Interesting facts about Japan. Crazy Historical Facts About Japan

Find out why the Japanese wash in the same bathtub and what is the most dirty word in their language

Japan is, without exaggeration, a unique country. Nanotechnology here is surprisingly combined with ancient traditions; some customs operate on a par with laws. We decided to collect 30 of the most interesting facts about Japan, we share them with you.

1. The Japanese have great respect for those who can speak at least two phrases in their language. They believe that it is impossible to learn it.
2. The strongest curse words in Japanese are “fool” and “idiot”.
3. In Japanese, "fool" is "baka" (literally stupid person). And a foreigner is like a “gaijin” (literally, a stranger). "Baka-gaijin" in Japanese colloquial means American.
4. The Japanese talk about food all the time, and when they eat, they discuss how they like the food. Having dinner without saying oishii (delicious) several times is very impolite.
5. In Japan they eat dolphins. They are used to make soup, prepare kushiyaki (Japanese kebab), and even eat them raw. Dolphin has quite tasty meat, with a distinct taste, and is completely different from fish.
6. Maybe, proper nutrition This can be explained by the fact that it is very rare to see an overweight Japanese woman here.
7. Japan has the slowest McDonald's in the world.
8. Tipping is strictly not accepted in Japan. It is believed that as long as the client pays the prescribed price for the service, he remains on an equal footing with the seller.
9. In Japan it is very honest people. If you lost your wallet on the subway, there is a 90% chance that it will be returned to the lost and found office.

1. There is no looting during earthquakes in Japan. Why - see point 9.
2. Japanese police are the most honest in the world; they do not take bribes. Except that sometimes for minor violations you can talk them out of letting them go by pretending to be a “baka”.
3. If you are caught for something serious, they have the right to keep you in a pre-trial detention center for 30 days without allowing a lawyer.
4. Tokyo is the safest metropolis in the world. Tokyo is so safe that children as young as six can use public transport on their own.
5. Japan has a specific attitude towards pornography. Previously, almost every Japanese hotel had a strawberry channel.
6. Every grocery store has a hentai shelf on the press rack. Large bookstores have entire floors dedicated to pornography.
7. The age of consent in Japan is 13 years old. This means that from a certain age, consensual sex is not considered rape.
8. Tokyo's Shinjuku-Ni-Cheme district has the largest concentration of gay bars in the world.
9. The Japanese and alcohol are poorly compatible concepts. Most of them, even after one glass of strong alcohol, begin to blush terribly. But there are exceptions - any Ukrainian will be drunk.
10. The Japanese are very shy, not used to expressing their feelings. For many, it is a real feat to say: “I love you.”

1. A third of weddings in the country are the result of matchmaking and viewing parties organized by parents.
2. In Japanese families, it is an absolutely normal situation when brother and sister don’t talk at all, and don’t even know each other’s mobile phone numbers.
3. The Japanese are very clean people, but no matter how many members there are in the family, everyone takes a bath without changing the water. True, before this everyone takes a shower.
4. The Japanese almost never invite guests home. The invitation to “come by sometime” in most cases should be taken solely as a polite turn of phrase.
5. The Japanese are crazy workaholics. They can easily work 15-18 hours a day without a lunch break.
6. Arriving to work on time is considered bad manners in Japan. You need to be there at least half an hour earlier.
7. There is even a word in Japanese called "karoshi", which literally translates to "death from overwork". On average, ten thousand people die every year with this diagnosis.
8. The Japanese have very low pensions. The maximum social benefit for poor old people is about $300. Every Japanese person is expected to take care of their own old age.
9. In the northern cities of Japan, all sidewalks are heated, so there is never ice here.
10. In Japan, you can see vases with umbrellas on the streets. If it starts to rain, you can take any, and then, when the rain stops, put it in the nearest vase.
11. You won't see trash cans on Japanese streets. The Japanese take all the garbage home, and then sort it into four types: glass, burnt, recyclable and non-burnt waste.

Often called the “Land of the Rising Sun”. The Japanese themselves call their country “Nippon” or “Nihon”, which means “Origin of the Sun”.

Geography of Japan
Japan, located in Asia, is the immediate neighbor of China, Russia and Korea. The country consists of many islands, the main and most famous of which are four islands - Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku.

