Tourism and travel guide about destinations, attractions, tips, activities.
April 5th, 2009 traveler
If this were a guide-book to serve tourists on the spot, it would have been necessary to write this part of the chapter first. However, there are several excellent guide-books specially devoted to Kyoto, and here I shall try only to shed a little light on that phase of Kyoto which makes the strongest appeal to those going about with no other purpose than to look around and enjoy novelties in scenery and in life.
If Kyoto is a charming Mecca of all foreign tourists to Japan, it is no less so to the Japanese whose lot it is to dwell outside its radius. It is always full of visitors from every part of Japan. Even Osaka, inside of an hour by bus, looks upon it as its premier holiday land. Many wealthy persons there are, even in the Kwanto district, who have villas in the quieter parts of Kyoto that they may recur to them from time to time and enjoy Kyoto’s many aspects under its varying moods.
The very approaches to the city are picturesque. Coming from any direction, the visitor is greeted either by the indigo-blue bamboo bushes, the fresh and clear, babbling river, or by the quaint low-lying houses of humbler folk so reminiscent of old days. The central railway station is modern enough, but a few minutes’ walk away from it in any direction will give one the impression of being in the old capital. It may be the soft green outline of the undulating mountains, or it may be one or other of the old temples and palaces, that excites our sense of being in Kyoto. Even the show-window dressing in busy avenues of Shijō and Gojō is arresting because of its elegant style. There you do not see the best sample goods in blatant display as in other commercial cities, but only a few choice specimens tastefully arranged, suggestive of quality rather than quantity of production. Walk into one of them and you will be waited on by a charming shopkeeper whose manner seems to show he is more anxious to please than to sell. Taste, courtesy and politeness fill the air; everybody is willing to help you make the most of your opportunities. Without even a hired guide one may often, with a guide-book, do wonders in Kyoto.
Kiyomizu-dera is one of the first scenic spots to view. A Buddhist temple, to be sure, but it has the least air of being one. One of the oldest Kwannon temples, it alone would justify your stopping off at Kyoto. Its situation is on the verdant hillside, ascended by several flights of steps, and upon its “butai”–dancing stage–which was a synonym for the highest point in Kyoto, one commands a magnificent view of the surrounding woods and valleys, with ex. quisite glimpses of sweeping roofs of other temples and pagodas gleaming among the trees. To look down from the Kiyomizu “stage” gives us a sensation totally different from that we get when looking down from a skyscraper of a commercial metropolis; the one makes us grateful for this life and the other hate it. The temple has a wondrous roof on which connoisseurs could lecture for hours.
Descending the slope, and passing one of the picturesque “tea-pot-lanes,” lined with small porcelain shops, selling the famous Kiyomizu wares, you will emerge into the heart of Maruyama Park with its shrines of Gion and its winding walks ablaze with cherry in spring or with maples in autumn. Other famous temples of Chion-in, Nanzenji, Sanjūsan-gen-dō, etc., are not far from here.
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April 5th, 2009 traveler
As Tokyo is situated on the Sumida River which pours into Tokyo Bay to swell the mighty Pacific, its former name, Edo (estuary-door), sounds more poetical and appropriate. But the political conquerors from the south, who destroyed the Shōgunate in 1868, could not tolerate anything reminiscent of the old régime. They therefore displaced Edo in favor of Tokyo (eastern capital) as distinct from Kyoto (western capital). The amazing strides made by Tokyo, or rather by Japan, are identified with the august rule of the Emperor Meiji ( 1868-1912) which future historians will probably call the most glorious in the annals of the Empire.
But it is impossible to forget the founding of the city, as laid in Edo days, or the 260 years of the Tokugawa régime. Over sixty years have passed since Edo was changed to Tokyo, but the study of Edo is constantly made with ever-increasing zeal, each year adding new discoveries to the great legacy. Many of Japan’s most celebrated names in art, the crafts and literature, which are beginning to attract the admiring attention of the world, belong to Edo. Many of the picturesque national observances–manners, customs, festivals and superstitions — had also their origin in Edo days.
