is a dialect of Okinawan. Okinawan is also grouped with Amami as the Northern Ryukyuan languages, dialect of the Japanese language Since the creation of Okinawa Prefecture, Okinawan was labeled a dialect of Japanese as part of a policy of assimilation. Later, Japanese linguists, such as Tōjō Misao, who studied the Ryukyuan languages argued that they are indeed dialects and this is due to the misconception that Japan is a homogeneous state, and classifying the Ryukyuan languages as such would discredit this belief. The policy of assimilation, coupled with increased interaction between Japan and Okinawa through media and economics, has led to the development of Okinawan Japanese, dialect of the Ryukyuan language Okinawan linguist Seizen Nakasone states that the Ryukyuan languages are in fact groupings of similar dialects. As each community has its own dialect, there is no one language. Nakasone attributes this diversity to the isolation caused by immobility, citing the story of his mother who wanted to visit the town of Nago and its own distinct language Outside Japan, Okinawan is considered a separate language from Japanese. This was first proposed by Basil Hall Chamberlain, who compared the relationship between Okinawan and Japanese to that of the Romance languages, UNESCO has marked it as an endangered language
15.
Cities of Japan
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A city is a local administrative unit in Japan. Cities are ranked on the level as towns and villages. Like other contemporary administrative units, they are defined by the Local Autonomy Law of 1947, a city can theoretically be demoted to a town or village when it fails to meet any of these conditions, but such a demotion has not happened to date. The least populous city, Utashinai, Hokkaido, has a population of six thousand, while a town in the prefecture, Otofuke. Many municipalities gained city status under this eased standard, the Cabinet of Japan can designate cities of at least 200,000 inhabitants to have the status of special city, core city, or designated city. These statuses expand the scope of authority delegated from the prefectural government to the city government. Tokyo, Japan’s capital, existed as a city until 1943, the 23 special wards of Tokyo, which constitute the core of the Tokyo metropolitan area, each have an administrative status analogous to that of cities. Tokyo also has several other incorporated cities, towns and villages within its jurisdiction. J, jacobs at Urban Studies Research, Vol.2011, doi,10. 1155/2011/692764 Large City System of Japan, graphic shows Japanese city types at p.1
16.
Population
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A population is the number of all the organisms of the same group or species, which live in a particular geographical area, and have the capability of interbreeding. In sociology, population refers to a collection of humans, Demography is a social science which entails the statistical study of human populations. This article refers mainly to human population, in population genetics a sexual population is a set of organisms in which any pair of members can breed together. This means that they can regularly exchange gametes to produce normally-fertile offspring and this also implies that all members belong to the same species. If the gamodeme is very large, and all gene alleles are uniformly distributed by the gametes within it, however, there may be low frequencies of exchange with these neighbours. This may be viewed as the breaking up of a sexual population into smaller overlapping sexual populations. The overall rise in homozygosity is quantified by the inbreeding coefficient, note that all homozygotes are increased in frequency – both the deleterious and the desirable. The mean phenotype of the collection is lower than that of the panmictic original – which is known as inbreeding depression. It is most important to note, however, that some lines will be superior to the panmictic original, while some will be about the same. The probabilities of each can be estimated from those binomial equations, in plant and animal breeding, procedures have been developed which deliberately utilise the effects of dispersion. It can be shown that dispersion-assisted selection leads to the greatest genetic advance and this is so for both allogamous and autogamous gamodemes. In ecology, the population of a species in a certain area can be estimated using the Lincoln Index. As of todays date, the population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 7.496 billion. The US Census Bureau estimates the 7 billion number was surpassed on 12 March 2012, according to papers published by the United States Census Bureau, the world population hit 6.5 billion on 24 February 2006. The United Nations Population Fund designated 12 October 1999 as the day on which world population reached 6 billion. This was about 12 years after world population reached 5 billion in 1987, the population of countries such as Nigeria, is not even known to the nearest million, so there is a considerable margin of error in such estimates. Researcher Carl Haub calculated that a total of over 100 billion people have probably been born in the last 2000 years, Population growth increased significantly as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace from 1700 onwards. In 2007 the United Nations Population Division projected that the population will likely surpass 10 billion in 2055
17.
Population density
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Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume, it is a quantity of type number density. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and most of the time to humans and it is a key geographical term. Population density is population divided by land area or water volume. Low densities may cause a vortex and lead to further reduced fertility. This is called the Allee effect after the scientist who identified it, commonly this may be calculated for a county, city, country, another territory, or the entire world. The worlds population is around 7,000,000,000, therefore, the worldwide human population density is around 7,000,000,000 ÷510,000,000 =13.7 per km2. If only the Earths land area of 150,000,000 km2 is taken into account and this includes all continental and island land area, including Antarctica. If Antarctica is also excluded, then population density rises to over 50 people per km2, thus, this number by itself does not give any helpful measurement of human population density. Several of the most densely populated territories in the world are city-states, microstates, cities with high population densities are, by some, considered to be overpopulated, though this will depend on factors like quality of housing and infrastructure and access to resources. Most of the most densely populated cities are in Southeast Asia, though Cairo, for instance, Milwaukee has a greater population density when just the inner city is measured, and the surrounding suburbs excluded. Arithmetic density, The total number of people / area of land, physiological density, The total population / area of arable land. Agricultural density, The total rural population / area of arable land, residential density, The number of people living in an urban area / area of residential land. Urban density, The number of people inhabiting an urban area / total area of urban land, ecological optimum, The density of population that can be supported by the natural resources. S. States by population density Selected Current and Historic City, Ward & Neighborhood Density
18.