Honshu is the largest island, with an area of ​​230,500 sq. km. Almost 80% of the total Japanese population lives on its territory. The highest mountain in Japan is located here - Mount Fuji (3,776 m). Although this volcano has been dormant since 1708, geologists classify it as active. Tokyo is located on the Kanto Plain. The Kanto Plain is Japan's largest lowland, stretching from the Japanese Alps to the Pacific Ocean.

Hokkaido, located in the very north of the country, is the second largest of the four largest islands, with an area of ​​83,400 square meters. km. Hokkaido consists mainly of mountains and forests, so it is home to only 5% of Japan's total population. The economy here depends almost entirely on fishing, forestry and dairy farming. The largest city and administrative center of Hokkaido is the city of Sapporo.

The southernmost island of Kyushu is Japan's third largest island, covering an area of ​​approximately 36,632 square kilometers. km. About 11% of the Japanese population lives here.

Shikoku is the smallest of the four islands.

Japan is the 60th largest in the world, slightly larger than Germany, and almost 9 times the size of the Netherlands.

History of Japan
The Japanese monarchy is the oldest existing continuous hereditary monarchy in the world.

The national flag of Japan is called "Hinomaru". It shows a red circle on a white background. This red circle symbolizes rising sun. Home Japanese goddess considered the Sun Goddess - Amaterasu Omikami. Not by chance Japanese name Country "Nippon" means "Origin of the Sun".

The Japanese national anthem "Kimigayo" literally means "The Emperor's Reign". The words of the hymn are taken from a poem (5 lines, 31 syllables) written in the tenth century. The music of the anthem was written in 1880 by the imperial court musician Hiromori Hayashi and later harmonized in the Gregorian style.

Life expectancy in Japan is considered one of the highest in the world. Only a few countries, such as Hong Kong, Singapore, San Marino, Andorra and Macau, are slightly ahead of Japan in terms of average life expectancy. On average, a Japanese person lives 4 years longer than an American.

Interesting facts about Japan
Japan is extremely prone to earthquakes, with an average of 1,500 earthquakes occurring annually.

There are about 200 volcanoes in Japan.

Most Japanese eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The vandalism rate in Japan is one of the lowest in the world.

In Japanese cities, there are vending machines on almost every corner where you can buy everyday goods.

Fruits in Japan are terribly expensive. Here you can pay $2 for a single apple or peach.

The Japanese love to make pizza with mayonnaise and grains.

Haiku is a genre of Japanese poetry consisting of only 3 lines.

Kendo, which literally means “way of the sword,” is the oldest form of Japanese martial art.

Origami is the ancient Japanese art of folding paper figures.

Sushi (a popular dish around the world) is a Japanese delicacy made from rice and marinated fish wrapped in seaweed.

The Japanese always take off their shoes before entering the house. This is done primarily to keep the tatami (mats) on which they sit while eating clean.

The Japanese eat food with chopsticks called hashi.

The Japanese buy meat, fish and vegetables every day because they prefer fresh, unpreserved foods. That is why medium and small-sized refrigerators are in greatest demand in Japan.

Rice is the main food here and is served with almost every meal.

Miso soup is a favorite dish at any time of the day; it can be prepared for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The main ingredient of this dish is soybean paste dissolved in seaweed broth.

A traditional Japanese breakfast is steamed rice with natto (fermented soybeans).

Tea is served at almost every meal.

Many women wear platform shoes with a height of 10-15 cm.

Slippers are worn in the house, but not boots.

Slippers are always removed when sitting on the tatami to eat.

But (noh) is an ancient and very popular genre of Japanese theatrical arts- can last up to eight hours.

Smoking is allowed almost everywhere in Japan except on local trains. Long-distance trains have special smoking areas.

When washing, the Japanese do not sit in the bath to lather their bodies. They lather up outside the bath and then rinse before plunging into the hot water to refresh and relax.

When preparing food, the Japanese large quantities They use fish, beef, pork, chicken and a variety of seafood. Most of their dishes add moderate amounts of spices and various soy sauces.

Japan- a country with left-hand traffic, and the steering wheel of the car is on the right.

In Japanese villages there is no need to send invitations to weddings or funerals. Events like these are considered social events, so the entire village helps in cooking and preparing the necessary details for the event.

