Tuesday, February 27, 2007
How Japan’s Shoguns Created the World’s First Travel Industry
TOKYO – It may be something of a surprise to most people that Japan was the first country in the world to have a nationwide network of roadside inns, and the first country in the world in which great numbers of ordinary people routinely traveled long distances on pleasure trips.
These two remarkable developments occurred because of a policy inaugurated in 1603 by Ieyasu Tokugawa who had emerged as the most powerful fief leader in the country after a series of battles against competing clan lords, and founded the Tokugawa Shogunate government in Edo (now Tokyo).
This new policy, known as Sankin Kotai (Sahn-keen Koh-tie), or “Alternate Attendance,” required that the leaders of all of the fiefs that had opposed Tokugawa keep their families in Edo at all times as hostages, and that the fief lords themselves spend every other year in Edo in attendance at the Shogun’s Court -- a ploy designed to help prevent them from becoming a threat to the new government.
This decree specified how many retainers—samurai warriors, aides and servants -- the Daimyo (Dime-yoh) or fief lords were required to bring with them to Edo on their semi-annual trips, based on the income of their fiefs --a strategy designed to cost them as much as 70 percent of their income and keep in them economically and militarily weak.
The trips of the lords and their entourages to and from Edo came to be known as Daimyo Gyoretsu (Dime-yoh G’yoh-rate-sue) or “Processions of the Lords.” The typical entourage ranged from 150 to 350 people. The richest of the lords, Maeda, was required to bring up to a thousand retainers with him.
The Sankin Kotai decree also designated which roads the fief lords would travel from and to their domains, and required that towns and villages along the various routes construct and staff suitable accommodations for the Daimyo and their retainers at intervals of one day’s march. Local residents were also required to maintain the roads in their vicinity and plant trees along them.
In 1637, Ieyasu’s grandson, Iemitsu, the third Tokugawa Shogun, dramatically expanded the scope of the Sankin Kotai system to cover over 260 of the some 300 fief lords in the country, making it one of the defining characteristics of the nation’s economy and social life.
The expansion of this extraordinary system of political and economic control required a major construction program that resulted in the already existing network of inns being extended throughout the main islands. The Shogunate decree mandated three classes of inns:
Honjin (Hone-jeen), which can be translated as “Head Inns.” These inns, richly appointed in the style of the imperial mansions of Kyoto, were reserved for the lords and their personal aides.
Waki Honjin (Wah-kee Hone-jeen) or “Annex Head Inns.” These inns were only slightly less luxurious then the Honjin and were reserved for other ranking guests when the Honjin were full.
Hatago (Hah-tah-go), which were the equivalent of today’s Holiday Inns, and were reserved for the lord’s warriors and lower ranking staff and servants.
On just one road -- the Tokaido (Toh-kigh-doh) or East Sea Road -- which connected Kyoto to Edo, there were 93 Honjin, 102 Waki Honjin, and 1,812 Hatago inns. There were four other great roads leading to Edo that were also lined with inns.
Not only did the Sankin Kotai system result in the development of a highly sophisticated network of inns nationwide, it was also responsible for the development of the traditions of extraordinary service that are still characteristic of Japanese hotels and inns, and for the spread of a refined level of culture throughout the rural areas of Japan.
These truly remarkable “Processions of the Lords” continued to be a defining characteristic of Japanese life for more than 250 years -- not ending until 1862.
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
Japan’s Amazing Traditions Of Recreational Travel
TOKYO – Japan was one of the first -- if not the first -- country in the world in which recreational travel by large numbers of people became a full-fledged industry.
The Japanese urge to travel for enjoyment has been a significant part of the culture since ancient times, and may have had its genesis in the incredible beauty of the islands and in the development of an extraordinary aesthetic sense in the Japanese psyche.
The mythological gods credited with creating the Japanese islands were so impressed with their handiwork that they descended from the heavens to take up permanent residence on the islands.
Poetry written well over a thousand years ago extols the beauty of the islands, and make it evident that the writers had traveled. Buddhism and Shintoism also played a key role in travel in ancient Japan, as monks and priests sought out locations of exceptional beauty in distant mountains to build temples and shrines that attracted visitors from afar.
During the golden Heian era (A.D. 794-1185) traveling for recreational purposes was common among the elite, and over the centuries, hundreds of places around the islands became famous for their exceptional beauty.
But it was not until founding of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603 and the beginning of over two centuries of peace and prosperity that the average Japanese were able to travel for recreational and for religious purposes.
The Shogunate mandated a political control system that required over 260 of the country’s some 300 fief lords to keep their families in Edo at all times, and themselves, along with a large entourage of retainers, spend every other year in Edo.
This resulted in the construction of a network of inns, a day’s march apart, on the five great roads leading to Edo from the rest of the country. While built to accommodate the domain lords and their entourages, the inns catered to other travelers as well.
As the decades passed, the roads and inns became crowded with religious pilgrims, gamblers, salesmen, sumo wrestlers, roving monks and priests, government officials, messengers, painters, poets, and secret agents.
Two types of travel became institutionalized in Japanese life -- monomode (moh-no-moh-day), which consisted of walking tours of famous shrines and temples around the country (that often lasted for months); and yusan (yuu-sahn), which were sightseeing trips to famous scenic places (numbering in the hundreds).
With a nod to the scriptwriters of the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby “road movies,” the first such “road” stories were written by Ikku Jippensha between 1802 and 1822. These stories were entitled Tokaido Chu Hizakurige, which translates as “Traveling the East Sea Road by Shank’s Mare” (on foot).
The series of books chronicled the adventures of two men from Edo, Yajirobe and Kitahachi, who preferred the pleasures and perils of the road to the carping of their wives.
The two dyed-in-the-wool Edo-type men (boisterous, argumentative, and proud) got into every type of comic situation imaginable, and in the process of telling their stories, the author provides a vivid account of the manners and morals of Japanese life during that era in Japan’s history.
The emergence of modern Japan gave rise to three other great categories of domestic travelers—hordes of school children on excursions that were mandated by the Ministry of Education in the late 1800s, millions of big city residents returning to their ancestral villages and towns on holidays and other occasions, and huge numbers of businesspeople going to and fro, from the northernmost island of Hokkaido to the southern island of Okinawa.
In the 1950s, villages and rural organizations nationwide began sponsoring group trips to major cities and scenic attractions. By the mid-1950s virtually all companies in Japan were sponsoring annual outings for their employees to beaches, hot spring spas or mountain retreats.
Today, virtually all Japanese make at least one overnight trip away from their homes and offices each year, and millions travel within the country from a few to dozens of times every year.
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
Japan Remains Safe Haven For Foreign Travelers!
TOKYO – Japanese who travel abroad are repeatedly warned in travel literature, by their travel agents, by friends, and by the news media that once they leave Japan they will be in danger of being robbed, injured or even killed if they do not remain alert and take special measures to protect themselves.
The Japanese are cautioned never to set their bags down in a hotel lobby or in any kind of transportation terminal; to never walk in certain areas of cities at night; to be wary of conmen, touts, and so on.
Unfortunately, these warnings are not exaggerated or based on unwarranted fears. Given the number of Japanese who are robbed and often beaten while they are abroad it is remarkable that so many -- some 14 to 15 million -- continue to travel overseas each year.
In contrast to this, it is so rare for a foreign traveler in Japan to be robbed, beaten, killed or even harassed in any way that when it does happen it makes national headlines.
The incidence of violent crimes has gone up dramatically in Japan since the introduction of democracy and Western culture following the end of World War II in 1945, but the crime rate is still far below that of Western countries, and generally does not involve foreign victims.
One often hears that in Japan women can walk alone, at all hours of the night, in city districts that are notorious for their low life and the presence of street thugs and professional gangsters without fear of being accosted, robbed or raped. And that is true.
One also hears that foreign women are even safer when they are out and about in Japan -- wherever they may be and whatever the hour -- because Japanese males, including the criminal element, are less likely to harm foreigners. And that is true.
The continuing low level of crime in Japan, in particular the low incidence of people being attacked in the streets -- day or night -- can be attributed to Shinto and Buddhist standards established in the culture very early in Japan’s history, and reinforced politically and socially during the long Shogunate period (1185-1868), when armed samurai warriors administered the country and were empowered to quickly and severely punish law and custom breakers.
During the early decades of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1867), samurai warriors were legally permitted to kill people on the spot for violations of etiquette or the law that today would be consider minor infractions.
Given the combined influence of the Shintoism and Buddhism, both of which advocated non-violence, and the social morality mandated and enforced by the samurai rulers of Japan, ordinary Japanese became paragons of honesty and good manners.
Still today, people routinely leave unlocked bicycles on the sidewalks and in front of stores and stations. As a rule, you can leave a bag or some other possession virtually anywhere in public and it will be there when you get back. Shops routinely put product displays outside, and leave them unguarded.
It is said that the extraordinary success of vending machine marketing in Japan occurred because it was possible to set them up out in the open, unprotected places, with virtually no chance that they would be vandalized and robbed.
Stories abound of the time and effort people expend to return lost or forgotten property, especially where foreign travelers are concerned. This is not only a manifestation of the honesty that is built into the character of the Japanese. It is also because the Japanese feel that they and the whole country are responsible for the welfare of visitors.
