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The English word
Japan is an
exonym. The
Japanese names for Japan are
Nippon (にっぽん?) 
listen (help·info) and
Nihon (にほん?) listen (help·info); both names are written using the
kanji 日本. The Japanese name
Nippon is used for most official purposes, including on
Japanese yen,
postage stamps, and for many international sporting events.
Nihon is a more casual term and is used in contemporary speech.
Japanese people refer to themselves as
Nihonjin (日本人?) and to their language as
Nihongo (日本語?). Both
Nippon and
Nihon mean "sun-origin" and are often translated as
Land of the Rising Sun. This nomenclature comes from
Japanese missions to Imperial China and refers to Japan's eastward position relative to China. Before
Nihon came into official use, Japan was known as
Wa (倭?) or
Wakoku (倭国?).
[16]The English word for Japan came to the West via
early trade routes. The early
Mandarin or possibly
Wu Chinese (吳語) word for Japan was recorded by
Marco Polo as
Cipangu. In modern
Shanghainese, a Wu dialect, the pronunciation of characters
日本 'Japan' is
Zeppen [zəʔpən]. The old
Malay word for Japan,
Jepang, was borrowed from a Chinese language — Jih'pen'kuo
[17]—, and this Malay word was encountered by
Portuguese traders in
Malacca in the 16th century.
Portuguese traders were the first to bring the word to Europe
[18]. It was first recorded in English in a 1565 letter, spelled
Giapan
History
A
Paleolithic culture around 30,000 BC constitutes the first known habitation of Japan. This was followed from around 14,000 BC (the start of the
Jōmon period) by a
Mesolithic to
Neolithic semi-sedentary
hunter-gatherer culture, who include ancestors of both the contemporary
Ainu people and
Yamato people,
[20][21] characterized by pit dwelling and rudimentary agriculture.
[22] Decorated clay vessels from this period are some of the oldest surviving examples of pottery in the world. Around 300 BC, the Yayoi people began to enter the Japanese islands, intermingling with the Jōmon.
[23] The
Yayoi period, starting around 500 BC, saw the introduction of practices like
wet-rice farming,
[24] a new style of pottery,
[25] and
metallurgy, introduced from China and Korea.
[26]The Japanese first appear in written history in the Chinese
Book of Han. According to the
Records of Three Kingdoms, the most powerful kingdom on the archipelago during the 3rd century was called
Yamataikoku. Buddhism was first introduced to Japan from
Baekje, but the subsequent development of
Japanese Buddhism was primarily influenced by China.
[27] Despite early resistance, Buddhism was promoted by the ruling class and gained widespread acceptance beginning in the
Asuka period (592–710).
[28]The
Nara period (710–784) of the 8th century marked the emergence of a strong Japanese state, centered on an imperial court in
Heijō-kyō (modern
Nara). The Nara period is characterized by the appearance of a nascent
literature as well as the development of Buddhist-inspired art and
architecture.
[29] The
smallpox epidemic of 735–737 is believed to have killed as much as one-third of Japan's population.
[30] In 784,
Emperor Kammu moved the capital from Nara to
Nagaoka-kyō before relocating it to
Heian-kyō (modern
Kyoto) in 794.
Samurai
Samurai (侍?) is the term for the military nobility of
pre-industrial Japan. According to translator
William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese,
saburau. In both countries the terms were nominalized to mean "those who serve in close attendance to the nobility," the pronunciation in Japanese changing to
saburai. According to Wilson, an early reference to the word "samurai" appears in the
Kokin Wakashū (905–914), the first imperial anthology of poems, completed in the first part of the 10th century.
[1] By the end of the 12th century,
samurai became almost entirely synonymous with
bushi (武士), and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class. The samurai followed a set of rules that came to be known as
bushidō. While they numbered less than 10% of Japan's population
[2] samurai teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern martial arts such as
kendō.
Following the
Battle of Hakusukinoe against
Tang China and
Silla in 663 AD that led to a Japanese retreat from Korean affairs, Japan underwent widespread reform. One of the most important was that of the
Taika Reform, issued by Prince Naka no Ōe (
Emperor Tenji) in 646 AD. This edict allowed the Japanese aristocracy to adopt the
Tang Dynasty political structure,
bureaucracy, culture, religion, and philosophy.
[3] As part of the
Taihō Code, of 702 AD, and the later
Yōrō Code,
[4] the population was required to report regularly for census, which was used as a precursor for national conscription. With an understanding of how the population was distributed,
Emperor Mommu introduced the law whereby 1 in 3–4 adult males was drafted into the national military. These soldiers were required to supply their own weapons, and in return were exempted from duties and taxes.
[3] This was one of the first attempts by the Imperial government to form an organized army modeled after the Chinese system. It was called
gundan-sei (軍団制) by later historians and is believed to have been short-lived.
