Japan History & Culture – Page 10 – Mark Bere Peterson’s Counterculture, Urban Legends, Paganism & Witchcraft

Setsubun (節分)

Japan History & Culture, Japanese Holidays

Setsubun is a Japanese holiday which takes place the day before Spring in Japan (the next one will be the 2nd of Feburary 2021). On this holiday, the Japanese believe that the spirit world is closest to our world. One activity during the holiday is called mamemaki, this is where the children are given the opportunity to scare the demons out of their house. During mamemaki, a parent will put on an oni mask to represent the demons and they scare their children. The children then fend off the demons by throwing soy beans (mame)! This is still a popular Japanese tradition in the household, but many people attend a shrine or temple where mamemaki takes place as part of their spring festival.

As mentioned the name Setsubun literally means ‘seasonal division’, but usually the term refers to the spring Setsubun, properly called Risshun (立春) celebrated yearly on February 2nd as part of the Spring Festival (春祭, haru matsuri). In its association with the Lunar New Year, spring Setsubun can be and was previously thought of as a sort of New Year’s Eve, and so was accompanied by a special ritual to cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come. This special ritual is called mamemaki (豆撒き, “bean scattering”). Setsubun has its origins in tsuina (追儺), a Chinese custom introduced to Japan in the eighth century.

Around the 13th century it became a custom to drive away evil spirits by the strong smell of burning dried sardine heads, the smoke of burning wood and the noise of drums. While this custom is not popular anymore, a few people still decorate their house entrances with fish heads and holly tree leaves in order to deter evil spirits from entering.

In modern days, the most commonly performed setsubun ritual is the throwing of roasted beans around one’s house and at temples and shrines across the country. When throwing the beans, you are supposed to shout “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” (“Devils out, happiness in”). Afterwards you should pick up and eat the number of beans, which corresponds to your age.

Another widespread custom is the eating of Eho-maki (fortune rolls) which are futo-maki (thick sushi rolls) eaten on the night of Setsubun. Eho-maki is the staple of Setsubun joy and is a tradition that is said to have long been handed down mainly in the Kansai area. In recent years, this sushi roll is popular not just in Kansai but throughout all of Japan and the number of people making their own ehomaki from their favorite recipes is increasing. One is supposed to eat the roll without talking, while facing the lucky direction of the year.

As all traditional festivals, setsubun is celebrated in many variations throughout the country.

Dondo Yaki (どんど焼き)

Japan History & Culture, Japanese Holidays

In Japan, it’s considered unlucky to keep lucky items for more than a year. Instead of putting items in the bin, the lucky objects are traditionally burned and this is known as Dondo Yaki. Things that should be burned include omamori and items with that year’s zodiac sign. 2020’s zodiac sign is the mouse. Dondo Yaki takes place in January, so if you’re still hanging onto last year’s lucky charm, it may be time for a bonfire and to purchase a new one.

Wishing for good health and success in business in the new year with a bonfire flaming up, smoke soaring up high into the sky, and the sound of bamboo cracking. “Dondo-Yaki” is a traditional event in Japan. People build a tower with green bamboo, Japanese cedar, straw and reeds in an open area such as the grounds of a temple, a riverbed, rice field or other crop field and burn New Year decorations and Kakizome (the first calligraphy writing done at the beginning of the New Year) together with it. There is also a custom where good-luck charms, talismans and other lucky charms from last year are burned in thanks for the good luck they brought in the past year.

