Symbols of Japan:Part I
<Flag>
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”
Usually,he sings song like this… He is a lead singer of “Da Pump“. They are from Okinawa prefecture and,they are famous for their dance skill and great voice.
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?
So,what do you think of our national anthem??