East China Sea
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The East China Sea is a marginal sea east of China. The East China Sea is a part of the Pacific Ocean, to the east lies the Japanese islands of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands, to the south lies the South China Sea, and to the west by the Asian continent. The sea connects with the Sea of Japan through the Korea Strait, the sovereign states which border the sea include South Korea, Japan, the Republic of China and the Peoples Republic of China. The East China Sea is a part of the Pacific Ocean and it is bounded on the east by Kyūshū and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, on the south by the South China Sea, and on the west by the Asian continent. It connects with the Sea of Japan through the Korea Strait, it opens in the north to the Yellow Sea, states with borders on the sea include, South Korea, Japan, Republic of China and the Peoples Republic of China. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Eastern China Sea as follows, the Northern limit of the South China Sea, thence from Santyo the Northeastern point of Formosa to the West point of Yonakuni Island and thence to Haderuma Sima. The Yangtze River is the largest river flowing into the East China Sea, tong Island There is a cluster of submerged reefs in the northern East China Sea. These include, Socotra Rock, also called Suyan Rock or Ieodo, hupijiao Rock Yajiao Rock The sea is called the East Sea in Chinese, being one of the Four Seas of Chinese literature. There are three other seas, one for each of the four cardinal directions, until World War II, the sea was referred to as 東支那海 in Japanese. In 2004, official documents of the Japanese Foreign Ministry and other departments switched to the name 東シナ海, common usage in Indonesia refers to the sea as Laut Cina Timur. Despite this, many Indonesian media outlets and publications continue to use the sea name. American whaleships cruised for whales in the sea between 1849 and 1892. There are disputes between the Peoples Republic of China, Japan, and South Korea over the extent of their exclusive economic zones. The dispute between the PRC and Japan concerns the different application of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, China and Japan both claim 200 nautical miles EEZ rights, but the East China Sea width is only 360 nautical miles. China proposed the application of UNCLOS, considering the natural prolongation of its continental shelf, in 2012, China presented a submission under the UNCLOS concerning the outer limits of the continental shelf to the UN. Japan has objected to PRC development of gas resources in the East China Sea near the area where the two countries Exclusive Economic Zone claims overlap. The specific development in dispute is the PRCs drilling in the Chunxiao gas field, Japan therefore seeks a share in the natural gas resources. The gas fields in the Xihu Sag area in the East China Sea are estimated to hold reserves of 364 BCF of natural gas
19.
Okinawa Island
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Okinawa Island is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. The island is approximately 70 miles long and an average 7 miles wide and it is roughly 640 kilometres south of the rest of Japan, roughly the same distance off the coast of China, and 500 km north of Taiwan. Okinawa has been a strategic location for the United States Armed Forces since the end of World War II. The island hosts around 26,000 US military personnel, about half of the complement of the United States Forces Japan. Okinawa contains 96% of the US military stationed in Japan, US bases in Okinawa played critical roles in the Korean War, Vietnam War, War in Afghanistan and Iraq War. The presence of the US military in Okinawa has caused controversy both on the island and elsewhere in Japan. The time when human beings first appeared in Okinawa remains unknown, Early Okinawan history is defined by midden or shell heap culture, and is divided into Early, Middle, and Late Shell Mound periods. The Early Shell Mound period was a society, with wave-like opening Jomon pottery. In the latter part of period, archaeological sites moved near the seashore. In Okinawa, rice was not cultivated until the Middle Shell Mound period, Shell rings for arms made of shells obtained in the Sakishima Islands, namely Miyakojima and Yaeyama islands, were imported by Japan. In these islands, the presence of shell axes,2500 years ago, after the Late Shell Mound period, agriculture started about the 12th century, with the center moving from the seashore to higher places. This period is called the Gusuku period, Gusuku is the term used for the distinctive Ryukyuan form of castles or fortresses. Many gusukus and related cultural remains in the Ryukyu Islands have been listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites under the title Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu. There are three perspectives regarding the nature of gusukus, 1) a holy place, 2) dwellings encircled by stones, in this period, porcelain trade between Okinawa and other countries became busy, and Okinawa became an important relay point in eastern-Asian trade. Ryukyuan kings, such as Shunten and Eiso, were important rulers, an attempted Mongolian invasion in 1291 during the Eiso Dynasty ended in failure. Hiragana was imported from Japan by Ganjin in 1265, noro, village priestesses of the Ryukyuan religion, appeared. The Sanzan period began in 1314, when the kingdoms of Hokuzan and Nanzan declared independence from Chūzan, the three kingdoms competed with one another for recognition and trade with Ming China. King Satto, leading Chūzan, was successful, establishing relations with Korea
20.
Ryukyu Kingdom
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The Ryukyu Kingdom was an independent kingdom that ruled most of the Ryukyu Islands from the 15th to the 19th century. The kings of Ryukyu unified Okinawa Island and extended the kingdom to the Amami Islands in modern-day Kagoshima Prefecture, despite its small size, the kingdom played a central role in the maritime trade networks of medieval East and Southeast Asia. In the 14th century, small domains scattered on Okinawa Island were unified into three principalities, Hokuzan, Chūzan and Nanzan and this was known as the Three Kingdoms or Sanzan period. Hokuzan, which constituted much of the half of the island, was the largest in terms of land area and military strength. Nanzan constituted the southern portion of the island, Chūzan lay in the center of the island, and was economically the strongest. Its political capital at Shuri, Nanzan was adjacent to the port of Naha and Kume-mura. These sites, and Chūzan as a whole, would continue to form the center of the Ryukyu Kingdom until its abolition, many Chinese moved to Ryukyu to serve the government or to engage in business during this period. At the request of the Ryukyuan King, the Ming Chinese sent 36 Chinese families from Fujian to manage oceanic dealings in the kingdom in 1392 during the Hongwu emperors reign, many Ryukyuan officials were descended from these Chinese immigrants, being born in China or having Chinese grandfathers. They assisted the Ryukyuans in advancing their technology and diplomatic relations, according to statements by Qing imperial official Li Hongzhang in a meeting with Ulysses S. These three principalities, or tribal federations, led by major chieftains, battled, and Chūzan emerged victorious, the Chūzan leaders were officially recognized by Ming dynasty China as the rightful kings over those of Nanzan and Hokuzan, thus lending great legitimacy to their claims. The ruler of Chūzan passed his throne to King Hashi, Hashi conquered Hokuzan in 1416 and Nanzan in 1429, uniting the island of Okinawa for the first time, Hashi received the surname Shō 尚 from the Ming emperor in 1421, becoming known as Shō Hashi 尚巴志. Shō Hashi adopted the Chinese hierarchical court system, built Shuri Castle and the town as his capital, and constructed Naha harbor. When in 1469 King Shō Toku, who was a grandson of Shō Hashi, died without a male heir and this pretender, Shō En, began the Second Shō Dynasty. Ryukyus golden age occurred during the reign of Shō Shin, the king of that dynasty. For nearly two hundred years, the Ryukyu Kingdom would thrive as a key player in trade with Southeast and East Asia. In the late 16th century, however, the commercial prosperity fell into decline. The decline of the wokou threat among other factors led to the loss of Chinese preferential treatment. Around 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi asked the Ryukyu Kingdom to aid in his campaign to conquer Korea, if successful, Hideyoshi intended to then move against China
21.
