KOREA

HISTORY

Ancient Korea

 By 4000 BC there were stone age farmers living in Korea. By 1000 BC they had learned
to use bronze. By about 300 BC they had learned to use iron to make tools and weapons.
 At first Korea was divided into tribes but eventually organised kingdoms emerged. There
were 3 of them, Goguryeo in the north and Silla and Baekje in the south. According to
legend Silla was founded in 57 BC by Bak Hyeokgeose, Jumong founded Goguryeo in 37
BC and Onjo founded Baekje in 18 BC.
 In reality the 3 kingdoms emerged later between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD. These 3
kingdoms were heavily influenced by Chinese civilization. By the 4th century they were
highly civilized.
 The three kingdoms of Korea fought for supremacy. China tried to defeat the northern
kingdom of Goguryeo twice. Both times they were defeated by General Eulji Mundeok.
However the Chinese then made an alliance with the Silla kingdom against the other two.
The Baekje kingdom was defeated by 660 AD and became part of Silla. Goguryeo
followed in 668. Korea was then united under the Silla.

The Silla in Korea (668-935)

 Although Korea was united under one monarch it was still largely a tribal society. This
was underlined by the existence of the hwabaek.
 Originally they were a council of tribal leaders. Later they were a council of nobles and
they had the power to decide who succeeded to the throne.
 Korean society was strictly hierarchical.
 Most of the population were serfs and even the nobility were divided into ranks.
Following the Chinese example a university was formed where Confucian classics were
taught.
 Buddhism was introduced into Korea in the 4th century AD and soon many Buddhist
temples were built.
 In the late 8th century AD the Silla kingdom began to break down. There were fights
over the succession to the throne. Moreover local warlords began to break away from the
government in the capital, Gyeongju, and formed their own states. One warlord called
Wang Geon formed a state called Goryeo in 918. He defeated his rivals and in 935
became ruler of Silla.
The Goryeo in Korea (918-1392)

 The Goryeo kingdom was faced with aggressive neighbors. A people called the Jurchens
conquered north China and frequently fought the Koreans.
 The Korean royal family fled to the island of Ganghwado. The Mongols were unable to
take the island but they were able to rampage throughout mainland Korea.
 However the Koreans fought back and the Mongols were never able to completely
subdue Korea. Finally in 1258 the Korean royal family surrendered. They were allowed
to remain as puppet rulers.
 In the 13th century the Chinese philosophy called Neo-Confucianism arrived in Korea.
This was also an age when exquisite celadon pottery was made. A man named Kim Bu-
sik wrote a history of Korea called Samguksagi, The History of the Three Kingdoms.
However the Goryeo dynasty was in decline. In 1392 a General named Yi Seong-gye was
ordered to lead an army against the Ming rulers of China. Instead he turned against his
own ruler. The general became the new king of Korea.

The Joseon in Korea (1392-1910)

 The king moved the capital to Hanseong (Seoul) in 1394. Under the Yi rulers
Confucianism was made the official religion of Korea. Buddhism lost its influence. In
1443 king Sejong created a native Korean alphabet.
 In Korea there was a class of scholars-officials called the yangban. In order to join the
civil service or to become an army officer you had to pass certain exams in Confucian
thought.
 In order to take the exams you had to be the son of a yangban. So the scholar-official
class were hereditary. Below the yangban were a class of clerks and specialists like
doctors and accountants. They were called the jungin (middle-men). Below them was the
great mass of Korean society called the yangmin. They were peasants, craftsmen and
merchants. Certain trades such as butchers, tanners and entertainers were outcasts. At the
bottom of the pile were slaves.
 In the 17th century Korea suffered from factionalism among its ruling class. Silhak
(practical learning). Scholars discussed the practical ways of solving Korea's problems
rather than purely abstract ideas.
 In the 18th century the kings clamped down on factionalism. In Korea trade and
commerce flourished. Merchants had low status in Korean society. Confucianism
regarded them with suspicion since they did not actually produce anything, unlike
peasants and craftsmen.
 In the 1850s a new religion spread among the peasants. It was called Donghak (Eastern
learning) and it was led by Choe Je-u. The peasants were discontented in the 19th century
and in 1864 there was a rebellion. The rebellion was crushed and Choe Je-u was
executed.
Europeans Arrive In Korea

