The Great Movie Posters: HOODLUMS FROM ANOTHER WORLD ON A RAY-GUN RAMPAGE! -- Teenagers from Outher Space (1959) Which will be Her Mate... MAN OR BEAST? Meet Velda -- the Kind of Woman -- Man or Gorilla would kill... to Keep. -- Untamed Mistress (1960) NOW AN ALL-MIGHTY ALL-NEW MOTION PICTURE BRINGS THEM TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME... HISTORY'S MOST GIGANTIC MONSTERS IN COMBAT ATOP MOUNT FUJI! -- King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963)
The man who sees, on New Year's day, Mount Fuji, a hawk, and an eggplant is forever blessed. -- Old Japanese proverb
Old Japanese proverb: There are two kinds of fools -- those who never climb Mt. Fuji, and those who climb it twice.
Among the mountains of Japan there are three volcanic ranges, namely, that of the Kuriles, that of Fuji, and that of Kirishima. Fuji is the most remarkable volcanic peak. The Japanese regard it as a sacred mountain, and numbers of pilgrims make the ascent in midsummer. From 500 to 600 ft. is supposed to be the depth of the crater. There are neither sulphuric exhalations nor escapes of steam at present, and it would seem that this great volcano is permanently extinct. But experience in other parts of Japan shows that a long quiescent crater may at any moment burst into disastrous activity. Within the period of Japan's written history several eruptions are recorded the last having been in 1707, when the whole summit burst into flame, rocks were shattered, ashes fell to a depth of several inches even in Yedo (Tokyo), 60 m. distant, and the crater poured forth streams of lava. Among still active volcanoes the following are the best known:-- Entry: I
The morphology of the female flowers has been variously interpreted by botanists; the peduncle bearing the ovules has been described as homologous with the petiole of a foliage-leaf and as a shoot-structure, the collar-like envelope at the base of the ovules being referred to as a second integument or arillus, or as the representative of a carpel. The evidence afforded by normal and abnormal flowers appears to be in favour of the following interpretation: The peduncle is a shoot bearing two or more carpels. Each ovule is enclosed at the base by an envelope or collar homologous with the lamina of a leaf; the fleshy and hard coats of the nucellus constitute a single integument. The stalk of an ovule, considerably reduced in normal flowers and much larger in some abnormal flowers, is homologous with a leaf-stalk, with which it agrees in the structure and number of vascular bundles. The facts on which this description is based are derived partly from anatomical evidence, and in part from an account given by a Japanese botanist, Fujii, of several abnormal female flowers; in some cases the collar at the base of an ovule, often described as an arillus, is found to pass gradually into the lamina of a leaf bearing marginal ovules (fig. 14, B). The occurrence of more than two ovules on one peduncle is by no means rare; a particularly striking example is described by Fujii, in which an unusually thick peduncle bearing several stalked ovules terminates in a scaly bud (fig. 14, A, b). The frequent occurrence of more than two pollen-sacs and the equally common occurrence of additional ovules have been regarded by some authors as evidence in favour of the view that ancestral types normally possessed a greater number of these organs than are usually found in the recent species. This view receives support from fossil evidence. Close to the apex of a shoot the vascular bundles of a leaf make their appearance as double strands, and the leaf-traces in the upper part of a shoot have the form of distinct bundles, which in the older part of the shoot form a continuous ring. Each double leaf-trace passes through four internodes before becoming a part of the stele; the double nature of the trace is a characteristic feature. Secretory sacs occur abundantly in the leaf-lamina, where they appear as short lines between the veins; they are abundant also in the cortex and pith of the shoot, in the fleshy integument of the ovule, and elsewhere. The secondary wood of the shoot and root conforms in the main to the coniferous type; in the short shoots the greater breadth of the medullary rays in the more internal part of the xylem recalls the cycadean type. The secondary phloem contains numerous thick-walled fibres, parenchymatous cells, and large sieve-tubes with plates on the radial walls; swollen parenchymatous cells containing crystals are commonly met with in the cortex, pith and medullary-ray tissues. The wood consists of tracheids, with circular bordered pits on their radial walls, and in the late summer wood pits are unusually abundant on the tangential walls. A point of anatomical interest is the occurrence in the vascular bundles of the cotyledons, scale-leaves, and elsewhere of a few centripetally developed tracheids, which give to the xylem-strands a mesarch structure such as characterizes the foliar bundles of cycads. The root is diarch in structure, but additional protoxylem-strands may be present at the base of the main root; the pericycle consists of several layers of cells. Entry: GINKGOALES