Okinawa Monorail
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The Okinawa City Monorail, also known as Yui Rail, is a monorail line in Naha, Okinawa, Japan. Operated by Okinawa City Monorail Corporation, it opened on August 10,2003, and is the public rail system in Okinawa Prefecture. Also Naha Kūkō Station is the westernmost, and Akamine Station is the southernmost rail station in Japan and it uses the OKICA as its contactless card. The monorails Yui Rail brand name and logo were selected in a public competition and it consists of 15 stations, from Naha Kūkō in the west to Shuri in the east, running via Naha. The average distance between stations is 0.93 kilometers and it takes 27 minutes and costs ¥330 to traverse its 12.9 km length. Trains are made up of two cars, with 65 seats and a capacity of 165 people. Trains runs on a track between 8 and 20 meters above the ground, with a top speed of 65 km/h. Permission was granted on January 26,2012, with planned to start in March 2013. Monorails in Japan List of rapid transit systems Rail transportation in Okinawa Official website
22.
United States Armed Forces
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The United States Armed Forces are the federal armed forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, from the time of its inception, the military played a decisive role in the history of the United States. A sense of unity and identity was forged as a result of victory in the First Barbary War. Even so, the Founders were suspicious of a permanent military force and it played an important role in the American Civil War, where leading generals on both sides were picked from members of the United States military. Not until the outbreak of World War II did a standing army become officially established. The National Security Act of 1947, adopted following World War II and during the Cold Wars onset, the U. S. military is one of the largest militaries in terms of number of personnel. It draws its personnel from a pool of paid volunteers. As of 2016, the United States spends about $580.3 billion annually to fund its military forces, put together, the United States constitutes roughly 40 percent of the worlds military expenditures. For the period 2010–14, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found that the United States was the worlds largest exporter of major arms, the United States was also the worlds eighth largest importer of major weapons for the same period. The history of the U. S. military dates to 1775 and these forces demobilized in 1784 after the Treaty of Paris ended the War for Independence. All three services trace their origins to the founding of the Continental Army, the Continental Navy, the United States President is the U. S. militarys commander-in-chief. Rising tensions at various times with Britain and France and the ensuing Quasi-War and War of 1812 quickened the development of the U. S. Navy, the reserve branches formed a military strategic reserve during the Cold War, to be called into service in case of war. Time magazines Mark Thompson has suggested that with the War on Terror, Command over the armed forces is established in the United States Constitution. The sole power of command is vested in the President by Article II as Commander-in-Chief, the Constitution also allows for the creation of executive Departments headed principal officers whose opinion the President can require. This allowance in the Constitution formed the basis for creation of the Department of Defense in 1947 by the National Security Act, the Defense Department is headed by the Secretary of Defense, who is a civilian and member of the Cabinet. The Defense Secretary is second in the chain of command, just below the President. Together, the President and the Secretary of Defense comprise the National Command Authority, to coordinate military strategy with political affairs, the President has a National Security Council headed by the National Security Advisor. The collective body has only power to the President
23.
Omoromachi Station
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Omoromachi Station is a railway station on the Okinawa Monorail located in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. In the original plans, this station was to be called Makabi Station, after the neighboring district, from just before Asato Station, through Omoromachi Station, to shortly after Furujima Station, the monorail tracks run directly above, and following, Japan National Route 330. The station has two facing platforms with one track each, Platform 1 serves Shuri-bound trains and Platform 2 serves trains bound for Naha Airport. The chime played to announce train arrivals and departures is the traditional Okinawan folk song Danjukariyushi, Okinawa Monorail Yui Rail Media related to Omoromachi Station at Wikimedia Commons
24.