It is curious to reflect that Edo, too, was once threatened with a grave crisis. With the fall of the Shōgunate, many of the 300 resident daimyō, liberated from the feudal obligation to keep expensive estates in Edo, began to go home bag and baggage, thereby throwing the shadow of the fear over Edo that the city might relapse into the trackless reed moor that it once was. This fearful possibility, how ever, was gloriously averted when the Emperor made the momentous declaration that he would appoint Edo (then changed to Tokyo) the capital of the Empire, and would remove from his old home, Kyoto, to the new capital, Tokyo.
Edo days lasted, to be precise, 277 years and eight months, i.e. from August of 1590, when Ieyasu was appointed by Hideyoshi to be lord of Kwantō district and took formal possession of Edo, until April 11th, 1868, when the 15th Shōgun, Yoshinobu, then 31 years old, restored the castle as well as the government of Japan to Meiji Tenno, then a young man 16 years old. Kwantō, it may be added, is a large tract of land comprising the eight provinces and the seven islets of Izu, or, to use the present administrative divisions, seven prefectures, including Tokyo prefecture of which Tokyo city is a part. How Ieyasu, the master of Kwantō, succeeded in ousting his former chief, Hideyoshi, and made himself the overlord of all Japan, is part of the absorbing history over which space forbids us to linger. Suffice it to say that it was the determined policy of Ieyasu and his successors to make Edo the greatest city in Japan, even to outshine Kyoto and Osaka, not only as the political center, but as the center of Japan’s artistic and cultural life — an ambition which was realized to a marvelous degree. No wonder we now see each year adding more and more to “Edo literature,” as if Edo had been the golden age of Japanese civilization. For one thing, we have still living among us a large number of influential persons whose minds are richly stored with memories of Edo days. The last baby born in Edo is now ( 1934) only a young person of 67 years. Indeed, so much is said and written about Edo that we are apt to forget that Edo is very much older than the so-called Edo days.
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April 5th, 2009 traveler
In the reconstruction, care was taken to preserve the old landmarks as much as possible, consistent with the health and convenience of the city. The Ginza–the Piccadilly and Broadway of Tokyo–runs on the same old road. The great semi-circle thorough. fare as before, starting from the Ginza, passes the busiest and most prosperous portions of Kyōbashi and Nihonbashi wards, and goes on to Kanda and Shitaya. till it reaches the great Kwannon Temple at Asakusa. It then returns, by another and equally prosperous avenue, to the Ginza. The circle has at intervals eight department stores, each comparing favorably with the best in Europe or America.
The old parks of Ueno and Shiba, noted for the cherries, maples, lotus ponds, museums, and Tokugawa temples, happily remain as in days of early Meiji. The old fifteen wards, and the new twenty wards recently added, though embellished, are as readily recognized by their original signposts. Thus, the chief shopping districts of Kyōbashi and Nihonbashi have their old influencial banks and business houses, their brilliant cafés and restaurants as well as their colorful night stalls; the wooded district of Shiba has its old temples, large and small, curio shops and sea-commanding terraced residences. The dignified Kōjimachi of the Imperial Palace is noted for its Government offices, clubs and newspaper buildings, and the sites of foreign legations and embassies together with the official residences of high dignitaries. Kanda and Hongō are as crowded as before with schools, colleges and second-hand book shops, and the numerous boarding-houses for their patrons, students of all grades and fortunes; the low-lying Shitaya and Asakusa are known for their popular temples, innumerable amusement houses and restaurants; the high-located residential districts of Azabu and Akasaka, for their wealthy inhabitants — nabobs in business, banking and the world of letters. Add to these the lesser residential quarters of Ushigome and Koishikawa, and the prodigy of Yotsuya, as the new-found gateway to central Japan, the formidable rival of the shopping Kyōbashi, and the two riverside wards of Honjo and Fukagawa, just across the Sumida, the home of the Edokko — the Japanese cockney — proud, slangy and improvident — whose downright outspokenness, love of a dangerous life and contempt of filthy lucre have earned for him national distinction. So is the list of the fifteen wards complete, distinguishable one from another by their topography and occupations.
