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Wasan
''Wasan'' (和讃) are a type of Japanese Buddhist hymn composed in native Japanese language (''wago''). The word is meant to distinguish ''Japanese'' hymns from those composed in Sanskrit (''bonsan'' 梵讃) or Chinese (''kansan'' 漢讃). These works sing of the teachings and deeds of buddhas, bodhisattvas and ' (the founders of schools of monks). They are composed in verses of alternating seven and five syllables, with each hymn consisting of four or more such verses. They were composed from the addition of a melody to a Buddhist service (法会 ''hōe'') or teaching (教化 ''kyōke''), and became popular starting in the Heian period. These hymns in colloquial Japanese played an important part in the spread of Buddhism throughout Japan and among the members of the lower classes. The '' Fusō Ryakki'' includes a hymn composed by Gyōki extolling the virtues of the Buddhist ''dharma'', which is a valuable tool for understanding the function of ''wasan''. ''Wasan'' fell out of popu ...
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Japanese Buddhism
Buddhism was first established in Japan in the 6th century CE. Most of the Japanese Buddhists belong to new schools of Buddhism which were established in the Kamakura period (1185-1333). During the Edo period (1603–1868), Buddhism was controlled by the feudal Shogunate. The Meiji period (1868–1912) saw a strong response against Buddhism, with persecution and a forced separation between Buddhism and Shinto ('' Shinbutsu bunri''). The largest sects of Japanese Buddhism are Pure Land Buddhism with 22 million believers, followed by Nichiren Buddhism with 10 million believers, Shingon Buddhism with 5.4 million, Zen Buddhism with 5.3 million, Tendai Buddhism with 2.8 million, and only about 700,000 for the six old schools established in the Nara period (710-794). History Early Buddhism (5th-13th century) Arrival and initial spread of Buddhism Originating in India, Buddhism arrived in Japan by first making its way to China and Korea through the Silk Road and then tr ...
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Edo Period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characterized by prolonged peace and stability, urbanization and economic growth, strict social order, Isolationism, isolationist foreign policies, and popular enjoyment of Japanese art, arts and Culture of Japan, culture. In 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu prevailed at the Battle of Sekigahara and established hegemony over most of Japan, and in 1603 was given the title ''shogun'' by Emperor Go-Yōzei. Ieyasu resigned two years later in favor of his son Tokugawa Hidetada, Hidetada, but maintained power, and defeated the primary rival to his authority, Toyotomi Hideyori, at the Siege of Osaka in 1615 before his death the next year. Peace generally prevailed from this point on, making samurai largely redundant. Tokugawa sh ...
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Buddhist Poetry
Buddhist poetry is a genre of literature that forms a part of Buddhist discourse. Origins The first examples of Buddhist poetry can be found in traditional scriptures such as the ''Dhammapada'', according to which, Siddhārtha Gautama (the founder of Buddhism), upon his reaching enlightenment, proclaimed: Form Traditionally, most Buddhist sutras have a prose component supplemented by verses (known as ''gatha'') that reiterate and poetically summarize the themes of preceding prose passages. Gatha functions as a mnemonic device helping the Buddhist practitioner commit to memory a certain doctrinal maxim. And in fact, the earliest extant forms of Buddhist discourse appear in verse, which is hardly surprising, considering that the texts were not originally written, but memorized. Linguistic analysis shows that the prose component of the sutras is likely to have been modified by later editing, while the poems often contain earlier forms of language. This view is confirmed by Japan ...
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Heibonsha
Heibonsha (平凡社) is a Japanese publishing company based in Tokyo, which publishes encyclopedias, dictionaries and books in the fields of science and philosophy. Since 1945 it has also published books on art and literature."Heibonsha, Ltd, Publishers" (entry)
in: ''Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia'', Tokyo and New York, N.Y.: Kodansha, 1993, vol. 1, p. 521. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
Similarly to the Iwanami Shoten and the Chikuma Shobō publishing houses, its publishing program is directed primarily at an academic audience and features well-illustrated publications.Yasuko ...
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Shogakukan
is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hitotsubashi Group, one of the largest publishing groups in Japan and the world. Shogakukan is headquartered in the Shogakukan Building in Hitotsubashi, part of Kanda, Chiyoda, Tokyo, near the Jimbocho book district. The corporation also has the other two companies located in the same ward. International operations In the United States Shogakukan, along with Shueisha, owns Viz Media, which publishes manga from both companies in the United States. Shogakukan's licensing arm in North America was ShoPro Entertainment; it was merged into Viz Media in 2005. Shogakukan's production arm is Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions (previously Shogakukan Productions Co., Ltd.) In March 2010 it was announced that Shogakuka ...
