Tuesday, August 3, 2010

The Vicissitude of Japan's Culture

Culture of different countries is different. One can easily notice the difference either by the visit, i.e. through experience or through learning their history and customs. Likewise, Japan culture also has its own specialties and features. Regular changes have been noticed in Japan's culture, over the years. Modern Japan came into existence from the ancient traditional Japan and the birth of samurais. No doubt, influenced by culture of many neighboring countries, the modern culture of Japan has its own importance. This distinct culture of Japan is resulted from combination of different cultures. It manifests the creativity, independence and strength of humility of Japanese.

Japan culture is rich in the field of music, literature, art and architecture. The art of Japan is well renowned, from its traditional time to modern era. Japan's animation is known for its artists all throughout the world. Video games, entertainment shows and music play a great contribution in cyber industry. Japan was famous for its music, samurai, geisha and many more. The other uniqueness is in their language, which plays a great role in the Japanese culture. Spoken mainly within the country and leant by many westerners, the language is written in three scripts: - Katakana, hiragana, and kanji. Katakana contains Chinese character while Kanji is imported from China.

Calligraphy, a way of writing characters in a very artistic way, is also a part of Japanese culture. Ink painting or Sumi-e is an art of painting an object. Ikebana is also well known in Japan. It is the art of flower arrangement that is also used many other countries. Japanese culture is also remarkable with regard to theatre arts, as you can still come across traditional theaters in the country. Generally four types of theaters are recognized in Japan- kyogen, bunraku, noh and kabuki. Masks are generally used by performers to depict the characters. Action and dialogues to express emotions are commonly used. A puppet theater highlighting historical plays, known as Bunraku, was a part of Japanese culture during Heian period.

With regards to attire in Japan, kimono is their traditional dress, which is available in variety of designs and colors. It is generally dark color dress, preferably worn by males and at the same time, yukuta, the lighter color dress, is the choice of females. Though these dresses are easily available at several places, but these are generally worn now-a-days on some special occasion. The above stated dresses, theaters, arts and language show diversity in Japanese culture and express their distinct characteristics, which make it one of the best cultures in the world.




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Nancy Eben

Japan Culture and Tokyo Hotels

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