Ōkami is an
action-adventurevideo game developed by
Clover Studio and published by
Capcom. It was released for
Sony's
PlayStation 2 video game console in 2006 in Japan and North America, and 2007 in Europe and Australia. Despite the closure of Clover Studio a few months after the game's initial release, a version for
Nintendo's
Wii console was developed and produced by
Ready at Dawn and Capcom, which was released in North America on 15 April 2008, in Europe in June 2008, and will be released in Japan on 15 October 2009. Set sometime in
classical Japanese history, Ōkami combines several
Japanese myths, legends and
folklore to tell the story of how the land was saved from darkness by the
Shintosun goddess, named
Amaterasu, who took the form of a white
wolf. It features a distinct
sumi-e-inspired
cel-shaded visual style and the
Celestial Brush, a
gesture-system to perform miracles. Ōkami was one of the last PlayStation 2 games selected for release prior to the release of the
PlayStation 3. Although it suffered from poor sales, Ōkami earned high acclaim from reviewers and earned, among other awards, the title of
IGN's 2006
Game of the Year. The Wii version has earned similar praise though the motion control scheme has received mixed reviews from both critics and gamers. A sequel, Ōkamiden: Chīsaki Taiyō, has been announced by Capcom for release in 2010 on the
Nintendo DS. (Full article...)
Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige), a
copy of the
ukiyo-e woodblock print Plum Park in Kameido by the Japanese artist
Hiroshige. Completed in 1887, this painting is one of several
Japanese-influenced works created by
Vincent van Gogh after the
opening up of Japan. In his copy, van Gogh ignored the shading present in the trunk and background of Hiroshige's image, which there implied age, and instead used colours with more "passion" and "youthfulness".
Banknotes:
Empire of Japan. Reproduction: National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution
The Japanese-issued Netherlands Indies gulden was the currency issued by the
Japanese Empire when it occupied the
Dutch East Indies during World War II. Following the Dutch capitulation in March 1942, the Japanese closed all banks, seized assets and currency, and assumed control of the economy in the territory. They began issuing
military banknotes, as had previously been done in other occupied territories. These were printed in Japan, but retained the name of the pre-war currency and replaced the Dutch gulden at par. From 1943 the military banknotes were replaced by identical bank-issued notes printed within the territory, and the currency was renamed the roepiah from 1944. The currency was replaced by the
Indonesian rupiah in 1946, one year after the Japanese surrender and the country's independence.
This note, denominated one cent, is part of the 1942 series.
The destroyed remains of a
Buddhist temple in
Nagasaki,
Japan. This picture was taken on September 24, 1945, six weeks after the city was destroyed by the
world's secondatomic bomb attack.
Several inscriptions on the series of torii, the defining feature of
Fushimi Inari-taisha, a
Shintoshrine dedicated to the spirit
Inari in
Kyoto,
Japan. The thousands of
vermilion gates are all donations from individuals, families or companies.
Before the outbreak of World War I, German naval ships were located in the Pacific; Tsingtao developed into a major seaport while the surrounding
Kiautschou Bay area was
leased to Germany since 1898. During the war, Japanese and British
Allied troops
besieged the port in 1914 before capturing it from the German and Austro-Hungarian
Central Powers, occupying the city and the surrounding region. It served as a base for the exploitation of the natural resources of
Shandong province and northern China, and a "New City District" was established to furnish the Japanese colonists with commercial sections and living quarters. Tsingtao eventually reverted to Chinese rule by 1922.
A
geisha at work lighting a client's cigar. Geisha are often hired to attend parties and gatherings, traditionally at
tea houses or at traditional
Japanese restaurants.
The siege of Osaka was a series of battles undertaken by the Japanese
Tokugawa shogunate against the
Toyotomi clan, and ending in the clan's dissolution. Divided into two stages (the winter campaign and the summer campaign), and lasting from 1614 to 1615, the siege put an end to the last major armed opposition to the shogunate's establishment. This eight-metre-long (26 ft) painting, titled The Summer Battle of Osaka Castle and executed on a
Japanese folding screen, illustrates
Osaka Castle under siege, and was commissioned by the daimyoKuroda Nagamasa, who took a team of painters with him to the battlefield to record the event. The painting depicts 5071 people and 21 generals, and is held in the collection of Osaka Castle.
The Japanese government-issued dollar was a form of currency issued between 1942 and 1945 for use within the territories of Singapore, Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak and Brunei, under occupation by
Imperial Japan during World War II. The currency, informally referred to as "banana money", was released solely in the form of banknotes, as metals were considered essential to the war effort. The languages used on the notes were reduced to English and Japanese. Each note bears a different obverse and reverse design, but all have a similar layout, and were marked with stamped block letters that begin with "M" for "Malaya". This 1942 five-cent Japanese-issued banknote is part of the
National Numismatic Collection at the
Smithsonian Institution.
