Japan's National Flower, Folk Custom and Costume Features

Chrysanthemum is the so-called national flower of Japanese royal family.

Cherry blossoms are recognized by the Japanese public as the national flower.

Cherry blossoms are the pride of the Japanese nation. Like the majestic Mount Fuji, it is a symbol of hard work, courage and wisdom. March 15 is the cherry blossom festival in Japan every year. On this day, Japanese men, women and children will go to the park or enjoy cherry blossoms in the wild. In Ueno Park in Tokyo, there are various activities, such as flower banquets, flower parties and flower dances. When a famous variety of Japanese cherry blossoms-"Eight-leaf Flower" was in full bloom in Shinjuku Park in Tokyo, the Japanese government also held a "cherry blossom viewing party" here to entertain foreign envoys and celebrities.

Japanese love for cherry blossoms has a long history. Legend has it that a long time ago, there was a beautiful and clever girl named Mukai Yeji. She spent half a year traveling all over Japan from south to north from winter to summer, sowing cherry seeds along the way. Since then, cherry blossoms have blossomed everywhere in Japan.

The national emblem of Japan is the royal emblem, which often appears on the utensils used by the Japanese emperor and the royal family. The Jin Ju pattern, composed of 16 symmetrical petals, is simple and elegant, solemn and generous, and contains the spirit of oriental traditional culture.

Therefore, in order to respect the royal family, the national flower of Japan is cherry blossom, and the national emblem is chrysanthemum.

(1) clothing

Contemporary Japanese clothing can be divided into traditional clothing, namely kimono and modern clothing. . Nowadays, in daily life, most Japanese people wear modern clothes most of the time, except some people who specialize in tea ceremony, flower teacher and other special jobs. Traditional kimono dresses are only worn on festivals or certain ceremonies.

Kimono is also called "something to wear", and its meaning can vary greatly according to the defined width. The narrow sense of "holding" only refers to "wearing" (similar to China's robes), while the broad sense of "holding" should include "hanging" (underwear), "feather" (short coat), culottes, belts and so on. The colors of men's kimonos are solemn and monotonous, and most of them are decorated with "family patterns" or family emblems on the back. Women's kimonos are more gorgeous than men's kimonos, and their belts are wider. The knot seems to be a small burden. Women's kimonos have a wide variety of colors, and high-end dresses are all made of silk and decorated with embroidery or hand-painted patterns, which are very expensive. This kind of kimono is often seen in movies, TV and audio-visual media.

(2) Diet

Influenced by geography, climate and other objective environments, Japanese people's eating habits are quite different from those of Chinese mainland people. With the progress of internationalization and informatization, the contacts and exchanges between Japanese and foreigners are increasing day by day, and the eating habits are gradually undergoing profound changes.

A) staple food

At present, in Japanese food consumption, rice accounts for about two-thirds, wheat accounts for about one-third, and a little corn and sweet potato. Although the history of Japanese eating noodles is not very long, they invented the "Lamian Noodles" with unique Japanese characteristics, and even invented instant noodles that are now popular all over the world more than 20 years ago. There are also several staple foods with Japanese characteristics, such as red bean rice, soba noodles and Japanese dim sum.

B) non-staple food

Japanese people have a wide variety of non-staple foods. The island environment has made them form the habit of eating fish, shrimp, seaweed and other aquatic products since ancient times. Compared with Chinese food, Japanese food (Japanese food) is characterized by light taste, emphasis on color and shape, emphasis on retaining natural flavor, and more kinds of raw food. The most Japanese cuisine includes sashimi, tempura (soft fried fish, shrimp, vegetables, mushrooms, etc. ), chicken essence vegetarian dishes (Japanese beef hotpot), sushi (rice rolls of sashimi or vegetables, scrambled eggs, etc. ), miso soup, etc.

C) drinks

Alcoholic beverages mainly include Japanese wine, foreign wine and beer.

Sake is a brewed wine fermented from rice, which has a history of 1000 years in Japan, and is also called "Japanese wine". Low alcohol content, about 17- 18. There are many kinds.

The popularity of foreign wine in Japan was mainly after the war, especially after the 1970s. The best seller is whisky. The famous whisky made in Japan is "Suntory". Japanese rarely drink raw fruit juice when drinking foreign wine, and often drink it with ice or ice water.

Beer. The Japanese began to drink beer after the Meiji Restoration, and their consumption increased greatly after World War II. Kirin, Asahi and Sapporo are the three major brands of Japanese beer.

Japanese tea

Japanese people have been drinking tea for nearly a thousand years. Its earliest tea varieties were introduced from China, and its habit of drinking tea was deeply influenced by China. However, the tea that Japanese people drink today is not exactly the same as that in China, and it can be divided into three types: fried tea, matcha tea and sake tea, which are basically equivalent to green tea in China.

