For a traveler, Japan is a place of contrasts – the new world or the big city has the high-tech digital gadgetry, vibrant pop-culture and electronic billboards, while the towns still stick to the ancient Japanese tradition. It has its ancient history, temples and shrines, art, sculpture, architecture, theater, geishas, sumo wrestlers, samurais, cherry blossoms, tea ceremonies, kimono culture, festivals, the rail pass, Japanese music, the nightlife and its vibrant pop-culture. There are just too many things that make Japan unique and the world awed, so this section of our Japan Travel Guide will try to capture some of what makes Japan a top-notch travel destination.

Irezumi

Irezumi is the art of Japanese tattoo. While tattooing did not originate from Japan as this art form has been existent since 2000 BC with the early Egyptians, the Japanese form of tattooing is very unique in its use of colors and its very Japanese designs. However, tattooing was not an art form in the early days. It was actually used as punishment for criminals and was once closely link with the yakuza of the Japanese underworld. It was used in 1720 up to 1870 to replace the more physical punishment of amputating the ear or the nose. Each offense merit the receipt of the ring tattoo around an arm or a criminal may get a character tattoo on the forehead.

Since Japan’s tradition embodies Confucianism and Buddhism, body art or tattoos were actually forbidden in the olden days. From 1603 to around 1868, during the Edo Period, art called ukiyo-e or the art of making pictures of the floating world became very popular. It was the time when the shoguns ruled Japan, the country isolated from its neighbors and the rest of the world and different forms of pleasure abound – theaters, teahouses, geishas, restaurants and courtesans. Ukiyo-e artist made prints from woodblocks advertising performances, actors, beautiful girls working in teahouses as well as landscapes. Most of these became the basis for the art form of irezumi, where laborers and firemen had body tattoos and yujos or prostitutes had their bodies decorated as a means to increase their attractiveness. One ukiyo-e artist, Kuniyoshi Utagawa published six popular designs used by the Suidoken, Japanese-style Robin Hoods in a novel. It was later republished with full color illustrations done by Katsushita Hokusai, showing the 108 Heroes of the Suidoken in their glorious full-body tattoos which soon created a trend. Utagawa’s tattoo print designs are still used by irezumi artists to this day.

Ikebana

Another unique thing that Japan has is ikebana or the Japanese art of flower arranging. In English, ikebana means keeping flowers alive. It is not one style though, with different schools teaching different techniques, as well as the vase and plants being used for the arrangements. Some of the most popular schools for ikebana are Sogetsu, Ohara and Ikenobo, with the latter being the oldest school, founded during the 15th century by Ikenobo Senkei, a Buddhist priest. Their style is called rikka or standing flowers, which include seven branches to represent the hills, waterfalls, valleys, from the highest to the lowest. A simpler style, using only three main branches called as ten or heaven, chi or earth and jin or man is called seika and for tea ceremonies, their arrangement is called nagaire. The style that Ohara created is called moribana where the flowers are piled up on shallow and flat containers. Western culture already had an influence in Japan when the style was developed and the school used Western plants in their arrangements, which still retained its formal style although a free-style or jiyuka arrangement was also developed.

The founder of Sogetsu school, Teshigahara Sofu on the other hand helped spread ikebana to the wives of the US servicemen stationed in Japan as well as to the larger international audience. He also helped develop a more avant garde style of ikebana called zen-eibana that introduced new materials, including steel, plaster and plastic. Ikebana is still very popular today and is practiced by about 15 million young women in Japan and taught by more than 60,000 teachers around the globe.

