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Kibitsu Shrine (Bitchū). Kibitsu Jinja (吉備津神社) is a Shinto shrine in the Kibitsu neighborhood of Kita-ku, Okayama in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. It is the ichinomiya (first shrine) of former Bitchū Province. The shrine’s main festivals are held on the second Sunday in May and October 15th each year.[1] The Kibitsu Jinja is located in the western part of Okayama city within walking distance of Kibitsu Station. The shrine faces north at the northwestern foot of Mount Kibi no Nakayama (吉備の中山; elevation: 175 meters) on the border between former Bizen Province and Bitchū Province.[2][3][4][5] The mountain has been worshipped as a sacred mountain from ancient times. Kibitsu Jinja was originally the general guardian of Kibi Province, but due to the division of Kibi Province into three provinces, it became the ichinomiya of Bitchū, and bunrei from this shrine created the ichinomiya of Bizen Province (Kibitsuhiko Jinja) and Bingo Province (Kibitsu Shrine). The Honden-Haiden, which was re-built by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, is a National Treasure and the sole exemplar of the kibitsu-zukuri style of architecture, although the Soshidō of Hokekyō-ji is now believed to have been modeled thereon.[6][7] In addition, the three shrine buildings are designated as National Important Cultural Properties, and a special Shinto ritual Narukama Shinji is famous. The Shrine has a unique dual worship of Sorei or ancestral spirits alongside Mizuko kuyō[8]: 239 or cults of miscarried babies.
Marine World Uminonakamichi. Marine World Uminonakamichi (マリンワールド海の中道, Marin-wārudō-Uminonakamichi) is a public aquarium in Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan.[3] It is a member of the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA), and the aquarium is accredited as a Museum-equivalent facilities by the Museum Act from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.[4] It opened in April 1989 and was renovated and expanded in April 1995.[5] Since 2000, it has been open at night mainly during the summer vacation. A formalin specimen of a megamouth (female) that was washed ashore in Hakata Bay in 1994 is on display.[5] Water park is located on the site of Uminonakamichi Seaside Park located in Sandbar called Uminonakamichi. Surrounded by the sea and parks, it is in an environment rich in nature, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, although it is in Fukuoka city. The building with a seashell motif has a semi-circular design, which is a characteristic appearance of a tent-shaped roof fixed with wires. The mascot character is Mega Tot with the motif of Megamouth. The character design is Norio Hikone designed by Uncle Carl.[3] The entire building was closed from October 3, 2016 and reopened on April 12, 2017 in order to carry out a major renovation to replace 90% of the aquarium.[6][7]　The new exhibition theme is Kyushu Sea.[8] The aquarium focuses on the aquatic life of Tsushimas warm current and is made up of a total of 70 tanks. The three largest contain 2,000 m3 (530,000 US gal), 1,400 m3 (370,000 US gal) and 720 m3 (190,000 US gal) respectively. The largest is used for dolphin and sea lion shows, the middle contains more than 120 sharks of 20 species, while the last is for dolphins.[1]you can see 20,000 fish of 350 types from tropical to temperate and boreal zones as they are. In addition to fish, dolphins, harbor seals, sea otters, and sea turtles are on display in the museum. The highlights are the dolphin and sea lion show and the large panoramic tanks where giant sand tiger sharks swim.
Pictorialism. Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer has somehow manipulated what would otherwise be a straightforward photograph as a means of creating an image rather than simply recording it. Typically, a pictorial photograph appears to lack a sharp focus (some more so than others), is printed in one or more colors other than black-and-white (ranging from warm brown to deep blue) and may have visible brush strokes or other manipulation of the surface. For the pictorialist, a photograph, like a painting, drawing or engraving, was a way of projecting an emotional intent into the viewers realm of imagination.[1] Pictorialism as a movement thrived from about 1885 to 1915, although it was still being promoted by some as late as the 1940s. It began in response to claims that a photograph was nothing more than a simple record of reality, and transformed into a movement to advance the status of all photography as a true art form. For more than three decades painters, photographers and art critics debated opposing artistic philosophies, ultimately culminating in the acquisition of photographs by several major art museums. Pictorialism gradually declined in popularity after 1920, although it did not fade out of popularity until the end of World War II. During this period the new style of photographic Modernism came into vogue, and the publics interest shifted to more sharply focused images such as seen in the work of Ansel Adams. Several important 20th-century photographers began their careers in a pictorialist style but transitioned into sharply focused photography by the 1930s. Photography as a technical process involving the development of film and prints in a darkroom originated in the early 19th century, with the forerunners of traditional photographic prints coming into prominence around 1838 to 1840. Not long after the new medium was established, photographers, painters and others began to argue about the relationship between the scientific and artistic aspects of the medium. As early as 1853, English painter William John Newton proposed that the camera could produce artistic results if the photographer would keep an image slightly out of focus.[2] Others vehemently believed that a photograph was equivalent to the visual record of a chemistry experiment. Photography historian Naomi Rosenblum points out that the dual character of the medium—its capacity to produce both art and document—[was] demonstrated soon after its discovery ... Nevertheless, a good part of the nineteenth century was spent debating which of these directions was the mediums true function.[3] These debates reached their peak during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, culminating in the creation of a movement that is usually characterized as a particular style of photography: pictorialism. This style is defined first by a distinctly personal expression that emphasizes photographys ability to create visual beauty rather than simply record facts.[4] However, recently historians have recognized that pictorialism is more than just a visual style. It evolved in direct context with the changing social and cultural attitudes of the time, and, as such, it should not be characterized simply as a visual trend. One writer has noted that pictorialism was simultaneously a movement, a philosophy, an aesthetic and a style.[5]
Shoji Ueda Museum of Photography. The Shoji Ueda Museum of Photography, is a museum in Hōki, Tottori, Japan that is solely dedicated to exhibiting and archiving the work of the photographer Shoji Ueda. The museum was founded in 1995.[1] The collection consists of over 12,000 works by Shoji Ueda.[2] The building was designed by Shin Takamatsu.[3] The architectural relationships between volumetric solids and voids (as scaled incisions in the volume) function to frame Mount Daisen.[4] Cerver, Francisco Asenio. Shoji Ueda Museum of Photography in The Architecture of Museums, pgs. 162-170, University of Michigan Press, 1997. ISBN 9780823061310 35°23′24″N 133°26′09″E / 35.3899°N 133.4358°E / 35.3899; 133.4358
Fukuoka Castle. Fukuoka Castle (福岡城, Fukuoka-jō) is a Japanese castle located in Chūō-ku, Fukuoka, Japan. It is also known as Maizuru Castle (舞鶴城 Maizuru-jō) or Seki Castle (石城 Seki-jō). Completed in the early Edo period for tozama daimyō Kuroda Nagamasa, it has been decreed a historic site by the Japanese government. The castle lies in the centre of Fukuoka, on top of Fukusaki hill. The Naka River (那珂), Naka-gawa in Japanese, acts as a natural moat on the eastern side of the castle, while the western side uses a mudflat as a natural moat. Hakata, a ward with a bustling port, is located on the opposite side of the Naka River to the east. The castle town was established on the northern side, facing the sea. Much of the castle grounds has been converted to Maizuru Park, which houses several sports facilities, a courthouse, and an art museum. Heiwadai Baseball Stadium, the past home field of the Nishitetsu Lions and the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, was also located on the castle grounds. Some of the castles gates as well as its towers and turrets, known as yaguras, are preserved inside the park, one of which has been marked as an important historical artifact by the Japanese government. The remnants of a korokan (鴻臚館), an ancient guest house for foreign diplomats, were discovered under the castle grounds in 1987, showing that the castle was a vital geographical checkpoint even into the Heian period. This is the only korokan remnant found in all of Japan. In 1600, Kuroda Nagamasa received huge rewards in the form of land in Chikuzen Province for his contributions during the Battle of Sekigahara and moved into Najima Castle (名島城 Najima-jō) to form the Fukuoka han. Najima Castle had been created by Tachibana Akitoshi and was expanded by Kobayakawa Takakage, but was much too small to accommodate a large han, leading to the selection of Fukusaki hill as a new castle site.
Sakaiminato, Tottori. Sakaiminato (境港市, Sakaiminato-shi) is a city in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. As of 31 December 2021[update], the city had an estimated population of 32,012 in 13178 households and a population density of 1110 persons per km².[1] The total area of the city is 272.06 square kilometres (105.04 sq mi). Sakaiminato is located in far western Tottori Prefecture, at the northern end of the Yumigahama Peninsula. It is surrounded on three sides by Lake Nakaumi, the Sea of Japan, and the Sakai Channel, which connects them. Across the Sakai Channel or across the Eshima Ohashi Bridge, it borders the city of Matsue in Shimane Prefecture. Sakaiminato is located on a sandbar, and the land is very flat, with an average elevation of two meters above sea level. Tottori Prefecture Shimane Prefecture Sakaiminato has a Humid climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm, wet summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Sakaiminato is 15.5 °C (59.9 °F). The average annual rainfall is 1,903.3 mm (74.93 in) with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 27.3 °C (81.1 °F), and lowest in January, at around 4.9 °C (40.8 °F).[2] Its record high is 38.5 °C (101.3 °F), reached on 22 August 2018, and its record low is −9.7 °C (14.5 °F), reached on 27 January 1904.[3]
University of San Diego. The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Catholic research university in San Diego, California, United States. Chartered in 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University (comprising the College for Men and School of Law), the two institutions merged in 1972.[4] The university includes the College of Arts and Sciences, Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, Division of Professional and Continuing Education, Knauss School of Business, School of Law, School of Leadership and Education Services (SOLES), and the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering.[5] USD has 89 undergraduate and graduate programs, and enrolls approximately 9,073 undergraduate, paralegal, graduate and law students. It is classified among R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity.[6] The San Diego Toreros compete in NCAA Division I (FCS) as a member of the West Coast Conference. Charters were granted in 1949 for the San Diego College for Women and San Diego University, which included the College for Men and School of Law.[7][8][9] The College for Women opened its doors to its first class of students in 1952. The Most Reverend Charles F. Buddy, D.D., then bishop of the Diocese of San Diego and Reverend Mother Rosalie Hill, RSCJ, a Superior Vicaress of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, chartered the institution from resources drawn from their respective organizations on a stretch of land known as Alcalá Park, named for Didacus of Alcalá. In 1954, the College for Men and the School of Law opened.[10] These two schools originally occupied Bogue Hall on the same site of University High School, which would later become the home of the University of San Diego High School. Starting in 1954, Alcalá Park also served as the diocesan chancery office and housed the episcopal offices, until the diocese moved to a vacated Benedictine convent that was converted to a pastoral center. In 1957, Immaculate Heart Major Seminary and St. Francis Minor Seminary were moved into their newly completed facility, now known as Maher Hall. The Immaculata Chapel, now no longer affiliated with USD, also opened that year as part of the seminary facilities. For nearly two decades, these schools co-existed on Alcalá Park. Immaculate Heart closed at the end of 1968, when its building was renamed De Sales Hall; St. Francis remained open until 1970, when it was transferred to another location on campus, leaving all of the newly named Bishop Leo T. Maher Hall to the newly merged co-educational University of San Diego in 1972.
Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. The under secretary of defense for intelligence and security or USD(I&S) is a high-ranking civilian position in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) that acts as the principal civilian advisor and deputy to the secretary of defense (SecDef) and deputy secretary of defense (DepSecDef) on matters relating to military intelligence and security. The under secretary is appointed as a civilian by the president and confirmed by the Senate to serve at the pleasure of the president.[1] In 2019, Congress renamed the office from Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (USD(I)) to Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security as part of the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act.[2][3] The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security (OUSD(I&S)) is the principal staff element of the DoD for all matters regarding intelligence, counterintelligence, security, sensitive activities, and other intelligence- and security-related matters. As the SecDefs representative, the USD(I&S) exercises oversight over, among others, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA). In addition, the under secretary is also dual-hatted, serving as the Director of Defense Intelligence (DDI) under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI);[4] in this capacity, the under secretary is the principal defense intelligence and security advisor to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).[3] With the rank of under secretary, the USD(I&S) is a Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service (DISES) Level III position within the Executive Schedule. Since January 2024, the annual rate of pay for Level III is $204,000. The position of Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence was originally created by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003 in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks to better coordinate Department-wide intelligence and security activities. It also became second in the line of succession for the secretary of defense, after the deputy secretary of defense, following an executive order by President George W. Bush on 22 December 2005. When it was created, the legislation described it as taking precedence in the Department behind the under secretary for personnel and readiness (USD (P&R)).[1][5]
Unified school district. A unified school district (in the states of Arizona, California, Kansas and Oregon) or unit school district (in Illinois), in the United States of America, is a school district that generally includes and operates both primary schools (kindergarten through middle school or junior high) and high schools (grades 9–12) under the same district control. This distinction is predominant in states where elementary school districts and high school districts are, or were, generally separate. The Los Angeles Unified School District is a major example of a unified school district in California. In California and Illinois, and possibly other states, unified or unit school districts are not the same as consolidated or union school districts, which are generally formed by the consolidation of multiple school districts of the same type. In Kansas, the unified school districts developed after legislation was passed in 1962 that was intended to reduce the number of rural school districts. After the laws passage, the number of districts in Kansas dropped dramatically. In 1947, there were over 3,000 districts. After the unification law and establishment of unified school districts, their number dropped to under 400.[1] In Arizona, unified school districts elect 5 school board members.[2] Common school districts have elected boards consisting of 3 members. Some states use the term unified school district to refer to different characteristics. For example:
University of South Dakota. The University of South Dakota (USD) is a public research university in Vermillion, South Dakota, United States. Established by the Dakota Territory legislature in 1862, 27 years before the establishment of the state of South Dakota,[5] USD is the flagship university of South Dakota and the states oldest public university.[6] It occupies a 274 acres (1.11 km2) campus[3] located in southeastern South Dakota, approximately 63 miles (101 km) southwest of Sioux Falls, 39 miles (63 km) northwest of Sioux City, Iowa, and north of the Missouri River. The university is home to South Dakotas only medical school and law school.[7] It is also home to the National Music Museum, with over 15,000 American, European, and non-Western instruments.[8] USD is governed by the South Dakota Board of Regents, and its president is Sheila Gestring. The university has been accredited by the North Central Association of College and Schools since 1913. It is classified among R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity.[9] University of South Dakotas alumni include a total of 17 Truman Scholars, 12 Rhodes Scholars,[10] and 1 Nobel Laureate (Ernest Lawrence 1922, 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics). The athletic teams compete in the NCAAs Division I as members of The Summit League, except football, which competes in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. The University of South Dakota was founded in 1862 by the Dakota Territorial Legislature which authorized the establishment of the University at Vermillion. The authorization was unfunded, however, and classes did not begin until 20 years later under the auspices of the privately incorporated University of Dakota, created with support from the citizens of Clay County. Ephraim Epstein served as the first president and primary faculty member in the institution that opened in loaned space in downtown Vermillion. Before 1883 ended, the university had moved into Old Main, and the first public board was appointed to govern the institution.
Federal Reserve Bank Note. Federal Reserve Bank Notes are legal tender banknotes in the United States that were issued between 1915 and 1934, together with United States Notes, Silver Certificates, Gold Certificates, National Bank Notes and Federal Reserve Notes.[1] They were specified in the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and had the same value as other kinds of notes of the same denomination. Federal Reserve Bank Notes are different from Federal Reserve Notes in that they are backed by one of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks, rather than by all collectively. Federal Reserve Bank Notes were envisioned as a replacement for National Bank Notes, but that did not prove to be the case.[2] They were backed in a similar way to National Bank Notes, using U.S. bonds, but issued by Federal Reserve banks instead of by chartered National banks. Federal Reserve Bank Notes are no longer issued; the only U.S. banknotes still in production since 1971 are the Federal Reserve Notes. Large size Federal Reserve Bank Notes were first issued in 1915 in denominations of $5, $10, and $20, using a design that shared elements with both the National Bank Notes and the Federal Reserve Notes of the time. Additional denominations of $1, $2, and $50 were issued in 1918 as an emergency replacement for Silver Certificates, which were temporarily removed from circulation under the Pittman Act.[3] Small size Federal Reserve Bank Notes were printed as an emergency issue in 1933 using the same paper stock as 1929 National Bank Notes. They were printed in denominations of $5 through $100. The wording, Or by like deposit of other securities was added after the phrase, Secured by United States bonds deposited with the Treasurer of the United States of America.[4] This emergency issue of notes was prompted by the public hoarding of cash due to many bank failures happening at the time. This also limited the ability of the National Banks to issue notes of their own. Small size Federal Reserve Bank Notes were discontinued in 1934 and have not been available from banks since 1945. As small size notes, they have brown seals and serial numbers, as do National Bank Notes of the era. But while they look very similar, and both have the words, National Currency across the top of the obverse, they had different issuers and are considered to be distinctly different types of bills.
Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) is a government agency within the United States Department of the Treasury that designs and produces a variety of security products for the United States government, most notable of which is Federal Reserve Notes (paper money) for the Federal Reserve, the nations central bank. In addition to paper currency, the BEP produces Treasury securities; military commissions and award certificates; invitations and admission cards; and many different types of identification cards, forms, and other special security documents for a variety of government agencies. The BEPs role as printer of paper currency makes it one of two Treasury Department agencies involved in currency production. The other is the United States Mint, which mints coinage. With production facilities in Washington, D.C., and Fort Worth, Texas, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is the largest producer of government security documents in the United States. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing has its origins in legislation enacted to help fund the Civil War. In July 1861, Congress authorized the secretary of the treasury to issue paper currency in lieu of coins due to the lack of funds needed to support the conflict. The paper notes were essentially government IOUs and were called Demand Notes because they were payable on demand in coin at certain Treasury facilities. At this time the government had no facility for the production of paper money so the American Bank Note Company and National Bank Note Company produced the Demand Notes in sheets of four. These sheets were then sent to the Treasury Department where dozens of clerks signed the notes and scores of workers cut the sheets and trimmed the notes by hand. The Second Legal Tender Act (July 11, 1862; 12 Stat. 532) authorized the Treasury Secretary to engrave and print notes at the Treasury Department; the design of which incorporates fine-line engraving, intricate geometric lathe work patterns, a Treasury seal, and engraved signatures to aid in counterfeit deterrence.[2] Initially, the currency processing operations in the Treasury were not formally organized. When Congress created the Office of Comptroller of the Currency and National Currency Bureau in 1863, currency-processing operations were nominally subordinated to that agency and designated the First Division, National Currency Bureau. For years, however, the currency operations were known by various semi-official labels, such as the Printing Bureau, Small Note Bureau, Currency Department, and Small Note Room. It was not until 1874 that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was officially recognized in congressional legislation with a specific allocation of operating funds for the fiscal year of 1875. From almost the very beginning of its operations, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing designed and printed a variety of products in addition to currency. As early as 1864, the offices which would later become the BEP made passports for the State Department and money orders for the Post Office Department. Passports are now produced by the Government Publishing Office. Other early items produced by the BEP included various government debt instruments, such as interest-bearing notes, refunding certificates, compound interest Treasury notes, and bonds. The production of postage stamps began in 1894, and for almost the next century the BEP was the sole producer of postage stamps in the country.
