Ninja Culture

A typical ninja village would not be any different from other medieval
Japanese villages except for few very sharp-eyed adults who would
keep a careful watch on a trespasser. Many would be tending their rice
fields and harvesting vegetables and fruits. Others would be making
craftworks and few would be blacksmiths making sickles and cooking
knives. A ninja village's purpose is to support ninja and remain
unnoticed. As with another village, a ninja village would have a leader,
who often was the head of ninja group. Under him would be several
jyounin , which literally means the high ninja. Under the jyounin

would be severalch unin, which literally means the middle ninja.
Under chunin would be manygeni, which literally means the
low ninja. Upon receiving a mission from a daimyo, an osa would give
order to the jyounin to select necessary personnel. Some ninja groups would be smaller and may have been less structured. Other groups may have been structured more like an army and the leader may instead have been called ashou (general). While ninja are often depicted as male, female were often ninja as well. A female ninja may be called akun oic hi. These are actually the three strokes that make up the kanji character for female,onna . Although sometimes depicted as an experienced prostitute who gained secrets from the enemy by seduction, they rarely used that method. Most prostitutes in medieval Japan worked exclusively in brothels. Few would take their chances with a freelance prostitute, especially since in many places it was considered illegal.

Ninpo (literally 'the laws of ninja), or simply okite ( literally'rule'), are the guidelines that ninja followed. It had many stipulations, but the most important rule was of keeping the secret of being ninja to themselves and never revealing the daimyo who gave them orders. The most severe crime any ninja could commit was of betraying and killing fellow ninja. The punishment was death and, if deemed by the council of ninja, his or her family would be executed as well. Second to that was the crime of leaving the ninja village without authorization and never coming back. He or she would be callednuke nin  and his or her family member would be tasked to bring him back, dead or alive.

History of the Ninja and Ninjutsu

Ninjutsu is known by many as the art of stealth or the art of the shadow.
Much of the training in the ninjutsu school centers around close range
combat and the art of invisibility and espionage. Some of the special skills
learned by ninjutsu practitioners have historically given the ninja a
reputation of possessing magical powers. Climbing walls and swimming while
clad in armor are two skills that have earned this reputation. Other skills
taught to the ninja included map making, disguise, silent entry and escape,
leaping, high endurance, sabotage, and the use of available surroundings as
weapons.

The history of the ninja is shrouded in secrecy. Ninja often hold the
incorrect reputation of having all been assassins. This was not the case.
Though no single origin can be proven, most common beliefs surrounding the
origins of ninjutsu attribute it as a fighting method taught within mountain
families as a means for self defense during feudal Japan against territory
claimants. In order to defend themselves against powerful foes such as the
samurai class of warriors who had strength in numbers, the ninja developed
stealth capabilities and unorthodox combat techniques. The fighting tactics
employed by the ninja were often seen as cowardly by the samurai.
However, they were often very effective.


In many ways, the tactics employed by the ninja were very similar to techniques
adopted by the early American colonists during the war for independence from
England. Traditional British battle strategy was to line up in open fields and fire
weapons in a sequential pattern. After many brutal defeats, the heavily under-manned
colonists learned to compensate for numbers and power by using ambush and disguise
tactics. This strategy was considered to be cowardly by the British armies but, like
the similar strategies employed by the ninja, it also proved to be very effective.

Ninjutsu was banned in the 17th century but continued to be passed down in
underground circles. The art is still practiced today though not at widely as in the
days of feudal Japan.
Like the farmers of the past who fought to defend their lands, Ninja Billy and his
friends use their skills to protect others and stand for what is right in the world.

History of the Samurai

The samurai, a class of highly skilled warriors, gradually developed in Japan after the Taika reforms of 646 A.D. The reforms included land redistribution and heavy new taxes, meant to support an elaborate Chinese-style empire. As a result, many small farmers had to sell their land and work as tenant farmers.

Meanwhile, a few large landholders amassed power and wealth, creating a feudal system similar to medieval Europe's. This top-heavy system proved unwieldy, and crumbled within a few centuries.

As in Europe, the new feudal lords needed warriors to defend their riches. Thus, the samurai warrior (or "bushi") was born.

Early Feudal Era Samurai:

Some samurai were relatives of the landowners, while others were simply hired swords. The samurai code emphasized loyalty to one's master, even over family loyalty. History shows that the most loyal samurai were usually family members or financial dependents of their lords.

In the 900s, the weak emperors of the Heian Dynasty (794-1185) lost control of rural Japan. The country was riven by revolt; the emperor soon wielded power only within the capital. Across the country, the warrior class moved in to fill the power vacuum.

