1.
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
2.
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
3.
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
4.
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
5.
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
6.
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
7.
Edo period
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The Edo period or Tokugawa period is the period between 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when Japanese society was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the countrys 300 regional daimyō. The period was characterized by growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies. The shogunate was established in Edo on March 24,1603. The period came to an end with the Meiji Restoration on May 3,1868, instrumental in the rise of the new bakufu was Tokugawa Ieyasu, the main beneficiary of the achievements of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Already powerful, Ieyasu profited by his transfer to the rich Kantō area, after Hideyoshis death, Ieyasu moved quickly to seize control from the Toyotomi family. Ieyasus victory over the western daimyōs at the Battle of Sekigahara gave him control of all Japan. He rapidly abolished numerous enemy daimyō houses, reduced others, such as that of the Toyotomi, Ieyasu still failed to achieve complete control of the western daimyōs, but his assumption of the title of shogun helped consolidate the alliance system. After further strengthening his base, Ieyasu installed his son Hidetada as shogun. The Toyotomi were still a significant threat, and Ieyasu devoted the next decade to their eradication, in 1615, the Tokugawa army destroyed the Toyotomi stronghold at Osaka. The Tokugawa period brought 250 years of stability to Japan, the political system evolved into what historians call bakuhan, a combination of the terms bakufu and han to describe the government and society of the period. In the bakuhan, the shogun had national authority and the daimyōs had regional authority and this represented a new unity in the feudal structure, which featured an increasingly large bureaucracy to administer the mixture of centralized and decentralized authorities. The feudal hierarchy was completed by the classes of daimyō. Closest to the Tokugawa house were the shinpan, or related houses and they were twenty-three daimyōs on the borders of Tokugawa lands, all directly related to Ieyasu. The shinpan held mostly honorary titles and advisory posts in the bakufu, the second class of the hierarchy were the fudai, or house daimyōs, rewarded with lands close to the Tokugawa holdings for their faithful service. By the 18th century,145 fudai controlled such smaller han, members of the fudai class staffed most of the major bakufu offices. Ninety-seven han formed the group, the tozama, former opponents or new allies. The tozama were located mostly on the peripheries of the archipelago, because the tozama were least trusted of the daimyō, they were the most cautiously managed and generously treated, although they were excluded from central government positions. The Tokugawa not only consolidated their control over a reunified Japan, they also had unprecedented power over the emperor, the court, all daimyōs and the religious orders
8.
Naha
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Naha is the capital city of Okinawa Prefecture, the most southern prefecture of Japan. As of December 2012, the city has an population of 321,467. The total area is 38.99 km², Naha is a city on the East China Sea coast of the southern part of Okinawa Island, the largest of Okinawa Prefecture. The modern city was founded on May 20,1921. Before that Naha had been for one of the most important. Naha is the political, economic and education center of Okinawa Prefecture, in the medieval and early modern periods, it was the commercial center of the Ryūkyū Kingdom. Kokusai-dōri boasts a 1.6 kilometre long stretch of stores, restaurants, Kokusai-dōri ends at the main bus terminal in Okinawa and is served by several stations along the Okinawa Monorail, the only train system in the prefecture. Just outside the area is the neighborhood of Tsuboya, which was once a major center of ceramic production. Northeast of Kokusai-dōri is a new commercial district called Shintoshin. The area, formerly United States military housing, was released to Okinawa in 1987, frequented by young people, the area boasts large stores such as Toys R Us and Best Denki, a co-op market, many restaurants and a movie theater. The Okinawa Prefectural Museum, containing sections devoted to the art, history, according to the Irosetsuden, the name of Naha comes from its original name, Naba, which was the name of a large, mushroom-shaped stone in the city. Gradually, the stone away and became buried, and the names pronunciation. In Naha, some relics of the Stone Age were found. From a Jōmon period kaizuka, ancient Chinese coins were found, pottery found by archaeologists indicates that the area was an active site of trade with the Japanese archipelago and Korean peninsula at least as early as the 11th century. Though it is not known just when the area first became organized as a port city. Medieval Naha was on an island called Ukishima, connected to the mainland of Okinawa Island by a narrow causeway called Chōkōtei which led on to Shuri. The main port area for trade, Naha proper, was divided into the East and West districts and was on the southwestern portion of Ukishima. A large open-air marketplace was active in front of the government trading center
9.