Mangrove. A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen and remove salt, allowing them to tolerate conditions that kill most plants. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse due to convergent evolution in several plant families. They occur worldwide in the tropics and subtropics and even some temperate coastal areas, mainly between latitudes 30° N and 30° S, with the greatest mangrove area within 5° of the equator.[1][2] Mangrove plant families first appeared during the Late Cretaceous to Paleocene epochs and became widely distributed in part due to the movement of tectonic plates. The oldest known fossils of mangrove palm date to 75 million years ago.[2] Mangroves are salt-tolerant (halophytic) and are adapted to live in harsh coastal conditions. They contain a complex salt filtration system and a complex root system to cope with saltwater immersion and wave action. They are adapted to the low-oxygen conditions of waterlogged mud,[3] but are most likely to thrive in the upper half of the intertidal zone.[4] The mangrove biome, often called the mangrove forest or mangal, is a distinct saline woodland or shrubland habitat characterized by depositional coastal environments, where fine sediments (often with high organic content) collect in areas protected from high-energy wave action. Mangrove forests serve as vital habitats for a diverse array of aquatic species, offering a unique ecosystem that supports the intricate interplay of marine life and terrestrial vegetation. The saline conditions tolerated by various mangrove species range from brackish water, through pure seawater (3 to 4% salinity), to water concentrated by evaporation to over twice the salinity of ocean seawater (up to 9% salinity).[5][6] Beginning in 2010, remote sensing technologies and global data have been used to assess areas, conditions and deforestation rates of mangroves around the world.[7][1][2] In 2018, the Global Mangrove Watch Initiative released a new global baseline which estimates the total mangrove forest area of the world as of 2010 at 137,600 km2 (53,100 sq mi), spanning 118 countries and territories.[2][7] A 2022 study on losses and gains of tidal wetlands estimates a 3,700 km2 (1,400 sq mi) net decrease in global mangrove extent from 1999 to 2019.[8] Mangrove loss continues due to human activity, with a global annual deforestation rate estimated at 0.16%, and per-country rates as high as 0.70%. Degradation in quality of remaining mangroves is also an important concern.[2]
Currency Symbols (Unicode block). Currency Symbols is a Unicode block containing characters for representing unique monetary signs. Many currency signs can be found in other Unicode blocks, especially when the currency symbol is unique to a country that uses a script not generally used outside that country. The display of Unicode currency symbols among various typefaces is inconsistent, more so than other characters in the repertoire. The French franc sign (U+20A3) is typically displayed as a struck-through F, but various versions of Garamond display it as an Fr ligature. The peseta sign (U+20A7), inherited from code page 437, is usually displayed as a Pts ligature, but Roboto displays it as a Pt ligature and Arial Unicode MS displays it as a partially struck-through P. The rupee sign (U+20A8) is usually displayed as an Rs digraph, but Microsoft Sans Serif uses the quantity-neutral Rp digraph instead. The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Currency Symbols block:
Banknotes of the United States dollar. From 1775 to 1779, the Continental Congress issued Continental currency banknotes. Then there was a period when the United States just used gold and silver, rather than paper currency. In 1812, the US began issuing Treasury Notes, although the motivation behind their issuance was funding federal expenditures rather than the provision of a circulating medium. In 1861, the US began issuing Demand Notes, which were the first paper money issued by the United States whose main purpose was to circulate. And since 1914, the US has issued Federal Reserve Notes. Since 1971, Federal Reserves Notes have been the only banknotes of the United States dollar that have been issued. But at some points in the past, the United States had multiple different types of banknotes, such as United States Notes (1862–1971), Interest bearing notes (1863-1865), and Gold certificates (1865–1934). Federal Reserve Notes were first issued in 1914,[1] and are liabilities of the Federal Reserve System. They were redeemable in gold until 1933.[2] After that date they stopped to be redeemable in anything, much like United States Notes (which later led to the halting of the production of United States Notes). They switched to small size in 1929 and are the only type of currency in circulation today in the United States. They were originally printed in denominations of $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000. The $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 denominations were last printed in 1945 and discontinued in 1969, making the $100 bill the largest denomination banknote in circulation. A $1 note was added in 1963 to replace the $1 Silver Certificate after that type of currency had been discontinued. Since United States Notes were discontinued in 1971, Federal Reserve Notes are the only type of currency circulating in the US. In 1976, a $2 note was added, 10 years after the $2 denomination of United States Note was officially discontinued. The denomination proved to be unpopular and is now treated as a curiosity, although it is still being printed. Starting 1996, all notes except $1 and $2 were redesigned to have a larger portrait of the people depicted on them. Since 2004, all notes (except $1 and $2) were progressively changed to have different colors to make them more easily distinguishable from each other, until the last such note was introduced in 2013 (the $100). Before the American Revolution, every one of the Thirteen Colonies had issued its own paper money, most often denominated in British pounds, shillings and pence. In 1776, the newly created United States issued currency which was bought by people who wanted to support the war (it was promised that the currency could be redeemed for Spanish milled dollars once the war would end). At first, the banknotes circulated at par with the stated value, however after a few months they started depreciating until they became almost worthless. The United States agreed to redeem the notes for treasury bonds at 1% of the face value. The issued denominations ranged from $1/6 to $80.
United States one-dollar bill. The United States one-dollar bill (US$1), sometimes referred to as a single, has been the lowest value denomination of United States paper currency since the discontinuation of U.S. fractional currency notes in 1876. An image of the first U.S. president (1789–1797), George Washington, based on the Athenaeum Portrait, a 1796 painting by Gilbert Stuart, is currently featured on the obverse, and the Great Seal of the United States is featured on the reverse. The one-dollar bill has the oldest overall design of all U.S. currency currently in use. The reverse design of the present dollar debuted in 1935, and the obverse in 1963 when it was first issued as a Federal Reserve Note (previously, one-dollar bills were Silver Certificates). The current US two-dollar bill has the oldest obverse design, dating from 1928. A dollar bill is composed of 25% linen and 75% cotton. That blend makes the notes more difficult to counterfeit compared to paper (as well as increasing its durability).[4] As of December 31, 2018[update], the average life of a dollar bill in circulation is 6.6 years before it is replaced due to wear.[5] Approximately 42% of all U.S. currency produced in 2009 were one-dollar bills.[6] As of December 31, 2019[update], there were 12.7 billion one-dollar bills in circulation worldwide.[7] An engraver at the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing, George Frederick Cumming Smillie, made an etching of a painting of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart which was used on multiple banknotes. A vignette of the portrait appears on the one dollar bill of 1899, and the one dollar note of (1918 to 2023). United States one-dollar bills featured the image for decades (1918 to 2023).[8] (approximately 7+3⁄8 in × 3+1⁄8 in or 187 mm × 79 mm) (6.14 length × 2.61 width × 0.0043 in thickness = 156 × 66.3 × 0.11 mm)
United States dollar. The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD[a]) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it into 100 cents, and authorized the minting of coins denominated in dollars and cents. U.S. banknotes are issued in the form of Federal Reserve Notes, popularly called greenbacks due to their predominantly green color. The U.S. dollar was originally defined under a bimetallic standard of 371.25 grains (24.057 g) (0.7734375 troy ounces) fine silver or, from 1834,[2] 23.22 grains (1.505 g) fine gold, or $20.67 per troy ounce. The Gold Standard Act of 1900 linked the dollar solely to gold. From 1934, its equivalence to gold was revised to $35 per troy ounce. In 1971 all links to gold were repealed.[3] The U.S. dollar became an important international reserve currency after the First World War, and displaced the pound sterling as the worlds primary reserve currency by the Bretton Woods Agreement towards the end of the Second World War. The dollar is the most widely used currency in international transactions,[4] and a free-floating currency. It is also the official currency in several countries and the de facto currency in many others,[5][6] with Federal Reserve Notes (and, in a few cases, U.S. coins) used in circulation. The monetary policy of the United States is conducted by the Federal Reserve System, which acts as the nations central bank. As of February 10, 2021, currency in circulation amounted to US$2.10 trillion, $2.05 trillion of which is in Federal Reserve Notes (the remaining $50 billion is in the form of coins and older-style United States Notes).[7][failed verification] As of January 1, 2025, the Federal Reserve estimated that the total amount of currency in circulation was approximately US$2.37 trillion.[8] Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution provides that Congress has the power to coin money.[9] Laws implementing this power are currently codified in Title 31 of the U.S. Code, under Section 5112, which prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued.[10] These coins are both designated in the section as legal tender in payment of debts.[11] The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, in contrast to the American Silver Eagle which is pure silver. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins, which have values ranging from one cent (U.S. Penny) to 100 dollars.[11] These other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar.
Asakusa. Asakusa (浅草; Japanese: [asakɯ̥ꜜsa] ⓘ) is a district in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is known for Sensō-ji, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon. There are several other temples in Asakusa, as well as various festivals, such as Sanja Matsuri. The development of Asakusa as an entertainment district during the Edo period came about in part because of the neighboring district, Kuramae. Kuramae was a district of storehouses for rice, which was then used as payment for servants of the feudal government. The keepers (fudasashi) of these storage houses initially stored the rice for a small fee, but over the years began exchanging the rice for money or selling it to local shopkeepers at a margin.[1] Through such trading, many fudasashi came to have a considerable amount of disposable income and as result theaters and geisha houses began to spring up in nearby Asakusa. For most of the 20th century, Asakusa remained a major entertainment district in Tokyo. The rokku or Sixth District was in particular famous as a theater district, featuring famous cinemas such as the Denkikan. The golden years of Asakusa are vividly portrayed in Yasunari Kawabatas novel The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa (1930). The area was heavily damaged by US bombing raids during World War II, particularly the 10 March 1945 firebombing of Tokyo. The area was rebuilt after the war, but has now been surpassed by Shinjuku and other colorful areas in the city in its role as a pleasure district. Asakusa was a ward of Tokyo City. In 1947, when the city was transformed into a metropolis, it was merged with Shitaya to form the modern Taito ward. The former ward encompassed 19 neighborhoods in the eastern half of Taitō. Asakusa is on the north-east fringe of central Tokyo, at the eastern end of the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line subway, approximately one mile east of the major Ueno railway/subway interchange. It is central to the area colloquially referred to as Shitamachi, which literally means low city, referring to the low elevation of this old part of Tokyo, on the banks of the Sumida River. As the name suggests, the area has a more traditionally Japanese atmosphere than some other neighborhoods in Tokyo do.
Specials (Unicode block). Specials is a short Unicode block of characters allocated at the very end of the Basic Multilingual Plane, at U+FFF0–FFFF, containing these code points: U+FFFE <noncharacter-FFFE> and U+FFFF <noncharacter-FFFF> are noncharacters, meaning they are reserved but do not cause ill-formed Unicode text. Versions of the Unicode standard from 3.1.0 to 6.3.0 claimed that these characters should never be interchanged, leading some applications to use them to guess text encoding by interpreting the presence of either as a sign that the text is not Unicode. However, Corrigendum #9 later specified that noncharacters are not illegal and so this method of checking text encoding is incorrect.[3] An example of an internal usage of U+FFFE is the CLDR algorithm; this extended Unicode algorithm maps the noncharacter to a minimal, unique primary weight.[4] Unicodes U+FEFF ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE character can be inserted at the beginning of a Unicode text as a byte order mark to signal its endianness: a program reading a text encoded in for example UTF-16 and encountering U+FFFE <noncharacter-FFFE> would then know that it should switch the byte order for all the following characters. Its block name in Unicode 1.0 was Special.[5] The replacement character � (often displayed as a black rhombus with a white question mark) is a symbol found in the Unicode standard at code point U+FFFD in the Specials table. It is used to indicate problems when a system is unable to render a stream of data to correct symbols.[6]
Reserve currency. A reserve currency is a foreign currency that is held by governments, central banks or other monetary authorities as part of their foreign exchange reserves.[1] The reserve currency can be used in international transactions, international investments and all aspects of the global economy. It is often considered a hard currency or safe-haven currency. The United Kingdoms pound sterling was the primary reserve currency of much of the world in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.[2] However, by the middle of the 20th century, the United States dollar had become the worlds dominant reserve currency.[3] Reserve currencies have come and gone with the evolution of the world’s geopolitical order. International currencies in the past have (in addition to those discussed below) included the Greek drachma, coined in the fifth century BC, the Roman denarius, the Byzantine solidus, the Islamic dinar of the Middle Ages, and the French franc. The Venetian ducat and the Florentine florin was the gold-based currency of choice between Europe and the Arab world from the 13th to the 16th centuries, since gold was easier than silver to mint in standard sizes and transport over long distances. It was the Spanish silver dollar, however, which created the first true global reserve currency recognized in Europe, Asia and the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries due to abundant silver supplies from Spanish America.[4]
Currency. A currency[a] is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins.[1][2] A more general definition is that a currency is a system of money in common use within a specific environment over time, especially for people in a nation state.[3] Under this definition, the Pound sterling (£), euro (€), Japanese yen (¥), and U.S. dollars (US$) are examples of (government-issued) fiat currencies. Currencies may act as stores of value and be traded between nations in foreign exchange markets, which determine the relative values of the different currencies.[4] Currencies in this sense are either chosen by users or decreed by governments, and each type has limited boundaries of acceptance; i.e., legal tender laws may require a particular unit of account for payments to government agencies. Other definitions of the term currency appear in the respective synonymous articles: banknote, coin, and money. This article uses the definition which focuses on the currency systems of countries (fiat currencies). One can classify currencies into three monetary systems: fiat money, commodity money, and representative money, depending on what guarantees a currencys value (the economy at large vs. the governments precious metal reserves). Some currencies function as legal tender in certain jurisdictions, or for specific purposes, such as payment to a government (taxes), or government agencies (fees, fines). Others simply get traded for their economic value. Originally, currency was a form of receipt, representing grain stored in temple granaries in Sumer in ancient Mesopotamia and in Ancient Egypt. In this first stage of currency, metals were used as symbols to represent value stored in the form of commodities. This formed the basis of trade in the Fertile Crescent for over 1500 years. However, the collapse of the Near Eastern trading system pointed to a flaw: in an era where there was no place that was safe to store value, the value of a circulating medium could only be as sound as the forces that defended that store. A trade could only reach as far as the credibility of that military. By the late Bronze Age, however, a series of treaties had established safe passage for merchants around the Eastern Mediterranean, spreading from Minoan Crete and Mycenae in the northwest to Elam and Bahrain in the southeast. It is not known what was used as a currency for these exchanges, but it is thought that oxhide-shaped ingots of copper, produced in Cyprus, may have functioned as a currency.
Art name. An art name (pseudonym or pen name), also known by its native names hào (in Mandarin Chinese), gō (in Japanese), ho (in Korean), and tên hiệu (in Vietnamese), is a professional name used by artists, poets and writers in the Sinosphere. The word and the concept originated in China, where it was used as nicknames for the educated, then became popular in other East Asian countries (especially in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and the former Kingdom of Ryukyu). In some cases, artists adopted different pseudonyms at different stages of their career, usually to mark significant changes in their life. Extreme practitioners of this tendency were Tang Yin of the Ming dynasty, who had more than ten hao, Hokusai of Japan, who in the period 1798 to 1806 alone used no fewer than six, and Kim Chŏnghŭi of the Joseon Dynasty who had up to 503.[1] In Chinese culture, Hao refers to honorific names made by oneself or given by others when one is in middle age. After ones gaining the Hao, other persons may then call such a person by ones Hao even without such a person being presented.[note 1] Hao usually is made by a person oneself, but sometimes is given by a high-ranked official or even is bestowed by the monarch.[2] The use of this name as a nom de plume or artistic name, however, appears to have begun only during the Six Dynasties period, with Tao Yuanming and Ge Hong among the first literati to have given themselves Hao.[citation needed] Art names came into vogue during the Tang dynasty, during which time they could either be coined by the persons themselves, or given to them as a name by others. Most Hao can be placed within a few categories: [citation needed]
Painting. Painting is a visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called matrix[1] or support).[2] The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush. Other implements, such as palette knives, sponges, airbrushes, the artists fingers, or even a dripping technique that uses gravity may be used. One who produces paintings is called a painter. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action (the final work is called a painting). The support for paintings includes such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, pottery, leaf, copper and concrete, and the painting may incorporate other materials, in single or multiple form, including sand, clay, paper, cardboard, newspaper, plaster, gold leaf, and even entire objects. Painting is an important form of visual art, bringing in elements such as drawing, composition, gesture, narration, and abstraction.[3] Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in portraits, still life and landscape painting--though these genres can also be abstract), photographic, abstract, narrative, symbolist (as in Symbolist art), emotive (as in Expressionism) or political in nature (as in Artivism). A significant share of the history of painting in both Eastern and Western art is dominated by religious art. Examples of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery, to Biblical scenes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, to scenes from the life of Buddha (or other images of Eastern religious origin).
Tide. Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables can be used for any given locale to find the predicted times and amplitude (or tidal range). The predictions are influenced by many factors including the alignment of the Sun and Moon, the phase and amplitude of the tide (pattern of tides in the deep ocean), the amphidromic systems of the oceans, and the shape of the coastline and near-shore bathymetry (see Timing). They are however only predictions, and the actual time and height of the tide is affected by wind and atmospheric pressure. Many shorelines experience semi-diurnal tides—two nearly equal high and low tides each day. Other locations have a diurnal tide—one high and low tide each day. A mixed tide—two uneven magnitude tides a day—is a third regular category.[1][2][a] Tides vary on timescales ranging from hours to years due to a number of factors, which determine the lunitidal interval. To make accurate records, tide gauges at fixed stations measure water level over time. Gauges ignore variations caused by waves with periods shorter than minutes. These data are compared to the reference (or datum) level usually called mean sea level.[3] While tides are usually the largest source of short-term sea-level fluctuations, sea levels are also subject to change from thermal expansion, wind, and barometric pressure changes, resulting in storm surges, especially in shallow seas and near coasts.
Agency for Cultural Affairs. The Agency for Cultural Affairs (Japanese: 文化庁, Hepburn: Bunka-chō) is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. The agencys budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion.[3] The agencys Cultural Affairs Division disseminates information about the arts within Japan and internationally, and the Cultural Properties Protection Division protects the nations cultural heritage. The Cultural Affairs Division is concerned with such areas as art and culture promotion, art copyrights, and improvements in the national language. It also supports both national and local arts and cultural festivals, and it funds traveling cultural events in music, theater, dance, art exhibitions, and film-making. Special prizes are offered to encourage young artists and established practitioners, and some grants are given each year to enable them to train abroad. The agency funds national museums of modern art in Kyoto and Tokyo and The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, which exhibit both Japanese and international shows. The agency also supports the Japan Art Academy, which honors eminent persons of arts and letters, appointing them to membership and offering ¥3.5 million in prize money. Awards are made in the presence of the Emperor, who personally bestows the highest accolade, the Order of Culture. In 1989, for the first time two women—a writer and a costume designer—were nominated for the Order of Cultural Merit, another official honor carrying the same stipend. The Cultural Properties Protection Division originally was established to oversee restorations after World War II. As of April 2018,[update] it was responsible for 1,805 historic sites, including the ancient capitals of Asuka, Heijokyo, and Fujiwara, 410 scenic places, and 1,027 national monuments, and for such indigenous fauna as ibis and storks. In addition, over 10,000 items had the lesser designation of Important Cultural Properties, with fine arts and crafts accounting for the largest share, with over 10,000 so designated.[3] The government protects buried properties, of which some 300,000 had been identified. During the 1980s, many important prehistoric and historic sites were investigated by the archaeological institutes that the agency funded, resulting in about 2,000 excavations in 1989. The wealth of material unearthed shed new light on the controversial period of the formation of the Japanese state.