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Encyclopedia Nipponica
The is a discontinued series of encyclopedia of Japan and the Japanese people, first published by Shogakukan from 1984 to 1989 in 25 volumes. After 10 years of preparation, over 130,000 entries and 500,000 indexes were organized in alphabetical order in more than 23,000 pages. The most recent version, 1994, has 26 volumes, including the separate volumes of indexes and an auxiliary. The encyclopedia is currently out of print. Shogakukan and Heibonsha When it was founded in 1922, Shogakukan specialized in study books and magazines for elementary school students. According to its websites, published in 1962 was the first encyclopedia from Shogakukan. Since then, Shogakukan has continuously published encyclopedias: in 1965, in 1967, in 1970, and in 1972 among others. Shogakukan's ''Encyclopedia Nipponica'' has been one of the major Japanese encyclopedias. The other major encyclopedia, '' World Encyclopedia'' (), was published from Heibonsha. Since the foundation in 1914, Heibonsh ...
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Waka (poetry)
is a type of poetry in classical Japanese literature. Although ''waka'' in modern Japanese is written as , in the past it was also written as (see Wa (Japan), Wa, an old name for Japan), and a variant name is . Etymology The word ''waka'' has two different but related meanings: the original meaning was "poetry in Japanese" and encompassed several genres such as ''chōka'' and ''sedōka'' (discussed below); the later, more common definition refers to poetry in a tanka, 5-7-5-7-7 metre. Up to and during the compilation of the in the eighth century, the word ''waka'' was a general term for poetry composed in Japanese, and included several genres such as , , and . However, by the time of the ''Kokinshūs compilation at the beginning of the tenth century, all of these forms except for the ''tanka'' and ''chōka'' had effectively gone extinct, and ''chōka'' had significantly diminished in prominence. As a result, the word ''waka'' became effectively synonymous with ''tanka'', and t ...
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Dharma
Dharma (; , ) is a key concept in various Indian religions. The term ''dharma'' does not have a single, clear Untranslatability, translation and conveys a multifaceted idea. Etymologically, it comes from the Sanskrit ''dhr-'', meaning ''to hold'' or ''to support'', thus referring to law that sustains things—from one's life to society, and to the Universe at large. In its most commonly used sense, dharma refers to an individual's moral responsibilities or duties; the dharma of a farmer differs from the dharma of a soldier, thus making the concept of dharma a varying dynamic. As with the other components of the Puruṣārtha, the concept of ''dharma'' is pan-Indian. The antonym of dharma is ''adharma''. In Hinduism, ''dharma'' denotes behaviour that is considered to be in accord with ''Ṛta''—the "order and custom" that makes life and universe possible. This includes duties, rights, laws, conduct, virtues and "right way of living" according to the stage of life or social posi ...
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Wago
are native Japanese words, meaning those words in Japanese that have been inherited from Old Japanese, rather than being borrowed at some stage. Together with kango () and gairaigo (), they form one of the three main sources of Japanese words (there is also elaborate Japanese sound symbolism, of mimetic origin). They are also known as .Shibatani, Masayoshi''The Languages of Japan (Section 7.2 "Loan words", p.142) Cambridge University Press, 1990. The word "yamato kotoba" itself is composed of native Japanese words, and hence is an autological word. The synonym ''wago'' is instead a kango, and hence a heterological word. Lexical function Yamato kotoba form a fundamental part of the Japanese lexicon, similar to native words (from Old English) in English – while borrowed words are used for many technical terms (particularly kango, as with Latin and Greek in English), or for modern or stylish purposes (mostly gairaigo, as with French in English), much of the core vocabulary ...
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Gyōki
was a Japanese Buddhist priest of the Nara period, born in Ōtori county, Kawachi Province (now Sakai, Osaka), the son of Koshi no Saichi. According to one theory, one of his ancestors was of Korean descent. Gyōki became a monk at Asuka-dera, a temple in Nara, at the age of 15 and studied under Dōshō as one of his first pupils. Gyōki studied Yogachara (唯識), a core doctrine of Hosso, at Yakushi-ji. In 704, he returned to his birthplace to make his home into a temple, then started to travel around Japan to preach to commoners and help the poor. He formed a volunteer group to help the poor mainly in the Kansai region, building 49 monasteries and nunneries that also functioned as hospitals for the poor. Gyōki and his followers roamed the countryside, teaching common people about Buddhism, building temples that were more like community centers and organizing irrigation and other public works projects. Since regulations at the time strictly prohibited activities by ...
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Fusō Ryakki
Fuso or Fusō may refer to: * Fusō is the Japanese pronunciation of the word Fusang (扶桑), an ancient naming for Japan. * , an ironclad warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy that fought in the Battle of Yalu River * , lead ship of the ''Fusō'' class ** , a class of two battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy that fought in World War II * Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC), or one of the company's brands of truck * Mitsubishi Fuso Truck of America, Inc., a subsidiary of MFTBC * Fusō, Aichi, a town in Japan * A line of semi-custom bicycle frames made by Dave Moulton * The real-world counterpart of Japan in the ''Strike Witches is a Japanese media mix franchise originally created by Fumikane Shimada via a series of magazine illustration columns. The illustrations have since inspired several official light novel, manga, and anime series and v ...
'' franchise, one of few countries spared from the Neuroi assault {{disambiguatio ...
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