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

Oumarou Mebouack –

The Third Eye In The Lens.

Oumar Mebouack is a African photographer, cameraman and videomaker based in the city Douala, Cameroon. Oumarou Mebouack was born on December 1st 1976 in the town of Mandjo in Cameroon and grew raised by a grandmother who could not read or write a single letter in western alphabet. But she could read the signs n the nature, translate the weather and explain the dreams. Oumarou grew up learning from his grand mother all the characteristics of human behavior and life. As a child living in countryside of a 3rd world nation as Cameroon, he also grew up very speechless and watched the rural activities, including ritual ceremony of the Tikar tribe.

He became a photographer by accident. One day his uncle Ousmane brought him a little strange automatic box that could fix on a tape on a film tape any or a scene that you see. The young Oumar was shocked by the first gift from his uncle. After he moved from N'ditam Tikar, country to the city of Douala, at the age of 17th, he decided to study photography. Like many other artists in Cameroon, Oumarou is a self taught photographer and multimedia artist. In 2000s he started working as a freelance a photojournalist and reporter for local and international agencies while he was also photographing the urban daily life such as; birthday, marriage and family celebrations to make a living.

Since the year of 2002, he is the project coordinator of (HITIP) Hope International for Tikar People, a community-based organization that is working to improve the lives of the Tikar and pygmies people in Cameroon. Oumarou is the vital link between the Tikar and Pygmy region in Cameroon and the rest of the world and the villagers call him the "Third Eye". Oumarou has collaborated on several publications, magazines and documentary films, some most notably the latest film "Return to the Belly of the Beast," "The Power OF Pen And Ink" and the current "Radio Taboo" cpoduced by Issue TV, US. Oumarou is well-known for his artistic work, and his works have been shown in several countries around the world. In 2008, one of his videos was shown at Prospect 1, the premiere Biennale in New Orleans in the United States. The aim of this video project was to compare the trauma experienced by the people of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina with the daily life of the inhabitants of certain regions of Africa during the rainy season. Because of his deep knowledge of the traditional, rural world and the urban world, Ourmarou's valuable research has allowed HITIP to establish a solid base in the Tikar region of Cameroon. Oumarou's work have also documented the lives of thousands of indigenous people living in rainforest of Cameroon. "I want my camera to be the witness of all the things that my eye can see" said Oumarou. Oumarou Mebouack works and lives in Cameroon.

Please take a look at some of these videos filmed by Oumar!!

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

By Rachel A. Becker, National Geographic

PUBLISHED July 28, 2015

People with small body sizes, known as Pygmies, begin life at a typical size but grow slowly in early childhood, a new study shows. The results may cast doubt on long-held beliefs about how and why these groups developed shorter statures.

New evidence published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications suggests that East and West African Pygmy children have different patterns of growth, a finding that may also shed light on how these groups evolved. Fernando Ramirez Rozzi, a National Geographic grantee at the French National Center for Scientific Research and lead author of this study, spent eight years tracking age, growth, and fertility in a Pygmy population in Cameroon called the Baka.

The name Pygmy describes rainforest hunter-gatherer populations around the globe that share heights of less than around five feet tall. This short stature is genetic, research has shown, not merely the result of malnutrition. Less clear, though, is the question of how diminutive body size evolved, and whether it did so independently in different African Pygmy groups.

Growth curves

“There are just so few studies of this kind on Pygmies,” says University of Pennsylvania professor Sarah Tishkoff. Tishkoff studies the Baka but was not involved in this work.

Nomadic hunter-gatherer groups such as the Baka are notoriously difficult to study. Rozzi described the village as completely in the rainforest, with a shifting population. “You go one time in the year and you find some people. You go again six months later and the people have moved—you have a new family there,” he said.

Another challenge, added George Perry, an anthropologist and geneticist at Pennsylvania State University, is that hunter-gatherers don’t always know how old they are. “If you don’t have that information, or if that information is prone to error, it’s very hard to actually get accurate growth curves,” said Luis Barreiro, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Montreal.

Rozzi’s group got accurate ages from a group of nuns at a nearby Catholic mission who recorded birth dates and weights since the late 1980s. Rozzi’s team combined the information with their own measurements of children and adults whose ages they knew to create a growth curve of Baka people from birth to age 25.

The growth curves revealed that Baka infants are born the same weight as French infants, but after three months Baka weights drop, and never catch up. This contradicts the reigning theory—at least for this population—that Pygmy people are short-statured because they lack a growth spurt during puberty. (“They demonstrate a growth spurt pretty convincingly,” Perry says.)

East African Pygmy populations have a different growth pattern: Infants are born small and stay small, according to published studies that Rozzi’s team used for comparison. The difference between the two groups could mean that Pygmies’ shorter statures did not start with their common ancestor, but instead evolved independently in response to similar environments.

Evolved twice?