Toys "R" Us
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Toys R Us, Inc. is an American toy and juvenile-products retailer founded in 1948 and headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey, in the New York City metropolitan area. The companys brands include Toys R Us, and Babies R Us and it also operates e-commerce sites including ToysRUs. com and BabiesRUs. com. Charles P. Lazarus founded Childrens Supermart in Washington, D. C. during the baby boom era in 1948 as a baby-furniture retailer. Its first location was at 2461 18th St. NW, where the nightclub Madams Organ Blues Bar is located, Lazarus began receiving requests from customers for baby toys. After adding baby toys, he got requests for toys for older children, the focus of the store changed in 1957, and Toys R Us was born in Rockville, Maryland. The original Toys R Us store design from 1969 to 1989 consisted of vertical rainbow stripes and a brown roof with a front entrance and side exit. Since the rise of mass merchants like Walmart, Target and Amazon, however, Toys R Us has lost much of its share of the toy market, to improve the company, the board of directors installed John Eyler. Eyler launched an unsuccessful, expensive plan to remodel and re-launch the chain, blaming market pressures, Toys R Us considered splitting its toy and baby businesses. On July 21,2005, a consortium of Bain Capital Partners LLC, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Vornado Realty Trust invested $1.3 billion to complete a $6.6 billion leveraged buyout of the company. Public stock closed for the last time at $26. 74—pennies from the 68-week high, Toys R Us is now a privately owned entity. However, the company still files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, formerly known as Dr. G. Raffe, the companys mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe made his debut during 1957 in print advertisements for Childrens Bargain Town. During 1969, when Childrens Bargain Town became Toys R Us, Dr. G. Raffe was renamed Geoffrey, kids R Us was a childrens clothing retailer. Their first locations opened in 1983 in Paramus, New Jersey and Brooklyn, Babies R Us operates as a specialty baby products retailer and has grown to approximately 260 locations in the United States. The stores offers an assortment of products for newborns, infants, the company continues to grow internationally, and made its most recent entry into a new market in October 2011 when it opened its first licensed location in Poland. In 2006, Toys R Us purchased remaining shares of Toys R Us, Japan from McDonalds Holdings Co. increasing its ownership from approximately 62% to slightly over 90%. In May 2006, Toys R Us, Inc. acquired toy retailer FAO Schwarz including the flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York City, as well as its e-commerce site. Toys R Us closed the FAO Schwarz flagship store in New York on July 15,2015 citing rising rental costs, for the 2009 holiday-shopping season, Toys R Us tried a smaller-store concept to attract customers and 90 Holiday Express stores across the United States and Canada were opened. Most of these 90 stores were opened in shopping-center and mall spaces that had been vacated by store chains closing their doors during the recession and these stores are known as Toys R Us Express
25.
Okinawa Prefectural Museum
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The Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum is a museum in the most southern prefecture of Japan. The museum complex in the Omoro-machi area of Naha, the city of Okinawa Prefecture. It opened in November 2007, and includes art, history, the museum building, constructed largely of local Okinawan limestone, was designed with the imagery of Okinawas gusuku in mind. It contains roughly 24,000 square meters of space on its four above-ground levels. The art museum and history/natural history museum are located on opposite sides of a common lobby and it was based in the Ōnaka-chō neighborhood of Shuri, near Shuri Castle, and was closed in 2007, moving to the new site. The museum in its former incarnation focused upon Okinawan history, natural history, folk life, the art museum included on the new site is the first prefectural art museum in Okinawa. A sculpture garden located behind the museum features large contemporary artworks, the Natural History section of the museum is entered via a glass-floored walkway designed to look as though one is walking over coral, approaching an island. A large wrap-around screen shows short films about the origins of the Ryukyu Islands and about its natural environment, flora. The several rooms of the section of the museum cover the entire history of the Ryukyus. Numerous artifacts, art objects, and reproductions thereof are employed to illustrate the historical topics, the Art Museum includes spaces for special temporary exhibits along with galleries displaying objects from the museums collection. The permanent exhibits are rotated three to four times a year, the museum also hosts a variety of events, including live performances, lectures, and films
26.
Mushroom
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A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. These gills produce microscopic spores that help the fungus spread across the ground or its occupant surface, by extension, the term mushroom can also designate the entire fungus when in culture, the thallus of species forming the fruiting bodies called mushrooms, or the species itself. Identifying mushrooms requires an understanding of their macroscopic structure. Their spores, called basidiospores, are produced on the gills, at the microscopic level the basidiospores are shot off basidia and then fall between the gills in the dead air space. As a result, for most mushrooms, if the cap is cut off and placed gill-side-down overnight, the color of the powdery print, called a spore print, is used to help classify mushrooms and can help to identify them. Spore print colors include white, brown, black, purple-brown, pink, yellow, and creamy, but almost never blue, green, or red. The presence of juices upon breaking, bruising reactions, odors, tastes, shades of color, habitat, habit, tasting and smelling mushrooms carries its own hazards because of poisons and allergens. Chemical tests are used for some genera. In general, identification to genus can often be accomplished in the using a local mushroom guide. However, over-mature specimens lose features and cease producing spores, many novices have mistaken humid water marks on paper for white spore prints, or discolored paper from oozing liquids on lamella edges for colored spored prints. Typical mushrooms are the bodies of members of the order Agaricales, whose type genus is Agaricus and type species is the field mushroom. Other mushrooms are not gilled, so the mushroom is loosely used. Some have pores underneath, others have spines, such as the mushroom and other tooth fungi. Mushroom has been used for polypores, puffballs, jelly fungi, coral fungi, bracket fungi, stinkhorns, thus, the term is more one of common application to macroscopic fungal fruiting bodies than one having precise taxonomic meaning. Approximately 14,000 species of mushrooms are described, the terms mushroom and toadstool go back centuries and were never precisely defined, nor was there consensus on application. Between 1400 and 1600 AD, the terms mushrom, mushrum, muscheron, mousheroms, mussheron, the term mushroom and its variations may have been derived from the French word mousseron in reference to moss. However, delineation between edible and poisonous fungi is not clear-cut, so a mushroom may be edible, poisonous, cultural or social phobias of mushrooms and fungi may be related. The term fungophobia was coined by William Delisle Hay of England, the word toadstool has apparent analogies in Dutch paddestoel and German Krötenschwamm
27.