When eating, the chopstick should never be inserted vertically into the food. In the past, food was offered to the dead in this way.

Do you like to slurp while eating, but don’t allow yourself to do it socially (with family, friends, colleagues, guests, etc.)? Then Japan is made just for you. Here it is customary to smack your lips while eating liquid food, such as soup. If you do not do this, it is assumed that you do not like the food, and the owner may even be offended.

And finally, the Japanese are extremely polite people. If you need something, they will stop what they are doing and try to help.

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It's no secret that the Japanese are now considered quite strange people: They have a very unique culture, music, cinema, and everything in general.

After reading the facts from this article you will understand where the roots of these oddities come from.

It turns out that the Japanese have always been like this.

For more than two and a half centuries, Japan was a closed country

In 1600, after a long period of feudal fragmentation and civil wars, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder and first head of the shogunate in Edo, came to power in Japan. By 1603, he finally completed the process of unifying Japan and began to rule with an iron fist. Ieyasu, like his predecessor, supported trade with other countries, but was very suspicious of foreigners. This led to the fact that in 1624 trade with Spain was completely prohibited. And in 1635, a decree was issued banning the Japanese from leaving the country and banning those who had already left to return. Since 1636, foreigners (Portuguese, later Dutch) could only stay on the artificial island of Dejima in Nagasaki harbor.

The Japanese were short because they didn't eat meat

From the 6th to the 19th centuries, the average height of Japanese men was only 155 cm. This is due to the fact that it was in the 6th century that the Chinese “neighbourly” shared the philosophy of Buddhism with the Japanese. It’s not clear why, but I liked the new worldview ruling circles Japanese society. And especially the part that vegetarianism is the path to the salvation of the soul and better reincarnation. Meat was completely excluded from the Japanese diet and the result was not long in coming: from the 6th to the 19th centuries, the average height of the Japanese decreased by 10 cm.

Trade in "Night Gold" was widespread in ancient Japan.

Night gold is a phraseological unit that denotes a product of human activity, his feces, used as a valuable and balanced fertilizer. In Japan, this practice was used quite widely. Moreover, the waste of rich people was sold at a higher price, because their diet was plentiful and varied, so more nutrients remained in the resulting “product”. Various historical documents Since the 9th century, procedures for toilet waste have been described in detail.

Pornography has always flourished in Japan

Sexual themes in Japanese art arose many centuries ago and go back to ancient Japanese myths, among which the most famous is the myth of the emergence Japanese islands as a result of the sexual relationship between the god Izanagi and the goddess Izanami. There is no hint of a disapproving attitude towards sex in the ancient monuments. “This frankness in talking about sex and literary materials,” writes Japanese cultural anthropologist Toshinao Yoneyama, “has survived to this day... In Japanese culture there was no consciousness of original sin in relation to sex, as was the case in Christian cultures.”

Fishermen in ancient Japan used domesticated cormorants

It all happened something like this: at night, fishermen went out to sea in a boat and lit torches to attract fish. Next, about a dozen cormorants were released, which were tied to the boat with a long rope. At the same time, the neck of each bird was slightly intercepted by a flexible collar so that it could not swallow the caught fish. As soon as the cormorants had full crops, the fishermen pulled the birds onto the boat. For their work, each bird received a reward in the form of a small fish.

In ancient Japan there was a special form of marriage - tsumadoi

A full-fledged small family - in the form of living together - was not a typical form of marriage in Ancient Japan. The basis family relations constituted a special Japanese marriage - tsumadoi, in which the husband freely visited his wife, maintaining, in fact, separate residence from her. For the bulk of the population, marriage took place upon reaching adulthood: at 15 for a boy and at 13 for a girl. Marriage presupposed the consent of numerous relatives, including grandparents on the wife’s side. Tsumadoi marriage did not imply monogamy, and a man was not forbidden to have several wives, as well as concubines. However, a free relationship with their wives, leaving them without a reason to marry a new wife, was not allowed by law.