Sushi

Sushi became popular in Japan, but it actually came from somewhere in Southeast Asia passing through China before it reached Japan where it became the most popular dishes within Japan and outside the country. The original type of sushi, called nare-zushi was made from salted fish wrapped in fermented rice that was stored for several months. The Muromachi period saw the birth of the second type of sushi, called namanare that used partially raw fish wrapped in rice and eaten as soon as possible before it loses its natural flavor. The third type was haya-zushi, popular during the Edo period. This sushi used rice and fish, with the rice cooked and mixed with vinegar. Other ingredients such as vegetables and dried foodstuff were also added. This is the most popular type of sushi, and with variations, is still being enjoyed today. Today there are different ways to serve sushi. Nigiri consists of small rice balls with shellfish or fish placed on top. Tuna, eel, fried egg, octopus, shrimp or squid are also used. Gunkan is made by wrapping a small amount of sushi rice with dried seaweed to form a cup and filling the top with raw fish eggs or other types of seafood, such as sea urchin. Norimaki are sushi rolls, with sushi rice place over a sheet of dried seaweed or nori, together with vegetable strips, egg omelette strips, crab meat and other ingredients, rolled into a long log and cut into different thicknesses. Some are done inside out, with the nori inside and the rice on the outside and coated with tiny fish eggs. The latter version is only done outside Japan. Temaki are made from nori rolled into a cone and filled with sushi rice, vegetables and seafood. Oshizushi on the other hand presses the fish into the rice placed in a wooden box. Inari is different as it uses deep fried slabs of tofu (aburaage) as the pockets for the sushi rice. Chirashi is the largest because the sushi rice is spread over a flat round dish and topped with mushrooms, vegetables and seafood.

Kimono

Kimono is the traditional dress in Japan, worn by children, men and women and one of the most recognized traditional clothing around the world. Its other name is gofuku which means the “clothes of Wu” as the kimono was heavily influenced by the traditional dress of China. It went through several transformations since its early beginning and today some exceptional kimonos are considered great works of art. Different types of kimono are worn for different occasions, but the regular use is slowly diminishing because of the propensity of the young Japanese people for wearing the latest in Western clothing. Another factor is the cost of a good kimono, which is made of silk and normally hand printed or stenciled, with parts machine-stitched but most parts require hand stitching. A decent silk kimono can cost nearly a million yen. However, the traditional dress is still worn for special occasions, during graduation, weddings, attending tea ceremonies and other formal occasions. Young single women and girls normally wear a colorful version of the kimono called furisode with an equally bright obi. Simple kimonos with geometric patters are called Edo komon and are usually used as casual wear. Imagine the cost of wearing kimonos for a traditional Japanese wedding where the bride and groom go through several changes. Initially the bride will wear an elaborate hairpiece with a white heavily embroidered kimono called shiromuku while the groom will be in a black one made from habutae silk (Japanese silk) that will have the family crest. Under it is a pleated skirt called hakama and a haori, a half length black coat.

Putting on a kimono is done in stages. First you put on the white cotton socks called tabi, then the undergarments as well as a plain top and a wrap-around skirt. Over these goes the nagajuban, an under-kimono that will be tied with a belt called a datemaki. Finally the outer kimono is worn, with the left side going over the right. This has to be strictly followed since using the right side over the left is reserved for the dead. For women, a wide obi or sash is wrapped around the waist and tied at the back. It is also important that an inch of the collar or haneri of the nagajuban shows under the collar of the outer kimono. Zori sandals are worn when going out.

Today a modern and casual version of the kimono made of cotton called the yukata can be seen worn by men, women and children.

Sakura

It is the name given by the Japanese to the cherry blossoms. The Japanese cherry starts to bloom in Okinawa by January of each year and moves inwards to Kyoto, Tokyo and Hokkaido, by the early part of April. It has become a Japanese tradition to have family and friends gather under the blooming trees and have a picnic or hanami. There are even cherry blossom viewing parties in some parts of Japan. It was said that this tradition was started during the Nara Period. The cherry blossom is also used as a symbol of mono no aware, a Japanese word for impermanence, since the cherry blossom is extremely beautiful but lasts only for a very short time and is therefore used in association with mortality.