Japanese dialects
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Regional variants of Japanese have been confirmed since the Old Japanese era. Manyōshū, the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry, includes poems written in dialects of the capital and eastern Japan, the recorded features of eastern dialects were rarely inherited by modern dialects, except for a few language islands such as Hachijo Island. In the Early Middle Japanese era, there were only vague records such as rural dialects are crude, the variety of Japanese dialects developed markedly during the Early Modern Japanese era because many feudal lords restricted the movement of people to and from other fiefs. Some isoglosses agree with old borders of han, especially in Tohoku, from the Nara period to the Edo period, the dialect of Kinai had been the de facto standard form of Japanese, and the dialect of Edo took over in the late Edo period. With modernization in the late 19th century, the government and the intellectuals promoted establishment, the regional languages and dialects were slighted and suppressed, and so, locals had a sense of inferiority about their bad and shameful languages. From the 1940s to the 1960s, the period of Shōwa nationalism and the economic miracle. Now Standard Japanese has spread throughout the nation, and traditional varieties are declining because of education, television, expansion of traffic. However, regional varieties have not been replaced with Standard Japanese. The contact between regional varieties and Standard Japanese creates new regional speech forms among young people, such as Okinawan Japanese, there are several generally similar approaches to classifying Japanese dialects. Misao Tōjō classified mainland Japanese dialects into three groups, Eastern, Western and Kyushu dialects, mitsuo Okumura classified Kyushu dialects as a subclass of Western Japanese. A primary distinction exists between Eastern and Western Japanese and this is a long-standing divide that occurs in both language and culture. The map in the box at the top of this page divides the two along phonological lines. Apart from Sado Island, which has Eastern shinai and da, all of the Western features are found west of the pitch-accent line, east of the line, however, there is a zone of intermediate dialects which have a mixture of Eastern and Western features. Echigo dialect has harōta, though not miyo, and about half of it has hirōnaru as well, Western Shizuoka has miyo as its single Western Japanese feature. For totte iru no. is this taken, as some subdialects in Shikoku and Chugoku, but generally not elsewhere, the accusative particle o resyllabifies a noun, honno or honnu for hon-o book, kakyū for kaki-o persimmon. Kagoshima dialect is so distinctive that some have classified it as a branch of Japanese, alongside Eastern, Western. A small group of dialects spoken in Hachijō-jima and Aogashima, islands south of Tokyo, hachijō dialect is quite divergent and sometimes thought to be a primary branch of Japanese. It retains an abundance of inherited ancient Eastern Japanese features
28.
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
29.
Wilhelm Heine
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Peter Bernhard Wilhelm Heine, better known as Wilhelm Heine was a German-American artist, world traveller and writer as well as an officer during the American Civil War. Heine was born in Dresden, the son of Ferdinand Heine and his family connections included composer Richard Wagner, whose father had been a family friend. Heine studied at the Royal Academy of Art in Dresden and in the studio of Julius Hübner, then he continued his artistic studies for three years in Paris. He returned to Dresden getting work as a designer for the court theatre. He fled to New York in 1849, following the suppression of the May Uprising in Dresden in which he participated, in this he was aided by Alexander von Humboldt. He set up his artist studio at 515 Broadway, and soon established his reputation as an artist, after meeting the archaeologist and diplomat, Ephraim George Squier, Heine was invited to accompany him, as an artist, on his consular duties to Central America. Proceeding ahead of Squier, he collected and recorded indigenous plants and animals, until Squier arrived, Heine stood in as consul, negotiating a commercial agreement between the Central American countries and the United States, which he delivered to Washington. The record of this expedition was published in 1853 as the Wanderbilder aus Centralamerika, nominally attached to Perrys expedition as an Acting Masters Mate, he served on the flagship USS Mississippi under Sydney Smith Lee. Heine visited Okinawa, the Bonin Islands, Yokohama, Shimoda, the memoirs were very successful, and were immediately translated into both French and Dutch. Here he urged the Prussian government to send expeditions to Asia before the Americans became established there. During this trip he met up with Mikhail Bakunin in Yokohama, learning of the outbrake of the American Civil War, the Forty-Eighter returned and volunteered for the Union Army. He joined the 1st Maryland Infantry Regiment before being commissioned a Captain of Topographical Engineers, serving in the Army of the Potomac, Heine was captured during the Peninsula Campaign and briefly was in Libby Prison before being exchanged. In late 1862 he was arrested and accused of revealing too much information of the Union defenses in his drawings, also being wounded he was honorably discharged as unfit for service. In 1863 he rejoined the army as Colonel of the 103rd New York Infantry, later he commanded a brigade and then a small division in the Army of West Virginia. In 1865 he was made a Brevet Brigadier General but was accused of disobedience, in the next year he became a U. S. clerk to the Paris and Liverpool consulates. After the establishment of the Hohenzollern Empire in Germany in 1871, he returned to Dresden where he wrote his last book about Japan, Japan,1856 -- Graphic Scenes in the Japan Expedition. OCLC3095611 Includes ten metal-plate illustrations, Portrait of Commodore M. C.1856 -- Reise um die Erde nach Japan an Bord der Expeditions-Escadron unter Com, perry den Jahren 1853,54, und 55, unternommen im Auftrage der Regierung der Vereinigten Staaten. 1857 -- Wanderbilder aus Central-Amerika, Skizzen eines deutschen Malers Leipzig, OCLC2458313581864 -- Eine Weltreise um die nördliche Hemisphäre in Verbindung mit der Ostasiatischen Expedition in den Jahren 1860 und 1861
30.
Stone Age
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The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make implements with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 8700 BCE and 2000 BCE with the advent of metalworking, bone tools were used during this period as well but are rarely preserved in the archaeological record. The Stone Age is further subdivided by the types of tools in use. According to the age and location of the current evidence, the cradle of the genus is the East African Rift System, especially toward the north in Ethiopia, where it is bordered by grasslands. The closest relative among the living primates, the genus Pan, represents a branch that continued on in the deep forest. The rift served as a conduit for movement into southern Africa and also north down the Nile into North Africa and through the continuation of the rift in the Levant to the vast grasslands of Asia. The oldest indirect evidence found of stone tool use is fossilised animal bones with tool marks, the oldest stone tools were excavated from the site of Lomekwi 3 in West Turkana, northwestern Kenya, and date to 3.3 million years old. Prior to the discovery of these Lomekwian tools, the oldest known stone tools had been found at sites at Gona, Ethiopia, on the sediments of the paleo-Awash River. All the tools come from the Busidama Formation, which lies above a disconformity, or missing layer, the oldest sites containing tools are dated to 2. 6–2.55 mya. One of the most striking circumstances about these sites is that they are from the Late Pliocene, excavators at the locality point out that. the earliest stone tool makers were skilled flintknappers. The possible reasons behind this seeming abrupt transition from the absence of tools to the presence thereof include. The species who made the Pliocene tools remains unknown, fragments of Australopithecus garhi, Australopithecus aethiopicus and Homo, possibly Homo habilis, have been found in sites near the age of the Gona tools. Innovation of the technique of smelting ore ended the Stone Age, the first most significant metal manufactured was bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, each of which was smelted separately. The Chalcolithic by convention is the period of the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age, the transition out of the Stone Age occurred between 6000 BCE and 2500 BCE for much of humanity living in North Africa and Eurasia. Note the Rudna Glava mine in Serbia, Ötzi the Iceman, a mummy from about 3300 BCE carried with him a copper axe and a flint knife. In regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the Stone Age was followed directly by the Iron Age, the Middle East and southeastern Asian regions progressed past Stone Age technology around 6000 BCE. Europe, and the rest of Asia became post–Stone Age societies by about 4000 BCE, the proto-Inca cultures of South America continued at a Stone Age level until around 2000 BCE, when gold, copper and silver made their entrance
31.