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April 5th, 2009 traveler
To describe a great city like London or Paris to an American, or a mighty American city such as New York or Chicago to a European, is a comparatively easy matter. They are kith and kin, so to speak, sprung from the same civilization. Tokyo is different. It would be as misleading to treat it as an Eastern city as not to treat it as such. Tokyo has none of the characteristic, often sordid, aspects of a so-called Eastern city. The keen observer will not be slow to gain glimpses, through the crevices of its modern exterior, of that inner life which distinguishes it from any other great city in the world.
Tokyo had grown to be a very complex and indeed highly civilized city during its three centuries of national seclusion. To this civilization has been added in the past hundred years the modern superstructure of the West. To the newcomer the city may seem a heterogeneous medley, at once ultramodern, quaint, colorful, even bizarre–a “cocktail” sort of a city. He may think that Tokyo is passing through a violently transitional stage, or that it is perhaps only half Western. The true explanation is that Tokyo is unique–the result of its peculiar evolution, and must therefore be judged or appreciated by its unique standard. The same applies to the old cities of Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya and other big cities.
It would be simple to describe Tokyo in yearbook style as the capital of the Japan, one of the half-dozen World Powers, with an extensive area of 213 square miles, a little more than Chicago, inhabited by 12,790,000 people, a city with all the latest improvements in the accommodation and administration which go to make a great metropolis. Such a description, however, will give no picture of what Tokyo is really like. To frame an adequate picture one must dip a little into its historical background.
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April 5th, 2009 traveler
“In the April of blossoms anyone may come,” runs an old proverb. It is a time for general outing. Even old women and the laziest stay-at-homes go out to call on friends, or make pilgrimages to temples of the dead or to Shinto shrines, not necessarily for flower-seeing, yet the gateway to the temple and the courtyard of the shrine are invariably studded with cherry trees. The eighth of April is the birthday of Shiddhattha Gautama or the Buddha, and celebrations in his honor — the Festival of Flowers — are held at every Buddhist temple. That of Hibiya Park with its dazzling pageant of chigo (temple pages) and other ceremonies is typical, and the day sets the zenith of the sakura season. Little wonder that sightseers and devout pilgrims from rural districts should choose this time to visit Tokyo and other urban centers. As for youths and maidens, ever on the alert for pleasure, it is, of course, the time of their life, as witness their joyful presence and their gay manners everywhere. Young students are on holiday in the sakura season, as the academic year begins about the middle of April. Alike on those happily graduated or matriculated, and on those “plucked,” the gods cause the blossoms to smile. All are out for flower-viewing, either to celebrate success or to dissipate gloom.
No more motley throngs of humanity can be seen on the face of the earth than at flower-viewing in the height of the sakura season. All grades of society are represented: bourgeoisie jostles with proletariat, smart city people mingle with ruddy country folk. There are ladies, factory girls, soldiers, students, merchants, artists, and many varieties of young and middle-aged men generally known as “salary men,” with their wives and children. Occasionally one meets with foreigners, conspicuous by their tall stature and, if tourists, by their curious glances. Beggars are conspicuous by their absence. Is it due to the police control or what? They have no need to beg in spring. There are enough leavings of food, half empty bottles, and forgotten odds and ends to be garnered. Close observation will show some wretches silently cleaning up in the footprints of the holiday-makers. The magnanimity of nature, so beautifully symbolized in spring, is emulated at every scene of hanami, reminding us of the Lord’s miracle of the bounteous feeding of the multitudes.
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March 30th, 2009 traveler
Yoshino and Kumano, a little apart from each other, the one mountainous and the other coastal, were always treated as two entireties. They have now been welded into one park, covering an area of 168,560 acres. Both are no less celebrated in history and legendary traditions than for their beauty, their temples and shrines — perennial Meccas for devotional and holiday-making pilgrims. Astride the three prefectures of Nara, Wakayama and Mie in central Japan, on the Pacific coast, they are veritable centers for picnics, excursions and holidays in the Kwansai district, as Nikkō and Hakone are to the Kwantō people.