 During the 19th century Korea adopted an isolationist policy. The Koreans refused to
trade with Westerners. At first this policy was successful. Some French priests were
killed in Korea in 1866. The French sent a gunboat to avenge them but they were driven
off by Korean shore defenses. In 1871 Koreans burned a US ship called the General
Sherman which came to plunder the coast. The USA sent ships to Korea but they too
were fought off.
 However Korea's policy of isolation meant she fell behind other countries in technology
and industry. After 1880 king Gojong attempted reform. In 1882 he introduced the slogan
'eastern ethics, western technology' but his measures were unpopular and were resisted by
conservative officials and by the ordinary people. Confucianism was a very conservative
religion or philosophy and made radical change difficult.
 Until 1876 Japanese merchants were only allowed to trade in Busan. In that year they
forced the Koreans to sign a treaty of trade and friendship. (King Gojong realized that
Korea was too weak to fight them). Other ports were opened to the Japanese. There were
to be no tariffs on Japanese goods. The treaty stated that Japan and Korea were
independent nations. However Japan had increasing power and influence over the
Koreans.
 Korea signed a similar trade treaty with the USA 1882. This was followed by treaties
with Britain and Germany the same year. In 1884 she signed a trade treaty with Russia
and in 1886 with France.
 Korea was forced to pay compensation to the Japanese and signed a new treaty, the
Treaty of Jemulpo, which increased Japanese influence. Furthermore the Chinese used
the uprising as an excuse to station their troops on Korean territory.
 For centuries Korea was a 'tributary' state of China. Chinese influence was now ended
and Japan began to dominate Korea.
 From July 1894 to December 1895 the Council swept away much of Korean tradition.
There were many Koreans who wanted some reform but the Japanese forced them to
introduce these reforms anyway. The regent resigned in October 1894 but the king
 While all this was being done the Donghak started a second rebellion. They were crushed
by the Japanese and the movement was destroyed. Their leader was captured and
executed in 1895. Some further reforms were undertaken in the years 1895-1910. The
first modern textile mill in Korea was built in 1897 and the first railway, from Seoul to
Incheon, was built in 1901. However Korea remained an overwhelmingly agricultural
nation.
 By 1900 there were many Protestant missionaries in Korea. By 1910 there was a small
but rapidly growing number of converts.
 Increasingly Korea fell under Japanese domination. In Korea was made a Japanese
'protectorate' which meant that Japan now controlled Korean foreign policy and its
 relations with other countries. Then in 1907 Korea was forced to accept limited Japanese
control of its internal affairs and the Korean army were disbanded. A Japanese official
was sent to run things. He was assassinated in 1909. That gave the Japanese an excuse to
annex Korea which they did in 1910.

The Colonial Period in Korea (1910-1945)

 The Japanese turned Korea into a colony to supply Japan with food. However they also
built bridges, railways and roads. The Japanese also built many factories in Korea. The
urban population grew rapidly although Korea remained predominantly agricultural.
Nevertheless Japanese rule was repressive. In 1919 many Koreans took part in peaceful
demonstrations for independence. The Japanese responded by arresting and executing
thousands of people.
 Afterwards they made some small reforms. The Koreans were allowed to print
newspapers and hold meetings. They were also granted religious freedom and more
respect was shown to Korean customs.
 However all these reforms were superficial and in the 1930s the Japanese tried to
assimilate the Koreans by persuading them to adopt Japanese names. From 1938
education was only in Japanese. Schoolchildren were forbidden to speak Korean. The
Japanese also tried to persuade the Koreans to adopt Shinto (the Japanese national
religion) without much success. During World War II many Koreans either volunteered
or were forced to work in Japan. However Japanese attempts to turn Korea into part of
Japan were ended in 1945 when they surrendered to the allies.

The Korean War

 Even before the war ended Russia and the USA had agreed that after the war Korea
would be divided into two zones, Russian and American. In August 1945 Russian troops
entered the north.
 In September, after the Japanese surrender, American troops landed in the south. Korea
was divided in two along an imaginary line, the 38th parallel. It was originally intended
that the two zones would eventually be united into one. The Russians installed a
communist government in the north and in the south a government was elected in 1948.
Korea became two countries, one Communist, and one Democratic.
 The North Korean army invaded the south on 25 June 1950. They quickly drove south
and captured Seoul. The UN Security Council invited members to help the south. US
troops arrived on 30 June but they were forced to withdraw into the area around Busan.
 However the Chinese then intervened. Strengthened by Chinese 180,000 troops the
communists then counter-attacked and drove the allies south. By the end of 1950 the
allies were back at the 38th parallel.
 The communists attacked again on 1 January 1951. The allies counter-attacked on 25
January and on 14 March they again liberated Seoul. Several communist offensives
 followed but all of them were repulsed. The war ended in a stalemate and on 27 July
1953 a cease-fire was signed. The 38th parallel was once again the border between the
two countries.

South Korea Since 1945

 Democracy did not flourish in South Korea in the 1950s. The president, Syngman Rhee
used a national security law of 1949 to close newspapers and imprison critics.
 However his administration was corrupt and by 1960 it was facing growing economic
problems. In 1960 riots by students forced Rhee to resign. Faced with inflation,
unemployment and continuing riots the army staged a coup in 1961. General Park Chung-
hee became ruler.

The South Korean Economic Miracle

 At first the general declared martial law but in 1963 he held presidential elections and
won. Nevertheless his rule was repressive. He won a second election in 1967. The
General won a third election in 1971 by only by a small margin. Afterwards he drew up a
new constitution which gave him more power. He was assassinated in October 1979.
 Despite repressive rule South Korea's economy began to grow rapidly from the mid
1960s and by the 1990s the country had undergone an economic miracle. It was
transformed from a poor, relatively undeveloped country into a thriving and rich
economy. The state played a large part in the transformation.
 In the 1960s General Park built roads and bridges and expanded education. A series of 5
year plans were drawn up and the government took a central role in running the economy.
Industry became dominated by large corporations called Chaebol.
 After the assassination of General Park in 1979 the army again stepped in to restore
order. General Chun Doo-hwan took power in May 1980. He declared martial law and
arrested his opponents. Demonstrations against him were held in the city of Gwangju.
They were led by students. The army crushed the protests by force, killing hundreds of
people.
 In the 1980s the Korean economy continued to grow and the country climbed out of
poverty. South Korea became an affluent society.
 In 1988 the Olympics were held in Seoul which brought South Korea into the
international limelight. However from the mid 1980s there was increasing unrest in South
Korea led by students unhappy with the regime.
 In 1987 Christian leaders spoke out against the regime and many people held mass
demonstrations. General Chun agreed to step down and democratic elections were held.
In 1988 General Roh Tae-woo was elected president.
  By the 1990s South Korea had become a fairly rich nation and its people had quite a high
standard of living. It was also a democratic country. In the 1990s the government began
to deregulate industry.
 At the beginning of the 21st century Korea is a prosperous and thriving nation. In 2008 a
woman named Yi So Yeon became the first Korean to travel in space, which was another
milestone in the countries development. Then in 2013 Park Geun Hye became the first
woman president of South Korea.

