JAPAN: THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN.

Japan has so many referral that can be associated to her from the land of the rising sun to the Land of the Samurai and Land of the Shogunate. The title of this work was chosen because according to one of the earliest records of Japan, a notable Prince named Prince Shotoku introduced himself as a prince from Nippon, the land of the rising sun.

A country full of history, different eras, periods and events. Japan is what can be called a archipelago which is filled with mountains and volcano that have different landscape.

Japan is a Conglomerate of Sub nations, with a total of about 127 million people living in the 378 thousand square kilometer Japanese archipelago, she is located in the Pacific Ocean, lies to the east of the sea of Japan, the east china sea, China, Korea and Russia.

The Japanese have always occupied part or all of the same territory, its borders defined by the sea. They have spoken and written a common language once it took firm shape, in the tenth century their population became largely homogeneous, little was touched by immigration except in very early periods.

The origin of Japan earliest inhabitants is unclear and uncertain but according to Archaeological findings the earliest evidence of human settlement appears to date from 30000 years ago or more. During the succeeding ice ages when there was a fall in the sea levels which led to the creation of land bridges between Japan and the Asian continent. people was said to have come via the land bridge that once linked Japan with Siberia and Korea but Not very much is known about the peoples who entered by these routes, some records have  it written that seafaring migrants from Polynesia may have landed on Kyushu.

The first recorded signs of development in Japan are found in the late Neolithic Age around 800BC.This period is what is called the Jomon [cord mark] period after the discovering of pottery fragment with cord marks. The people at this time lived as fishers, hunters and food gathers.

This period was superseded by the Yayoi era, which dates from around 300BC, and is named after the site where pottery fragments were found in modern Tokyo. The Yayoi people are considered to have had a strong connection with Korea and their most important development were the wet cultivation of rice and the use of bronze and iron implement.

After the Yayoi era came the Kofun period whereby archaeologists discovered Burial mound. Thousands of grave mounds that was concentrated mostly on Kyushu and in the Kansai region judging by their size and complicated construction, these mounds have required enormous resources of labor. It seems likely that the custom of building these tombs was eclipsed by the arrival of Buddhism, which favored cremation.

In subsequent works, all this periods would be discussed.

REFERENCE

Yoshio Sugimoto, An Introduction to Japanese Society, Cambridge University Press, 2002

JOHN WHITNEY HALL etal, the Cambridge History of Japan vol 1 , Cambridge University Press,1993

W G. Beasley   THE JAPANESE EXPERIENCE, A Short History of Japan, The Orion Publishing Group Ltd, great Britain  1999

Robert Strauss etal, Japan, Lonely planet publication, 1981

Dr Anne Millard etal, The Usborne book of World History, Usborne Publishing Limited, Belgium, 1985.

http:Wikipedia/Japan