On a long archipelago off the eastern edge of Asia live the Japanese, one of the worlds great peoples, heirs to a civilisation of extraordinary depth, refinement, and distinctiveness. Numbering over a hundred million, they have blended borrowings from the Asian mainland with a wholly original culture of their own.
Theirs is a heritage of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, of the samurai and the tea ceremony, of cherry blossom and the exquisite arts of kimono, sword, and cuisine. To know the Japanese is to encounter a people who marry a deep love of tradition with the restless energy of the ultramodern.
Japan on Film
Contents
- Origins
- The Name
- The Language
- The Homeland
- The Old Way of Life
- Society and Community
- Religion and Belief
- Traditions
- Crafts
- Food
- Festivals
- History
- Today
Origins
The Japanese are the people of Japan, an archipelago of mountainous islands off the eastern coast of Asia, and one of the world’s great nations, with a civilisation of extraordinary depth and distinctiveness. Numbering over a hundred million, they are among the most populous and influential peoples on earth.
The Japanese emerged from the mingling of the ancient Jomon inhabitants of the islands with later Yayoi migrants who brought rice farming and metalworking from the Asian mainland. From these roots grew a civilisation that, while deeply shaped by borrowings from China, developed a character wholly its own.
The Name
The Japanese call their country Nihon or Nippon, meaning the origin of the sun, from which comes the western name Japan and the poetic phrase the Land of the Rising Sun. They call themselves Nihonjin and their language Nihongo.
The name reflects Japan’s position at the eastern edge of Asia, where the sun rises over the Pacific. It expresses a strong and ancient sense of national identity, centred on the islands, the language, and the imperial line said to descend from the sun goddess.
The Language
The Japanese language is spoken by almost all the people of Japan and is usually considered, with the Ryukyuan languages, to form the small Japonic family. It is written in a complex and beautiful system combining Chinese characters, or kanji, with two syllabic scripts, hiragana and katakana.
The art of calligraphy, brushing these characters with grace and expression, is highly esteemed, and the language possesses a vast literature reaching back over a thousand years, including the world’s first novel, the Tale of Genji. Levels of politeness are deeply embedded in Japanese speech.
The Homeland
The Japanese homeland is an archipelago of four main islands and thousands of smaller ones, stretching along the eastern edge of Asia in a long arc from the cold north to the subtropical south. It is a mountainous, volcanic land, prone to earthquakes and typhoons, with little flat land and a population crowded onto the coastal plains.
Mount Fuji, the sacred and perfectly formed volcano, is the great symbol of the land, and the changing seasons, from cherry blossom to autumn leaves, are woven deeply into Japanese culture. The sea, the mountains, and the seasons shape the Japanese sense of place.
The Old Way of Life
For most of their history the Japanese were rice farmers, working the terraced and irrigated fields of the narrow valleys and coastal plains, with the rice harvest at the centre of economic and ritual life. Fishing the surrounding seas was the other great livelihood of the islands.
Village life, the rice field, and the local shrine and temple structured the traditional world, while above the villages stood the warrior aristocracy of the samurai and, in time, the great castle towns. Rice, the sea, and a refined sense of the seasons shaped the old way of life.
Society and Community
Japanese society is famous for its emphasis on group harmony, order, and consideration for others, values expressed in an elaborate etiquette of politeness, respect, and restraint. The group, whether family, company, or community, has traditionally been placed above the individual.
Diligence, attention to detail, and a striving for perfection run through Japanese culture, from craft to cuisine to daily conduct. A deep respect for hierarchy, for elders, and for social obligation orders relations, blended in modern times with the pressures of a fast-paced urban society.
Religion and Belief
Japanese religious life is marked by the coexistence of two great traditions: Shinto, the indigenous faith of the kami, the spirits of nature, ancestors, and place, honoured at countless shrines; and Buddhism, brought from the mainland, which shaped philosophy, art, and the rituals of death. Most Japanese take part in both.
A common saying holds that the Japanese are born Shinto and die Buddhist, marking births and marriages at shrines and funerals at temples. This easy blending, together with Confucian ethics and a general this-worldly spirituality, gives Japanese religion its distinctive character.
Traditions
Japanese tradition is rich in refined arts. The tea ceremony, with its exquisite ritual and aesthetics, the arranging of flowers in ikebana, the miniature landscapes of bonsai, and the theatre of Noh and Kabuki all express a deep sense of beauty, restraint, and the passing of time. The martial arts and the way of the sword carry the ethos of the samurai.
The seasonal festivals, or matsuri, held at shrines across the country, fill the year with processions, floats, and celebration. The viewing of cherry blossom in spring and of the moon and autumn leaves reflects a culture attuned to the beauty of transience.
Crafts
Japan is renowned for craftsmanship of the highest order, pursued with a devotion that treats even everyday objects as art. The making of the kimono and its fine silks, the forging of the samurai sword, the throwing of ceramics, lacquerware, woodblock printing, and paper-making are all celebrated traditions.
The Japanese ideal of the artisan who devotes a lifetime to perfecting a single craft has produced work of extraordinary refinement. From swords and ceramics to textiles and paper, Japanese craft is admired around the world.
Food
Japanese cuisine, or washoku, is celebrated worldwide for its subtlety, seasonality, and beautiful presentation, and is recognised as a treasure of world heritage. Built on rice, fish, soy, and seasonal vegetables, it ranges from the delicate raw fish of sushi and sashimi to noodles, tempura, and the simmered and grilled dishes of the home table.
An emphasis on fresh, seasonal ingredients, on umami, the savoury fifth taste, and on the visual beauty of each dish marks the cuisine. Rice, miso, soy sauce, and the produce of the sea lie at the heart of the Japanese meal.
Festivals
The Japanese year is filled with festivals. The New Year is the greatest holiday, a time of family, shrine visits, and special foods, while the cherry-blossom season brings the whole nation out to picnic beneath the flowers. The great matsuri of the shrines, such as Kyoto’s Aoi and Gion festivals, fill the streets with floats and processions.
The summer Obon festival honours the spirits of the ancestors with dances and lanterns, and countless local and seasonal celebrations mark the calendar. Through these festivals, blending Shinto and Buddhist tradition, the Japanese express their bond with the seasons, the spirits, and the community.
History
From the classical court culture of Heian, through the long age of the samurai and the shoguns, to the closed world of the Tokugawa peace, Japan developed a rich civilisation in relative isolation. The arrival of Western powers in the nineteenth century ended that isolation and triggered the Meiji Restoration, a headlong modernisation that made Japan a great power.
Imperial expansion led to war and to defeat in 1945, after which Japan rose from devastation to become one of the world’s leading economies and a peaceful, democratic nation. This dramatic arc, from samurai to superpower, shapes the modern Japanese sense of themselves.
Today
Today the Japanese number over a hundred and twenty million, in one of the world’s most developed, urbanised, and technologically advanced societies, centred on the vast metropolis of Tokyo. Japan is a global leader in industry, technology, and popular culture, from cars and electronics to anime and cuisine.
Modern Japan faces the challenges of an ageing and shrinking population and a fast-changing world, yet its people balance this with a deep attachment to tradition, craft, and the rhythm of the seasons. Their language, their arts, their cuisine, and their distinctive blend of the ancient and the ultramodern continue to define one of the great peoples of the world.
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