North Korea Since 1945

 In stark contrast is North Korea. After Russian troops occupied the north a communist
government was installed. Kim Il Sung was made ruler.
 Like many dictators he created a 'cult of personality' by erecting statues of himself
everywhere. Schoolchildren were taught to see him as the fount of all wisdom. In fact he
created a very repressive regime. Religious belief was outlawed and the people strictly
controlled.
 Today North Korea is the last Stalinist regime in the world. With a great deal of Russian
aid North Korea was transformed from a poor agricultural country into an industrial one.
 However in the mid 1970s the economy began to stagnate and North Korea was
overtaken by the south. Furthermore North Korea was harmed by the collapse of the
Soviet Union. Kim Il Sung died in 1994 but was succeeded by his son. In effect the
Communists have created a new dynasty. Kim Jong-Il. He died in 2011 and he was
followed by his son Kim Jong Un.
 In the late 1990s a severe famine occurred in North Korea. There were unusually heavy
rain and floods in 1995-96, followed by a drought in 1997 and typhoon damage in 1997.
Malnutrition became common especially among children. How many people died in the
famine is not known as information is very hard to come by but some estimates put it at
one million. The food shortages dragged on through the 1990s.
 However North Korea remains a very repressive and very isolated regime. In the 1990s
South Korea made some attempt to normalize relations with the north but Korea remains
a deeply divided nation.
 In 2013 the people of North Korea still face terrible hardship and even starvation as well
as brutal political oppression.
 Today the population of North Korea is 22 million while the population of South Korea is
48 million.
 CULTURE AND TRADITIONS

The traditional culture of Korea refers to the shared cultural heritage of the Korean Peninsula
originating from the early Korean nomadic tribes to the extensive influence of 9,000 years of
ancient Chinese culture to modern times. Since the mid-20th century, the peninsula has been split
politically between North and South Korea, resulting in a number of cultural differences.[1][2][3][4]
Before Joseon Dynasty, the practice of Korean shamanism was deeply rooted in the Korean
culture.

Traditional arts

Dance

 As with music, there is a distinction between court dance and folk dance.
 Common court dances are jeongjaemu (정재무) performed at banquets, and ilmu (일무),
performed at Korean Confucian rituals.
 Jeongjaemu is divided into native dances (향악정재, hyangak jeongjae) and forms
imported from Central Asia and China (당악정재, dangak jeongjae).
 Ilmu are divided into civil dance (문무, munmu) and military dance (무무, mumu).
 The traditional clothing is the genja, it is a special kind of dress that women wear on
festivals. It is pink with multiple symbols around the neck area.
 Taekkyeon the traditional martial art is central to the classic Korean dance.

Painting

 The earliest paintings found on the Korean peninsula are petroglyphs of prehistoric times.
 With the arrival of Buddhism from India via China, different techniques were
introduced.
 There is a tendency towards naturalism with subjects such as realistic landscapes, flowers
and birds being particularly popular. Ink is the most common material used, and it is
painted on mulberry paper or silk.
 In the 18th century indigenous techniques were advanced, particularly in calligraphy and
seal engraving.
 Arts are both influenced by tradition and realism.

Crafts

 Traditionally, metal, wood, fabric, lacquerware, and earthenware were the main materials
used, but later glass, leather or paper have sporadically been used.
 Ancient handicrafts, such as red and black pottery, share similarities with pottery of
Chinese cultures along the Yellow River.
  Brass, that is copper with one third zinc, has been a particularly popular material.
 The dynasty, however, is renowned for its use of celadon ware.
 During the Joseon period, popular handicrafts were made of porcelain and decorated with
blue painting. Woodcraft was also advanced during that period. This led to more
sophisticated pieces of furniture, including wardrobes, chests, tables or drawers.

Ceramics

 The use of earthenware on the Korean peninsula goes back to the Neolithic. The history
of Korean Ceramics is long and includes both Korean pottery a later development after
the traditional use of coils and hammered clay to create early votive and sculptural
artifacts.
 The pottery was fired using a deoxidizing flame, which caused the distinctive blue grey
celadon color.
 William Bowyer Honey of the Victoria and Albert Museum of England, who after World
War II wrote, "The best Corean (Korean) wares were not only original, they are the most
gracious and unaffected pottery ever made. They have every virtue that pottery can have.
This Corean pottery, in fact, reached heights hardly attained even by the Chinese."
 White porcelain became popular in the 15th century. It soon overtook celadon ware.
White porcelain was commonly painted or decorated with copper.
 In the late Joseon period (late 17th century) blue-and-white porcelain became popular.
Designs were painted in cobalt blue on white porcelain.

Music

 There is a genre distinction between folk music and court music.

 Korean folk music is varied and complex, but all forms maintain a set of rhythms (called
장단; Jangdan) and a loosely defined set of melodic modes. Korean folk musics are
Pansori (판소리) performed by one singer and one drummer.
 Occasionally, there might be dancers and narraters. They have been designated an
intangible cultural property in UNESCO's Memory of the world, and Pungmul (풍물)
performed by drumming, dancing and singing. Samul Nori is a type of Korean traditional
music based on Pungmul, and Sanjo (산조) that is played without a pause in faster

tempos. Nongak (농악) means "farmers' music".