“School” Vocabulary

Hiragana, Japan History & Culture, Kanji, Katakana

The challenges and difficulties of learning a new language are many and with Japanese even more so with its three separate sets of characters (hiragana, katakana and kanji), but I find it absolutely fascinating and look forward to my study time each day. This was one of my early vocabulary lists when I first started studying Japanese:

人【ひと】 – person
アメリカ人　【アメリカ・じん】 – American (person)
フランス人　【フランス・じん】 – French (person)
日本【に・ほん】 – Japan
本【ほん】 – book
学生【がく・せい】 – student
先生【せん・せい】 – teacher
高い【たか・い】 – tall; expensive
学校【がっ・こう】 – school
高校【こう・こう】 – high school
小さい【ちい・さい】 – small
大きい【おお・きい】 – big
小学校【しょう・がっ・こう】 – elementary school
中学校【ちゅう・がっ・こう】 – middle school
大学【だい・がく】 – college; university
中学生【ちゅう・がく・せい】 – middle school student
大学生【だい・がく・せい】 – college; university student
国【くに】 – country
中国【ちゅう・ごく】 – China
中国人【ちゅう・ごく・じん】 – Chinese (person)
日本語【に・ほん・ご】 – Japanese language
中国語【ちゅう・ごく・ご】 – Chinese language
英語【えい・ご】 – English
フランス語【フランス・ご】 – French
スペイン語【スペイン・ご】 – Spanish
大学生【だい・がく・せい】 – college student
社会人【しゃ・かい・じん】 – working adult
中国【ちゅう・ごく】 – China
韓国【かん・こく】 – South Korea
カナダ – Canada
イギリス – England
オーストラリア – Australia
フランス – France
スペイン – Spain
ブラジル – Brazil
メキシコ – Mexico

Kanji: An Introduction

Japan History & Culture, Kanji

The most notorious aspect of the Japanese written language is Kanji, which are Chinese characters adapted for Japanese. Most words in Japanese are written in Kanji even though they are still pronounced with the Japanese phonetic sounds represented by Hiragana and Katakana which I explained in earlier posts.

Stroke Order:

When beginning to learn Kanji, it is paramount to learn it with the proper stroke order and direction from the beginning in order to avoid developing bad habits. Many Japanese learners think that stroke order doesn’t matter as long as the end product looks the same. They are misguided. What they don’t realize is that there are thousands of characters and they are not always meticulously written the way they appear in print. Proper stroke order helps ensure the characters look recognizable even when you write them quickly.

The simplest characters called radicals are often reused as components in larger characters. Once you learn the radical stroke order and get accustomed to the patterns, you will find that it’s not difficult to figure out the correct stroke order for most Kanji. A few radicals are displayed below and hopefully illustrate learning radicals stroke order and use in more complex, but related words.

A general rule is that strokes usually start from the top-left corner toward the bottom-right. This means that horizontal strokes are generally written from left to right and vertical strokes are written from top to bottom. If you’re ever not sure about the stroke order, you should always verify by looking the character up in a Kanji dictionary.

Vocabulary:

There are about 2,000 characters used in modern Japanese so memorizing them one-by-one as you might for such as when learning Hiragana and Katakana isn’t feasible for most of us.

An effective strategy is learning them with new vocabulary within a broader context. In this way we can associate contextual information with the character in order to reinforce memory. Remember that Kanji, ultimately, is used to represent actual words. So it is important to focus not so much on the characters themselves but the words and vocabulary that include those characters.

Kanji Readings:

The sample Kanji we will learn is “人” which is the character for ‘person.’ It is a simple two-stroke character where each stroke starts at the top. You may have noticed that the character as rendered by the font is not always the same as the hand-written which is another important reason to check the stroke order.

Definition: person

Kun-yomi: ひと

On-yomi: ジン

Kanji in Japanese can have one or several readings. The reading for Kanji is split into two major categories called kun-yomi and on-yomi. Kun-yomi is the Japanese reading of the character while on-yomi is based on the original Chinese pronunciation.

Generally, Kun-yomi is used for words that only use one character. The actual word for “person” is one example. Kun-yomi is also used for native Japanese words including most adjectives and verbs.

On-yomi, on the other hand, is mostly used for words that originate from Chinese, which often use 2 or more Kanji. For that reason, on-yomi is often written in Katakana.

While most characters will not have multiple kun-yomi or on-yomi, the more common characters such as “人” will generally have a lot more readings. Learning a reading without context within vocabulary will only create confusion!