[citation needed]The Taihō Code classified most of the imperial bureaucrats into 12 ranks, each divided into two sub-ranks, 1st rank being the highest adviser to the emperor. Those of 6th rank and below were referred to as "samurai" and dealt with day-to-day affairs. Although these "samurai" were civilian public servants, the name is believed
[by whom?] to have derived from this term. Military men, however, would not be referred to as "samurai" for many more centuries.
[citation needed]In the early
Heian period, the late 8th and early 9th centuries,
Emperor Kammu sought to consolidate and expand his rule in northern
Honshū, but the armies he sent to conquer the rebellious
Emishi people lacked motivation and discipline, and failed in their task.
[citation needed] Emperor Kammu introduced the title of
Seiitaishogun (
征夷大将軍) or
shogun, and began to rely on the powerful regional clans to conquer the Emishi. Skilled in mounted combat and
archery (
kyūdō), these clan warriors became the emperor's preferred tool for putting down rebellions.
[citation needed] Although this is the first time 'shogun' title is used, it was a temporal title and had not been accompanied with political power until 13th century, and at this time (7th to 9th century) the imperial court officials considered them to be merely military section under control of imperial court.
Ultimately, Emperor Kammu disbanded his army. From this time, the emperor's power gradually declined. While the emperor was still the ruler, powerful clans around
Kyoto (
京都) assumed positions as ministers, and their relatives bought positions as magistrates.
[citation needed] To amass wealth and repay their debts, magistrates often imposed heavy taxes, resulting in many farmers becoming landless
Kamakura Bakufu and the rise of samurai
Originally the emperor and nobility employed these warriors. In time, they amassed enough manpower, resources and political backing in the form of alliances with one another, to establish the first samurai-dominated government.
As the power of these regional clans grew, their chief was typically a distant relative of the emperor, and a lesser member of either the
Fujiwara,
Minamoto, or
Taira clans.
Though originally sent to provincial areas for a fixed four-year term as a magistrate, the toryo declined to return to the capital when their terms ended, and their sons inherited their positions and continued to lead the clans in putting down rebellions throughout Japan during the middle- and later-Heian period.
Samurai fought at the naval battle of
Dan-no-Ura in 1185. Because of their rising military and economic power, the warriors ultimately became a new force in the politics of the court. Their involvement in the
Hōgen in the late Heian period consolidated their power, and finally pitted the rival
Minamoto and
Taira clans against each other in the
Heiji Rebellion of 1160.
The winner,
Taira no Kiyomori, became an imperial advisor, and was the first warrior to attain such a position. He eventually seized control of the central government, establishing the first samurai-dominated government and relegating the emperor to figurehead status.
However, the Taira clan was still very conservative when compared to its eventual successor, the Minamoto, and instead of expanding or strengthening its military might, the Taira clan had its women marry emperors and exercise control through the emperor.
The Taira and the Minamoto clashed again in 1180, beginning the
Gempei War which ended in 1185. The victorious
Minamoto no Yoritomo established the superiority of the samurai over the aristocracy. In 1190 he visited Kyoto, and in 1192 became
Seii Taishogun, establishing the Kamakura Shogunate, or
Kamakura Bakufu. Instead of ruling from Kyoto, he set up the Shogunate in
Kamakura, near his base of power. "Bakufu" means "tent government", taken from the encampments the soldiers would live in, in accordance with the Bakufu's status as a military government.
[26]Over time, powerful samurai clans became warrior nobility, or "
buke", who were only nominally under the court aristocracy. When the samurai began to adopt aristocratic pastimes like
calligraphy, poetry and music, some court aristocrats in turn began to adopt samurai customs. In spite of various machinations and brief periods of rule by various emperors, real power was now in the hands of the Shogun and the samurai.
Oda, Toyotomi and Tokugawa
Oda Nobunaga was the well-known lord of the
Nagoya area (once called
Owari Province) and an exceptional example of a samurai of the
Sengoku Period. He came within a few years of, and laid down the path for his successors to follow, the reunification of Japan under a new Bakufu (Shogunate).
Oda Nobunaga made innovations in the fields of organization and war tactics, heavily used arquebuses, developed commerce and industry and treasured innovation. Consecutive victories enabled him to realize the termination of the Ashikaga Bakufu and the disarmament of the military powers of the Buddhist monks, which had inflamed futile struggles among the populace for centuries. Attacking from the "sanctuary" of Buddhist temples, they were constant headaches to any warlord and even the emperor who tried to control their actions. He died in 1582 when one of his generals,
Akechi Mitsuhide, turned upon him with his army.