There were and still are quite a lot of Christians in Japan

Christianity appeared in Japan in the mid-16th century. The first missionary to preach the Gospel to the Japanese was the Basque Jesuit Francis Xavier. But the missionaryship did not last long. Soon the shoguns began to see Christianity (as the faith of foreigners) as a threat. In 1587, the unifier Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned the presence of missionaries in the country and began oppressing believers. To justify his actions, he pointed out that some Japanese converts had desecrated and destroyed Buddhist and Shinto shrines. The repressive policy was continued by Hideyoshi's political successor, Tokugawa Ieyasu. In 1612, he banned the practice of Christianity in his domains, and in 1614 he extended this ban to all of Japan. During the Tokugawa era, about 3,000 Japanese Christians were martyred, while the rest suffered imprisonment or exile. Tokugawa policy required all Japanese families to register with the local Buddhist temple and obtain a certificate that they were not Christians.

Japanese prostitutes were divided into several ranks

In addition to the well-known geishas, ​​who by and large were simply the leaders of ceremonies, there were also courtesans in Japan, who in turn were divided into several classes depending on cost: tayu (the most expensive), koshi, tsubone, santya and the cheapest - street girls, bath attendants, servants, etc. The following agreement existed unspoken: once you had chosen a girl, you had to stick with her, “settle down.” Therefore, men often kept their own courtesans. Girls of Tayu rank cost 58 momme (about 3,000 rubles) at a time, and this does not count the obligatory 18 momme for servants - another 1,000 rubles. Prostitutes of the lowest rank cost approximately 1 momme (about 50 rubles). In addition to direct payment for services, there were also associated expenses - food, drink, tips for many servants, all this could reach up to 150 momme (8,000 rubles) per evening. Thus, a man supporting a courtesan could easily shell out about 29 kemme (about 580,000 rubles) in a year.

The Japanese often committed couple suicides out of unrequited love.

After the “reorganization” of prostitution in 1617, all non-family intimate life of the Japanese was moved to separate quarters like the “red light district”, where girls lived and worked. The girls could not leave the quarter unless wealthy clients bought them as wives. It was very expensive and more often than not it happened that lovers simply could not afford it together. Despair drove such couples to “shinju” - couple suicides. The Japanese did not see anything wrong with this, because they had long revered rebirth and were completely confident that in the next life they would definitely be together.

Torture and execution have long been written into law in Japan.

To begin with, it should be said that in the Japanese legal system of the Tokugawa era there was no presumption of innocence. Every person who went to trial was considered guilty in advance. With the rise of the Tokugawa, only four types of torture remained legal in Japan: scourging, squeezing with stone slabs, tying with a rope, and hanging by a rope. Moreover, torture was not a punishment in itself, and its purpose was not to inflict maximum suffering on the prisoner, but to obtain a sincere confession to the crime. committed crime. It should also be noted here that torture was allowed only to those criminals who faced the death penalty for their actions. Therefore, after a sincere confession, the poor fellows were most often executed. Executions were also very different: from the banal beheading to the terrible boiling in boiling water - this was the punishment for ninjas who failed a contract killing and were captured.

There was a very interesting period in the history of Japan from the second half of the 15th to the beginning of the 17th century - Sengoku Jidai ("Era of the Warring States"). At this time, there was a weakening of central power, which led to turmoil and fragmentation. Individual provinces fought with each other for power, and the whole country, one might say, was engulfed in war, and the main heroes of that time were the powerful Japanese warriors - the samurai.

15. Daimyo

First you need to remember who the daimyo are. These were incredibly influential military feudal lords, owners of provinces who ruled almost all of Japan during the Sengoku Jidai era. Above them was only the shogunate, the central power of the shogun - but at that time it weakened and was virtually nominal. And the new rulers of Japan - the daimyo - built powerful citadels and hired samurai to protect their territory and conquer their neighbors. A city grew under the castle, and each such province was a state within a state. This situation continued until the Meiji Restoration (overthrow of the shogunate and restoration of imperial rule, 1868-1889).

14. Civil war, fragmentation and civil strife

The Sengoku Jidai period began with the "Onin Troubles" - a civil war that lasted 10 years (from 1467 to 1477) and led to the loss of the shogunate's power. The power of Kyoto weakened, and the strength of the military feudal lords, on the contrary, began to grow, and soon they were already challenging each other for the right to occupy the capital. As for the economy during this period, it flourished thanks to trade with China, which is why the provinces advocated for autonomy. It all ended in complete fragmentation and civil strife. But among the samurai there were also those who wanted to unite the country. One of these people, Oda Nobunaga, almost managed to achieve his goal by the end of the 16th century, but died surrounded by enemies. However, his successors - Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu - eventually achieved the restoration of a strong central authority of the shogunate and reunified Japan.

