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JAPAN
Royal Soil
By Jheri
Japanese
castles have stood for centuries, relatively unnoticed by
the rest of the world. At one time there were 30 to 40 thousand
such castles, most of them medieval and built during the
Muromachi Period (1333-1572). Some 200 or so were constructed
during the Meiji Restoration in 1867, but today only 12
original tenshu remain. Castles were focal points of trade,
population growth and travel, bringing commerce to the surrounding
community.
*
* *
In
1603, a Tokugawa shogunate (military dictatorship) ushered
in a 250-year period of isolation from foreign influence
in order to secure Japan’s power. This policy
enabled Japan to enjoy stability and a flowering of
its indigenous
culture. Following the Treaty of Kanagawa with the U.S.
in 1854, Japan opened its ports once again and began
to intensively modernize and industrialize, becoming
a major
economic power, both in Asia and globally. In 2005,
Japan began a two-year term as a non-permanent member
of the
UN Security Council. Japan has never been colonized
by another
country.
The
archipelago of Japan, about the size of California, boasts
5,000 years of continuous culture
and history.
The four principle islands of Japan are Hokaido, Honshu,
Shikoku
and Kyushu. Mt. Fujiyama’s symmetry and placid,
ethereal beauty have been captured for centuries in
Asian art. The
capital city of Japan is Tokyo (formerly known as
Edo).
Japan
has one of the largest fishing industries in the world, a world
in which the brand-names of
Japanese
VCRs, cell
phones, computers, radios, cameras and cars are
very well known. Machine tools, steel, nonferrous metals,
ships,
chemicals, processed foods, pearls, beautiful silks,
cottons, porcelain,
wood and metal goods are also produced in this tiny
nation. Very few contracts are written on paper;
a handshake
seals
a deal in Japan.
Additionally,
Japan has some of the world’s highest
crop yields in rice, sugar beets, vegetables,
fruit, pork, poultry, dairy products, eggs and fish, but must
import
many of its other foodstuffs. Even with the highest
population
density in the world (854 people per square mile;
77 percent in cities), 80 percent of the Japanese own automobiles
and
90% color TVs; 98 percent are literate. More works
of world literature have been translated into Japanese than
into
any other single language. Even with their very
high standard of living, Japanese people live humbly.
Tsukuba
is an entire scientific city subsidized by the Japanese government.
Japan’s energy comes from hydroelectric
power and the world’s largest underwater
tunnel runs from Hokaida to Honshu. Robotics
constitutes a key long-term
economic strength, with Japan possessing 410,000
of the world’s 720,000 “working
robots.”
*
* *
Our
soil collector in Japan, Shirly Hines, a lady from the country
town of Placerville,
California, was there
as part
of the People to People Peace Conference
in August
of 2004, a very fitting milieu for her Common
Ground 191
task. She
found a castle town next to Tokyo and picked
up some soil from, she believes, the castle
of the
first Shogun
of
Japan, the Supreme Ruler of Japan after
the civil war to unite
the provinces.
Buddhism,
Noh, Kabuki, Akido, Sumo, Sushi, Geisha, Kimono . . . these
are words used
to describe
many of the defining
aspects of Japanese life—spirituality,
theatre, martial arts, sport, cuisine, culture
and garb—all of which
flowered subsequent to the soil of this
archipelago being christened Japan. Common
Ground 191 salutes Japan, its past,
present and future—and its royal soil.
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