Why is Japan called the Land of Funan?

In addition to "the land of the rising sun", "the land of cherry blossoms", also known as "the land of Tang Tang", few people know the meaning of these names.

Japan is a famous destination in the world with a culture of unique identity and unique cuisine. The country has three different names that are still widely used, but not everyone knows their meaning.

Land of Funeral

For a long time, "Made in Tang Tang" naturally became a Vietnamese word for Japan.

According to the Japanese-Vietnamese bilingual dictionary compiled and published by Onochi Seiji in 1979, " Fusang " is explained with three meanings: the sun tree (myth); east and sunrise country (Japan).

According to the ancient Eastern legend, the hollowed-out mulberry tree is called Tang Tang or Khong Tang. When the Sun god rides a train traveling across the sky from East to West, he stops under a mourning tree. In ancient literature, Fusang is also used for the sunrise.

Ancient Chinese documents only mention Fusang as a wood god; The Funeral Nation is a country in the East of China in general, without defaulting to Japan or strawberry.

Majestic Japanese Mount Fuji.(Photos: Pinterest).

Dr. Pham Thu Giang of the Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities has encountered doubts from Japanese when translating "Fusang" into Fusō (扶桑) . She conducted a small investigation with 50 Vietnamese and 50 Japanese, wishing to clarify this.

The results showed that most Vietnamese people said that " Phu Tang" was Japan or a region of Japan. While the Japanese who participated in the survey were embarrassed to choose multiple choice answers, one of them was their country.

The research results also show that Chinese history records do not agree on the Tang Tang tree as well as the country named this plant. Fusang could be used as a beauty, a conception and imaginary concept, but sometimes to refer to a country, a land of real existence.

Therefore, the origin of Phu Tang may be the name accepted by many Vietnamese people with the meaning of Japan, but it is not really accurate and popular with Japanese people.

Land of the rising sun

According to many people's understanding, Japan is in the easternmost of Asia, so it will be the first place to welcome the dawn of the continent . Therefore, it is not difficult to understand when "sunrise country" is the most common name for this country.

In fact, the kanji in the Japanese national name means "the root of the Sun" , and the people of this nation have long appreciated the image of the sun. According to the ancient documentary Nihon Shoki, the Japanese emperors were also considered descendants of the sun goddess Amaterasu.

Japan is the first country to welcome dawn in Asia.(Photo: Fit News).

For Japanese people, cherry blossoms represent beauty, fragility and purity. Capital is the kind of flower "blooming quickly and extinct", cherry blossoms symbolize "dead road" of Japanese samurai - samurai live and die like cherry blossoms.

Although not officially recognized as a national flower, cherry blossoms still hold a special position with Japanese people. Images of cherry blossoms appear in traditional costumes, cuisine, decorative motifs, or 100 yen coins and 1,000 yen banknotes. Also for these reasons, Japan is also called the land of cherry blossoms.

This fragile flower appears everywhere in Japan. Flowers often bloom in spring around March, April, sooner or later. In warmer southern Japan, flowers can bloom from the end of January, while in the northern Hokkaido region, flowers can bloom in May.

So cherry blossom lovers can watch the flowers on the journey from south to north for many months, although cherry blossoms usually only last about 1-2 weeks when hatched.