The is the
ethnic group that
identifies as
Japanese by culture or ancestry, or both. The term is often used less discriminately to refer to the group of people holding Japanese
citizenship. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries are referred to as . The term "Japanese people" may also be used in some contexts to refer to a locus of ethnic groups including the
Yamato people,
Ainu people, and
Ryukyuans.
Culture
Language
Main articles: Japanese language
The Japanese language is the mother tongue of the majority of the world's Japanese. It is a
Japonic language that is usually treated as a
language isolate, although it is also related to the Okinawan language (
Ryukyuan). The Japanese language has a tripartite
writing system based upon
Chinese characters. Domestic Japanese people use primarily Japanese for daily interaction. The adult literacy rate in Japan exceeds 99%;
[1] however, this may not accurately reflect functional literacy rates due to the complex nature of the Japanese writing system.
[2]
Religion
Main articles: Religion in Japan
Japanese religion has traditionally been
syncretic in nature, combining elements of
Buddhism and
Shintoism. Shintoism, a
polytheistic religion with no book of religious canon, is Japan's native folk religion. Shinto was one of the traditional grounds for the right to the throne of the Japanese imperial family, and was codified as the state religion in 1868 (State Shinto was abolished by the
American occupation in 1945).
Mahayana Buddhism came to Japan in the sixth century and evolved into many different sects. Today the largest form of Buddhism among Japanese people is the
Jodo Shinshu sect founded by
Shinran.
According to the
CIA World Factbook, when asked to identify their religion, most Japanese people (84%) profess to believe in both
Shinto and
Buddhism. The Japanese people's religious concerns are mostly directed towards
mythology,
traditions, and neighborhood activities rather than as the single source of moral guidelines for one's life.
Confucianism or
Taoism is sometimes considered the basis for morality.
Literature
Main articles: Japanese literature
Certain genres of writing originated in and are often associated with Japanese society. These include the
haiku,
tanka, and
I Novel, although modern writers generally avoid these writing styles. Historically, many works have sought to capture or codify traditional Japanese cultural values and aesthetics. Some of the most famous of these include
Murasaki Shikibu's ''
The Tale of Genji'' (1021), about
Heian court culture;
Miyamoto Musashi's ''
The Book of Five Rings'' (1645), concerning military strategy;
Matsuo BashÅ's ''
Oku no Hosomichi'' (1691), a
travelogue; and
Jun'ichirÅ Tanizaki's essay "
In Praise of Shadows" (1933), which contrasts Eastern and Western cultures.
Following the
opening of Japan to the West in 1854, some works of this style were written in English by natives of Japan; they include '' by
Nitobe Inazo (1900), concerning ''
samurai'' ethics, and ''
The Book of Tea'' by
Okakura Kakuzo (1906), which deals with the philosophical implications of the
Japanese tea ceremony. Western observers have often attempted to evaluate Japanese society as well, to varying degrees of success; one of the most well-known and controversial works resulting from this is
Ruth Benedict's ''
The Chrysanthemum and the Sword'' (1946).
Twentieth-century Japanese writers recorded changes in Japanese society through their works. Some of the most notable authors included
Natsume SÅseki,
Jun'ichirÅ Tanizaki,
Osamu Dazai,
Yasunari Kawabata,
Fumiko Enchi,
Yukio Mishima, and
Ryotaro Shiba. In contemporary Japan popular authors such as
Ryu Murakami,
Haruki Murakami, and
Banana Yoshimoto are highly regarded.
Arts
Decorative arts in Japan date back to prehistoric times.
JÅmon pottery includes examples with elaborate ornamentation. Pottery and ceramics have been important in Japan in every subsequent period, and exports of
Imari ware and other ceramics reached Europe.
In the
Yayoi period, artisans produced fine mirrors, spears, and ceremonial bells known as ''
dÅtaku.'' Later burial mounds, or ''
kofun,'' preserve characteristic clay ''
haniwa,'' as well as wall paintings. From the late 7th century, painting,
calligraphy, and
sculpture in wood and metal flourished in the
Nara period, under a strong foreien influences, first Korean and later Chinese, and many fine examples of architecture date from this time. Among them are the
HÅryÅ«-ji and the
Yakushi-ji, two
Buddhist temples in
Nara Prefecture. Also the courtiers and buddhist monks enjoyed Chinese style music.
