HISTORICAL

BACKGROUND OF
JAPAN

GROUP 4
HISTORY

Japan was settled about 35,000 years ago by Paleolithic people from the Asian
mainland. At the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, a culture called the
Jomon developed. Jomon hunter-gatherers fashioned fur clothing, wooden houses, and
elaborate clay vessels. According to DNA analysis, the Ainu people may be descendants
of the Jomon.

The second wave of settlement by the Yayoi people introduced metal-working, rice
cultivation, and weaving to Japan. DNA evidence suggests that these settlers came from
Korea.

The first era of recorded history in Japan is the Kofun (A.D. 250-538), which was
characterized by large burial mounds or tumuli. The Kofun were headed by a class of
aristocratic warlords; they adopted many Chinese customs and innovations.
HISTORY

Buddhism came to Japan during the Asuka period, 538-710, as did the Chinese
writing system. At this time, society was divided into clans. The first strong
central government developed during the Nara period (710-794). The aristocratic
class practiced Buddhism and Chinese calligraphy, while agricultural villagers
followed Shintoism.

Japan's unique culture developed rapidly during the Heian era (794-1185). The
imperial court turned out enduring art, poetry, and prose. The samurai warrior
class developed at this time as well.
JAPAN IN MAP
JAPAN IN MAP

JAPAN
FLAG
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ECONOMY
Japan is one of the largest and most developed economies in the world. It has a well-
educated, industrious workforce and its large, affluent population makes it one of the
world’s biggest consumer markets. Japan’s economy was the world’s second largest
(behind the US) from 1968 until 2010, when it was overtaken by China. Its gross
domestic
• product (GDP) in 2016 was estimated to be USD 4.7 trillion, and its population
of 126.9 million enjoys a high standard of living, with per capita GDP of just below USD
40,000 in 2015.

With its phenomenal economic revival from the ashes of World War II, Japan was one of
the first Asian countries to climb the value chain from cheap textiles to advanced
manufacturing and services – which now account for the majority of Japan’s GDP and
employment. Primary industries, including agriculture, account for just 1 per cent of
GDP.

5
BIOGRAPHY OF BANANA
YOSHIMOTO
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7
Banana Yoshimoto, née Yoshimoto Mahoko, is one of Japan’s most famous
contemporary novelists, second only to Haruki Murakami. She changed her name to
“Banana” because she loved banana flowers and thought the name was “cute” and
“purposefully androgynous.”

Yoshimoto was born in Tokyo on July 24, 1964, to a family well-versed in the arts. Her
father Takaaki Yoshimoto was a critic and poet, her mother Kazuko was a haiku poet, and
her sister Yoiko Haruno is a manga artist. Yoshimoto also liked drawing but knew her
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her time in school, “I didn't do much sports, just stayed up until late, writing novels. As a
result I was dozing in class every day. In addition to that, booze came into my life at
university [College of Art at Nihon University, Tokyo]. It's almost like I went to
university
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8
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Yoshimoto began her writing career while working as a waitress at a golf club restaurant, in
1987.

Her debut work, Kitchen (1988), had over 60 printings in Japan alone. There have been two
film adaptations: a Japanese TV movie[4] and a more widely released version titled Wo ai
chu fang, produced in Hong Kong by Ho Yim in 1997.[5]
•

In November 1987, Yoshimoto won the 6th Kaien Newcomer Writers Prize for Kitchen; in
1988, the novel was nominated for the Mishima Yukio Prize, and in 1989, it received the 39th
Minister of Education's Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists.[6] In 1988 (January), she
also won the 16th Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature, for the novella Moonlight Shadow,
which is included in most editions of Kitchen.

Another one of her novels, Goodbye Tsugumi (1989), received mixed reviews but was made
into a 1990 movie directed by Jun Ichikawa.
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PUBLISHED BOOKS
- Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto, 1988
TABLE
- NP - Banana Yoshimoto, 1990
- Amrita - Banana Yoshimoto, 1994
- Asleep - Banana Yoshimoto, 1989
- LizardTitle Content
- Banana Yoshimoto, 1993 Content Content Content

- Dead-End
Title
Memories Stories - Banana
Content
Yoshimoto, 2022
Content Content Content
- Moonlight Shadow - Banana Yoshimoto, 1988
- Kanashii
TitleYokan - Content
Banana Yoshimoto, 1988
Content Content Content
- SLY - Banana Yoshimoto, 1996
- Daisy'sTitle
Life - Banana
Content Yoshimoto, 2000
Content Content Content

- Him Her That - Wisut Ponnimit, 2013

Title Content Content
- New Japanese Voices she Best Contemporary FictionContent
from Japan 1991Content
Utakata/Sankuchuari
Title
Banana Yoshimoto
Content Content Content Content
- Lullaby Supermarket - Yoshitomo Nara
- The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories (2018)
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Designation | Description

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AWARDS
In 1987, Yoshimoto won the Kaien Newcomer Writers Prize, for Kitchen.

In 1988, she was awarded the 16th Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature, for Moonlight Shadow.
The following year, she earned two more accolades:
Icon
the 39th Minister of Education's Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists (for the fiscal year of
1988), for Kitchen and Utakata/Sanctuary, and the 2nd Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize, for Goodbye
Tsugumi.
In 1995, she won the 5th Murasaki Shikibu Prize for Amrita, her first full-length novel.
Icon
And in 2000, she received the 10th Bunkamura Deux Magots Literary Prize, for Furin to Nambei, a
collection of stories set in South America.

Outside Japan, she has been awarded prizes in Italy: the Scanno Literary Prize in 1993, the Fendissime
IconPrize Maschera d'Argento in 1999, and the Capri Award in 2011.
Literary Prize in 1996, the Literary
[14]
12
The Lake was longlisted for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize.
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