Japanese used to speak in Japanese with their written language being Chinese, learned from Chinese people who lived in Japan during the early Christian era. By the 8th and 9th centuries, Chinese characters began to be used to represent the Japanese language. Chinese loanwords and characters began to be "Japanified" for more convenient use (Encyclopædia Britannica 1997). As a result of this Chinese influence and domestic adaptation, Japanese writing developed into the threefold system it is today.

One system is the Kanji, which are borrowed Chinese ideographs, word pictures, which is what Chinese uses to write. Each kanji is a character that represents a meaning. For example, the concepts sun, moon, fire, and water are each expressed in writing with a single kanji. Since each unrelated idea requires a separate character, thousands of ideographs are necessary for a sufficient writing system. That means that each character must be identifiably different from all the rest, so each individual character can be complex as well. Today there are about two thousand kanji in regular use in Japan. Each kanji has at least two pronunciations: one, an imitation of the equivalent Chinese word (the On reading), and the other, a native Japanese word (the Kun reading).

For more convenience two systems called Kana developed during the 9th Century, as two different methods to simplify writing. Hiragana arose as a cursive abbreviation for the kanji, and was the writing system of women, who were excluded from the study of Chinese characters. Men's writing systems were Kanji and Katakana until the 10th century when Hiragana was used by all. The word hiragana means "ordinary syllabic script". Chinese through Buddhism had become a traditional Japanese priestly language and through this Japanese writing was further developed by priests creating the Katakana writing system. Buddhism is the imported faith that most Japanese who are religious are members of in addition to the native faith of Shintoism. As the priests read Chinese works, they translated them in their temples into Japanese and inserted these kana beside the kanji as a mnemonic device to help them with Japanese inflections that were not in the Chinese (Encyclopædia Britannica 1997).

The kana are syllabic. Like capital and lowercase sets of letters in the Roman alphabets, the two kana systems cover the same phonetic territory but have different orthographic functions.

Katakana, the first syllabary, is more angular and is used mostly for transcribing words of foreign origin, such as terebi (television). Hiragana is more cursive, and can be used for grammatical inflections or for writing native Japanese words where kanji are not used. Modern Japanese texts may also include rōmaji, (Roman letters), the standard way of writing Japanese with the Latin alphabet. This was the only way for typing Japanese before using traditional script became possible.

The direction of writing of Japanese is right to left in vertical columns or left to right in horizontal lines. Horizontal writing was first used during the Meiji Period (1868-1912) in Western language dictionaries of Japanese. Today both orientations are used.

Mostly from http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/ling450ch/reports/japanese.htm , http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese_Katakana.htm and http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese.htm

It is not known when Chinese writing originated, but it apparently began to develop about 4000 years ago. The earliest graphs were schematic pictures of what they represented; the graph for man resembled a standing figure, that for woman depicted a kneeling figure.

Although it was possible to make up simple signs to represent common objects, many words were not readily picturable. To represent such words the phonographic principle was adopted. A graph that pictured some object was borrowed to write a different word that happened to sound similar. Because of the enormous number of Chinese words that sound the same, to have carried through the phonographic principle would have resulted in a writing system in which many of the words could be read in more than one way. That is, a written character would be extremely ambiguous.

The solution to the problem of character ambiguity, adopted about 213 BCE (during the reign of the first Qin emperor, Shihuangdi), was to distinguish two words having the same sound and represented by the same graph by adding another graph to give a clue to the meaning of the particular word intended. Such complex graphs or characters consist of two parts, one part suggesting the sound, the other part the meaning. The system was then standardized so as to approach the ideal of one distinctive graph representing each morpheme, or unit of meaning, in the language. The limitation is that a language that has thousands of morphemes would require thousands of characters, and, as the characters are formed from simple lines in various orientations and arrangements, they came to possess great complexity.

Not only did the principle of the script change with time, so too did the form of the graphs. The earliest writing consisted of carved inscriptions. Before the beginning of the Christian Era the script came to be written with brush and ink on paper. The result was that the shapes of the graphs lost their pictorial, “motivated” quality. The brushwork allowed a great deal of scope for aesthetic considerations.