This security factor is one of Japan’s greatest assets, and is an integral part of the attraction that the country has a travel destination. It is also one of the reasons why foreign residents are so attracted to life in Japan.
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
The Lowdown on the Cost Of “Doing Japan”
TOKYO – In the early 1960s Village Voice cofounder and avant-garde writer John Wilcock showed up in Tokyo with a commission from New York’s travel publisher Frommer to do one of its famous $5-a-day books on Japan.
Wilcock did a yoeman’s job on the book, and it put Japan on the map as a new destination for the growing horde of backpackers and other budget travelers who had been swarming throughout Europe since the end of World War II, and were beginning to show up in India, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries.
The good old days when one could actually do Japan on $5 a day have, of course, long since gone (John’s book became Japan on $10 a Day about a decade later). But, the heart-stopping stories about Tokyo hotels charging $8-$10 for a cup of coffee that began cropping up in the late 1970s, and gave rise to a kind of paranoia about the cost of traveling in Japan, were unfair and have plagued the country’s travel industry ever since.
This is not to say that there were no $8 coffees in Japan at that time. There were -- and still are! And one could pay as much as $100 for a run-of-the-mill steak dinner -- even more for a Buddhist style vegetarian meal in an elite ryotei (rio-tay-ee) Japanese style restaurant.
But even in those days, the great majority of Japanese who ate out, as well as the typical traveler, whether Japanese or foreign, did not spend that kind of money for their meals. There were dozens of categories of restaurants, from Chinese, Japanese and Korean to European, where full courses of chicken, fish, meat, vegetables, soup and bread or rice could be had for $6 or $7.
There were other restaurants specializing in soba and udon noodles and a variety of rice dishes topped with chicken or beef curry where millions of people ate daily for 75 cents to $1.50.
As for the cost of hotel accommodations, in addition to name brand, luxury class hotels such as the Imperial, the Okura, the New Otani, the Hilton, and so on, Japan has long had a much larger number of first-class hotels whose room rates are twenty to thirty percent lower than the elites.
And below this selection of first-class hotels, there was -- and still is -- an even larger number of so-called business-class hotels, which in fact, are often first-class in their facilities and services, that cost from one-third to one-fourth of what brand name hotels charge. Finally, there is a whole national network of strictly budget-class hotels in Japan, with room rates that are lower still.
Then there are Japan’s famous ryokan (rio-kahn), or inns, of which there are some 70,000 in the country. Many of these inns cater to foreign visitors with packaged rates that make them a viable choice for budget travelers.
Both the image and the reality of Japan being a high-cost travel destination came about because in those days virtually all tourists handled by travel agents were automatically funneled into the most expensive hotels, the most expensive restaurants, and the most expensive modes of travel.
Over the course of the last 10 years, hotel room rates have slowly inched up in most of the world's major markets, in some cases far surpassing the rates formerly charged in Japan.
In today’s Japan, not only is the cost of hotel accommodations lower than what it was a decade ago, the number and variety of restaurants is astounding, including virtually every American and European fast food chain you can name, plus dozens of equivalent Japanese chains, and the cost of full Western style meals has plummeted.
Transportation, the third most important cost factor in doing Japan, remains high by American and European standards, but here too, there are options that make it possible to reduce this cost by 30 to 50 percent, by taking advantage of discounted passes available for tourists, by choosing ordinary or express trains rather than super-express trains, by using the marvelous subway system instead of taxis, and for the more adventurous, renting cars.
One can visit and enjoy Japan today without spending a small fortune by the simple process of knowing what accommodation, dining, and transportation choices are available, and choosing a level that fits one’s budget.
In addition to the cost benefits of eating, traveling, and sleeping like a Japanese citizen, an argument could be made that this would ensure one's experience of "the real Japan" would be far better because of more opportunities to interact with the people, who are, after all, the country’s greatest attraction.
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
Japan’s Amazing Traditions Of Goodwill & Service!
TOKYO – Lafcadio Hearn, a Greek-island born writer (the son of an Anglo father and a Greek mother) who arrived in Japan in the 1890s on assignment for an American magazine, became entranced with the attitudes and behavior of the common people, and wrote that life in Japan was like living in paradise.
There were many who disputed this idealistic view of Japan, but Hearn was, in fact, on to something.
For more than a thousand years before Hearn’s arrival in Tokyo, the foundation for Japan’s culture had been wa (wah) or harmony, based on a concept known as amae (ah-my), which may be translated as “indulgent love.”
In essence, amae referred to treating people with the utmost respect and propriety, never doing anything to upset others, and going out of your way to be kind, thoughtful and generous.
Obviously this philosophy did not prevent all aggression and violence in Japanese society, particularly among the ruling class, but it did permeate the attitudes and behavior of the common people to a degree that is rare in human history.
The ordinary people of Japan were law-abiding, honest and thoughtful to a degree that was astounding to visitors from the West -- and despite all of the changes in Japan since the end of the 19th century, enough of this traditional cultural remains in Japanese society to set them apart from most other people.
Bicycles, store merchandise -- you name it -- are left on sidewalks and streets without fear that they will be stolen. Taxi drivers turn in anything left in their cabs! Individuals go to extreme lengths to return wallets found on streets or in other areas -- with the contents intact!
Japan’s traditional culture also made hospitality a moral and philosophical facet of their character, particularly in their behavior toward guests and seniors -- a phenomenon that grew out of their native religion, Shinto, and the influence of Buddhism and other concepts and customs imported from China.
And what was equally impressive to Hearn -- and millions of people who have since visited Japan -- was, and is, the level of service that is an integral part of the lives of the people -- in every facet of their lives, from the manufacturing and wholesaling industries to the retail trades.
And nowhere are these traditions of service more obvious, and more impressive, than in the inn, hotel, restaurant and nighttime entertainment industries.
As in the case of so many aspects of Japanese culture, this extraordinary standard of service rose to the level of an art during the Tokugawa Shogunate era (1603-1867) -- a phenomenon that grew out of the fact that the standards of etiquette and service in the Shogun’s Court and in the courts of the 300 provincial lords was spread throughout the country.
There are a great many things in Japan today that are impressive to visitors, but when it comes down to what really makes the most lasting and the most positive impression on visitors from abroad is the character of the people -- their attitudes and behavior toward others in general, and especially toward customers and guests.
The traditional etiquette of the Japanese -- how they behaved toward each other in both social and business settings -- was based on the highly refined and stylized manners that developed in the Imperial Court in Kyoto and, like their concept of service, spread from there to the courts of the shoguns and provincial lords, then to samurai families, and finally to the whole of society.
An old story dramatically illustrates the level of Japan’s traditional etiquette. In the 1890s a London banker became a devotee of the Japanese tea ceremony and told his counterpart in Tokyo that he would like to have a teahouse built on his property.
The Tokyo banker dispatched a carpenter to London to build the house. The London banker was so impressed with the manners of the carpenter that he mistook him for a member of Japan’s upper class, and greeted him accordingly. He was astounded to discover that the man was a common worker.
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
Japan’s Appeal to Visitors Exotic and Sensual
TOKYO – There are two Japans -- the modern or Western, and the traditional. It is often said that it is the Western amenities of Japan that make it a comfortable place to visit. But it is the traditional elements that make it fascinating to the foreign visitor, and one of the world’s best travel destinations.
The fascination that Japan holds for foreigners derives not only from the charm of the unfamiliar, but also from the fact that so many facets of traditional Japan are strikingly unusual and beautiful, and the very essence of exotic to foreign eyes.
What makes Japan even more interesting to the foreign visitor is that one can move freely and effortlessly back and forth between the modern and traditional, as easily and as quickly as passing through a door. In fact, a door is often the only dividing line between the two worlds.
And not surprising to those who are familiar with Oriental cultures, there is a strong sensual element in the exotic side of Japan -- from its traditional architecture, arts, crafts and wearing apparel to the extraordinary number and variety of festivals and other customs that make up the essence and flavor of Japanese culture.
What makes the impact of the traditional side of Japan so powerful is that the exotic and the sensual are combined. Both are integral elements of virtually everything that is culturally Japanese.
One might say that the Kanamara Festival of the Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine in Kawasaki City, between Tokyo and Yokohama, and the Honen Festival of the Tagata Shrine in Komaki City, are two of the extremes of the sensual side of Japanese culture.
These annual events, sometimes referred to as “fertility festivals,” are built around activities involving replicas of the male phallus that range from small to eight feet or more in length. Young women ride phallus-shaped seesaws and eat phallus-shaped candies. Men, women and children get their pictures taken embracing huge phallic reproductions.
The sensual element in the kimono, the yukata, the paper doors and partitions in traditional homes and inns, the kitchen utensils, the wall decorations, the gardens -- again in virtually everything that is Japanese -- is far more subtle than the phallic festivals, but equally powerful over a period of time.
To Western eyes, few things are more exotic than Japan’s kabuki and noh theatrical forms. And while not as overtly conspicuous, virtually everything else that is traditional in Japanese life also qualifies as exotic, from the ideograms used to write the language to the vast array of items one sees in department store food malls.
Another facet in the combination of the exotic and sensual in Japanese culture that attracts foreign visitors, especially Westerners, is the element of mystery. No matter how long foreigners stay in Japan, or how familiar they become with the people and the culture, the mystery remains.
