Kamen Rider OOO TaMaShi Combo Sound

Catch the Sound is:
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S.I.C Vol.58 W Heat Metal & Luna Trigger

Preview of Reverse/Re:Birth

Preview of Reverse/Re:Birth the theme song of Kamen Rider Birth.

Japanese Porn Version of SNSD Do a Dance Rendition of Genie

The Beautiful Legged Legends:
Anri Suzuki
Anri Hoshizaki
Minto Suzuki
Aya Kiritani
Riona Tsubasa

This is not the first time that Japan has done look-a-like porn with many celebrities from Boa and Namie to Morning Musume and AKB48.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF JAPANESE FOOD

If you ever wanted to find out more about a particular Japanese food or dish this is the place to find it. If it is not here we will find out about it for you!  

Agedashi Tofu
Fried tofu served with light soy sauce.

Bentos
A Japanese lunch box that may contain a variety of different foods.

Chankonabe
This is famous as a sumo wrestler's dish. A variety of ingredients such as meat, fish and vegetables are cooked at the table in a large pot.

Chawanmushi
Cup-steamed egg custard with chicken, shrimp and vegetables. Trefoil leaves are often put on top as a garnish.

Chirashi-zushi
A dish of sliced raw fish, vegetables and pickles on sushi rice (vinegared rice) served in a layered lacquer box.

Curry Rice
Japanese-style mild curry on rice.

Daifuku
A bun stuffed with sweet red bean paste.

Donburi
Is the bowl served with a dish such as Katsudon.

Dorayaki
A pancake with sweet red bean paste inside.

Fugu
Japanese puffer fish, a highly toxic fish eaten in Japan from approved restaurants.

Gyoza
Fried dumplings with pork and leek.

Gyudon
A bowl of rice topped with thinly sliced beef and onions which have been cooked together in a soy-flavoured sauce.

Gyu Tataki
Raw beef slices served with garlic, spring onion and soy-flavoured sauce.

Inari-zushi
A kind of sushi wrapped with sweet bean curd.

Ishiyaki Imo
Sweet potatoes baked over hot stones. Selling from a cart equipped with such an oven, the vendor calls out a chant-like "ishi-yaki-imo" to attract customers.

Katsudon
A bowl of rice topped with deep fried crumbed pork and egg.

Kitsune Udon
A bowl of white thick noodles and soup topped by sweet bean curd.

Maki-zushi
Vinegared rice rolled in a sheet of seaweed usually with egg, vegetables or dried gourd in the center. It is served in bite-sized pieces.

Makunouchi Bento
A box lunch usually consists of small rice balls sprinkled with black sesame seeds and an assortment of broiled fish or fish cakes, rolled omelettes, vegetables and pickles.

Miso Shiru
Fermented soybean paste soup with some fish or vegetables served in a layered lacquer bowl.

Nabeyaki Udon
A pan of white thick noodles and soup served with deep fried prawn and vegetables.

Nasu Dengaku
Grilled eggplant with sweet soy bean paste.

Nigiri-zushi
A kind of sushi consisting of a slice of raw fish on a small oval-shaped ball of vinegared rice.

Ochazuke
A large bowl of rice with hot water or green tea poured over it. Broiled salted salmon, cod roe, dried laver or pickles are usually put on top. A little wasabi (Japanese horseradish) may be added.

Oden
A stew in which a variety of ingredients such as tofu, eggs, white radish, fried fish paste and potatoes boiled together in a large pot of seasoned fish broth. Hot mustard is served as a condiment.

Ohagi
An oval-shaped sweet made from sticky rice coated with sweet red bean paste.

Okonomiyaki
A Japanese-style pancake usually grilled on an iron plate. It is made from batter with bits of meat, seafood, egg and chopped cabbage.

Osuimono
Clear soy base soup with some fish or vegetables served in a layered lacquer bowl.

Oyakodon
A bowl of rice topped with chicken and egg in a soy-flavoured sauce.

Ramen
A bowl of yellow noodles and soup with slices of roast pork, fishcake and spring onion.

Sashimi
Sliced raw fish eaten after being dipped in soy sauce mixed with wasabi. Among the most popular fish are tuna, yellowtail and cuttlefish.