Chinese dragon
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Chinese dragons are legendary creatures in Chinese mythology and Chinese folklore. The dragons have many forms such as turtles, fish, and imaginary. Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, typhoons, the dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it. With this, the Emperor of China usually used the dragon as a symbol of his imperial power and strength. In Chinese daily language, excellent and outstanding people are compared to a dragon, while people with no achievements are compared with other, disesteemed creatures. A number of Chinese proverbs and idioms feature references to a dragon, historically, the dragon was associated with the Emperor of China and used a symbol to represent imperial power. The founder of Han dynasty Liu Bang claimed that he was conceived after his mother dreamt of a dragon, during the Tang dynasty, Emperors wore robes with dragon motif as an imperial symbol, and high officials might also be presented with dragon robes. In the Yuan dynasty, the two-horned five-clawed dragon was designated for use by the Son of Heaven or Emperor only, similarly during the Ming and Qin dynasty, the five-clawed dragon was strictly reserved for use by the Emperor only. The dragon in the Qing dynasty appeared on the first Chinese national flag, the dragon is sometimes used in the West as a national emblem of China. However, this usage within either the Peoples Republic of China or the Republic of China on Taiwan as the symbol of nation is not common, instead, it is generally used as the symbol of culture. In Hong Kong, the dragon was on the Coat of arms of Hong Kong during colonial time, now it is part of the design of Brand Hong Kong, a symbol used to promote Hong Kong as an international brand name. The dragon is the symbol of Chinese emperor in many dynasties, during the Qing dynasty, the Azure Dragon was featured on the first Chinese national flag, until Qing collapsed. It featured shortly again on the Twelve Symbols national emblem, which was used during the Republic of China, the ancient Chinese self-identified as the descendants of the dragon because the Chinese dragon is an imagined reptile that represents evolution from the ancestors and qi energy. Some of the earliest Dragon artifacts are the pig dragon carvings from the Hongshan culture, the coiled dragon or snake form played an important role in early Chinese culture. The character for dragon in the earliest Chinese writing has a coiled form. Ancient Chinese referred to unearthed dinosaur bones as dragon bones and documented them as such, for example, Chang Qu in 300 BC documents the discovery of dragon bones in Sichuan. The modern Chinese word for dinosaur is konglong, and villagers in central China have long unearthed fossilized dragon bones for use in traditional medicines, the binomial name for a variety of dinosaurs discovered in China, Mei long, in Chinese means sleeping dragon. From its origins as totems or the depiction of natural creatures
10.
Feng shui
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Feng Shui is a Chinese philosophical system of harmonizing everyone with the surrounding environment. It is closely linked to Taoism, the term feng shui literally translates as wind-water in English. The feng shui practice discusses architecture in terms of invisible forces that bind the universe, earth. There is no scientific evidence that feng shuis mystical claims are real. Historically, feng shui was widely used to orient buildings—often spiritually significant structures such as tombs, depending on the particular style of feng shui being used, an auspicious site could be determined by reference to local features such as bodies of water, stars, or a compass. Qi rides the wind and scatters, but is retained when encountering water, Feng shui was suppressed in mainland China during the state-imposed Cultural Revolution of the 1960s but has since then regained popularity. The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience briefly summarizes the history and practice of feng shui and it states that the principles of feng shui related to living harmoniously with nature are quite rational, but does not otherwise lend credibility to the nonscientific claims. Its also a matter to dismiss the mystical energies said to be at its core. As of 2013 the Yangshao and Hongshan cultures provide the earliest known evidence for the use of feng shui, until the invention of the magnetic compass, feng shui apparently relied on astronomy to find correlations between humans and the universe. In 4000 BC, the doors of Banpo dwellings aligned with the asterism Yingshi just after the winter solstice—this sited the homes for solar gain. During the Zhou era, Yingshi was known as Ding and used to indicate the time to build a capital city. The late Yangshao site at Dadiwan includes a building at the center. The building faces south and borders a large plaza and it stands on a north-south axis with another building that apparently housed communal activities. Regional communities may have used the complex, a grave at Puyang that contains mosaics— actually a Chinese star map of the Dragon and Tiger asterisms and Beidou — is oriented along a north-south axis. Cosmography that bears a resemblance to modern feng shui devices and formulas appears on a piece of jade unearthed at Hanshan. Archaeologist Li Xueqin links the design to the astrolabe, zhinan zhen. Beginning with palatial structures at Erlitou, all cities of China followed rules of feng shui for their design. During the Zhou era, the Kaogong ji codified these rules, the carpenters manual Lu ban jing codified rules for builders
