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Old Japanese
is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language, recorded in documents from the Nara period (8th century). It became Early Middle Japanese in the succeeding Heian period, but the precise delimitation of the stages is controversial. Old Japanese was an early member of the Japonic language family. No genetic links to other language families have been proven. Old Japanese was written using man'yōgana, which is a writing system that employs Chinese characters as syllabograms or (occasionally) logograms. It featured a few phonemic differences from later forms, such as a simpler syllable structure and distinctions between several pairs of syllables that have been pronounced identically since Early Middle Japanese. The phonetic realization of these distinctions is uncertain. Internal reconstruction points to a pre-Old Japanese phase with fewer consonants and vowels. As is typical of Japonic languages, Old Japanese was primarily an agglutinative language with a subject–obj ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands—Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu—and List of islands of Japan, thousands of smaller islands, covering . Japan has a population of over 123 million as of 2025, making it the List of countries and dependencies by population, eleventh-most populous country. The capital of Japan and List of cities in Japan, its largest city is Tokyo; the Greater Tokyo Area is the List of largest cities, largest metropolitan area in the world, with more than 37 million inhabitants as of 2024. Japan is divided into 47 Prefectures of Japan, administrative prefectures and List of regions of Japan, eight traditional regions. About three-quarters of Geography of Japan, the countr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genryaku Manyosyu
was a after '' Juei'' and before '' Bunji.'' This period spanned the years from April 1184 through August 1185. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * 1184 : The new era name was created to mark an event or a number of events. The previous era ended and a new one commenced in ''Juei'' 3, on the 16th day of the 4th month of 1184.Brown, p. 337. Events of the ''Genryaku'' era * 1185 (''Genryaku 2, 24th day of the 3rd month''): the Taira (also known as the Heike) and the Minamoto clashed in the Battle of Dan-no-ura; and the Heike were utterly defeated.Kitagawa, Hiroshi ''et al.'' (1975). ''The Tale of the Heike'', p. 787. * 1185 (''Genryaku 2, 9th day of the 7th month''): Great earthquake caused turmoil in the capital and in the neighboring provinces. References ;Sources * Brown, Delmer M. and Ichirō Ishida, eds. (1979) ''Gukanshō: The Future and the Past.''Berkeley: University of California Press. OCLC 251325323* Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (200 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eta Funayama Sword
Eta Funayama Kofun () is a ''kofun'', or Tumulus, burial mound, located in Nagomi, Kumamoto in Japan. The mound was designated a Monuments of Japan, National Historic Site of Japan in 1951. The designation includes and . Several artifacts excavated from the mound have been designated National Treasures of Japan are now at the Tokyo National Museum (see List of National Treasures of Japan (archaeological materials), List of National Treasures of Japan). The style of the bronze items resemble artifacts from the Korean kingdom of Baekje, which had many exchanges with Japan at the time. Eta Funayama Sword The is a 5th-century ancient iron sword excavated from the mound in 1873. The inscription on the blade indicates that the sword was made during the era of Emperor Yūryaku in the 5th century. This sword, along with other items from the mound, have been designated National Treasures of Japan in the List of National Treasures of Japan (archaeological materials), category archae ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inariyama Sword
The iron or was excavated in 1968 at the Inariyama Kofun, a megalithic tomb located in Saitama Prefecture. In 1978, X-ray analysis revealed a gold- inlaid inscription that comprises at least 115 Chinese characters. This sword was described as the discovery of the century for the study of ancient Japanese history. The sword is designated a national treasure of Japan and is on display in the Saitama Prefectural Museum of the Sakitama Ancient Burial Mounds. Creation Japanese research suggests that the metal used in the sword was smelted from copper-bearing magnetite originating in the Jiangnan region of China, later brought to Japan, and then used to forge the sword. Inscription The inscription is in classical Chinese, but includes several Japanese proper names written using Chinese characters as syllabograms. The original inscription and translation (by Murayama Shichirō and Roy Andrew Miller) is as follows. ;Front : ;Reverse : Interpretation The year is denoted as "'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suda Hachiman Shrine Mirror
The in Hashimoto, Wakayama, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ... is a National Treasure of Japan. It is a bronze mirror cast with 48 Chinese characters around the fifth century. It is an important artifact for the research in Japanese archaeology and Old Japanese language. It was found at Suda Hachiman Shrine, and its earliest mention in text is in the 3rd volume of the Kii no kuni meisho zue (紀伊国名所図会; "Illustrated Guide to Places of Note in Kii Province") published in 1838. Inscriptions The mirror says There are a few unclear points, but a tentative translation is "In the eighth month of a ''gui-wei'' year, in the reign of the great king, when the prince Wooto was at the Osisaka Palace, Sima, wishing for longevity, sent two persons to make t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Records Of The Three Kingdoms
The ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' is a Chinese official history written by Chen Shou in the late 3rd century CE, covering the end of the Han dynasty (220 CE) and the subsequent Three Kingdoms period (220–280 CE). It is regarded as to be the authoritative source text for these periods. Compiled following the reunification of China under the Jin dynasty (266–420), the work chronicles the political, social, and military events within rival states Cao Wei, Shu Han and Eastern Wu into a single text organized by individual biography. The ''Records'' are the primary source of information for the 14th-century historical novel '' Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', considered to be one of the four classic novels emblematic of written vernacular Chinese. While large subsections of the work have been selected and translated into English, the entire corpus has yet to receive an unabridged English translation. Origin and structure The '' Book of Han'' and ''Records of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shoku Nihongi
The is an imperially-commissioned Japanese history text. Completed in 797, it is the second of the '' Six National Histories'', coming directly after the and followed by ''Nihon Kōki''. Fujiwara no Tsugutada and Sugano no Mamichi served as the primary editors. It is one of the most important primary historical sources for information about Japan's Nara period. The work covers the 95-year period from the beginning of Emperor Monmu's reign in 697 until the 10th year of Emperor Kanmu's reign in 791, spanning nine imperial reigns. It was completed in 797 AD. The text is forty volumes in length. It is primarily written in kanbun, a Japanese form of Classical Chinese Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary ..., as was normal for formal Japanese texts at the time. How ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Engishiki
The is a Japanese book of laws and customs. The major part of the writing was completed in 927. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Engi-shiki''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 178. History Emperor Daigo ordered the compilation of the ''Engishiki'' in 905. Although previous attempts at codification are known to have taken place, neither the ''Konin'' nor the ''Jogan Gishiki'' survive, making the Engishiki important for early Japanese historical and religious studies. Fujiwara no Tokihira began the task, but work stalled when he died four years later in 909. His brother Fujiwara no Tadahira continued the work in 912 eventually completing it in 927. While the ''Engishiki'' was presented to the throne in 927, it was not used as a basis for enacting policy until 967. Possible reasons for this delay in application include a need for it to be revised, the fact that it was simply a record of already existing systems, and also that some of those systems functioned in name only. Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norito
are liturgical texts or ritual incantations in Shinto, usually addressed to a given ''kami''. History The first written documentation of ''norito'' dates to 712 CE in the ''Kojiki'' and 720 CE in the ''Nihongi''. The Engishiki, a compilation of laws and minute regulation presented by the court compiled in 927 CE, preserves twenty-seven representative forms of ''norito''. Etymology There is no single universally accepted theory to explain the meaning of the term.Philippi (1990). p. 2. One theory derives ''norito'' from ''noru'' ( 宣る, 'to declare'; cf. the verbs '' inoru'' 'to pray' and '' norou'' 'to curse') - combined with the suffix ''-to''. A variant term, ''notto'', is derived from a combination of ''norito'' with ''koto'', 'word'. There are various known ways of writing the word in kanji: aside from 祝詞 (currently the standard), 詔戸言, 詔刀言, and 諄辞 are also attested. One recent writer summed up the original meaning of ''norito'' as "a general term m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fudoki
are ancient reports on provincial culture, geography, and oral tradition presented to the reigning monarchs of Japan, also known as local gazetteers. They contain agricultural, geographical, and historical records as well as mythology and folklore. ''Fudoki'' manuscripts also document local myths, rituals, and poems that are not mentioned in the ''Kojiki'' and the ''Nihon Shoki'' chronicles, which are the most important literature of the ancient national mythology and history. In the course of national unification, the imperial court enacted a series of criminal and administrative codes called ''ritsuryō'' and surveyed the provinces established by such codes to exert greater control over them. Kofudoki In the narrower sense, ''Fudoki'' refer to the oldest records written in the Nara period, later called . Compilation of ''Kofudoki'' began in 713 and was completed over a 20-year period. Following the Taika Reform in 646 and the Code of Taihō enacted in 701, there was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Man'yōshū
The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in a series of compilers, is today widely believed to be Ōtomo no Yakamochi, although numerous other theories have been proposed. The chronologically last datable poem in the collection is from AD 759 ( 4516). It contains many poems from a much earlier period, with the bulk of the collection representing the period between AD 600 and 759. The precise significance of the title is not known with certainty. The comprises more than 4,500 poems in 20 volumes, and is broadly divided into three genres: , songs at banquets and trips; , songs about love between men and women; and , songs to mourn the death of people. These songs were written by people of various statuses, such as the Emperor, aristocrats, junior officials, soldiers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nihon Shoki
The or , sometimes translated as ''The Chronicles of Japan'', is the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the , the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeologists as it includes the most complete extant historical record of ancient Japan. The was finished in 720 under the editorial supervision of Prince Toneri with the assistance of Ō no Yasumaro and presented to Empress Genshō. The book is also a reflection of Chinese influence on Japanese civilization. In Japan, the Sinicized court wanted written history that could be compared with the annals of the Chinese. The begins with the Japanese creation myth, explaining the origin of the world and the first seven generations of divine beings (starting with Kuninotokotachi), and goes on with a number of myths as does the , but continues its account through to events of the 8th century. It is believed to record accurately the latter reig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