The relation between the written Chinese language and its oral form is very different from the analogous relation between written and spoken English. In Chinese many different words are expressed by the identical sound pattern—188 different words are expressed by the syllable /yi/—while each of those words is expressed by a distinctive visual pattern. A piece of written text read orally is often quite incomprehensible to a listener because of the large number of homophones. In conversation, literate Chinese speakers frequently draw characters in the air to distinguish between homophones. Written text, on the other hand, is completely unambiguous. In English, by contrast, writing is often thought of as a reflection, albeit imperfect, of speech.

To make the script easier to read, a system of transcribing Chinese into the Roman alphabet was adopted in 1958 to indicate the sounds of graphs in dictionaries and to supplement graphs on such things as road signs and posters. A second reform simplified the characters by reducing the number of strokes used in writing them. Simplification, however, tends to make the characters more similar in appearance; thus they are more easily confused and the value of the reform is limited. Since the Communist revolution the grammar and vocabulary of modern Mandarin Chinese has served as the standard written language as opposed to other written and spoken Chinese dialects. While a majority of Chinese learn to speak Mandarin in school still for many Chinese the written language is the only universal means of communication between speakers of disparate Chinese dialects or languages. It is similar to writing numerals and yet having them called different names in different languages. In American English if you think about it we also have a common writting system as our common dialect but not so dramatically different from our spoken dialects.

Partially from: http://www.britannica.com/topic/Chinese-writing

Matcha ceremony (Chanoyu) is very complicated. Students of Chanoyu go to University to learn and study every aspect of it! Books that are written about it cannot hold all of its complexities within. Nonetheless, in this Spotlight, we will endeavor to shed a faint light on one of the most beautiful and complicated ceremonies in the world: Chanoyu.

What is Matcha?

"Matcha is a first class type of powdered, extra-fine ground tea that is used for the Japanese tea ceremony, Chanoyu, during which the tea is whisked with a bamboo tool called a chasen, in a handcrafted bowl called a chawan. Quality Matcha is always a pea-green, extra-fine powder with a distinctive, grassy aroma. The foamy infusion is fresh and deep green with an unforgettable, intense taste. Its health benefits are endless! We recommend that it be enjoyed after dessert or with a Japanese sweet, but never drink it on an empty stomach!" Taken from Dobra Tea

Matcha is made from the leaves of the Gyokuro tea plant. Gyokuro that is shade grown for more than 20 days is harvest by hand. The leaves are preprocessed into tencha by steaming and drying. When ground in a milstone (think giant granite stones), the tencha becomes matcha.

Two styles of matcha are served during the tea ceremony. The first, thin-style matcha, called usucha (oo-Soo-cha) is served to each person. The second, thick-style matcha, called koicha (Koy-cha) is shared among the guests.

What is Tea Ceremony?

Japanese tea ceremony is about four elements: wa, kei, sei, and jaku or harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility. When one includes all elements, one can enjoy the simplicity of drinking tea. Harmony can be created through cleanliness; the ceremony is held in a room without clutter and with elegant decorations, like flowers in a vase or a flag of calligraphy. Respect is created by thoughtful consideration of everything and everyone involved in the ceremony. Topics that can lead to arguments are not discussed during tea ceremony. Purity comes from the cleaning of the utensils and the boiling of the water. Tranquility is achieved after the calm consumption of the tea.

The Five Parts of Chanoyu, Simplified

Description of Ceremony

A door made of rectangular rice paper windows opens. Two outstretched hands reach through the doorway and place a utensil on the floor. The hands, now pressed on the floor, allow their master to shuffle into the room. The master is a Japanese woman, dressed in beautiful green robes (kimono) with a large belt and a bow tied in the back. She picks up the utensil, places it ahead of her again, and shuffles toward it a second time. Finally within the room, she stands, walks slowly toward the flag of poetry enshrined on the wall, kneels and bows to it. She then approaches the kama, the water vessel in the room, inspects it and the ornate vase misisashi next to it. Since everything is correct, she walks to the corner of the room, by the door to kneel and rest. She is guest.

Tea Utensils

Tea Bowls - Chawan
Tea Scoops - Chashaku
Tea Whisks - Chasen
Tea Containers - Natsume
Water Scoop - Hishaku
Cloth Napkin - Chakin
Silk Napkin - Fukusa
Tea Kettles - Kama
(And more!)

UPDATES TO FOLLOW!
Written by Nathaniel Pantalone for OWB LLC.