Zen Gardens

Buddhism has a h3 influence in Japanese culture and rock gardens or Zen gardens or dry landscapes are influenced by Zen Buddhism. A traditional Japanese garden requires continued maintenance from gardeners who are experts in the art of pruning and training. In Karesansui gardens, the representation is more abstract., creating natural landscapes using white sand, moss, pruned trees and arranged stones. Water is not present in Karesansui gardens. This practice had its beginnings during the Muromachi Period from 1392 to 1568. Rake or unraked sand or even gravel is used to symbolize lakes, rivers, ocean or the sea. Raking creates patterns that replicate the rippling water or waves and rakes are specially designed to create different patterns of ridges. It is said that Zen priests use this to help them concentrate and achieve perfection. Stones, moss and miniature topiaries are used to represent mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, people and forested lands. It is to be noted that the sand or gravel is raked everyday.

Noh Theater

Noh is a live theater form that dates back over six hundred years. One characteristic that is associated with this theater form is the mask. There are symbolism attached to the mask worn during a Noh stage play, and there are also rules to follow on who and when a mask is worn. A Noh play is traditionally performed in an outdoor stage that has four columns to support a roof. Its origins are from some form of Shinto rituals called Sarugaku and juggling and acrobatics derived from Chinese song-and-dance performances called Dengaku. Noh plays are normally very slow and the narration and chants are delivered monotonously.

The main actor is called the shite while his companions are called tsure. The main actor may wear a mask if he is portraying a young person, a woman, an old man or a supernatural character. The tsure will also be masked if this is the case. If the main actor portrays a male adult character, he does not wear a mask. The young male actors (boys) or kokata and the waki or secondary characters do not wear masks. They come out first to set the stage for the appearance of the shite. The fan is a regular prop in Noh, and is used as in different ways, as walking sticks, as letters, swords, bottles or pipes.

The stage design for a Noh play is simple. A painted board with a pine tree is behind. The three open sides are used as the performance areas. On stage right is a walkway called hashigakari, leading off from the entrance. Along this walkway will be three small pine trees to indicate the areas where the actor may stop to deliver his lines before he comes fully on stage under the roof. The musicians will be lined up in front of the painter backdrop to provide the music and sound to accompany the recitation and the dances. On stage left will be the chanters, about eight to twelve of them arranged in two rows. They will provide the narration if the actor is dancing.

Kabuki Theater

Kabuki is a play reserved for men and women can be part of the audience. However, in its early beginnings it was actually started by a woman, Okuni who came from a temple and believed to have some shamanistic background. She had a dance company and they performed on a dry river bed some 400 years ago. The content of the skits and the dances were somewhat suggestive. The word Kabuki now translates to song, dance and skill, although the adjective was meant to describe eccentricity, unconventional and sometimes shocking behavior that were previously applied to women’s Kabuki (Onna Kabuki). During the Tokugawa Period, the military dictatorship was strict and frown upon the elevation of women’s position and banned them from performing since the performers are also available to the audience off-stage and are labeled immoral. Yaro Kabuki was then started, with the males replacing the female performers and the onnagata role was born.

The stage is almost like that of the Noh theater but the long walkway is called hanamichi or flower way, presumed to be derived from the fact that the actors receive monetary gifts at this area from patrons and fans. Older theaters even used revolving stages so that the actors can just walk into the next scene without any stage break. Kabuki is basically a dance form and Kabuki actors are very serious about their craft and undergo rigorous training as the hierarchical system within their niche is very strict. Aside from keeping their slim figures and learning the art of being feminine, they also have to learn difficult movements like mai that involves keeping the heels together and close to the floor while circling. Odori is a series of turns and gestures derived from folk dances and miming or furi which usually uses different props including fans.

Kabuki plays have three main categories, sewamono, shosagoto, and jidaimono. Shosagoto is about dance, jidaimono is about history and sewamono is more about the lives of common folks. Jidaimono is usually set during the Heian and Kamamura periods or during the time of the Japanese civil war with the Genji and Haike clans. The plays has a superhero flavor with aristocrats, lords, empresses, princesses and samurais. Sewamono is about ordinary people, but still steeped in history, involving characters such as shopkeepers, policemen and firemen, merchants and prostitutes, with stories about conflicts in human emotions (ninjo) or duty to family or close relations (giri). Forbidden love is a common topic as this provides a great dramatic backdrop for conflict.