By 1100, the samurai effectively held both military and political power over much of Japan.
End of the Heian Era / Rise of Samurai Rule:

The weak imperial line received a fatal blow to its power in 1156, when Emperor Toba died without a clear successor. His sons, Sutoku and Go-Shirakawa, fought for control in a civil war called the Hogen Rebellion.

In the end, both would-be emperors lost; the imperial office lost all its remaining power.

During this civil war, the Minamoto and Taira samurai clans rose to prominence. They fought one another in the Heiji Rebellion of 1160. After their victory, the Taira established the first samurai-led government, or shogunate, with the emperor as a figurehead. The defeated Minamoto were banished from the capital at Kyoto.

Kamakura Period :

The two clans fought once more in the Genpei War (1180-1185), which ended in victory for the Minamoto.

Minamoto no Yoritomo established the Kamakura Shogunate, which ruled much of Japan until 1333. While the Kamakura were powerful, they never conquered northern and western areas of the country. The shoguns also faced periodic resistance from other samurai clans.

In 1268, an external threat appeared. Kublai Khan, the Mongol ruler of Yuan China, demanded tribute from Japan. Kyoto refused. The Mongols invaded in 1274 with 600 ships, but a typhoon destroyed their armada. A second invasion fleet in 1281 met the same fate.
Fall of the Kamakura / Early Muromachi (Ashikaga) Period:

Despite such incredible help from nature, the Mongol attacks cost the Kamakura dearly.

Unable to offer land or riches to the samurai leaders who rallied to Japan's defense, the weakened shogun faced a challenge from Emperor Go-Daigo in 1318. The emperor was exiled in 1331, but returned and overthrew the Shogunate in 1333.

This Kemmu Restoration of imperial power lasted only three years.

In 1336, the Ashikaga Shogunate under Ashikaga Takauji reasserted samurai rule, but it was weaker than the Kamakura had been. Regional constables called "daimyo" developed considerable power, meddling in the shogunate's succession.
Later Muromachi Period:

By 1460, the daimyo were ignoring orders from the shogun, and backing different successors to the imperial throne. When the shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, resigned in 1464, a dispute between backers of his younger brother and his son ignited even more intense bickering among the daimyo.

In 1467, this squabbling erupted into the decade-long Onin War. Thousands died, and Kyoto was burned to the ground.

The Onin War led directly to Japan's "Warring States Period," or Sengoku. Between 1467 and 1573, various daimyo led their clans in a fight for national dominance. Nearly all of the provinces were engulfed in the fighting.
Azuchi-Momoyama Period / Restoration of Order:

The Warring States Period began to draw to a close in 1568, when the warlord Oda Nobunaga defeated three other powerful daimyo, marched into Kyoto, and had his favorite, Yoshiaki, installed as shogun.

Nobunaga spent the next 14 years subduing other rival daimyo, and quelling rebellions by fractious Buddhist monks.

His grand Azuchi Castle, constructed between 1576 and 1579, became of symbol of Japanese reunification.

In 1582, Nobunaga was assassinated by one of his generals, Akechi Mitsuhide. Hideyoshi, another general, finished the unification and ruled as kampaku (regent).

Hideyoshi invaded Korea in 1592 and 1597.
Tokugawa Shogunate (Edo Period):

Hideyoshi had exiled the large Tokugawa clan from the area around Kyoto to the Kanto region in western Japan. The Taiko died in 1598, and by 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu had conquered the other western daimyo from his castle stronghold at Edo (the future Tokyo).

Ieyasu's son, Hidetada, became shogun of the unified country in 1605, ushering in about 250 years of relative peace and stability for Japan.

The strong Tokugawa shoguns domesticated the samurai, forcing them to either serve their lords in the cities, or give up their swords and farm. This transformed the warriors into a hereditary class of cultured bureaucrats.
Meiji Restoration and the Decline of the Samurai:

In 1868, the Meiji Restoration signaled the beginning of the end for the samurai.

The Meiji system of constitutional monarchy included such democratic reforms as term limits for public office and popular balloting. With public support, the Meiji Emperor did away with the samurai, reduced the power of the daimyo, and moved the capital from Kyoto to Tokyo.

The new government created a conscripted army in 1873; many of the officers were drawn from the ranks of former samurai.

In 1877, angry ex-samurai revolted against the Meiji in the Satsuma Rebellion; they lost the Battle of Shiroyama, and the era of the samurai was over.
The Culture and Myth of the Samurai:

Samurai Culture

The culture of the samurai was grounded in the concept of bushido - "the way of the warrior." The central tenets of bushido are honor and freedom from the fear of death. A samurai was legally entitled to cut down any commoner who failed to honor him (or her) properly. A warrior imbued with bushido spirit would fight fearlessly for his master, and die honorably rather than surrender in defeat.

