The evolution of Japanese technological advances has shaped and molded the modern world known today. To understand Japan’s technological advances, you must understand Japan’s roots. Japan has a recorded history of about 1600 years and during these years, they have contributed many technologies that we currently use on a daily basis. Japan’s technological advances have cultivated from the two most common religions, Buddhism and Shintoism. Japan has an extremely close relationship with nature more specifically with trees. The Japanese believe that a spirit, Kami, embodies all things nature.
The ancient capital Kyoto is where modern and ancient society collide along with its technology. Japanese architectural techniques are one of the most seismically sound techniques due to the fact that Japan is located on what of the most active seismic faults in the world. The buildings in the old part of Kyoto are a true testament to the Japanese love for wood. Japan’s spiritual connection with trees inspired Japan’s ancient construction techniques. Some of the key construction features of a traditional Japanese home consist of a central pillar that is connected to supporting beams with intricate joints. The central beam usually runs the length of the building and is typically about sixty feet long. Japanese architecture often includes the natural look of the tree used and occasionally branches. Every piece of the structure is supposed to elicit the spirit Kami that lives inside of every beam.
One of the greatest forms of Japanese architectural advances is the Pagoda. The Pagoda is a tall building assembled in tiers. It consists of a massive core usually cedar that stretches the height of the building, sometimes hundreds of feet. This core is o...
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In modern days, silicon’s primary use is semiconductors in electronics. Nearly all electronics in the world have at least one semiconductor and that semiconductor wouldn’t be possible without silicon. The process of turning raw silicon into a usable resource is still unchanged, like everything, the process has been modernized and quickened with electric ovens and preciously controlled environments.
Through the years, the process of turning raw materials into useful materials is a tradition that hasn’t changed over hundreds of years. The general process of turning metal to blades, silicon to magic mirrors or computers and ceramics to pottery or circuits. If we examine the past we can learn much about our future because all technological advancements need is to look to our ancient ancestors and examine how they dealt with the problems of their time.
Beginning in the early seventeenth century, Japan went from being one of the driving forces of technological and military power in the modern world to becoming outdated, old due to a lack of technological innovation. From this Japan was able to outlast the hard times, becoming once again becoming technological powerhouse. This was because, as stated in the book, “The Lexus and the Olive Tree” by author Thomas L. Friedman, they were able to find a happy median between the Lexus and the olive tree, in other words, new ideas and technology, while still maintaining traditional values of culture and race, both politically and socially. Japan was able to rebound, and regain political, social and economic stability and prosper in each after decades of internal conflict and turmoil because they, unlike similar contemporary non-western civilizations, focused on balancing new reforms with older, more historical governmental traditions.
Within a short period of time, Japan had caught up with many Western technologies; having established universities, founded telegraph and railroad lines, as well as a national postal system being created. Shipping and textile industries were a huge success an exports rose.
Mesopotamian architecture consists of stone and hardened clay making their structures rigid and permanent. Japanese architecture on the other hand consists of mostly wood making their structures lighter and less permanent. Even though both of these cultures used different materials for building, both had to repair and rebuild their structures every so many years. Mesopotamian communities built out of hardened mud would eventually soften and collapse requiring the community to recoat the walls yearly. Japanese shrines have two separate buildings in order to alternate its use while the other was under construction due to the wood decaying. Although the concept of having to rebuild a structure yearly may seem like an efficient way of building, the idea still influenced the communities to work together to complete the
As a conclusion, Mingei and nationalism can be perceived as fundamentally interwoven through Japanese handicrafts. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, many factors came to play a part in bringing the Japanese spirit to the forefront of craftsmen minds, whether as reason to bring attention to themselves and their own work or as a way of providing necessary utensils to the average Japanese home. The efforts of the Mingei movement and the Japanese Traditional Crafts Exhibition cannot be ignored. Yanagi can be said to have foreseen this radical decline in traditional styles and if not for his and his fellow founders collecting and preserving crafts in the Japanese Folk Art Museum, many of the regional methods and styles could be lost today. After the destruction of the war and
One of the things Japan advanced in was technology and that includes weapons. When the samurai fought against the Emperor’s soldiers, the samurai suffered an honourable defeat because even though they lost, they helped start a new era where the worldviews could live together in peace. Weapons were not the thing they advanced in. They also designed and created the bullet train in the future.In the Edo Period, Japan progressed greatly. One of the ways they did that was to use western technology and improve it and add their own touches. In the west they created the railroads and that inspired the Japanese to create a better one. Technology improved over time and that led to great new inventions, including the bullet train. They also advanced in their
Recently the concerns of women around their equality in society has become a hotly debated topic in the public spot light. Much of the debate concerns women and the ingrained sexism that permeates most cultures. Many women's activists feel that this ingrained sexism has widened the gap between men and women in a political, social, and economic sense. And for the most part they do have strong evidence to support these claims. Women have suffered through millennia of male dominated societies where treatment of women has been, and in some cases still is, inhuman. Women are treated like subhuman creatures that have only exist to be used for procreate and to be subjugated by men for household use. It has only been very recently that women have become recognized as equals in the eyes of men. Equals in the sense that they have the same political and social rights as males. While the situation has improved, women still have to deal with a male oriented world. Often women in the workplace are thought of as inferior and as a liability. This can be due to concerns about maternity leave, or women with poor leadership skills. But also in part it is due because of the patriarchy that controls all aspects and dynamics of the culture, family, politics, and economy. Even developed countries like The United Kingdom, United States, Germany, and France, could be classified as a patriarchies. These countries may not agree with this notion because of expansive, but not complete changes, that have gradually equalized women in society. However, there are developed countries that openly express a patriarchy and have enacted little societal changes to bring equality to women. Japan is one such country, and t...