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Modernization
The relative peace of the Tokugawa era was shattered with the arrival of Commodore
Matthew Perry's massive U.S. Navy steamships in 1853. Perry used his superior firepower to force Japan to open its borders to trade. Prior to that only a few harbor towns, under strict control from the Shogunate, were allowed to participate in Western trade, and even then, it was based largely on the idea of playing the
Franciscans and
Dominicans off against one another (in exchange for the crucial
arquebus technology, which in turn was a major contributor to the downfall of the classical samurai).
From 1854, the samurai army and the navy were modernized. A
Naval training school was established in
Nagasaki in 1855. Naval students were sent to study in Western naval schools for several years, starting a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders, such as Admiral
Enomoto.
The last showing of the original samurai was in 1867 when samurai from
Chōshū and
Satsuma provinces defeated the Shogunate forces in favor of the rule of the emperor in the
Boshin War (1868–1869). The two provinces were the lands of the daimyo that submitted to Ieyasu after the
Battle of Sekigahara (1600).
The Tokugawa Shogunate also isolated Japan until 1868 of when the Meiji restoration shifted power from the shogunate to the Imperial family.
Modern era
The Empire of Japan invaded other parts of China in 1937, precipitating the
Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). In 1940, the Empire then
invaded French Indochina, after which the United States placed an oil embargo on Japan.
[44] On December 7, 1941, Japan
attacked the US naval base at
Pearl Harbor and declared war, bringing the US into
World War II.
[45][46] After the
Soviet invasion of Manchuria and the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan agreed to an
unconditional surrender on August 15.
[47] The war cost Japan and the rest of the
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere millions of lives and left much of the nation's industry and infrastructure destroyed. The
Allies (led by the US) repatriated millions of
ethnic Japanese from colonies and military camps throughout Asia, largely eliminating the Japanese empire and restoring the independence of its conquered territories.
[48] The Allies also convened the
International Military Tribunal for the Far East on May 3, 1946 to prosecute some Japanese leaders for
war crimes. However, the
bacteriological research units and members of the imperial family involved in the war were exonerated from criminal prosecutions by the
Supreme Allied Commander despite calls for trials for both groups.
[49]
Climate
The climate of Japan is predominantly
temperate, but varies greatly from north to south. Japan's geographical features divide it into six principal climatic zones: Hokkaidō, Sea of Japan,
Central Highland,
Seto Inland Sea, Pacific Ocean, and
Ryūkyū Islands. The northernmost zone, Hokkaido, has a temperate climate with long, cold winters and cool summers.
Precipitation is not heavy, but the islands usually develop deep snowbanks in the winter. In the Sea of Japan zone on Honshū's west coast, northwest winter winds bring heavy snowfall. In the summer, the region is cooler than the Pacific area, though it sometimes experiences extremely hot temperatures because of the
foehn wind. The Central Highland has a typical inland climate, with large temperature differences between summer and winter, and between day and night; precipitation is light. The mountains of the
Chūgoku and
Shikoku regions shelter the Seto Inland Sea from seasonal winds, bringing mild weather year-round. The Pacific coast experiences cold winters with little snowfall and hot, humid summers because of the southeast seasonal wind. The Ryukyu Islands have a subtropical climate, with warm winters and hot summers. Precipitation is very heavy, especially during the rainy season.
[81]The average winter temperature in Japan is
5.1 °C (41.2 °F) and the average summer temperature is
25.2 °C (77.4 °F).
[82] The highest temperature ever measured in Japan—
40.9 °C (105.6 °F)—was recorded on August 16, 2007.
[83] The main
rainy season begins in early May in Okinawa, and the rain front gradually moves north until reaching Hokkaidō in late July. In most of Honshū, the rainy season begins before the middle of June and lasts about six weeks. In late summer and early autumn,
typhoons often bring heavy rain.
[84]
Education
Primary schools, secondary schools and universities were introduced in 1872 as a result of the Meiji Restoration.[175] Since 1947, compulsory education in Japan comprises elementary and middle school, which together last for nine years (from age 6 to age 15). Almost all children continue their education at a three-year senior high school, and, according to the MEXT, as of 2005 about 75.9 percent of high school graduates attend a university, junior college, trade school, or other higher education institution.[176] The two top-ranking universities in Japan are the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University.[177][178] The Programme for International Student Assessment coordinated by the OECD currently ranks the overall knowledge and skills of Japanese 15-year-olds as sixth best in the world.[179]
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Above: Close up, detail, of “shimenawa (special plaited rope) and shime (strips of white paper). Placed at the entrances of holy places to ward off evil spirits, or placed around trees/objects to indicate presence of kami. Made of rice straw or hemp, the rope is called nawa 縄. The pieces of white paper that are cut into strips and hung from these ropes (often hung from ropes on Torii gates as well) are called shime 注連 or gohei; they symbolize purity in the Shintō faith.” The foregoing is a quote from this excellent site on Shinto.
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