Sekihan
Sticky rice steamed with red beans. Since red is considered to be the color of joy, it is prepared for auspicious occasions such as festivals and birthdays.

Shabu Shabu
A dish of thinly sliced beef and vegetables cooked in a shallow pan. The meat is first quickly boiled in broth and then dipped in ponzu & sesame sauces.

Somen
Very thin white noodles served with slices of cucumber and other vegetables in a large glass bowl of icy water. Eaten after being dipped in a soy-flavoured sauce.

Sukiyaki
A dish of thinly sliced beef, tofu, onions, siitake mushrooms, corn marigold and other vegetables cooked in a pan at the table. Sugar, soy sauce and sake are added for flavour.

Takosu
A kind of Japanese salad made of vinegared octopus and vegetables.

Takoyaki
Grilled octopus dumpling including batter, octopus and spring onion. Sold at street stands, it is grilled on an iron plate and served with shaved bonito and a thick sauce.

Tanuki Soba
A bowl of brown noodles and soup topped by sweet bean curd.

Tatsuta Age
Deep fried marinated chicken with garlic, ginger and soy sauce.

Tempra
Dish of prawns, small fish, squid and vegetables deep-fried after being in batter. It is served with a light say sauce.

Teppanyaki
A fried dish on a hot plate with a combination of seafood or meat and vegetables.

Tonkatsu
Deep fried crumbed pork served with Japanese BBQ sauce.

Tsukemono
Pickled vegetables in salt, rice bran, miso or sake sediment. They are usually served to complement other dishes.

Tsukudani
A preserved food made by boiling an ingredient, which may be fish, shellfish, a vegetable or seaweed, with sugar and soy sauce.

Unaju
A dish of grilled eel on rice with a sweet glaze sauce served in a layered lacquer box.

Yakimeshi
Japanese-style fried rice with some meat, vegetables and egg.

Yakisoba
Fried noodles with pork or squid and vegetables.

Yakitori
Chunks of chicken and vegetables arranged on bamboo skewers grilled over a charcoal fire and dipped in a special sweet soy sauce.

Yakizakana
Grilled fish. Among the most popular fish are saury, yellowtail and salmon.

Yasai Itame
Fried vegetables such as cabbage, beansprouts and bell pepper with some meat.

Yosenabe
A dish of various kind of meat or fish and vegetables cooked in a earthen pot at the table. Served with ponzu or sesame sauce.

Zaru Soba
Cold brown noodles dish dipped in a sauce with wasabi, spring onion and quail egg.

Zoni
A soup containing rice cakes and vegetables. It is a special dish for the New Year holidays and each region has different style.

Zosui
A kind of porridge of rice and vegetables. Boiled rice is cooked in a soup and then mixed with trefoil leaves, egg or seafood.

Japanese Culture : Samurai

Samurai (侍 or sometimes 士) is a common term for a warrior in pre-industrial Japan. A more appropriate term is bushi (武士) (lit. "war-man") which came into use during the Edo period. However, the term samurai now usually refers to warrior nobility, not, for example, ashigaru or foot soldiers. The samurai with no attachment to a clan or daimyo was called a ronin (lit. "wave-man"). 


Samurai were expected to be cultured and literate, and over time, samurai during the Tokugawa era gradually lost their military function. By the end of the Tokugawa, samurai were essentially civilian bureaucrats for the daimyo with their swords serving only ceremonial purposes. With the Meiji reforms in the late 19th century, the samurai were abolished as a distinct class in favour of a western-style national army. The strict code that they followed, called bushido, still survives in present-day Japanese society, as do many other aspects of their way of life. 

Etymology of Samurai

The word samurai has its origins in the pre-Heian period Japan when it was pronounced saburai, meaning servant or attendant. It was not until the early modern period, namely the Azuchi-Momoyama period and early Edo period of the late 16th and early 17th centuries that the word saburai became substituted with samurai. However, by then, the meaning had already long before changed.

During the era of the rule of the samurai, the earlier term yumitori (“bowman”) was also used as an honorary title of an accomplished warrior even when swordsmanship had become more important. Japanese archery (kyujutsu), is still strongly associated with the war god Hachiman.

Samurai Picture

 Picture above of Japanese samurai in armour, 1860s. Photograph by Felice Beato.