Lifestyle

Houses
  Korean traditional houses are called Hanok (Hangul:한옥) .
 Sites of residence are traditionally selected using traditional geomancy. Although
geomancy had been a vital part of Korean culture and Korean Shamanism since
prehistoric times, geomancy was later re-introduced by China during the Three Kingdoms
period of Korea's history.
 A house should be built against a hill and face south to receive as much sunlight as
possible. This orientation is still preferred in modern Korea. Geomancy also influences
the shape of the building, the direction it faces and the material it is built of.
 Traditional Korean houses can be structured into an inner wing (안채, anchae) and an
outer wing (사랑채, sarangchae).
 The individual layout largely depends on the region and the wealth of the family.
Whereas aristocrats used the outer wing for receptions, poorer people kept cattle in the
sarangchae. The wealthier a family, the larger the house. However, it was forbidden to
any family except for the king to have a residence of more than 99 kan.
 The inner wing normally consisted of a living room, a kitchen and a wooden-floored
central hall.
 Floor heating (온돌, ondol) has been used in Korea since prehistoric times. The main
building materials are wood, clay, tile, stone, and thatch.

Gardens

 The principles of temple gardens and private gardens are the same. Korean gardening in
East Asia is influenced by primarily Korean Shamanism and Korean folk religion.
 Shamanism emphasizes nature and mystery, paying great attention to the details of the
layout. In contrast to Japanese and Chinese gardens which fill a garden with man made
elements, traditional Korean gardens avoid artificialities, trying to make a garden more
natural than nature.

Clothing

 The traditional dress known as hanbok (한복, 韓服) (known as joseonot [조선옷] in the
DPRK) has been worn since ancient times.
 The hanbok consists of a shirt (jeogori) and a skirt (chima).
 The traditional hat is called gwanmo and special meaning is attached to this piece of
clothing.
 According to social status, Koreans used to dress differently, making clothing an
important mark of social rank. Impressive, but sometimes cumbersome, costumes were
worn by the ruling class and the royal family. These upper classes also used jewellery to
distance themselves from the ordinary people. A traditional item of jewellery for women
 was a pendant in the shape of certain element] of nature which was made of precious
gemstones, to which a tassel of silk was connected.
 During the winter people wore cotton-wadded dresses. Fur was also common. Because
ordinary people normally wore pure white undyed materials, the people were sometimes
referred to as the white-clad people.
 Hanbok are classified according to their purposes: everyday dress, ceremonial dress and
special dress. Ceremonial dresses are worn on formal occasions, including a child's first
birthday (doljanchi), a wedding or a funeral. Special dresses are made for purposes such
as shamans, officials.

Cuisine

 Rice is the staple food of Korea. Having been an almost exclusively agricultural country
until recently, the essential recipes in Korea are shaped by this experience. The main
crops in Korea are rice, barley, and beans, but many supplementary crops are used. Fish
and other seafood are also important because Korea is a peninsula.
 These can be divided into ceremonial foods and ritual foods. Ceremonial foods are used
when a child reaches 100 days, at the first birthday, at a wedding ceremony, and the
sixtieth birthday. Ritual foods are used at funerals, at ancestral rites, shaman's offerings
and as temple food.
 Kimchi is one of the famous foods of Korea. Kimchi is pickled vegetables which contain
vitamins A and C, thiamine, riboflavin, iron, calcium, carotene, etc. There are many types
of kimchi including cabbage kimchi, string onion kimchi, cucumber kimchi, radish
kimchi, and sesame kimchi.
 For ceremonies and rituals rice cakes are vital. The colouring of the food and the
ingredients of the recipes are matched with a balance of yin and yang.

Tea

 Originally tea was used for ceremonial purposes or as part of traditional herbal medicine.
 Some of teas made of fruits, leaves, seeds or roots are enjoyed.
 Five tastes of tea are distinguished in Korea: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and pungent.

Festivals of the lunar calendar

 The traditional Korean calendar was based on the lunisolar calendar.[16] Dates are
calculated from Korea's meridian, and observances and festivals are rooted in Korean
culture.
 The Korean lunar calendar is divided into 24 turning points (절기, jeolgi), each lasting
about 15 days. The lunar calendar was the timetable for the agrarian society in the past,
but is vanishing in the modern Korean lifestyle.
  The biggest festival in Korea today is Seollal (the traditional Korean New Year). Other
important festivals include Daeboreum (the first full moon), Dano (spring festival), and
Chuseok (harvest festival).

Beliefs

 The original religion of the Korean people was Shamanism, which though not as
widespread as in ancient times, still survives to this day
 . Female shamans or mudang are often called upon to enlist the help of various spirits to
achieve various means.
 Buddhism and Confucianism were later introduced to Korea through cultural exchanges
with Chinese dynasties.

EDUCATION

Education in South Korea is largely state-funded, and compulsory between ages six and fourteen.
Believed by some to be the best education system in the world, South Korea benefits from heavy
state investment in education, as well as an extremely rigorous school day, particularly for those
in high school. It is widely believed that the government’s desire to invest in “human capital”
through concentrating on education has led to the economic success of the nation in recent years,
as well as extremely high literacy rates.

