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Hanami
is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the transient beauty of flowers; in this case almost always refer to those of the or, less frequently, trees. From the end of March to early May, cherry trees bloom all over Japan, and around the first of February on the island of Okinawa. The is announced each year by the Japan Meteorological Agency, and is watched carefully by those planning ''hanami'' as the blossoms only last a week or two. In modern-day Japan, ''hanami'' mostly consists of having an outdoor party beneath the sakura during daytime or at night. In some contexts the Sino-Japanese term is used instead, particularly for festivals. ''Hanami'' at night is called . In many places such as Ueno Park temporary paper lanterns are hung for the purpose of ''yozakura''. On the island of Okinawa, decorative electric lanterns are hung in the trees for evening enjoyment, such as on the trees ascending Mt. Yae, near Motobu Town, or at the Nakijin Castle. A more ancie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cherry Blossom
A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of genus ''Prunus'' or ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especially in Japan. They generally refer to ornamental cherry trees, not to be confused with cherry trees that produce fruit for eating.Toshio Katsuki. (2015) ''Sakura''. pp.14–18 Iwanami Shoten. It is considered the national flower of Japan. Wild species of the cherry tree is widely distributed mainly in the Northern hemisphere. In the mainstream classification in Europe and North America, cherry trees for ornamental purposes are classified into the genus ''Prunus'' which consists of about 400 species. In the mainstream classification in Japan, China, and Russia, on the other hand, ornamental cherry trees are classified into the genus ''Cerasus'', which consists of about 100 species separated from the genus ''Prunus'', and the genus ''Cerasus'' does not include '' P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osaka-jo Yozakura
is a Japanese castle in Chūō-ku, Osaka, Japan. The castle is one of Japan's most famous landmarks and it played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century of the Azuchi-Momoyama period. Layout The main tower of Osaka Castle is situated on a plot of land roughly one square kilometre. It is built on two raised platforms of landfill supported by sheer walls of cut rock, using a technique called burdock piling, each overlooking a moat. The central castle building is five stories on the outside and eight stories on the inside, and built atop a tall stone foundation to protect its occupants from attackers. The Main Tower is surrounded by a series of moats and defensive fortifications. The castle has 2 moats (an inner & outer). The inner castle moat lies within the castle grounds, and consists of 2 types: a wet (northern-easterly) and dry (south-westerly). Outer moat meanwhile surrounds the entire castle premise, denotes the castle's outer limits, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cherry Blossom Front
The refers to the advance of the cherry blossoms across Japan. The Japan Meteorological Agency records the opening and full bloom of the blossoms from Kyūshū in late March to Hokkaidō in the middle of May. The advancing front is also the subject of regular reports by the major news agencies. The cherry blossom is of great public interest in Japan due to its symbolism and the custom of flower viewing known as ''hanami''. Forecasts From 1951 the Japan Meteorological Agency produced forecasts for the Kantō region and from 1955 for the whole of Japan excepting Okinawa and the Amami Islands. From 2010, the Agency left forecasting to the private sector although it continues to observe and determine the impact of the climate upon the flowering of the cherry. The forecast is based on the Arrhenius equation, with the formula \text = \exp\left .5 \times 10^3 \cdot \frac\right where ''T'' is the mean day temperature in kelvins, and DTS represents the number of days transformed to sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sake
Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asian rice wine (such as huangjiu and cheongju), is produced by a brewing process more akin to that of beer, where starch is converted into sugars which ferment into alcohol, whereas in wine, alcohol is produced by fermenting sugar that is naturally present in fruit, typically grapes. The brewing process for sake differs from the process for beer, where the conversion from starch to sugar and then from sugar to alcohol occurs in two distinct steps. Like other rice wines, when sake is brewed, these conversions occur simultaneously. The alcohol content differs between sake, wine, and beer; while most beer contains 3–9% ABV, wine generally contains 9–16% ABV, and undiluted sake contains 18–20% ABV (although this is o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Japan Times
''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by Motosada Zumoto on 22 March 1897, with the goal of giving Japanese people an opportunity to read and discuss news and current events in English to help Japan to participate in the international community. The newspaper was independent of government control, but from 1931 onward, the paper's editors experienced mounting pressure from the Japanese government to submit to its policies. In 1933, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs appointed Hitoshi Ashida, former ministry official, as chief editor. During World War II, the newspaper served as an outlet for Imperial Japanese government communication and editorial opinion. It was successively renamed ''The Japan Times and Mail'' (1918–1940) following its merger with ''The Japan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wisteria
''Wisteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae), that includes ten species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and north of Iran. They were later introduced to France, Germany and various other countries in Europe. Some species are popular ornamental plants. The aquatic flowering plant commonly called wisteria or 'water wisteria' is in fact '' Hygrophila difformis'', in the family Acanthaceae. Etymology The botanist Thomas Nuttall said he named the genus ''Wisteria'' in memory of the American physician and anatomist Caspar Wistar (1761–1818). Both men were living in Philadelphia at the time, where Wistar was a professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Questioned about the spelling later, Nuttall said it was for "euphony", but his biographer speculated that it may have something to do with Nuttall's friend Charles Jones Wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kami
are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the spirits of venerated dead people. Many ''kami'' are considered the ancient ancestors of entire clans (some ancestors became ''kami'' upon their death if they were able to embody the values and virtues of ''kami'' in life). Traditionally, great leaders like the Emperor could be or became ''kami''. In Shinto, ''kami'' are not separate from nature, but are of nature, possessing positive and negative, and good and evil characteristics. They are manifestations of , the interconnecting energy of the universe, and are considered exemplary of what humanity should strive towards. ''Kami'' are believed to be "hidden" from this world, and inhabit a complementary existence that mirrors our own: . To be in harmony with the awe-inspiring aspects of na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castle Himeji Sakura02
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; from a ''pleasance'' which was a walled-in residence for nobility, but not adequately fortified; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Use of the term has varied over time and has also been applied to structures such as hill forts and 19th-20th century homes built to resemble castles. Over the approximately 900 years when genuine castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls, arrowslits, and portcullises, were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emperor Saga
was the 52nd emperor of Japan, Emperor Saga, Saganoyamanoe Imperial Mausoleum, Imperial Household Agency according to the traditional order of succession. Saga's reign spanned the years from 809 through 823. Traditional narrative Saga was the second son of Emperor Kanmu and Fujiwara no Otomuro. Brown and Ishida, p. 280. His personal name was . Saga was an "accomplished calligrapher" able to compose in Chinese who held the first imperial poetry competitions (). According to legend, he was the first Japanese emperor to drink tea. Saga is traditionally venerated at his tomb; the Imperial Household Agency designates , in Ukyō-ku, Kyoto, as the location of Saga's mausoleum. Events of Saga's life * 806 Saga became the crown prince at age 21. * June 17, 809 (): In the 4th year of Emperor Heizei's reign, he fell ill and abdicated; and the succession (''senso'') was received by Kanmu's second son Saga, the eldest son having become a Buddhist priest. Shortly thereafter, Emperor Sag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japan Times
''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by Motosada Zumoto on 22 March 1897, with the goal of giving Japanese people an opportunity to read and discuss news and current events in English to help Japan to participate in the international community. The newspaper was independent of government control, but from 1931 onward, the paper's editors experienced mounting pressure from the Japanese government to submit to its policies. In 1933, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs appointed Hitoshi Ashida, former ministry official, as chief editor. During World War II, the newspaper served as an outlet for Imperial Japanese government communication and editorial opinion. It was successively renamed ''The Japan Times and Mail'' (1918–1940) following its merger with ''The Japan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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