SAMURAI HISTORY

Origin of Samurai

Before the Heian period, the army in Japan was modelled after the Chinese army and under the direct command of the emperor. Except for slaves, every able-bodied man had the duty of enlisting for the army. These men had to supply themselves, and many gave up returning and settled down on their way home. This was treated as a part of taxation and it could be substituted with other forms of tax such as bolts of cloth. These men were called Sakimori (防人, lit. "defenders"), but they are not related to samurai.

Samurai Armour - Iron helmet and armour with gilt bronze decoration, Kofun era, 5th century. 

Tokyo National Museum. Photo by PHG

In the early Heian, the late 8th and early 9th centuries, Emperor Kammu sought to consolidate and expand his rule in northern Honshu. The armies he sent to conquer the rebellious Emishi lacked motivation and discipline and were unable to prevail. He then introduced the title of Seiitaishogun (征夷大将軍) or shogun and began to rely on the powerful regional clans to conquer the Emishi. Skilled in mounted combat and archery, these clan warriors became the emperor's preferred tool for putting down rebellions. Even though they may have been educated, the Imperial court officials considered 7th to 9th century warriors to be crude and barbaric.

During the Heian period, the emperor's army was disbanded and the emperor's power gradually declined. While the emperor was still the ruler, powerful clans around Kyoto assumed positions of ministers and their relatives bought their positions of magistrates to collect taxes. To repay their debts and amass wealth, they often imposed heavy taxes and many farmers were forced to leave their lands. Regional clans grew powerful by offering lower taxes to their subjects as well as freedom from conscription. These clans armed themselves to repel other clans and magistrates from collecting taxes. They would eventually form themselves into armed parties and became samurai.

The samurai came from guards of the imperial palace and from private guards that the clans employed. They also acted as a police force in and around Kyoto. These forerunners of what we now know as samurai had ruler-sponsored equipment and were required to hone their martial skills. They were saburai, servants, yet their advantage of being the sole armed party increasingly became apparent. By promising protection and gaining political clout through political marriages they amassed power, eventually surpassing the ruling aristocrats.

Some clans originally were farmers that had been driven to arms to protect themselves from the imperially appointed magistrates sent to govern their lands and collect taxes. These clans formed alliances to protect themselves against more powerful clans. By the mid-Heian, they had adopted Japanese-style armor and weapons and laid the foundation of bushido, their famous ethical code.

After the 11th century, Samurai were expected to be cultured and literate. Samurai lived up to the ancient saying "Bun Bu Ryo Do" (lit. literary arts, military arts, both ways) or "The pen and the sword in accord". An early term for warrior "Uruwashii" was a combination of the kanji for literary study ("bun") and military arts ("bu") and is mentioned in the Heike Monogatari (late 12th century). The Heike Monogatari makes references to the educated poet-swordsman ideal in mention of Taira no Tadanori's death:

"Friends and foes alike wet their sleeves with tears and said, "What a pity! Tadanori was a great general, pre-eminent in the arts of both sword and poetry."

According to William Scott Wilson in his book Ideals of the Samurai: 

"The warriors in the Heike Monogatari served as models for the educated warriors of later generations, and the ideals depicted by them were not assumed to be beyond reach. Rather, these ideals were vigorously pursued in the upper echelons of warrior society and recommended as the proper form of the Japanese man of arms. With the Heike Monogatari, the image of the Japanese warrior in literature came to its full maturity." 

Wilson then translates the writings of several warriors who mention the Heike Monogatari as an example for their men to follow.

Kamakura Bakufu and the Rise of Samurai

Originally these warriors were merely mercenaries in the employ of the emperor and noble clans (kuge). But slowly they gathered enough power to usurp the aristocracy and establish the first samurai-dominated government.

As regional clans gathered manpower and resources and struck alliances with each other, they formed a hierarchy centered around a toryo, or chief. This chief was typically a distant relative of the emperor and a lesser member of one of three noble families (the Fujiwara, Minamoto, or the Taira). Though originally sent to provincial areas for a fixed four year term as a magistrate, the toryo declined to return to the capital when their terms ended. Their sons inherited their positions and continued to lead the clans in putting down rebellions throughout Japan during the middle and later Heian.