Out of this disregard for death, the Japanese tradition of seppuku evolved: defeated warriors (and disgraced government officials) would commit suicide with honor by ritually disemboweling themselves with a short sword.

Samurai Weapons

Early samurai were archers, fighting on foot or horseback with extremely long bows (yumi). They used swords mainly for finishing off wounded enemies.

After the Mongol invasions of 1272 and 1281, the samurai began to make more use of swords, as well as poles topped by curved blades called naginata, and spears.

Samurai warriors wore two swords, together called daisho - "long and short." The katana, a curved blade over 24 inches long, was suitable for slashing, while the wakizashi, at 12-24 inches, was used for stabbing. In the late 16th century, non-samurai were forbidden to wear the daisho.

Samurai wore full body-armor in battle, often including a horned helmet.

The Samurai Myth
Modern Japanese honor the memory of the samurai, and bushido still infuses the culture. Today, however, the samurai code is invoked in corporate boardrooms rather than on the battlefield.

Even now, everyone knows the story of the 47 Ronin, Japan's "national legend."

In 1701, the daimyo Asano Naganori drew a dagger in the shogun's palace and tried to kill Kira, a government official. Asano was arrested, and forced to commit seppuku. Two years later, forty-seven of his samurai hunted down Kira and killed him, without knowing Asano's reasons for attacking the official. It was enough that he wanted Kira dead.

Since the ronin had followed bushido, the shogun allowed them to commit seppuku instead of being executed.
People still offer incense at the graves of the ronin, and the story has been made into a number of plays and films.

Akashi Castle

Ogasawara Tadazane (former lord of Matsumoto), moved into the area in 1617. In 1619, under the orders of Tokugawa Hidetada he built Akashi Castle in just one year for the purposes of watching over the Western lords and building up the Tokugawa defenses in the region. He accomplished building this castle in so little time mainly because he used materials from castles in the area that were decomissioned under the one castle per country law of 1615.

The castle deftly makes use of the natural terrain in a 3 tiered castle compound. Ogasawara's father-in-law Honda Tadamasa, who also directed the construction of Himeji Castle, assisted with the construction of Akashi castle. Even though they build a large foundation for a large donjon, no donjon was ever built. In it's place the honmaru had 4 large 3 story yagura, two of which are still standing today.
Eventually, Ogasawara Tadazane was moved to Kokura Castle and the lordship of Akashi Castle changed hands several times until it was taken over by Matsudaira Naoakira in 1682. The Matsudaira continued to ruled until the coming of the Meiji Restoration.

For more information, visit the official Web site at www.yayoi-yumeji-museum.jp.

Edo Castle stones

The history of Edo-jo dates back to the Heian Period when a fortified palace was built by the Edo clan on this site. In 1457 the Uesugi clan had a vassal construct Edo-jo. The castle remained under the control of the Uesugi family until the coming of the Tokugawa.

Before Tokugawa Ieyasu, Edo (Tokyo) was just another town in the Kanto area. Partly due to Ieyasu's revolutionary city planning, the town of Edo developed at lightning speed and quickly became the social and political center of Japan. The castle, Edo-jo, which was the center of Tokugawa's city, was the largest castle in the world at that time.

In 1657 a great fire swept through Tokyo and destroyed many parts of the castle including the donjon. To this day, the donjon has never been rebuilt. For 264 years, 15 generations of Tokugawa ruled Japan from Edo-jo. The Tokugawa gave up control of the castle when they lost the Boshin war in 1868. The majority of Edo-jo was destroyed by the U.S. bombings of Tokyo during WWII.

Today, a large section of Edo-jo is occupied by the Imperial palace where the emperor and his family reside. The public cannot enter this area but they can enter the Higashi-gyoen (east gardens) and the Honmaru where the donjon once stood. A reconstructed palisade marks the location of the former donjon. It is worth a trip to Edo-jo just to see the immense stone walled moats that remain from the original castle. The stones were simply fitted together and not cemented which is why they were able to withstand the Great Kanto Earthquake without crumbling.

For more information, visit the official Web site at www.yayoi-yumeji-museum.jp.

The graphic art of Yumeji

Yumeji Takehisa personifies the Taisho romantic style--a cultural phenomenon and its products, which conveyed life in the Taisho era (1912-1926). His bijin-ga--paintings of women, sometimes elegant, sometimes melancholic--have found a new following, as has the artist himself. An ongoing exhibition at a Tokyo museum, however, focuses on another side of the artist: his successful career as an art director.

