1.
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
2.
Ryukyuan people
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The Ryukyuan, Lewchewan, Uchinaachu are the indigenous peoples of the Ryukyu Islands between the islands of Kyushu and Taiwan. Politically, they live in either Okinawa Prefecture or Kagoshima Prefecture and their languages make up the Ryukyuan language family, considered to be one of the two branches of the Japonic language family, the other one being Japanese and its dialects. Ryukyuans are not a minority group in Japan as the Japanese authorities consider them just a subgroup of the Japanese people, akin to the Yamato. Although unrecognized, Ryukyuans constitute the largest ethnolinguistic minority group in Japan, another 300,000 are dispersed outside Japan, mostly in Hawaii. The Ryukyuans have a culture with some matriarchal elements, native religion. China renounced its claims to the islands in 1895, during this period, Okinawan ethnic identity, tradition, culture and language were suppressed by the Meiji government, which sought to assimilate the Ryukyuan people as Japanese. After World War II, the Ryūkyū Islands were occupied by the United States between 1945–1950 and 1950–1972, during this time, there were many violations of human rights. Since the end of World War II, there exists strong resentment against the Japanese government and U. S. military facilities stationed in Okinawa and their usual ethnic name derives from the Chinese term for the islands Liuqiu, which in Japanese language are pronounced as Ryukyu. The indigenous term for the archipelago is Uchinaa, people Uchinaachu and these terms are rarely used, and are politicized markers of a distinct culture. Within the Japanese population the Ryukyu make a separate and one of the two genome-wide clusters along the main-island Honshu, the Jomon ancestry is estimated at approximately 28% or 50-60%, depending to various studies. Thus, the Okinawans appear to be the Japanese who are genetically closest to the Ainu from the Ainu viewpoint, however, the analysis contradict the idea of direct genetic continuity and affinity between the Jomon i. e. The genome-wide differentiation was revealed, especially between the Okinawa and Miyako, the Amami Islanders are also slightly more similar to the mainland population than the Okinawa Islanders. The female mtDNA and male Y chromosome markers are used to human migrations. The research on the contemporary Okinawan male Y chromosome showed, in 2006,55. 6% of haplogroup D-P37.1,22. 2% O-P31,15. 6% O-M122,4. 4% C-M8 and it is considered that the Y haplogroups expanded in a demic diffusion. The haplogroup O began its expansion circa 4, 000-3,810 years ago, and thus the haplogroups D1b and C1 belong to the Jomons male lineage, haplogroup M12 is considered as mitochondrial counterpart of Y chromosome D lineage. This rare haplogroup was detected only in mainland Japanese, Koreans, the Ryukyu Islands were inhabited from at least 32, 000-18,000 years ago, but their fate and relation with contemporary Ryukyuan people is uncertain. During the Jōmon period i. e. Kaizuka or so-called shell midden period of the Northern Ryukyus, in the latter part of Jōmon period, archaeological sites moved near the seashore, suggesting the engagement of people in fishery. It is considered that from the half of Jōmon period
3.
Chinese guardian lions
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Chinese guardian lions or Imperial guardian lions, traditionally known in Chinese simply as Shi, and often called Foo Dogs in the West, are a common representation of the lion in imperial China. The concept which originated in China, subsequently spread to parts of Asia including, Japan, Korea, Tibet, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia. They are also used in artistic contexts, for example on door-knockers. The lions are depicted in pairs. When used as statuary the pair would consist of a male leaning his paw upon an embroidered ball, guardian lions are referred to in various ways depending on language and context. In Chinese they are called simply shi meaning lion — the word shi itself is thought to be derived from the Persian word šer. Lions were first presented to the Han court by emissaries from Central Asia and Persia, the term Fo or Fu may be transliterations to the words 佛 or 福, which means Buddha or prosperity in Chinese, respectively. However, Chinese reference to the lion are seldom prefixed with 佛 or 福. Reference to guardian lions as dogs in Western cultures may be due to the Japanese reference to them as Korean dogs due to their transmission from China through Korea into Japan. It may also be due to the misidentification of the guardian lion figures as representing certain Chinese dog breeds such as the Chow Chow or Shih Tzu, the lions are traditionally carved from decorative stone, such as marble and granite or cast in bronze or iron. Because of the high cost of materials and the labor required to produce them. Indeed, a symbol of a familys wealth or social status was the placement of guardian lions in front of the family home. However, in modern times less expensive lions, mass-produced in concrete and resin, have become available, the lions are always presented in pairs, a manifestation of yin and yang, the female representing yin and the male yang. The male lion has its right front paw on a type of cloth ball simply called an embroidered ball, the female is essentially identical, but has a cub under the closer paw to the male, representing the cycle of life. Symbolically, the female fu lion protects those dwelling inside, while the guards the structure. Sometimes the female has her mouth closed, and the male open and this symbolizes the enunciation of the sacred word om. However, Japanese adaptations state that the male is inhaling, representing life, while the female exhales, other styles have both lions with a single large pearl in each of their partially opened mouths. The pearl is carved so that it can roll about in the lions mouth, according to feng shui, correct placement of the lions is important to ensure their beneficial effect
4.