13. Oda Nobunaga

So, Oda Nobunaga is the first of the unifiers of Japan and one of the most outstanding samurai in the history of this country. He was born in 1534 into the family of a small military leader, and after the death of his father he became the head of the Oda clan and began a victorious military march, eventually taking possession of the capital and all of central Japan. Oda Nobunaga was a man of stern disposition and strictly implemented his policies, regardless of anything. For the burning of one of the oldest Buddhist temples, he was nicknamed the “Demon Lord of the Sixth Heaven” (one of the embodiments of evil in Buddhism). Alas, the Demon Lord failed to see Japan finally united: in 1582, he committed hara-kiri at the Honno-ji Temple, betrayed by his own military leader Akechi Mitsuhide.

12. Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Born in 1536 in peasant family, but dreamed of a samurai career - and hired himself into the service of Oda Nobunaga (in this, I must say, he was lucky). According to legend, Hideyoshi was distinguished by a brilliant mind - it is no coincidence that Oda Nobunaga elevated the former peasant son to the rank of general. There was a reason for this - here are just a few of Hideyoshi’s achievements: the forced (“over one night”) construction of Sunomata Castle (1566), covering the rear in the Battle of Kanagasaki (1570), the “water assault” of Takamatsu Castle (1582). After the death of Oda Nobunaga in the Honno-ji Temple in 1583, Hideyoshi became his successor, effectively usurping power. He united the disparate Japanese provinces under his leadership, compiled a common land registry, carried out several military and social reforms, banned Christianity in Japan, and even managed to fight with Korea and China before his death. Died in 1598.

11. Tokugawa Ieyasu

This man clearly knew how to survive. He was born in 1543 into the small Matsudaira samurai family and spent his entire childhood as a political hostage to neighboring rulers, who used the weak Matsudaira in their political games. In 1560, Ieyasu rebelled against the Imagawa clan and entered into an alliance with its enemy, Oda Nobunaga. Further, Tokugawa expanded his possessions, and after the death of Nobunaga, he entered into the struggle for his inheritance, but lost it to Toyotomi Hideyoshi and recognized himself as his vassal. But after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi Ieyasu managed to finish what his two predecessors started and unite the country. In 1603, he received the title of shogun and founded the third samurai government - the shogunate in the city of Edo, which existed in Japan until 1868 (i.e. until the Meiji Restoration).

10. War of the Onin Years

What caused the turmoil and civil war of 1466-1477? Due to the fact that it was unclear who would inherit power after the death of the shogun. The shogun had no heir and asked his brother to leave the monks and become the heir. But when the brother agreed and did this, the shogun suddenly had a son. When the shogun died, the child was still too young to inherit power, so arguments began over who should become the new shogun, and warring clans began to take sides. War broke out in Kyoto, but neither side could win a decisive victory, they simply fought each other to exhaustion for 10 long years. As a result, no one really ruled the country, which was the reason for the beginning of the era of feudal fragmentation, which we know as Sengoku Jidai.

9. Europeans in Japan and guns from Tanegashima Island

As for the Europeans, they also influenced the course of history in some way during the Sengoku Jidai era - through trade, mainly the supply of firearms to the warring clans. The facts are as follows: in 1543, a Portuguese ship washed up on the island of Tanegashima. It was then that the ruler of the island, Tanegashima Tokitaka, got his hands on two arquebuses, having bought them from the Portuguese. It must be said that the Japanese quite quickly created their “tanegashima” guns, made in the image and likeness of the Portuguese arquebuses. Well, the Portuguese realized that this was a good reason for trade, and began to regularly supply these weapons Japanese samurai. During the period of civil strife, the winner was the one who, in addition to the traditional troops, had several thousand arquebusiers - for example, in the army of Nobunaga, already known to us, there were 3 thousand of them. The volley fire of these - although not the most effective - guns was capable of stopping an attack by cavalry or infantry, which could be a serious advantage in the battle.