"Yumeji is generally known for his depictions of languid beautiful women, but he also was a graphic artist and proved himself in a variety of fields," said Keiko Ishikawa, a curator at Takehisa Yumeji Museum, where 420 of the artist's works are being shown under the title Takehisa Yumeji: Zuan to Soshoku-ten.

"In addition to his fragile, feminine bijin-ga paintings, he was active in commercial publishing and marketing, cleverly employing the fashion and atmosphere of the times. He added to his Japanese-influenced style elements from art nouveau and art deco, which attracted women looking for something new."

The exhibition is divided into five sections. The first provides an overview of the designs and patterns Yumeji used. The remaining sections delve into far more detail.
The 420 items, chosen from among the 3,300 works in the collection at the 20-year-old museum, are all related to printed matter, including magazines, books and posters. Visitors can find Yumeji's chiyogami-patterned washi paper, magazine covers featuring a woman he drew in the Taisho romantic fashion and department store advertisements with Yumeji's interpretation of geometrical patterns.

In a 1931 Mitsukoshi department store poster, for example, Yumeji employs more geometrical, simplified lines to portray a woman, a radical change to his more orthodox bijin-ga.
A number of magazines aimed at female readers of the time--publishers had just begun targeting education and entertainment publications at girls and women--show that Yumeji did not only create cover images, but also a number of interior editorial illustrations. He was even responsible for the overall art direction of the publications.

Ishikawa includes in the exhibit a number of Yumeji's ebuto--designed envelopes--illustrating the trend among women of the time to exchange letters. The ebuto were among the original items Yumeji sold at his own store, Minatoya Ezoshiten, which he opened in 1914 in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. (The store was shut down two years later due in part to his personal problems with women).

"Yumeji's wide range of works tells us he was more than the laid-back, romantic artist who was busy painting and loving women," Ishikawa said. "He also was what we would now refer to as an art director." Yumeji also is known for his tumultuous relationship with his wife, Tamaki, and mistresses.
"The products also show that Yumeji was a man of ideas. In one women's magazine, for example, Yumeji introduced yukata designs and used as models an actress and a woman from a well-off family. He then sold the yukata fabric as merchandise," she said. His sophisticated commercial artistry can be found in a number of paintings that he made for the covers of a series of musical scores published by Senoo Gakufu. Between 1916 and 1929, Yumeji's paintings were featured on about 270 books of musical scores.

According to Ishikawa, there were few people at the time who were able to read or play to the score. "But people bought scores just for their covers, and those by Yumeji were the most popular."
It was around 1925 when radio started becoming popular in Japan. It's easy to imagine how difficult it must have been for Yumeji to express the charm of opera and Western music on these covers with so little access to information. Still, his illustrations for Peer Gynt or Nina, for example, show his excellent artistic skills.
Yumeji fell ill and died in 1934 at the age of 49.

"Shojo-ga [illustrations of girls] artists such as Junichi Nakahara [1913-1983] and illustrator Ado Mizumori are among artists who say they were influenced by Yumeji. Mangaka Moyoko Anno also evaluates him highly," Ishikawa said. "I'm sure his influence would only have been greater had he not died so young."
"Takehisa Yumeji: Zuan to Soshoku-ten" until March 27, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at Takehisa Yumeji Museum in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo. Closed March 22 and Mondays, except March 21. Admission is 900 yen for adults, 800 yen for college and high school students and 400 yen for middle and primary school students. The price of admission also includes entrance at the neighboring Yayoi Museum.


For more information, visit the official Web site at www.yayoi-yumeji-museum.jp.

Modern literature (1868–1945)

Modern Asian literature has not encapsulated western society, its illuminating origins seemingly foreign to nations such as England, American and Australia. Many of Asia's finest works remain buried under contemporary, generic arts. However, a magnitude of secrets contained within this eloquent Asian literature, are not portrayed through orthodox, western styles. But through more traditional mediums such as on stage and through culturally rich artworks.

The Meiji period marks the re-opening of Japan to the West, and a period of rapid industrialization. The introduction of European literature brought free verse into the poetic repertoire; it became widely used for longer works embodying new intellectual themes. Young Japanese prose writers and dramatists struggled with a whole galaxy of new ideas and artistic schools, but novelists were the first to successfully assimilate some of these concepts.