Sankei-en. Sankei-en (三溪園, Three Creeks Garden) is a traditional Japanese-style garden in Naka Ward, Yokohama, Japan, which opened in 1906.[1] Sankei-en was designed and built by Tomitaro Hara (原富太郎) (1868–1939), known by the pseudonym Sankei Hara, who was a silk trader.[1] Almost all of its buildings are historically significant structures bought by Hara himself in locations all over the country, among them Tokyo, Kyoto, Kamakura, Gifu Prefecture, and Wakayama Prefecture.[1] Ten have been declared Important Cultural Property, and three more are Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan designated by the City of Yokohama.[1] Badly damaged during World War II, the garden was donated in 1953 to the City of Yokohama, which entrusted it to the Sankeien Hoshōkai Foundation (三溪園保勝会, Sankeien Hoshōkai). Sankei-en was then restored almost to its pre-war condition.[1] Sankei-en has a total surface of 175 thousand square meters and features ponds, streams, and undulating paths designed by Sankei Hara himself, plus many historic buildings, such as Tōmyō-ji former three-story pagoda (旧燈明寺三重塔), originally constructed in Kyoto in 1457 and relocated in 1914, and the Former Yanohara House (旧矢箆原家住宅), originally the private residence of the Yanohara family.[1] Work on the garden started in 1902 and ended in 1908, two years after it was opened to the public. During Haras own lifetime, the place became an aggregation point for Meiji period artists. World War II caused great damage to the buildings. In 1953 the garden was donated by the Hara family to the City of Yokohama, which created the Sankeien Hoshōkai Foundation for its repair and maintenance. The Foundation started the restoration in 1953 and, five years later, the garden was back almost to its original form and reopened to the public.[1] The Japanese government has designated ten structures in Sankei-en as Important Cultural Properties, while three more are Tangible Cultural Properties designated by the City of Yokohama.[1] The garden is popular for its cherry blossoms, ume blossoms, and the changing leaves in autumn. Next to the entrance, the Kakushōkaku (鶴翔閣) was formerly the private residence of the Hara family. Today it can be rented by the public and used for meetings and parties. It is one of the three buildings on the premises designated as Tangible Cultural Properties by the City of Yokohama. Only during the summer, the Kakushōkaku is open to the public.[1]
Human rights group. A human rights group, or human rights organization, is a non-governmental organization which advocates for human rights through identification of their violation, collecting incident data, its analysis and publication, promotion of public awareness while conducting institutional advocacy, and lobbying to halt these violations. Like other NGOs, human rights groups are defined in their characteristics by legal, including taxation, constraints under which they operate, such as[1] What distinguishes a human rights group from other political elements of any given society is that while political advocates usually seeking to protect only the rights of their own constituents, a human rights group seeks to defend the same rights for all members of that or any other society.[2] Unlike political groups which seek to advance their own discrete interests or programs a human rights group attempts to keep the political process open to all legitimate participants in the societal conflicts where such human rights violations occur. This generally independent focus distinguishes human rights groups from sectarian and partisan groups such as for example trades unions, whose primary goal is to protect the interests of the members of unions. Human rights groups are sometimes confused with humanitarian organizations and groups representing lobbies focused on specific issue lobbies, while most seek to distinguishing themselves from political movements involved in the conflicts that are often causes of the human rights abuses. Often human rights groups claim expert knowledge on the issue or issues it surveys through human rights observers as field researchers. One of the best known international human rights groups is Amnesty International. However it, like many other groups, has stretched the definition of a human rights group because aside from not being a single-issue advocate it has also ventured into issues that are not clearly human rights.[3] There are some governmental organisations that are also named human rights group, such as the UKs All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights, but which are primarily reporting groups for the purpose of policy design.
Crown of thorns. According to the New Testament, a woven crown of thorns (Ancient Greek: στέφανος ἐξ ἀκανθῶν, romanized: stephanos ex akanthōn or ἀκάνθινος στέφανος, akanthinos stephanos) was placed on the head of Jesus during the events leading up to his crucifixion. It was one of the instruments of the Passion, employed by Jesus captors both to cause him pain and to mock his claim of authority. It is mentioned in the gospels of Matthew (Matthew 27:29),[1] Mark (Mark 15:17)[2] and John (John 19:2, 19:5),[3] and is often alluded to by the early Church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen and others, along with being referenced in the apocryphal Gospel of Peter.[4] Since around 400 AD, a relic has been venerated as the crown of thorns. Louis IX acquired it in 1239 from the emperor Baldwin Il, who was financially in debt due to heavy military expenses. Louis IX built the Sainte-Chapelle as a monumental reliquary to house the relic. Transferred to the French National Library during the Revolution of the 18th century, the crown of thorns has been displayed at Notre-Dame de Paris since 1804. The crown is made of reeds, formed into a circle and attached with reed fasteners. On 15 April 2019, it was rescued from a fire and moved to the Louvre Museum.[6] In December of 2024, a ceremony marking the relics return to Notre Dame Cathedral was led by a procession attended by members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre.[7]. Veneration of the crown of thorns takes place every first Friday of the month from 3 pm to 5 pm.[8] Numerous other relics are purported to be from the original crown of thorns.[9] Both the authenticity of the relics and the practice of venerating them have been criticized by some Christians, including by Protestant reformer John Calvin.[10] Many theologians interpret the crown of thorns placed on Jesus during his crucifixion as symbolically linked to the curse pronounced in the Book of Genesis. In Genesis 3:17–18, thorns are introduced as part of the punishment for humanitys disobedience: The Gospels describe Roman soldiers placing a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head as a form of mockery (Matthew 27:29; John 19:2). While intended as humiliation, many Christian theologians interpret this act as rich in symbolic meaning—Christ bearing the physical sign of the Fall’s curse.
Tangible Cultural Property (Japan). A Tangible Cultural Property (有形文化財, yūkei bunkazai) as defined by the Japanese governments Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties is a part of the Cultural Properties[note 1] of high historical or artistic value such as structures, paintings, sculptures, handicrafts, calligraphic works, ancient books, historic documents, archeological artifacts and other such items created in Japan.[note 2] All objects which are not structures are called works of fine arts and crafts.[1] Considered by the Japanese government to be, like all Cultural Properties, a precious legacy of the Japanese people, they are protected in various ways, and their export is either controlled or forbidden. Tangible Cultural Properties can be Designated or Registered. The two terms imply different terms of protection under the law. To protect Japans cultural heritage, the countrys government has established with the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties a designation system (指定制度, shitei seido) under which it selects important items and designates them as Cultural Properties, imposing restrictions to their alteration, repair and export.
Buraku Liberation League. The Buraku Liberation League (部落解放同盟, Buraku Kaihō Dōmei), or BLL, is one of Japans largest human rights advocacy groups, dedicated to the liberation of the Burakumin, a minority group historically subject to discrimination. The BLLs origins trace back to the pre-war Suiheisha (Levellers Association), and it was officially formed in 1955 after its predecessor, the National Buraku Liberation Committee, changed its name at its tenth conference.[1] Its long-time leader was the politician and businessman Matsumoto Jiichirō, who funded much of the movements activities.[5] Closely aligned with the Japan Socialist Party and influenced by Marxist ideology in its early post-war years, the BLL initially framed the Buraku issue as a remnant of feudalism. It employed confrontational tactics such as denunciation (kyūdan) to combat individual acts of discrimination and administrative struggle (gyōsei tōsō) to pressure the state.[2] A major turning point came in the 1960s with the governments 1965 Dōwa Policy Council Report, which led to the passage of the Special Measures Law in 1969. This development caused a schism in the liberation movement between the BLL and the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), with the BLLs centre of power shifting from Kyoto to Osaka under the leadership of Asada Zennosuke.[6] Since the 1980s, the BLL has undergone a significant ideological transformation, broadening its focus from a specific struggle for Buraku liberation to a wider campaign for human rights culture (jinken bunka).[7] This shift has involved addressing other forms of discrimination, building international solidarity, and establishing cultural institutions like the Liberty Osaka Human Rights Museum.[8] Following the conclusion of the national Special Measures Law projects in 2002, the BLL has continued to advocate for comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation and to address issues such as access to family registers (koseki).[9] The roots of the Buraku Liberation League lie in the pre-war Suiheisha (Levellers Association), a grassroots movement founded on 3 March 1922 in Kyoto.[10] The Suiheisha established three fundamental principles: total liberation by its members own efforts, freedom of occupation and economic freedom, and awakening to human nature to march towards the perfection of mankind.[10] A key tactic of the Suiheisha was public denunciation (kyūdan), in which individuals or institutions thought to have engaged in discriminatory practices were publicly confronted and censured.[2][10] Led by figures such as Matsumoto Jiichirō, the Suiheisha movement was integrated into the states war effort during the 1930s and ultimately disbanded in 1942, with some activists publicly burning their flags as a demonstration of their abandonment of left-wing thought.[11][12] After World War II, the movement was resurrected.[2] On 19 January 1946, the National Buraku Liberation Committee (部落解放全国委員会, Buraku Kaihō Zenkoku Iinkai), also known as the BKI, was formally launched in Kyoto.[4] The committees proclamation announcing its formation borrowed heavily from the original 1922 Suiheisha Declaration, signalling a continuation of the pre-war struggle.[13] Matsumoto Jiichirō was elected its chairman.[4] The new committee was closely aligned with Marxist ideology and welcomed members from all pre-war Buraku organizations, as well as non-Buraku people.[14] In 1948, it established a research arm, the Research Institute for the Buraku Problem (RIBP), to consult with Marxist academics like Inoue Kiyoshi on ideological direction.[15]
President (corporate title). A president is a leader of an organization, company, community, club, trade union, university, country or other group.[1][2] The relationship between a president and a chief executive officer varies, depending on the structure of the specific organization. In a similar vein to a chief operating officer, the title of corporate president as a separate position (as opposed to being combined with a C-suite designation, such as president and chief executive officer or president and chief operating officer) is also loosely defined; the president is usually the legally recognized highest rank of corporate officer, ranking above the various vice presidents (including senior vice president and executive vice president), but on its own generally considered subordinate, in practice, to the CEO. The powers of a president vary widely across organizations and such powers come from specific authorization in the bylaws like Roberts Rules of Order (e.g. the president can make an executive decision only if the bylaws allow for it).[3] Originally, the term president was used in the same way that foreman or overseer is used now (the term is still used in that sense today).[4][5] It has now also come to mean chief officer in terms of administrative or executive duties. The powers of the president vary widely across organizations. In some organizations the president has the authority to hire staff and make financial decisions, while in others the president only makes recommendations to a board of directors, and still others the president has no executive powers and is mainly a spokesperson for the organization. The amount of power given to the president depends on the type of organization, its structure, and the rules it has created for itself.[6] In addition to administrative or executive duties in organizations, a president has the duties of presiding over meetings.[7] Such duties at meetings include:
Unicode. Unicode (also known as The Unicode Standard and TUS[1][2]) is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the worlds writing systems that can be digitized. Version 17.0[A] defines 159,801 characters and 172 scripts[3] used in various ordinary, literary, academic, and technical contexts. Unicode has largely supplanted the previous environment of myriad incompatible character sets used within different locales and on different computer architectures. The entire repertoire of these sets, plus many additional characters, were merged into the single Unicode set. Unicode is used to encode the vast majority of text on the Internet, including most web pages, and relevant Unicode support has become a common consideration in contemporary software development. Unicode is ultimately capable of encoding more than 1.1 million characters. The Unicode character repertoire is synchronized with ISO/IEC 10646, each being code-for-code identical with one another. However, The Unicode Standard is more than just a repertoire within which characters are assigned. To aid developers and designers, the standard also provides charts and reference data, as well as annexes explaining concepts germane to various scripts, providing guidance for their implementation. Topics covered by these annexes include character normalization, character composition and decomposition, collation, and directionality.[4] Unicode encodes 3,790 emoji, with the continued development thereof conducted by the Consortium as a part of the standard.[5] The widespread adoption of Unicode was in large part responsible for the initial popularization of emoji outside of Japan.[citation needed]
George Washington. George Washington (February 22, 1732 [O.S. February 11, 1731][a] – December 14, 1799) was a Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War against the British Empire. He is commonly known as the Father of the Nation for his role in bringing about American independence. Born in the Colony of Virginia, Washington became the commander of the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War (1754–1763). He was later elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, and opposed the perceived oppression of the American colonists by the British Crown. When the American Revolutionary War against the British began in 1775, Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. He directed a poorly organized and equipped force against disciplined British troops. Washington and his army achieved an early victory at the Siege of Boston in March 1776 but were forced to retreat from New York City in November. Washington crossed the Delaware River and won the battles of Trenton in late 1776 and of Princeton in early 1777, then lost the battles of Brandywine and of Germantown later that year. He faced criticism of his command, low troop morale, and a lack of provisions for his forces as the war continued. Ultimately Washington led a combined French and American force to a decisive victory over the British at Yorktown in 1781. In the resulting Treaty of Paris in 1783, the British acknowledged the sovereign independence of the United States. Washington then served as president of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which drafted the current Constitution of the United States. Washington was unanimously elected the first U.S. president by the Electoral College in 1788 and 1792. He implemented a strong, well-financed national government while remaining impartial in the fierce rivalry that emerged within his cabinet between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. During the French Revolution, he proclaimed a policy of neutrality while supporting the Jay Treaty with Britain. Washington set enduring precedents for the office of president, including republicanism, a peaceful transfer of power, the use of the title Mr. President, and the two-term tradition. His 1796 farewell address became a preeminent statement on republicanism: Washington wrote about the importance of national unity and the dangers that regionalism, partisanship, and foreign influence pose to it. As a planter of tobacco and wheat at Mount Vernon, Washington owned many slaves. He began opposing slavery near the end of his life, and provided in his will for the eventual manumission of his slaves. Washingtons image is an icon of American culture and he has been extensively memorialized. His namesakes include the national capital and the State of Washington. In both popular and scholarly polls, he is consistently considered one of the greatest presidents in American history.
