1.
Akita Prefecture
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Akita Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of northern Honshu, the main island of Japan. The capital is the city of Akita, the area of Akita has been created from the ancient provinces of Dewa and Mutsu. Akita was a region of hunter-gatherers and principally nomadic tribes, the first historical record of what is now Akita Prefecture dates to 658, when the Abe no Hirafu conquered the native Ezo tribes at what are now the cities of Akita and Noshiro. Hirafu, then governor of Koshi Province, established a fort on the Mogami River, in 733, a new military settlement—later renamed Akita Castle—was built in modern-day Akita city at Takashimizu, and more permanent roads and structures were developed. The region was used as a base of operations for the Japanese empire as it drove the native Ezo people from northern Honshū. During the Tokugawa shogunate it was appropriated to the Satake clan, throughout this period, it was classified as part of Dewa Province. In 1871, during the Meiji Restoration, Dewa Province was reshaped, the famous Heian period waka poet, Ono no Komachi, is said to have been born in Yuzawa City, Ogachi Town, located in the southeast of the prefecture. Akita Prefecture is rectangular in shape, roughly 181 km from north to south and 111 km from west to east, the Ōu Mountains mark the eastern border of the prefecture, and the higher Dewa Mountains run parallel through the center of the prefecture. Like much of northern Japan, the prefecture has cold winters, the Oga Peninsula is a prominent feature of the coastline. This has led many people to migrate to Tokyo and other large cities. Akita Prefecture is where declines in population are most severe in Japan and it also has the lowest number of children as a percentage of the population, at 11. 2%. As of 2010, it has a population of just over 1 million people, Akita is famous for rice farming and its sake breweries. It is well known for having the highest consumption of sake in Japan, the women of the region, referred to as Akita bijin, have also gained widespread renown for their white skin, rounded faces and high voices, all of which are considered highly desirable. Ono no Komachi is an example of an Akita bijin. Kiritanpo Nabe Gakko Rice – Akita komachi Sake Near Lake Tazawa and these are popular with tourists from all over Japan. In addition, its numerous seasonal festivals offer a glimpse of rural or traditional Japan, some famous examples are the Akita Kantō, the Omagari Fireworks, Namahage Festival, and the Yokote Kamakura Festivals. Kakunodate is a charming old town, known as the little Kyoto. The Aoyagi house is the residence of Odano Naotake, the man who illustrated Japans first modern guide to the human anatomy
2.
Japanese New Year
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The Japanese New Year is an annual festival with its own customs. Since 1873, the official Japanese New Year has been celebrated according to the Gregorian calendar, on January 1 of each year, New Years Day. However, the celebration of the traditional Japanese New Year is still marked on the day as the contemporary Chinese, Korean. Prior to the Meiji period, the date of the Japanese New Year was based on the Chinese lunar calendar, as are the contemporary Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese New Years. However, in 1873, five years after the Meiji Restoration, Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar, Japanese people eat a selection of dishes during the New Year celebration called osechi-ryōri, typically shortened to osechi. There are many variations of osechi, and some foods eaten in one region are not eaten in other places on New Years Day, another popular dish is ozōni, a soup with mochi rice cake and other ingredients that differ based on various regions of Japan. Today, sashimi and sushi are often eaten, as well as non-Japanese foods, to let the overworked stomach rest, seven-herb rice soup is prepared on the seventh day of January, a day known as jinjitsu. Another custom is to create and eat rice cakes, boiled sticky rice is put into a wooden bucket-like container usu and patted with water by one person while another person hits it with a large wooden mallet. Mashing the rice, it forms a sticky white dumpling and this is made before New Years Day and eaten during the beginning of January. Mochi is made into a New Years decoration called kagami mochi, the name daidai is supposed to be auspicious since it means several generations. A major attraction is The Watched Night bell, in Tokyo, Japanese believe that the ringing of bells can rid their sins during the previous year. The bell is rung 107 times on 31st and once past midnight and it is also very common to eat buckwheat noodles called toshikoshi soba on the New Years Eve. The end of December and the beginning of January are the busiest times for the Japanese post offices, the Japanese have a custom of sending New Years Day postcards to their friends and relatives, similar to the Western custom of sending Christmas cards. Their original purpose was to give your faraway friends and relatives tidings of yourself, in other words, this custom existed for people to tell others whom they did not often meet that they were alive and well. Japanese people send these postcards so that they arrive on 1 January, the post office guarantees to deliver the greeting postcards on 1 January if they are posted within a time limit, from mid-December to near the end of the month and are marked with the word nengajō. To deliver these cards on time, the post office usually hires students part-time to help deliver the letters and it is customary not to send these postcards when one has had a death in the family during the year. In this case, a member sends a simple postcard called mochū hagaki to inform friends and relatives they should not send New Years cards. People get their nengajō from many sources, most of these have the Chinese zodiac sign of the New Year as their design, or conventional greetings, or both
3.