Because of their rising military and economic power, the clans ultimately became a new force in the politics of the court. Their involvement in the Hogen Rebellion in the late Heian only consolidated their power and finally pit the rival Minamoto and the Taira against each other in the Heiji Rebellion of 1160. Emerging victorious, Taira no Kiyomori became an imperial advisor, the first warrior to attain such a position, and eventually seized control of the central government to establish the first samurai-dominated government and relegate the emperor to a mere figurehead. However, Taira clan was still very much aristocratic than later Minamoto. Instead of expanding or strengthening its military might, Taira clan had its women marry emperors and attempted to control through the emperor.

The Taira and the Minamoto once again clashed in 1180 beginning the Gempei War which ended in 1185. The victorious Minamoto no Yoritomo established the superiority of the samurai over aristocrats. In 1190 he visited Kyoto and in 1192 became Seii Taishogun, establishing the Kamakura Shogunate. Instead of basing its rule in Kyoto, he set up the Shogunate in Kamakura, near his base of power. "Bakufu" means tent government, taken from the encampments the soldiers would live in, in accordance with the Bakufu's status as a military government.

Over time, powerful samurai clans became warrior nobility (buke) who were only nominally under court aristocracy. When samurai began to adopt aristocratic customs like calligraphy, poetry and music, some court aristocrats also began to adopt samurai skills. In spite of various machinations and brief periods of rule by various emperors, the real power was in the hands of the shogun and samurai.

Ashikaga Shogunate and the Feudal Period

Various samurai clans struggled for power over Kamakura and Ashikaga Shogunates.

Zen Buddhism spread among samurai in the 13th century and it helped to shape their standards of conduct, particularly overcoming fear of death and killing. Among the general populace, however, Pure Land Buddhism was favoured.

The Samurai Suenaga facing Mongols, during the Mongol invasions of Japan. Moko Shurai Ekotoba (蒙古襲来絵詞), circa 1293.In the 13th century, Yuan, a Chinese state of the Mongol Empire, invaded Japan twice. Samurai not used to fighting in groups barely survived the first brief battle. However, they were prepared for the second invasion by building a defensive stone wall on the Mongols' landing shore, and adopting a night attack tactic. Overall, the Samurai way of warfare was incapable of inflicting significant damage upon the Mongol army, which favored tactics of large encirclement, blitzkrieg, and employed advanced weaponry (the Samurai were shocked by the Chinese grenades). In the end, it was the second typhoon that destroyed the Mongol armada, and prevented the Yuan Dynasty from annexation of Japan. Japanese deemed the typhoon "the divine wind" or "kamikaze" in Japanese.

Samurai and defensive wall at Hakata. Moko Shurai Ekotoba, (蒙古襲来絵詞) c.1293.Two major military elements were acquired from Mongol invasions: 

1) the importance of infantry and 2) the weakness of Japanese longbows and of the conventional Samurai cavalry against the invaders. As the result of this, Samurai gradually replaced the way of bow with the way of "blades". At the beginning of 14th century, swords and spears became the mainstream among Japanese samurai warlords. An innovation on Japanese sword was produced by a blacksmith called Masamune in the 14th century; the two-layer structure of soft and hard iron was adopted and the style spread rapidly with its amazing cutting power and endurance in continuous use. Since then, Japanese swords had been recognized as one of the most potent hand weapons during the pre-industrial era of East Asia. It was one of the top exported items, a few even making their way as far as India.

The issues of inheritance caused family infighting, because primogeniture became common, while division of succession was designated by law before the 14th century. To avoid infighting, continuous invasion against neighboring samurai's territories was rather favored and bickering among samurai was a constant problem for the Kamakura and Ashikaga Shogunates.

The Sengoku jidai ("warring-states period") was marked by the loosening of samurai culture, in a sense. Those born into other social strata could sometimes make names for themselves as warriors and thus become de facto samurai. In this turbulent period, bushido ethics became important factors to control and maintain public orders.

Japanese war tactics and technologies improved rapidly in 15th and 16th century. Use of large numbers of infantry troops called Ashigaru ("light-foot", due to their light armour), which was formed by the humble warriors or populace, with Nagayari (長槍) or long lance was introduced and combined with cavalry in maneuvers. The numbers of people mobilized in warfare were generally in the thousands to the over hundred-thousands.