Midden
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The word is of Scandinavian via Middle English derivation, and is today used by archaeologists worldwide to describe any kind of feature containing waste products relating to day-to-day human life. They may be convenient, single-use pits created by groups or long-term. These features, therefore, provide a resource for archaeologists who wish to study the diet. Middens with damp, anaerobic conditions can even preserve organic remains in deposits as the debris of daily life are tossed on the pile, each individual toss will contribute a different mix of materials depending upon the activity associated with that particular toss. During the course of deposition sedimentary material is deposited as well, different mechanisms, from wind and water to animal digs, create a matrix which can also be analyzed to provide seasonal and climatic information. In some middens individual dumps of material can be discerned and analysed, a shell midden or shell mound is an archaeological feature consisting mainly of mollusk shells. The Danish term køkkenmøddinger was first used by Japetus Steenstrup to describe shell heaps, a midden, by definition, contains the debris of human activity, and should not be confused with wind or tide created beach mounds. Some shell middens are processing remains, areas where resources were processed directly after harvest. Some shell middens are directly associated with villages, as a designated village dump site, in other middens, the material is directly associated with a house in the village. Each household would dump its garbage directly outside the house, in all cases, shell middens are extremely complex and very difficult to excavate fully and exactly. The fact that they contain a record of what food was eaten or processed and many fragments of stone tools. Shells have a high carbonate content, which tends to make the middens alkaline. This slows the rate of decay caused by soil acidity. Shell middens were studied in Denmark in the half of the 19th century. The Danish word køkkenmødding is now used internationally, the English word midden derives from the same Old Norse word that produced the modern Danish one. Shell middens are found in coastal zones all over the world, consisting mostly of mollusc shells, they are interpreted as being the waste products of meals eaten by nomadic groups or hunting parties. Some are small examples relating to meals had by a handful of individuals, others are many metres in length and width, in Brazil, they are known as sambaquis, having been created over a long period between the 6th millennium BC and the beginning of European colonisation. On Canadas west coast, there are shell middens that run for more than a kilometer along the coast and are several meters deep, the midden in Namu, British Columbia is over 9 meters deep and spans over 10,000 years of continuous occupation
32.
Shuri, Okinawa
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Shuri is a district of the city of Naha, Okinawa. It was formerly a city in and of itself. Originally established as a town surrounding the royal palace, Shuri ceased to be the capital when the kingdom was abolished and incorporated into Japan as Okinawa prefecture. In 1896, Shuri was made a ward of the new capital, Naha. In 1954, it was merged again into Naha, Shuri Castle was first built during the reign of Shunbajunki, who ruled from nearby Urasoe Castle. The island was not yet an organized or unified kingdom, historian George H. Shō Hashi, first king of the unified Ryūkyū Kingdom, made Shuri his capital, and oversaw expansion of the castle and the city. Shuri would remain the capital for roughly 550 years. The castle was burned to the ground during succession disputes in the 1450s, but was rebuilt, throughout the medieval and early modern periods, the residents of Shuri were primarily those associated with the royal court in some way. While Naha was the center of the kingdom, Shuri was the political center. Residence at Shuri was prestigious into the 20th century, samurai forces from the Japanese feudal domain of Satsuma seized Shuri Castle on 5 April 1609. The American Commodore Perry, when he came to Okinawa in the 1850s, King Shō Tai and his court were removed from the castle, which was occupied by a Japanese garrison, and the main gates of which were sealed. The castle, along with the mansions of former court nobles, fell into disrepair and decay over the ensuing years. Royal pensions were shrunk or abolished, and income from nobles nominal domains in the countryside likewise dried up, servants were dismissed, and the aristocratic population of the city scattered, seeking employment in Naha, the countryside, or the Japanese Home Islands. Census figures from 1875-79 show that half of the population of Okinawa Island were living in the greater Naha-Shuri area. Shuri had fewer households than Naha, but each household consisted of more people, over the following years, however, Shuri shrank in both population and importance, as Naha grew. Pressure to restore, conserve, and protect the sites of Shuri began in earnest in the 1910s. A four-year plan was out for the restoration of the structure. Other historical monuments came under protection soon afterward, the city first suffered Allied air attack in October 1944
33.