Ryukyuan religion
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The Ryukyuan religion is the indigenous belief system of the Ryukyu Islands. Over time, Ryukyuan religious practice has influenced by Chinese religions, Buddhism. This differs greatly from Japanese Shinto where men are seen as the embodiment of purity, Ryukyuan religion, with its focus on demonstrating respect of and reverence toward ancestors, is naturally based in the family home. The oldest female relative acts as a celebrant, officiating rituals concerning ancestors, household gods. Daily incense offerings are made and prayer reports are delivered aloud, the oldest female relative is also responsible for cleaning and upkeep of the buchidan, hinukan, and furugan. The Ultimate Ancestors, those from all life springs, are Utin, Jiichi. They originate and exist, along with kami, or the gods of the world, during the Usachi-yu and they are held in highest regard as the originators of all things and are worshiped in the communitys utaki. These ancestors are worshipped as collective spirits called futuchi, whose worship is focused usually in Buddhist temples, other, more immediate ancestors are those who lived between the present day and the twenty-fifth generation into the past, a time period called Ima-ga-yuu, the Present Age. They are those enshrined in the family homes buchidan, and it is these ancestors who visit on special occasions in the home, the buchidan is the primary focus of ancestor worship. It is a space, usually a small closet, dedicated to the family altar, incense and alcohol are offered to ancestors at the butsudan. In the Ryukyus the buchidan or butsudan does not house a statue of Buddha, the butsudan is placed in a room called the ichibanza. The practice of placing ancestral tablets in the butsudan is believed to derive from the influence of Confucianism, the butsudan is passed from generation to generation, first son to first son and only those who have inherited the parental house and carried on the main line possess a butsudan. The butsudan serves as the gathering place on special holidays. Normally the butsudan receives offerings of incense, tea, water, during festivals the butsudan is lavishly adorned with offerings of pineapple, mango, apples, tangerines, exotic tropical fruits, sugar cane, and rice cakes. During these times, families may occasionally offer alcohol in the form of sake or awamori, the hinukan is a hearth god, represented by three small stones and usually located in the kitchen. As his name suggests, he is essentially a fire god, a community hinukan, by extension, is the guardian of sacred communal fire, his worship is officiated by the community priestess. The hinukan, while he inhabits the family home, doesnt call it his own home and he may be compared with Kamui Fuchi, hearth goddess of the Ainu Religion. The fuuru nu kami, or god of the toilet, is the protector of the area of waste
5.
Magic (paranormal)
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Magic or sorcery is the use of rituals, symbols, actions, gestures, and language with the aim of exploiting supernatural forces. The term magic has a variety of meanings, and there is no agreed upon definition of what it is or how it can be used. Religious scholars have defined magic in many different ways, one approach, associated with the anthropologists Edward Tylor and James G. Frazer, has magic and science be opposites. Many scholars of religion have rejected the utility of the term magic, the term magic comes from the Old Persian magu, a word that applied to a form of religious functionary about which little is known. This meaning of the term was adopted by Latin in the first century BCE. The concept was incorporated into Christian theology during the first century CE. This concept was pervasive throughout the Middle Ages, although in the modern period Italian humanists reinterpreted the term in a positive sense to establish the idea of natural magic. Both negative and positive understandings of the term were retained in Western culture over the following centuries, throughout Western history, there have been examples of individuals claiming to be practitioners of magic and referring to themselves as magicians. This trend has proliferated in the period, with a growing number of magicians appearing within the esoteric milieu. Scholars of religion have failed to agree on a definition of magic is. The subject has one of intense dispute, with some scholars criticizing the validity of the term in the first place. Even among those throughout history who have described themselves as magicians, there has been some debate among scholars as to whether to use the term magic at all. The scholar of religion Jonathan Z. Smith for example argued that it had no utility as a term that scholars should use. Religious historian Wouter Hanegraaff agreed, stating that the magic is an important object of historical research. Since the 1990s its usage among scholars has declined, within Western culture, magic has been linked to the idea of the Other. Using the term magic when discussing non-Western cultures or pre-modern forms of Western society raises problems, alternately, this term implies that all categories of magic are ethnocentric and that such Western preconceptions are an unavoidable component of scholarly research. Magic is one of the most heavily theorized concepts in the study of religion, the intellectualist approach to defining magic is associated with two prominent British anthropologists, Edward Tylor and James G. Frazer. This was an approach that viewed magic as being the theoretical opposite of science, in his 1871 book Primitive Culture, Tylor characterized magic as beliefs based on the error of mistaking ideal analogy for real analogy
6.