Primary Education

 The first six years of a Korean student’s education takes place in Elementary school, or
Chodeung-hakgyo.
 The curriculum for these schools is nationally standardised, and is centred largely around
a basic grounding in Mathematics, the Korean language, Science, Music and Art.
 In third grade (age 8), children begin to learn English, usually in a laid-back manner
through informal conversation rather than detailed study of grammatical structures.

Middle School

 After completing Elementary School, children usually spend two years studying at a
Middle School, jung-hakgyo, in preparation for High School.
  Middle school begins at grade seven (age 12) and children follow a curriculum that
consists of twelve major subjects including Mathematics, Korean and English. Unlike in
Elementary Schools, teachers are specialists in individual subject areas.

High School

 Children begin High School, or godeung-hakgyo, at tenth grade (age 15).

 The nature of High School education varies widely between institutions in South Korea.
 There are both vocational and academic high schools, with the majority of students (68%)
attending academic schools. There are also a small number of specialised high schools
centred around a particular academic subject such as Science or a language.
 In academic high schools students usually remain in the same classroom, and are visited
by a range of specialist teachers who move from room to room between periods. The
curriculum of academic high schools is usually geared towards university entrance
exams, which are covered in more detail in the higher education section.

School day and school structure

 The school day in South Korea is unusually long, beginning at 8:00am and finishing at
4:30pm and students often enhance this through independent study before and after these
times.
 High School students usually visit the school library for further study, or attend private
tuition sessions between 10:00pm and midnight. It is also important to note that very few
institutions past primary level are co-educational, and those that are remain internally
divided between the sexes.

Higher Education

 University is extremely popular in South Korea, with over 300 higher education
institutions, both private and public, throughout the country.
 University remains an important factor in determining the success of a South Korean
student's later life, however the increasing availability of adult and vocational education
means this is less acute than it was in the past.
 The highest-level universities admit students based on their performance on specific
entrance examinations, an idea taken from the Japanese education system.
 The examinations (which have been criticised for their intensity, and the pressure they
put on students) are based around particular subject areas such as Mathematics, Science
and the English language, and students often begin preparation for them years in advance.
 Although nearly every major Korean city will have its own university, the most
prestigious universities in South Korea are Yonsei University and Seoul National
University.
  Most students attend four-year university courses, and most of the larger institutions offer
the possibility of attaining post-graduate degrees.

Alternative Education

Private schools

 The private and public educational sectors are heavily integrated in South Korea.
 Often students will attend public school, but compliment this with private after-school
tuition classes.
 The private schools that do exist have come under fire for being very independent of the
Korean Ministry of Education, and enjoy very little government oversight.

Special Needs Schools

 The number of what are known as Special Schools in South Korea has expanded rapidly
in the last decade or so. Special Schools cater for children with a variety of disabilities,
and are state-funded.

LANGUAGE

Korean (한국어 / 조선말), a language spoken by about 63 million people in South Korea, North
Korea, China, Japan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. The relationship between Korean and
other languages is not known for sure, though some linguists believe it to be a member of the
Altaic family of languages. Grammatically Korean is very similar to Japanese and about 70% of
its vocabulary comes from Chinese.

 Korean (한국어/조선말, is the official language of South Korea and North Korea as well
as one of the two official languages in China's Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture.
 Approximately 80 million people speak Korean worldwide. For over a millennium,
Korean was written with adapted Chinese characters called hanja, complemented by
phonetic systems like hyangchal, gugyeol, and idu.
 In the 15th century, a national writing system called Hangeul was commissioned by
Sejong the Great, but it only came into widespread use in the 20th century, because of the
yangban aristocracy's preference for hanja.

Notable features of Hangeul

 Type of writing system: alphabet

  Direction of writing: Until the 1980s Korean was usually written from right to left in
vertical columns. Since then writing from left to right in horizontal lines has become
popular, and today the majority of texts are written horizontally.

 Number of letter: 24 (jamo): 14 consonants and 10 vowels. The letters are combined
together into syllable blocks.

 The shapes of the the consontants g/k, n, s, m and ng are graphical representations of the
speech organs used to pronounce them. Other consonsants were created by adding extra
lines to the basic shapes.

 The shapes of the the vowels are based on three elements: man (a vertical line), earth (a
horizontal line) and heaven (a dot). In modern Hangeul the heavenly dot has mutated into
a short line.

 Spaces are placed between words, which can be made up of one or more syllables.

 The sounds of some consonants change depending on whether they appear at the
beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a syllable.

 A number of Korean scholars have proposed an alternative method of writing Hangeul

involving writing each letter in a line like in English, rather than grouping them into
syllable blocks, but their efforts have been met with little interest or enthusiasm.

 In South Korea hanja are used to some extent in some Korean texts

The Hangeul alphabet (한글)

 JAPAN

There are basically 12 significant periods in Japanese history including Prehistoric Period Japan,
Kofun Period (ca. AD 300-710) , Nara Period (710-794), Heian Period (794-1185), Kamakura
Period (1185-1333), Muromachi Period (1333-1568), Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1568-1600),
Edo Period (1600-1868), Meiji Period (1868-1912), Taisho Period (1912-1926), Showa Period
(1926-1989) and Heisei Period (1989 to present).

Prehistoric Japan

 During the Jomon period, which began around 10,000 BC, the inhabitants of Japan lived
by fishing, hunting, and gathering.
 The period is named after the cord-markings (jomon) on the pottery they produced. In the
Yayoi period, beginning around 300 BC, rice cultivation was introduced from the Korean
Peninsula.
 An account of Japan in a Chinese historical document of the third century AD describes a
queen named Himiko ruling over a country called Yamatai.

