Zipang. . . Cipangu. . . Giapan. . .
The name of Japan in its own language is nihon or nippon, alternate readings of kanji characters that mean “origin of the sun,” a name given it by China. The two names are interchangeable, with nihon being used in everyday speech and nippon used in more formal situations, for example by lawmakers or the straight-laced newscasters on NHK, Japan’s version of the BBC.
The first Westerners heard of Japan was through Marco Polo, who wrote about a strange country 1500 miles to the East of China called Cipangu, a place of great wealth where both temples and average homes were made of gold, and where the people were very polite, although they had a strange custom of eating human flesh.
The modern name of Japan has been filtered through many other languages, including traders in Malaysia (who called it Jepang), Manchuria (Zeppen), and the Portuguese (Iapan), and first appearing in English as Giapan.
For some reason, the Japanese have focused on the version Zipang as a cool, retro early word for their country, and this name is commonly found in books, video games, an anime and manga series, and computer CPU cooler.
(The anime Zipang is really good, by the way, a kind of Final Countdown in which a present-day Japanese ship is sent back to World War II…I recommend it a lot.)
Oddly, I couldn’t find evidence that “Zipang” itself was actually ever used.
July 18th, 2008 at 12:54 amAnd don’t forget about the dismal 1990 film “Zipang”. Or, rather, do forget it…I remember being excited about seeing Marco Polo’s tall tale vision of Japan and being disappointed in what I recall being more like a soap opera.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104559/
July 18th, 2008 at 3:21 amEvery time I hear the term “Zipang”, I think of the 1979 song by Pink Lady.
July 18th, 2008 at 8:23 am> with nihon being used in everyday speech and nippon used in more formal situations
It is not casual or formal. That difference is subtle and not important in Japanese language. People remember each word as they hear from others. Sure organization like NHK set their own policy.
July 18th, 2008 at 12:21 pmdismal?..we have a copy of Zipang - as Midnite Eye summarises it..basically its about “Love & Friendship - and Loyalty”..
values that are conceptually Alien to your Mindset dj-noses
remora
July 18th, 2008 at 2:15 pmA name given by China is Wa 倭. Ancient text of Song dynasty China 宋書 said as follows.
: We call them Wa 倭. Formerly they also called themselves Wa. Recently they had noticed that the Chinese character 倭 means “undersized”. They hated it. Therefore, recently their diplomat call their country 日本( pronounced jipeng in ancient Chinese language) :
The name, Nihon or Nippon was created by bureaucrat of Japanese government.
July 18th, 2008 at 4:29 pmThe Chinese character 倭 is seldom used now. But as same pronunciation, Chinese character 和 is used frequently. Wa-fu means Japanese style. Wa-shoku means Japanese cuisine, as you know.
Is this true that the Japanese used to eat human flesh? I hadn’t heard that before. Any idea if it was a general custom or just on special occasions?
July 18th, 2008 at 9:55 pmYes, they used to eat human flesh. And every building, even peasants’ homes, was made of solid gold,
(I don’t think either one is true. ^_^)
July 19th, 2008 at 3:55 am