This mystery persists because there are so many facets of Japanese culture that do not lend themselves to ready explanation, that remain beguiling and intriguing. Part of this perception may be attributed to the overblown “mystery of the Orient” image that has prevailed in the West for centuries, but most of it derives from elements of Japan’s traditional culture that are demonstrated in the arts and crafts as well as in household furnishings and utensils…in the essence of things that make them Japanese.
In other words, a certain “Japanese sense” that is both conscious and unconscious is responsible for the exotic and erotic aspects of Japanese culture that foreigners find so appealing and so satisfying. This “sense” is automatically applied to virtually everything the Japanese do, from such mundane actions as preparing and arranging food on a plate to landscaping a Zen garden or conducting a tea ceremony.
The visitor who wants to get the most out of Japan should be prepared to look, and go, beyond the Western facade that obscures the essence and heart of the traditional culture, for that is where the pleasure -- and benefit -- lies. [See my travel oriented language and cultural insight books on Japan.]
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
“Vistas Fit For The Eyes of Kings”
TOKYO – Not many people who go to Japan go to enjoy the scenic beauty of the islands. They are much more likely to think in terms of such images as the country’s famous cherry blossoms, geisha, kabuki, the snow-capped peak of Mt. Fuji, huge loin-clothed sumo wrestlers, or even the opportunity to do some shopping for high-tech products in Akihabara, Tokyo’s famed “Electric Town.”
But they will miss out on an opportunity of a lifetime if they do not make a point of experiencing some of the natural beauty that Japan offers.
Of course, most countries are blessed with areas of extraordinary scenic beauty -- some so sublime that they inspire the poetic muse and induce spiritual ecstasy. But few countries in the world surpass Japan in the sheer volume and variety of its natural beauty.
The islands of Japan owe their extraordinary scenic beauty to their volcanic peaks and central mountains chains that have smaller chains radiating out toward the coasts, resulting in numerous narrow valleys and small coastal plains separated from each other by ridges and headlands.
The greatest of these natural mountain ranges are on the main island of Honshu, and are characterized by peaks up to 3,000 meters (9,000 feet) and more in height. While these and other mountains are grand in size and form, it is the volcanic mountains that provide the special flavor of the country’s topography.
Altogether, there are seven great volcanic systems, with some 200 volcanoes, running through the islands -- and Japan has one-tenth of the world’s active volcanoes. Of course, Fuji san (Mt. Fuji) is the mother of all volcanoes in Japan, and although it last erupted in 1707, it is still alive, and recently has been grumbling and quivering.
One hundred kilometers (62 miles) southwest of Tokyo, Mt. Fuji is so high (3,776 meters / 12,385 ft.) that it is visible within a radius of some 200 miles. The base of Mt. Fuji is so massive that extends into several prefectures. Part way up the great cone there are a chain of five lakes that encircle the mountain, adding to its scenic ambiance and its attraction as a recreational destination.
Because Mt. Fuji towers over central Honshu like a great sentinel, it gets most of the praise, but it is in the coastlines of Japan that nature outdid itself. The islands have a total of 16,120 miles of seacoast that alternates between white sand beaches generally bordered by groves of gnarled pine trees, precipitous cliffs also clad in pines, lagoon-like bays dotted with emerald islets, secluded coves and inlets bounded by jagged walls of stone, caves, natural “bridges” of stone, and sculptured rock formations that are literally beyond the hand of man.
The central chains of mountains that make up the bulk of Japan give rise to thousands of streams and dozens of large rivers that course down gorges and ravines that are so beautiful the more finely attuned viewer may become intoxicated. The islands are also rich in lakes.
Outside of its cities, Japan is heavily forested. In the spring and summer the country is covered in a great blanket of green. In the fall, the leaves of great swatches of deciduous trees turn brown, gold and red. In winter, the high country and northern regions are sheathed in deep layers of snow that turn them into white wonderlands.
The natural beauty of Japan has long been celebrated in poetry, song and the arts, and has played an integral role in the life of the people, not only in their aesthetic practices but also in the their religious and philosophical life. The founders of the thousands of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in the country deliberately sought out places of exceptional beauty for their location.
Long ago someone described the Seto Naikai (Inland Sea), the shallow body of ocean that separates the islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, as “A sight fit for the eyes of kings!” And it is just one of many such sights throughout Japan.
Visitors and residents alike who do not avail themselves of the opportunity to gaze upon some of the earth’s grandest scenery are missing one of the great pleasures of life. [I highly recommend the book JAPAN MADE EASY -- Everything You Need to Know to Enjoy Japan! ...by you know who!
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
Honored Guest Syndrome Makes Japanese Great Hosts
TOKYO – There is a tradition of hospitality in the Orient that flies in the face of the historical circumstances of the vast majority of the people of Asia. From the dawn of their history until recent times, some 90 percent of all Asians lived at, or only slightly above, bare survival levels.
And it seems that in those countries in which the economies provided the least in the way of food and other amenities, the traditions of hospitality to guests and strangers were the strongest.
Mongolians, whose lifestyle on the barren, wind-swept plains of central Asia was always rigorous and frequently life-threatening, have traditionally been among the most hospitable of all people, and today they remain famous for readily and happily sharing what they have with visitors.
In countries that are in the Buddhist sphere of Asia, the poor and the affluent alike were taught that generosity and giving was both a religious duty and a way of building up divine merit—and much of this legacy remains today.
From the dawn of their own history, the Japanese were first influenced to believe in and practice hospitality by Shintoism, their indigenous religion, and by their subsistence-level lifestyle, and then for the last a millennium and a half, by the doctrines of Buddhism.
There were other immediate factors that helped make hospitality to guests a key part of the Japanese lifestyle and mindset. These factors, based on customs first practiced in the Imperial Court in Kyoto, then in the Court of the Shoguns in Edo (Tokyo) and finally in the Courts of the fief lords, included highly stylized ways of welcoming, seating and treating guests with special care that, over the centuries, became deeply embedded in the culture.
But there appears to be another element in the Japanese view and practice of hospitality toward visitors, Westerners in particular. This element, which they share with both Koreans the Chinese, seems to derive from pride in their race and in their country -- a pride that typically compels them to go above and beyond a degree of hospitality that would be more than sufficient.
The desire and efforts of the typical Japanese to make a good impression on visitors is sincere, and their enthusiasm to do so often seems to be unbounded. Japanese contacts and friends --sometimes even strangers -- will often pay restaurant and transportation bills when by all rights it should be the foreign side that pays.
When these situations occur and the foreigner protests, the Japanese will say such things as “When you are in Japan you are our guest.”
The legacy of all these influences to extend hospitality to guests remains strong in Japan, and when it is combined with the traditional Japanese commitment to service, which borders on a social if not a cultural imperative, it becomes a valuable asset, not only for the travel industry but for the country as a whole.
Japan’s combination of hospitality and service was honed to virtual perfection during the last Shogunate era (Tokugawa, 1603-1867), and is especially conspicuous today in the hotel, inn and restaurant industries -- areas that are on the frontline of tourism.
Leaders in Japan’s tourism industry have recently experienced a kind of epiphany insofar as the value of the hospitality and service traditions are concerned. Recognizing that these cultural attitudes and practices need to be taught to each new generation, they are encouraging new and more comprehensive training of industry employees.
Hotels, inns and restaurants that have successfully instituted training programs based on traditional attitudes and behavior stand out the moment one enters. The more this “return to the past” is emphasized, the more successful Japan’s tourism industry is likely to be in the future. See my book: JAPAN MADE EASY -- Everything You Need to Know to Enjoy Japan!
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
In Japan it’s Not All Raw Fish, Rice & Noodles!
TOKYO – If typical Westerners in advanced countries are asked to name their most important concerns regarding any foreign trip they might take, food is almost always high on their list.
Americans who have not traveled abroad before can be especially skittish about both food and water—in part because of stories about visitors coming down with the “tourist trot” in countries where sanitary standards are low or virtually non-existent.
Those who are not familiar with Japan might assume that sanitation standards there may also be low, and that special care must be taken to avoid being exposed to unfriendly bacteria. There is no need for such concern.
As it happens, the Japanese were among the first -- if not the first -- people to develop extraordinarily high standards of sanitation in all areas of their lives…something they owe to their native religion, Shintoism.
One of the primary tenets of Shintoism is that cleanliness is an aspect of godliness, resulting in the Japanese being acutely concerned about cleanliness from the dawn of their history, and developing a lifestyle in which cleanliness was a moral value that became deeply engrained in their lifestyle.
Long before Westerners ever equated bathing with good health and the advantages of keeping their homes and workplaces clean, the Japanese scrubbed themselves daily in hot water, then soaked in hot tubs as an added health measure. [When the first Westerners showed up in Japan, their body odor was such that the Japanese could not stand to be near them.]
The Japanese also cleaned their homes daily. Cooking and eating utensils were washed after each use. People not only cleaned themselves and their houses daily, they also kept the area around their homes scrupulously clean.
This virtual obsession with cleanliness has remained a key element in Japanese culture, and still today is one of the reasons why foreign visitors are so impressed with the people and the country. Visitors do not have to be concerned about the sanitation standards in Japanese restaurants, or anywhere else for that matter, including at street vendor stalls.