Tradition alleges that Lake Biwa and the mountain of Fuji were produced simultaneously by an earthquake in 286 B.C. On the west of the lake the mountains Hiei-zan and Hira-yama slope down almost to its margin, and on the east a wide plain extends towards the boundaries of the province of Mino. It is drained by a river flowing out of its southern end, and taking its course into the sea at Osaka. This river bears in succession the names of Seta-gawa, Uji-gawa and Yodo-gawa. The lake abounds with fish, and the beauty of its scenery is remarkable. Small steamboats ply constantly to the points of chief interest, and around its shores are to be viewed the _Omi-no-hakkei_, or "eight landscapes of Omi"; namely, the lake silvering under an autumn moon as one looks down from Ishi-yama; the snow at eve on Hira-yama; the glow of sunset at Seta; the groves and classic temple of Mii-dera as the evening bell sounds; boats sailing home from Yabase; cloudless peaks at Awazu; rain at nightfall over Karasaki; and wild geese sweeping down to Katata. The lake is connected with Kyoto by a canal constructed in 1890, and is thus brought into water communication with Osaka. Entry: BIWA
The king of Japanese mountains is Fuji-yama or Fuji-san (peerless mount), of which the highest point (Ken-ga-mine) is 12,395 ft. above sea-level. The remarkable grace of this mountain's curve--an inverted catenary--makes it one of the most beautiful in the world, and has obtained for it a prominent place in Japanese decorative art. Great streams of lava flowed from the crater in ancient times. The course of one is still visible to a distance of 15 m. from the summit, but the rest are covered, for the most part, with deep deposits of ashes and scoriae. On the south Fuji slopes unbroken to the sea, but on the other three sides the plain from which it rises is surrounded by mountains, among which, on the north and west, a series of most picturesque lakes has been formed in consequence of the rivers having been dammed by ashes ejected from Fuji's crater. To a height of some 1500 ft. the slopes of the mountain are cultivated; a grassy moorland stretches up the next 2500 ft.; then follows a forest, the upper edge of which climbs to an altitude of nearly 8000 ft., and finally there is a wide area of ashes and scoriae. There is entire absence of the Alpine plants found abundantly on the summits of other high mountains in Japan, a fact due, doubtless, to the comparatively recent activity of the volcano. The ascent of Fuji presents no difficulties. A traveller can reach the usual point of departure, Gotemba, by rail from Yokohama, and thence the ascent and descent may be made in one day by a pedestrian. Entry: I
FROST FULMAR FROSTBITE FULMINIC ACID FROSTBURG FULTON, ROBERT FROTHINGHAM, OCTAVIUS BROOKS FULTON (Missouri, U.S.A.) FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY FULTON (New York, U.S.A.) FRUCTOSE FUM FRUGONI, CARLO INNOCENZIO MARIA FUMARIC AND MALEIC ACIDS FRUIT FUMAROLE FRUIT AND FLOWER FARMING FUMIGATION FRUMENTIUS FUMITORY FRUNDSBERG, GEORG VON FUNCHAL FRUSTUM FUNCTION FRUYTIERS, PHILIP FUNDY, BAY OF FRY FUNERAL RITES FRY, SIR EDWARD FUNGI FRY, ELIZABETH FUNJ FRYXELL, ANDERS FUNKIA FUAD PASHA FUNNEL FUCHOW FUR FUCHS, JOHANN NEPOMUK VON FURAZANES FUCHS, LEONHARD FURETIÈRE, ANTOINE FUCHSIA FURFOOZ FUCHSINE FURFURANE FUCINO, LAGO DI FURIES FUEL FURLONG FUENTE OVEJUNA FURNACE FUENTERRABIA FURNEAUX, TOBIAS FUERO FURNES FUERTEVENTURA FURNESS, HORACE HOWARD FUGGER FURNESS FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS FURNISS, HARRY FUGLEMAN FURNITURE FUGUE FURNIVALL, FREDERICK JAMES FÜHRICH, JOSEPH VON FURSE, CHARLES WELLINGTON FUJI FÜRST, JULIUS FU-KIEN FÜRSTENBERG FUKUI FÜRSTENWALDE FUKUOKA FÜRTH FULA FURTWÄNGLER, ADOLF FULCHER OF CHARTRES FURZE FULDA FUSARO, LAGO FULGENTIUS, FABIUS PLANCIADES FUSELI, HENRY FULGINIAE FUSEL OIL FULGURITE FUSIBLE METAL FULHAM FUSILIER FULK (king of Jerusalem) FUSION FULK (archbishop of Reims) FÜSSEN FULKE, WILLIAM FUST, JOHANN FULK NERRA FUSTEL DE COULANGES, NUMA DENIS FÜLLEBORN, GEORG GUSTAV FUSTIAN FULLER, ANDREW FUSTIC FULLER, GEORGE FUTURES FULLER, MARGARET FUX, JOHANN JOSEPH FULLER, MELVILLE WESTON FUZE FULLER, THOMAS FYNE, LOCH FULLER, WILLIAM FYRD FULLER'S EARTH FYT, JOHANNES FULLERTON, LADY GEORGIANA FYZABAD Entry: FROST
The Tokugawa era (1603-1867), which popularized the drama, had other memorable effects upon Japanese literature. Yedo, the shogun's capital, displaced Kioto as the centre of literary activity. Its population of more than a million, including all sorts and conditions of men--notably wealthy merchants and mechanics--constituted a new audience to which authors had to address themselves; and an unparalleled development of mental activity necessitated wholesale drafts upon the Chinese vocabulary. To this may be attributed the appearance of a group of men known as _kangakusha_ (Chinese scholars). The most celebrated among them were: Fujiwara Seikwa (1560-1619), who introduced his countrymen to the philosophy of Chu-Hi; Hayashi Rasan (1583-1657), who wrote 170 treatises on scholastic and