Symbols of Japan:Part I
There are many countries in the world,and every country has their own flags,and its colors,and the designs have its meanings behind it. Japanese flag is quite easy to draw on its paper:red colored disk on white background. I have no idea who came up to this design, but red disk means rising sun and,merchant ships during sengoku period (15th-16th century)used this flag mark to identify themselves. Then,later,it became permanent flag mark for our country "Japan". I did not know this,but there are exact measurement of diameter of the red disk or length ratio of rectangle lines.
You can read in English regarding history of Japanese flag at wikipedia. Please click here.
<National anthem>
Japanese national anthem is very short,slow song. It is kind of a song that you can tell if one has great skill of singing with tone of voice or not. Bellow is translated lyrics (by Basil Hall Chamberlain) of National anthem of Japan. This anthem was born in Heian period. Heian period is the time of "Genji story" if you have ever heard of the book.
Thousands of years of happy reign be thine
Rule on,my lord,what are pebbles now
By age united to mighty rocks shall grow
Whose venerable sides
the moss doth live
Here is the Japanese anthem sang by Issa:the lead vocal from Japanese pop singer group "Da Pump". Anthem is titled "Ki Mi Ga Yo"
This got me thinking how much I loved singer group called "Hikaru Genji".It is a Japanese pop singer group that dance with roller skate,and in the group,there were 7 people in them. Back in 80's in Japan,they were mega hit and, I was in their fan club too
They dance very good... I long for such old days....
Bellow is clip of one of their song:Ga ra su no jyu u da i.They dance very good,don't they?





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