This is good news, of course, but it is only half of the news where food and dining out are concerned. When it comes to food and restaurants, Japan is one of the most cosmopolitan and international countries in the world.
All of the major cuisines of the world -- American, British, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Mexican, Russian, etc. -- are available in Japan, in common, middle and upscale restaurants. Regional and local cuisines, from Indian, Indonesian, Korean, Malaysian and Thai to Tibetan are also available.
The number of “Japanese” restaurants that serve a variety of chicken, fish, meat and vegetable dishes that are “Western” in both appearance and taste is astounding. Western chain restaurants, particularly the fast food variety, are cheek-by-jowl in every city in the country.
Japanese restaurants serving traditional dishes, from sushi and noodles to combinations of rice, chicken, beef, eggs, pork and seafood -- all of which, with the possible exception of raw fish, most Westerners like the very first time they try them -- also abound throughout the country.
Office buildings typically have half a dozen or so restaurants in their basements. Newer, larger buildings have as many as fifty or sixty restaurants in their basements and on upper floors devoted entirely to upscale eateries, many of which offer panoramic views of the surrounding areas.
All of Japan’s major cities have what amounts to “restaurant districts” made up of dozens to hundreds of restaurants that attract diners as well as casual strollers who enjoy the sights, sounds and exotic ambiance.
Obviously, the Japanese are great diner outers…they have to be to support the incredible number and variety of restaurants -- there are well over 800,000 restaurants in the small county -- and they do so with a sense of adventure. They flock to new restaurants that offer anything new in the way of style or food.
First-time visitors to Japan should also make a point of having as many food experiences as possible. In addition to adding to their culinary knowledge and pleasuring the palate, it makes it possible for them to “rub elbows” with the Japanese and share in their daily life -- one of the main benefits of visiting the country.
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
A Little Nihongo (Japanese) Goes a Long Way!
TOKYO -- Word has gotten out that virtually all Japanese study English for several years when they are in elementary and middle school, and that is true. It is also true that hundreds of thousands of Japanese study English in private language academies after they finish their formal education.
But that does not mean that the average Japanese speaks and understands English, even with a modest degree of fluency. Much like the United States, public school instruction in foreign languages in Japan has traditionally emphasized grammar and reading, rather than speaking.
Dramatic improvements have been made in teaching English and other foreign languages in Japan in recent years, but this still doesn’t mean that English speaking foreign residents and visitors no longer have to be concerned about being able to communicate with Japanese.
Of course, most Japanese who work in frontline positions in the travel industry, where their job requires them to interact with foreigners, generally speak enough English to communicate on a basic level. That is fine as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. Once visitors get off the tourist track it can be very much like suddenly becoming tongue-tied – if not deaf and dumb.
Fortunately, it is not difficult to learn enough Japanese in a very short period of time to significantly improve the quality of a Japan experience – not to mention the personal pleasure it provides once you are beyond basic needs.
Unlike English words, which are spelled with individual letters that represent hundreds of sounds, Japanese words are made up of precise syllables that are based on only six sounds. These six sounds are represented in Roman letters as a, i, u, e, o and n, which are pronounced as ah, ee, uu, eh, oh and unn (more or less like the n in bond).
The Japanese language is made up of several sets of syllables. The first set is the above ah, ee, uu, eh, oh.. The second set is ka, ki, ku, ke, ko (pronounced kah, kee, kuu, kay, koh). The third set is sa, shi, su, se, so (pronounced sah, she, sue, say, soh).
Then there is ta, chi, tsu, te, to (pronounced tah, chee, t’sue, tay, toe); next comes na, ni, nu, ne, no (nah, nee, nuu, nay, no); ha, hi, fu, he, ho (hah, hee, fuu, hey, hoh); ma, mi, mu, me, mo (mah, mee, muu, may, moh); ya, i, yu, e, yo (yah, ee, yuu, eh, yoh); ra. ri, ru, re, ro (rah, ree, rue, ray, roh); wa, i, u, e, wo (wah, ee, uu, eh, woh); and finally n (unn) all by itself.
All the other syllables that make up the Japanese language are euphonic variations of some of the above (pah, pee, puu, pay poh), and combinations of two syllables (pya, pyu, pyo), etc.
These syllables never change, and with some exceptions, their pronunciation is constant. The exceptions are when vowels are pronounced “long,” and when there is a consonant at the end and beginning of two syllables that are joined (nikko / neek-koh). This means you don’t have weird spellings or unfathomable pronunciations to deal with.
As may have been noticed, the pronunciation of Japanese is virtually the same as that of Hawaiian, and practically the same as Spanish. If you can say ah, ee, uu, eh, oh and unn you can learn to pronounce Japanese in just a few minutes.
The famous Japanese farewell, sayonara, is therefore pronounced sah-yoh-nah-rah. And that weird word karaoke (which literally means empty orchestra) is pronounced kah-rah-oh-kay, not kerry-oh-kee!
Knowing just a few Japanese expressions can make a visit to Japan a lot more pleasant. Here are some examples (if you want to learn more, Japanese phrase books are available in leading bookstores and from online book dealers):
Good morning
Ohayo gozaimasu (Oh-hah-yoh go-zigh-mahss) / until about 10:30 or 11 a.m.
Good day or good afternoon
Konnichi wa (Kone-nee-chee wah) / from about 11 a.m. to around dusk
Good evening
Komban wa (Kome-bahn wah) / from nightfall on
Thank you very much
Domo arigato gozaimasu (Doh-moe ah-ree-gah-toe go-zigh-mahss)
Don’t mention it
Doitashimashite (Doe-ee-tah-she-mahssh-tay)
How are you?
O’genki desu ka? (Oh-gane-kee dess kah?)
I’m fine
Genki desu (Gane-kee dess)
How much is it?
Ikura desu ka? (Ee-kuu-rah dess kah?)
What time is it?
Nanji desu ka? (Nahn-jee dess kah?)
Let’s eat!
Tabemasho! (Tah-bay-mah-shoh!)
Let’s go!
Ikimasho! (Ee-kee-mah-shoh!)
For a complete home-course in Japanese, see my SPEAK JAPANESE TODAY, available from Amazon.com and other online booksellers.
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
Sensual Side of Japanese Culture Has Powerful Influence!
TOKYO – One of the most remarkable things about Japan’s traditional lifestyle was the role that the appreciation of beauty played in the daily lives of the people. It seems that the Japanese were among the few people known to history to have made aesthetics an integral part of their culture.
The origin of this extraordinary phenomenon, which was universal and applied to the high and the low alike, can be found in Shintoism, the indigenous religion of the Japanese, and in Taoism and Buddhism, the latter two imported from China between 400 and 600 A.D.
In Shintoism, nature is the handiwork of the gods. Recognizing and celebrating the beauty of nature is therefore a way of respecting and honoring both nature and its divine creators.
Lao Tsu, the founder of Taoism (The Way), taught that there was beauty in everything in nature, and that it was up to the viewer to see it. The great Tao masters who followed Lao Tsu further taught that it was possible to fully appreciate beauty only if a person allowed beauty to permeate his being and direct his life.
Buddhism recognized the beauty and harmony in nature, and advocated that people pattern their lives on the natural order of things, attempting to achieve both harmony and beauty in their daily lives.
The combination of these influences eventually permeated Japanese culture, becoming the guidelines and standards for the arts and crafts, for all of the artifacts and implements the Japanese used in their daily life, and for many of the recreational and cultural customs that developed over the generations, from flower-viewing to sightseeing.
These influences eventually culminated in the country’s famous “tea ceremony,” which is an exercise in pure aestheticism….rather than an occasion for drinking tea.
The nature of beauty as defined by the greatest tea masters is summed up in the word shibumi (she-buu-me), which can be translated as astringent, simple, conservative, unaffected, elegant, etc.
Shibui (she-booey) beauty is beauty that is in perfect harmony with nature and has a tranquil affect on the viewer. It imparts serenity, nobility and quiet luxury. It is a work of art in which all of the elements are harmoniously arranged and balanced.
After centuries of exposure to the principles and practices of shibui living the Japanese developed the ability to recognize and produce this quality almost instinctively. They did not have to strain to judge whether or not something was beautiful, or to create it.
It is the shibui quality in Japanese things that make them Japanese; that gives them an aura that is sensual and pleasing to the eye and to the touch. And it is the shibui aspects of Japan—from its architecture, arts, crafts, and interior decoration to how food is arranged on a tray—along with the character and behavior of the people, that foreign visitors find so appealing.
This shibui effect is visceral and sensual, and affects everyone, including those who are not consciously aware of its influence. It clearly explains why so many foreigners in the past chose to live in Japan despite many inconveniences and a long list of things they loved to complain about.
Virtually all of those old inconveniences and other reasons for complaining have disappeared, and while the traditional shibui side of life in Japan is often overshadowed by modern things, it is still there in abundance, providing an exotic and erotic flavor to life that continues to work its magic.
But experiencing this traditional side of Japan must be planned and done deliberately. Short-term visitors in particular should make a number of informed choices on what they want to see and do while in Japan, and plan their trip accordingly.