Nanban (Western)-style samurai cuirass, 16th century. Harquebus or a matchlock gun was introduced by Lusitanians / Portuguese on a Chinese pirate ship in 1543. Japanese succeeded nationalization of it within a decade. Groups of mercenaries with harquebus and mass produced rifles played a critical role.

Reproduction arquebuses are fired at the annual festival to commemorate the 1575 Battle of Nagashino. By the end of feudal periods, several hundred thousand rifles existed in Japan and massive armies over 100,000 clashed in the battles. The largest and most powerful army in Europe, the Spanish armies, had only several thousand rifles and could only assemble an army of 30,000. Ninja also played critical roles while engaged in intelligence activity. In 1592 and again in 1598, Japan invaded Korea with an army of 160,000 samurai in the Seven-Year War, taking great advantage of its mastery of guns.

The social mobility of human resources was flexible, as the ancient regime collapsed and emerging samurai needed to maintain large military and administrative organizations in their areas of influence. Most of the samurai families that survived to the 19th century originated in this era. They declared themselves to be the blood of one of the four ancient noble clans, Minamoto, Taira, Fujiwara and Tachibana. In most cases, however, it is hard to prove who their ancestors were.

Oda, Toyotomi and Tokugawa

Oda Nobunaga was the well-known lord of the Nagoya area (once called Owari Province) and an exceptional example of samurai of the Sengoku Period. He came within few years of, and laid down the path for his successors to achieve, the reunification of Japan under a new Bakufu (Shogunate).

He made innovations on organizations and war tactics, heavily used harquebus, developed commerce and industry and treasured innovations; the consecutive victories enabled him to realize the termination of the Ashikaga Bakufu and disarmament of the military powers of the Buddhist monks, which had inflamed futile struggles among the populace for centuries. Attacking from a "sanctuary" of Buddhist temples, they were constant headaches to any warlords and even the emperor who tried to control their actions. He died in 1582 when one of his Generals, Akechi Mitsuhide, fell down upon him with his army.

The Samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga in Rome in 1615, Coll. Borghese, Rome. Importantly, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (see below) and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who made Tokugawa Shogunate, were Nobunaga's loyal followers. Hideyoshi was brought up from a nameless peasant to one of top generals under Nobunaga and Ieyasu had shared childhood with Nobunaga. Hideyoshi defeated Mitsuhide within a month and was regarded as the rightful successor of Nobunaga by avenging the treachery of Mitsuhide.

These two were gifted with Nobunaga's previous achievements to build the unified Japan. So there was a saying: 

"The reunification is a rice cake; Oda made it. Hashiba shaped it. At last, only Ieyasu tastes it." 

(Hashiba is the family name that Toyotomi Hideyoshi used while he was a follower of Nobunaga.)

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who became a grand minister in 1586, himself the son of a poor peasant family, created a law that the samurai caste became codified as permanent and heritable, and that non-samurai were forbidden to carry weapons ending the social mobility of Japan up until that point and the dissolution of the Edo Shogunate by the Meiji revolutionaries.

It is important to note that distinction between samurai and non-samurai was so obscure that during the 16th century, most male adults in any social class (even small farmers) belonged to at least one military organization of their own and served in wars before and during Hideyoshi's rule. It can be said that an "all against all" situation continued for a century.

The authorized samurai families after the 17th century were the winners that chose to follow Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu. Large battles occurred during the times of change between regimes, and a number of defeated samurai were destroyed, went ronin or were absorbed into the general populace.

Tokugawa Shogunate

Samurai walking followed by a servant, by Hanabusa Itcho (1652 - 1724) During the Tokugawa era, samurai increasingly became courtiers, bureaucrats, and administrators rather than warriors. With no warfare after the early 17th century, over time, samurai during the Tokugawa era (also called the Edo period) gradually lost their military function. By the end of the Tokugawa era, samurai were aristocratic bureaucrats for the daimyo, with their daisho, the paired long and short swords of the samurai (cf. 'katana' and wakizashi) becoming more of a symbolic emblem of power rather than a weapon used in daily life. They still had the legal right to cut down any commoner who did not show proper respect; in what extent this right was used, however, is unknown. When the central government forced daimyos to cut the size of their armies, unemployed ronin actually became a social problem.