Chinese New Year
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Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival in modern Mainland China, is an important Chinese festival celebrated at the turn of the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. Celebrations traditionally run from the preceding the first day, to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first calendar month. The first day of the New Year falls on the new moon between 21 January and 20 February, in 2017, the first day of the Chinese New Year was on Saturday,28 January, initiating the year of the Rooster. The New Year festival is centuries old and gains significance because of several myths, traditionally, the festival was a time to honor deities as well as ancestors. Chinese New Year is considered a holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the lunar new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors. Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese New Year vary widely, often, the evening preceding Chinese New Years Day is an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner. It is also traditional for every family to clean the house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune. Windows and doors are decorated with red color paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of fortune or happiness, wealth. Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes, in about one third of the Mainland population, or 500 million Northerners, dumplings feature prominently in the meals celebrating the festival. It is one of the worlds most prominent and celebrated festivals, the lunisolar Chinese calendar determines the date of Chinese New Year. In the Gregorian calendar, Chinese Lunar New Year begins at the new moon that falls between 21 January and 20 February, the median date of Chinese New Years Day is lichun on 4 or 5 February, the solar term next to Dahan. In the Chinese calendar, winter solstice must occur in the 11th month, to determine whether a year has an intercalary month, one only needs to check whether Chinese New Year is within the month of January. The Gregorian Calendar dates for Chinese New Year from 1912 to 2101 are below, along with the years presiding animal zodiac, the traditional Chinese calendar follows a Metonic cycle, and returns to the same date in Gregorian calendar roughly. The names of the Earthly Branches have no English counterparts and are not the Chinese translations of the animals, alongside the 12-year cycle of the animal zodiac there is a 10-year cycle of heavenly stems. Each of the ten heavenly stems is associated with one of the five elements of Chinese astrology, namely, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, the elements are rotated every two years while a yin and yang association alternates every year. The elements are distinguished, Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire. These produce a cycle that repeats every 60 years. For example, the year of the Yang Fire Rat occurred in 1936, many people inaccurately calculate their Chinese birth-year by converting it from their Gregorian birth-year
4.
