Japan culture

Japanese culture has evolved greatly over the years, from the country's original Jōmon
culture to its contemporary culture, which combines influences from Asia, Europe and
North America. Traditional Japanese arts include crafts (ikebana, origami, ukiyo-e, dolls,
lacquerware, pottery), performances (bunraku, dance, kabuki, noh, rakugo), traditions
(games, tea ceremony, Budō, architecture, gardens, swords) and cuisine. The fusion of
traditional woodblock printing and Western art led to the creation of manga, a typically
Japanese comic book format that is now popular within and outside Japan. Manga-
influenced animation for television and film is called anime. Japanese-made video game
consoles have prospered since the 1980s.[108]

Japanese music is eclectic, having borrowed instruments, scales and styles from
neighboring cultures. Many instruments, such as the koto, were introduced in the ninth
and tenth centuries. The accompanied recitative of the Noh drama dates from the
fourteenth century and the popular folk music, with the guitar-like shamisen, from the
sixteenth. Western music, introduced in the late nineteenth century, now forms an integral
part of the culture. Post-war Japan has been heavily influenced by American and
European modern music, which has led to the evolution of popular band music called J-
pop.

Karaoke is the most widely practiced cultural activity. A November 1993 survey by the
Cultural Affairs Agency found that more Japanese had sung karaoke that year than had
participated in traditional cultural pursuits such as flower arranging or tea ceremony.

A Japanese garden

The earliest works of Japanese literature include two history books the Kojiki and the
Nihon Shoki and the eighth century poetry book Man'yōshū, all written in Chinese
characters. In the early days of the Heian period, the system of transcription known as
kana (Hiragana and Katakana) was created as phonograms. The Tale of the Bamboo
Cutter is considered the oldest Japanese narrative. An account of Heian court life is given
by The Pillow Book written by Sei Shōnagon, while The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki
is often described as the world's first novel. During the Edo period, literature became not
so much the field of the samurai aristocracy as that of the chōnin, the ordinary people.
Yomihon, for example, became popular and reveals this profound change in the
readership and authorship. The Meiji era saw the decline of traditional literary forms,
during which Japanese literature integrated Western influences. Natsume Sōseki and Mori
Ōgai were the first "modern" novelists of Japan, followed by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa,
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Yasunari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima and, more recently, Haruki
Murakami. Japan has two Nobel Prize-winning authors — Yasunari Kawabata (1968) and
Kenzaburo Oe (1994)