moral subjects; Kaibara Ekken (1630-1714), teacher of a fine system of ethics; Arai Hakuseki (1657-1725), historian, philosopher, statesman and financier: and Muro Kiuso, the second great exponent of Chu-Hi's philosophy. "Japan owes a profound debt of gratitude to the _kangakusha_ of that time. For their day and country they were emphatically the salt of earth." But naturally not all were believers in the same philosophy. The fervour of the followers of Chu-Hi (the orthodox school) could not fail to provoke opposition. Thus some arose who declared allegiance to the idealistic intuitionalism of Wang Yang-ming, and others advocated direct study of the works of Confucius and Mencius. Connected with this rejection of Chu-Hi were such eminent names as those of Ito Junsai (1627-1718), Ito Togai (1617-1736), Ogyu Sorai (1666-1728) and Dazai Shuntai (1679-1747). These Chinese scholars made no secret of their contempt for Buddhism, and in their turn they were held in aversion by the Buddhists and the Japanese scholars (_wagakusha_), so that the second half of the 18th century was a time of perpetual wrangling and controversy. The worshippers at the shrine of Chinese philosophy evoked a reactionary spirit of nationalism, just as the excessive worship of Occidental civilization was destined to do in the 19th century. Entry: JAPANESE
At the close of the 8th century stubborn insurrections on the part of the aborigines gave new importance to the soldier. The conscription list had to be greatly increased, and it came to be a recognized principle that every stalwart man should bear arms, every weakling become a bread-winner. Thus, for the first time, the distinction between "soldier" and "working man"[12] received official recognition, and in consequence of the circumstances attending the distinction a measure of contempt attached to the latter. The next stage of development had its origin in the assumption of high offices of state by great families, who encroached upon the imperial prerogatives, and appropriated as hereditary perquisites posts which should have remained in the gift of the sovereign. The Fujiwara clan, taking all the civil offices, resided in the capital, whereas the military posts fell to the lot of the Taira and the Minamoto, who, settling in the provinces and being thus required to guard and police the outlying districts, found it expedient to surround themselves with men who made soldiering a profession. These latter, in their turn, transmitted their functions to their sons, so that there grew up in the shadow of the great houses a number of military families devoted to maintaining the power and promoting the interests of their masters, from whom they derived their own privileges and emoluments. Entry: 1
_The Fujiwara Era._--In the _Chronicles of Japan_ the year 672 is treated as a kind of interregnum. It was in truth a year of something like anarchy, a great part of it being occupied by a conflict of unparalleled magnitude between Prince Otomo (called in history Emperor Kobun) and Prince Oama, who emerged victorious and is historically entitled Temmu (673-686). The four centuries that followed are conveniently designated the Fujiwara era, because throughout that long interval affairs of state were controlled by the Fujiwara family, whose daughters were given as consorts to successive sovereigns and whose sons filled all the high administrative posts. It has been related above that Kamako, chief of the Shinto officials, inspired the assassination of the Soga chief, Iruka, and thus defeated the latter's designs upon the throne in the days of the empress Kogyoku. Kamako, better known to subsequent generations as Kamatari, was thenceforth regarded with unlimited favour by successive sovereigns, and just before his death in 670, the family name of Fujiwara was bestowed on him by the emperor Tenchi. Kamatari himself deserved all the honour he received, but his descendants abused the high trust reposed in them, reduced the sovereign to a mere puppet, and exercised Imperial authority without openly usurping it. Much of this was due to the adoption of Chinese administrative systems, a process which may be said to have commenced during the reign of Kotoku (645-654) and to have continued almost uninterruptedly until the 11th century. Under these systems the emperor ceased directly to exercise supreme civil or military power: he became merely the source of authority, not its wielder, the civil functions being delegated to a bureaucracy and the military to a soldier class. Possibly had the custom held of transferring the capital to a new site on each change of sovereign, and had the growth of luxurious habits been thus checked, the comparatively simple life of early times might have held the throne and the people in closer contact. But from the beginning of the 8th century a strong tendency to avoid these costly migrations developed itself. In 709 the court took up its residence at Nara, remaining there until 784; ten years after the latter date Kioto became the permanent metropolis. The capital at Nara--established during the reign of the empress Gemmyo (708-715)--was built