Tribute
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A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conquered or otherwise threatened to conquer, in case of alliances, lesser parties may pay tribute to more powerful parties as a sign of allegiance and often in order to finance projects that benefited both parties. Payments by a political entity to an inferior one, made for various purposes, are described by terms including subsidy. However failure to keep up the payments had dire consequences, the reliefs at Persepolis show processions of figures bearing varied types of tribute. The medieval Mongol rulers of Russia likewise only expected tribute from the Russian states, athens received tribute from the other cities of the Delian League. The empires of Assyria, Babylon, Carthage and Rome exacted tribute from their provinces, ancient China received tribute from various states such as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Borneo, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar and Central Asia. The Aztec Empire is another example, the Roman republic exacted tribute in the form of payments equivalent to proportional property taxes, for the purpose of waging war. Tribute empires contrast with those like the Roman Empire, which more closely controlled and garrisoned subject territories, a tributary state is one that preserves its political position and such independence as it has only by paying tribute. In ancient China, the system provided an administrative means to control their interests. It was a part of the Confucian philosophy, seen by the Chinese as equivalent to younger sons looking after older parents by devoting part of their wealth. Political marriages have existed between the Chinese empire and tribute states, such as Songtsen Gampo and Wencheng, China often received tribute from the states under the influence of Confucian civilization and gave them Chinese products and recognition of their authority and sovereignty in return. This tributary system and relationship are well known as Jimi or Cefeng, in Japanese, the tributary system and relationship is referred to as Shinkou, Sakuhou and Choukou. According to the Chinese Book of Han, the tribes of Japan had already entered into tributary relationships with China by the first century. However, Japan ceased to present tribute to China and left the system during the Heian period without damaging economic ties. Although Japan eventually returned to the system during the Muromachi period in the reign of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. According to the Korean historical document Samguk Sagi, Goguryeo sent a representative to the Han Dynasty in 32 AD. The tributary relationship between China and Korea was established during the Three Kingdoms of Korea and this continued until Chinas defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. This Chinese tributary system produced Tributary state/ of Korea and neighboring countries, China is considered as a suzerain
34.
Amami Islands
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The Amami Islands is an archipelago in the Satsunan Islands, which is in turn part of the Ryukyu Islands. Administratively, the group belongs to Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan and the Japan Coast Guard agreed on February 15,2010, to use the name of Amami-guntō for the Amami Islands. Prior to that, Amami-shotō was also used, the name of Amami is probably cognate with Amamikyu, the goddess of creation in the Ryukyuan creation myth. The Amami Islands are limestone islands of origin and have a total area of approximately 1,240.28 square kilometres. The highest elevation is Yuwandake with a height of 694 metres on Amami Ōshima, the climate is a humid subtropical climate with very warm summers and mild winters. Precipitation is high throughout the year, but is highest in the months of May, June, the area is subject to frequent typhoons. Islanders started to produce earthenware from 6000 years ago, affected by the Jōmon culture in Kyushu, initially, the styles were similar to those of the main islands of Japan, but later, a style original to Amami, known as “Usuki Lower Style”, was developed. Among Japanese literature, mention of the islands first appeared in the 7th century, the Nihon Shoki contains an entry dated 657 referring to Amami-shima, and to the Amami-bito in 682. The Shoku Nihongi refers to Amami in 699 and Amami in 714, all of these are believed to be identical to the current Amami. The tenth kentō-shi mission traveled to Tang Dynasty China via Amami Ōshima, among locals, this prehistoric period is called the Amami period. Agriculture came to the islands around the 12th century, and the people shifted to farming from hunting, as on Okinawa Island, this resulted in the development of a nobility class called the aji, who resided in castles called gusuku. Famous gusuku included Beru Castle in Kasari, Amami, and Yononushi Castle in Wadomari, stronger aji battled each other to expand their territories. Local folklore states that some of Taira clan members, having lost the Battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185, the historical accuracy of this is unknown. This gusuku period is called the Aji period. Eventually the Amami aji were forced to pay tribute to stronger nations to retain autonomy, Ryukyuan records state that Amami aji paid tribute to Eiso, the king of Chūzan in Sanzan period Okinawa. Okinoerabu and Yoron fell under Hokuzans control, however, since Okinawa itself was still rife with civil wars, it could not control the Northern Amami Islands. Aji from Tokuno and further north just paid tribute to Okinawan kingdoms, after 1429, Shō Hashi unified Okinawa Island, founding the Ryukyu Kingdom. During the 1430s and 1440s, Ryukyu expanded into the Amami Islands, by 1450, Ryukyuan forces had reached deep into the Tokara Islands and conquered all but Kikai Island, which was invaded in 1466
35.
Fujian
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Fujian, formerly romanised as Foken, Fouken, Fukien, and Hokkien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, the name Fujian came from the combination of Fuzhou and Jianzhou two cities in Fujian, during the Tang dynasty. While its population is chiefly of Han origin, it is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse provinces in China, most of Fujian is administered by the Peoples Republic of China. However, the archipelagos of Kinmen and Matsu are under the control of the Republic of China, thus, there are two provinces, the Fujian Province administered by the PRC and the Fujian Province of the ROC. Recent archaeological discoveries demonstrate that Fujian had entered the Neolithic Age by the middle of the 6th millennium BC, the Tanshishan site in suburban Fuzhou spans the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Age where semi-underground circular buildings were found in the lower level. The Huangtulun site, also in suburban Fuzhou, was of the Bronze Age in character, Fujian was also the place for the kingdom of Minyue. This is because the family of Yuè fled to Fujian after their kingdom was annexed by the State of Chu in 306 BC. Mǐn is also the name of the river in this area. Minyue was a de facto kingdom until the emperor of Qin dynasty, liu Bang was victorious and founded the Han dynasty, in 202 BC, he restored Minyues status as a tributary independent kingdom. Thus, Wuzhu was allowed to construct his fortified city in Fuzhou as well as a few locations in the Wuyi Mountains and his kingdom extended beyond the borders of contemporary Fujian into eastern Guangdong, eastern Jiangxi, and southern Zhejiang. The Han emperor eventually decided to get rid of the threat by sending a military campaign against Minyue. Large forces approached Minyue simultaneously from four directions via land and sea in 111 BC, the rulers in Fuzhou surrendered to avoid a futile fight and destruction, thus the first kingdom in Fujian history came to an abrupt end. The Han dynasty collapsed at the end of the 2nd century AD, sun Quan, the founder of the Kingdom of Wu, spent nearly twenty years subduing the Shan Yue people, the branch of the Yue living in mountains. These immigrants were primarily from eight families in central China, Lin, Huang, Chen, Zheng, Zhan, Qiu, He, the first four remain as the major surnames of modern Fujian. Population density in Fujian remained low compared to the rest of China, only two commanderies and sixteen counties were established by the Western Jin dynasty. Like other southern provinces such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties era, the Southern Dynasties reigned south of the Yangtze River, including Fujian. During Sui and Tang eras a large influx of migrants came, the Tang dynasty oversaw the next golden age of China and culturally and economically benefited Fujian greatly, Fujians capital Fuzhous economic and cultural instions grew and developed. The later years of the Tang dynasty saw a number of upheavals in the Chinese heartland
36.