After the capital moving from Nara to Kyoto (
794) and abolishment of China mission to Tang dynasty (9th C), Japanese art became gradually less Chinese-influenced and "japanized". Around the late 10th Century, an architecture style ''Shinden-zukuri'' was fashioned among the nobles. Single-floored buildings, normally three, connected with corridors were accompanied with a large garden which should have commanded a large pond where people enjoyed boating. The typical Shinden-zukuri building is found today in the HÅÅ-dÅ, or Phoenix Hall, of the
ByÅdÅ-in in
Uji, Kyoto, built in the early 11th Century by
Fujiwara no Michinaga as his villa. To decorate their court life, they liked the art as finest and delicate decorations. The contemporary literature says how they enjoyed the life, including appreciation of
emakimono, a pair of scrolls, one for painting and another for text. The noble enjoyed paintings, and their maid-in-waiting (nyobo) read out the text. Most of paintings are polychrome, but some pieces are monochrome. Some monochrome paintings were supposed to leave monochrome, not originally intended, but from other reasons such as financial or just for personal fun and not necessary to finish them. In the late Heian period, the trade between China was reinstated, with Song dynasty but it didn't rapidly influence the Japanese art scene.
In Genpei-war, Todai-ji was attacked and many building including its main hall, Daibutsu-den (Hall for Great Buddha) was burned and lost. In the beginning of Kamakura period, For restoration, a special office was settled. Many buildings were built with newly created statues. Todai-ji in that period became a center of Japanese architecture and sculpture. The leading masters were
Unkei and
Kaikei. In this period Zen-buddhism was introduced to Japan, and they brought new style of art from China, specially paintings and gardening as well as new habits like drinking tea.
Painting advanced in the
Muromachi period in the form of
ink and wash painting under the influence of
Zen-buddhism as practiced by such masters as
SesshÅ« TÅyÅ. But it doesn't mean all Japanese painting were monochrome: rather polychrome paintings have been the mainstream of Japanese art scene. Zen-buddhism brought drinking tea habit were elaborated into
tea celemony in the late Muromachi period. In the
Sengoku and
Edo periods, nobles, daimyo as well as kuge decorated their mansion with polychrome painting screens. School of Kano was the most influenced, thanks to their powerful patrons including the
Tokugawas. In the Edo period, popular artists created ''
ukiyo-e''. Ukiyoe is brush-painted or woodblock prints, and the latter were for sale to commoners in the flourishing cities.
The Muromachi period also gave rise to
noh, a spare dramatic form for the warrior class. Together with
kyogen farce, it descended from earlier religious performances. In stark contrast to the restrained refinement of noh,
kabuki, an "explosion of color," used every possible stage trick for dramatic effect to appeal to an audience of commoners. Plays included sensational events of the day such as suicides, and many works went back and forth between kabuki and the
bunraku puppet theaters.
Since the
Meiji Restoration, Japan has absorbed elements of Western culture. Its modern decorative, practical and performing arts works span a spectrum ranging from the traditions of Japan to purely Western modes. Products of popular culture, including
J-pop,
manga, and
anime have found audiences around the world.
Origins
A recent study by Michael F. Hammer has shown genetic similarity to the
people of Tibet.
[3] This and other genetic studies have also claimed that several thousand years ago, a small number of proto-Korean
Y-chromosome patrilines crossed from the Korean peninsula into the
Japanese Archipelago, where they comprise a significant fraction of the extant male lineages of the Japanese population. These patrilines seem to have experienced extensive genetic admixture with the long-established
JÅmon period populations of Japan.
Paleolithic era
Archaeological evidences indicates that
Stone Age people lived in the Japanese Archipelago during the
Paleolithic period between 33,000 and 21,000 years ago. Japan was then connected to mainland
Asia by at least one land bridge, and
nomadic
hunter-gatherers crossed to Japan from
East Asia,
Siberia, and possibly
Kamchatka. They left
flint tools but no evidence of permanent settlements.
JÅmon and Ainu people
Incipient JÅmon pottery
The world's oldest known
pottery was developed by the
JÅmon people in the
Upper Paleolithic period, 14th millennium BCE. The name, "JÅmon" (縄文 ''JÅmon''), which means "cord-impressed pattern", comes from the characteristic markings found on the pottery. The JÅmon people were
Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, though at least one middle to late JÅmon site (, ca. 1200-1000 BCE) had a primitive
rice-growing
agriculture. They relied primarily on fish for protein. It is believed that the JÅmon had very likely migrated from
North Asia or
Central Asia and became the
Ainu of today. Research suggests that the Ainu retain a certain degree of uniqueness in their genetic make-up, while having some affinities with different regional populations in Japan as well as the
Nivkhs of the
Russian Far East. Based on more than a dozen genetic markers on a variety of chromosomes and from archaeological data showing habitation of the Japanese Archipelago dating back 30,000 years, it is argued that the JÅmon actually came from northeastern Asia and settled on the islands far earlier than some have proposed.