8. Harakiri at Tainei-ji Temple

This incident has nothing to do with our three main characters, which we talked about earlier, but let’s digress a little because it’s very illustrative story for that period. In 1551, the 16th ruler of the Ouchi clan, named Ouchi Yoshitaka, after a series of unsuccessful military decisions, finally lost power over the province as a result of a rebellion raised by his military leader Sue Harukata. Yoshitaka was forced to commit harakiri, and Harukata proclaimed his adopted son Ouchi Yoshitaka the new head of the family and began to manage all possessions on his behalf.

7. Battle of Okehazama

Let's return to our main heroes. The Battle of Okehazama was one of Oda Nobunaga's greatest military victories. The confrontation between his elite troops and the army of Imagawa Yoshimoto continued for a month, and the decisive battle took place on June 12, 1560. At that time, not all of our heroes were on the same team: Toyotomi Hideyoshi had already served under Nobunaga, but Tokugawa Ieyasu still fought on the side of the Imagawa clan (these are the same allies that forced him to live with them as a pledge of friendship between neighboring clans). The Imagawa clan had a decisive advantage: 25,000 fighters versus Nobunaga’s 2-3 thousand. However, the latter used a military trick that made the enemy think that the enemy had much more troops. As a result, almost all of Imagawa's commanders joined Nobunaga's army - including Tokugawa Ieyasu. And since then he has always fought on his side.

8. Siege of Ishiyama Hongan-ji Fortress

Another war that lasted 10 years (1570 - 1580). On the one hand - the stern daimyo Oda Nobunaga with his allies, on the other - the warrior monks of the Ikko-ikki sect. These monks were too violent and acquired great military and economic power, which they had to fight for a long time. The siege of the main stronghold of the monks - the Ishiyama Hongan-ji temple-fortress - lasted for ten whole years with varying success, but ultimately ended in the defeat of Ikko-ikki. Nobunaga spared the lives of the defenders of the fortress (not all, but many), but he burned the temple itself to the ground, which put an end to the history of this militant religious movement.

5. Death of Oda Nobunaga

How did it happen that Oda Nobunaga was betrayed by his closest comrade, the military leader Akechi Mitsuhide? Nobunaga was at that moment at the pinnacle of power, he had won many victories, almost all of central Japan was already under his control, and even his enemies seemed to have already quieted down and realized that they would not be able to cope with him... However, betrayal is a powerful weapon . On May 29, 1582, Nobunaga stopped in Kyoto, at the Honno-ji Temple, for a short rest before personally leading his troops on the battlefield (there were protracted battles with the Mori clan). Fresh reinforcements were supposed to arrive at the front from Akechi Mitsuhide. However, his troops did not come to the front, but to Kyoto - and surrounded the Honno-ji Temple, and then took it by storm. Nobunaga was forced to commit hara-kiri.

Whether Akechi was guided by personal motives (it must be said that Nobunaga was no sugar; for example, he confiscated all of Akechi’s lands) or carried out the orders of his enemies is not known for certain. The customers are called the emperor, the former shogun Yoshiaki and Nobunaga’s successors - Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu.

4. Toyotomi Hideyoshi's rise to power

After the death of Oda Nobunaga, chaos and a struggle for power began. Akechi tried to force the Imperial Court to recognize him as the new head of the Oda family. Hideyoshi, in turn, united with the clan with which he had previously fought, and with joint efforts quickly defeated Akechi. Hideyoshi turned out to be stronger than everyone and no one had the slightest chance against him (no wonder he was considered very smart!). It was he who became Nobunaga's successor, which again suggests that a conspiracy could still have taken place. Only, as a result of this conspiracy, the contractor received nothing, but the customer received everything.

5. Death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

During his 11 years in power, Toyotomi Hideyoshi managed to do a lot in all spheres of the country’s life. Hideyoshi continued his course towards free trade, began minting the first Japanese gold coin, compiled a land registry and assigned the land to the peasants who worked on it, and confiscated weapons from the civilian population, clearly dividing them into samurai and civilians. In addition, he fought against European colonialism: he banned Christianity (after Portugal refused to help the Japanese build a fleet to conquer East Asia) and ordered the expulsion of all missionaries. And 26 Christians were demonstrably crucified on crosses in Nagasaki.

