Curated category
Japanese words and phrases
- NinjaThe word ninja appears in written records as far back as the late 8th century within poems found in the Man'yōshū. A specific poem from that era reads…
- BunrakuOsaka in the 1680s marked a turning point for Japanese puppet theatre. The Takemoto Gidayu established his theater there in 1684, creating a new form of…
- KaraokeIn 1971, a bandleader named Daisuke Inoue sat in a car stereo inside a box he called the 8 Juke. He placed this machine in snack bars across Sannomiya, an…
- Chibi (style)The word chibi appears in Japanese dictionaries as a colloquial term for very short people and children. This usage dates back to the early days of modern…
- EmakimonoThe earliest surviving Japanese handscroll dates to the 8th century and depicts the life of Gautama Buddha. This work, known as the Shigisan Engi Emaki…
- KamishibaiA Buddhist monk in 8th-century Japan unrolled a picture scroll called emaki to recount monastery history. These scrolls combined images and text to tell…