Mochi
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Mochi is Japanese rice cake made of mochigome, a short-grain japonica glutinous rice. The rice is pounded into paste and molded into the desired shape, in Japan it is traditionally made in a ceremony called mochitsuki. While also eaten year-round, mochi is a food for the Japanese New Year and is commonly sold. Mochi is a multicomponent food consisting of polysaccharides, lipids, protein, Mochi has a heterogeneous structure of amylopectin gel, starch grains, and air bubbles. This rice is characterized by its lack of amylose in the starch and is derived from short or medium japonica rices, the protein concentration of the rice is a bit higher than normal short-grain rice and the two also differ in amylose content. In mochi rice, the content is negligible, which results in the soft gel consistency. The exact origin of Mochi has yet to be confirmed, the first mochitsuki ceremony occurred after the Kami are said to have descended to Earth, which was following the birth of rice cultivation in Yamato during the Yayoi period. Red rice was the variation used in the production of mochi. At this time, mochi was eaten exclusively by the Emperor, during the Japanese Heian period, mochi was used as a ‘Food for the Gods’ and religious offerings in Shinto rituals performed by aristocrats. In addition to good fortune, mochi was also known as a talisman for happy marriages, the first recorded accounts of mochi being used as a part of the New Year’s festivities was from the Japanese Heian period. The nobles of the Imperial Court believed that long strands of freshly made mochi symbolized a long life and good well-being, while dried mochi acted to make one’s teeth tough and more durable. Accounts of mochi have also read in the oldest Japanese novel, “The Tale of Genji. ”Mochi continues to be one of the traditional foods eaten around Japanese New Year, as it is sold. A special type of mochi, called kagami mochi is placed on family altars on December 28 each year, Kagami mochi is composed of two spheres of mochi stacked on top of one another, topped with an orange. Kagami mochi is a New Year decoration, which is broken and eaten in a ritual called Kagami biraki. Zōni is a soup containing rice cakes, zoni is also eaten on New Years Day. In addition to mochi, zoni contains vegetables like taro, carrot, honeywort and red, kinako mochi is a mochi dish that is traditionally made on New Years Day for luck. This style of preparation includes roasting the mochi over a fire or stove, then dipping it into water, finally coating with sugar. The cherry blossom, is a symbol of Japan and signifies the onset of full-fledged Spring, sakuramochi is a pink-coloured mochi surrounding sweet anko and wrapped in an edible salted cherry leaf that is usually made during the Spring season
5.
Sake
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Sake, also spelled saké in English, is a Japanese rice wine made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. The brewing process for sake differs from the process for beer in that, for beer, like other rice wines, when sake is brewed, these conversions occur simultaneously. Furthermore, the alcohol content differs between sake, wine, and beer, Wine generally contains 9%–16% ABV, while most beer contains 3%–9%, and undiluted sake contains 18%–20%. In the Japanese language, the word sake can refer to any alcoholic drink, under Japanese liquor laws, sake is labelled with the word seishu, a synonym less commonly used in conversation. The origin of sake is unclear, the making of Chinese alcoholic beverages predates recorded history. The earliest reference to the use of alcohol in Japan is recorded in the Book of Wei in the Records of the Three Kingdoms and this 3rd-century Chinese text speaks of the Japanese drinking and dancing. Alcoholic beverages are mentioned several times in the Kojiki, Japans first written history, bamforth places the probable origin of true sake (which is made from rice, water, and kōji mold in the Nara period. In the Heian period, sake was used for ceremonies, court festivals. Sake production was a government monopoly for a time, but in the 10th century, temples and shrines began to brew sake. The Tamon-in Diary, written by abbots of Tamon-in from 1478 to 1618, the diary shows that pasteurization and the process of adding ingredients to the main fermentation mash in three stages were established practices by that time. In the 16th century, the technique of distillation was introduced into the Kyushu district from Ryukyu, the brewing of shōchū, called Imo—sake started, and was sold at the central market in Kyoto. The work of writers was widely disseminated throughout Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. During the Meiji Restoration, laws were written that allowed anybody with the money and know-how to construct, around 30,000 breweries sprang up around the country within a year. However, as the years went by, the government levied more and more taxes on the sake industry, most of the breweries that grew and survived this period were set up by wealthy landowners. Landowners who grew rice crops would have left over at the end of the season and, rather than letting these leftovers go to waste. The most successful of these family breweries still operate today, during the 20th century, sake-brewing technology grew by leaps and bounds. The government opened the sake-brewing research institute in 1904, and in 1907 the very first government-run sake-tasting competition was held, yeast strains specifically selected for their brewing properties were isolated and enamel-coated steel tanks arrived. The government started hailing the use of tanks as easy to clean, lasting forever
6.
