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introduction about japan culture
japanese society and culture
japanese society and culture
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Cultural Traditions in Japan
I. Introduction
I never had the chance to experience other cultures in my younger years. I did not have much of a choice but to think of other cultures as they were portrayed in society, whether that be of a false image or that of a good one. Being a student at Saint Cloud State has given me the chance to experience the fascinating and, somewhat, bizarre world of other cultures. I have learned vast amounts of information about Japan and the Japanese people not just through my experiences with others in class, such as Thean or David, but through my studying and my interview with Itsuko, as well.
Japan was an active importer of culture during the period between the fifth and the ninth centuries (“Tradition and Culture.” 1). Japan’s culture came particularly from China and the Korean Peninsula. In many ways, the Japanese culture was influenced by the culture of other countries. Japan, however, did develop over the years and had a considerable influence on others as well.
According to Chitoshi Yanaga, in the 1870’s and 1880’s, as part of the national program of modernization, they tried to conceal or break the traditional concepts and attitudes of the Japanese (5). The concepts and attitudes were rooted deeply in the nation’s past but they tried to supersede by western ideas and ways of doing things. Ties of friendship, confidence, and mutual interest were kept during these times and continue today (Henning: 5). Japan has been very actively building friendly relations with foreign countries. Following World War II the Japanese lifestyle underwent a major transformation. Their traditional homes changed. They changed their lifestyles in accordance with more w...
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Henning, Joseph M. Outposts of Civilization. New York and London: New York
University Press, 2000.
“Japanese Custom and Traditions.” http://japan-guide.com (5 Dec 2003).
“Japanese Tradition and Ryokan.” http://www.seizanso.com/tradition-e.html
(8 Dec 2003).
Roland, Diana.“Your Japanese Business Card.”
http://www.linguist.com/text_files/services/JapaneseBC.htm (9 Dec. 2003).
Seidensticker, Edward G. “Social Life.” Key Aspects of Japan.
http:www.japanlink.co.jp/ka/syak1.htm (7 Dec. 2003).
“Tradition and Culture.” Japan International Network.
http://jin.jcic.or.jp/kidseb/japan/d.html (8 Dec. 2003).
Yanaga, Chitoshi. Japanese People and Politics. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
Inc., 1956.
Throughout the history of Literature, writing has become more complex. One will see the idea of revenge in many great pieces. If one were to take a glance at modern society you will see that vengeance and greed is destroying large communities over time, populations, and even entire civilizations. Revenge and greed has the power to turn a complete civil man into a total savage and Shakespeare showed the reader in one of his most popular fine works called Hamlet. Hamlet is dealing with a character who goes through a change from college student to a bloodthirsty character looking for vengeance. Even though the character loses sight of who he is and who he really avenging in the end he feels that he is complete. There is also another character who is being overwhelmed with greed that he would kill his own blood for the right of the crown and fortune. The reader’s will see that revenge and greed plays a main role and that they complement each other and Shakespeare would use this to his advantage when writing this play. Throughout the play readers will realize Shakespeare’s creativness to use vengeance, death and insanity to emotionally drive his characters to their death or to their prosperity.
From the animated mega city of Tokyo, to the serene zen gardens with rustic ponds home to the koi fish, Japan has a unique past, present, and future. The alcove ornament samurai houses called, shoin-zukuri are a symbol of the struggling past that Japan escaped. These samurai houses were training centers long ago of judo, sumo, and other martial arts. Lush trees envelope houses, and the religion Shintoism was developed back in 500 A.D. Paintings and drawings capture the grace and beauty the landscape portrays. The Japanese dragons reveal the legends held within themselves, many are associated with rainfall and the ability to reach peace. Seeking farther inland you witness the largest city in the world, Tokyo. Cars, buses, subway systems, taxis, and bicycles are buzzing through every street, going to and from work, quickly advancing technology.
Epistemology can be defined as the study of knowledge. It asks questions like, “What is knowledge?”, “Why is knowledge important?”, and “How do people gain knowledge?”. Through a lot of determination in searching for answers to these questions, epistemologists discovered that there is a lot of disagreement on such questions. Therefore, epistemologists categorized these answers in groups based on beliefs that they have about where knowledge comes from and what the limit of knowledge is. The main groups epistemologists formed are: rationalism, empiricism, and constructivism. In my opinion, the Kantian constructivism has the strongest view.
During the Meiji Restoration, Japan transformed into a strong industrialized nation by adopting the Western political, cultural, and technological ideas. Japan was the “only non-Western country to industrialize in the nineteenth century and that, moreover, she did so in an extremely short time” (Sugiyama 1). Japan’s social, political, and economic aspects were all affected by the Western technologies to transform Japan into an industrialized nation (Wittner 1). By adopting the Western ideas during the Meiji Restoration, Japan has turned into a powerful industrialized nation by becoming an “international political player in the 1880s” (Wittner 1).
In the east of Asia lies the sixty second largest country in the world, Japan. It has one of the strongest economies in the world. The Japanese is known for the unique clothing, food, hot springs and cherry blossoms. They have a unique way of life influenced by their culture. A culture would also influence how an advertisement would be illustrated when targeting a specific culture. The way the selling message is disseminated will be altered based on how a culture communicates with one another. This essay will be discussing how the Japanese culture can be captured through advertisements and how advertisements can be adjusted from an Asian audience to suit an American audience.