A few of the obvious things: spending at least one night in a Japanese style inn (ryokan / rio-kahn); dining in several Japanese style restaurants where patrons sit on tatami (tah-tah-me) reed-mat floors; spending at least one night in an onsen (own-sen) hot springs resort inn; attend and participate in a tea ceremony; go to a Zen Buddhist temple for a zazen (zah-zen) or seated meditation session; and watch a couple of chambara (chahm-bah-rah) movies -- those set in Shogunate times and featuring samurai warriors and townsfolk. [They are the Japanese version of American Westerns and such sword-fighting films as the tale of Robin Hood and pirate stories.] See my ebook: SABURO -- The Adventures of a Teenage Samurai in 17th Century Japan.
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
Playing the Geisha Game In Present-Day Japan!
TOKYO – During the 1600s in Edo (Tokyo) a special class of women entertainers who were skilled at playing the shamisen, singing, and dancing gradually came to be known as geisha (gay-ee-shah). Gei means art and sha means person.
The geisha performed for private individuals and parties in the country's large redlight districts, and in ryokan (rio-kahn) inns and ryotei (rio-tay-ee) restaurants. Because of their association with the courtesan quarters, and because prostitution was also commonly practiced in ryokan and ryotei, the geisha came to be regarded by many as a just another category of prostitutes.
However, as the decades of the Edo era (1603-1868) passed, the profession of the geisha grew in stature. Their training became more formalized and strict. Famous courtesans regularly hired geisha to help them entertain their high profile customers.
Although geisha did not work as prostitutes it became customary for them to form intimate liaisons with affluent men who patronized them regularly and treated them more or less as mistresses. Some geisha had more than one regular patron at the same time, but they were not for hire for indiscriminate sex, and having more than one patron simultaneous was frowned upon.
With the deterioration of the licensed gay quarters following the downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1867, the social status of prostitutes began to drop and that of the geisha to rise. Their training was expanded to include lessons in etiquette, grace, flower arranging, the tea ceremony, and in how to be stimulating conversationalists, making them among the most accomplished women in the country.
Within a few decades the position of prostitutes and geisha had completed reversed. Geisha were the most elite of public women, and prostitutes the lowest. Wealthy businessmen and high-ranking politicians began to vie with each other to make the most famous geisha their mistresses.
It was, in fact, common for men of wealth and power to marry their geisha mistresses, with one notable example being Hirobumi Ito (1841-1909), who played a key role in the overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the 1860s, became the chief architect of Japan's first constitution, and served as prime minister four times.
Given a social system in which wives did not participate directly or publicly with men in business or in politics, and therefore could not act as hostesses for their husbands under any circumstances, geisha came to perform valuable functions, not only dressing up business and political meetings held in ryotei inn restaurants but helping to make sure the meetings ran smoothly.
As late as the 1950s, Tokyo alone had over a dozen large so-called geisha districts, which consisted of clusters of ryotei that called in geisha nightly to serve their customers. Some ryotei had live-in geisha, but most of them lived in separate housing, and went to ryotei only when they were called. The services of the geisha were so costly that only wealthy businessmen and high-ranking politicians and government bureaucrats could afford to patronize them.
Then the rapid transformation of Japan into an economic super power from the 1950s to the 1970s saw the equally rapid rise of thousands of cabarets and night clubs that featured hostesses as drinking, dancing and conversational companions, with fees far below what geisha inns charged.
The far less expensive cabarets and nightclubs attracted huge numbers of middle-class men from every walk of life, for business as well as personal reasons. During the heyday of this era, over half a million young women were employed as hostesses.
The more attractive the hostesses, and the more skilled they were in entertaining men, the more they could earn. This naturally attracted some of the most beautiful and socially talented young women in the country. Hundreds if not thousands of these remarkable women became millionaires. Like the geisha of an early day, many of them married well. One married the then president of Indonesia, Sukarno, and became an international celebrity.
The reign of the huge businessmen-oriented hostess cabarets and nightclubs ended in the late 1980s when Japan's economic bubble begin to deflate, but they were quickly replaced by dozens of thousands of dance clubs and other types of entertainment spots that catered to newly liberated, and affluent, female clientele as well as men.
The geisha survived the economic fallout, although they are now on the fringe of Japan's entertainment world. In Kyoto, in particular, there are well-known geisha districts, with many of the women in the trade being third and fourth generation geisha.
In the evenings in Tokyo's Akasaka district, which borders the country's government center, one can still see geisha being delivered to ryotei and ryokan in rickshaws pulled by men wearing traditional Edo age garb.
Most geisha now voluntarily enter the profession when they are in their late teens. Their training is less formal and less comprehensive, often as little as a few weeks, as opposed to years in earlier times.
But to the foreign resident or visitor, today's instant geisha are just as fascinating, just as entertaining, if not more so, than their predecessors. And they are almost always more attractive because today their popularity and success is more dependent upon their looks.
Few things are more satisfying than spending an evening in a ryotei restaurant in the company of geisha, participating in their games and experiencing a sensuous-charged atmosphere that has not changed for centuries.
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
Japan's Hot Spring Spas Add Erotic Spice to Life!
TOKYO – Several hundred million years ago the earth's mantle opened up and spewed forth the Japanese islands, leaving a ring of volcanoes and thermal vents from the northernmost island of Hokkaido to the southern island of Kyushu.
Present-day Japan has 10 percent of the earth's volcanoes and more active volcanoes than any other country. There are more than 10,000 well-known thermal vents in the crust of Japan, and over 2,100 of these have been developed into onsen (own-sen), or hot spring bath spas. Japan's hot spring spas can be found in mountain gorges and valleys, on the waists of mountains, along the sides of peninsulas, and on the coasts. Some hot springs bubble up from the seabed offshore.
There is one in the middle of Tokyo Bay that has been tapped for a new, spectacular hot spring spa complex on the man-made island of Odaiba. The larger of the hot springs vents have given birth to hundreds of resort villages and towns. Some of them, like Atami, Beppu and Ito, qualify as cities.
Smaller onsen have 15 to 30 inns and hotels that feature hot mineral baths and the other amenities of a Japanese style spa. Larger onsen have from 30 to 300 inns and hotels. The largest one, Beppu, has some 700 inns, and attracts upwards of a million visitors a year.
Hokkaido alone has 193 onsen spas, and over 1,500 thermal springs. Shizuoka Prefecture, about an hour south of Tokyo by Bullet Train, has only 71 hot spring resort spas, but it has over 2,100 thermal springs.
Hundreds of Japan's thermal springs have been in commercial use as spas for at least 1,500 years. Numerous events of special significance that occurred in the baths have made the history books.
One of the more interesting: Yoritomo Minamoto, the founder in 1192 of Japan's shogunate form of government was a regular visitor. His favorite: Kusatsu, in Gunma Prefecture northwest of present-day Tokyo, because the high mineral content of its waters made his rheumatism better. During the famous Tokugawa Shogunate era (1603-1867), successive Shoguns had water brought from the Kusatsu springs to Edo (Tokyo) for their daily baths.
All of the 2,000-plus hot spring spas that are members of the Japan Spa Association have had their waters analyzed for their mineral content, and provide specific details on their efficacy in curing and relieving a variety of physical and mental illnesses. In the last century, Japan's onsen have gone from being just health resorts catering to those with problems to being both health and recreational destinations, with a variety of activities and facilities.
Today, onsen spas attract huge numbers of regular vacationers, including families, as well as honeymooners and lovers. Many people go to onsen for days or weeks when they are doing some kind of work project that requires peace and quiet. Others use them as retreats, when they want to opt out of the hubbub of urban life for a weekend or longer.
For the last century, the spas around Lake Hakone, an hour's train ride from Tokyo and adjoining Mt. Fuji, have attracted many foreign notables. There is almost always a sprinkling of foreign visitors at all major hot spring spas, particularly those in the vicinity of Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe.
Some onsen feature rotenburo (roh-tane-buu-roh) or outside baths that look like small, shallow swimming pools set among picturesque volcanic boulders. Many of the rotenburo have magnificent views of the surrounding areas. Mixed-sex bathing is still practiced in some hot spring spas, but not in local public onsen.
All resort spas have private baths for couples and families. [Regular TV promotional travel stories on the country’s spas often show men and women bathing together in large communal baths—with their modesty protected by small tenugui (tay-nuu-gooey) hand towels covering key body parts.] The foreign visitor who leaves Japan without having had the hot spring spa experience has missed a major opportunity to enjoy one of the special pleasures the country has to offer.
For the visitor who cannot get beyond Tokyo, there is the new Oedo Onsen Monogatari (Oh-eh-doh Own-sen Moe-no-gah-tah-ree) on Odaiba islet in Tokyo Bay, only a few minutes from the center of the city. This huge complex is built as an Edo era onsen village, with restaurants and shops that are right out of the Tokugawa Shogunate period of Japan.
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
Beverage of the Gods Has a Long History!
KOBE – Visitors to the Nada area of Kobe, one of the earliest and most international of Japan’s seaports, encounter an intriguing aroma that permeates the ground, the buildings, and the air.
This aroma is the scent of O’sake (Oh-sah-kay), Japan’s original alcoholic beverage, which is still enshrined as the national drink. (The “O” in front of sake is an honorific.)
Sake, a kind of wine made from rice, has been brewed in Japan since shortly after the introduction of wet-rice farming in the third century B.C. and was the only alcoholic drink in the country until the introduction of European wines and whiskeys by foreign traders in the 16th century.
