Understanding Japanese culture

Talk with anyone about Japanese culture and most of them will immediately reply back with the word 'kung fu'. While there is no doubt that Japan is one of the major contributors of martial arts, the fact that Japanese culture is nothing else apart from martial arts is a big hogwash. There are many other things in Japan that make it a country that is rich in culture and that has provided the world with some famous artists, painters among others. Japanese culture has moved a long way from the ancient days to the current generation. It has influenced many neighboring countries by its culture and it has also been influenced by the cultures of neighboring countries.

You should not be surprised if you find traces of other cultures in Japanese culture too. This is what international culture is all about. Details about the culture of a country can never be complete without mentioning about its language and religion and the same holds true for Japanese culture true. The language of the Japanese people might sound harsh to others, but that is due to the way it is being spoken. Listen to any poem recitation session in the Japanese language and you will be amazed at the way the narrator accentuates each word, emphasizing on them at times to get their point across. The written Japanese language consists of a combination of three different scripts and one of them is Hiragana whose characters are derived and are based on the cursive script of China.

The Katakana script has been derived from Chinese characters too and is a shorthand version of the same. The main script used by the Japanese is Kanji and it is the most popular one too. This too has been derived from China. Apart from these characters, the Latin alphabets are also used in Japan, but they are mainly used for advertising purposes and for designing the logos of Japanese companies. While Hindu-Arabic numerals are used, it is more common to see the Sino-Japanese numerals. The tradition and culture of a country depends a lot upon the performing and different arts and it is here where Japanese culture makes its presence felt most.

Japanese artists like Ogura Yonesuke Itoh (1870-1940) and Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858) are famous all over the world for their paintings and an international display of art will not be complete without their work. There are some movie directors who have left their impression on the international by depicting realistic movies and a compilation of their names cannot be complete without including the name of the famous Japanese movie director, Kurosawa Akira (1910-1998) who has directed a number of world famous movies. Some of his movies have portrayed the Second World War in a such a way that is difficult to replicate. This goes a long way to tell about his upbringing. He has also directed some other famous Japanese movies which show of the richness of Japanese culture, including martial arts, in Sugata Sanshiro.

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