There are three main types of written characters in Japan: kanji, hiragana and katakana. Roman letters are also used, but to a much lesser extent.
Kanji characters are ideograms which were brought in from China. On the basis of the Chinese and Japanese readings of these characters a system of phonetic manyogana characters was devised. This in turn was simplified int the hiragana and katakana systems in about the ninth century. The characters of the hiragana and katakana systems represent single syllables. Each system presently has 46 characters.
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Obon, mid August
Japan festivals are known as “matsuri” or 祭り in Kanji character. Festivals, hodidays, and other ceremonial occasions fall into two main categories : matsuri (festivals) and nen-chuu gyouji (年中行事, annual events; also prononced nenjuu gyouji). Matsuri are essentially native Japanese festivals of Shinto origin, held annually on established dates. Nenchuu gyouji is a larger category of annual and seasonal obervances, many of which are of Chinese or Buddhist origin. Nenchuu gyouji are arranged seasonally to form an annual calendar of events. Matsuri are often included in this calendar, and there is some overlapping between the two categories.
Matsuri are chiefly of sacred origin, related (at least originally) to the cultivication of rice and the spiritual well-being of local communities. They derive ultimately from ancient Shinto rites for the propitiation of the gods and the spirits of the dead, and for the fullfillment of the agricultural round. Some of these Shinto rites were incorporated, along with Buddhist and Confucian rites and ceremonies imported from China, into the imperial calendar of annual obervances.
The word “matsuri” includes the rites and festivals practices in both FOLK SHINTO and institutionalized Shinto. A matsuri is basically a symbolic act whereby participants enter a state of active communication with the gods (KAMI, 神); it is accompanied by communion among participants in the form of feast and festival. In a broad sense, matsuri may also include festivals in which the playful element and commercial interests have all but obliterated the original sacramental context.
Koinobori May 5th
There are several types of Shinto matsuri in Japan : matsuri of supplication to the gods (as for successful harvest), others of thanksgiving, and still others to drive away pestilence and natural disasters. There are solemn matsuri and boisterous occasions featuring games and entertainment. Elaborate festivals flourish in the big cities and small-scale communities. Some matsuri are performed in a very traditional way, and some have been considerately adapted to modern times.
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By AMY CHAVEZ
(From The Japan Times)
Japan is a nation of favors. Thus the custom that when you see someone, you thank them for the last nice thing they did for you. “Thanks for taking me to the bank yesterday,” or “Thanks for dinner the other night.”
Such things are covered in the very vague, but appropriate phrase: “Senjitsu osewa ni narimashita” (literally, “the other day I was taken care of by you.”) This handy phrase can even double as a greeting.
Since all favors should be repaid in Japanese society, consider your mere arrival in the country as significant enough an event to plunge you into eternal debt. People will do a myriad of favors for you and if you’re like most people, you’ll be left wondering which people you can just say “Thank you” to and which people you also owe a return favor to. And how much.
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By MARK BUCKTON
Special to The Japan Times Online
For the 140 or so years non-Japanese have known of the existence of sumo, many have referred to it as Japan’s national sport. But are they correct about the status of this ancient form of wrestling found only in these islands, misinformed entirely, or just partly right?
Wherever opinions stand surrounding this ongoing debate, several facts cannot be ignored when considering the status that sumo so often has heaped on its shoulders by the well intentioned:
Sumo is often called “kokugi” in the Japanese media and by the population at large, and kokugi is a phrase most dictionaries translate as “national sport.” Likewise, sumo is performed at a stadium known as the Kokugikan — with “kan” meaning hall or stadium.
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GANJITSU (January 1) : the day on which the birth of the new year is celebrated. Nobody works on the first three days of the new year, the period called sanga nichi, or shogatsu. Shogatsu originally referred to the whole of January, but now is used just to refer to these three days. On these days, the people go to shrines, visit friends and relatives, drink sake and eat special new-year dishes, called osechi. Shimenawa, sacred rice-straw ropes, are hung across the top of the gateway, which is also deorated with pine boughs or kadomatsu (gate pines). The kadomatsu symbolizes a tree provided for the descent of the gods. This pine decoration is left in place from January the first to the seventh (until the fifteenth in olden times), the period referred to as matsu no uchi.
SETSUBUN (February 3 or 4) : the day before the beginning of spring according to the lunisolar calendar. On the evening of this day, people open the doors of their houses and drive the demons (i.e. bad luck) out of their homes and gardens by throwing handfuls of beans and shouting “Demons out! Good luck in!”
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