Sunrise (studio). Sunrise (Japanese: サンライズ, Hepburn: Sanraizu; often stylized in all caps) is a Japanese animation studio, serving as the flagship division and the trade name for the IP Production Group unit of Bandai Namco Filmworks,[1] a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings. The division is responsible for the Sunrise label, focusing on animation production. Prior to 2022, Sunrise operated as a separate company with its production offices being under one roof. Sunrise started its operations as a company in September 1972 under the Sunrise Studio name. After its split from Shoeisha and Tohokushinsha in 1977, it was rebranded to Nippon Sunrise and took its current name in 1987. After 22 years as an independent studio, it was acquired by Bandai in 1994. The studio has been involved in many critically acclaimed anime television series from original works to manga adaptations, including the Gundam series, the Mashin Hero Wataru series, the Brave and Eldran series, the Mashin Hero Wataru series, the City Hunter series, The Vision of Escaflowne, Aura Battler Dunbine, Blue Comet SPT Layzner, the Inuyasha series, the Love Live! series and the Crest of the Stars series among others. Following the formation of Bandai Namco Filmworks in 2022, the Sunrise name was regulated to a division of the company (officially known as a brand), focusing on animation production while the general production offices were consolidated under BNFW.[2] According to an interview with Sunrise members, the studio was founded by former members of Mushi Production in September 1972 as Sunrise Studio. Rather than having anime production revolve around a single creator (like Mushi, headed by Osamu Tezuka), Sunrise decided that production should focus on the producers. The market for mainstream anime (such as manga adaptations, sports shows, and adaptations of popular childrens stories) was already dominated by existing companies, so Sunrise decided to focus on robot (mecha) anime, known to be more difficult to animate but which could be used to sell toys.[3] The founding members of Sunrise were seven people from Mushi Productions production and sales department: Yoshinori Kishimoto, Masanori Ito, Eiji Yamamoto, Yasuo Shibue, Masami Iwasaki, Kiyomi Numamoto, and Yasuhiko Yoneyama. However, when the anime production studio lacked funds for the new anime studio, Sunrise Studio sought investment from Japanese recording studio, film distributor & production company Tohokushinsha Film and planning and production company Shoeisha.[4]
Taishō era. The Taishō era (大正時代, Taishō jidai; [taiɕoː dʑidai] ⓘ) was a period in the history of Japan dating from July 30th, 1912 to December 25th, 1926, coinciding with the reign of Emperor Taishō.[1] The new emperor was a sickly man, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of elder statesmen (or genrō) to the Imperial Diet of Japan and the democratic parties. Thus, the era is considered the time of the liberal movement known as Taishō Democracy; it is usually distinguished from the preceding chaotic Meiji era and the following militaristic-driven first part of the Shōwa era.[2] The two kanji characters in Taishō (大正) were from a passage of the Classical Chinese I Ching: 大亨以正天之道也 (translated: Great prevalence is achieved through rectitude, and this is the Dao of Heaven.)[3] The term could be roughly understood as meaning great rectitude, or great righteousness. On 30 July 1912, Emperor Meiji died and Crown Prince Yoshihito succeeded to the throne as Emperor of Japan. In his coronation address, the newly enthroned Emperor announced his reigns nengō (era name) Taishō, meaning great righteousness.[4] The end of the Meiji period was marked by huge government, domestic, and overseas investments and defense programs, nearly exhausted credit, and a lack of foreign reserves to pay debts. The influence of Western culture experienced in the Meiji period also continued. Notable artists, such as Kobayashi Kiyochika, adopted Western painting styles while continuing to work in ukiyo-e; others, such as Okakura Kakuzō, kept an interest in traditional Japanese painting. Authors such as Mori Ōgai studied in the West, bringing back with them to Japan different insights on human life influenced by developments in the West. The events following the Meiji Restoration in 1868 had seen not only the fulfillment of many domestic and foreign economic and political objectives—without Japan suffering the colonial fate of other Asian nations—but also a new intellectual ferment, in a time when there was worldwide interest in communism and socialism and an urban proletariat was developing. Universal male suffrage, social welfare, workers rights, and nonviolent protests were ideals of the early leftist movement.[citation needed] Government suppression of leftist activities, however, led to more radical leftist action and even more suppression, resulting in the dissolution of the Japan Socialist Party (日本社会党, Nihon Shakaitō) only a year after its founding and general failure of the socialist movement in 1906.[citation needed]
Bandai Namco Entertainment. Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.[a] is a Japanese multinational video game publisher, and the video game branch of the wider Bandai Namco Holdings group. Founded in 2006 as Namco Bandai Games Inc.,[b] it is the successor to Namcos home and arcade video game business, as well as Bandais former equivalent division.[3] Development operations were spun off into a new company in 2012, Namco Bandai Studios, now called Bandai Namco Studios. Bandai Namco Entertainment owns several multi-million video game franchises, including Pac-Man, Tekken, Soulcalibur, Tales, Ace Combat, Taiko no Tatsujin, The Idolmaster, Elden Ring, Ridge Racer and Dark Souls. Pac-Man himself serves as the official mascot of the company. The company also owns the licenses to several Japanese media franchises, such as Shonen Jump, Gundam, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Sword Art Online, and the Ultra Series. On January 4, 2006, Namco Hometek and Bandai Games, the North American consumer game divisions of the former companies, merged to form Namco Bandai Games America Inc., with them absorbing Namcos American subsidiaries which was housed within Namco Hometeks former premises and completing Namco and Bandais merge in North America.[4] On January 11, Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. announced that the Japanese video game divisions of Namco and Bandai would merge into Namco Bandai Games Inc. in March 2006. The merger would form together the home console game content, arcade game, and mobile content business under one roof.[2] Both companies in a joint statement cited Japans decreasing birth rates and advancements in technology as the reason for the merge, and to increase their relevance to newer audiences. Both companies worked independently under the newly formed Bandai Namco Holdings until 31 March 2006, when their video game operations were merged to form Namco Bandai Games.[1] On October 30, the European divisions of Namco and Bandai would merge as well, forming Namco Bandai Games Europe S.A.S.[5] In November 2007, Namco Bandai Games announced the absorption of Banpresto (which had been purchased in 2006) and will take over Banprestos video game software and amusement equipment businesses (which had been traded independently) and will fold it into Namco Bandai Games as they started taken over Banprestos video game publishing activities which had began one year later on April 1, 2008, whilst Banprestos prize business including development and sales of prizes such as UFO catchers was taken over by a new company under the Banpresto name.[6] In August 2008, it was announced that Bandai Networks, Namco Bandais mobile phone business, would also be merged into Namco Bandai Games on April 1, 2009 and folded.[7]
Suginami. Suginami (杉並区, Suginami-ku) is a special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The ward refers to itself as Suginami City in English. As of June 1, 2022, Suginami has an estimated population of 588,354 and a population density of 17,274 persons per km2.[1] The total area is 34.06 km2. Suginami occupies the western part of the ward area of Tokyo. Its neighbors include these special wards: to the east, Shibuya and Nakano; to the north, Nerima; and to the south, Setagaya. Its western neighbors are the cities of Mitaka and Musashino. The Kanda River passes through Suginami. The Zenpukuji river originates from Zenpukuji Park in western Suginami, and the Myōshōji River originates in Myōshōji Park, to the north of Ogikubo station. The name Suginami dates back to the early Edo period and is a shortened version of Suginamiki (avenue of cedars). This name came about when an early land baron, Lord Tadayoshi Okabe, planted a row of cedar trees to mark the bounds of his property.[2]
Social movement. 1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias A social movement is either a loosely or carefully organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one.[1][2] This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may involve individuals, organizations, or both.[3] Social movements have been described as organizational structures and strategies that may empower oppressed populations to mount effective challenges and resist the more powerful and advantaged elites.[4] They represent a method of social change from the bottom within nations.[4] On the other hand, some social movements do not aim to make society more egalitarian, but to maintain or amplify existing power relationships. For example, scholars have described fascism as a social movement.[5] Political science and sociology have developed a variety of theories and empirical research on social movements.[6] For example, some research in political science highlights the relation between popular movements and the formation of new political parties[7] as well as discussing the function of social movements in relation to agenda setting and influence on politics.[8] Sociologists distinguish between several types of social movement examining things such as scope, type of change, method of work, range, and time frame.[9] Some scholars have argued that modern Western social movements became possible through education (the wider dissemination of literature) and increased mobility of labor due to the industrialization and urbanization of 19th-century societies.[10] It is sometimes argued that the freedom of expression, education and relative economic independence prevalent in the modern Western culture are responsible for the unprecedented number and scope of various contemporary social movements. Many of the social movements of the last hundred years grew up, like the Mau Mau in Kenya, to oppose Western colonialism. Social movements have been and continue to be closely connected with democratic political systems. Occasionally, social movements have been involved in democratizing nations, but more often they have flourished after democratization. Over the past 200 years, they have become part of a popular and global expression of dissent.[11] Modern movements often use technology and the internet to mobilize people globally. Adapting to communication trends is a common theme among successful movements.[12] Research is beginning to explore how advocacy organizations linked to social movements in the U.S.[12] and Canada[13] use social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action.[14]
Burakumin. The burakumin (部落民, hamlet/village people) are a social grouping of Japanese people descended from members of the feudal class associated with kegare (穢れ, impurity), mainly those with occupations related to death such as executioners, gravediggers, slaughterhouse workers, butchers, and tanners. Burakumin are physically indistinguishable from other Japanese but have historically been regarded as a socially distinct group. When identified, they are often subject to discrimination and prejudice. As of 2000[update], there were an estimated 3 million burakumin living in the country, mostly in western Japan.[citation needed] During Japans feudal era, these occupations acquired a hereditary status of oppression, and later became a formal class within the class system of the Edo period (1603–1868). The stratum immediately below merchants comprised the hinin (literally non-persons), and below them the eta (great filth), who were together known as the senmin (base people). They were subject to various legal restrictions, such as being forced to live in separate villages or neighborhoods. In 1871, the new Meiji government legally abolished the feudal classes, but stigma against the former hinin and eta continued. The term burakumin came into use to refer to these people and their descendants. Some reports indicate that discrimination against burakumin in marriage and employment persists in certain regions. They are more likely to work a low-paying job, live in poverty, or be associated with the yakuza. A movement for burakumin rights began in the 1920s, and the Buraku Liberation League was founded in 1946; it has achieved some of its legal goals, including securing restrictions on third-party access to family registries. Notable burakumin include writer Kenji Nakagami and politician Hiromu Nonaka. The term burakumin is derived from buraku (部落), a Japanese term which refers literally to a small, generally rural, commune or hamlet. In the regions of Japan where the burakumin issue is much less publicly prominent, such as Hokkaido and Okinawa, buraku is still used in a non-pejorative sense to refer to any hamlet.[2] Historically, the term buraku was used for an outcast community that was discriminated against officially and formally.[citation needed] A term used much for buraku settlements is dōwa chiku (同和地区, assimilation districts), an official term for districts designated for government and local authority assimilation projects from 1969 to 2002.[citation needed]
Government of Japan. Naruhito Fumihito
Subsidiary. A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company[1][2][3] is a company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidiary company.[4][5] Unlike regional branches or divisions, subsidiaries are considered to be distinct entities from their parent companies; they are required to follow the laws of where they are incorporated, and they maintain their own executive leadership. Two or more subsidiaries primarily controlled by the same entity/group are considered to be sister companies of each other. Subsidiaries are a common feature of modern business, and most multinational corporations organize their operations via the creation and purchase of subsidiary companies.[6] Examples of holding companies are Berkshire Hathaway,[7] Jefferies Financial Group, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Citigroup, which have subsidiaries involved in many different fields. More focused companies include IBM, Xerox, and Microsoft; they and their subsidiaries primarily operate within the tech sector. These, and others, organize their businesses into national and functional subsidiaries, often with multiple levels of subsidiaries. Subsidiaries are separate, distinct legal entities for the purposes of taxation, regulation and liability. For this reason, they differ from divisions which are businesses fully integrated within the main company, and not legally or otherwise distinct from it.[8] In other words, a subsidiary can sue and be sued separately from its parent and its obligations will not normally be the obligations of its parent. However, creditors of an insolvent subsidiary may be able to obtain a judgment against the parent if they can pierce the corporate veil and prove that the parent and subsidiary are mere alter egos of one another. Thus any copyrights, trademarks, and patents remain with the subsidiary until the parent shuts down the subsidiary. Ownership of a subsidiary is usually achieved by owning a majority of its shares. This gives the parent the necessary votes to elect their nominees as directors of the subsidiary, and so exercise control. This gives rise to the common presumption that 50% plus one share is enough to create a subsidiary. There are, however, other ways that control can come about, and the exact rules both as to what control is needed, and how it is achieved, can be complex (see below). A subsidiary may itself have subsidiaries, and these, in turn, may have subsidiaries of their own. A parent and all its subsidiaries together are called a corporate, although this term can also apply to cooperating companies and their subsidiaries with varying degrees of shared ownership. A parent company does not have to be the larger or more powerful entity; it is possible for the parent company to be smaller than a subsidiary, such as DanJaq, a closely held family company, which controls Eon Productions, the large corporation which manages the James Bond franchise. Conversely, the parent may be larger than some or all of its subsidiaries (if it has more than one), as the relationship is defined by control of ownership shares, not the number of employees.
Video game. A video game,[a] computer game,[b] or simply game, is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual feedback from a display device, most commonly shown in a video format on a television set, computer monitor, flat-panel display or touchscreen on handheld devices, or a virtual reality headset. Most modern video games are audiovisual, with audio complement delivered through speakers or headphones, and sometimes also with other types of sensory feedback (e.g., haptic technology that provides tactile sensations). Some video games also allow microphone and webcam inputs for in-game chatting and livestreaming. Video games are typically categorized according to their hardware platform, which traditionally includes arcade video games, console games, and computer games (which includes LAN games, online games, and browser games). More recently, the video game industry has expanded onto mobile gaming through mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablet computers), virtual and augmented reality systems, and remote cloud gaming. Video games are also classified into a wide range of genres based on their style of gameplay and target audience. The first video game prototypes in the 1950s and 1960s were simple extensions of electronic games using video-like output from large, room-sized mainframe computers. The first consumer video game was the arcade video game Computer Space in 1971, which took inspiration from the earlier 1962 computer game Spacewar!. In 1972 came the now-iconic video game Pong and the first home console, the Magnavox Odyssey. The industry grew quickly during the golden age of arcade video games from the late 1970s to early 1980s but suffered from the crash of the North American video game market in 1983 due to loss of publishing control and saturation of the market. Following the crash, the industry matured, was dominated by Japanese companies such as Nintendo, Sega, and Sony, and established practices and methods around the development and distribution of video games to prevent a similar crash in the future, many of which continue to be followed. In the 2000s, the core industry centered on AAA games, leaving little room for riskier experimental games. Coupled with the availability of the Internet and digital distribution, this gave room for independent video game development (or indie games) to gain prominence into the 2010s. Since then, the commercial importance of the video game industry has been increasing. The emerging Asian markets and proliferation of smartphone games in particular are altering player demographics towards casual and cozy gaming, and increasing monetization by incorporating games as a service. Today, video game development requires numerous skills, vision, teamwork, and liaisons between different parties, including developers, publishers, distributors, retailers, hardware manufacturers, and other marketers, to successfully bring a game to its consumers. As of 2020[update], the global video game market had estimated annual revenues of US$159 billion across hardware, software, and services, which is three times the size of the global music industry and four times that of the film industry in 2019,[1] making it a formidable heavyweight across the modern entertainment industry. The video game market is also a major influence behind the electronics industry, where personal computer component, console, and peripheral sales, as well as consumer demands for better game performance, have been powerful driving factors for hardware design and innovation.
Film distribution. Film distribution, also called film exhibition or film distribution and exhibition, is the process of making a film available for viewing to an audience. This is normally the task of a professional film distributor, who would determine the marketing and release strategy for the film, the media by which a film is to be exhibited or made available for viewing and other matters. The film may be exhibited directly to the public either through a movie theater, physical media (DVD, Blu-ray), digital download/transactional video on demand (VOD) (sale or rental), subscription VOD (e.g. Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix) or television programs through broadcast syndication. For commercial projects, film distribution is usually accompanied by film promotion. Initially, all mass-marketed feature films were made to be shown in movie theaters. The identity of the first theater designed specifically for cinema is a matter of debate; candidates include Tallys Electric Theatre, established 1902 in Los Angeles,[1] and Pittsburghs Nickelodeon, established 1905.[2] Thousands of such theaters were built or converted from existing facilities within a few years.[3] In the United States, these theaters came to be known as nickelodeons, because admission typically cost a nickel (five cents). Distributors license films to theaters granting the right to show the film for a theatrical rental rental fee. The movie theater pays an average of about 50-55% of its ticket sales to the movie studio, as film rental fees.[5] The actual percentage starts with a number higher than that and decreases as the duration of a films showing continues, as an incentive to theaters to keep movies in the theater longer. However, todays barrage of highly marketed movies ensures that most movies are shown in first-run theaters for less than 8 weeks. There are a few movies every year that defy this rule, often limited-release movies that start in only a few theaters and actually grow their theater count through good word-of-mouth and reviews.[citation needed] According to a 2000 study by ABN AMRO, about 26% of Hollywood movie studios worldwide income came from box office ticket sales; 46% came from VHS and DVD sales to consumers; and 28% came from television (broadcast, cable, and pay-per-view).[5] Typically, one film is the featured presentation (or feature film). Before the 1970s, there were double features; typically, a high-quality A picture rented by an independent theater for a lump sum, and a lower-quality B picture rented for a percentage of the gross receipts. Today, the bulk of the material shown before the feature film consists of previews for upcoming movies (also known as trailers) and paid advertisements. The development of television has allowed films to be broadcast to larger audiences, usually after the film is no longer being shown in theaters. [citation needed] In 1971 U-Matic became the first magnetic format in which movies could be enjoyed in institutions outside the theatre. Later that year, the first videocassettes of movies became available to consumers to watch in their own homes.[6] Recording technology has since enabled consumers to rent or buy copies of films on home media such as VHS, DVD or Blu-ray. Older formats include Betamax, LaserDisc, Video CD, and other video disc formats. Internet downloads are also revenue sources for film production companies.
Home entertainment. Home entertainment refers to media, equipment, and methods used for delivery and enjoyment of various forms of entertainment in the home, and may refer to:
Iwasa Matabē. Iwasa Matabē (岩佐又兵衛); original name Araki Katsumochi [1] 1578 – July 20, 1650) was a Japanese artist of the early Tokugawa period,[2] who specialized in genre scenes of historical events and illustrations of classical Japanese and Chinese literature, as well as portraits. He was the son of Araki Murashige, a prominent daimyō of the Sengoku period who had been made to commit suicide, leaving Matabei to be raised with his mothers family name, Iwasa.[3][4] Matabeis work was noted for its distinctive figures, with large heads and delicately drawn features, and he was effective both in colour and monochrome ink-wash painting, using an individual brush technique combining Tosa and Kanō elements.[5] Although trained by Kanō Naizen of the Kanō school, he was more influenced by the traditions of the Tosa school, and signed a late series of portraits of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals (1640) commissioned by the shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu for a temple as the artist Matabei of the later current from Tosa Mitsunobu.[6] The works of Matabei have an affinity with the early paintings of ukiyo-e, but there is a disagreement among scholars as to whether they are ukiyo-e themselves or not.[7] In Japan, it is common to regard Matabei as the originator of ukiyo-e.[8][9][10] On the other hand, there is a theory that Matabei is not the source of ukiyo-e, but rather an independent painter of the Tosa school, because his patrons were from high social classes. According to this theory, he is misunderstood as the source of ukiyo-e only because he is confused with the ukiyo-e painter of the same name (Ōtsu no Matabei) who appears in Chikamatsus plays.[11] His son Katsushige (d. 1673) was also a painter, known for dancing figures in a style like that of his father.[12] The only work by Iwasa Matabei that has been designated a National Treasure is Rakuchu Rakugai Zu Byōbu (Funaki Version) (洛中洛外図屏風 (舟木本)), which is held by the Tokyo National Museum. The term Rakuchu Rakugai Zu (洛中洛外図) refers to byōbu (folding screens) depicting the scenery and customs of the urban and suburban areas of Kyoto. Numerous works were created from the Sengoku period to the Edo period, and only two works by Iwasa Matabei and Kanō Eitoku have been designated as National Treasures. Matabeis work depicts the Kyoto landscape around 1615 and is known as the Funaki version because it was owned by the Funaki family. It shows the Nijō Castle of the Tokugawa clan on the left and the Hōkō-ji Great Buddha Hall, symbolizing the Toyotomi clan, on the right.[13]
Museum. A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers and specialists. Museums host a much wider range of objects than a library, and they usually focus on a specific theme, such as the arts, science, natural history or local history. Public museums that host exhibitions and interactive demonstrations are often tourist attractions, and many draw large numbers of visitors from outside of their host country, with the most visited museums in the world attracting millions of visitors annually. Since the establishment of the earliest known museum in ancient times, museums have been associated with academia and the preservation of rare items. Museums originated as private collections of interesting items, and not until much later did the emphasis on educating the public take root. The English word museum comes from Latin, and is pluralized as museums (or rarely, musea). It is originally from the Ancient Greek Μουσεῖον (mouseion), which denotes a place or temple dedicated to the muses (the patron divinities in Greek mythology of the arts), and hence was a building set apart for study and the arts,[1] especially the Musaeum (institute) for philosophy and research at Alexandria, built under Ptolemy I Soter about 280 BC.[2] Museums serve to collect, preserve, interpret, and display objects of cultural, historical, or scientific significance. Their primary functions include safeguarding heritage for future generations and facilitating education through exhibitions and programs aligned with academic curricula.[3][4]
Alexandre Cabanel. Alexandre Cabanel (French: [kabanɛl]; 28 September 1823 – 23 January 1889) was a French painter. He painted historical, classical and religious subjects in the academic style.[1] He was also well known as a portrait painter. He was Napoleon IIIs preferred painter[2] and, with Gérôme and Meissonier, was one of the three most successful artists of the Second Empire.[3] Cabanel was the son of a modest carpenter, and he began his apprenticeship at the Montpellier School of Fine Arts in the class of Charles Matet, curator of the Musée Fabre. Equipped with a scholarship, he moved to Paris in 1839. Cabanel entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris at the age of seventeen, in 1840, where he studied with François-Édouard Picot. After two failures, with the paintings Cincinnatus receiving the ambassadors of Rome, in 1843, and Christ in the Garden of Olives, in 1844, he won the Prix de Rome scholarship, in 1845 at the age of 22.[4] He would be a resident of the Villa Medici until 1850. Cabanel was both a history painter and a genre painter, and he evolved over the years towards romantic themes, like Albaydé (1848), inspired by Les Orientales, by Victor Hugo (1829).
