Japan’s
Music, Arts and Festival
Japan is an island country in East Asia, located in the northwest Pacific Ocean. It is bordered on the
west by the Sea of Japan, and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China
Sea and Taiwan in the south. Part of the Ring of Fire, Japan spans an archipelago of 6852
islands covering 377,975 square kilometers (145,937 sq mi); the five main islands
are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is Japan's capital and largest city; other
major cities include Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto.
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The music of Japan includes a wide array of performers in distinct styles, both traditional and
modern. The word for "music" in Japaneseis 音楽 (ongaku), combining the kanji 音 on(sound) with the
kanji 楽 gaku (enjoy).
Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on
silk and paper, ukiyo-e paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga which is modern
Japanese cartoons and comics along with a myriad of other types.
Most festivals are held annually and celebrate the shrine's deity or a seasonal or historical event. Some festival are held
over several days. An important element of Japanese festivals are processions, in which the local shrine's kami (Shinto
deity) is carried through the town in mikoshi (palanquins).