Japan: A Journey Between Tradition And Modernity

How do you handle your life between your traditions and Modernity? What do you hold fast to, what do you keep, what do you preserve? How do you live the balance of Life and stay true to who you are? We all must come to our own understanding and yet see the traditions and culture of our life passed down from family to family are so precious and dear. Walk the balance of life and hold on to what you believe in. Hold on to YOU!!

1st Video by AmnesiArt http://amnesiart.com

Feng Shui and how its helpful?

By Pandit Rahul Kaushal

INTRODUCTION to Fengshui

It may be a new for those who have never heard about it and very symbolic for those who knew about it. Feng Shui is an important Chinese science that has gained importance due to its popularity in recent years and rather due to its positive results to people.

Actually every object or picture is related with some meaning or with some symbols. The Chinese people believe in looking at objects with their hidden meanings. According to them these objects and pictures are the conveyors of good luck or bad luck. The Chinese people traditionally use a large number of symbols in their house. These symbols and objects are good for providing good luck for Health, Success, Marriage, Good relationships, Good business, and Wealth too.

Various Feng Shui symbols for Good Luck

In symbolic Feng Shui, there are certain dimensions which are considered to be good for bringing healthy luck whereas, certain dimensions are believed to bring Bad luck to you also. If we see in case of furniture, it also bring good luck chi to you with its lucky and unlucky dimensions. The table, chair, cupboard, etc, can be measured with Feng Shui ruler specially made for these. The Feng Shui ruler has eight cycles of dimensions out of which four are auspicious and four are inauspicious. The measure of each cycle is equal to 17 inches or 43cms and further each cycle is divided into eight portions. The cycles of auspicious and inauspicious dimensions repeats itself over and over to infinity. These dimensions proved very beneficial in every case.

The four auspicious Dimensions

About the Author

Pandit Rahul Kaushal

Pandit Rahul Kaushal is Celebrity Astrologer and vastu consultant from india and he serves via his site Pandit.com

Muslims who landed in India as soldiers, merchants, mystics, and camp followers enriched the native dialects. Especially the one that was spoken around Delhi called Khari Boli. A language known as Hindi, Hindvi or Dehlavi came into being. It spread towards the south and by the 18th century it was called Rekhta and Hindustani, among other names. The elites of Delhi Persianised it and renamed it as Zuban-e-Urdu-e-Mualla (the language of an exalted city).
Far from being a separate identity marker, Urdu represented the complex Hindu-Muslim exchange during the 13th-18th centuries. Urdu is a common heritage of Hindus and Muslims for at least 500 years if not more.
Modern Urdu is a deliberate Muslim cultural product, which came into being through the linguistic reform movement during late 18th century. This was the same time when Hindu reformers started to clean up and remove Persian and Arabic words in favor of Sanskrit.
The above excerpts were edited from http://tribune.com.pk/story/331873/myths-about-the-urdu-language/
Urdu is the official language of Muslim Pakistan but it is used across India by Hindus as well as Muslims as a lingua franca, a common language, to communicate with others in a land that despite the government promotion of Hindi as the official language of India has no language mutually understood by a majority of Indians. Urdu and Hindi can be called dialects of one another or dialects of a common language, Hindustani. Muslims in India and Pakistan may identify with it and Hindus by contrast may not be specifically insistent on it or likely to learn its Persian-Arabic originated script, but the notion that there is a strict Muslim-Hindu divide with Urdu being used by Muslims and Hindi by Hindus, is an oversimplification that is political and divisive in nature. If Urdu and Hindi can be seen to be a common heritage of both Hindus and Muslims in the Indian subcontinent, there would be more harmony between these two communities that historically have been in conflict and were therefore separated into India and Pakistan in the 1947 Partition of India.

Yodo Kurahashi performs Futaiken Sanya on Shakuhachi Flute

Yodo Kurahashi performs Futaiken Sanya on Shakuhachi flute at the 8th annual Mujuan Shakuhachi Recital in Kyoto, Japan at YUYU, Ikenobo College on November 26, 2011. He dedicated this performance to the victims of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. This concert was also arranged by Yodo Kurahashi Sensei. Shakuhachi masters Yodo Kurahashi and Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin performed at this concert, along with performances by their students. Kurahashi Sensei is based in Kyoto, Japan, and teaches there and at workshops throughout the world. Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin teaches in New York and other East Coast cities, and also performs around the world.

Tea Ceremony: Urasenke Style

COBRA GYPSIES - full documentary