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (株式会社三井住友銀行, Kabushiki-gaisha Mitsui Sumitomo Ginkō; SMBC) is a Japanese multinational banking financial services institution owned by the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, which is also known as the SMBC Group. It is headquartered in the same building as SMBC Group in Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan.[6] SMBC was established in 2001 through the merger of The Sakura Bank, which originated from the Mitsui zaibatsu and was founded as Mitsui Bank in 1876, and The Sumitomo Bank, which originated from the Sumitomo zaibatsu and was founded in 1895. An IC cash card is a single cash card that can be used with three method of identification: biometric authentication, IC chip or magnetic stripe, by setting the limit and registering biometric information (finger vein pattern). With this cash card, the security of usage improved since transactions relies on IC chip recording data and the pattern of past transactions that combined IC chip recording data and biometric authentication.[7] As of 2017, SMBC issued IC cash cards at the banks counters (only applicable to ordinary design deposit cash cards; cards of other designs and non-savings accounts are not eligible for immediate issuance).[7]
Margaret Hughes. Margaret Hughes (29 May 1630 – 1 October 1719), also Peg Hughes or Margaret Hewes, was an English actress who is often credited as the first professional actress on the English stage, as a result of her appearance on 8 December 1660. [nt 1] Hughes was the mistress of the English Civil War general Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Hughes became an actress during a period of great change in English drama which had suffered greatly during the English Civil War and the Interregnum, being banned by the Puritan Long Parliament in 1642.[1] This ban was finally lifted upon the Restoration of King Charles II. Charles was a keen theatre-goer, and promptly gave two royal patents to Sir Thomas Killigrew and Sir William Davenant.[1] During the Renaissance women did not appear as actresses on the English stage; instead, male actors played female roles. There were also concerns over this practice encouraging unnatural vice, i.e. homosexuality, which reinforced Charles in his decision in 1662 to issue a royal warrant declaring that all female roles should be played only by actresses.[2] Killigrew and Davenant began casting women almost immediately following the Restoration[2] and, once women began appearing professionally on the stage in the early 1660s, they won quick acceptance. Killigrew staged an all-female-cast production of his own play The Parsons Wedding in 1664 and again in 1672. At the age of 30, Hughes made theatre history by becoming the first woman known to perform on an English stage,[3][4] when on 8 December 1660, she played the role of Desdemona in William Shakespeares play Othello, in a production by Thomas Killigrews new Kings Company at their Vere Street theatre.[5] Some historians identify Anne Marshall as the first actress to step onto the English stage.[6] However, there has been much analysis of the early recollections of John Downes, whose memories of the 1660s form a key part of Hughes claim in this regard.[7] Hughes was famous for her charms as an actress; diarist Samuel Pepys considered her a mighty pretty woman,[8] and she was said to be a great beauty, with dark ringletted hair, a fine figure, and particularly good legs.[9] Pepys suggested that she was a lover of Sir Charles Sedley, a noted dramatist and famous fop, in the 1660s; she was reportedly also involved with Charles II himself, if only briefly.[8] It is believed that Hughes had an illegitimate son named Arthur, but there is no conclusive evidence of this.[9]
Desdemona (disambiguation). Desdemona is a character in William Shakespeares play Othello. Desdemona may also refer to:
Watercolor painting. Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also aquarelle (French: [akwaʁɛl]; from Italian diminutive of Latin aqua water),[1] is a painting method[2] in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-based[3] solution. Watercolor refers to both the medium and the resulting artwork. Aquarelles painted with water-soluble colored ink instead of modern water colors are called aquarellum atramento (Latin for aquarelle made with ink) by experts. However, this term has now tended to pass out of use.[4][5] The conventional and most common support—material to which the paint is applied—for watercolor paintings is watercolor paper. Other supports or substrates include stone, ivory, silk, reed, papyrus, bark papers, plastics, vellum, leather, fabric, wood, and watercolor canvas (coated with a gesso that is specially formulated for use with watercolors). Watercolor paper is often made entirely or partially with cotton.[6][7] This gives the surface the appropriate texture and minimizes distortion when wet.[8] Watercolor papers are usually cold-pressed papers that provide better texture and appearance. Transparency is the main characteristic of watercolors. It consists of a mixture of pigments, binders such as gum arabic and humectants such as glycerin, which together with other components, allow the color pigment to join and form the paint paste, which we know as watercolor. With regard to the colors, the quality of the pigments and their degree of concentration, it is what determines how good the watercolor is and also its price. A paint that has a high concentration of pigment, professional type, allows us to use it with a large amount of water without losing the intensity of color.[9] Watercolors can also be made opaque by adding Chinese white. This is not a method to be used in true watercolor (traditional).[10] Watercolor paint is an ancient form of painting, if not the most ancient form of art itself.[2] In East Asia, watercolor painting[11] with inks is referred to as brush painting or scroll painting. In Chinese, Korean and Japanese painting[12] it has been the dominant medium, often in monochrome black or browns, often using inkstick or other pigments. India, Ethiopia and other countries have long watercolor painting traditions as well. Many Western artists, especially in the early 19th century, used watercolor primarily as a sketching tool in preparation for the finished work in oil or engraving.[13] Until the end of the eighteenth century, traditional watercolors were known as tinted drawings.[14]
Tsubaki Chinzan. Tsubaki Chinzan, originally Tasuku (Japanese:椿椿山; 14 July 1801, Edo - 6 August 1854, Edo) was a Japanese painter in the nanga style. His other art names include Hekiin Sambō (壁陰山房), Kyūan (休庵), Shikyūan (四休庵) and Takukadō (琢華堂). He was born in the Koishikawa district of Edo.[1] He was the son of a Samurai who was a retainer of the Shogunate and served as head of the Spear Corps. His father died when he was seven and, following the hereditary system, he was trained in martial arts and horsemanship. He was personally more inclined to an artistic career. However, to help supplement his meager income, he began to study painting. His first lessons came from Kaneko Kinryō [ja], followed by Tani Bunchō and, lastly, at the age of seventeen, with Watanabe Kazan; becoming his favorite student. In 1839, when Kazan was caught up in the Bansha no goku and imprisoned, Tsubaki was part of the team that rescued him. After Kazan committed seppuku in 1841, he helped raise his son, Shōka [ja], and gave him painting lessons. As a result of this affair, he resigned from the Samurai service. He painted portraits of many of his associates in the Japanese art world, which show some European influence. His other works, mostly flowers and birds, are firmly grounded in traditional styles. At the age of fifty, he designed two six piece screens (Byōbu). The second, featuring orchids and bamboo (蘭竹図屏風), is one of his most familiar works and is known as the Ranchiku Screen in English. It was said that he was very austere; refraining from alcohol, smoking and, until he was married, female companionship. He also slept little. In addition to painting, he wrote haiku, practiced the tea ceremony and played the shō. His son, Kakoku [ja], was also a talented painter, but died at the age of twenty-six, before his father.
Yōga, Tokyo. Yōga (用賀, Yōga) is a neighborhood in Setagaya, Tokyo.[1] Its name appears frequently in traffic reports because the junction between the Tōmei Expressway and the elevated Shibuya branch (#3) of the Metropolitan Expressway system is there. There is also a stop, Yōga Station, on the Tōkyū Den-en-toshi line here. There is also a bus services (Tokyu Bus) and possible access to the area with numbers of buses. Two traffic cameras on top of the SBS tower overlook the junction, the Yōga toll gate, and other parts of the neighborhood. In the Edo period, Yōga was a post-town on the Ōyama Kaidō, a road connecting Edo and Ōyama Mountain in Sagami Province.[1] The name comes from Sanskrit root of the word yoga. The Buddhist temple Shinpuku-ji chose the Sanskrit-derived appellation Yuga-san. The Sanskrit is also the root of the word yoga (योग→瑜伽→用賀). Yōga is home to Kinuta Park, a broad green space established in 1957. The park is located 10 minutes from the Yōga Station and covers 39 hectares (96 acres). Kinuta Park has sports facilities, including baseball fields, a basketball court, and swimming pools (25m and 50m, also a small pool for kids and diving pool).[2] The Setagaya Art Museum, est. 1986, is located on a corner of Kinuta Park. The museum has a permanent collection with an emphasis on photography, particularly the works of Kineo Kuwabara and Kōji Morooka.[3]
Reminiscence of the Tempyō Era. Reminiscence of the Tempyō Era (天平の面影, Tempyō no omokage) is a 1902 painting by yōga artist Fujishima Takeji (1867–1943). Inspired by nostalgia for the Tempyō era[1] and, like his Butterflies and covers for the literary magazine Myōjō, an influential exemplar of Meiji romanticism, it has been designated an Important Cultural Property.[2][3][4] It is part of the collection of the Ishibashi Foundation.[2] Fujishima Takeji combines Japanese elements, such as the tall vertical format of a hanging scroll, the gold background, and the timeless subject of a sinuous beauty beneath a tree, with a classicizing horizontal band, a low wall with a sculpted frieze in relief, all executed in the western-derived medium of oil upon canvas. Beneath the angled branches of the vertical paulownia, the figure—according to one theory, the Empress Kōmyō herself[5]—stands barefooted, her weight on her right leg. Wearing a high striped skirt, her hair is bound high in a double top-knot, in the manner of noble ladies of the period known as ni-kei (二髻) or sō-kei (双髻).[5][6] She holds an ornately lacquered sixteen string kugo, modelled on one in the Shōsōin.[7][8] A contemporary review in the Miyako Shimbun highlights the air of mystery and imagination that accompanies her seemingly calm poise.[9] Art historian Harada Minoru writes of how, in this work, as in Butterflies, the artist has gone beyond the plein-air style that dominated his early paintings to create his own unique expression through delicacy of line and brushstroke, imaginative composition, and brilliant colour.[4] In the words of Ernest Fenollosa, we can know the material side of Tempyo [minutely] through the Shosoin Museum.[10] After the 1878 gift to the Imperial Household of 319 treasures from Hōryū-ji, to be placed at the new precursor to the Tokyo National Museum, and the early Meiji inventories of the Shōsōin, study and appreciation of early Japanese art grew apace, as reflected in the early moves for the preservation of cultural properties that culminated in the 1897 Ancient Temples and Shrines Preservation Law, supplementary provisions to which extended protection to treasures in their charge.[11][12] Part of the contemporary so-called Tempyō boom (「天平ブーム」),[8] the artists sketchbooks from this period include reworkings of the celebrated painted panels from a byōbu in the Shōsōin depicting a beauty under a tree, as well as of a lacquered kugo from the same repository of treasures; as in the 1895 replica, the original instrument instead features twenty-three strings. Other sketches include figures in long striped skirts, based on the Nara-period Illustrated Sutra of Cause and Effect, and studies of contemporary female hairstyles based on paintings and statues, such as that of the National Treasure Kichijōten at Yakushi-ji.[3][8][13] The painting was first exhibited at the Seventh Hakuba-kai (White Horse Society) Exhibition, held in September and October 1902 in Ueno Park, in one of the halls from the 1877 inaugural National Industrial Exhibition. There it appeared under the name Reminiscences of the Tempyō Period (天平時代の面影).[3] Subsequently, acquired by the Ishibashi Foundation, it was displayed at the Ishibashi Museum of Art, now the Kurume City Art Museum in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, before being transferred to Tokyo with the 2016 changes to the museums management and ownership. Stored at the Ishibashi Foundation Art Research Center, it will be periodically displayed at the related Artizon Museum (formerly the Bridgestone Museum of Art).[2][14][15]
Tokyo. Tokyo,[a] officially the Tokyo Metropolis,[b] is the capital and most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is one of the most populous urban areas in the world. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes Tokyo and parts of six neighboring prefectures, is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, with 41 million residents as of 2024[update]. Lying at the head of Tokyo Bay, Tokyo is part of the Kantō region, on the central coast of Honshu, Japans largest island. It is Japans economic center and the seat of the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government administers Tokyos central 23 special wards, which formerly made up Tokyo City; various commuter towns and suburbs in its western area; and two outlying island chains, the Tokyo Islands. Although most of the world recognizes Tokyo as a city, since 1943 its governing structure has been more akin to that of a prefecture, with an accompanying Governor and Assembly taking precedence over the smaller municipal governments that make up the metropolis. Special wards in Tokyo include Chiyoda, the site of the National Diet Building and the Tokyo Imperial Palace; Shinjuku, the citys administrative center; and Shibuya, a hub of commerce and business. Tokyo, originally known as Edo, rose to political prominence in 1603 when it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate, and by the mid-18th century, Edo had evolved from a small fishing village into one of the largest cities in the world, with a population surpassing one million. After the Meiji Restoration (1868), the imperial capital in Kyoto was moved to Edo, and the city was renamed Tokyo (lit. Eastern Capital). Tokyo was greatly damaged by the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake and by allied bombing raids during World War II. From the late 1940s, Tokyo underwent rapid reconstruction and expansion, which fueled the Japanese economic miracle, in which Japans economy became the second-largest in the world at the time, behind that of the United States.[9] As of 2023[update], Tokyo is home to 29 of the worlds 500 largest companies, as listed in the annual Fortune Global 500—the second highest number of any city.[10] Tokyo was the first city in Asia to host the Summer Olympics and Paralympics, in 1964 and then in 2021. It also hosted three G7 summits, in 1979, 1986, and 1993. Tokyo is an international hub of research and development and an academic center, with several major universities, including the University of Tokyo, the top-ranking university in Japan.[11][12] Tokyo Station is the central hub for the Shinkansen, the countrys high-speed railway network; and the citys Shinjuku Station is the worlds busiest train station. Tokyo Skytree is the worlds tallest tower.[13] The Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, which opened in 1927, is the oldest underground metro line in Asia.[14]
Namsrayn Suvd. Namsrayn Suvd (born 21 December 1948) is a Mongolian actor. For her long career in film and the theatre, she was named as People’s Actress of Mongolia (2009), Mongolian State Awardee(1989), a Mongolian Hero of Labour in 2021. Suvd was born in Ulaanbaatar. Her father was Ts. Namsray who was notable for his contribution to education and Mongolian culture.[2] In 1972 she graduated as an actor in the USSRs VGIK.[2] She began her stage career in Mongolia at the State Drama Academic Theater in 1973. Four years later the Ministry of Culture recognised her performance in a play titled Truth Will Win by giving her a Best Art Award which they repeated in 1984 after she played the eponymous role in Nora.[2] She has appeared in The Servant of Two Masters and in 1978 she played both Emily and Desdemona in Othello. She has appeared on stage in Hamlet and Macbeth and in 2020 she played Anna (Destiny) in Anna Karenina.[2]
National Diet Building. The National Diet Building (国会議事堂, Kokkai-gijidō) is the building where both houses of the National Diet of Japan meet. It is located at Nagatachō 1-chome 7–1, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Sessions of the House of Representatives take place in the south wing and sessions of the House of Councillors in the north wing. The Diet Building was completed in 1936 and is constructed entirely of Japanese materials, with the exception of the stained glass, door locks, and pneumatic tube system. The construction of the building for the old Diet of Japan began in 1920; however, plans for the building date back to the late 1880s. The Diet met in temporary structures for the first fifty years of its existence because there was no agreement over what form its building should take.
Marunouchi. Marunouchi (丸の内) is an area in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, located between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace. The name, meaning inside the circle, derives from its location within the palaces outer moat. Marunouchi is the core of Tokyos central business district as well as one of the main financial centres in Japan. 20 of the Fortune Global 500 companies are headquartered in the area as of 2021, while many other such companies based outside Japan have Asian or Japanese offices there.[2][3] Together with the neighbouring districts of Yūrakuchō (有楽町) and Ōtemachi (大手町), Marunouchi is part of a larger business district sometimes referred to as Daimaruyū (大丸有). In 1590, before shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu entered Edo Castle, the area now known as Marunouchi was an inlet of Tokyo Bay and had the name Hibiya. With the expansion of the castle, this inlet was filled, beginning in 1592. A new outer moat was constructed, and the earlier moat became the inner moat. The area took the name Okuruwauchi (within the enclosure). Daimyōs, particularly shinpan and fudai, constructed their mansions here, and with 24 such estates, the area also became known as daimyō kōji (daimyō alley). The offices of the North and South Magistrates, and that of the Finance Magistrate, were also here. Following the Meiji Restoration, Marunouchi came under control of the national government, which erected barracks and parade grounds for the Imperial Japanese Army. In 1890 Iwasaki Yanosuke, brother of the founder (and later the second leader) of Mitsubishi, purchased the land for 1.5 million yen. As the company developed the land, it came to be known as Mitsubishi-ga-hara (the Mitsubishi Fields). Much of the land remains under the control of Mitsubishi Estate Co., and the headquarters of many companies in the Mitsubishi Group are in Marunouchi.[4] The government of Tokyo constructed its headquarters on the site of the former Kōchi han in 1894. They moved it to the present Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku in 1991, and the Tokyo International Forum and Toyota Tsusho Corporation now stands on the site. Nearly a quarter of Japans GDP is generated in this area. Tokyo Station opened in 1914, and the Marunouchi Building in 1923. Marunouchi was targeted in the 1974 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing by the radical far-left terrorist organisation East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front. Tokyo Station reopened on 1 October 2012 after a 5 year refurbishment.[5] Calbee has its headquarters in the Marunouchi Trust Tower Main.[6] Konica Minolta has its headquarters in the Marunouchi Center Building in Marunouchi.[7]
Sarah Siddons. Sarah Siddons (née Kemble; 5 July 1755 – 8 June 1831)[1] was a Welsh actress, the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century. Contemporaneous critic William Hazlitt dubbed Siddons as tragedy personified.[2][3] She was the elder sister of John Philip Kemble, Charles Kemble, Stephen Kemble, Ann Hatton, and Elizabeth Whitlock, and the aunt of Fanny Kemble. She was most famous for her portrayal of the Shakespearean character Lady Macbeth, a character she made her own.[1] The Sarah Siddons Society, founded in 1952, continues to present the Sarah Siddons Award annually in Chicago to a distinguished actress. The 18th-century marked the emergence of a recognisably modern celebrity culture[4] and Siddons was at the heart of it. Portraits depicted actresses in aristocratic dress, the recently industrialised newspapers spread actresses names and images and gossip about their private lives through the public. Though few people had actually seen Siddons perform, her name had been circulated to such an extent that when it was announced the crowd behaved as if they knew her already.[4]
Kuroda Seiki. Viscount Kuroda Kiyoteru or Seiki (黒田清輝; Japanese pronunciation: [kɯꜜ.ɾo.da \| kʲi.joꜜ.te.ɾɯ, -(\|) kʲi.jo-],[1] 9 August 1866 – 15 July 1924) was a Japanese painter and teacher, noted for bringing Western art theory and practice to a wide Japanese audience. He was among the leaders of the yōga (or Western-style) movement in late 19th and early 20th-century Japanese painting, and has come to be remembered in Japan as the father of Western-style painting.[2] Kuroda was born in Takamibaba, Satsuma Domain (present day Kagoshima Prefecture), as the son of a samurai of the Shimazu clan, Kuroda Kiyokane and his wife Yaeko.[2] At birth, the boy was named Shintarō; this was changed to Seiki in 1877, when he was 11.[2] In his personal life, he used the name Kuroda Kiyoteru, which uses an alternate pronunciation of the same Chinese characters.[citation needed] Even before his birth, Kuroda had been chosen by his paternal uncle, Kuroda Kiyotsuna, as heir; formally, he was adopted in 1871, after traveling to Tokyo with both his birth mother and adoptive mother to live at his uncles estate.[2] Kiyotsuna was also a Shimazu retainer,[2] whose services to Emperor Meiji in the Bakumatsu period and at the Battle of Toba–Fushimi led to his appointment to high posts in the new imperial government;[2] in 1887 he was named a viscount.[2] Because of his position, the elder Kuroda was exposed to many of the modernizing trends and ideas coming into Japan during the early Meiji era; as his heir, young Kiyoteru also learned from them and took his lessons to heart. In his early teens, Kuroda began to learn the English language in preparation for his university studies; within two years, however, he had chosen to switch to French instead. At 17, he enrolled in pre-college courses in French, as preparation for his planned legal studies in college.[2] Consequently, when in 1884 Kurodas brother-in-law Hashiguchi Naouemon was appointed to the French Legation, it was decided that Kuroda would accompany him and his wife to Paris to begin his real studies of law.[2][3] He arrived in Paris on March 18, 1884,[4] and was to remain there for the next decade.[2]
Fujishima Takeji. Fujishima Takeji (藤島武二; October 15, 1867 – March 19, 1943) was a Japanese painter, noted for his work in developing Romanticism and impressionism within the yōga (Western-style) art movement in late 19th- and early 20th-century Japanese painting. In his later years, he was influenced by the Art Nouveau movement. Fujishima was born to an ex-samurai class household in Kagoshima, Satsuma Domain in southern Kyūshū, Japan, where his father had been a retainer of the Shimazu clan daimyō. After studying art at Kagoshima Middle School he left home in 1884 to pursue his studies in Tokyo, first with Kawabata Gyokusho, a Shijō school nihonga artist. However, Fujishima was attracted to the new western-style oil painting techniques, and switched to yōga-style painting, which he learned under Yamamoto Hōsui and Soyama Yukihiro. His graduation piece, “Cruelty” was exhibited at the 3rd Meiji Art Association Exhibition in 1891, where it was viewed by noted novelist and art critic Mori Ōgai. Fujishima moved to Tsu in Mie Prefecture in 1893, where he was an assistant teacher at the Mie Prefectural Elementary School, but soon returned to Tokyo in 1896 under the sponsorship of Kuroda Seiki to become an assistant professor at the Tokyo Art Schools Western Painting Department. He also joined Kurodas art coterie, the Hakubakai (White Horse Society). Travelling to France in 1905, Fujishima studied the techniques of historical painting under Fernand Cormon at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and portraiture under Carolus-Duran at the French Academy in Rome in Italy. He returned to Japan in 1910 and became a professor at the Tokyo Art School and a member of the Imperial Art Academy. In 1937, he was one of the first recipients of the newly created Order of Culture of the Japanese government. Fujishima died in 1943; his grave is at the Aoyama Cemetery, in Tokyo.