(3) domicile

There are three main types of houses in Japan: one is a traditional house, the so-called "single-family" house, which is called "single-family" house in Japanese. The building materials of houses are mainly wood, generally including "earth houses", "intermediary houses", "bedrooms", "connecting houses" and "bathrooms". ; The other is apartment-style residence, which is called "residence with * * *" in Japanese, and is mostly reinforced concrete structure, and its internal structure is similar to that of apartment-style residence in China. There is also an old-fashioned apartment, which is called "Longwoulou" in Japanese. The appearance is long and narrow, mostly wooden one-story or two-story buildings. The owner built it himself and rented it out to others. According to Japanese government statistics, by the end of 1998, there were 43.892 million occupied houses in Japan, including 25.278 million traditional houses (including 6.286 million first-floor houses); Apartment16458,000 sets, "longhouse" housing1948,000 sets.

(4) Marriage

Although Japanese marriage customs are also influenced by overseas, they are mainly developed on the basis of their own traditional customs. With the changes of the times, especially the great social changes since modern times, the marriage customs in Japan have also undergone great changes.

According to the law, Japanese can get married after men reach 18 and women reach 16. In fact, late marriage has become popular in contemporary Japanese society. 1990 The age of first marriage is 28.6 for males and 25.9 for females. From 65438 to 0998, 784596 couples got married, with a marriage rate of 0.63%. The marriage custom of contemporary Japanese basically belongs to "marriage", that is, the woman usually marries the man's family, and a few men adopt the form of "husband-in-law marriage" because the woman's family has no suitable heir, and the geographical scope of marriage has also expanded. Their marriage methods can be roughly divided into "love marriage" and "introduction marriage". However, even if you are married in love, you should generally take the form of introducing marriage, that is, you must have an introducer to go through the formalities of blind date, engagement, bride price, wedding and wedding reception.

In modern Japan, men and women have equal rights to divorce. They can divorce by mutual consent, or through mediation or adjudication by the family court, or they can bring a lawsuit to the court, which will decide on the divorce. After World War II, the divorce rate in Japan gradually increased. 1998 There were 243 183 couples divorced in Japan, and the divorce rate was 0. 194%, which was close to one third of the marriage rate.

(5) Funeral

In short, funerals in contemporary Japan can be roughly divided into four types: Buddhism in temples, Shinto in shrines, Christianity in churches and non-religion in funeral ceremonies. Funeral methods can be divided into burial, cremation and wind burial. Modern Japanese often cremate, but after cremation, they still bury their ashes in their own graves. Wind burial only exists in parts of southwest islands such as Okinawa.

Kimono is a traditional national costume in Japan. Because more than 90% of Japan's population belongs to the "Yamato" nationality, it is named. It is also called "possession" in Japanese. Kimono is modeled after the Sui and Tang Dynasties in China. Nara era coincided with the prosperous Tang Dynasty in China, and the Japanese sent a large number of scholars and monks to study in China. These envoys brought the culture, art and laws of the Tang Dynasty back to Japan. He also brought the Tang suit back to Japan, when Japan sent a delegation of Tang envoys to China, which was received by the Tang King and presented a large number of royal costumes. These clothes are dazzling and very popular in Japan. At that time, all Japanese civil and military officials were envious. The next year, the emperor ordered all Japanese to wear clothes that imitated the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Tang style was once popular in Japan. Although it changed later and formed a unique Japanese style, it still contains some characteristics of ancient Chinese clothing. The different styles and colors of women's kimonos are the signs that distinguish age and marriage. For example, unmarried girls wear tight sleeves and married women wear wide sleeves; Comb "Teru Shimada" hairstyle (one of Japanese hairstyles, bowl-shaped). The girl is wearing a red collar shirt and a bun, and the housewife is wearing a plain shirt. Kimono doesn't need buttons, just a knotted belt. There are many kinds of belts, and the method of knotting is different. A widely used method of tying knots is called "Taikoo Knot". Put a paper core or cloth core on the belt tied with a knot at the waist, which looks like a square box. This is the decoration behind the kimono that we often see. Because tying knots is very troublesome, there were "improvements" and "cultural belts" of ready-made knots after the war. Although Japanese daily clothes have long been? Suits have been replaced, but in grand social occasions such as weddings, celebrations, traditional flower patterns and tea ceremonies, brightly colored kimonos are still recognized as a must-wear dress.

Besides keeping warm and protecting the body, kimono has high artistic value. In particular, women's kimonos are brightly colored, beautiful in style and equipped with beautiful wide belts at the waist, which is simply a work of art.