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).
The architecture of China and Japan was very advanced during the early ages of the world. Some examples of architectural achievement were the the Kinkaku-ji, Golden Pavilion, and the Forbidden City, both significant for their time. Different and similar influences created major contrast and resemblance. Chinese gardens created a natural beauty throughout the country. The Japanese made elegant profiles to their buildings along with plain interiors to create a simple elegance. In sum, the vibrance and elegance throughout China and Japan was highly innovative and astounding for their time.
There were several important inventions during Medieval Japanese times; but there were three key inventions that really advanced Japanese culture. Did you know the Soroban? It was the second advance calculator after China during Medieval times. The Japanese were the first to create a Katana that was curved. Unfortunately, some medieval Japanese inventions were destroyed, and created a new look, like the Katana.
The 21st Century has witnessed Asia’s rapid ascent to economic prosperity. As economic gravity shifts from the Western world to the Asian region, the “tyranny of distance [between states, will be] … replaced by the prospects of proximity” in transnational economic, scientific, political, technological, and social develop relationships (Australian Government, 1). Japan and China are the region’s key business exchange partners. Therefore these countries are under obligation to steer the region through the Asian Century by committing to these relationships and as a result create business networks, boost economic performance, and consequently necessitate the adjustment of business processes and resources in order to accommodate each country’s employment relations model (Wiley, Wilkinson, & Young, 2005). Cognizant of the fact that neither Japan nor China has given up on its external (protectionism or parity) adjustment tools, it is posited that they can nonetheless coexist since both “produce different things and in different ways” and as such avoid the cited perilous US and Mexico competition; but due to globalization, the operating environment portends a convergence or divergence of Industrial Relation (ER) strategies between China and Japan (Lipietz, 1997; Zhu & Warner, 2004).
In the following essay, I will be comparing and contrasting to architectural pieces by the Indians. The first is the Taj Mahal, a building constructed from white marble that took seventeen years to build in honor of Shah Jahan’s wife, Mumtaz Mahal (Z. Haq). This piece of architectural beauty belonged to the Mughal’s, the Muslim emperors in India (Z. Haq). The second is the Great Stupa at Sanchi, a holy, dome shaped structure that covers the body of the Buddha in honor of him and his contributions to Buddhism (Fischer, Julia). Furthermore, this structure was made of ruins, rocks, mud, and covered in bricks (Fischer, Julia). Both pieces of architecture are significant to the Indians, however they do contrast in some ways.
Architecture of the Geometric and Orientalizing periods had mostly made out of a simple structure made of mud bricks and rubbles. They were generally built on an east-west axis with an entrance and a columned entry. However, in rectangular temples, the two sidewalls stood beyond the front wall to form an entrance. In the rooms, a single row of wooden columns with the main axis supported the wooden beams of the gable roof. (J. J. Coulton, 1977) Not only the temples and houses were built with mud brick, but also the graves erected in the Geometric and Orientalizing periods were also built in the similar style and method. The small rectangular earth mounds in the Geometric period assumed as a monumental form with walls of mud-brick protected by a jutting cornice of slabs and surmounted by a flat or shallow pitched roof. (M. Andronikos) The whole structure was coated with mud painted decoration.
Japan is one of the greatest countries in the world and it has offered many things as well. The Japanese have given the world a better understanding of their culture and history along with a good look at the future from a technological standpoint. They have developed and created the future for their country that has allowed them to be prosperous and powerful. They once isolated themselves from the rest of the world, but now they share their knowledge with other countries in order to create a better understanding of the world. Through their trade and creative thinking they have become one of the world’s largest and powerful countries and have allowed their economy to flourish and prosper.
Human beings are susceptible to the force of nature. They had to make shelter for themselves. Material was one of the most basic tools to create shelter. By development of building construction, selection and use of materials also developed. The relationship between the architecture and the materials before invention of modern materials was simple and generally naturally [1]; in the past, architects always use tradition materials according their experimental skills. For choosing structural materials, they had attention to important factors such as availability (local materials) and harmony with climate and culture [2], although this way was forward with feedback. But this relationship was not continuing simply.