Kofun Period

 In the fourth century, ancestors of the present imperial family established Japan's first
unified state under what is known as the Yamato court.
 During this period, manufactured articles, weapons, and agricultural tools were
introduced from China and Korea. The period is named after the huge mounded tombs
(kofun) that were built for the political elite.
 These tombs were often surrounded with clay cylinders and figurines called haniwa.

Nara Period

 A centralized government, with its capital in what is now the city of Nara, was
established under a Chinese-style system of law codes known as the Ritsuryo system.
  Buddhism became the national religion, and Buddhist art and architecture flourished.
Provincial temples called kokubunji were set up throughout Japan. It was during this
period that the Great Buddha at the Todaiji temple in Nara was built.
 Histories of Japan, such as Kojiki and Nihon shoki were compiled, as was the celebrated
collection of poetry called Man'yoshu.

Heian Period

 After the capital moved to what is now Kyoto, certain noble families,especially the
Fujiwara family, gained control of the government, ruling on behalf of the emperor.
 The Chinese-style culture that had dominated the Nara period was gradually replaced by
a more indigenous style of culture closer to the lives of the people and their natural
surroundings.
 The palaces of the emperor and the residences of the noble families incorporated
beautiful gardens, with buildings in the shinden-zukuri style of architecture. Literary
masterpieces such as Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji and Sei Shonagon's Pillow
Book were written during this period.

Kamakura Period

 The Taira family, a warrior family that had come to dominate the imperial court in the
late Heian period, was overthrown by the Minamoto family.
 Minamoto no Yoritomo was given the title of shogun by the court, and he set up a
military-style government at Kamakura - the Kamakura Shogunate - ushering in a period
of de facto rule by members of the warrior class. In the arts, a vigorous, realistic style
emerged that was in keeping with the warrior spirit.
 The statues of fierce guardian deities by Unkei and other sculptors at the Southern Great
Gate of Todaiji Temple are examples of this powerful, realistic style.
 In literature, this period is noted for military tales such as the Tale of the Heike, which
celebrated the exploits of the warriors.

Muromachi Period

 The beginning of this period was dominated by a political standoff between Emperor Go-
Daigo, who had briefly restored control of the government to the imperial court, and his
former supporter Ashikaga Takauji, who had overthrown the Kamakura Shogunate but
had then gone on to establish the Muromachi Shogunate.
 In time the shogunate weakened, losing its centralized control over local warlords; the
latter part of this period is referred to as the Sengoku period - a period of "warring states."
 More plebeian forms of culture began to emerge as the merchant class and the peasants
managed to improve their circumstances. In the arts this was a period of Chinese-style
ink painting, and in theater Noh drama and kyogen came to the fore.
  This was also the period in which the pursuits of tea ceremony and flower arrangement
were born.

Azuchi-Momoyama Period

 The nation was reunified by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (foremost among
the Sengoku warlords) who respectively ruled it briefly.
 In the arts, this was a period of increased contact with Europeans, who had begun to visit
Japan earlier in the century. In place of the Buddhist influence of earlier periods, a
lavishly ornate decorative style was developed at the hands of the warlords and the
emerging merchant classes in the towns.
 This new style reached its height in Nobunaga's Azuchi Castle and Hideyoshi's
Momoyama and Osaka castles. At this time the tea master Sen no Rikyu developed the
tea ceremony into an esthetic discipline that is known as the Way of Tea.

Edo Period

 Tokugawa Ieyasu, who defeated other vassals of the deceased Toyotomi Hideyoshi at the
Battle of Sekigahara and thereby gained control of Japan, established the Tokugawa
Shogunate in Edo (now Tokyo).
 The Tokugawa shoguns ruled Japan for over 260 years, and for some 200 of these years
the country was virtually shut off from foreign contact by the shogunate's policy of
national seclusion. From the end of the 17th century through the beginning of the 18th
century, a colorful, down-to-earth new culture developed among the townsmen of the
older cities of Kyoto and Osaka.
 Ihara Saikaku composed his ukiyo-zoshi (books of the "floating world"), Chikamatsu
Monzaemon portrayed tragic relationships between men and women in his puppet plays,
and Matsuo Basho raised the comic haiku verse form to the level of a literary art.

Meiji Period

 The Meiji Restoration, by which political authority was restored from the shogunate to
the imperial court, ushered in a period of far-reaching reform.
 The policy of national seclusion was rescinded, and the culture and civilization of the
West began to pervade every aspect of Japanese life.
 Japan's victories in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars enabled it to assume the
stance of a modern, imperialistic world power.
 Modern Japanese literature was born with the publication of Futabatei Shimei's novel
Ukigumo (Drifting Clouds), the first literary work to be written in the modern colloquial
language.
 A Japanese version of romanticism soon appeared, with writers making their first
attempts at free, natural expression of people's true feelings.
Taisho Period

 The educated urban middle classes avidly read the latest translations of Western books
and provided the audience for new experiments in literature, drama, music, and painting.
 New kings of mass media - large circulation newspapers, general monthly magazines like
Chuo koron (The Central Review) and Kaizo, and radio broadcasts - added to the
richness of cultural life.
 The significant development in literature was the emergence of the Shirakaba school.
Members of the group including Mushanokoji Saneatsu and Shiga Naoya were united by
their upper- class background as well as by their basic humanism. In the Western-style of
painting, Yasui Sotaro and Umehara Ryuzaburo returned from Paris to promote the styles
of Cezanne and Renoir.
 Japanese-style painters such as Yokoyama Taikan and Hishida Shunso were also affected
by European styles, although on a limited scale.