Emperor Wu of Han
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Emperor Wu of Han, born Liu Che, courtesy name Tong, was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of China, ruling from 141–87 BC. His reign lasted 54 years — a record not broken until the reign of the Kangxi Emperor more than 1,800 years later. His reign resulted in vast territorial expansion, development of a strong and centralized state resulting from his governmental re-organization and it was also during his reign that cultural contact with western Eurasia was greatly increased, directly or indirectly. Many new crops and other items were introduced to China during his reign, Emperor Wu successfully repelled the nomadic Xiongnu from systematically raiding northern China, and dispatched his envoy Zhang Qian in 139 BC to seek an alliance with the Yuezhi of Kangju. This resulted in further missions to Central Asia, michael Loewe called the reign of Emperor Wu the high point of Modernist policies, looking back to adapt ideas from the pre-Han period. His policies and most trusted advisers were Legalist, favoring adherents of Shang Yang and these reforms had an enduring effect throughout the existence of imperial China and an enormous influence on neighboring civilizations. Emperor Wu was also known for his employment of shaman advisers, the personal name of Emperor Wu was Liu Che. The use of Han in referring to emperor Wu is a reference to the Han dynasty of which he was a part. His family name is Liu, the family or clan of the Han dynasty shared the family name of Liu, the family name of Liu Bang. The character Di is a title, this is the Chinese word which in imperial history of China means emperor, the character Wu literally means martial or warlike, but is also related to the concept of a particular divinity in the historical Chinese religious pantheon existing at that time. Combined, Wu plus di makes the name Wudi, the posthumous name used for historical and for religious purposes. One of Han Wudis innovations was the practice of changing names every so many years. Thus, the practice for dating years during the reign of Wudi came to be the nth year of the, when they got close to Han borders, She assassinated the general and claimed to Emperor Wu that he had defeated Joseon in battle. Emperor Wu, unaware of his deception, made him the commander of the Commandery of Liaodong. King Ugeo, offended, made a raid on Liaodong and killed She, in response, Emperor Wu commissioned a two-pronged attack against Joseon. Initially, Joseon offered to become a vassal, but peace negotiations broke down by the Chinese forces refusal to let a Joseon force escort its crown prince to Changan to pay tribute to Emperor Wu, Han took over the Joseon lands in 108 BC and established four commanderies. Also in 109 BC, Emperor Wu sent a force against the Kingdom of Dian. When the King of Dian surrendered, it was incorporated into Han territory with the King of Dian being permitted to keep his traditional authority, Emperor Wu established five commanderies over Dian and the other nearby kingdoms
7.
Akita, Akita
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Akita is the capital city of Akita Prefecture, Japan, and has been designated a core city since 1 April 1997. The city, which covers an area of 906.09 square kilometres, had a population in October 2016 of 314,662. The area of present-day Akita was part of ancient Dewa Province, the Jizōden ruins within the city limits are a major archaeological site with artifacts from the Japanese Paleolithic period through the Jomon and Yayoi periods. During the Nara period, the Yamato court established Akita Castle in 733 AD to bring the local Emishi tribes under its control. The area was ruled by a succession of local clans in the Sengoku period. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, a town developed around Kubota Castle. With the start of the Meiji period, Kubota Domain was abolished, Akita Prefecture was established in 1871, and Shima Yoshitake was named the first governor. Ancient Akita District was divided into Kitaakita and Minamiakita Districts in 1878, most of Akita town burned down in a great fire on 30 April 1886. With the establishment of the municipality system on 1 April 1889, the port area was separated into Tsuchizakiko Town, which became part of Minamiakita District. The first city hall was located inside the former Minamiakita District office, in September 1898, the Imperial Japanese Army’s IJA 17th Infantry Regiment was based in Akita. The first public library was opened in 1898, electrification of the city began in 1901, the Taisho period brought further development to Akita with Nippon Oil Corporation developing the nearby Kurokawa Oil Fields in 1914, and a branch of the Bank of Japan opening in Akita in 1917. In 1935, Nippon Kogyo began development of the nearby Yatsuhashi Oil Fields, Akita Bank was established in 1941. War devastated the city on 14 August 1945, during the Tsuchizaki air raid, over 250 people were killed when 134 USAAF B-29 Superfortress, attacked the city from midnight to the early dawn. A Nippon Oil oil refinery in the Tsuchizaki area was targeted, during the post-war period, the 16th National Sports Festival of Japan was held in Akita in 1961. During the tsunami following the 1983 Sea of Japan earthquake, three Akita residents were killed, on 1 April 1997, Akita was designated as a core city with increased autonomy. The Akita Shinkansen began operations the same year, in August 2001, the World Games were held in Akita, with the opening ceremony held in the Yabase Track and Field Stadium. In 2004, the city celebrated its 400th anniversary and its beginnings as Kubota Castle town, on 11 January 2005, the towns of Kawabe and Yūwa were merged into Akita. Kawabe District was dissolved as a result of this merger, the location of Akita City Hall did not change, and former Kawabe and Yūwa Town Halls are used as civic centers
8.