Every Japanese knows Yoshino as the home of cherry blossoms, for most of the cherry trees blossoming in spring throughout Japan bearing the name “Yoshino-zakura,” were originally transplanted from Yoshino. Little wonder if Kwansai folk should tell you never to talk about Japan’s cherry blossoms till you have seen Yoshino. It was amid the cherry-clad hills of Yoshino that the ill-fated Emperor Godaigo (1318-1339) held his court for three years. Yoshino was the august abode of the Emperors of the Southern Court for half a century, and is naturally associated with many romances, heroic and tragic, which have been an undying source of inspiration to poets, writers and artists.
Yoshino’s cherry blossoms make a splendid contrast with those of most other places in that they grow on the side of mountains. As you go up the winding hillpaths, the blossoms present sights of surpassing beauty, growing as they do, among the green trees and rocky mountain scenery. The most famous spot is “Hitome-senbon” (” A Thousand Trees at a Glance”), and further up the mountain there are “Naka-no-senbon” (” A Thousand Trees in the Middle”), regions adorned with cherry trees so numerous as to give rise to the conventional names.
Yoshino, however, is in reality a collective name for the three ranges of mountains, namely, Sanjogatake or Omine (5,620 ft.), Shaka (5,904 ft.), and Bukky (6,281 ft.), each consisting of several peaks sometimes called the “Yamato Alps.” The firstmentioned, O + ̦mine, is the sacred mountain, claiming the somewhat out-of-date distinction of being the only mountain in Japan to forbid women to enter its precincts. Omine means “great peak,” suggesting its serrated ridges. It makes a striking contrast with Mount Odaigahara, to the east of Ōmine, whose summit is a tableland of 6 square miles, affording a wonderfully extensive view, including, on a clear day, even Mount Fuji, 180 miles to the east. And these mountains are climbed by the more arduous of excursionists not only in cherry-time but in all other seasons. The great majority are content to go as high up as the blossoms tempt them. The best way to reach Yoshino is to go by the Osaka Electric Railway, which runs several special services during the cherry season in early April.
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March 30th, 2009 traveler
Insular like Great Britain, Japan owes her fortunes largely to her ports and rivers, through which her needs and requirements were supplied from all parts of the world. Japan possesses around her coast many beautiful sights of sea and islet, and the Inland Sea is the quintessence of beauty and loveliness. Indeed, there may be more beautiful seascapes in other parts of the world, yet if so, the writer has not seen one, nor heard of anyone who has.
The site selected for the Inland Sea Park is really the most beautiful part of the Inland Sea. Roughly speaking the Park covers the sea coasts of three prefectures of Okayama, Hiroshima and Kagawa, extending from Shodoshima in the east to Itsukushima Shrine at Miyajima Romantic glimpse of the Inland Sea Cape Abuto in the west, and within its boundary it includes such famous scenic points as Kankakei Valley, Gokenzan Peaks, Yashima, the Shiaku Islands and Mt. Washu.
The Inland Sea comprises a winding stretch of sea water, 230 miles long, from Awaji to Shimonoseki. Its picturesque and prosperous coast-line, fringed with numerous indentations, white sand and green pines, is fashioned by the course of the sea. Seawards it looks upon the major islands of Awaji, Shikoku, Shodoshima and Kyushu, which shield it in from the outer oceans of the Pacific and the Japan Sea. On its bosom float numerous islets, some large enough to shelter thousands of people and others hardly larger than rocks. In all there are some 940 in number.
The sea is shallow, from 10 to 40 fathoms at the deepest part. There is hardly a ripple on its smooth, deep-green surface, as you glide over it on a big liner. The ship sails, as the oft-quoted Japanese phrase has it, “as on the matted floor,” and save for the throbbing of the engine, faintly heard from the depths of the ship, one scarcely feels he is on the surface of the sea. Every moment the surrounding scenery changes. It makes a marvelous cinematograph picture–the aspects of land, sea and island, and the sailing craft dotted here and there are constantly changing, creating a wonderful mosaic of light and shade. Every moment is a dream of enchanting panorama.
The Inland Sea has numerous beauty spots and places rich in historical and legendary lore. Many highland spots on the mainland and island offer points of vantage from which to view the sea. These places are increasing as improvement is being made in facilities for travel and accommodation, now that the site has come under the direct protection of the Government.