A new colloquial literature developed centering on the "I novel", with some unusual protagonists such as the cat narrator of Natsume Sōseki's Wagahai wa neko de aru (I Am a Cat).[dubious – discuss] Natsume Sōseki also wrote the famous novels Botchan and Kokoro (1914). Shiga Naoya, the so called "god of the novel," and Mori Ōgai were instrumental in adopting and adapting Western literary conventions and techniques. Ryūnosuke Akutagawa is known especially for his historical short stories. Ozaki Kōyō, Kyōka Izumi, and Ichiyo Higuchi represent a strain of writers whose style hearkens back to early-Modern Japanese literature.

In the early Meiji period (1868–1880s), Fukuzawa Yukichi authored Enlightenment literature, while pre-modern popular books depicted the quickly changing country. Then Realism was brought in by Tsubouchi Shōyō and Futabatei Shimei in the mid-Meiji (late 1880s–early 1890s) while the Classicism of Ozaki Kōyō, Yamada Bimyo and Kōda Rohan gained popularity. Ichiyō Higuchi, a rare woman writer in this era, wrote short stories on powerless women of this age in a simple style in between literary and colloquial. Kyōka Izumi, a favored disciple of Ozaki, pursued a flowing and elegant style and wrote early novels such as The Operating Room (1895) in literary style and later ones including The Holy Man of Mount Koya (1900) in colloquial.

Romanticism was brought in by Mori Ōgai with his anthology of translated poems (1889) and carried to its height by Tōson Shimazaki etc. and magazines Myōjō and Bungaku-kai in early 1900s. Mori also wrote some modern novels including The Dancing Girl (1890), Wild Geese (1911), then later wrote historical novels. Natsume Sōseki, who is often compared with Mori Ōgai, wrote I Am a Cat (1905) with humor and satire, then depicted fresh and pure youth in Botchan (1906) and Sanshirô (1908). He eventually pursued transcendence of human emotions and egoism in his later works including Kokoro (1914) his last and unfinished novel Light and darkness (1916).

Shimazaki shifted from Romanticism to Naturalism which was established with his The Broken Commandment (1906) and Katai Tayama's Futon (1907). Naturalism hatched "I Novel" (Watakushi-shôsetu) that describes about the authors themselves and depicts their own mental states. Neo-romanticism came out of anti-naturalism and was led by Kafū Nagai, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Kōtarō Takamura, Hakushū Kitahara and so on in the early 1910s. Saneatsu Mushanokōji, Naoya Shiga and others founded a magazine Shirakaba in 1910. They shared a common characteristic, Humanism. Shiga's style was autobiographical and depicted states of his mind and sometimes classified as "I Novel" in this sense. Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, who was highly praised by Soseki, wrote short stories including Rashōmon (1915) with an intellectual and analytic attitude, and represented Neo-realism in the mid 1910s.

During the 1920s and early 1930s the proletarian literary movement, comprising such writers as Takiji Kobayashi, Denji Kuroshima, Yuriko Miyamoto, and Ineko Sata produced a politically radical literature depicting the harsh lives of workers, peasants, women, and other downtrodden members of society, and their struggles for change.

War-time Japan saw the début of several authors best known for the beauty of their language and their tales of love and sensuality, notably Jun'ichirō Tanizaki and Japan's first winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Yasunari Kawabata, a master of psychological fiction. Ashihei Hino wrote lyrical bestsellers glorifying the war, while Tatsuzō Ishikawa attempted to publish a disturbingly realistic account of the advance on Nanjing. Writers who opposed the war include Denji Kuroshima, Mitsuharu Kaneko, Hideo Oguma, and Jun Ishikawa.

Early-modern literature (1603–1868)

Literature during this time was written during the largely peaceful Tokugawa Period (commonly referred to as the Edo Period). Due in large part to the rise of the working and middle classes in the new capital of Edo (modern Tokyo), forms of popular drama developed which would later evolve into kabuki. The jōruri and kabuki dramatist Chikamatsu Monzaemon became popular at the end of the 17th century. Matsuo Bashō wrote Oku no Hosomichi (1702), a travel diary. Hokusai, perhaps Japan's most famous woodblock print artist, also illustrated fiction as well as his famous 36 Views of Mount Fuji.

