Greetings citizens of eJapan, the Did you know article series continues, so I hope so you will like it and learn something new and interesting^^

- Did you know?

1) Despite the fact that Japan is one of the most traditional countries in the world, in the past it was ruled by women?
There were eight female imperial reigns (six female emperors including  two who reigned twice) in Japan's early history between 593 and 770, and two more in the early modern period (Edo era).

List of the Empresses:

- Empress Jingu r. 206–269 —legendary/mythical; removed from the list of Emperors in the 19th century
- Empress Suiko (554–628), r. 593–628—first ruling empress
- Empress Kōgyoku (594–661), r. 642–645—formerly Princess Takara (Empress Consort of Jomei)
- Empress Saimei (594–661), r. 655–661 (same person as Empress Kōgyoku)
- Empress Jitō (645–702), r. 690–697
- Empress Gemmei (661–721), r. 707–715
- Empress Genshō (680–748), r. 715–724—formerly Princess Hidaka
- Empress Kōken (718–770), r. 749–758
- Empress Shōtoku (718–770), r. 764–770 (same person as Empress Kōken)
- Empress Meishō (1624–1696), r. 1629–1643
- Empress Go-Sakuramachi (1740–1813), r. 1762–1771—most recent ruling empress.

2) The first novel in Japan (some say in the world) was written in the  early years of the 11th century. It speaks about the life of a Prince
Genji ( The Tale of Genji) , and the author is a woman - Murasaki Shikibu. Each scene of the novel was painted on a colored roll of paper, and below is the text added.  (It could be the opposite: first, the written text, and then the  reflected the canvas.) In the first books, text was written mostly in  the form of verses.

3) Seppuku / harakiri (ritual suicide over the loss of honor) could be performed only by samurai and noblemen, because an ordinary
citizen and farmer wasn't allowed to carry any weapons, they were not allowed to even touch a samurai sword.

One of the last seppuku in modern Japan was comited in 1970, by famed author Yukio Mishima and one of his followers which committed public seppuku at the Japan  Self-Defense Forces headquarters after an unsuccessful attempt to incite the armed forces to stage a coup d'état. Mishima committed seppuku in the office of General Kanetoshi Maa.

4) Jigaki was a female ritual suicide practiced by the wives of samurai who have committed seppuku or brought dishonor.

Some females belonging to samurai families committed suicide by cutting  the arteries of the neck with one stroke, using a knife such as a tantō or kaiken. The main purpose was to achieve a quick and certain death in order to avoid capture. Women were carefully taught jigaki as children. Before committing suicide, a woman would often tie her knees together so her body would be found in a dignified pose, despite the convulsions of death. Jigaki, however, does not refer exclusively to this particular mode of suicide. Jigaki was often done to preserve one's honor if a military defeat was imminent, so as to prevent rape.

5) Samurai had their own code of honor called Bushido that contained the rules under which they had to live. Among other things, the samurai were forbidden to use dishonest/not honorable methods of warfare (killing from behind, attacking civilians ...)

6) According to Buddhist tradition, a woman in her life has three basic duties:  obedience to parents, obedience to the husband and, after his death, obedience to the eldest son.

7) The most famous Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune got his first actor roles thanks to the fact that he was an excellent swordsman. Famous Japanese director Akira Kurosawa hired him for the first time to act in his movies. Toshiro also get famous thanks to his role of Lord Toranaga in the tv series Shogun.

8 ) The Japanese people bow when they greet as a way to pay the respect to the person they are meeting/talking. The deeper is the respect they
had towards their interlocutor, the deeper is the bow.