Gargoyle
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Architects often used multiple gargoyles on buildings to divide the flow of rainwater off the roof to minimize the potential damage from a rainstorm. A trough is cut in the back of the gargoyle and rainwater typically exits through the open mouth, Gargoyles are usually an elongated fantastic animal because the length of the gargoyle determines how far water is thrown from the wall. When Gothic flying buttresses were used, aqueducts were cut into the buttress to divert water over the aisle walls. It is also connected to the French verb gargariser, which shares a Latin root with the verb gargle and is likely imitative in origin, the Italian word for gargoyle is doccione or gronda sporgente, an architecturally precise phrase which means protruding gutter. When not constructed as a waterspout and only serving an ornamental or artistic function, there are also regional variations, such as the hunky punk. Just as with bosses and chimeras, gargoyles are said to frighten off and protect those that it guards, such as a church, however, in common usage, the word gargoyle is generally used to describe any monstrous sculpture, whether intended as a waterspout or not. La Gargouille is said to have been the typical dragon with wings, a long neck. There are multiple versions of the story, either that St. Romanus subdued the creature with a crucifix, or he captured the creature with the help of the only volunteer, a condemned man. In each, the monster is led back to Rouen and burned, the head was then mounted on the walls of the newly built church to scare off evil spirits, and used for protection. In commemoration of St. Romain, the Archbishops of Rouen were granted the right to set a free on the day that the reliquary of the saint was carried in procession. The term gargoyle is most often applied to work, but throughout all ages some means of water diversion. In Ancient Egyptian architecture, gargoyles showed little variation, typically in the form of a lions head, similar lion-mouthed water spouts were also seen on Greek temples, carved or modelled in the marble or terracotta cymatium of the cornice. An excellent example of this are the 39 remaining lion-headed water spouts on the Temple of Zeus, there were originally 102 gargoyles or spouts, but due to the heavy weight, many have snapped off and had to be replaced. Many medieval cathedrals included gargoyles and chimeras, the most famous examples are those of Notre Dame de Paris. Although most have grotesque features, the term gargoyle has come to all types of images. Some gargoyles were depicted as monks, or combinations of animals and people. Unusual animal mixtures, or chimeras, did not act as rainspouts and are properly called grotesques. They serve more as ornamentation, but are now synonymous with gargoyles, both ornamented and unornamented water spouts projecting from roofs at parapet level were a common device used to shed rainwater from buildings until the early eighteenth century
7.
Komainu
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The first type, born during the Edo period, is called sandō komainu, the second and much older type jinnai komainu. They can sometimes be found also at Buddhist temples, nobility residences or even private homes, meant to ward off evil spirits, modern komainu statues are almost identical, but one has the mouth open, the other closed. This is a common characteristic in religious statue pairs at both temples and shrines. This pattern is however Buddhist in origin and has a symbolic meaning, together they form the sound Aum, a syllable sacred in several religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. There are however exceptions to the rule in which both komainu have their mouth either open or closed, the two forms are called collectively a-un and individually as a-gyō and un-gyō. Komainu strongly resemble Chinese guardian lions and in fact originate from Tang dynasty China, during its transportation along the Silkroad, however, the symbol changed, acquiring a distinctive look. The first lion statue in India appears around the 3rd century BC on top of a column erected by King Ashoka, the tradition later arrived in China where it developed into the guardian lion that was later exported to Korea, Japan, and Okinawa. During the Nara period, as in the rest of Asia, used only indoors until the 14th century, they were made mainly of wood. During the Heian period, for example, wooden or metal pairs were employed as weights and door-stops, during the early Heian period, the tradition changed and the two statues started to be different and be called differently. One had its mouth open and was called shishi because, as before, the other had its mouth closed, looked rather like a dog, was called komainu, or Goguryeo dog, and sometimes had a single horn on its head. Gradually the animals returned to be identical, but for their mouths, ubiquitous as they are now at shrines, Komainu have been used outdoors only since the 14th century. In Asia, the lion was popularly believed to have the power to repel evil, in Japan, too it ended up being installed at the entrance of shrines and temples next to the lion-dog. As a protection against exposure to Japans rainy weather, the komainu started being carved in stone. The shīsā, the animals that in Okinawa guard the gates or the roofs of houses, are close relatives of the shishi. Their name itself is centuries old regional variant of shishi-san, starting from the Edo period other animals have been used instead of lions or dogs, among others wild boars, tigers, dragons and foxes. The most frequent variant of the theme is the fox. There are about 30 thousand Inari shrines in Japan, and the entrance of each is guarded by a pair of fox statues, often one, and sometimes both, has a sūtra roll, a key or a jewel in its mouth. The statues do not stand for the malice the animals are proverbial for, sometimes the guardians are painted, and in that case they are always white
8.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