Yasukuni Shrine. Yasukuni Shrine (靖国神社 or 靖國神社, Yasukuni Jinja; lit. Peaceful Country Shrine) is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, 1894–1895 and 1937–1945 respectively, and the First Indochina War of 1946–1954.[1] The shrines purpose has been expanded over the years to include those who died in the wars involving Japan spanning from the entire Meiji and Taishō periods, and the earlier part of the Shōwa period.[2] The shrine lists the names, origins, birthdates and places of death of 2,466,532 people.[2] Among those are 1,066 convicted war criminals from the Pacific War, twelve of whom were charged with Class A crimes (the planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of the war). Eleven were convicted on those charges, with the twelfth found not guilty on all such charges, though he was found guilty of Class B war crimes. The names of two more men charged with Class A war crimes are on the list but one died during trial and one before trial so they were never convicted. Another memorial at the honden (main hall) building commemorates anyone who died on behalf of Japan and so includes Koreans and Taiwanese who served Japan at the time. The Chinreisha (Spirit Pacifying Shrine) building is a shrine built to inter the souls of all the people who died during World War II, regardless of their nationality. It is located directly south of the Yasukuni Honden. The enshrinement of war criminals, as well as the shrines historical association with State Shinto, has made the shrine highly controversial within East Asia. Emperor Hirohito, under whom Japan fought during World War II, visited the shrine 8 times between the end of the war and 1975.[3] However, he thereafter boycotted the shrine due to his displeasure over the enshrinement of top convicted Japanese war criminals.[4] His successors, Akihito and Naruhito, have never visited the shrine.[5] The Japanese Governments involvement with the shrine remains highly controversial, with the most recent Japanese Prime Minister to visit the shrine while in office being Shinzo Abe in 2013. The site for the Yasukuni Shrine, originally named Tōkyō Shōkonsha (東京招魂社, shrine to summon the souls), was chosen by order of the Meiji Emperor.[6] The shrine was established in 1869, in the wake of the Boshin War, in order to honor the souls of those who died fighting for the Emperor. It initially served as the apex of a network of similar shrines throughout Japan that had originally been established for the souls of various feudal lords retainers, and which continued to enshrine local individuals who died in the Emperors service.[7]
Duchy of Ferrara. The Duchy of Ferrara (Latin: Ducatus Ferrariensis; Italian: Ducato di Ferrara; Emilian: Ducà ad Frara) was a state in what is now northern Italy. It consisted of about 1,100 km2 south of the lower Po River, stretching to the valley of the lower Reno River, including the city of Ferrara. The territory that was part of the Duchy was ruled by the House of Este from 1146 to 1597.[1] Borso dEste, already Duke of Modena and Reggio, and lord of Ferrara, was raised to Duke of Ferrara by Pope Paul II. Borso and his successors ruled Ferrara as a quasi-sovereign state until 1597, when it came under direct papal rule.[2] The origin of Ferrara is uncertain. It was probably settled by the inhabitants of the lagoons at the mouth of the Po. There are two early centres of settlement: one around the cathedral,[3] the other, the castrum bizantino, being the San Pietro district, on the opposite shore, where the Primaro empties into the Volano channel. Ferrara appears first in a document of the Lombard king Desiderius of 753 AD,[4] as a city forming part of the Exarchate of Ravenna. Desiderius pledged a Lombard ducatus ferrariae (Duchy of Ferrara) in 757 to Pope Stephen II. The Marquis Tedald of Canossa obtained (about 984) from the Church the possession for himself and his heirs, upon payment of a tribute. The decline of the House of Canossa was consumed with the death of the great countess Matilda of Canossa in 1115, just as the municipal institute was born and consolidated in Ferrara, which put an end to the ancient ducatus.[5] The free municipality of Ferrara survived for about 150 years. From 1208, with Azzo VI dEste, the lordship of the family was established, on the Guelph side. From this moment, the Este family also extended their dominion over the lands of Modena and Reggio. Ferrara and its domains were formally part of the State of the Church, while Modena and Reggio of the Holy Roman Empire, therefore the lords of Este were feudal lords of the Pope for the territory of Ferrara, and of the emperor for the territories of Modena and Reggio.[6]
Poet. A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet might simply be the creator (thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or written), or someone who also performs their art to an audience. The work of a poet is essentially one of communication, expressing ideas either in a literal sense (such as describing a specific event or place) or metaphorically. Poets have existed since prehistory, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary greatly in different cultures and periods.[1] Throughout each civilization and language, poets have used various styles that have changed over time, resulting in countless poets as diverse as the literature that (since the advent of writing systems) they have produced. The civilization of Sumer figures prominently in the history of early poetry, and The Epic of Gilgamesh, a widely read epic poem, was written in the Third Dynasty of Ur c. 2100 BC; copies of the poem continued to be published and written until c. 600 to 150 BC. However, as it arises from an oral tradition, the poet is unknown. The Story of Sinuhe was a popular narrative poem from the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, written c. 1750 BC, about an ancient Egyptian man named Sinuhe, who flees his country and lives in a foreign land until his return, shortly before his death. The Story of Sinuhe was one of several popular narrative poems in Ancient Egyptian. Scholars have conjectured that Story of Sinuhe was actually written by an Ancient Egyptian man named Sinuhe, describing his life in the poem; therefore, Sinuhe is conjectured to be a real person. [citation needed]
Location identifier. A location identifier is a symbolic representation for the name and the location of an airport, navigation aid, or weather station, and is used for staffed air traffic control facilities in air traffic control, telecommunications, computer programming, weather reports, and related services. The International Civil Aviation Organization establishes sets of four-letter location indicators which are published in ICAO Publication 7910. These are used by air traffic control agencies to identify airports and by weather agencies to produce METAR weather reports. The first letter indicates the region; for example, K for the contiguous United States, C for Canada, E for northern Europe, R for the Asian Far East, and Y for Australia. Examples of ICAO location indicators are RPLL for Manila Ninoy Aquino Airport, KCEF for Westover Joint Air Reserve Base and EGLL for London Heathrow Airport. The International Air Transport Association uses sets of three-letter IATA identifiers which are used for airline operations, baggage routing, and ticketing. There is no specific organization scheme to IATA identifiers; typically they take on the abbreviation of the airport or city such as MNL for Manila Ninoy Aquino Airport. In the United States, the IATA identifier usually equals the FAA identifier, but this is not always the case. A prominent example is Sawyer International Airport in Marquette, Michigan, which uses the FAA identifier SAW and the IATA identifier MQT. The Federal Aviation Administration location identifier (FAA LID) is a three- to five-character alphanumeric code identifying aviation-related facilities inside the United States, though some codes are reserved for, and are managed by other entities.[1]: §1–2-1
Ferrara. Ferrara (/fəˈrɑːrə/; Italian: [ferˈraːra] ⓘ; Emilian: Fràra [ˈfraːra]) is a city and comune (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. As of 2016,[update] it had 132,009 inhabitants.[3] It is situated 44 kilometres (27 miles) northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km (3 miles) north. The town has broad streets and numerous palaces dating from the Renaissance, when it hosted the court of the House of Este.[4] For its beauty and cultural importance, it has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The first documented settlements in the area of the present-day Province of Ferrara date from the 6th century BC.[5] The ruins of the Etruscan town of Spina, established along the lagoons at the ancient mouth of the Po river, were lost until modern times, when drainage schemes in the Valli di Comacchio marshes in 1922 first officially revealed a necropolis with over 4,000 tombs, evidence of a population centre that in Antiquity must have played a major role.[6] There is uncertainty among scholars about the proposed Roman origin of the settlement in its current location (Tacitus and Boccaccio refer to a Forum Alieni[7]), for little is known of this period,[8] but some archeologic evidence points to the hypothesis that Ferrara could have been originated from two small Byzantine settlements: a cluster of facilities around the Cathedral of St. George, on the right bank of the main branch of the Po, which then ran much closer to the city than today, and a castrum, a fortified complex built on the left bank of the river to defend against the Lombards.[9] Ferrara appears first in a document of the Lombard king Desiderius of 753 AD, when he captured the town from the Exarchate of Ravenna.[10] Later the Franks, after routing the Lombards, presented Ferrara to the Papacy in 754 or 756.[8] In 988 Ferrara was ceded by the Church to the House of Canossa, but at the death of Matilda of Tuscany in 1115 it became a free commune.[9] During the 12th century the history of the town was marked by the wrestling for power between two preeminent families, the Guelph Adelardi and the Ghibelline Salinguerra. The powerful Imperial House of Este threw their decisive weight behind the Salinguerra and eventually reaped the benefits of victory for themselves.[9] Thus, in 1264 Obizzo II dEste was proclaimed lifelong ruler of Ferrara, taking the additional titles of Lord of Modena in 1288 and of Reggio in 1289. His rule marked the end of the communal period in Ferrara and the beginning of the Este rule, which lasted until 1598.
Lists of airports. An airport is an aerodrome with facilities for flights to take off and land. Airports often have facilities to store and maintain aircraft, and a control tower. An airport consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface such as a runway for a plane to take off or a helipad, and often includes adjacent utility buildings such as control towers, hangars and terminals. An airport with a helipad for rotorcraft but no runway is called a heliport. An airport for use by seaplanes and amphibious aircraft is called a seaplane base. Such a base typically includes a stretch of open water for takeoffs and landings, and seaplane docks for tying-up. An international airport has additional facilities for customs and immigration.
Oral Ak Zhol Airport. Manshuk Mametova International Airport (Kazakh: Мәншүк Мәметова атындағы Халықаралық әуежайы) (IATA: URA), is an airport in Kazakhstan located 12 km (7 mi) southeast of Oral (Uralsk). The airport is located south of the Oral River. In February 2023, Oral Airport was acquired by Oral Airport Holding LLP. It is a Kazakhstani company, the controlling stake of which belongs to the Kazakhstani Uralsk Management LLP and businessman Dauletkhan Kilybayev, and a minority stake (49%) is owned by the Russian company JSC Retrans. The company hopes to turn Uralsk airport into a regional hub, expand the route network and carry out technical re-equipment of the airport[2] It is a small airport servicing medium-sized airliners. It has parking for four jets. This airport has one terminal. The airport also serves the nearby town of Aksai, which provides the majority of airport passenger traffic, being the capital of the gas industry in West Kazakhstan. In the past, a weekly international charter flight was operated by Astraeus Airlines from Oral to London Gatwick/London Stansted; this was subsequently operated by Air Astana to Amsterdam; however, the route was terminated, along with other Air Astana flights, due to the poor condition of the runway. The airport runway and facilities were inspected by Mott MacDonald to confirm that its substandard condition prevented the airport from accommodating larger jet aircraft. On 17 April 2013, the decision was made to transfer the airports ownership back to the government for runway reconstruction. A new terminal was built and opened in April 2022. It aims to double the capacity of the airport to 600 thousand people per year.[3]
University of Ferrara. The University of Ferrara (Italian: Università degli Studi di Ferrara) is the main university of the city of Ferrara in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. In the years prior to the First World War the University of Ferrara, with more than 500 students, was the best attended of the free universities in Italy. Today there are approximately 16,000 students enrolled at the University of Ferrara with nearly 400 degrees granted each year. The teaching staff number 600, including 288 researchers. It is organized into 12 Departments. The University of Ferrara was founded on March 4, 1391 by Marquis Alberto V DEste with the permission of Pope Boniface IX. The Studium Generale was inaugurated on St. Lukes Day (October 18) of that year with courses in law, arts and theology. After the unification of Italy, Ferrara University became a free university with faculties of Law and Mathematics, a three-year course in Medicine (reduced to two years in 1863-64), as well as Schools of Veterinary Medicine (abolished in 1876), Pharmacy, and for public Notaries. After World War II, it started to be state-supported and this allowed the opening of many faculties and research departments. The most remarkable growth took place between the 70s and the 80s, when Prof. Antonio Rossi was in charge of it as Rector. Some notable instructors include:
Geocode. A geocode is a code that represents a geographic entity (location or object). It is a unique identifier of the entity, to distinguish it from others in a finite set of geographic entities. In general the geocode is a human-readable and short identifier. Typical geocodes (in bold) and entities represented by it: The ISO 19112:2019 standard[1] (section 3.1.2) adopted the term geographic identifier instead geocode, to encompass long labels: spatial reference in the form of a label or code that identifies a location. For example, for ISO, the country name “Peoples Republic of China” is a label. Some authors, such as the United States Census Bureau,[2] use the abbreviation GEOID as a synonym for geocode. Geocodes are mainly used (in general as an atomic data type) for labelling, data integrity, geotagging and spatial indexing. In theoretical computer science a geocode system is a locality-preserving hashing function.
Weather station. A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and precipitation amounts. Wind measurements are taken with as few other obstructions as possible, while temperature and humidity measurements are kept free from direct solar radiation, or insolation. Manual observations are taken at least once daily, while automated measurements are taken at least once an hour. Weather conditions out at sea are taken by ships and buoys, which measure slightly different meteorological quantities such as sea surface temperature (SST), wave height, and wave period. Drifting weather buoys outnumber their moored versions by a significant amount. A weather instrument is any device that measures weather related conditions. Since there are a variety of different weather conditions, there are a variety of different weather instruments. Typical weather stations have the following instruments and sensors: In addition, at certain automated airport weather stations, additional instruments may be employed, including: More sophisticated stations may also measure the ultraviolet index, leaf wetness, soil moisture, soil temperature, water temperature in ponds, lakes, creeks, or rivers, and occasionally other data.