One may sample a fairly good view of the Inland Sea, or part of it at least, from the railway train running down the main San-yō line from Kobe to Shimonoseki. No less than four times the train comes in sight of the sea, the longest glimpse reserved for the last stage.
For historical and mythological associations, the story of the Inland Sea is largely the story of the Japanese Empire. From the early age of Jinmu Tenno, who took this water route on his famous eastward expeditions to Yamato in 7th century B.C., and through the Heian period, which marks the highest point in Japan’s literary and poetic culture, down to the era of Gen-pei, the scenes of Japan’s political, artistic and military activities were laid on the Inland Sea coast. It is rightly called the Mediterranean of Japan. Modern Japan has changed much to suit the changing fashions of the world, but the manners and customs of old Japan, as shown in the classics, arts and literature are preserved, if at all, among the inhabitants of these islands. Most of them are, in these days of peaceful avocation, either farmers or fishermen, or both, but theirs was the stock from which has been drawn the hardy stuff to make the strength and prestige of new Japan. Many of Japan’s bravest seamen and most daring adventurers in industry and commerce have come from these islets.
We have no space to describe all the important sights usually pointed out to one visiting the Inland Sea, and the following are a mere catalogue of some of the major attractions.
Shōdoshima, (90 miles in circumference with 188,500 population), is of granite formation, and rich in beauty and historical associations. One of its beauty spots is Kankakei, a lovely mosaic of rock, tree (maples) and running water. It is part of Mount Kankakei, from whose top, 1,000 feet high, one obtains a splendid view of the sea.
The Island of Shikoku (1,648 miles in circumference) may stand quite on its own, but that scenic part, facing the Inland Sea, is included in the Park, especially Yashima where the famous bloody battle was fought between the Taira and Minamoto clans in the 12th century. Takamatsu, the most important city of Shikoku, which is a good starting point of tours round the island, is not included in the Park area.
Tomo, 7.6 miles south of the city of Fukuyama on the San-yo main line on the main island, is another famous resort, rich in fine scenery. The waters round about teem in fish, especially tai (the sea bream), the king of Japanese fish.
Washūzan is another vantage point from which to enjoy the sights of the sea. This part was once noted for the daring pirates who infested the Inland Sea in the middle ages.
Besides fishing, the mainland coast of the Inland Sea boasts of several industries, the chief among them being shipbuilding (there are 7 important dockyards), and the salt industry which yearly produces 90 per cent. of Japan’s salt.
Wonder has been expressed that the famous Miyajima, only 60 miles from Tomo of the Inland Sea, has not been included in the Inland Sea area. The reason for this omission is probably because the main island along which the Inland Sea flows, fashioning its shape, abounds in so many famous sights that they cannot all be included under one category. The best time to enjoy the manifold beauties of the Inland Sea Park is early summer and autumn.
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March 30th, 2009 traveler
The Tokugawa clan still ruled Japan in the 1850’s when Admiral Peary sailed into Tokyo Bay and called upon the Japanese to end their two and a half centuries of hermitage. Repeated overtures to this end had been declined earlier, and Japanese administration had been extended to Hokkaido early in the nineteenth century to prevent Russian encroachment. The American overture was more than a casual invitation, however, for it was made through a show of military force which was not lost upon the Tokugawa. Though they still held firm control internally they were quick to realize that Japan could not stand up to outside forces that could muster many large guns in the big steam naval vessels such as those in the American fleet. Within a few years they had signed trade treaties with several occidental countries, and had taken the first steps to modernize their own military establishment. This was the fourth time that a small group had changed the whole course of Japanese history.