Yamagata Prefecture
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Yamagata Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region on Honshu island. The aboriginal Ezo people once inhabited the area now known as Yamagata, Yamagata and Akita Prefecture were known as Dewa Province until the Meiji Restoration. During the Heian Period, the Fujiwara family ruled the area, Yamagata City flourished during the Edo Period due to its status as a castle town and post station, famous for beni. In 1689, the haiku poet, Matsuo Bashō visited Yamagata during his five-month trip to the northern regions of Japan. Yamagata Prefecture is located in the southwest corner of Tōhoku, facing the Sea of Japan and it borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima Prefecture on the south, Miyagi Prefecture on the east, and Akita Prefecture on the north. All of these boundaries are marked by mountains, with most of the population residing in a central plain. Both spring and autumn are short, the often cold, the latter often warm. Yamagata Prefecture, along with parts of Miyagi and Iwate are the transition areas from humid subtropical climate to humid continental within the Japan mainland. Winter temperatures rarely fall below -10 °C in populated areas, they rise above 30 °C in July. Precipitation falls all year round and the remnants of one or perhaps two typhoons usually pass through between August and October, the winters see heavy snowfall especially at higher elevations, though the Japan Sea coast is milder and has more rain. Snowfall for Shinjō is typical of populated areas, snowfall for Yamagata City typical of the valleys. The central mountains around Gassan may see as much as 3000 cm of snow in a season with depths up to 8 metres at higher elevations, Yamagata Prefecture is the largest producer of cherries and pears in Japan. A large quantity of other kinds of such as grapes, apples, peaches. As of October 2012, Yamagata Prefecture had a population of 1,152,000, the prefecture also has one of the oldest populations in Japan. As of 2004,12. 8% of the population was aged between 65 and 74, and 12. 1% was over 75, over 40% of households in Yamagata contain one or more relatives aged 65 or over. Yamagata Prefecture has a number of festivals and events. Yamagata City is the home of the bi-annual Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in October, in February, a snow lantern festival is held in Yonezawa at the Uesugi Shrine. Hundreds of candle-lit lanterns light pathways dug into the snow around the shrine, Yonezawa is also the site of the Uesugi Festival in mid-spring
9.