on the plan of the Chinese metropolis. It had nine gates and nine avenues, the palace being situated in the northern section and approached by a broad, straight avenue, which divided the city into two perfectly equal halves, all the other streets running parallel to this main avenue or at right angles to it. Seven sovereigns reigned at Heijo (castle of peace), as Nara is historically called, and, during this period of 75 years, seven of the grandest temples ever seen in Japan were erected; a multitude of idols were cast, among them a colossal bronze Daibutsu 53½ ft. high; large temple-bells were founded, and all the best artists and artisans of the era devoted their services to these works. This religious mania reached its acme in the reign of the emperor Shomu (724-748), a man equally superstitious and addicted to display. In Temmu's time the custom had been introduced of compelling large numbers of persons to enter the Buddhist priesthood with the object of propitiating heaven's aid to heal the illness of an illustrious personage. In Shomu's day every natural calamity or abnormal phenomenon was regarded as calling for religious services on a large scale, and the great expense involved in all these buildings and ceremonials, supplemented by lavish outlays on court pageants, was severely felt by the nation. The condition of the agricultural class, who were the chief tax-payers, was further aggravated by the operation of the emperor Kotoku's land system, which rendered tenure so uncertain as to deter improvements. Therefore, in the Nara epoch, the principle of private ownership of land began to be recognized. Attention was also paid to road-making, bridge-building, river control and house construction, a special feature of this last being the use of tiles for roofing purposes in place of the shingles or thatch hitherto employed. In all these steps of progress Buddhist priests took an active part. Costumes were now governed by purely Chinese fashions. This change had been gradually introduced from the time of Kotoku's legislative measures--generally called the Taikwa reforms after the name of the era (645-650) of their adoption--and was rendered more thorough by supplementary enactments in the period 701-703 while Mommu occupied the throne. Ladies seem by this time to have abandoned the strings of beads worn in early eras round the neck, wrists and ankles. They used ornaments of gold, silver or jade in their hair, but in other respects their habiliments closely resembled those of men, and to make the difference still less conspicuous they straddled their horses when riding. Attempts were made to facilitate travel by establishing stores of grain along the principal highways, but as yet there were no hostelries, and if a wayfarer did not find shelter in the house of a friend, he had to bivouac as best he could. Such a state of affairs in the provinces offered a marked contrast to the luxurious indulgence which had now begun to prevail in the capital. There festivals of various kinds, dancing, verse-composing, flower picnics, archery, polo, football--of a very refined nature--hawking, hunting and gambling absorbed the attention of the aristocracy. Nothing disturbed the serenity of the epoch except a revolt of the northern Yemishi, which was temporarily subdued by a Fujiwara general, for the Fujiwara had not yet laid aside the martial habits of their ancestors. In 794 the Imperial capital was transferred from Nara to Kioto by order of the emperor Kwammu, one of the greatest of Japanese sovereigns. Education, the organization of the civil service, riparian works, irrigation improvements, the separation of religion from politics, the abolition of sinecure offices, devices for encouraging and assisting agriculture, all received attention from him. But a twenty-two years' campaign against the northern Yemishi; the building of numerous temples; the indulgence of such a passionate love of the chase that he organized 140 hunting excursions during his reign of 25 years; profuse extravagance on the part of the aristocracy in Kioto and the exactions of provincial nobles, conspired to sink the working classes into greater depths of hardship than ever. Farmers had to borrow money and seed-rice from local officials or Buddhist temples, hypothecating their land as security; thus the temples and the nobles extended their already great estates, whilst the agricultural population gradually fell into a position of practical serfdom. Entry: IX
Structurally Japan is divided into two regions by a depression (the "Fossa Magna" of Naumann) which stretches across the island of Hondo from Shimoda to Nagano. The depression is marked by a line of volcanoes, including Fuji, and is in part buried beneath the products of their eruptions. It is supposed to be due to a great fault along its western margin. South and west of the Fossa Magna the beds are thrown into folds which run approximately parallel to the general direction of the coast, and two zones may be recognized--an outer, consisting of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic beds, and an inner, consisting of Archaean and Palaeozoic rocks, with granitic intrusions. Nearly along the boundary between the two zones lie the inland seas of south Japan. Towards the Fossa Magna the folds bend northwards. Entry: 1