Air traffic control. Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through controlled airspace. The primary purpose of ATC is to prevent collisions, organise and expedite the flow of air traffic, and provide information and other support for pilots.[1] In some countries, ATC can also provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airspace. Controllers monitor the location of aircraft in their assigned airspace using radar and communicate with pilots by radio.[2] To prevent collisions, ATC enforces traffic separation rules, which ensure each aircraft maintains a minimum amount of empty space around it. ATC services are provided to all types of aircraft, including private, military, and commercial flights.[3] Depending on the type of flight and the class of airspace, ATC may issue mandatory instructions or non-binding advisories (known as flight information in some countries). While pilots are required to obey all ATC instructions, the pilot in command of an aircraft always retains final authority for its safe operation. In an emergency, the pilot may deviate from ATC instructions to the extent required to maintain the safety of the aircraft.[4] Weather conditions such as thunderstorms, strong winds, and low visibility can significantly affect air traffic control operations, leading to delays, diversions, and the need for alternate routing.[5] Pursuant to requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), ATC operations are conducted either in the English language, or the local language used by the station on the ground.[6] In practice, the native language for a region is used; however, English must be used upon request.[6] In 1920, Croydon Airport near London, England, was the first airport in the world to introduce air traffic control.[7] The aerodrome control tower was a wooden hut 15 feet (5 metres) high with windows on all four sides. It was commissioned on 25 February 1920, and provided basic traffic, weather, and location information to pilots.[8][9] In the United States, air traffic control developed three divisions. The first of several air mail radio stations (AMRS) was created in 1922, after World War I, when the U.S. Post Office began using techniques developed by the U.S. Army to direct and track the movements of reconnaissance aircraft. Over time, the AMRS morphed into flight service stations. Todays flight service stations do not issue control instructions, but provide pilots with many other flight related informational services. They do relay control instructions from ATC in areas where flight service is the only facility with radio or phone coverage. The first airport traffic control tower, regulating arrivals, departures, and surface movement of aircraft in the US at a specific airport, opened in Cleveland in 1930. Approach- and departure-control facilities were created after adoption of radar in the 1950s to monitor and control the busy airspace around larger airports. The first air route traffic control center (ARTCC), which directs the movement of aircraft between departure and destination, was opened in Newark in 1935, followed in 1936 by Chicago and Cleveland.[10]
Keiō. Keiō (慶応; historically 慶應) was a Japanese era name (年号, nengō; literally year name) after Genji and before Meiji. The period spanned the years from May 1865 to October 1868.[1] The reigning emperors were Kōmei-tennō (孝明天皇) and Meiji-tennō (明治天皇). Keio University, which was initially established in 1858 (Ansei 5), seven years before the beginning of the Keiō era, is named after this era. This is the oldest existing institution of higher learning in Japan.[7]
Natural philosophy. Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin philosophia naturalis) is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe, while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the development of modern science. From the ancient world (at least since Aristotle) until the 19th century, natural philosophy was the common term for the study of physics (nature), a broad term that included botany, zoology, anthropology, and chemistry as well as what is now called physics. It was in the 19th century that the concept of science received its modern shape, with different subjects within science emerging, such as astronomy, biology, and physics. Institutions and communities devoted to science were founded.[1] Isaac Newtons book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) (English: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) reflects the use of the term natural philosophy in the 17th century. Even in the 19th century, the work that helped define much of modern physics bore the title Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1867). In the German tradition, Naturphilosophie (philosophy of nature) persisted into the 18th and 19th centuries as an attempt to achieve a speculative unity of nature and spirit, after rejecting the scholastic tradition and replacing Aristotelian metaphysics, along with those of the dogmatic churchmen, with Kantian rationalism. Some of the greatest names in German philosophy are associated with this movement, including Goethe, Hegel, and Schelling. Naturphilosophie was associated with Romanticism and a view that regarded the natural world as a kind of giant organism, as opposed to the philosophical approach of figures such as John Locke and others espousing a more mechanical philosophy of the world, regarding it as being like a machine.[citation needed] The term natural philosophy preceded current usage of natural science (i.e. empirical science). Empirical science historically developed out of philosophy or, more specifically, natural philosophy. Natural philosophy was distinguished from the other precursor of modern science, natural history, in that natural philosophy involved reasoning and explanations about nature (and after Galileo, quantitative reasoning), whereas natural history was essentially qualitative and descriptive. Greek philosophers defined natural philosophy as the combination of beings living in the universe, ignoring things made by humans.[2] The other definition refers to human nature.[2]
Yoga. Traditional Yoga[a] (UK: /ˈjəʊɡə/, US: /ˈjoʊɡə/;[1] Sanskrit: योग yoga [joːɡɐ] ⓘ; lit. yoke or union) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals,[2][3][4][b] as practiced in the Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist traditions.[5][6] Yoga may have pre-Vedic origins,[c] but is first attested in the early first millennium BCE. It developed as various traditions in the eastern Ganges basin drew from a common body of practices, including Vedic elements.[7][8] Yoga-like practices are mentioned in the Rigveda[9] and a number of early Upanishads,[10][11][12][d] but systematic yoga concepts emerge during the fifth and sixth centuries BCE in ancient Indias ascetic and Śramaṇa movements, including Jainism and Buddhism.[13] The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the classical text on Hindu yoga, samkhya-based but influenced by Buddhism, dates to the early centuries of the Common Era.[14][15][e] Hatha yoga texts began to emerge between the ninth and 11th centuries, originating in tantra.[f] Yoga is practiced worldwide,[16] but yoga in the Western world often entails a modern form of Hatha yoga and a posture-based physical fitness, stress-relief and relaxation technique,[17] consisting largely of asanas;[18] this differs from traditional yoga, which focuses on meditation and release from worldly attachments.[19][17][20][a] It was introduced by gurus from India after the success of Swami Vivekanandas adaptation of yoga without asanas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[21] Vivekananda introduced the Yoga Sutras to the West, and they became prominent after the 20th-century success of hatha yoga.[22]
Navigation. Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.[1][2] The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation,[3] marine navigation, aeronautic navigation, and space navigation.[1] It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks.[4] All navigational techniques involve locating the navigators position compared to known locations or patterns. Navigation, in a broader sense, can refer to any skill or study that involves the determination of position and direction.[1] In this sense, navigation includes orienteering and pedestrian navigation.[1] For marine navigation, this involves the safe movement of ships, boats and other nautical craft either on or underneath the water using positions from navigation equipment with appropriate nautical charts (electronic and paper).[4] Navigation equipment for ships is mandated under the requirements of the SOLAS Convention, depending on ship size.[5] For land navigation, this involves the movement of persons, animals and vehicles from one place to another by means of navigation equipment (such as a compass or GNSS receivers), maps and visual navigation marks across urban or rural environments.[6][7] Aeronautic (air) navigation involves piloting an aircraft from one geographic position to another position while monitoring the position as the flight progresses.[8] The term stems from the 1530s, from Latin navigationem (nom. navigatio), from navigatus, pp. of navigare to sail, sail over, go by sea, steer a ship, from navis ship and the root of agere to drive.[9] Polynesian navigation is probably the earliest form of open-ocean navigation; it was based on memory and observation recorded on scientific instruments like the Marshall Islands Stick Charts of Ocean Swells. Early Pacific Polynesians used the motion of stars, weather, the position of certain wildlife species, or the size of waves to find the path from one island to another.[10][11][12] Among the first proper navigational instruments was the compass, with one of the oldest Chinese in origin from the Han dynasty (since c. 206 BC).[13] The compass was later adopted for sea navigation by the Song dynasty Chinese during the 11th century.[14][15][16] The first usage of a compass recorded in Western Europe and the Islamic world occurred around 1190.[17] Maritime navigation using scientific instruments such as the mariners astrolabe first occurred in the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages. Although land astrolabes were invented in the Hellenistic period and existed in classical antiquity and the Islamic Golden Age, the oldest record of a sea astrolabe is that of Spanish astronomer Ramon Llull dating from 1295.[18] The perfecting of this navigation instrument is attributed to Portuguese navigators during early Portuguese discoveries in the Age of Discovery.[19][20] The earliest known description of how to make and use a sea astrolabe comes from Spanish cosmographer Martín Cortés de Albacars Arte de Navegar (The Art of Navigation) published in 1551,[21] based on the principle of the archipendulum used in constructing the Egyptian pyramids. However, the first altitude measuring instrument to navigate extensively used at sea was the quadrant.[22] This was reintroduced by Leonardo of Pisa in the 13th century.[22] Its first recorded use was in 1461 by Diogo Gomes.[22] As well as astrolabes and quadrants, the first cross-staff used in navigation was known from the 14th century onwards, believed to have come from early Arab navigators.[23] However, it had many errors and was also difficult to use as it required squinting at the sun.[23] These disadvantages were overcome with the invention of the backstaff in 1595 by John Davis.[23]
Taishō era. The Taishō era (大正時代, Taishō jidai; [taiɕoː dʑidai] ⓘ) was a period in the history of Japan dating from July 30th, 1912 to December 25th, 1926, coinciding with the reign of Emperor Taishō.[1] The new emperor was a sickly man, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of elder statesmen (or genrō) to the Imperial Diet of Japan and the democratic parties. Thus, the era is considered the time of the liberal movement known as Taishō Democracy; it is usually distinguished from the preceding chaotic Meiji era and the following militaristic-driven first part of the Shōwa era.[2] The two kanji characters in Taishō (大正) were from a passage of the Classical Chinese I Ching: 大亨以正天之道也 (translated: Great prevalence is achieved through rectitude, and this is the Dao of Heaven.)[3] The term could be roughly understood as meaning great rectitude, or great righteousness. On 30 July 1912, Emperor Meiji died and Crown Prince Yoshihito succeeded to the throne as Emperor of Japan. In his coronation address, the newly enthroned Emperor announced his reigns nengō (era name) Taishō, meaning great righteousness.[4] The end of the Meiji period was marked by huge government, domestic, and overseas investments and defense programs, nearly exhausted credit, and a lack of foreign reserves to pay debts. The influence of Western culture experienced in the Meiji period also continued. Notable artists, such as Kobayashi Kiyochika, adopted Western painting styles while continuing to work in ukiyo-e; others, such as Okakura Kakuzō, kept an interest in traditional Japanese painting. Authors such as Mori Ōgai studied in the West, bringing back with them to Japan different insights on human life influenced by developments in the West. The events following the Meiji Restoration in 1868 had seen not only the fulfillment of many domestic and foreign economic and political objectives—without Japan suffering the colonial fate of other Asian nations—but also a new intellectual ferment, in a time when there was worldwide interest in communism and socialism and an urban proletariat was developing. Universal male suffrage, social welfare, workers rights, and nonviolent protests were ideals of the early leftist movement.[citation needed] Government suppression of leftist activities, however, led to more radical leftist action and even more suppression, resulting in the dissolution of the Japan Socialist Party (日本社会党, Nihon Shakaitō) only a year after its founding and general failure of the socialist movement in 1906.[citation needed]
Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1874). The Japanese punitive expedition to Taiwan in 1874, referred to in Japan as the Taiwan Expedition (Japanese: 台湾出兵, Hepburn: Taiwan Shuppei) and in Taiwan and mainland China as the Mudan incident (Chinese: 牡丹社事件), was a punitive expedition launched by the Japanese ostensibly in retaliation for the murder of 54 Ryukyuan sailors by Paiwan indigenous peoples near the southwestern tip of Taiwan in December 1871. In May 1874, the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the indigenous Taiwanese peoples in southern Taiwan and retreated in December after the Qing dynasty agreed to pay an indemnity of 500,000 taels, with Japan conceding that China had sovereignty over Taiwan. Some ambiguous wording in the agreed terms were later argued by Japan to be confirmation of Chinese renunciation of suzerainty over the Ryukyu Islands, paving the way for de facto Japanese incorporation of the Ryukyu in 1879. In December 1871, a Ryukyuan vessel shipwrecked on the southeastern tip of Taiwan and 54 sailors were killed by indigenous Taiwanese peoples. Four tribute ships were returning to the Ryukyu Islands when they were blown off course on 12 December. Two ships were pushed towards Taiwan. One of them landed on Taiwans western coast and made it back home with the help of Qing officials. The other one crashed into the eastern coast of southern Taiwan near Padiyudr Bay (Chinese: 八瑤灣; pinyin: Bāyáowān). There were 69 passengers and 66 managed to make it to shore. Fifty-four of them were killed by Paiwan while the remaining 12 were rescued by Han Chinese who transferred them to Taiwan Prefecture (modern Tainan). They then made their way to Fujian province in mainland China and from there, the Qing government arranged transport to send them home. They departed in July 1872.[5] This event, known as the Mudan incident, did not immediately cause any concern in Japan. A few officials knew of it by mid-1872 but it was not until April 1874 that it became an international concern. The repatriation procedure in 1872 was by the book and had been a regular affair for several centuries. From the 17th to 19th centuries, the Qing had settled 401 Ryukyuan shipwreck incidents both on the coast of mainland China and Taiwan. The Ryukyu Kingdom did not ask Japanese officials for help regarding the shipwreck. Instead its king, Shō Tai, sent a reward to Chinese officials in Fuzhou for the return of the 12 survivors.[6] On 30 August 1872, Sukenori Kabayama, a general of the Imperial Japanese Army, urged the Japanese government to invade Taiwans tribal areas. In September, Japan dethroned the king of Ryukyu. On 9 October, Kabayama was ordered to conduct a survey in Taiwan. In 1873, Tanemomi Soejima was sent to communicate to the Qing court that if it did not extend its rule to the entirety of Taiwan, punish murderers, pay victims families compensation, and agree to talk about the matter, Japan would take care of it. The Foreign Minister Sakimitsu Yanagihara believed that the perpetrators of the Mudan incident were all Taiwan savages beyond Chinese education and law.[7] Japan justified sending an expedition to Taiwan through linguistic interpretation of huawai zhimin (lit. outside the sphere of civilization) to mean not part of China. Chinese diplomat Li Hongzhang rejected the claim that the murder of Ryukyuans had anything to do with Japan once he learned of Japans aspirations.[8] However, after communications between the Qing and Yanagihara, the Japanese took their explanation to mean that the Qing government had not opposed Japans claims to sovereignty over the Ryukyu Islands, disclaimed any jurisdiction over indigenous Taiwanese peoples, and had indeed consented to Japans expedition to Taiwan.[9] In the eyes of Japan and the foreign advisor Charles Le Gendre, the indigenous people were savages who had no sovereign or international status, and therefore their territory was terra nullius, free to be seized for Japan.[10] The Qing argued that like in many other countries, the administration of the government did not stretch to every part of a country, similar to the Native American territories in the United States or aboriginal territories in Australia and New Zealand, a view Le Gendre also took before his employment by the Japanese.[11] Japan had already sent a student, Kurooka Yunojo, to conduct surveys in Taiwan in April 1873. Kabayama reached Tamsui on 23 August disguised as a merchant and surveyed eastern Taiwan.[8] On 9 March 1874, the Taiwan Expedition prepared for its mission. The magistrate of the Taiwan Circuit learned of the impending Japanese invasion from a Hong Kong newspaper quoting a Japanese news item and reported it to Fujian authorities.[12] Qing officials were taken by complete surprise due to the seemingly cordial relations with Japan at the time. On 17 May, Saigō Jūdō led the main force, 3,600 strong, aboard four warships in Nagasaki headed to Tainan.[13] On 6 June, the Japanese emperor issued a certificate condemning the Taiwan savages for killing our nationals, the Ryukyuans killed in southeastern Taiwan.[14]
Osaka Bay. Osaka Bay (大阪湾 Ōsaka-wan Japanese: [oːsakaꜜwaɴ]) is a bay in western Japan. As an eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea, it is separated from the Pacific Ocean by the Kii Channel and from the neighbor western part of the Inland Sea by the Akashi Strait. Its western shore is formed by Awaji Island, and its northern and eastern shores are part of the Kansai metropolitan area. Major ports on Osaka Bay include Osaka, Kobe, Nishinomiya, Sakai, Amagasaki, and Hannan. A number of artificial islands have been created in Osaka Bay in past decades, including Kansai International Airport, Kobe Airport, Port Island, and Rokkō Island. In antiquity, Osaka Bay stretched almost to Kyoto, Naniwa, Osakas oldest settlement, itself a peninsula in the bay. Several islands at the south end of Osaka Bay are part of the Seto Inland Sea National Park. Industries locate around Osaka Bay because there is a skilled and plentiful workforce, many port facilities, efficient linkages (from small to medium to large firms). There are good transport links (including the Shinkansen), room for expansion (land reclaimed from the sea), and a large local market (9 million).
Airport. An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport.[1][2] They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface such as a runway for a plane to take off and to land[3] or a helipad,[4] and often includes adjacent utility buildings such as control towers, hangars[5] and terminals, to maintain and monitor aircraft. Larger airports may have airport aprons, taxiway bridges, air traffic control centres, passenger facilities such as restaurants and lounges, and emergency services. In some countries, the US in particular, airports also typically have one or more fixed-base operators, serving general aviation. Airport operations are extremely complex, with a complicated system of aircraft support services, passenger services, and aircraft control services contained within the operation. Thus airports can be major employers, as well as important hubs for tourism and other kinds of transit. Because they are sites of operation for heavy machinery, a number of regulations and safety measures have been implemented in airports, in order to reduce hazards. Additionally, airports have major local environmental impacts, as both large sources of air pollution, noise pollution and other environmental impacts, making them sites that acutely experience the environmental effects of aviation. Airports are also vulnerable infrastructure to extreme weather, climate change caused sea level rise and other disasters. The terms aerodrome, airfield, and airstrip also refer to airports, and the terms heliport, seaplane base, and STOLport refer to airports dedicated exclusively to helicopters, seaplanes, and short take-off and landing aircraft. In colloquial use in certain environments, the terms airport and aerodrome are often interchanged. However, in general, the term airport may imply or confer a certain stature upon the aviation facility that other aerodromes may not have achieved. In some jurisdictions, airport is a legal term of art reserved exclusively for those aerodromes certified or licensed as airports by the relevant civil aviation authority after meeting specified certification criteria or regulatory requirements.[6]
Akashi Strait. The Akashi Strait (明石海峡, Akashi Kaikyō) is a strait between the Japanese islands of Honshu and Awaji. The strait connects Seto Inland Sea and Osaka Bay. The width of the Akashi Strait is approximately 4 kilometers, and maximum depth is about 110 meters.[1] The fastest tidal current is about 4.5 metres per second (8.7 knots).[1] The 1.5-kilometer strait is one of the important points of the Seto Inland Sea and is at the mouth of the Pacific Ocean. The surrounding waters around Akashi Strait is a known fishery area. The Akashi Strait is designated as an international shipping channel by the Maritime Traffic Safety Act in Japan.[1] The Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, an almost four-kilometer-long suspension bridge, crosses the strait. It links the city of Kobe (the capital of Hyōgo Prefecture) on Honshu Island to Iwaya on Awaji Island (also within Hyōgo Prefecture). Its longest span measures nearly two kilometers.[1] After 10 years of construction it was finally opened to traffic on 5 April 1998.[2] At the time of its opening in 1998, it was the worlds longest suspension bridge.[2] The Great Hanshin Earthquake occurred beneath the Akashi Strait and struck on 17 January 1995 with magnitude 7.2.[3] The Nojima Fault, which cuts across Awaji Island, is responsible; a surface trace about 10 kilometers long appeared on the island due to the earthquake.[3] The Nojima Fault is a branch of the Japan Median Tectonic Line which runs the length of the southern half of Honshu.
International Civil Aviation Organization. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO /ˌaɪˈkeɪoʊ/ eye-KAY-oh) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth.[3] The ICAO headquarters are located in the Quartier international de Montréal of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The ICAO Council adopts standards and recommended practices concerning air navigation, its infrastructure, flight inspection, prevention of unlawful interference, and facilitation of border-crossing procedures for international civil aviation. ICAO defines the protocols for air accident investigation that are followed by transport safety authorities in countries signatory to the Convention on International Civil Aviation.[4] The Air Navigation Commission (ANC) is the technical body within ICAO. The commission is composed of 19 commissioners, nominated by the ICAOs contracting states and appointed by the ICAO Council.[5] Commissioners serve as independent experts, who although nominated by their states, do not serve as state or political representatives. International Standards and Recommended Practices are developed under the direction of the ANC through the formal process of ICAO Panels. Once approved by the commission, standards are sent to the council, the political body of ICAO, for consultation and coordination with the member states before final adoption. ICAO is distinct from other international air transport organizations, particularly because it alone is vested with international authority (among signatory states): other organizations include the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade association representing airlines; the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), an organization for air navigation service providers (ANSPs); and the Airports Council International, a trade association of airport authorities. In addition there are several regional civil aviation commissions, such as the Latin America Civil Aviation Commission (LACAC) who focus on challenges and growth in specific regions.