Namahage
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In the pronunciation and accent of the local dialect. The practice has shifted over the years, the namahage visits nowadays take place on New Years Eve. But it used to be practiced on the so-called Little New Year and this is the 15th day of the first lunar calendrical year, which is not the same thing as January 15, it usually falls around mid-February, exactly two weeks after the Chinese New Year. The namahages purpose was to admonish laggards who sit around the fire idly doing nothing useful, one of the refrains used by the namahage in the olden days was Blisters peeled yet. Namomi signifies heat blisters, or more precisely hidako, a condition caused by overexposure to fire. Thus Fire rash peeling is generally believed to be the derivation of the name namahage, some of the namahages other spoken lines of old were Knife whetted yet. And Boiled adzuki beans done yet, the knife apparently signified the instrument to peel the blisters, and it was customary to have azuki gruel on the Little New Year. Although the namahage are nowadays conceived of as a type of oni or ogre, thus it is a kind of toshigami. The namahage would typically receive mochi from the households they visited, the legend of the Namahage varies according to an area. These oni, as they are most commonly called in Japan, stole crops, but if they failed the task they would have to leave. Just as the ogres were about to complete the work, a villager mimicked the cry of a rooster, an obvious purpose of the festival is to encourage young children to obey their parents and to behave, important qualities in Japans heavily structured society. Parents know who the Namahage actors are each year and might request them to teach lessons to their children during their visit. The Namahage repeat the lessons to the children leaving the house. Similar traditions in other regions are called, Yamahage in the former Yūwa, Akita, suneka, Anmo, Nagomi or Nagomihakuri in northern Iwate prefecture. He was killed by the Father of Ultra via Father Shot, in the 2006 video game Okami, Namahage appear as a sort of demon that plague the northern lands of Kamui. Unlike their real life incarnations, they appear to be considered the embodiments of loneliness in snowy lands, chōjin Neiger, a local hero in Akita Prefecture, was designed after the namahage. The Yo-Kai Watch video games feature a Namahage for the player to acquire, in 2014, the Japanese heavy metal band Ningen Isu released a video clip of a song named Namahage via Tokuma Japan Communications. List of Important Intangible Folk Cultural Properties Setsubun or mamemaki, practice of casting roasted soy beans to ward ogres or ghouls, tsuina, a more ancient form of ghoul-warding passed down from China
10.
Ishikawa Prefecture
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Ishikawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region on Honshū island. Ishikawa was formed in 1872 from the merger of Kaga Province, Ishikawa is on the Sea of Japan coast. The prefecture also has some islands, including Notojima, Mitsukejima, Hegurajima, Ishikawa Prefecture has an area of 4,185 km² and as of April 1,2011 it has a population of 1,166,643 persons. The tea ceremony was introduced in 1666 when Maeda Toshitsune invited Senbiki Soshitsu of Urasenke to Kanazawa, kutani ware is a bright colored glaze like Chinese porcelain. Ohi teaware is a pottery with a unique to Kanazawa. Nyotaimori or naked sushi is said to have originated in Ishikawa Prefecture, Kaga silk is made with complicated silk print technique with an intentional rough look. Kanazawa lacquerware is high quality lacquerware traditionally decorated with gold dust, Kanazawa gold leaf is produced with a technique of beating gold into wafer-thin sheets. Kaga mizuhiki is ribbon-like decoration made from glued Japanese paper, Kaga inlay crafts are made with a combination of thin flat and thread metal inlays. Gojinjo Daiko is a Japanese drum, a Wajima city cultural heritage as well as an Ishikawa Prefecture intangible cultural heritage, abare Festival is reputed the most fierce festivals of Noto, Ishikawa. The most popular destination in Ishikawa is Kanazawa, tourists can get to Ishikawa by plane via either the Komatsu or Noto airports. Hideki Matsui, a current player for the New York Yankees, was born and raised in Neagari Town and he gained fame as a baseball player while attending high school in Kanazawa. Daisuke Nakata, a trampolinist who has competed in the Olympics in the past, is from Ishikawa, Ishikawa hosts a number of well-known universities. Hokuriku University—a small liberal arts university with a School of Pharmacy and a School of Future Learning that gives instruction in Business, Economics, tanimoto is currently one of two governors who are in their sixth term nationwide, the other being Masaru Hashimoto of Ibaraki. As of February 26,2014, the LDP prefectural assembly caucus has 25 members, in the National Diet, Ishikawa is represented by three directly elected members of the House of Representatives and two of the House of Councillors. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5, OCLC58053128 Ishikawa travel guide from Wikivoyage Official website Cultural assets of Ishikawa