Heavy makeup and costumes are part of Kabuki. When performing in a jidaimono, the actors usually appear brusque and powerful, shown by their overly over-scaled  and padded costumes and wigs and their faces, arms and legs painted with stripes in black, red and blue. This makeup style is called kumadori and their acting is called aragato. On the other hand, when it is a sewamono performance, the acting is soft and refined called wagoto. Here the actors are required to portray intense emotions as the plots are usually centered on love, romance and double suicide.

Sumo Wrestling

Sumo wrestling is Japan’s national sport and it was invented in ancient times to entertain the Shinto gods, therefore the sport has a religious background. The rule in sumo wrestling is quite simple. The first player who touches the ground first with any part of his body except the soles of his feet or were taken out of the ring is the loser. The ring or dohyō is elevated, covered with clay and topped with a layer of sand. A match can last for only a few seconds and going over a minute can be rare. The grand champion or yokozuna retains his status even if he loses his next matches but will be required to retire if his succeeding performances are below par. Below the yokozuna is the ozeki, followed by the sekiwake. The lowest rank is the komusubi. A series of matches and posted wins are needed to be elevated to each rank. Akebono, a Hawaiian was the first foreigner to achieve the rank of yokozuna. He received that rank in 1993.

There is no weight class in sumo wrestling that is why the wrestlers have to prepare for any type of opponent, hence their usually large body size. Aside from that, the life of a sumo wrestler or a rikishi is highly regimented, from their diet, daily lives and their manner of dressing is steeped in rules and tradition. The have to grow their hair into a top knot (chonmage), wear traditional sandals and a yukata, in a style that depends on their rank.

During a bout, the wrestler dresses in a traditional silk, fringed and heavily embroidered apron called keshomawasi. This is worn when the wrestler enters the ring during the pre-match. After they have been introduced they will change into the regular mawashi. Other rituals include facing the audience after going up the ring, clapping his hands and stomping his legs in a shiko exercise. This is done to drive the evil spirit away from the ring. After his name is announced, the wrestler will move to his corner, given a ladle of water to cleanse his mouth (chikara-mizu) and dry his lips with a paper tissue (chicara-gami). The players then step into the ring, squats and face each other, clap their hands and spread their arms wide to show that there are no hidden weapons then return to their corner. The then throw a handful of salt on the ring to purify their playing ground.

Samurai

Samurai to the western world is synonymous with the sword. However, these warriors of Japan, formed to subdue the Emishi people during the Heian Period who were creating trouble in the Tohoku region. From their simple but strict beginnings, with their own code of ethics, called bushido or the way of the warriors, their fierce loyalty to their masters, their self disciple and ethical way of living following Zen Buddhism and their fighting skills have inspired several films, books, comics and TV series. After being hired by powerful landlords, two mighty clans staged a war on who will eventually rule the whole country. The Minamoto and Taira clans challenged the government and the former emerged the victors, and in 1192 set up a military government with a shogun as the highest commander of the military. Feudal Japan was reunited during the Edo Period and the samurai became a class of their own, with farmers, artisans and merchants below them. They are however required to live in castle towns where their residences are closest to the castles. They are also allowed to carry their swords or katana. They are under the payroll of the feudal lords or daimyo. Those samurai that do not have masters were called ronin. The samurai class was abolished in 1868 when feudalism was abolished in Japan.

Bonsai

Just like ikebana, bonsai coined from the bon or a shallow tray or pot and sai or planting, is a Japanese art form. This is the art of planting and training a plant to grow into full maturity in miniature. The purpose of a bonsai is two-pronged. It provides an object for contemplation to the viewer and it’s an exercise in creativity, ingenuity and effort in the part of the grower. Aesthetics is very much involved in the creation of a good bonsai and much effort is exerted to replicate how the miniature tree or trees will look like in their mature, full-size form. The grower uses different techniques to achieve a restricted but healthy growth, distribute foliage and branches and follow the grower’s design. It starts with selecting the finest specimen, then pruning and training branches, reducing roots, potting them on a suitable medium, limiting growth of foliage and may include grafting.