[4]
Yayoi people
Around 400-300 BCE, the
Yayoi people began to enter the Japanese islands, intermingling with the JÅmon. Most modern scholars say that the Yayoi emigrated from the southern part of the
Korean Peninsula to northern
Kyūshū, though it has also been proposed that they came from southeastern
China. The Yayoi brought wet-
rice farming and advanced
bronze and
iron technology to Japan. Although the islands were already abundant with resources for hunting and dry-rice farming, Yayoi farmers created more productive wet-rice
paddy field systems. This allowed the communities to support larger populations and spread over time, in turn becoming the basis for more advanced
institutions and heralding the new
civilization of the succeeding Kofun Period.
Controversy
Currently, the most well-regarded theory is that present-day Japanese are descendants of both the
indigenous JÅmon people and the
immigrant Yayoi people. The origins of the JÅmon and Yayoi peoples have often been a subject of dispute, but it is now widely accepted that the JÅmon people were very similar to the modern
Ainu of northern Japan, and lived in Japan since the time of the last
glacial age.
Han Chinese and
Southeast Asian ethnic groups were sometimes proposed as the origin of the modern Japanese ethnic group. Recently, however, both Japanese and non-Japanese academics predominantly argue that the Japanese are descended from both the Yayoi, who emigrated from the Korean peninsula, and the long-established native JÅmon people, with whom the Yayoi
intermarried. A clear consensus has not been reached.
[5]
Japanese colonialism
Location Map of Japan
During the
Japanese colonial period of 1867 to 1945, the phrase "Japanese people" was used to refer not only to residents of the Japanese archipelago, but also to people from occupied territories who held Japanese
citizenship, such as
Taiwanese people and
Korean people. The official term used to refer to ethnic Japanese during this period was . Such linguistic distinctions facilitated forced
assimilation of colonized ethnic identities into a single Imperial Japanese identity.
[6]
After
World War II, many
Nivkh people and
Orok people from
southern Sakhalin who held Japanese citizenship were forced to repatriate to
HokkaidÅ by the
Soviet Union. However, many
Sakhalin Koreans who had held Japanese citizenship until the end of the war were left stateless by the Soviet occupation.
[7]
Japanese living abroad
The term is used to refer to Japanese people who either emigrated from Japan or are descendants of a person who emigrated from Japan. The usage of this term excludes Japanese citizens who are living abroad, but includes all descendants of ''nikkeijin'' who lack Japanese citizenship regardless of their place of birth.
Emigration from Japan was recorded as early as the 12th century to the
Philippines, but did not become a mass phenomenon until the
Meiji Era, when Japanese began to go to the
United States and
Canada, and later
Latin America,
Peru, and
Brazil. There was also significant emigration to the territories of the
Empire of Japan during the colonial period; however, most such emigrants repatriated to Japan after the
end of World War II in Asia.
[8]
According to the Association of Nikkei and Japanese Abroad, there are about 2.5 million ''nikkeijin'' living in their adopted countries. The largest of these foreign communities are in the
Brazilian states of
São Paulo and
Paraná. There are also significant cohesive Japanese communities in the
Philippines, Peru, and in the American state of
Hawaii. Separately, the number of Japanese citizens living abroad is over one million according to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
See also
References
1. United States CIA factbook. Accessed 2007-01-15.
2. Galan, C. (2005). Learning to read and write in Japanese (kokugo and nihongo): a barrier to multilingualism? ''International journal of the sociology of language'', Issue 175-176
3.
4. Abstract of article from ''The Journal of Human Genetics''. Accessed 2007-01-15.
5. See the following for more information:
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
6. "Korean Japanese", Eika Tai, , , ,
7. Stateless in Sakhalin Andrei Lankov
8. The Dawn of Modern Korea (360): Settling Down Andrei Lankov
External links
★
CIA The World Fact Book 2006
★
The Association of Nikkei & Japanese Abroad
★
Discover Nikkei- Information on Japanese emigrants and their descendants
★
Jun-Nissei Literature and Culture in Brazil
★
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
★
The National Museum of Japanese History
★
Japanese society and culture
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