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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 23rd, 2006 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Japanese Culture Classes . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
11 Responses to “Japanese Culture Class #33 - The Emperor’s Birthday”
Saturday at 6:30 pm
Mina-san, Here are a few links related to today’s lesson! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor’s_Birthday http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/天皇誕生日 http://iroha-japan.net/iroha/A02_holiday/15_tenno.html Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Saturday at 7:48 pm
Lesson comes early these days, no???
Sunday at 4:40 am
Interesting lesson. What is the difference between an Emperor and a King/Queen anyway?
Sunday at 6:02 am
NickTさん、
According to the dictionary, a king/queen is the ruler of a sovereign state. And an emperor is the ruler of an empire. Of course, these days it’s just based on tradition to call the ceremonial head of state of Japan an emperor when he has no empire. It’s also a little ironic, since with a few notable exceptions, most of Japan’s history was spent in isolation, there usually has not been an empire to rule over. Go figure.
Sunday at 6:34 am
Yoshiさん、
Please be careful. We don’t want you to end up in the Imperial dungeon.
And we are all looking forward to the JP101 crew earning medals of honor for spreading the love of the Japanese langauge!
BTW, banzai (万歳) literlly means 10,000 years old. So, I think when you call this out, it’s like when in Europe they would say something like “long live the king/queen!” In this case “May the Emperor reign for 10,000 years”.
Sunday at 10:51 am
Happy Birthday to the Emperor
and also Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2007 to all JP101 staff and listeners!
I already have my gifts ready to gift and receive, …. YEAH!
Sunday at 2:11 pm
We say 万歳 here in China too, although it’s pronounced ‘wan sui’.
Over the gates of the Gate Of Heaveny Peace in Beijing, it says ‘中华人民共和国万岁‘ (Loosely translated as ‘Hurray For The People’s Republic of China)
We don’t do the Japanese 万歳 salute though.
By the way, ‘岁’ is just ’歳’ using simplified Chinese characters.
Monday at 12:13 am
in cantonese, banzai is pronounced man sui… close ne? hmm the popular, more slangy use is to say banzai as u use yatta… as in mansui!! school’s over!! or you say it as a respectful phrase, like the eunuchs used to have to say it to the emperor though now we use it as a joke among friends…
random question: do you reply to irasshaemase?
Monday at 9:45 am
Danielさん
Thanks for that. It is strange though, because the Queen/King of England has always been a Queen or King, even though for many hundreds of years it was the biggest empire the world has seen.
I never really understood the difference between a Prime Minister and a President either, but that is a whole different story
Monday at 12:23 pm
NickTさん、
My guess would be that England is King/Queen because it was so long before it became an empire. Of course, that still doesn’t explain Japan.
In most cases, I think prime ministers are chosen by parliament, while presidents (at least US ones) are chosen by the electorate at large. They are both executives, so that can lead to some confusion regarding the differences in their positions.
In the US system, but having the executive branch be separate from the legislative branch (they are intertwined in the parliamentary system), there is more of a checks and balance in their roles.
In Japan, for example, when former Prime Minister Koizumi stepped down, he remained a part of Diet.
Monday at 7:01 pm
Actually, Queen Victoria, who reigned at the height of the British (not English) Empire was styled “Empress” as well as “Queen.”
I don’t know of any other modern-day emperors either. The topic of empires is rather taboo since the end of the second world war.
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