Theoretical obligations between a samurai and his lord (usually a daimyo) increased from the Genpei era to the Edo era. They were strongly emphasized by the teachings of Confucius and Mencius (ca 550 B.C.)which were required reading for the educated samurai class. During the Edo period, after the general end of hostilities, the code of Bushido was formalized. It is important to note that bushido was an ideal, but it is surprising how uniform the code remained over time from the 13th century to the 19th century. The ideals of Bushido transcended social class, time and geographic location of the warrior class.

Bushido was formalized by many samurai in this time of peace in much the same fashion as chivalry was formalized after knights as a warrior class became obsolete in Europe. The conduct of samurai became a favorable model of a citizen in Edo with the emphasis on formalities. With time on their hands, samurai spent more time on the pursuit of other interests becoming scholars. Bushido still survives in present-day Japanese society, as do many other aspects of their way of life.

Samurai decline during the Meiji Restoration

By this time, the Way of Death and Desparateness had been eclipsed by a rude awakening in 1853, when Commodore Matthew Perry's massive steamships from the US Navy first imposed broader commerce, American Style, on the once-dominant national polity. Prior to that, only a few harbor towns under strict control from the Shogunate were able to participate in Western trade, and even then, it was based largely on the idea of playing the Franciscans and Dominicans off one another (in exchange for the crucial arquebus technology, which in turn was a major contributor to the downfall of the classical samurai).

Samurai of the Satsuma clan, during the Boshin War period, circa 1867. Photograph by Felice Beato The last hurrah of original samurai was in 1867 when samurai from Choshu and Satsuma provinces defeated the shogunate forces in favor of the rule of the emperor. The two provinces were the lands of the daimyo that submitted to Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara (1600).

Other sources claim that the last samurai were in 1877, during the Satsuma Rebellion in the Battle of Shiroyama.

The main players of the revolt came from lower class samurai in every province. Their ultimate political goal was the same: to maintain the independence of Japan against Western powers. But the two daimyo clashed first and these bloody conflicts lasted for years. At last, they realized that a large serious civil war must be avoided because that was just what the foreign powers waited for. So the last shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu returned the governing to the emperor to avoid the war. Some resisted, believing this was a coup d'état by Choshu and Satsuma and that the government was in their hands. Groups of Tohoku samurai organized an armed resistance but they were eventually defeated.

Emperor Meiji abolished the samurai's right to be the only armed force in favor of a more modern, western-style conscripted army. Samurai became Shizoku (士族) who retained some of their salaries, but the right to wear a katana in public was eventually abolished along with the right to cut down commoners who paid them disrespect. The samurai finally came to an end after hundreds of years of enjoyment of their status, their powers, and their ability to shape the government of Japan. However, the rule of the state by the military class was not yet over.

Post Meiji Restoration

In defining how a modern Japanese should be, members of the Meiji government decided to follow the footsteps of United Kingdom and Germany. It would be based on the concept of "noblesse oblige" and samurai would not be a political force much like that of Prussia.

With the Meiji reforms in the late 19th century, the samurai class was abolished, and a western-style national army was established. The Imperial Japanese Armies were conscripted, but many samurai volunteered to be soldiers and many advanced to be trained as an officer. In fact much of the Imperial Army officer class was of samurai origin. These volunteers were highly motivated, disciplined and well trained. As such the Imperial Army defeated a rebellion of samurai in the Satsuma Rebellion.

The Japanese Empire fought and won the Sino-Japanese War (1894) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904) and it could be reasoned that these volunteers and officers were behind these victories. Most soldiers of both Chinese and Russian armies could neither read nor write and after their officers were killed, these armies quickly disintegrated.

Many early exchange students were samurai, not because they were samurai, but many were literate and well-educated scholars. Some of these exchange students started private schools for higher educations. Some samurai took pens instead of guns and became reporters and writers to set up newspaper companies. Other samurai entered governmental services as they were literate and well educated.

Samurai Books

(Article based on Wikipedia article and used under the GNU Free Documentation License for japaneselifestyle)