The changes could not be undone, but they were the undoing of the Tokugawa and of the old order of feudalism in Japan. The emperor and the other clans that ruled Japan under Tokugawa control had not had the foreign fleet in their own home ports and were inclined to expel the foreigners. A few “incidents” soon convinced other leading clans of the futility of resistance to the outside world. The Satsuma clan of western Japan turned to developing a modern navy, and the Choshu clan began the building of a modern army. General opposition to the long rule of the Tokugawa took the form of restoring the emperor to a kind of power than the imperial family had not exercised for centuries, swept the Tokugawa from internal control, and started Japan on a course of modernization that both startled and impressed the whole world in the 75 years between 1866 and 1941. The Tokugawa had committed Japan to this program without the original support of the country, but other clans took over the lead, carried on the program, and managed to retain control of Japan until the end of World War II. Japan entered upon this new era in sound economic, social, and political circumstances, for there had been no time for a long series of disastrous internal wars to dissipate either population or resources.
A first step in modernization was the abolition of landed feudalism and the outmoded administration of government. Direct rule by the emperor and a bureaucracy, the abolition of feudal fiefs (for a reasonable price in government bonds), the establishment of new political administrative regions, and the pensioning off of the old regional rulers and the parasitic soldier group were the first steps in internal organization. This process, of course, gave to the ruling classes privileged opportunities for those members discerning enough to take them. Some old clans rose to new political power, and others acquired new economic strength, but it is notable that in general the control of Japan continued in the hands of the same general groups that had run Japan for many centuries.
Though the Tokugawa had actually sent a few observers abroad before the opening of the country, Japanese culture was sadly out of date compared to the industrial, military culture of the West. Realizing this the new leaders of Japan fell back upon a useful precedent, that of sending students abroad to study the superior cultures. Since many of these new leaders were derived from the old military clans and the professional soldiery, their first concern was the building of a strong military force which could deter the colonial imperialism of the Occident. Appreciating also that such a force could now be built only upon the basis of an industrial technology, they undertook a thoroughgoing industrialization. So for nearly 50 years the Japanese government sent commissions, study groups, observers, and students all over the world to study the material economy of the West in a determined effort to bring Japan up to date as quickly as possible. German military and medical science, French and German law, British ship building, and the railroad and manufacturing techniques, and the business methods of the United States were all carefully studied. Observers all over the world studied the patterns of trade, colonial imperialism, the developments of agriculture, mining, transportation, and architecture. Educational systems and political institutions were examined.
The Japanese government took the lead in these matters, paying for the studies and then subsidizing the developments in Japan. The first railway was built between Tokyo and Yokohama in 1872, and by the end of the century hundreds of power plants and factories were operating. The operation of concerns was turned over to private companies formed by the leading clans, so that not only did Japan industrialize rapidly, but also the control of the modern aspects of the economy remained in the hands of the old leading elements. It is a commonplace to say that in a non-industrial country the evolution of manufacturing begins slowly and somewhat on a hit-and-miss basis. Not so in Japan, for by 1900 most of the kinds of things being done abroad were also being done in Japan. As new industrial developments occurred abroad Japanese continued to study them and to adapt them at home.
In the first few decades of modernization industrial skills were not sufficient to keep pace with developments of the economy, operating efficiency was rather low, and the occidental rather easily came to the conclusion that the Japanese were not creative but only imitative. It should be sufficient to remind an American, however, that as late as the end of World War II the United States was still following the lead of Germany in many matters of industrial evolution to put the question of copying in proper balance. The amazing thing is that Japan went at modernization in a wholesale manner, in the way in which she had studied Chinese culture centuries earlier, and in a way seldom attempted by any other society. This was long-range planning well before five-year plans became the vogue.
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March 30th, 2009 traveler
The southern part of Japan was not only a more productive environment but also in closer contact with that part of mainland Asia in which Chinese culture was expanding and maturing during the late feudal era. Refugees from China, during the final bitter struggles of feudalism and the appearance of the Han state, carried Chinese culture into Korea and brought it into range of southern Japan, whose peoples were themselves in contact with Korea. These contacts can be traced to at least the third century B.C., and they gradually raised the culture level of southern Japan out of the Stone Age, though central and northern Japan lagged behind. The peoples of southern Japan were grouped in matriarchal tribal and clan patterns, each occupying small coastal sections. A competitive situation developed among these local groups, with the Yamato of Kyushu gaining the ascendancy and moving their headquarters to the eastern end of the Inland Sea by about A.D. 300. There was a general eastward movement of tribes and clans, including immigration from Korea and perhaps from the China coast.
