Names of Japan

The word “Japan” is a Exonyme. The names Japanese indicating Japan are Japanese and Nihon . They are in the same way written both in Japanese using the characters 日本; it is however possible to raise the ambiguity of the pronunciation of these characters by using the Furigana. The Japanese name is rather used in a formal way for the official documents, on the tickets of the national currency (Yen), the postal stamps and at the time of international sports events. Nihon is however the term more used in the life of the every day.

History

Japanese and Nihon literally mean both “origin/root of the sun”, i.e. place of origin of the sun , expression often translated like Pays of the Rising sun .

Before Japan does not maintain the relations with China, it indicated itself under the name of Yamato and under that of Hi-No-motor bike , which means “source of the sun”, term probably due to the geographical position of Japan. Old China of the time of the Three Kingdoms called Japan country of the Wa (倭). Although pejorative in the beginning - the character used means “dwarf” - different character 和, which has more positive connotations, started to be used. Retroactively, this character was adopted in Japan to note the name Yamato (大和), often combined with the character 大, meaning “Large”. When hi-No-motor bike was written using Kanji, one allotted the characters 日 (day/sun) and 本 to him (origin/root). These characters were read hi-No-motor bike by Japanese.

The origin of this name in the other countries which Japan goes up with a missive sent to the China by the prince Shōtoku Taishi (聖徳太子, 574 - 622) starting with “emperor of the rising sun to the emperor of the setting sun…” and refers to the position of Japan compared to Far East of the continent of Asia. Using Chinese characters, this term of “origin/root of the sun” is written 日本, but these characters do not decide same manner in Japan and in China. Curiously, the Chinese adopted this name invented by the Japanese but pronounced it with their manner. In Chinese modern, the characters 日本 transcribe rìběn in Hanyu pinyin . At the time of the Dynasty Tang, the pronunciations of these characters was roughly. An ancestor of this Chinese form rìběn is at the origin of the name of Japan in French language.

In Japan, during time, the characters 日本 were not read any more hi-No-motor bike but started to be read by using the Chinese pronunciation. I.e. Chinese pronunciations deformed by the ears Japanese woman: Japanese and later nihon . The Chinese character 日 represents the word purely Japanese nichi which means “day” which is shortened in the form nor in nihon . Hon being a phonetic deterioration of good itself deformation of its Chinese (本) and who meant well “root” in the beginning.

The word Japan arrived in Occident starting from old roads of trade. In Mandarin the word used to indicate Japan was noted by Marco Polo as being Cipangu . This form corresponds to modern Chinese 日本国 rìběnguó (“country of the root of the day”). The pronunciation of the name could pass in Malayan Japang , borrowed from Chinese (perhaps an old version of the word Cantonese modern yahtbun ). This name was met by the merchants Portuguese with Malacca during the 16th century. It is thought that these Portuguese merchants were the first to bring back this word in Europe. One meets it in English for the first time in 1577 in the form Giapan .

In French, the official name of the country is simply Japan . Since the era Meiji until the end of the Second world war, the complete name of Japan was the Grand Empire of Japan (大日本帝国 Dai-Japanese teikoku ). More poetically, another name for the empire was the Empire of the sun . The official name of the nation was changed after the adoption of the constitution according to war; the title “State of Japan” is sometimes used like a modern current equivalent. The Japanese official title is Nipponkoku or Nihonkoku (日本国), literally “country of Japan”.

Although Japanese or Nihon is always and by far the most popular names in the country, recently the words foreign Japan and even Jipangu (of Cipangu , to see higher) are used in Japanese especially for needs for the foreign marks.

Other names

Dongyang (東洋), literally “Ocean of the East”, is a Chinese term indicating Japan. It makes contrast with Nanyang (Ocean of the South), which indicates the Southeast Asia, and Xiyang (Ocean of the West), which indicates the Occident. In Japanese, the same term, marked tōyō , indicates the Orient in general.

Another old name for Japan is Ōyashima (大八洲) meaning the country of the eight islands. Eight islands referent with the creation of the eight principal islands of Japan by the gods Izanami and Izanagi in the Japanese Mythology.

Nihon and Japanese

Japanese is always used often or in the following construction industries:

Japanese-koku kenpō (Constitution of Japan)
Japanese Ganbare! (an encouragement for the team during the international sports events, coarsely, “clings Japan! ”)
Japanese-bashi (日本橋) (a city in Ōsaka where the stores of electronics are gathered)

Nihon is always used often or in the following construction industries:

Nihon-jin (Japanese People)
Nihon-go (Japanese language)
Nihon-shoki (old historical collection of VIIIe century, never Japanese-shoki )
Nihon-bashi (日本橋) (older and larger commercial district in Tokyo)
Nihon-kai (Sea of Japan)
Nihon Kōkū (Japan Airlines)

Jipangu

Jipangu (ジパング) is a name indicating the Japan which became recently with the mode for the Film S Japanese, the Anime S, the video Jeux, etc the term probably comes from the Cipangu term (see Ci above).

Examples

Jipangu (1990) information on the film Jipangu on the Internet Movie Database
Ezipangu.org a magazine Web for Transcultural Networking in English.
Zipangu Club a site Japan Railways Western promoting the visit of traditional Japan by the rail.
TBS Animation Zipangu homepage a promotional site for one animates on a Uchronie of the Second world war

Japan

The name " Japon" (delivery as in French) is used in Japan in the title of a Sunday television program: " Sunday Japon" , like in the name of twice-weekly the " Mail Japan " (cousin publication of the International Mail)

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