Many genres of literature made their début during the Edo Period, helped by a rising literacy rate among the growing population of townspeople, as well as the development of lending libraries. Although there was a minor Western influence trickling into the country from the Dutch settlement at Nagasaki, it was the importation of Chinese vernacular fiction that proved the greatest outside influence on the development of Early Modern Japanese fiction. Ihara Saikaku might be said to have given birth to the modern consciousness of the novel in Japan, mixing vernacular dialogue into his humorous and cautionary tales of the pleasure quarters. Jippensha Ikku wrote Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige, which is a mix of travelogue and comedy. Tsuga Teisho, Takebe Ayatari, and Okajima Kanzan were instrumental in developing the yomihon, which were historical romances almost entirely in prose, influenced by Chinese vernacular novels such as Three Kingdoms and Shui hu zhuan. Two yomihon masterpieces were written by Ueda Akinari: Ugetsu monogatari and Harusame monogatari. Kyokutei Bakin wrote the extremely popular fantasy/historical romance Nansō Satomi Hakkenden in addition to other yomihon. Santō Kyōden wrote yomihon mostly set in the gay quarters until the Kansei edicts banned such works, and he turned to comedic kibyōshi. Genres included horror, crime stories, morality stories, comedy, and pornography—often accompanied by colorful woodcut prints.

Nevertheless, in the Tokugawa, as in earlier periods, scholarly work continued to be published in Chinese, which was the language of the learned much as Latin was in Europe

Medieval literature (1185–1603)

During this period, Japan experienced many civil wars which led to the development of a warrior class, and subsequent war tales, histories, and related stories. Work from this period is notable for its insights into life and death, simple lifestyles, and redemption through killing. A representative work is The Tale of the Heike (1371), an epic account of the struggle between the Minamoto and Taira clans for control of Japan at the end of the twelfth century. Other important tales of the period include Kamo no Chōmei's Hōjōki (1212) and Yoshida Kenkō's Tsurezuregusa (1331).

Other notable genres in this period were renga, or linked verse, and Noh theater. Both were rapidly developed in the middle of the 14th century, the early Muromachi period.

Japan's-Shodo (Calligraphy)

Japanese calligraphy or shodo is an artistic way of writing the Japanese language using brush (fude) and ink (sumi).  This form of writing with a set brush stroke order allows for a creative way to produce works of art.  Often tied with meditation, the mind is cleared to let the letters flow out with little effort.  This state of mind is called mu shin or “no mind state.”

Continue practicing and expand your calligraphy with these monthly classes.  There are different calligraphy styles such as: kaisho “correct writing” described as deliberate and clear strokes similar to newspaper print, gyousho “traveling writing” seen as a semi cursive style, and sousho “grass writing” the flowing cursive style.  You can also use your calligraphy to decorate objects such as fans or lamps.  Whether you practice “mu shin” or simply enjoy exploring your creativity, you can learn about yourself as you allow the worries of the week to flow out like the ink off the brush while economically beautifying your living area.

Advance at your own pace and, with 48,000 characters to practice, there is plenty to try.  You do not need to know how to write in Japanese.   All levels are welcome. The materials for decorative calligraphy can differ each month and can be discussed in the first class if you would like to try.  The projects are ideal for gifts as well.

Brushes can be purchased for an additional fee and a list of supplies can be provided.  Brushes can be rented as well.  Materials for decorative calligraphy are separate and can be purchased from teacher.

Japan-Classical Japanese

Classical Japanese(794–1185) literature generally refers to literature produced during the Heian period, referred to as the golden era of art and literature. Genji Monogatari (early 11th century) by a woman named Murasaki Shikibu is considered the pre-eminent masterpiece of Heian fiction and an early example of a work of fiction in the form of a novel. Other important writings of this period include the Kokin Wakashū (905), a waka-poetry anthology, and Makura no Sōshi (990s), the latter written by Murasaki Shikibu's contemporary and rival, Sei Shōnagon, as an essay about the life, loves, and pastimes of nobles in the Emperor's court. The iroha poem, now one of two standard orderings for the Japanese syllabary, was also developed during the early part of this period.

The 10th century Japanese narrative, Taketori Monogatari, can be considered an early example of proto-science fiction. The protagonist of the story, Kaguya-hime, is a princess from the Moon who is sent to Earth for safety during a celestial war, and is found and raised by a bamboo cutter. She is later taken back to her extraterrestrial family in an illustrated depiction of a disc-shaped flying object similar to a flying saucer. Another notable piece of fictional Japanese literature was Konjaku Monogatarishū, a collection of over a thousand stories in 31 volumes. The volumes cover various tales from India, China and Japan. In this time, the imperial court particularly patronized the poets, most of whom were courtiers or ladies-in-waiting. Reflecting the aristocratic atmosphere, the poetry was elegant and sophisticated and expressed emotions in a rhetorical style. Editing the resulting anthologies of poetry soon became a national pastime.