Though the precise racial and cultural origins are not clear, rice culture, horses, cattle, the pig, and the dog appeared in southern Japan during these centuries. The horse came with the cavalry-warrior complex and was taken up by clan leaders and tribal chiefs as a means of solidifying their regional and group controls. Rice culture brought with it other crops, agricultural practices, and domestic use techniques. Metallurgy, domestic architecture, village settlement, and social patterns, all filtered in slowly. Many of these items came from China but not all from the North China culture hearth, some coming undoubtedly from the Yangtze Delta and coastal country, and others from Manchuria and the Mongolias. A few features may have come from South China, from the same centers that had spread many culture traits southward into southeastern Asia, but it is doubtful if much of Japanese direct cultural origins lie as far afield as southeastern Asia.
Kyushu, Shikoku, and the portion of Honshu fronting on the Inland Sea were the regions in which both human and culture migrations occurred. Water movement and fishing economies remained strong, mixing peoples and the details of culture. Replacement of primitive practices occurred, and new ideas were blended into old ones. Population grew, and most of the lowland alluvial tracts were settled. This whole process of development was restricted to southern Japan, and gradually there came to be marked differences between this southern region and the areas north of the Inland Sea. In the north country the Ainu and possibly other Stone Age peoples were thinly scattered and culturally undeveloped. As time passed the contrast became greater, and, as the southern peoples more and more fully occupied their lowlands, local pressures for space began to develop. Slowly the southern peoples began moving into the edges of their own upland regions and also pushing northward along the lowland fringes of Honshu. This southern section, therefore, as the culturally advanced region, became the source for the colonizing of the rest of the Japanese islands and the local source of the cultural patterns that gradually have grown into modern Japanese civilization.
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March 30th, 2009 traveler
The Japanese environment is one not bountifully provided with those natural complements of soils, plant resources, animal life, and other features which made for easy productivity of material goods for early man. The aquatic resources around these island shores are rich, but they were less available to early man than to modern man. By dint of hard work through a long span of time the Japanese have made their environment a productive one, but many of these advances had to await the introduction of techniques developed in other parts of the world, and then carefully fitted to the local scene. The historic pattern of the introduction of developed techniques into Japan has led to the false conclusion that the Japanese have been only an imitative people, whereas in the perfection and fitting of techniques to their environment the Japanese have displayed almost as much originality as did the Chinese, who also copied and adapted many alien features of culture.
Earliest man may well have been able to walk overland from the mainland to the lowland fringes of southwestern Japan, and it is notable that the Japanese archaeologists have turned up almost no record of the Old Stone Age in Japan. The inference is that occupance areas then lay on the lower coastal plains and lowlands now covered by the Inland Sea, the China Sea, and the immediate shore waters around the Japanese islands. The Ainu aboriginal population, protoCaucasoid in origin, established themselves in such numbers that they have steadily contributed to the racial composition of the modern Japanese. Man moved upward onto the present alluvial lands and the lower upland fringes as the post-glacial patterns of islands and coastal outlines developed. Neolithic man came into the islands by sea both from the north and the west, bringing different elements of culture and probably representing different and mixed racial strains. The northerners brought useful elements of fishing economies, but they did not add greatly to the population as such. The main line of immigration lay through Korea, and the chief elements were protoMongoloid and Mongoloid in origin, to set the racial basis for modern Japan.
Out of the south, probably South China, moving along the coastal fringes came some southern peoples after the present lines of land and sea had developed. In popular thinking this stream of peoples bulks high in contributing to the Japanese population, but it is doubtful that this is so. These southern peoples undoubtedly did bring many culture traits into Japan related to the use of the sea and the subtropical elements of the environment.
Since most of these migrants came into southwestern Japan, bringing higher culture traits, it is natural that this was the early center of Japan. In a rigorous environment not bountifully providing for early man, the coastal lowlands of the southwestern portion were both the most livable and the most productive. Here the mixing of the early racial stocks and patterns of culture took place, and here also began that conversion of alien traits into traits distinctively Japanese.
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