Katakana: Voiced Consonants and Other Sounds

Japan History & Culture, Katakana

Though I covered in an earlier post all the distinct characters in Katakana there are still a few additional variations and sounds that still remain.

Voiced Consonants

Voiced consonants are consonant sounds that require creating a vibration in your throat. A number of consonant sounds in Katakana can be changed to their voiced counterpart by adding two small dashes to the upper-right corner of the character; namely the “k”, “s”, “t”, and “h” consonant sounds. There is also a semi-voiced consonant sound “p”, which is created by putting a small circle in the upper-right corner of the “h” characters.

Y-vowel sounds

A consonant can precede the three y-sounds: (ャ), (ュ ) or (ョ). This is done by attaching a small, half-size version of the y-sounds to the consonant+i sounds as you can see in the table below.

Hard Consonant Sounds

While no single letter ends in a consonant sound except (ん), Japanese does have a way to carry over the next consonant sound back with a small (つ). This can be used with the consonants “p, k, t, s” to create a hard stop.

The Long Vowel Sound

Long vowel sounds in Katakana are much easier. You simply need to use a dash: 「ー」.

• ツアー (tsu-a) —> tour

• メール (me-ru) —> email

• ケーキ (ke-ki) —> cake

Additional Katakana Sounds

(ふ) is the only sound that is pronounced with a “f” sound, for example:

ふとん —> futon

ふじ —> Fuji

That’s fine in Japanese because there are no words with other “f” sounds. It’s a problem when converting foreign words such as “fork” into Katakana. This problem was solved by using small vowel sounds. For example, the small (ォ) can be attached to (フ) to create (フォ)

“Fork” becomes (フォーク).

There are other gaps that are filled with this technique. The “v” sounds are also expressed by putting two dashes to the vowel sounds. However, “v” sounds are rarely used due to the difficulty native Japanese speakers have in pronouncing them.

The following table shows the gaps that were filled using these techniques for Katakana.

Some example words in katakana:

Katakana: An Introduction

Japan History & Culture, Katakana

Katakana represents the same phonetic sounds as hiragana except all the symbols are different.

In modern Japanese, katakana is most often used for transcription of words from foreign languages (other than words historically imported from Chinese).

Due to the straight lines and relatively few strokes, there are many characters in Katakana that look very similar.

A simplified chart without stroke order is shown below:

Here are a few samples of foreign words using katakana:

アメリカ –> America

ロシア –> Russia

バス –> Bus

バイク –> Motorcycle

フライドポテト –> French Fries (technically “fried potatoes”)

Practice writing the katakana characters to help commit them to memory. You can do this on a blank sheet of paper or here are some easy practice sheets you can print out below. Make sure you practice the proper stroke order. It will be helpful to get in the practice before moving on to the more complex Kanji.

Practice Sheets: http://japanese-lesson.com/characters/katakana/katakana_writing.html

Hiragana: Voiced Consonants and Other Sounds

Hiragana, Japan History & Culture

Though I covered in an earlier post all the distinct characters in Hiragana there are still a few additional variations and sounds that still remain.

Voiced Consonants

Voiced consonants are consonant sounds that require creating a vibration in your throat. A number of consonant sounds in Hiragana can be changed to their voiced counterpart by adding two small dashes to the upper-right corner of the character; namely the “k”, “s”, “t”, and “h” consonant sounds. There is also a semi-voiced consonant sound “p”, which is created by putting a small circle in the upper-right corner of the “h” characters.

Y-vowel sounds

A consonant can precede the three y-sounds: (や), (ゆ), and (よ). This is done by attaching a small, half-size version of the y-sounds to the consonant+i sounds as you can see in the table below.

Hard Consonant Sounds

ひと —> meaning “person“. It would normally be read as “hi-to”.

However, by adding a small (つ) the “t” consonant sound is carried back

ひっと —> meaning “hit”. It would be read “hit-to”.