Japan-Ancient literature

Ancient literature (Until 794)

Before the introduction of kanji from China,there was no Japanese writing system. At first, Chinese characters were used in Japanese syntactical formats, and the result was sentences that look like Chinese but are phonetically read as Japanese. Chinese characters were further adapted, creating what is known as man'yōgana, the earliest form of kana, or syllabic writing. The earliest works were created in the Nara period. These include Kojiki (712), a work recording Japanese mythology and legendary history; Nihon Shoki (720), a chronicle with a slightly more solid foundation in historical records than Kojiki and Man'yōshū (759), a poetry anthology. One of the stories they describe is the tale of Urashima Tarō, which has been identified as the earliest example of a story involving time travel.

Kanji

Kanji (literally "characters from Han China") are Chinese characters used in Japanese. Kanji are one of the four character sets used in the modern Japanese writing system (the other three being hiragana, katakana and romaji).

This article focuses on the features that are unique to kanji. See Chinese character for the common features with Chinese characters used in the Korean and Chinese languages.

History of  kanji

There is some disagreement about the beginning of Chinese characters use in Japan, but it is generally accepted that Buddhist monks brought Chinese texts back to Japan in about the 5th century, and these were read in the Chinese language. Over time, a system known as kanbun emerged: this was essentially Chinese text with diacritical marks to allow Japanese speakers to read it in accordance with the rules of Japanese grammar.

Japanese it self had no written form. Eventually a writing system called manyogana (used in the ancient poetry anthology Manyoshu) evolved that used a limited set of kanji for their phonetic value alone, not for their semantic value, which was necessary for writing Japanese poetry. Manyogana written in highly cursive style became hiragana, a writing system that was accessible to women (who were denied higher education). Major works of Heian-era literature by women were written in hiragana. Katakana emerged via a parallel path: monastery students simplified manyogana to a single constituent element. Hiragana and katakana are referred to collectively as kana.

As the Japanese system of writing matured and expanded, kanji began to be used to write certain parts of speech, such as nouns, adjectives and verbs, while kana were used to write verb endings, uniquely Japanese words, and foreign words (but note that this usage developed much later originally foreign words were written using kanji, chosen either for their meaning or to spell the word phonetically.).

Katakana

Katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana,kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji.

Katakana are characterized by short, straight strokes and angular corners, and are the simplest of the Japanese scripts.There are two main systems of ordering katakana: the old-fashioned iroha ordering, and the more prevalent gojūon ordering.

Hiragana

Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet (rōmaji). Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora. Each kana is either a vowel such as "a"; a consonant followed by a vowel such as "ka" or "n" , a nasal sonorant which, depending on the context, sounds either like English m, n, or ng ([ŋ]), or like the nasal vowels of French.

Hiragana is used to write native words for which there are no kanji, including particles such as  kara "from", and suffixes such as  ~san "Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms." Likewise, hiragana is used in words for which the kanji form is obscure, not known to the writer or readers, or too formal for the writing purpose. Verb and adjective inflections, as, for example, be-ma-shi-ta  in tabemashita ( "ate"), are written in hiragana, often following a verb or adjective root (here) that is written in kanji. Hiragana is also used to give the pronunciation of kanji in a reading aid called furigana. The article Japanese writing system discusses in detail how the various systems of writing are used.

There are two main systems of ordering hiragana, the old-fashioned iroha ordering, and the more prevalent gojūon ordering.

Old Japanese

Old Japanese ( jōko nihongo) is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language.
This stage in the development of Japanese is still actively studied and debated, and key OJ texts, such as the Man'yōshū, remain obscure in places.

Dating

Linguistic changes are gradual, and the periodization of Japanese is "both delicate and controversial", with multiple competing methods and criteria for division. For both practical and conventional reasons, these divisions often correlate to political events. As such, the accepted upper bound (end date) for Old Japanese is 794 A.D, when the capital Heijōkyō moved to Heiankyō. However, it is difficult to fix a lower bound. A limited number of Japanese words, mostly personal names and place names, are recorded phonetically in ancient Chinese texts such as the "Wei Zhi" portion of the Sanguo Zhi (3rd century CE). Wooden tablets and relics with fragments of text written on them have also been excavated. However, without discounting this fragmentary early evidence, the lower bound is generally placed circa 712 for practical reasons: 712 is the traditional date of composition of the Kojiki, the oldest extant written OJ text of substantial length. A lower bound circa 712 also coincides well with the Nara period (710-794). (A more formal dating methodology might simply date OJ as "through 794", without recognizing a lower bound at all.) Besides Kojiki, the other oldest literary sources include Fudoki (720), Nihon Shoki (720), and Man'yōshū (c. 759).


Limitations of Writing system

Using Chinese characters to write other languages created the following limitations.