Showa Period and Heisei Period

 The financial crisis of 1927, which occurred in the aftermath of the Great Kanto
Earthquake of 1923 that devastated the Tokyo area, eventually led to a long period of
economic depression.
 In these circumstances, the power of the military increased, and it eventually gained
control of the government.
 The Manchurian Incident of 1931 launched a series of events that culminated in Japan's
entry into World War II. This war ended in Japan's defeat, with Emperor Showa
accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration.
 Japan rose from the rubble of defeat, going on to achieve an almost miraculous economic
recovery, which has allowed it to take its place among the world's leading democratic
powers.

CULTURE

Japanese culture, particularly traditional Japanese culture has many roots in traditional Chinese
culture, however Japanese culture, even historically differed from Chinese culture and due to the
separation of the two land masses, plus the enforced periods of isolation from the outside world,
further extended the differences between the two cultures.

Occupations

 Geisha are famous female traditional entertainers, who sing, dance, play traditional
Japanese musical instruments and engage their clients with interesting conversation.
Today there are still some active Geisha in places such as Kyoto and Kanazawa.
  Samurai were a traditional warrior class in pre-industrial Japan, who were easily
recognised as they were the only men allowed to carry two swords. Samurai were
committed to a single daimyo (normally a wealthy leader).

Fashion

 Japanese fashion isn't just a set of modern fashion trends and sub cultures. Japanese
fashion includes many traditional forms of clothing including the kimono and its
associated accessories.
 The Kimono is the most famous form of traditional Japanese clothing for women.
The Kimono is actually a style with many different forms; from the casual to the wedding
style, all which have a particular meaning and are wore to different events or occasions.

Ceremonies

 The Japanese Tea Ceremony is a highly developed art form, with several different
schools or styles of Japanese Tea Ceremony in existence. The Japanese Tea Ceremony is
a very formal event in which many exacting steps are followed.
 Traditional Japanese weddings ceremonies are normally based on the Japanese Shinto
religion ceremony. Traditional Japanese weddings are major occasion with the wearing of
traditional Japanese clothing including the bride in the wedding kimono.

Music

 Japanese Music is a major part of Japanese culture which spans from the traditional
Japanese music and instruments to modern Japanese music including J-POP and Japanese
Rock Music.
 The Koto is one of the most refined and sophisticated of the traditional Japanese musical
instruments. To the western ear the Koto would sound similar to a harp. What is equally
amazing about the Koto, is seeing it carried by petite Japanese woman.

Festivals

 Bon-Odori Festival is a traditional Japanese summer festival featuring Japanese drum

music, dancing and special summer food.
 Shichi-Go-San Festival is a traditional Japanese festival where parents celebrate on the
fifteenth of November their children growing up as they turn three, five and seven years
of age.
 Japanese New Year is celebrated at same time of the year as western countries, but is
celebrated in a distinctive style. Japanese New Year is an important family time of the
year and there are many traditions involved.
  Christmas in Japan for most Japanese is a variation on the more commercial style
Christmas seen in many western countries. However, there are some Christian Japanese
who follow a very old style of celebration.

Architecture

 Japanese Castles were the key to structure and life of many Japanese cities. This
extensive section provides information on over 110 Japanese Castles, including
condition, style, history, location and pictures.
 Japanese Temples are Buddhist temples found throughout Japan, which date back over
one thousand years. There are several Japanese Temples which are World Heritage Sites.
This extensive section provides information on almost two hundred Japanese Temples
throughout Japan including their style, history, location and pictures.

EDUCATION

School grades

 The school year in Japan begins in April and classes are held from Monday to either
Friday or Saturday, depending on the school. The school year consists of two or three
terms, which are separated by short holidays in spring and winter, and a six week long
summer break.

Junior high school

 The lower secondary school covers grades seven, eight, and nine, and children between
the ages of roughly 12 and 15, with increased focus on academic studies. Although it is
still possible to leave the formal education system after completing junior high school
and find employment, fewer than 4% did so by the late 1980s.
 Like elementary schools, most junior high schools in the 1980s were public, but 5% were
private. Private schools were costly, averaging 558,592 yen (US$3,989) per student in
1988, about four times more than the 130,828 yen (US$934) that the ministry estimated
as the cost for students enrolled in public junior high school.
 Teachers often majored in the subjects they taught, and more than 80% graduated from a
four-year college. Classes are large, with thirty-eight students per class on average, and
each class is assigned a homeroom teacher who doubles as counselor. Unlike elementary
students, junior high school students have different teachers for different subjects. The
teacher, however, rather than the students, moves to a new room for each fifty or forty-
five minute period.
 Instruction in junior high schools tends to rely on the lecture method.
  Teachers also use other media, such as television and radio, and there is some laboratory
work. By 1989 about 45% of all public junior high schools had computers, including
schools that used them only for administrative purposes.
 All course contents are specified in the Course of Study for Lower-Secondary Schools.
 Some subjects, such as Japanese language and mathematics, are coordinated with the
elementary curriculum. Others, such as foreign-language study, begin at this level,
though from April 2011 English became a compulsory part of the elementary school
curriculum.
 The junior school curriculum covers Japanese language, social studies, mathematics,
science, music, fine arts, health, and physical education.
 All students are also exposed to industrial arts and homemaking. Moral education and
special activities continue to receive attention. Most students also participate in one of a
range of school clubs that occupy them until around 6pm most weekdays (including
weekends and often before school as well), as part of an effort to address juvenile
delinquency.
 A growing number of junior high school students also attend juku, private extracurricular
study schools, in the evenings and on weekends. A focus by students upon these other
studies and the increasingly structured demands upon students' time have been criticized
by teachers and in the media for contributing to a decline in classroom standards and
student performance in recent years.
 The ministry recognizes a need to improve the teaching of all foreign languages,
especially English. To improve instruction in spoken English, the government invites
many young native speakers of English to Japan to serve as assistants to school boards
and prefectures under its Japan Exchange and Teaching Program.