Other denominations: '"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000011-QINU`"'
A registration card for
Louis Wijnhamer (1904–1975), an ethnic Dutch humanitarian who was captured soon after the Empire of Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies in March 1942. Prior to the occupation, many ethnic Europeans had refused to leave, expecting the Japanese occupation government to keep a Dutch administration in place. When Japanese troops took control of government infrastructure and services such as ports and postal services, 100,000 European (and some Chinese) civilians were interned in prisoner-of-war camps where the death rates were between 13 and 30 per cent. Wijnhamer was interned in a series of camps throughout Southeast Asia and, after the
surrender of Japan, returned to what was now Indonesia, where he lived until his death.
Geisha (芸者) are traditional Japanese artist-entertainers. Geisha were very common in the
18th and
19th centuries, and are still in existence today, although their numbers are dwindling.
The geisha tradition evolved from the taikomochi or hōkan, similar to court
jesters. Geisha were traditionally trained from young
childhood although modern geisha begin their training, which remains extremely long and difficult, at much older age.
Asahi Breweries is a Japanese global beer, spirits, soft drinks and food business group. This photograph, taken during the
blue hour with a full moon, shows the headquarters of Asahi Breweries in
Sumida, Tokyo, as viewed from the wharf on the
Sumida River near Azuma Bridge. The
Asahi Beer Hall, topped by the Asahi Flame, designed by
Philippe Starck, is visible on the right, with the
Tokyo Skytree in the background on the left.
1984 - The perpetrator of the
Glico Morinaga case, or the "man of 20 faces," announces the end of his attempts to extort money from various food companies.
Lady Saigō (西郷局 or 西郷の局Saigō no Tsubone, 1552 – 1 July 1589), also known as Oai, was one of the concubines of
Tokugawa Ieyasu, the
samurai lord who unified Japan at the end of the sixteenth century and then ruled as shōgun. She was also the mother of the second Tokugawa shōgun,
Tokugawa Hidetada. Her contributions were considered so significant that she was posthumously inducted to the
Senior First Rank of the
Imperial Court, the highest honor that could be conferred by the
Emperor of Japan.
During their relationship, Lady Saigō influenced Ieyasu's philosophies, choice of allies, and policies as he rose to power during the late
Sengoku period, and she thus had an indirect effect on the organization and composition of the
Tokugawa shogunate. Although less is known of her than some other figures of the era, she is generally regarded as the "power behind the throne", and her life has been compared to a "
Cinderella story" of
feudal Japan. (Full article...)
Kagawa Prefecture is a
prefecture of
Japan located on
Shikokuisland. The capital is
Takamatsu. Kagawa was formerly known as
Sanuki Province. For the brief period between August 1876 and December 1888, Kagawa was made a part of
Ehime Prefecture. Located in Kagawa's capital city, Takamatsu, the mountain of Yashima was the battlefield for one of the best-known battles between the Heike and the Genji clans. The name Yashima means literally 'roof island'. Yashima, so called because of its shape like the roof of a traditional Japanese farm house, is a mesa headland jutting out into the Seto Inland Sea. But at the time when the Genpei War was fought, it was, as is implied by the name, an island separated from the mainland by the Aibikigawa River.The military forces of the Heikes, defeated at Ichinotani, retreated to Yashima with Emperor Antoku and set up his temporary court and their headquarters at Dannoura Inlet of Yashima. Yashima retains many names related to the historic battle. According to the stories, the main battlefield was the whole Dannoura area, where now stands Yashima-higashi Primary School. Visitors now find the old court site of Emperor Antoku, Tombs of Sato Tsugunobu and Kikuomaru, Rock on which Nasuno Yoichi prayed for success of his feat, Rock on which the bestriding Yoichi shot his arrow at the fan.
Image 37Mount Aso 4 pyroclastic flow and the spread of Aso 4 tephra (90,000 to 85,000 years ago). The pyroclastic flow reached almost the whole area of Kyushu, and volcanic ash was deposited of 15 cm in a wide area from Kyushu to southern Hokkaido. (from Geography of Japan)
Image 50Samurai of the Satsuma Domain during the Boshin War (from History of Japan)
Image 51Samurai could
kill a commoner for the slightest insult and were widely feared by the Japanese population. Edo period, 1798 (from History of Japan)
Image 58Japanese experts inspect the scene of the alleged railway sabotage on South Manchurian Railway that led to the
Mukden Incident and the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. (from History of Japan)
Image 60A social hierarchy chart based on old academic theories. Such hierarchical diagrams were removed from Japanese textbooks after various studies in the 1990s revealed that peasants, craftsmen, and merchants were in fact equal and merely social categories. Successive shoguns held the highest or near-highest
court ranks, higher than most court nobles. (from History of Japan)
Image 66Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder of the Kamakura shogunate in 1192. This was the first
military government in which the shogun with the
samurai were the de facto rulers of Japan. (from History of Japan)
Image 79The Kuril Islands, with their Russian names. The borders of the Treaty of Shimoda (1855) and the Treaty of St. Petersburg (1875) are shown in red. Currently, all islands northeast of Hokkaido are administered by Russia. (from Geography of Japan)
Image 84Japanese archipelago with outlined islands (from Geography of Japan)
Image 85Relief map of the land and the seabed of Japan. It shows the surface and underwater terrain of the Japanese archipelago. (from Geography of Japan)
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