In early Japan, brewing and drinking sake was closely related to Shintoism. Every community shrine had its own rice paddies. At first, the rice from these fields was made into gruel, and eaten. Over a period of time, the process was refined to produce a clear liquid, and became drinkable.
The liquid version of sake was still considered a special offering to the gods, but as time passed it became common to drink it at parties and banquets not associated with shrine rituals. The Imperial Household has its own rice fields and sake brewery, as did temples and other institutions of the day.
To make sake, the rice is milled, washed, soaked and steamed. Then fresh spring water and yeast made from malted rice are added to induce fermentation. During the fermentation process, which lasts for about 20 days, the mixture seems to come alive, bubbling and making all kinds of sounds.
After fermentation, the wine is separated from the rice residue by running it through a press. The liquid is then filtered and placed in large vats, where it settles and becomes clear. It is then pasteurized and bottled. The alcoholic content of sake take from the top of the vat is from 12 to 14 percent. That taken from the lower turbid portion has an alcoholic content of 17 to 18 percent.
Sake is graded by a national inspection agency on the basis of taste, color and aroma, and comes in three grades: tokkyu (toke-que) or first grade; ikkyu (eek-que), second grade; and nikkyu (neek-que), third grade. The inspectors look for a subtle blend of sweetness, sourness, pungency, bitterness and astringency.
The characteristics of any batch of sake is determined by the rice itself, how much of the rice has been milled away, whether or not distilled alcohol is added, the mineral content of the water used in the fermenting process, the amount of yeast, when the yeast is added, how long the process is continued, and, according to experts, some elements that master brewers keep to themselves.
There are four main types of sake, each of which is determined as much by the milling of the rice used as well as the brewing process. These four sake types are:
Junmai-shu (at least 30% of the rice polished away and no distilled alcohol added. This type is referred to as pure rice wine). Honjozo-shu (at least 30% of the rice milled away, and some distilled alcohol added).
Ginjo-shu (at least 40% of the rice polished away. When some alcohol is added it is called Ginjo. If no alcohol is added it is called Junmai Ginjo.)
Daiginjo-shu (at least 50% of rice polished away; again with or without added alcohol; if labeled Daiginjo, it means distilled alcohol was added; if labeled Junmai Daiginjo, it means no alcohol added).
A fifth type of sake refers to all of the above when they have not been pasteurized, in which case they are called Namazake (nah-mah-zah-kay), literally “raw sake.”
The first four categories are known as Tokutei Meishoshu, or Special Designation Sake. Each category has its own flavor profile based on the brewing methods employed and how much of the rice has been polished away. Sake gourmets pride themselves on being able to distinguish the types by their taste, rather than reading the labels.
Several districts in Japan have been known for the quality of their sake since ancient times. These include Nada in Hyogo Prefecture, (now within the city of Kobe), Kyoto and districts in Akita, Nagano and Hiroshima prefectures.
Top sake brands include Hakutsuru (Hah-kuu-t’sue-rue) or White Crane, Ozeki (Oh-zay-kee), which refers to a sumo champion, and Gekkeikan (Gake-kay-e-kahn). Okura Shuzo, the company that produces Gekkeikan, was founded in 1637.
Altogether, there are some 3,000 sake makers in Japan, most of them producing what is called jizake (jee-zah-kay), or local brands.
In addition to “regular” sake, there are also sweet, carbonated, dry, hard, and aged varieties. Sake is generally heated before drinking to bring out the taste and give it more of an immediate kick. One special type of sake is brewed for drinking cold, or on ice.
Sake was traditionally served and drank before meals, not during or after meals. But many people now drink sake during their meals and as well as in between meals.
Enormous amounts of sake are consumed at gatherings held to enjoy the beauties of nature, especially when viewing cherry blossoms, the full moon, and newly fallen snow.
Like wine experts, sake gourmets claim that they can also identify the region a particular sample of sake came from by its taste and aroma.
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
This aroma is the scent of O’sake (Oh-sah-kay), Japan’s original alcoholic beverage, which is still enshrined as the national drink. (The “O” in front of sake is an honorific.)
Sake, a kind of wine made from rice, has been brewed in Japan since shortly after the introduction of wet-rice farming in the third century B.C. and was the only alcoholic drink in the country until the introduction of European wines and whiskeys by foreign traders in the 16th century.
In early Japan, brewing and drinking sake was closely related to Shintoism. Every community shrine had its own rice paddies. At first, the rice from these fields was made into gruel, and eaten. Over a period of time, the process was refined to produce a clear liquid, and became drinkable.
The liquid version of sake was still considered a special offering to the gods, but as time passed it became common to drink it at parties and banquets not associated with shrine rituals. The Imperial Household has its own rice fields and sake brewery, as did temples and other institutions of the day.
To make sake, the rice is milled, washed, soaked and steamed. Then fresh spring water and yeast made from malted rice are added to induce fermentation. During the fermentation process, which lasts for about 20 days, the mixture seems to come alive, bubbling and making all kinds of sounds.
After fermentation, the wine is separated from the rice residue by running it through a press. The liquid is then filtered and placed in large vats, where it settles and becomes clear. It is then pasteurized and bottled. The alcoholic content of sake take from the top of the vat is from 12 to 14 percent. That taken from the lower turbid portion has an alcoholic content of 17 to 18 percent.
Sake is graded by a national inspection agency on the basis of taste, color and aroma, and comes in three grades: tokkyu (toke-que) or first grade; ikkyu (eek-que), second grade; and nikkyu (neek-que), third grade. The inspectors look for a subtle blend of sweetness, sourness, pungency, bitterness and astringency.
The characteristics of any batch of sake is determined by the rice itself, how much of the rice has been milled away, whether or not distilled alcohol is added, the mineral content of the water used in the fermenting process, the amount of yeast, when the yeast is added, how long the process is continued, and, according to experts, some elements that master brewers keep to themselves.
There are four main types of sake, each of which is determined as much by the milling of the rice used as well as the brewing process. These four sake types are:
Junmai-shu (at least 30% of the rice polished away and no distilled alcohol added. This type is referred to as pure rice wine). Honjozo-shu (at least 30% of the rice milled away, and some distilled alcohol added).
Ginjo-shu (at least 40% of the rice polished away. When some alcohol is added it is called Ginjo. If no alcohol is added it is called Junmai Ginjo.)
Daiginjo-shu (at least 50% of rice polished away; again with or without added alcohol; if labeled Daiginjo, it means distilled alcohol was added; if labeled Junmai Daiginjo, it means no alcohol added).
A fifth type of sake refers to all of the above when they have not been pasteurized, in which case they are called Namazake (nah-mah-zah-kay), literally “raw sake.”
The first four categories are known as Tokutei Meishoshu, or Special Designation Sake. Each category has its own flavor profile based on the brewing methods employed and how much of the rice has been polished away. Sake gourmets pride themselves on being able to distinguish the types by their taste, rather than reading the labels.
Several districts in Japan have been known for the quality of their sake since ancient times. These include Nada in Hyogo Prefecture, (now within the city of Kobe), Kyoto and districts in Akita, Nagano and Hiroshima prefectures.
Top sake brands include Hakutsuru (Hah-kuu-t’sue-rue) or White Crane, Ozeki (Oh-zay-kee), which refers to a sumo champion, and Gekkeikan (Gake-kay-e-kahn). Okura Shuzo, the company that produces Gekkeikan, was founded in 1637.
Altogether, there are some 3,000 sake makers in Japan, most of them producing what is called jizake (jee-zah-kay), or local brands.
In addition to “regular” sake, there are also sweet, carbonated, dry, hard, and aged varieties. Sake is generally heated before drinking to bring out the taste and give it more of an immediate kick. One special type of sake is brewed for drinking cold, or on ice.
Sake was traditionally served and drank before meals, not during or after meals. But many people now drink sake during their meals and as well as in between meals.
Enormous amounts of sake are consumed at gatherings held to enjoy the beauties of nature, especially when viewing cherry blossoms, the full moon, and newly fallen snow.
Like wine experts, sake gourmets claim that they can also identify the region a particular sample of sake came from by its taste and aroma.
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
Amazing Ainu – The “Indians” of Japan
TOKYO – Long before the coming of the Japanese to the islands now known as Japan, the northern portion of the island chain was inhabited by tribes of ancient people whose physical traits were not typically Oriental.
These tribes inhabited the northern part of the main island of Honshu, all of Hokkaido, the Kurile islands and the southern portion of Kamchatka Peninsula, and in that sense they were the indigenous “Indian” tribes of these regions.
These first inhabitants of Japan called themselves Ainu (Aye-nuu), which means human or man – and is similar to the custom of some of the Indian tribes of North America, the Navajo in particular, who call themselves Dine (Dee-nay) or “The People.”
Unlike the indigenous Indian tribes of North and South America, however, the Ainu inhabitants of Japan had physical features that made them distinctly different from Oriental Asians as well as the Indians of the Americas.
The eyes of the Ainu did not have the epicanthic fold that is characteristic of Orientals. Their eyes were unusually large and round, even for Caucasians, and ranged from brown, light brown and gray, to blue-gray. Also unlike Orientals and American Indians, Ainu men had exceptionally heavy body and facial hair.
The earliest mention of the Ainu of Japan and the regions north of Japan is found in ancient Chinese records, which refer to them as “the hairy people.”