Society under feudalism had been moulded into three sharply defined groups, namely, first, the Throne and the court nobles (_kuge_); secondly, the military class (_buke_ or _samurai_); and thirdly, the common people (_heimin_). These lines of cleavage were emphasized as much as possible by the Tokugawa rulers. The divine origin of the mikado was held to separate him from contact with mundane affairs, and he was therefore strictly secluded in the palace at Kioto, his main function being to mediate between his heavenly ancestors and his subjects, entrusting to the shogun and the samurai the duty of transacting all worldly business on behalf of the state. In obedience to this principle the mikado became a kind of sacrosanct abstraction. No one except his consorts and his chief ministers ever saw his face. In the rare cases when he gave audience to a privileged subject, he sat behind a curtain, and when he went abroad, he rode in a closely shut car drawn by oxen. A revenue of ten thousand _koku_ of rice--the equivalent of about as many guineas--was apportioned for his support, and the right was reserved to him of conferring empty titles upon the living and rank upon the dead. His majesty had one wife, the empress (_kogo_), necessarily taken from one of the five chosen families (_go-sekke_) of the Fujiwara, but he might also have twelve consorts, and if direct issue failed, the succession passed to one of the two princely families of Arisugawa and Fushimi, adoption, however, being possible in the last resort. The _kuge_ constituted the court nobility, consisting of 155 families all of whom traced their lineage to ancient mikados; they ranked far above the feudal chiefs, not excepting even the shogun; filled by right of heredity nearly all the offices at the court, the emoluments attached being, however, a mere pittance; were entirely without the great estates which had belonged to them in ante-feudal times, and lived lives of proud poverty, occupying themselves with the study of literature and the practice of music and art. After the kuge and at a long distance below them in theoretical rank came the military families, who, as a class, were called _buke_ or _samurai_. They had hereditary revenues, and they filled the administrative posts, these, too, being often hereditary. The third, and by far the most numerous, section of the nation were the commoners (_heimin_). They had no social status; were not allowed to carry swords, and possessed no income except what they could earn with their hands. About 55 in every 1000 units of the nation were samurai, the latter's wives and children being included in this estimate. Entry: IX
HOKUSAI (1760-1849), the greatest of all the Japanese painters of the Popular School (_Ukiyo-ye_), was born at Yedo (Tokyo) in the 9th month of the 10th year of the period Horeki, i.e. October-November 1760. He came of an artisan family, his father having been a mirror-maker, Nakajima Issai. After some practice as a wood-engraver he, at the age of eighteen, entered the studio of Katsugawa Shunsho, a painter and designer of colour-prints of considerable importance. His disregard for the artistic principles of his master caused his expulsion in 1785; and thereafter--although from time to time Hokusai studied various styles, including especially that of Shiba Gokan, from whom he gained some fragmentary knowledge of European methods--he kept his personal independence. For a time he lived in extreme poverty, and, although he must have gained sums for his work which might have secured him comfort, he remained poor, and to the end of his life proudly described himself as a peasant. He illustrated large numbers of books, of which the world-famous _Mangwa_, a pictorial encyclopaedia of Japanese life, appeared in fifteen volumes from 1812 to 1875. Of his colour-prints the "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" (the whole set consisting of forty-six prints) were made between 1823 and 1829; "Views of Famous Bridges" (11), "Waterfalls" (8), and "Views of the Lu-chu Islands" (8), are the best known of those issued in series; but Hokusai also designed some superb broadsheets published separately, and his _surimono_ (small prints made for special occasions and ceremonies) are unequalled for delicacy and beauty. The "Hundred Views of Mount Fuji" (1834-1835), 3 vols., in monochrome, are of extraordinary originality and variety. As a painter and draughtsman Hokusai is not held by Japanese critics to be of the first rank, but this verdict has never been accepted by Europeans, who place him among the greatest artists of the world. He possessed great powers of observation and characterization, a singular technical skill, an unfailing gift of good humour, and untiring industry. He was an eager student to the end of his long life, and on his death-bed said, "If Heaven had lent me but five years more, I should have become a great painter." He died on the 10th of May 1849. Entry: HOKUSAI