I received one reply to my previous post on the issue of ‘Ohaguro’ or Black Teeth Custom, which was once a very popular custom in the ancient Japan. The question pertain to the reason as to why the practice was banned in the Meiji period, well, instead of replying straight, I find this is a very interesting issue to discuss and research on and so I did, and decided to write a post on it. By the way, you can read more on the introduction from my previous post titled …

Knowledge of feudalism in Japan may not be complete without getting to know about Ninja or Shinobi, the Japanese mercenary who specialized in unorthodox arts of war.
A ninja can get pass you unnoticed, like a ghost passing by and you will probably have to rely to your sixth senses to feel certain presence but yet unseen. You will find it a lot in movies, epic and historical Japanese dramas, Japanese animation or anime, video games and comic books or manga. If you’re into cosplaying, you will find that ninja is …

Here are the basic information of the indigenous Japanese religion, Shinto and Shintoism.
Japanese in short can be described as natural practitioners of polytheism. Since the earliest history of Japan and the ancient people of Japan, they have been worshiping a number of Gods that are largely related to nature, such as the Sun Goddess, God of the Sea, God of lightning and many more. This natural spirituality of the Japanese people is called as Shinto or ‘Way of the Gods’. The similar term or description first appears in the historical …

One more aspect that the Japanese people of the old times have outsourced from their nearest neighboring countries is the zodiac system, which in nature has many linkages with Buddhism. The Japanese zodiac system is so much similar to that of the ancient Chinese zodiac system, but in truth that is it the same thing after all. The Chinese zodiac system is rather ‘karmatic’ in nature. Something that is very well related to Buddhism. Instead of the linear pattern of the western calendar, the Chinese zodiac system adopted a set …

Here’s the tricky question – where do the Japanese people come from?
Most people would simply assume that the Japanese are either generations of the aborigines of the once isolated islands or people who happens to migrate into the island from the nearby mainland. However, the real answer is actually in both answers. Japanese people that lived on today are actually part of varying admixtures of the aborigines and the once continuously increasing immigrant population from the mainland, namely Korea and China.
Like the rest of the world, the Japanese land too …