He died in 1598, leaving a young son. Wanting to transfer power to his son before his death, Hideyoshi deprived his own nephew of the position of kampaku, which was considered the main one in the Toyotomi family, and ordered him to commit hara-kiri. In addition, he created a guardian Council of five elders, whose task was to help his son Hideyori in governing the state.

2. Council of Five Elders and the Tokugawa Shogunate

The Council of Five Elders ruled the country while Hideyori was too young to handle it himself. The most influential member of this council was our longtime acquaintance Tokugawa Ieyasu, which he did not fail to take advantage of. He gradually began to enter into alliances with those daimyos who had long been dissatisfied with Hideyoshi’s policies, and gathered them all around him. These were mainly samurai who lived off the war and did not understand politics and the rule of “civilians”. It all ended with a military confrontation in 1603, in which Tokugawa Ieyasu won. He had an army of 100,000, while the defenders of the existing government had 80,000. After this victory, Ieyasu received from the emperor the title of “Great Shogun of the Conqueror of Barbarians” and created a new shogunate in the city of Edo (now Tokyo).

1. Siege of Osaka Castle

However, Tokugawa Ieyasu could not allow the Toyotomi clan to continue to exist, since this clan posed a real threat to him and his heirs - he remained the formal head of the shogun himself and continued to have many influential vassals, so he could easily regain power. To prevent this from happening, Ieyasu found the first suitable reason to declare war on the Toyotomi family and surrounded the castle in Osaka. After a long siege, a peace treaty was concluded, according to which the defenders of the fortress undertook to destroy the fortifications. However, after thinking carefully, Toyotomi Hideyori decided that this was too dangerous and ordered the destruction of the fortifications to be restored. And Tokugawa Ieyasu declared war on him for the second time and again surrounded the Osaka fortress, which was practically unprotected at that moment. Toyotomi Hideyori's situation turned out to be hopeless. Both he and his mother committed hara-kiri. So the Toyotomi clan ceased to exist, and Tokugawa Ieyasu remained in power and managed to pass it on to his descendants.

It's no secret that the Japanese are considered quite unusual people: They have a very unique culture, music, cinema, and everything in general. After reading the facts from this article you will understand where the roots of these oddities come from. It turns out that the Japanese have always been like this.

For more than two and a half centuries, Japan was a closed country

In 1600, after a long period of feudal fragmentation and civil wars, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder and first head of the Edo shogunate, came to power in Japan. By 1603, he finally completed the process of unifying Japan and began to rule with an iron fist. Ieyasu, like his predecessor, supported trade with other countries, but was very suspicious of foreigners. This led to the fact that in 1624 trade with Spain was completely prohibited. And in 1635, a decree was issued banning the Japanese from leaving the country and banning those who had already left to return. Since 1636, foreigners (Portuguese, later Dutch) could only stay on the artificial island of Dejima in Nagasaki harbor.

The Japanese were short because they didn't eat meat

From the 6th to the 19th centuries, the average height of Japanese men was only 155 cm. This is due to the fact that it was in the 6th century that the Chinese “neighbourly” shared the philosophy of Buddhism with the Japanese. It is not clear why, but the new worldview appealed to the ruling circles of Japanese society. And especially the part that vegetarianism is the path to the salvation of the soul and better reincarnation. Meat was completely excluded from the Japanese diet and the result was not long in coming: from the 6th to the 19th centuries, the average height of the Japanese decreased by 10 cm.

Trade in "Night Gold" was widespread in ancient Japan.

Night gold is a phraseological unit that denotes a product of human activity, his feces, used as a valuable and balanced fertilizer. In Japan, this practice was used quite widely. Moreover, the waste of rich people was sold at a higher price, because their diet was plentiful and varied, so more nutrients remained in the resulting “product”. Various historical documents dating back to the 9th century detail procedures for toilet waste.

Pornography has always flourished in Japan

Sexual themes in Japanese art arose many centuries ago and go back to ancient Japanese myths, among which the most famous is the myth about the emergence of the Japanese islands as a result of the sexual relationship of the god Izanagi and the goddess Izanami. There is no hint of a disapproving attitude towards sex in the ancient monuments. “This frankness in the story about sex and literary materials,” writes Japanese cultural anthropologist Toshinao Yoneyama, “has survived to this day... In Japanese culture there was no consciousness of original sin in relation to sex, as was the case in Christian cultures.”