Mental illness can be defined as a variety of disorders within the brain that can affect an individual’s mood, way of thinking and behaviour. These illnesses are caused by biological, psychological and sociological influences. Mental illnesses have become more prominent throughout communities while the seeking for help or a cure has appeared to become less evident. In today’s society, mental illnesses are portrayed through various media platforms in a way that causes such a stigma around the illness that it affects those who suffer almost as much as the illness itself.
Not every single person that has been diagnosed with a mental disorder is an unlawful individual, drug addict, or danger to society. But sadly, that’s the stigma. The public fears people with mental illness. They think that anyone with a psychiatric disorder cannot be controlled. In an online blog post, Susan Blumenthal states, “many consider mental health problems to be the result of personal character flaws rather than real illnesses, like heart disease or diabetes” (Blumenthal, 2012). Family members often think that the diagnosed loved one is just “attention seeking” or that they “need to just get over it already.” When an unfortunate event happens in the world, such as a public shooting, immediately the public assumes that “they must have some type of psychotic
Mental disorder. These are two words that people in the society fear and turn a blind eye upon. In fact, society most of the time tends to ignore mental illness rather than try to understand it. This is exactly how society treated Aaron Alexis and his mental illness. Aaron Alexis was a 34-year-old government contractor and a former Navy reservist (Fox). He is known as the gunman who went on a shooting rampage at the Washington Navy Yard on September 16, 2013, leaving 12 men dead (Fox). Investigators later found that Alexis had psychological issues that he tried seeking help for before his outbreak. (Fox) The author of the article “An Avoidable Tragedy: Aaron Alexis and Mental Illness”, Andrew Solomon, explains some issues that could have led to the prevention of Alexis’s outbreak.
From the interactive oral presentation on the Japanese vs. Western Social norms, I have learned a tremendous amount on how Mishima incorporated traditional Japanese and western influences in the novel to portray the loss of traditional Japanese culture within the Japanese society.
“Those who plot the destruction of others often fall themselves” (Phaedrus). This quote was said by a Roman fabulist and it depicts the entire concept of revenge in Hamlet. The nature of revenge causes someone to act upon anger rather than reason. Hamlet takes place in Denmark and is about Hamlet’s uncle who kills his dad to gain power of Denmark. After the killing, Hamlet seeks revenge on his uncle. In the play, there are several characters wanting vengeance like that of Hamlet. Throughout the play, Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras all had a tragic death of a family member which caused their decision for revenge. Consequentially, these revenges caused the demise of two characters and the rise of power of another. The retaliation shown by the Prince of Denmark, as well as Laertes led to the downfall of their government.
Revenge almost always has the makings of an intriguing and tragic story. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a perfect example of how revenge unfolds and what it unveils. The play tells the story of Hamlet, the prince of Denmark. Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, marries his mother soon after his father’s death. Hamlet greatly disapproves of the hasty marriage and suspects foul play. His suspicions are confirmed when the ghost of his father appears and tells him that Claudius murdered him. Hamlet’s father asks him to take revenge upon Claudius, and soon everything takes a drastic change. The courses of revenge throughout Hamlet surround each character with corruption, obsession, and fatality.
Many of us, if not everyone, has heard of the country of Japan through various means. Possibly through popular films such as Godzilla or the renowned horror films which the country produces. Perhaps through the various anime TV shows that have been dubbed in English creating a massive fan base here in the United States, or the massive franchise Nintendo that has filled our child memories with countless hours spent in front of a screen playing Mario or Pokémon. One way or another the Japanese have shared their culture with a huge audience but thats only scratching the surface of the Japanese culture. The country of Japan wasn’t always the islands that we see there today, the formation of the islands occurred during 50,000 BC and ended in 10,000 BC following the end of the last ice age. This is when we find the first signs of civilization in Japan but they are nowhere near the modern day Japanese culture today. The early beginnings of today’s Japanese culture dates back to the year 538 AC with multiple time periods slowly building up to today. The Japanese culture of today shares a few aspects with our American culture we are familiar with, both cultures love baseball, we both have representative democracies as a form of government, and both cultures do not label outsiders differently and accept them just as equally. Even though we may share aspects of our culture with the Japanese our cultures couldn’t be anymore different from each other.
The Japanese culture is quite harmonious, respectful, and hardworking. Their culture is made up highly of being respectful of others, family, and nature. They value their elders, history, tradition, religion, family, government, nature, education, and work.
In general, the Japanese are much more conscious of their appearance in public than we are in the West. Some Japanese would rather spend money on clothing than on food. In the large cities your clothing is a sign of your background, social status, or wealth. In general, women do not wear sleeveless tops, shorts, or revealing styles. To conform to the typical businessman's style, men wear dark two piece suits with plain white shirts and conservative ties.
The small island country of Japan is rich in a culture that has developed over thousands of years. It is very difficult to analyze another culture without some knowledge of that culture first. During my two year residency in Japan, my eyes were opened to the culture of Japan and its people and I grew to love it as much as my own. (The ideas expressed in this essay mainly consist of my own knowledge and observations of Japan). The Japanese are a very traditional people. But this should not be confused with a primitive people, because the Japanese are not primitive by most dictionaries' definitions of the word. Japan has been changing in recent years in its view of its own economy, in its social interactions, in its thoughts about religion, and in its overall view of its place in the world and among other nations.