Pygmy populations in Africa have a common ancestor thought to have split from typically-sized populations around 60,000 years ago, before splitting again into East African and West African groups around 20,000 years ago.

Several theories suggest that short stature is an adaptation to life in the tropical rainforest: small bodies regulate heat better, are more agile when moving through dense vegetation, need less food, and, according to one theory, can reproduce at younger ages.

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.

Istanbul, Turkey

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

In music class when I was in junior high school my teacher told us something fascinating about former African American slaves who settled off the Southern United States coastline and said that to this day their descendents have their own language developed on the islands. I found it intriguing and it stuck in the back of my head.

The coastline from South Carolina to Northern Florida is the home of the Gullah people, an African American ethnic group. An estimated 300,000 Gullah people live along there. That coastline, "the Low Country" was deemed unhealthy for white owners and their families. The Low Country slaves were therefore freer to speak in their own languages and dialects, and to keep their African culture.

Thus were created the Gullah or Geechee language and people. Gullah allowed the Low Country slaves to communicate with one another coming as they did from an area in Africa in which there was a great deal of linguistic diversity. Settling in the offshore islands their culture and language differed from Mainland African culture and language as they do to this day. Although the Gullah language's vocabulary is much more Anglicized than it originally was, it always was a combination of English and West African languages.

There are many groups working to preserve different aspects of Low Country life. A woman, Marquetta L. Goodwine who has been designated at the official liaison and spokesperson for Gullah/Geechee people and is therefore referred to as "Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation" works with the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition to keep the culture alive and vibrant.

Partially based on http://www.pbs.org/now/arts/gullah.html

Baila and I have a dream to travel to Hawaii and enjoy the beauty of the land and people. We keep it in our spirits and it motivates us. I thought doing a spotlight on Native Hawaii would be fitting. We just celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. May it be for many more.

Enjoy the spotlight!

From Source:
https://ainaaloha.wordpress.com/who-are-native-hawaiians/

Marked by ingenuity and resourcefulness, the indigenous Hawaiian culture is internationally celebrated for its artistry and sophistication. While excelling in such arts as poetry, dance and sculpture, Hawaiians also established a well-developed judicial system and instituted complex scientific and agricultural methods.

But, who are Native Hawaiians?

Congress defines “Native Hawaiian” as “any individual who is a descendant of the aboriginal people who, prior to 1778, occupied and exercised sovereignty in the area that now constitutes the State of Hawai‘i.” (U.S. Public Law 103-150)

However, Native Hawaiians are so much more. We define ourselves by our relationships with each other, our ancestors and our land. Without these bonds of interconnectedness, we are incomplete.

Being Hawaiian involves nurturing and honoring these ties. In the Hawaiian society, one is expected to know and understand what it means to be a contributing member of the community. Everyone has a kuleana, responsibility, to use his or her talents to the benefit of the entire ‘ohana (literally, family). By fulfilling our duties to the ‘ohana and recognizing the accomplishments of others, Hawaiians increase their mana or spirituality.

Built upon the foundation of the ‘ohana, Hawaiian culture ensures the health of the community as a whole. The Western concept of “immediate family” is alien to indigenous Hawaiians. The Hawaiian ‘ohana encompasses not only those related by blood, but all who share a common sense of aloha (love and compassion). It is common to hear Native Hawaiians who are meeting for the first time ask “Who is your family?” and then joke we must be related “because we are all related.”

The ties that bind ‘ohana together cannot be broken, even by death. As loved ones pass, they continue to fulfill their obligations to the rest of the ‘ohana from the next realm. Hawaiians cherish their ancestors, committing to memory generation upon generation of lineage and composing beautiful chants heralding our ancestors’ abilities.

A lo‘i of kalo

The most important ancestor for all Hawaiians is the land itself. Legend names the first Hawaiian as the kalo (taro) plant. Therefore, as the Hawaiian progenitor, it is every Hawaiians obligation to care for their elder brother, the land.

The Creation

In the beginning, there was Papa (Earth mother) and Wākea (sky father). From these gods descended a still-born child, Hāloa (literally, long stem). Papa and Wākea buried their child, and watched as he changed and grew into the Hawaiian staff of life, kalo (the taro plant).

After Hāloa, another child was born, the first Hawaiian was born. Also named Hāloa in honor of his older brother, the first human to inhabit these islands was inextricably linked to the land that gave birth to him. As the younger siblings, Hawaiians understood their duty to care for their ‘āina, their land, so that it would in turn sustain them.

The Native Hawaiian people cherish their connection to the land. Our language is resonant with allusions to our heritage as kama‘āina, children of the land. The word for “family,” ‘ohana, literally translates as “from the kalo stem.” In acknowledging their interdependence with their ‘āina, Hawaiians created a unique culture, vibrant, sophisticated and efficient in its perceptiveness of the natural world.

To see more please visit:

https://ainaaloha.wordpress.com/who-are-native-hawaiians/