It seems that the Ainu originated somewhere on the northeastern Asian continent (like the original, indigenous tribes of Korea who disappeared long ago), and then moved southward over eons of time.
In contrast, the ancestors of modern Japanese came from Korea, China and the islands that extend southwest to Taiwan. As these newcomers moved northward on the island chain they began encountering the Ainu just north of what is now Tokyo.
The new Asian immigrants to Japan were more culturally advanced than the native Ainu, considered them sub-human, both racially and culturally, and presumed that they had no rights to the areas they inhabited – just as European Americans were to view and treat indigenous American Indians in more modern times.
By the 7th century A.D., the Japanese were launching major military campaigns against the Ainu, decimating their population and pushing those who survived further north. This was the period when the term shogun (show-goon) first came into use in the compound Sei-i-Tai Shogun, which translates as “Barbarian Subduing General,” used to designate generals charged with eliminating the Ainu.
Large numbers of Ainu, like American Indians in later centuries, also died from diseases that were new to them.
By the 19th century there were only twenty to thirty thousand Ainu left. A few of these survivors lived in still relatively isolated mountainous regions north of Tokyo, and the rest in Hokkaido and on the Kurile islands north of Hokkaido.
It was during this era that the Japanese government, on the advice of an American politician, resolved to eliminate the Ainu as a distinctive culture by forbidding the use of the Ainu language, forcing the Ainu to take Japanese names, and prohibiting the practice of their traditional customs.
The attempt to eradicate Ainu culture ended in the 20th century, and there is now a growing movement among the remaining population to revive their language and many of their cultural ways. However, racial mixing has continued to diminish the number of full-blooded Ainu, and they now number only a few thousand, most of who live in small villages in Hokkaido.
Ainu-Japanese mixtures are especially conspicuous in the vicinity of Sendai, north of Tokyo. They are noticeable for their abundant hair, and for their eyes. Strangely, the genes that make the Ainu eye are often incompatible with the genes of the Japanese eye, making deformities common. The most common of these deformities is eyes that are too far apart; often to such an extreme that one of the eyes withers away.
But, when the two sets of eye genes work, especially in females, the results are astounding. Their eyes are huge, striking in color, and so hypnotic that people can’t avoid staring at them.
In the 1950s and 60s, a number of mix-blood Ainu-Japanese girls were brought to Tokyo from the Sendai area and put to work as models and as extras in movies.
They were very successful as models – giving rise to the Japanese art and comic preference for drawing young females with huge, luminous eyes – but they did not fare as well as movie starlets because their eyes distracted so much attention from the Japanese stars.
Visiting one or more of the remaining Ainu villages in Hokkaido is like stepping through a time portal to an age when the world was young.
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
Secrets of Japan's Appeal to Westerners!
TOKYO – When the first Westerners of record stumbled onto Japan in the 1540s, the discovery of the islands by Europeans resulted in an influx of traders and Christian missionaries, both intent on expanding their empires in Asia.
Among the many things that astounded these first Western visitors to Japan was the incredible quality of its handicrafts and arts, and the ability of Japanese craftsmen to copy any Western product not only perfectly but to improve on it in the process.
Thereafter, Japanese arts and crafts as well as Western products made in Japan were shipped to Europe in large volume.
One of the extraordinary historical stories of this era: Japans now famous woodblock prints were so common and so cheap that they were used as wrapping paper on some of the goods shipped to Europe, where they became highly valued collectors items and had a fundamental influence on European artists of the period.
But the number of Europeans in Japan, and their influence, grew so rapidly that the Tokugawa Shogunate began to fear the country might be colonized by the Western powers. This fear resulted in a decision by the Shogunate in the 1630s to expel all foreigners from the country except for a small detachment of Dutch traders, who were kept confined on a small man-made islet in Nagasaki Bay, and to ban all travel from and to the country.
For the next 200-plus years this tiny Dutch trading post and occasional officially approved visits by Chinese and Korean ships were Japan's only contacts with the outside world.
Japan's isolation from the Western world did not end until the early 1850s, when the United States sent a fleet of warships into Tokyo Bay in 1853 and demanded that Japan open its doors to trade and diplomatic intercourse.
Powerless in the face of the American warships, and aiming to control the situation as much as possible, the Shogunate agreed to the American demand, and in March of 1854 signed a pact opening two ports to American ships and agreeing to accept a diplomatic representative. Soon thereafter similar pacts were signed with England, Russia and the Netherlands.
During the next decade, foreign traders and missionaries flocked to Japan, this time with Americans leading the charge. But the signing of the pacts by the Shogunate in Edo (Tokyo) outraged some of the outlying provincial lords in the southwest. They began agitating for the return of the Emperor (in Kyoto) to power.
This agitation led to a civil war in the mid-1860s, resulting in the downfall of the Shogunate in 1867 and the restoration of the Emperor who had not exercised real authority since 1185.
The Japanese were fascinated by Western products, and began to disparage their own arts and crafts. Western importers once again began taking advantage of the Japanese ability to copy products, and by 1900 products made in Japan were flooding Western markets, earning the Japanese the reputation of being nothing but copiers and makers of cheap goods.
It was not until the 1960s that Japan's manufacturers were able to get out from under the control of foreign buyers and bring their traditional standards of quality into the production of Western style products. And as the saying goes, the rest is history.
What was the source of Japan's traditional quality standards? How were the Japanese able to raise the quality standards of their handicrafts to that of a fine art? This too, relates to their skill in copying and improving upon things they copy, but in this case it goes back more than a thousand years.
Beginning around 300 A.D. Chinese ideas and products began trickling into Japan, mostly through Korea and via Korean immigrants to the islands. Over the next 500 years, virtually all of these imported products, now regarded as Japanese, became the foundation of the economy and the culture.
Along with these products came the ancient Chinese custom of the master-apprentice approach to the arts and crafts. But the Japanese didn't just imitate the Chinese and Koreans. They institutionalized and ritualized the master-apprentice training methods, adding to it the concept of kaizen (kigh-zen) or continuous improvement.
As the generations passed, these institutions and rituals were strengthened by the introduction of the Zen principles of dispensing with the superfluous, and harmonizing life and nature, resulting in masters who could actually achieve virtual perfection in the arts and crafts.
This was the Japan that Westerners first encountered in the 1500s and again in the 1800s, by which time, the Japanese were so conditioned in the principles and practices of quality that they didn't think about it, and achieving it was simply the Japanese way of doing things.
Another important factor that distinguishes traditional Japanese arts and crafts, as well as many of its modern products, is a look and a feel that is unique, that grows out of the psychic of the Japanese that precedes their contact with Korea and China.
The influence of this "Japanese thing" on Westerners varies from very weak to very strong, depending on their sensitivity and aesthetic development. But it influences everyone to some degree. To the sensitive person, it has a calming, soothing effect on the intellect and the spirit, and creates a harmonious repose with nature.
Westerners who visit Japan, even for a few days, are invariably touched by this unique facet of Japanese culture. [I introduced the Western world to the term and concept of kaizen in my first books on the Japanese way in the early 1960s.]
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
Japan's Amazing Abundance Of Annual Festivals
TOKYO – Despite Japan's facade of modernity, from its city skylines and "Bullet Trains" to its millions of people who seem to have high-tech cell phones glued to their ears, traditional Japan still exists in a huge network of inns and restaurants, and in arts, crafts and customs that have not changed in over a thousand years.
One of the most extraordinary historical legacies that has been kept alive in Japan is its matsuri (mot-sue-ree) or festivals. I don't know if anyone has ever actually counted them, but virtually every village, town and city in the country, as well as thousands of temples and shrines throughout the country, have one or more annual festivals.
A very limited calendar of festivals that are considered of special interest to foreign visitors (published by the Japan Travel Bureau) lists a total of 271 annual festivals. Travel books in English generally list only the Big 8, or the Big 10 or some such small number that take place in the largest cities and are regarded more or less as national events.
There are, in fact, 13 festivals in Japan that are national holidays, some of which last for several days. Shogatsu (Show-got-sue) or New Years, which is regarded as a festival, officially beings on the eve of December 31, and ends on January 7th, although large numbers of people take additional days off.
The reason for the large number and variety of matsuri in Japan can be traced to tenets of Shintoism, the indigenous religion, which holds that all things in nature -- trees, rocks, mountains, water, whatever -- have spirits, and that people must remain on good terms with all these spirits to prevent evil and destructive things from happening.
Since the economy of Japan was agricultural until the last decades of the 19th century, the livelihood of the people was greatly influenced by rain, wind and the seasons, leading to year-around religious rituals designed to placate and please the spirits of nature.
Matsuri to help ward off diseases and other calamities also became common. Some festivals had to do with ensuring fertility; others were designed to bring peace to the spirits of physical things -- one such thing being broken and discarded needles.
The purpose of the festivals was to invite the appropriate deities to come down from Heaven so the people could pray to them directly, and in keeping with their cultural programming to structure everything, the Japanese designed their matsuri to have three parts.
The first part of a festival is called kami mukae (kah-me muu-kigh), or "meeting the gods," which is a ceremony held at a shrine or other sacred place to welcome the gods to the Earth. The deity concerned descends from Heaven and takes up temporary residence in a palanquin-like portable shrine called a mikoshi (me-koh-she).
