Nivkh peopleThe Nivkh, or Gilyak (also Nivkhs or Nivkhi, or Gilyaks; ethnonym: Нивхгу, Nʼivxgu (Amur) or Ниғвңгун, Nʼiɣvŋgun (E. Sakhalin) "the people"), are an indigenous ethnic group inhabiting the northern half of Sakhalin Island and the lower Amur River and coast on the adjacent Russian mainland and historically possibly parts of Manchuria. Nivkh were traditionally fishermen, hunters, and dog breeders. They were semi-nomadic, living near the coasts in the summer and wintering inland along streams and rivers to catch salmon.
Yamato-damashiior Yamato-gokoro is a Japanese language term for the cultural values and characteristics of the Japanese people. The phrase was coined in the Heian period to describe the indigenous Japanese 'spirit' or cultural values as opposed to cultural values of foreign nations such as those identified through contact with Tang dynasty China. Later, a qualitative contrast between Japanese and Chinese spirit was elicited from the term. Edo period writers and samurai used it to augment and support the Bushido concept of honor and valor.
Shinto shrineA Shinto shrine is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, the deities of the Shinto religion. The honden (本殿, meaning: "main hall") is where a shrine's patron kami is/are enshrined. The honden may be absent in cases where a shrine stands on or near a sacred mountain, tree, or other object which can be worshipped directly or in cases where a shrine possesses either an altar-like structure, called a himorogi, or an object believed to be capable of attracting spirits, called a yorishiro, which can also serve as direct bonds to a kami.
Nihonjinronis a genre of texts that focus on issues of Japanese national and cultural identity. The concept became popular after World War II, with books and articles aiming to analyze, explain, or explore peculiarities of Japanese culture and mentality, usually by comparison with those of Europe and North America. The literature is vast, ranging over such varied fields as sociology, psychology, anthropology, history, linguistics, philosophy, biology, chemistry and physics so in addition to the common generic word nihonjinron, a variety of topical subgenres exist, divided up by specific theme or subject-matter.
Ainu peopleThe Ainu are an indigenous people of the lands surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, including Hokkaido Island, Northeast Honshu Island, Sakhalin Island, the Kuril Islands, the Kamchatka Peninsula, and Khabarovsk Krai, since before the arrival of the Yamato Japanese and Russians. These regions are referred to as Ezo in historical Japanese texts. Official estimates place the total Ainu population of Japan at 25,000.
Ryukyuan peopleThe Ryukyuan people (Ruuchuu minzuku or Duuchuu minzuku, Ryūkyū minzoku, also Lewchewan or Loochooan) are a Japonic-speaking East Asian ethnic group native to the Ryukyu Islands, which stretch between the islands of Kyushu and Taiwan. Administratively, they live in either the Okinawa Prefecture or the Kagoshima Prefecture within Japan. They speak one of the Ryukyuan languages, considered to be one of the two branches of the Japonic language family, the other being Japanese and its dialects.
Japanese nameJapanese names in modern times consist of a family name (surname) followed by a given name. Nevertheless, when a Japanese name is written in the Roman alphabet, ever since the Meiji era, the official policy has been to reverse the order. , the government has stated its intention to change this policy. Japanese names are usually written in kanji.
Yamato Provincewas a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. It was also called Washū. Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 "Wa". At first, the name was written with one different character (大倭), but due to its offensive connotation, for about ten years after 737, this was revised to use more desirable characters (大養徳) (see Names of Japan). The final revision was made in the second year of the Tenpyō-hōji era (c. 758). It is classified as a great province in the Engishiki.
Sapporo(Satporopet) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city in Japan. It is the capital city of Hokkaido Prefecture and Ishikari Subprefecture. Sapporo lies in the southwest of Hokkaido, within the alluvial fan of the Toyohira River, which is a tributary stream of the Ishikari. It is considered the cultural, economic, and political center of Hokkaido.
YamataiYamatai or Yamatai-koku 邪馬台国 (c. 1st century – c. 3rd century) is the Sino-Japanese name of an ancient country in Wa (Japan) during the late Yayoi period (c. 1,000 BCE – c. 300 CE). The Chinese text Records of the Three Kingdoms first recorded the name as /*ja-maB-də̂/ () or /*ja-maB-ʔit/ () (using reconstructed Eastern Han Chinese pronunciations) followed by the character for "country", describing the place as the domain of Priest-Queen Himiko (died c. 248 CE).