Early scrolls from the 1191 period were the first evidence of dwarfed potted plants in Japan. Accordingly only the wealthy can afford to have these miniature plants, which were then imported from China. Later Zen Buddhist monks taught the art in monasteries, and introduced them to political leaders as a sing of learning and leadership. Bonsai were used then to decorate gardens and homes. Some members of the ruling class then dedicated much of their time in their creating their bonsai gardens and even those in the lower classes have taken to creating their own versions.

The oldest living bonsai that is still around is from the 17th century and is displayed at the Tokyo Imperial Palace. It is considered a natural treasure in Japan and is about 500 years old. It is believed to have been created around 1610 and cared for by Tokugawa Iemitsu, 3rd shogun of the Tokugawa Dynasty and the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada. The bonsai used a five-needle pine, known as the Sandai-Shogun-No Matsu.

Manga

The young and not so young generation are very much into mange and anime, the types of comics and animated characters that originated from Japan. Mangas are serialized comic books and printed cartoons presented in a style that was developed in the 19th century. They were inspired by earlier Japanese art and evolved into a more modern form after World War II, with a distinct drawing style and presentation. Manga became a huge industry and comes in a broad range of subjects, including comedy, sports, romance, games, action-adventure, mystery, horror, fantasy, science fiction, business and commerce and sexuality. Manga books are usually printed in black and white and a mangaka, a manga artist normally works in his own studio with some assistants and a creative editor who would be working from a publishing company.

Astro Boy, created by Osamu Tezuka and Sazae-san by Machicko Hasegawa are two of the earliest and most popular manga characters. Popular stories include Oh My Goddess!, Ghost in the Shell, Sailor Moon, Ice Blade and Parasyte. Several popular manga characters and publications have sprung since then. And the increasing number of readers provided the incentive for creators and writers to publish shojō manga for girls and shōnen manga for boys. And there are now a number of female manga artists that are extremely popular, some of which are Riyoki Ikeda, Keiko Takemiya, Hagio Moto, Ryoko Yamagishi and Yumiko Oshima.

Anime

It is an abbreviation for animation but by now it has become a regular word and go hand in hand with manga. From Japan, it gained a very large following around the globe. Anime comes in two forms, computer-generated and hand-drawn. It has found its way in books, film, television, music videos, video games and product commercials. Forward-thinking Japanese filmmakers experimented with different animation techniques at the beginning of the 20th century.

It went main stream by the 1930s although there were competition from local animators who were still not using cel animation and other international animation producers. Pioneers in anime were Mitsuyo Seo and Kenzō Masaoka and they received government funding because their work was being used both for propaganda and education. Masaoka produced the first anime with voice, Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka in 1933 and Seo directed Momotaro’s Divine Sea Warriors, the first full length animated film in 1945, sponsored by the  Imperial Navy of Japan.

Early anime shows that gained worldwide patronage include the mecha or super robots like Gundam, Mazinger Z, Tetsujin 28-go, Space Battleship Yamato, Neon Genesis Evangelion and the Super Dimension Fortress Macross.

Anime design is a very distinct art style. The characters usually have elongated limbs, large eyes and big hair. Proportions are exaggerated, usually working on eight heads tall. The unusually large eyes are said to have been inspired by the eyes of Bambi and Betty Boop. Osamu Tezuka is credited to starting this trend because he believes that the large eyes can show the depth and range of emotion more clearly and used it first in his manga entitled Ribbon no Kishi. There are already hundreds of anime available today but some of the classic ones are still shown everywhere, such as Lupin III, Dragon Ball, Pokémon, One Piece, Naruto, Captain Tsubasa, Slam Dunk and Prince of Tennis.

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