The second part of a festival, called shinkoh (sheen-koh), consists of participants carrying the mikoshi around rural communities and through the streets of towns and cities, generally with chants and some kind of music.
The third part of a matsuri is the kami okuri (kah-me oh-kuu-ree), or "god send-off," a ritual to send the gods back to Heaven.
Other matsuri are designed to commemorate major events in history, and are the equivalent of the float parades so popular in the U.S., with people dressed in period costumes marching in long columns, along with carts and palanquins from the era concerned.
Among the most popular of Japan's annual festivals are the odori matsuri (oh-doh-ree mot-sue-ree) or dance festivals, in which participants wearing colorful yukata robes and traditional sedge hats dance through the streets.
Paper lanterns, huge drums, gongs, masks, dolls and other historical images are a big part of many Japanese festivals, as are fireworks.
Kyoto is especially famous for its festivals, some of which date back to the 8th and 9th centuries and go on for days. Its Gion Matsuri, for example, staged by the Yasaka Shrine, begins on July 1 and lasts until July 29th. Gion (ghee-own) is a district in Kyoto that is famous for its geisha houses. The biggest Gion events occur on July 16 and 17.
Kyoto's biggest fall festival is the Jidai Matsuri (Jee-die Mot-sue-re), which means Festival of the Ages. It occurs in the latter part of October, and depicts Japan from the 19th century back to the 8th century, with some 1,700 marchers divided into 20 groups.
Japan has a number of curious festivals that attract large audiences. Among them: mud-slinging, paying homage to phallic images, eating and drinking from huge bowls, listening to the voices of dead relatives, watching the training of priests, viewing parades by jokers and clown, and matsuri in which the participants laugh and laugh and laugh, until they are rid of all stress and ill-feelings. It beats going to a shrink!
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
The Influence of “Characters” On Japan’s Culture
TOKYO – One of the elements that distinguishes Japanese culture, and is responsible for much of the country’s exotic image as well as the mindset and special skills of the people, are the “characters” that make up the Japanese system of writing.
By “characters” we mean, of course, the Chinese ideograms with which the Japanese write the core words of their language. The Japanese term for the ideograms is Kan ji (Kahn-jee), usually written in Roman letters as one word (Kanji), which literally means “Chinese characters.”
Kanji came into common use in China in the 14th century B.C., but it was not until the 3rd century A.D. that a scholar named Wani came to Japan from the ancient Korean kingdom of Kudara, bringing with him the Analects of Confucius, which were written in Kanji, and a textbook for studying the characters.
It was not until the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., however, that the use of Kanji began to spread in Japan, primarily via scholars and immigrants from kingdoms on the Korean Peninsula that had been under the suzerainty of China for many centuries.
As the decades passed, Korean immigrants who were employed in Japan as official recorders gradually transcribed the whole Japanese language into Kanji.
By the 6th and 7th centuries, most male members of the elite class in Japan could read and write Kanji. Soon thereafter, scholars created two additional phonetic scripts (phonograms) to write portions of Japanese words that could not be rendered in Chinese characters.
During the early centuries following the adoption of Kanji, women were not allowed to study the ideograms, but many upper class women surreptitiously learned how to read and write with the newly developed phonetic scripts -- now called hiragana (he-rah-gah-nah), which may be translated as "flat writing."
By the advent of modern times, the study and use of Kanji had become the foundation of all Japanese education, with an impact that went far beyond what one generally associates with a system of writing. [Foreign words are written "in Japanese" in a phonetic script called katakana (kah-tah-kan-nah), which may be translated as "square writing."]
Leaning to read and draw – not write! – Kanji had a profound influence on the personality, character, aesthetic perceptions and physical dexterity of the Japanese.
Learning how to read the large number of Kanji (over 5,000) used to write the language changed the way the Japanese looked at and reacted to the world around them because the Kanji represented both physical things and non-physical concepts – they were not just phonetic sounds like the English alphabet.
Learning how to draw the Kanji required all Japanese to become virtual artists, and this too changed their perceptions and attitudes. A significant percentage of the middle and upper class population went beyond drawing the Kanji in the “standard” form. They began stylizing the characters, turning their drawing into a fine art that came to be called Shodo (Show-doh), or “The Way of Writing,” translated today as calligraphy.
Those who became especially skilled at Shodo were recognized and honored as master artists. How aesthetically attractive one could draw the Kanji became equated with morality and virtue.
Examples of Shodo by past masters are among the most treasured of Japan’s historical artifacts.
To the untrained, casual eye, Kanji may appear to have neither rhyme nor reason, but familiarity with the characters reveals not only their pictorial meaning but their artistry as well.
In fact, it may be fair to say that in order to completely, fully, understand Japanese culture it is necessary to know Kanji. It is certainly true that many of the attributes of the Japanese that are positive and admirable owe much of their significance to the influence of Kanji.
In earlier times, to become fully literate the Japanese had to learn some 10,000 characters, requiring a completely different level of discipline and respect for teachers than our measly 26 letters—to say nothing of the time involved. Learning the some 2,000 characters required for literacy today remains a defining element in the character and mindset of the Japanese, and there are reflections of this discipline and respect in virtually everything they do.
Learning to recognize and interpret just a few dozen Kanji adds a valuable dimension to one’s experience in Japan. And, of course, the more Kanji one knows the deeper and more gratifying the experience. Even if one is not motivated to learn and use Kanji as a means of communication, just viewing the characters as an art form adds grace to one’s life.
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
The Wisdom of Japanese Proverbs!
TOKYO – Proverbs, which might be called distilled folklore, are apparently indigenous to all cultures, and often reveal more about the philosophy and psychology of a people than what they are generally given credit for.
Japanese culture is especially rich in kotowaza (koh-toh-wah-zah) or proverbs not only because it is ancient and has been very sophisticated for a long time, but also because of the influence of Shintoism, Buddhism, Taoism and Zen Buddhism -- all of which (many say) are more philosophically and metaphysically profound than Christianity.
Still, the most profound proverbs, with only slightly different wording, can be found in virtually all old cultures -- an obvious sign of the universality of humanity, despite racial and cultural differences. Some examples of Japanese proverbs:
Oya kohkoh wo shitai toki ni oya wa nashi. (Oh-yah koh-koh oh she-tie nee oh-yah nah-she) By the time children realize the virtue of their parents and what they owe to them, the parents are gone.
Oya no iken to hiya zake wa ato de kiku. (Oh-yah no ee-kane toh he-yah zah-kay wah ah-toh day kee-kuu.) Just as it takes time for cold sake to make one pleasantly mellow, it takes time for children to recognize the wisdom of their parents.
Kawaii ko ni wa tabi wo saseyo! (Kah-wah-ee koh nee wah tah-bee oh sah-say-yoh!)
Parents should let their children experience some of the hardships of life for their own good.
Atama hagete mo uwaki wa yamanu. (Ah-tah-mah hah-gay-tay moh uu-wah-kee wah yah-mah-nuu.) A bald head does not stop philandering.
Bijin ni toshi nashi. (Bee-jeen nee toh-she nah-she.) Beautiful women have no age.
Deru kui wa utareru. (Day-rue kuu-ee wah uu-tah-ray-rue.) A protruding nail (or person!) gets hammered down. (Still basically true in Japanese society.)
Hyaku bun ikken ni shikuzu. (He’yah-kuu boon eek-kane nee she-kuu-zuu.) Hearing 100 times is not as good as seeing once. (Ask any traveler!)
I no naka no kawazu, takai wo shirazu. (Ee no nah-kah no kah-wah-zuu, tah-kigh oh she-rah-zuu.) A frog in a well does not know the ocean. (A narrow mind equates very well with a well.)
Kunshi hyohen. (Koon-she he’yoh-hane.) A wise man changes his mind.
Musume o miru yori, haha wo miyo. (Muu-sue-may oh me-rue yoh-ree, hah-hah oh me-yoh.) Look at the mother instead of the daughter. (Many husbands wish they had.)
Sake wa honshin wo arawasu. (Sah-kay wah hoan-sheen wo ah-rah-wah-sue.) People reveal their true selves when drunk. (Belief in this saying is the reason why it is common for Japanese to go out of their way to get new colleagues and business contacts drunk at the first opportunity.)
Makeru ga kachi. (Mah-kay-rue gah kah-chee) He who is defeated wins. (Look at Japan today!)
Ju yoku go wo seisu. (Juu yoh-kuu go oh say-ee-sue) Win by yielding. (The secret of aikido.)
Kane areba baka mo danna. (Kah-nay ah-ray-bah bah-kah moh dahn-nah) With money a fool can be a lord. (Need we say more!)
Binbo nin no ko takusan. (Bean-boh neen no koh tock-sahn) Poor people have many children.
Tabi no haji wa kakisute. (Tah-bee no hah-jee wah kah-kee-sue-tay) Travelers have no shame. (They do things they wouldn’t do at home.)
Business people dealing with Japan, as well as recreational travelers, can get a lot of mileage out of their relationships with the Japanese by now and then tossing a well-known kotowaza into their conversations. Of course, it had better fit!
Recommended source: Even a Stone Buddha Can Talk: Wit and Wisdom of Japanese Proverbs. Available from Amazon.com.
Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.
To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)