Fishermen in ancient Japan used domesticated cormorants

It all happened something like this: at night, fishermen went out to sea in a boat and lit torches to attract fish. Next, about a dozen cormorants were released, which were tied to the boat with a long rope. At the same time, the neck of each bird was slightly intercepted by a flexible collar so that it could not swallow the caught fish. As soon as the cormorants had full crops, the fishermen pulled the birds onto the boat. For their work, each bird received a reward in the form of a small fish.

In ancient Japan there was a special form of marriage - tsumadoi

A full-fledged small family - in the form of living together - was not a typical form of marriage in Ancient Japan. The basis of family relations was a special Japanese marriage - tsumadoi, in which the husband freely visited his wife, maintaining, in fact, a separate residence with her. For the bulk of the population, marriage took place upon reaching adulthood: at 15 for a boy and at 13 for a girl. Marriage presupposed the consent of numerous relatives, including grandparents on the wife’s side. Tsumadoi marriage did not imply monogamy, and a man was not forbidden to have several wives, as well as concubines. However, a free relationship with their wives, leaving them without a reason to marry a new wife, was not allowed by law.

There were and still are quite a lot of Christians in Japan

Christianity appeared in Japan in the mid-16th century. The first missionary to preach the Gospel to the Japanese was the Basque Jesuit Francis Xavier. But the missionaryship did not last long. Soon the shoguns began to see Christianity (as the faith of foreigners) as a threat. In 1587, the unifier Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned the presence of missionaries in the country and began oppressing believers. To justify his actions, he pointed out that some Japanese converts had desecrated and destroyed Buddhist and Shinto shrines. The repressive policy was continued by Hideyoshi's political successor, Tokugawa Ieyasu. In 1612, he banned the practice of Christianity in his domains, and in 1614 he extended this ban to all of Japan. During the Tokugawa era, about 3,000 Japanese Christians were martyred, while the rest suffered imprisonment or exile. Tokugawa policy required all Japanese families to register with the local Buddhist temple and obtain a certificate that they were not Christians.

Japanese prostitutes were divided into several ranks

In addition to the well-known geishas, ​​who by and large were simply the leaders of ceremonies, there were also courtesans in Japan, who in turn were divided into several classes depending on cost: tayu (the most expensive), koshi, tsubone, santya and the cheapest - street girls, bath attendants, servants, etc. The following agreement existed unspoken: once you had chosen a girl, you had to stick with her, “settle down.” Therefore, men often kept their own courtesans. Girls of Tayu rank cost 58 momme (about 3,000 rubles) at a time, and this does not count the obligatory 18 momme for servants - another 1,000 rubles. Prostitutes of the lowest rank cost approximately 1 momme (about 50 rubles). In addition to direct payment for services, there were also associated expenses - food, drink, tips for many servants, all this could reach up to 150 momme (8,000 rubles) per evening. Thus, a man supporting a courtesan could easily shell out about 29 kemme (about 580,000 rubles) in a year.

The Japanese often committed couple suicides out of unrequited love.

After the “reorganization” of prostitution in 1617, all non-family intimate life of the Japanese was moved to separate quarters like the “red light district”, where girls lived and worked. The girls could not leave the quarter unless wealthy clients bought them as wives. It was very expensive and more often than not it happened that lovers simply could not afford it together. Despair drove such couples to “shinju” - couple suicides. The Japanese did not see anything wrong with this, because they had long revered rebirth and were completely confident that in the next life they would definitely be together.

Torture and execution have long been written into law in Japan.

To begin with, it should be said that in the Japanese legal system of the Tokugawa era there was no presumption of innocence. Every person who went to trial was considered guilty in advance. With the rise of the Tokugawa, only four types of torture remained legal in Japan: scourging, squeezing with stone slabs, tying with a rope, and hanging by a rope. Moreover, torture was not a punishment in itself, and its goal was not to cause maximum suffering to the prisoner, but to obtain a sincere confession of the crime committed. It should also be noted here that torture was allowed only to those criminals who faced the death penalty for their actions. Therefore, after a sincere confession, the poor fellows were most often executed. Executions were also very different: from the banal beheading to the terrible boiling in boiling water - this was the punishment for ninjas who failed a contract killing and were captured.