High school

 Even though upper-secondary school is not compulsory in Japan, 94% of all junior high
school graduates entered high schools as of 2005.
 Private upper-secondary schools account for about 55% of all upper-secondary schools,
and neither public nor private schools are free.
 The Ministry of Education estimated that annual family expenses for the education of a
child in a public upper-secondary school were about 300,000 yen (US$2,142) in the
1980s and that private upper-secondary schools were about twice as expensive.
 The most common type of upper-secondary school has a full-time, general program that
offered academic courses for students preparing for higher education as well as technical
and vocational courses for students expecting to find employment after graduation.
 More than 70% of upper-secondary school students were enrolled in the general
academic program in the late 1980s. A small number of schools offer part-time programs,
evening courses, or correspondence education.
  The first-year programs for students in both academic and commercial courses are
similar. They include basic academic courses, such as Japanese
language, English, mathematics, and science.
 Vocational-technical programs includes several hundred specialized courses, such as
information processing, navigation, fish farming, business English, and ceramics.
 Business and industrial courses are the most popular, accounting for 72% of all students
in full-time vocational programs in 1989.
 Training of disabled students, particularly at the upper-secondary level, emphasizes
vocational education to enable students to be as independent as possible within society.
Vocational training varies considerably depending on the student's disability, but the
options are limited for some. It is clear that the government is aware of the necessity of
broadening the range of possibilities for these students. Advancement to higher education
is also a goal of the government, and it struggles to have institutions of higher learning
accept more students with disabilities.

Universities and Colleges

 As of 2010, more than 2.8 million students were enrolled in 778 universities.
 At the top of the higher education structure, these institutions provide a four-year
training leading to abachelor's degree, and some offer six-year programs leading to a
professional degree.
 There are two types of public four-year colleges: the 86 national universities (including
theOpen University of Japan) and the 95 local public universities, founded
by prefectures and municipalities.
 The 597 remaining four-year colleges in 2010 were private.
 . In 1990 the most popular courses, enrolling almost 40 percent of all undergraduate
students, were in the social sciences, including business, law, and accounting. Other
popular subjects were engineering (19 percent), the humanities (15 percent),
and education (7 percent).
 The average costs (tuition, fees, and living expenses) for a year of higher education in
1986 were 1.4 million yen (US$10,000).
 To help defray expenses, students frequently work part-time or borrow money through
the government-supported Japan Scholarship Association

LANGUAGE
  Japanese (日本語 Nihongo, [nihõŋɡo], is an East Asian language spoken by about 125
million speakers, primarily in Japan, where it is the national language.
 It is a member of the Japonic (or Japanese-Ryukyuan) language family, whose relation to
other language groups, particularly to Korean and the suggested Altaic language family,
is debated.
 During the Heian period (794–1185), Chinese had a considerable influence on
the vocabulary and phonology of Old Japanese.
 Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw changes in features that brought it closer to the
modern language, as well as the first appearance of European loanwords.
 The standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo (modern Tokyo) region in
the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid-19th century.
 English loanwords in particular have become frequent, and Japanese words from English
roots have proliferated.
 Japanese is an agglutinative, mora-timed language with simple phonotactics,
a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonantlength, and a lexically
significant pitch-accent.
 Along with kanji, the Japanese writing system primarily uses two syllabic (or moraic)
scripts, hiragana (ひらがな or 平仮名?) and katakana (カタカナ or 片仮名

Writing

 The Japanese writing system consists of three different character sets: Kanji (several
thousands of Chinese characters) and Hiragana and Katakana (two syllabaries of 46
characters each; together called Kana). Japanese texts can be written in two ways: In
Western style, i.e. in horizontal rows from the top to the bottom of the page, or in
traditional Japanese style, i.e. in vertical columns from the right to the left side of the
page. Both writing styles exist side by side today.

Grammar

 Basic Japanese grammar is relatively simple. Complicating factors such as gender articles
and distinctions between plural and singular are missing almost completely. Conjugation
rules for verbs and adjectives are simple and almost free of exceptions. Nouns are not
declinated at all, but appear always in the same form.

Pronunciation

 In comparison with other languages, Japanese knows relatively few sounds, and
pronunciation poses little problems to most learners. The biggest difficulty are accents,
which do exist, but to a much lower extent than in the Chinese language. In addition,
there are relatively many homonyms, i.e. words that are pronounced the same way, but
have different meanings.
Levels of speech

 Different words and expressions are used when talking to an unknown person or a
superior, as opposed to when talking to a child, family member or a close friend. For
instance, there are more than five different words for the English word "I", which are
used depending on the context. For formal situations, a honorific language level (keigo)
is still in common use.
Richelle J. Dava BSBA MA-4