Taoism
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Taoism, also known as Daoism, is a religious or philosophical tradition of Chinese origin which emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao. The Tao is an idea in most Chinese philosophical schools, in Taoism, however. Taoism differs from Confucianism by not emphasizing rigid rituals and social order, the Tao Te Ching, a compact book containing teachings attributed to Laozi, is widely considered the keystone work of the Taoist tradition, together with the later writings of Zhuangzi. By the Han dynasty, the sources of Taoism had coalesced into a coherent tradition of religious organizations. In earlier ancient China, Taoists were thought of as hermits or recluses who did not participate in political life, Zhuangzi was the best known of these, and it is significant that he lived in the south, where he was part of local Chinese shamanic traditions. Women shamans played an important role in this tradition, which was strong in the southern state of Chu. Early Taoist movements developed their own institution in contrast to shamanism, shamans revealed basic texts of Taoism from early times down to at least the 20th century. Institutional orders of Taoism evolved in various strains that in recent times are conventionally grouped into two main branches, Quanzhen Taoism and Zhengyi Taoism. After Laozi and Zhuangzi, the literature of Taoism grew steadily and was compiled in form of a canon—the Daozang—which was published at the behest of the emperor, throughout Chinese history, Taoism was nominated several times as a state religion. After the 17th century, however, it fell from favor, Chinese alchemy, Chinese astrology, Chan Buddhism, several martial arts, traditional Chinese medicine, feng shui, and many styles of qigong have been intertwined with Taoism throughout history. Beyond China, Taoism also had influence on surrounding societies in Asia, Taoism also has a presence in Hong Kong, Macau, and in Southeast Asia. English speakers continue to debate the preferred romanization of the words Daoism and Taoism, the root Chinese word 道 way, path is romanized tao in the older Wade–Giles system and dào in the modern Pinyin system. In linguistic terminology, English Taoism/Daoism is formed from the Chinese loanword tao/dao 道 way, route, principle and the native suffix -ism. The debate over Taoism vs. Daoism involves sinology, phonemes, loanwords, Daoism is pronounced /ˈdaʊ. ɪzəm/, but English speakers disagree whether Taoism should be /ˈdaʊ. ɪzəm/ or /ˈtaʊ. ɪzəm/. In theory, both Wade–Giles tao and Pinyin dao are articulated identically, as are Taoism and Daoism, an investment book titled The Tao Jones Averages illustrates this /daʊ/ pronunciations widespread familiarity. In speech, Tao and Taoism are often pronounced /ˈtaʊ/ and ˈtaʊ. ɪzəm/, lexicography shows American and British English differences in pronouncing Taoism. Taoist philosophy or Taology, or the mystical aspect — The philosophical doctrines based on the texts of the I Ching, the Tao Te Ching and these texts were linked together as Taoist philosophy during the early Han Dynasty, but notably not before. It is unlikely that Zhuangzi was familiar with the text of the Daodejing, however, the discussed distinction is rejected by the majority of Western and Japanese scholars
37.
Mazu
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Mazu, also known by several other names and titles, is a Chinese sea goddess, the deified form of the historical Lin Mo or Lin Moniang, a Fujianese shamaness traditionally dated to c. 960 – c. 987. Revered after her death as a patron of seafarers, including fishermen and sailors, her worship spread throughout Chinas coastal regions and she was thought to roam the seas, protecting her believers through miraculous interventions. She is now regarded by her believers as a powerful and benevolent Queen of Heaven, a role in which she is sometimes syncretized with similar figures, such as Guanyin. Mazuism is most popular on Taiwan, her festival is a major event throughout the country, with the largest celebrations around her temples at Dajia. It is a notionally illegal cult in the Peoples Republic of China but is broadly tolerated, linghui Fei, an official title conferred in 1192. Tianfei, fully Huguo Mingzhu Tianfei, a title conferred in 1281. Huguo Bimin Miaoling Zhaoying Hongren Puji Tianfei, a title conferred in 1409. Prayers invoking her as Mazu were thought to be answered more quickly, very little is known of the historical Lin Moniang. She was apparently a shamaness from a fishing village on Meizhou Island, part of Fujians Putian County. Her Meizhou was an uneducated and superstitious place, where out of perhaps a thousand households and she probably did not live there, however, but on the nearby mainland. During this era, Fujian was greatly sinicized by influxes of refugees fleeing invasions of northern China and Mazus cult may represent a hybridization of Chinese, the legends around Lin Moniangs life were broadly established by the 13th century. The late Ming Great Collection of the Three Teachings Origin and Development and Research into the Divine, however, placed her birth much earlier, the early sources speak of her as Miss Lin, her given name Mo or Moniang appeared later. It was said to have been chosen when she did not cry during birth or during the first month afterwards, she remained a quiet and she was said to have been the sixth or seventh daughter of Lin Yuan. He is now remembered as one of the local fisherman. The family was helpful and popular within their village, Late legends intended to justify Mazus presence in Buddhist temples held that her parents had prayed to Guanyin for a son but received yet another daughter. She is now said to have studied religious literature, mastering Confucius by 8. By 13, she had mastered the book of lore he had left her and gained the abilities to see the future, although she only started swimming at the relatively late age of 15, she soon excelled at it. She was said to have stood on the shore in red garments to guide fishing boats home, regardless of harsh or dangerous weather
Fuzhou, China since 1981
Honolulu, United States since 1961
Kawasaki, Kanagawa since 1996
São Vicente, Brazil since 1978
Geographic data related to Naha at OpenStreetMap
Geographic data related to 
