TantōA 短刀 is one of the traditionally made Japanese swords (nihonto) that were worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan. The tantō dates to the Heian period, when it was mainly used as a weapon but evolved in design over the years to become more ornate. Tantō were used in traditional martial arts (tantojutsu). The term has seen a resurgence in the West since the 1980s as a point style of modern tactical knives, designed for piercing or stabbing. The tantō is a single or double edged dagger with a length between (1 Japanese shaku).
Budōis a Japanese term describing modern Japanese martial arts. Literally translated it means the "Martial Way", and may be thought of as the "Way of War" or the "Way of Martial Arts". Budō is a compound of the root bu (武:ぶ), meaning "war" or "martial"; and dō (道:どう; dào in Chinese), meaning "path" or "way" (including the ancient Indic Dharmic and Buddhist conception of "path", or mārga in Sanskrit). Budō is the idea of formulating propositions, subjecting them to philosophical critique and then following a "path" to realize them.
Shimabara RebellionThe Shimabara Rebellion, also known as the Shimabara-Amakusa Rebellion or 島原・天草一揆, was an uprising that occurred in the Shimabara Domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan from 17 December 1637 to 15 April 1638. Matsukura Katsuie, the daimyō of the Shimabara Domain, enforced unpopular policies set by his father Matsukura Shigemasa that drastically raised taxes to construct the new Shimabara Castle and violently prohibited Christianity.
JidaigekiJidaigeki is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", they are most often set during the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some are set much earlier—Portrait of Hell, for example, is set during the late Heian period—and the early Meiji era is also a popular setting. Jidaigeki show the lives of the samurai, farmers, craftsmen, and merchants of their time. Jidaigeki films are sometimes referred to as chambara movies, a word meaning "sword fight", though chambara is more accurately a subgenre of jidaigeki.
Sonnō jōi尊王攘夷 was a yojijukugo (four-character compound) phrase used as the rallying cry and slogan of a political movement in Japan in the 1850s and 1860s during the Bakumatsu period. Based on Neo-Confucianism and Japanese nativism, the movement sought to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate and restore the power of the Emperor of Japan. During the Spring and Autumn period of China, Chancellor Guan Zhong of Qi initiated a policy known as Zunwang Rangyi (尊王攘夷 ; lit. "Revere the King, Expel the Barbarians"), in reference to the Zhou kings.
YabusameYabusame is a type of mounted archery in traditional Japanese archery. An archer on a running horse shoots three special "turnip-headed" arrows successively at three wooden targets. This style of archery has its origins at the beginning of the Kamakura period. Minamoto no Yoritomo became alarmed at the lack of archery skills his samurai possessed. He organized yabusame as a form of practice. Nowadays, the best places to see yabusame performed are at the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū in Kamakura and Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto (during Aoi Matsuri in early May).
Japanese sword mountingsJapanese sword mountings are the various housings and associated fittings () that hold the blade of a Japanese sword when it is being worn or stored. 拵え refers to the ornate mountings of a Japanese sword (e.g. katana) used when the sword blade is being worn by its owner, whereas the is a plain undecorated wooden mounting composed of a and that the sword blade is stored in when not being used. Fuchi: The is a hilt collar between the and the .
BonsaiBonsai (, boɰ̃sai) is the Japanese and East Asian art of growing and training miniature trees in containers, developed from the traditional Chinese art form of penjing (盆景). Penjing and bonsai differ in that the former attempts to display "wilder," more naturalistic scenes, often representing landscapes, including elements such as water, rocks, or figurines; on the other hand, bonsai typically focuses on a single tree or a group of trees of the same species, with a higher level of aesthetic refinement.
Nippo JishoThe literally the "Japanese–Portuguese Dictionary" or Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam (Vocabulário da Língua do Japão in modern Portuguese; "Vocabulary of the Language of Japan" in English) is a Japanese to Portuguese dictionary compiled by Jesuit missionaries and published in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1603. Containing entries for 32,293 Japanese words with explanations in Portuguese, it was the first dictionary of Japanese to a European language. The original publication uses the Latin alphabet exclusively, without Japanese characters.
Kamikaze (typhoon)The kamikaze (神風, divine wind) were two winds or storms that are said to have saved Japan from two Mongol fleets under Kublai Khan. These fleets attacked Japan in 1274 and again in 1281. Due to the growth of Zen Buddhism among Samurai at the time, these were the first events where the typhoons were described as "divine wind" as much by their timing as by their force. Since Man'yōshū, the word kamikaze has been used as a Makurakotoba of waka introducing Ise Grand Shrine.