The Long Vowel Sound

Finally we have the long vowel sound which is simply extending the duration of a vowel sound. You can extend the vowel sound of a character by adding either (あ), (い), or (う) depending on the vowel. See the following chart:

It’s important to make sure you hold the vowel sound to the full length of both characters because there are many similar words that are only different by the length of the vowel. An example:

ここ –> “here”

こうこう –> “High school”

Hiragana: An Introduction

Hiragana, Japan History & Culture

Hiragana is the main phonetic writing system in Japanese used to represent every distinct sound.

The table represents the entire Hiragana characters organized by the consonant and vowel sounds. Most sounds in Japanese are easily represented by a vowel or consonant-vowel, “chi,” “shi,” “fu,” and “tsu” are the only exceptions as shown in the chart. There is also one consonant-only sound: “ん”. The above chart also shows the stroke order for Hiragana.

A simplified chart without stroke order is shown below:

Here are a few sample words in Hiragana:

あう —> to meet

いえ —> house

おい —> nephew

うえ —> above

いう —> to say

Practice writing the hiragana characters to help commit them to memory. You can do this on a blank sheet of paper or here are some easy practice sheets you can print out below. Make sure you practice the proper stroke order. It will be helpful to get in the practice before moving on to the more complex Kanji.

Practice sheets: http://japanese-lesson.com/characters/hiragana/hiragana_writing.html

What constitutes a traditional Japanese craft?

Art, Japan History & Culture

According to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry’s (now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) “Traditional Craft Industry Promotion Act” of 1974, traditional Japanese crafts must meet the following criteria:

1. The craft must be intended for use in daily life
2. The main components of the craft must be hand crafted
3. The craft must be crafted using traditional methods and techniques
4. The main materials used must be the same materials that were traditionally used to make the craft
5. A significant number of businesses in a specific region must produce or be engaged in the process of production of the craft

Origami: A Primer

Art, Japan History & Culture

Origami (折り紙) from ori meaning “folding”, and kami meaning “paper” (kami changes to gami) is the art of paper folding. In modern usage, the word “origami” is used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of paper into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques. Modern origami practitioners generally discourage the use of cuts, glue, or markings on the paper. Origami folders often use the Japanese word kirigami to refer to designs which use cuts.

Five common Japanese designs and their meaning:

Butterfly (Chocho)
Butterflies are a common symbol in Japanese culture to represent young girls. Just as caterpillars undergo metamorphosis to become butterflies, young girls begin to come into their own and become more confident and beautiful as they mature. Two butterflies flying together are also seen as a symbol for a happy marriage, as one butterfly represents the husband and the other represents the wife. Their carefree and happy nature reflects what the ideal marriage should be.

Crane (Tsuru)
In Japanese folklore, cranes are said to live a thousand years. Because of this, an origami crane represents a long, healthy life. Cranes are also viewed as symbols of happiness, and good luck. According to legend, if one thousand paper cranes are folded, it is said that one’s wish will be granted. After the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the origami crane also became a symbol of peace and nonviolence.

Fish (Sakana)
Fish are generally seen as symbols of happiness, good health, and well-being. Due to the fact that fish are able to roam the oceans as they please, they are also symbols of freedom. One Japanese legend tells of a carp that swam up a huge, powerful waterfall and into the sky to become a dragon. Because of this, fish have come to represent the strength, perseverance, and determination it takes to swim against the current.

Frog (Kaeru)
The frog has long been seen as a symbol of good fortune in Japanese culture. It is a common tradition to carry a small frog figurine in the bottom of ones coin purse or wallet to insure that even when money is spent, it will come back to you. Frogs are also often carried by people during their travels to insure that that person will return home safely.

Rabbit (Usagi)
As in many other cultures, the rabbit is viewed as a symbol of fertility and reproduction. It is also associated with the coming of spring and the metaphorical rebirth of the world. In Japanese lore, the rabbit is often portrayed as mischievous and tricky, often playing pranks or fooling others to obtain his goal.