Land of the Rising Sun

Nhat - means Sun, and Ban means origin. Japan is the land of the sun, where the sun rises, the land of the sun.

Hoa anh đào Nhật Bản nở rộ ở Tokyo. (Nguồn: Mainichi)

Japan is also known as the “land of cherry blossoms” because cherry blossom trees ( sakura ) grow all over the country, from north to south. (Source: Mainichi)

According to history books, the name Japan was transcribed by the 13th century Italian explorer and merchant Marco Polo in China as Cipangu. Portuguese merchants were the first to bring this word to Europe, it was written in English as Giapan. Then, it was translated into English and German as Japan, and French as Japon. In the correct Japanese dialect, it is read as “Nihon” (Nippon or Nippon Koku - the origin of the sun or the land of the rising sun).

Coming to Japan, visitors are reminded of the legend of the two male and female rocks that created this country. The story is told in the Kojiki, the oldest surviving book in Japan written in the 8th century. The book records in Chinese ancient folk legends about the beginning of the world, the world of gods, the formation of the Japanese people, and the appearance of the Japanese imperial lineage.

The story goes that: Once upon a time, when there was no heaven or earth, there was only a strip of alluvium that split in two. The upper part was the dwelling place of the gods. The lower part was vast water; two gods used spears to stir the ocean of alluvium until bubbles rose up to form a place to live.

The male god was named Izanagi (Y Trang Nặc), the female god was named Izanami (Y Trang Sách), both meaning “the one who invites”. The man and woman looked at each other, their emotions overflowing. The female god exclaimed: “I feel like I’m missing something!” The male god replied: “I feel like I’m lacking something!” And so the couple got down to business.

After that, Izanami gave birth to the islands that are the territory of Japan. Today, in the sacred Ise Bay, near the city of Kobe (located on Honsu Island), there are still two small rocky islands called “husband and wife rocks”, “male rock” is the husband and “female rock” is the wife, tied together by a red string, a rope; every year, on the 5th of January, there is a ceremony to replace that rope. If the rope breaks during the year, it is a bad omen, the country will have many disasters.

The Sun Goddess (Amateraxu) was a tear shed by Izanagi when he returned to the mortal world and bathed in a spring to expel bodily fluids. The legend of the Sun Goddess gave Japan the name “the land of the sun”.

The legend of Mount Fuji explains another image of the country. Fuji means “elixir of life”. The story goes that an emperor fell in love with a fairy who was exiled from the moon to become the adopted daughter of an old woodcutter and his wife. Their love was not reciprocated. After her exile on earth, the fairy flew back to the moon, leaving her adoptive father a jade letter and the elixir of life, throwing it into the tallest volcano closest to the moon. To this day, sacred smoke still rises from Mount Fuji, a lingering memory.

Japan is also known as the “land of cherry blossoms” because cherry blossoms (sakura) grow all over the country, from north to south. Japan is also known as the “land of chrysanthemums”. Because the 16-petal chrysanthemum resembles the shining sun, it is the symbol of the royal family and the national emblem of Japan today.

Japan consists of four large islands and over a thousand small islands spread out in an arc about 3,800 km long off the eastern coast of the Asian continent. Honshu Island is the largest island, as large as the North and South of our country combined.

The “island” character is a very important geographical factor for Japan, perhaps more so than for Britain, because the British Isles were early attached to the European continent, while the Japanese archipelago was “a grain of millet at the far edge of the universe.”

Because they lived on islands separate from the mainland, the Japanese ethnic groups had favorable conditions to mix and form a nation with distinct characteristics early in history. Some sociologists believe that the “island” nature makes the Japanese mentality tend to be “introverted”, just like the Swedish people (for other reasons).

Because of the difficulty of transportation between the island and the mainland, foreign cultural elements did not gradually permeate but sometimes entered en masse. There were times when Japan closed its doors and had no contact with the outside world: during the Heian period, relations with China were interrupted for three hundred years; during the period from 1630 to 1867, Japan closed its doors, especially to Western countries, for more than two hundred years.

The archipelago's location on the edge of the continent also meant that Japan had less to deal with than Vietnam, as it did with constant foreign invasion; in fact, until 1945, Japan had virtually no foreign occupation.

The islands of Japan are the upper part of a submerged mountain range 6,000-8,000m deep in the Pacific Ocean, with the middle of each island being the upper part of a submerged mountain range; mountains cover two-thirds of the country's area. Because it is in contact with several tectonic plates (Eurasia, North America, Pacific and Philippines) and the "mountain-building" process is "young", Japan has two natural characteristics that make it famous worldwide: many volcanoes, many earthquakes and tsunamis (due to offshore earthquakes).

Japan's nature is beautiful, but it is truly cruel to humans. There is little arable land, a large population (about 125 million people in 377,435 ^km2 - almost the same as Vietnam - 100 million people in 329,600 ^km2 ), scarce natural resources, and no favorable weather and terrain.

Yet here, a brilliant civilization was born, a country rose from backwardness in a unique way. After more than a hundred years of change, a leading economy in the world appeared. That success is the victory of the Japanese people over nature.

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