Meiji Constitution. Naruhito Fumihito
Artificial island. An artificial island or man-made island is an island that has been constructed by humans rather than formed through natural processes.[1] Other definitions may suggest that artificial islands are lands with the characteristics of human intervention in their formation process, while others argue that artificial islands are created by expanding existing islets, constructing on existing reefs, or amalgamating several islets together. Although constructing artificial islands is not a modern phenomenon, there is no definite legal definition of it.[2] Artificial islands may vary in size from small islets reclaimed solely to support a single pillar of a building or structure to those that support entire communities and cities. Archaeologists argue that such islands were created as far back as the Neolithic era.[3] Early artificial islands included floating structures in still waters or wooden or megalithic structures erected in shallow waters (e.g. crannógs and Nan Madol discussed below). In modern times, artificial islands are usually formed by land reclamation, but some are formed by flooding of valleys resulting in the tops of former knolls getting isolated by water (e.g., Barro Colorado Island). There are several reasons for the construction of these islands, which include residential, industrial, commercial, structural (for bridge pylons) or strategic purposes.[4] One of the worlds largest artificial islands, René-Levasseur Island,[5][6] was formed by the flooding of two adjacent reservoirs. Technological advancements have made it feasible to build artificial islands in waters as deep as 75 meters.[7] The size of the waves and the structural integrity of the island play a crucial role in determining the maximum depth.[7] Despite a popular image of modernity, artificial islands actually have a long history in many parts of the world, dating back to the reclaimed islands of Ancient Egyptian civilization, the Stilt crannogs of prehistoric Wales, Scotland and Ireland, the ceremonial centers of Nan Madol in Micronesia and the still extant floating islands of Lake Titicaca.[8] The city of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec predecessor of Mexico City that was home to 500,000 people when the Spaniards arrived, stood on a small natural island in Lake Texcoco that was surrounded by countless artificial chinamitl islands. The people of Langa Langa Lagoon and Lau Lagoon in Malaita, Solomon Islands, built about 60 artificial islands on the reef including Funaafou, Sulufou, and Adaege.[9][10] The people of Lau Lagoon build islands on the reef as this provided protection against attack from the people who lived in the centre of Malaita.[11][12] These islands were formed literally one rock at a time. A family would take their canoe out to the reef which protects the lagoon and then dive for rocks, bring them to the surface and then return to the selected site and drop the rocks into the water. Living on the reef was also healthier as the mosquitoes, which infested the coastal swamps, were not found on the reef islands. The Lau people continue to live on the reef islands.[9] Many artificial islands have been built in urban harbors to provide either a site deliberately isolated from the city or just spare real estate otherwise unobtainable in a crowded metropolis. An example of the first case is Dejima (or Deshima), created in the bay of Nagasaki in Japans Edo period as a contained center for European merchants. During the isolationist era, Dutch people were generally banned from Nagasaki and Japanese from Dejima. Similarly, Ellis Island, in Upper New York Bay beside New York City, a former tiny islet greatly expanded by land reclamation, served as an isolated immigration center for the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century, preventing an escape to the city of those refused entry for disease or other perceived flaws, who might otherwise be tempted toward illegal immigration. One of the most well-known artificial islands is the Île Notre-Dame in Montreal, built for Expo 67.
Mount Rokkō. Mount Rokkō (六甲山, Rokkō-san) is the name of a range of mountains in southeastern Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. There is no single mountain or peak called Rokkō, although the highest peak of the mountains is called Rokkōsan-Saikōhō (六甲山最高峰), (literally, the highest peak of the Rokkō Mountains) and the area to the south is known as the Rokkō area.[1] The mountains run approximately east-west from Sumaura Kōen Park in western Kobe to Takarazuka, and the length of the range is about 56 km (35 mi). The highest point is 932 metres (3,060 ft).[2] It also includes Mount Maya, Mount Kabutoyama, Mount Iwahara and Mount Iwakura. Today, the Rokkō mountain area is a centerpiece of a popular sightseeing and hiking area for people in the metropolitan Kansai region. Mt. Rokkō is a symbol of Kobe as well as Osaka. Arthur Hasketh Groom opened the first golf course in Japan, Kobe Golf Club, on Mount Rokko in 1903. Mount Rokkō was the first place to introduce rock climbing to the Japanese by Kuzou Fujiki who established the first rock climbing club in Japan in 1924.
Emperor Meiji. Mutsuhito (睦仁; 3 November 1852 – 29 July 1912), posthumously[a] honored as Emperor Meiji[b] (明治天皇, Meiji Tennō),[c] was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 1867 until his death in 1912. His reign is associated with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which ended the Tokugawa shogunate and began rapid changes that transformed Japan from an isolationist, feudal state to an industrialized world power. Emperor Meiji was the first monarch of the Empire of Japan, and presided over the Meiji era. At the time of Mutsuhitos birth, Japan was a feudal and pre-industrial country dominated by the isolationist Tokugawa shogunate and the daimyō subject to it, who ruled over Japans 270 decentralized domains. The opening of Japan to the West from 1854 fueled domestic demands for modernization, and when Mutsuhito became emperor after the death of his father Emperor Kōmei in 1867, it triggered the Boshin War, in which samurai (mostly from the Chōshū and Satsuma Domains) defeated the shogunate and restored power in his name. Documents issued during his reign include the Charter Oath of 1868, Meiji Constitution of 1889, Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors of 1882, and Imperial Rescript on Education of 1890, in which he was advised by a group of oligarchs known as the genrō. Other major events which occurred during his reign include the establishment of the Cabinet in 1885, Privy Council in 1888, Imperial Diet in 1890, and military victories over China in the First Sino-Japanese War and over Russia in the Russo-Japanese War. Taiwan and Korea were annexed in 1895 and 1910, respectively. Emperor Meiji died in 1912, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Yoshihito. The Tokugawa shogunate had established itself in the early 17th century.[6] Under its rule, the shōgun governed Japan. About 180 lords, known as daimyōs, ruled autonomous realms under the shōgun, and occasionally the shōgun called upon the daimyōs for gifts but did not tax them. The shōgun controlled the daimyōs in other ways too; only the shōgun could approve daimyōs marriages, and the shōgun could divest a daimyō of his lands.[7] Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had officially retired from his position by 1605, was the first Tokugawa shōgun. Upon retirement, Tokugawa Ieyasu and his son Tokugawa Hidetada, the titular shōgun, issued a code of behavior for the nobility in 1605. Under the code, the emperor was required to devote his time to scholarship and the arts.[8] The emperors under the shogunate appear to have adhered closely to this code by studying Confucian classics and devoting time to poetry and calligraphy.[9] Emperors were taught only the rudiments of Japanese and Chinese history and geography.[9] The shōgun did not seek the consent or advice of the emperor for his actions.[10]
Haneda (surname). Haneda (written: 羽田 or 羽根田) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Seto Inland Sea. The Seto Inland Sea (瀬戸内海, Seto Naikai), sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka Bay and provides a sea transport link to industrial centers in the Kansai region, including Osaka and Kobe. Before the construction of the Sanyō Main Line, it was the main transportation link between Kansai and Kyūshū. Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, Okayama, Hyōgo, Osaka, Wakayama, Kagawa, Ehime, Tokushima, Fukuoka, and Ōita prefectures have coastlines on the Seto Inland Sea; the cities of Hiroshima, Iwakuni, Takamatsu, and Matsuyama are also located on it. The Setouchi region encompasses the sea and surrounding coastal areas. The region is known for its moderate climate, with a stable year-round temperature and relatively low rainfall levels. The sea experiences periodic red tides caused by dense groupings of certain phytoplankton that result in the death of large numbers of fish. Since the 1980s, the seas northern and southern shores have been connected by the three routes of the Honshū–Shikoku Bridge Project, including the Great Seto Bridge, which serves both railroad and automobile traffic. The International Hydrographic Organizations definition of the limits of the Seto Inland Sea (published in 1953) is as follows:[1] On the West. The southeastern limit of the Japan Sea [In Shimonoseki-kaikyo. A line running from Nagoya Saki (130°49E) in Kyûsû through the islands of Uma Sima and Muture Simia (33°58,5N) to Murasaki Hana (34°01N) in Honsyû].
Haneda, Ōta, Tokyo. Haneda (羽田, Haneda) is a district of Ōta, Tokyo, Japan. As of January 1, 2011, Haneda had a total population of 14,885.[1] The district gives its name to Haneda Airport, the busiest airport in Japan by passenger traffic. Before the construction of Haneda Airport, the area was a prosperous mineral springs and beach resort centered around Anamori Shrine [ja]. In 1930, the Japanese postal ministry purchased a 53-hectare (130-acre) portion of reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay to the east of Haneda from a private individual in order to construct an airport.[2] Haneda Airfield first opened in 1931 with a flight from the airport on August 25.[2] In 1932, the town of Haneda [ja] was merged into the newly created Tokyo City ward of Kamata, which was in turn merged with Ōmori to form Ōta in 1947.[3] 35°32′55″N 139°44′50″E / 35.5487°N 139.7471°E / 35.5487; 139.7471
Yayoi people. The Yayoi people (弥生人, Yayoi jin) were an ancient people that immigrated[1] to the Japanese archipelago during the Yayoi period (300 BC–300 AD) and are characterized by the existence of Yayoi material culture.[2][3][4][5] Some argue for an earlier start of the Yayoi period, between 1000 and 800 BC, but this date is contested.[1] The terms Yayoi and Wajin can be used interchangeably, though Wajin (倭人) refers to the people of Wa, and Wajin (和人) is also used as a name for the modern Yamato people.[6] The definition of the Yayoi people is complex: Yayoi describes both farmer-hunter-gatherers exclusively living in the Japanese archipelago and their agricultural transition. Yayoi people refers specifically to the mixed descendants of Jōmon hunter-gatherers and mainland Asian migrants, who adopted rice agriculture and other continental material culture.[7] It is believed that rice farming spread to Japan from the Yangtze River Delta to the Shandong peninsula, then to the Liaodong peninsula, and finally to the Korean peninsula, from where it was directly introduced to the Japanese archipelago.[8][9] The immigration of early rice farmers into Japan coincided with a range of sociopolitical transformations occurring in China and Korea, beginning with the eastward expansion of the Shang dynasty from 1600 to 1400 BCE and culminating in the spread of the Mumun culture around 300 BCE.[8] Archaeological research defines the term Yayoi people as a general designation for migrants who arrived in the Japanese archipelago during the Yayoi period, originating primarily from the Korean peninsula and southern Pacific regions. It is not used to indicate a single, specific ethnic group.[10]
Hyōgo Prefecture. Hyōgo Prefecture (兵庫県, Hyōgo-ken; Japanese pronunciation: [çoꜜː.ɡo, -ŋo, çoː.ɡoꜜ.keɴ, -ŋoꜜ.keɴ][3]) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu.[4] Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 (as of 1 June 2019[update]) and a geographic area of 8,400 square kilometres (3,200 square miles). Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, and Okayama and Tottori prefectures to the west. Kobe is the capital and largest city of Hyōgo Prefecture, and the seventh-largest city in Japan, with other major cities including Himeji, Nishinomiya, and Amagasaki.[5] Hyōgo Prefectures mainland stretches from the Sea of Japan to the Seto Inland Sea, where Awaji Island and a small archipelago of islands belonging to the prefecture are located. Hyōgo Prefecture is a major economic center, transportation hub, and tourist destination in western Japan, with 20% of the prefectures land area designated as Natural Parks. Hyōgo Prefecture forms part of the Kobe metropolitan area and Osaka metropolitan area, the second-most-populated urban region in Japan after the Greater Tokyo area and one of the worlds most productive regions by GDP. Present-day Hyōgo Prefecture includes the former provinces of Harima, Tajima, Awaji, and parts of Tanba and Settsu.[6] In 1180, near the end of the Heian period, Emperor Antoku, Taira no Kiyomori, and the Imperial court moved briefly to Fukuhara, in what is now the city of Kobe. There the capital remained for five months. Himeji Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is in the city of Himeji. Southern Hyōgo Prefecture was severely devastated by the 6.9 Mw Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995, which destroyed major parts of Kobe and Awaji, as well as Nishinomiya and Ashiya and the neighboring Osaka Prefecture, killing nearly 6,500 people.
Ethnicity. An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people who identify with each other on the basis of perceived shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Attributes that ethnicities believe to share include language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, religion, history or social treatment.[1][2] Ethnicities are maintained through long-term endogamy[3] and may have a narrow or broad spectrum of genetic ancestry, with some groups having mixed genetic ancestry.[4][5][6] Ethnicity is sometimes used interchangeably with nation, particularly in cases of ethnic nationalism. It is also used interchangeably with race although not all ethnicities identify as racial groups.[7] By way of assimilation, acculturation, amalgamation, language shift, intermarriage, adoption and religious conversion, individuals or groups may over time shift from one ethnic group to another. Ethnic groups may be divided into subgroups or tribes, which over time may become separate ethnic groups themselves due to endogamy or physical isolation from the parent group. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a panethnicity and may eventually merge into one single ethnicity. Whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis. Two theories exist in understanding ethnicities, mainly primordialism and constructivism. Early 20th-century primordialists viewed ethnic groups as real phenomena whose distinct characteristics have endured since the distant past.[8] Perspectives that developed after the 1960s increasingly viewed ethnic groups as social constructs, with identity assigned by societal rules.[9]
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (国土交通省, Kokudo-kōtsū-shō; lit. Ministry of Land and Transport; MLIT) is a ministry of the Japanese government.[1] It is responsible for one-third of all the laws and orders in Japan and is the largest Japanese ministry in terms of employees, as well as the second-largest executive agency of the Japanese government after the Ministry of Defense. The ministry oversees four external agencies including the Japan Coast Guard, the Japan Meteorological Agency and the Japan Tourism Agency. MLIT was established as part of the administrative reforms of January 6, 2001, which merged the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Construction, the Hokkaido Development Agency [ja] (北海道開発庁 Hokkaidō-kaihatsu-chō), and the National Land Agency [ja] (国土庁 Kokudo-chō). Before the ministry renamed itself on January 8, 2008, the ministrys English name was Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.[2] One of the mother ministries, the Ministry of Construction, along with the former Ministry of Home Affairs, the National Police Agency and the former Ministry of Health and Welfare, is the successor to the pre-WW2 Home Ministry, and has sent deputy governors and deputy mayors to each prefecture and municipality since becoming the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. MLIT is organized into the following bureaus:[1][3]
Flag of the Republic of Venice. The Flag of the Republic of Venice, commonly known as the Banner or Standard of Saint Mark (stendardo di San Marco), was the symbol of the Republic of Venice, until its dissolution in 1797. Its main charge was the Lion of Saint Mark, symbolizing Mark the Evangelist, the patron saint of Venice.[1] A distinguishing feature of the flag is its six fringes, which were added to represent the original six sestiere of Venice. The fringes also serve to prevent damage being caused to the central section of the flag by wind.[2] During times of peace, the Lion of Saint Mark was depicted alongside an open book. However, when the Republic was at war the Bible was replaced with the lion grasping an upright sword.[1] During the corteo dogale (lit. procession of the doges), four banners of Saint Mark with different background colours, white, purple, blue, and red, were carried, with the one in front representing the state of the republic at that time (at peace, in a truce, in an alliance, at war, respectively). When at war, the war version of the Lion of Saint Mark was used.[3][4] The flag inspired the modern flag of the Veneto region in Italy.[5]
Greater Tokyo Area. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, consisting of the Kantō region of Japan (including Tokyo Metropolis and the prefectures of Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tochigi) as well as the prefecture of Yamanashi of the neighboring Chūbu region. In Japanese, it is referred to by various terms, one of the most common being Capital Region (首都圏, Shuto-ken). As of 2016, the United Nations estimates the total population at 38,140,000.[3][needs update] It covers an area of approximately 13,500 km2 (5,200 mi2),[4] giving it a population density of 2,642 people/km2. It is the second-largest single metropolitan area in the world in terms of built-up or urban function landmass at 8,547 km2 (3,300 mi2), behind only the New York City metropolitan area at 11,642 km2 (4,495 mi2).[5] With over US$2 trillion in GDP, Tokyo remains the second-largest metropolitan economy in the world, also behind New York. There are various definitions of the Greater Tokyo Area, each of which tries to incorporate different aspects. Some definitions are clearly defined by law or government regulation, some are based coarsely on administrative areas, while others are for research purposes such as commuting patterns or distance from Central Tokyo. Each definition has a different population figure, granularity, methodology, and spatial association. Notes and sources: All figures issued by Japan Statistics Bureau,[10][11] except for Metro Employment Area, a study by Center for Spatial Information Service, the University of Tokyo. Abbreviations: CF for National Census Final Data (every 5 years by JSB), CR for Civil Registry (compiled by local governments, monthly as per legal requirement), CP for Census Preliminary.
Rokkō Island Line. The Kobe New Transit Rokkō Island Line (神戸新交通六甲アイランド線, Kōbe Shin-Kōtsū Rokkō Airando Sen), commonly known as Rokkō Liner (六甲ライナー, Rokkō Rainā) is an automated guideway transit system in Kobe, Japan. Upon its opening on February 21, 1990, it became the second AGT line operated by Kobe New Transit. The line connects the man-made Rokkō Island to Sumiyoshi Station on the JR Kobe Line. There is a plan to extend the line from the Marine Park to the south of Rokko Island, which is currently under construction.[1]
Serenissima. [La] Serenissima ([The] Most Serene) may refer to:
Flag of the Republic of Venice. The Flag of the Republic of Venice, commonly known as the Banner or Standard of Saint Mark (stendardo di San Marco), was the symbol of the Republic of Venice, until its dissolution in 1797. Its main charge was the Lion of Saint Mark, symbolizing Mark the Evangelist, the patron saint of Venice.[1] A distinguishing feature of the flag is its six fringes, which were added to represent the original six sestiere of Venice. The fringes also serve to prevent damage being caused to the central section of the flag by wind.[2] During times of peace, the Lion of Saint Mark was depicted alongside an open book. However, when the Republic was at war the Bible was replaced with the lion grasping an upright sword.[1] During the corteo dogale (lit. procession of the doges), four banners of Saint Mark with different background colours, white, purple, blue, and red, were carried, with the one in front representing the state of the republic at that time (at peace, in a truce, in an alliance, at war, respectively). When at war, the war version of the Lion of Saint Mark was used.[3][4] The flag inspired the modern flag of the Veneto region in Italy.[5]
Lists of airports. An airport is an aerodrome with facilities for flights to take off and land. Airports often have facilities to store and maintain aircraft, and a control tower. An airport consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface such as a runway for a plane to take off or a helipad, and often includes adjacent utility buildings such as control towers, hangars and terminals. An airport with a helipad for rotorcraft but no runway is called a heliport. An airport for use by seaplanes and amphibious aircraft is called a seaplane base. Such a base typically includes a stretch of open water for takeoffs and landings, and seaplane docks for tying-up. An international airport has additional facilities for customs and immigration.
Hanshin Main Line. The Hanshin Main Line (阪神電気鉄道本線, Hanshin Denki Tetsudō Honsen) is a railway line operated by the private railway company Hanshin Electric Railway in Japan. It connects the two cities of Osaka and Kobe, between Umeda and Kobe-Sannomiya stations respectively. The Main Line of Hanshin is the southernmost railway to connect Osaka and Kobe. The other two lines, from south to north, are the West Japan Railway Company‘s Tōkaidō Main Line (known as the JR Kobe Line), and the Hankyu Railways Kobe Main Line. For nearly a century, the line served as a primary competitor to the Hankyū Kobe Line. However, in 2006, Hanshin and Hankyū were subsidiarized under a single share holding company, Hankyu Hanshin Holdings. The Main Line started operation on April 12, 1905, by the company. The company found a solution to construct a competing line to the then JNR owned Kobe Line using a loophole in the Tram Act, allowing large portions of the line to be built using street running. It became the first interurban in Japan. This inspired other railways such as Keihan Electric Railway, Minoo Arima Electric Tramway (present Hankyu Hanshin Holdings, Inc.), Osaka Electric Tramway (present Kintetsu), Keihin Electric Railway (present Keihin Electric Express Railway) to build their first lines in a similar fashion. Then another competing railway company, Hankyū (then Hanshin Kyuko Railway), opened the Kobe Main Line in 1920. The Kobe Main Line was designed as a faster electric mainline railway, and in response Hanshin began upgrading its interurban mainline to become more railway like. Operations included realigning and grade separating street running portions, using high platforms, and introducing express trains.

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