• Only one liquid consonant: /l/
• Limited ability to represent close syllables

Middle Chinese allowed open syllables and the codas p,t,k,m,n and ng(ŋ). Old Chinese had more closed syllables (some reconstructions, such as Li Fang-Kuei's and Akiyasu Tōdō's, eliminate open syllables entirely).
However, some written Old Japanese seems to include attempts to represent closed syllables. For example, sö (so₂) and its vowel alternation sa, originally a binding particle, are often written as  (tsǝŋ) and (tsar), suggesting a final consonant sound at the end of the syllable. (Etymologically those are thought as same as demonstrative söre (so₂re) and saru.)
Another example of evidence for closed syllables (although not necessarily in Old Japanese) is the fact that ("plain, field") is read hara (or bara) in standard Japanese, but paru/baru in southwestern and far western Japan. Combined with words like harappa, which has been analyzed as a reduplication: par(ar)par, this suggests that there may have been a proto-Japanese /par/ or /pal/.
In the opposite case, Old Classic Chenese people heard and wrote proto-Japanese. For example, in 3rd century, there was a queen named  /pieg miěr hag/.
the word kana(-gana) it self came from kari-na(loan-name/character) > karna > kanna > kana.
Kojiki distinguished shàngshēng (jōshō, jōsei ) and qùshēng (kyoshō, kyosei ). Those are thought as which

• vowel length: long or short
• pitch accent: high or low

Japanese pitch accent

Japanese pitch accent ( kōtei akusento) is a feature of the Japanese language. It distinguishes words in most Japanese dialects, though the nature and location of the accent for a given word may vary between dialects. For instance, in standard Tokyo Japanese the word for "now" is [i ma], with the accent on the first syllable (or equivalently, with a downstep in pitch between the first and second syllables), but in the Kansai dialect it is [i.ma]. A final [i] or [u] is often devoiced to [i̥] or [u̥] after a downstep and an unvoiced consonant.

Agglutinative language

An agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view. It was derived from the Latin verb agglutinare, which means "to glue together."

An agglutinative language is a form of synthetic language where each affix typically represents one unit of meaning (such as "diminutive," "past tense," "plural," etc.), and bound morphemes are expressed by affixes (and not by internal changes of the root of the word, or changes in stress or tone). Additionally, and most importantly, in an agglutinative language affixes do not become fused with others, and do not change form conditioned by others.

Synthetic languages that are not agglutinative are called fusional languages they sometimes combine affixes by "squeezing" them together, often changing them drastically in the process, and joining several meanings in one affix (for example, in the Spanish word comí [I ate], the suffix -í carries the meanings of indicative mood, active voice, past tense, first person singular subject and perfective aspect).

Agglutinative is sometimes used as a synonym for synthetic, although it technically is not. When used in this way, the word embraces fusional languages and inflected languages in general.

The distinction between an agglutinative and a fusional language is often not sharp. Rather, one should think of these as two ends of a continuum, with various languages falling more toward one end or the other. For example, Japanese is generally agglutinative, but expresses fusion in otōto (younger brother?), from oto+hito (originally oto+pito). In fact, a synthetic language may present agglutinative features in its open lexicon but not in its case system (e.g. German and Dutch).

Agglutinative languages tend to have a high rate of affixes/morphemes per word, and to be very regular[citation needed]. For example, Japanese has only two irregular verbs (and not very irregular), Luganda has only one (or two, depending on how 'irregular' is defined), Turkish has only one and in the Quechua languages all the verbs are regular. Georgian is an exception; not only is it highly agglutinative (there can be simultaneously up to 8 morphemes per word), but there is also a significant number of irregular verbs, varying in degrees of irregularity.

For more information please visit : http://en.wikipedia.org/

Japanese language

Japanese language

The Japanese language has always played a significant role in Japanese culture. The language is spoken mainly in Japan but also in some Japanese emigrant communities around the world. It is an agglutinative language and the sound inventory of Japanese is relatively small but has a lexically distinct pitch-accent system. Early Japanese is known largely on the basis of its state in the 8th century, when the three major works of  
Old Japanese were compiled. The earliest attestation of the Japanese language is in a Chinese document from 252 A.D.

Japanese is written with a combination of three scripts: hiragana, derived from the Chinese cursive script, katakana, derived as a shorthand from Chinese characters, and kanji, imported from China. The Latin alphabet, rōmaji, is also often used in modern Japanese, especially for company names and logos, advertising, and when inputting Japanese into a computer. The Hindu-Arabic numerals are generally used for numbers, but traditional Sino-Japanese numerals are also common.


For more information plesae visit : http://en.wikipedia.org/