Japan Glossary
The Japan Glossary contains short-form entries relating to Japanese culture, history, and language.
Akashiyaki (明石焼き) is a small round dumpling from the city of Akashi in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The dumpling is made of an egg-rich batter and octopus dipped into dashi (a thin fish broth) before eating. Modern-style akashiyaki first started selling in the Taishō period by a yatai shopper...
Agedashi dōfu (揚げ出し豆腐, "lightly deep-fried tofu") is a Japanese hot tofu dish. Soft or medium-firm silken tofu (絹ごし kinugoshi) is cut into cubes, before being lightly dusted with potato starch or cornstarch and then deep fried until golden brown. It is then served in a hot broth (天汁 tentsuyu)...
Aemono (和え物) is a group of foods, describable as a sort of "tossed salad" or "dressed" (though aemono also includes thin strips of squid or fish sashimi (itozukuri) etc. similarly prepared). One types are goma-ae (胡麻和え)[45] where usually vegetables such as green beans are tossed with white or...
Abura-age (油揚げ) is a Japanese food product made from twice-fried soybeans. It is produced by cutting tofu into thin slices and deep-frying them first at 110–120 °C, and then again at 180–200 °C. Abura-age is often used to wrap inarizushi (稲荷寿司) and is added to miso soup. It is also added to udon...
Shitamachi (下町) means "low town" or "downtown." During the Edo period, shitamachi described all districts lower than Edo castle, in opposition to Yamanote (山の手) or "upper town" (note the name of the JR Yamanote line, which encircles the Imperial palace or former Edo Castle). Shitamachi...
The last part of the Tokugawa era comprised the opening of Japan to foreign trade in 1853 and the Meiji Restoration in 1867. The bakumatsu period is one of the most tumultuous episodes in Japanese history. It is the age of the last samurai, of intense fighting between the pro-emperor ishin...
Nagasaki (pop. 407,000) is one of the most well-known Japanese cities for Westerners. That is where the first Europeans arrived in the 16th century, but also the only port that remained open to foreign trade during Japan's two-and-a-half centuries of seclusion. Finally, it is where the second...
Uwajima is a small and laid-back town of Uwajima (pop. 70,000) located in the middle of Shikoku's West coast, on the railway line between Kōchi and Matsuyama.
Uwajima (宇和島市 Uwajima-shi) is a city located in Ehime Prefecture. As of 1 September 2022, the city had an estimated population of...
Matsue (pop. 200,000) is the capital of Shimane prefecture, one of Japan's least densely populated regions.
Matsue (Japanese: 松江市, Matsue-shi) is the capital city of Shimane Prefecture, Japan, located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 202,008 (1...
Matsuri (祭) are Japan's traditional Shinto festivals taking place mostly in late spring and summer. Participants typically carry a mikoshi in the streets of their district or around their local Shinto shrine. Some matsuri have thousands of participants and up to a few million onlookers. The most...
Large feudal daimyō domain located in present-day Kochi prefecture, South-Western Shikoku.
Tosa Domain (土佐藩 Tosa-han) was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Tosa Province in what is now Kōchi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It was...
Udaijin (右大臣) – Junior Minister of State overseeing all branches of the Department of State during the late Nara and Heian periods, deputy of the sadaijin.
Minister of the Right (右大臣, Udaijin) was a government position in Japan in the late Nara and Heian periods. The position was consolidated...
Tandai (探題) – during the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, tandai was a colloquialism for a high-ranking official (for example a shikken or rensho) with governmental, judiciary or military responsibilities within a certain area.
The term tandai (探題) is a Kamakura and Muromachi period...
Taikō (太閤) – a title frequently taken on by retired kampaku (imperial regents). The term is most commonly used in reference to Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
In Japan, Sesshō (摂政) was a title given to a regent who was named to act on behalf of either a child Emperor before his coming of age or an...
Shōen (荘園 or 庄園) – a manor and its fields.
A shōen (荘園 or 庄園, shōen) was a field or manor in Japan. The Japanese term comes from the Tang dynasty Chinese term "莊園" (Mandarin: zhuāngyuán, Cantonese: zong1 jyun4).
Shōen, from about the 8th to the late 15th century, describes any of the...
Shikken (執権) – the regent for the shōgun during the Kamakura shogunate. The Hōjō clan monopolised the shikken post and was, therefore, the effective ruler of Japan.
The shikken (執権) was a titular post held by a member of the Hōjō clan, officially a regent of the shogunate, from 1199 to 1333...
Sakoku (鎖国) – the "self-isolation" policy followed during the Edo period (1603–1867), under which Japan engaged in limited trade or communication with the outside world.
Sakoku (鎖国, literally "chained country") was the isolationist foreign policy of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate under...
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