Where does the word "Japan" come from?

The origins

In ancient times, Classical Chinese was the official written language of Japan and other East and Southeast Asian countries. Like Latin in European countries, only the well-educated government officials were literate.

The word "Japan" has its origins in a combination of two Classical Chinese characters: "日" (sun) and "本" (origin). This combination appeared in the first historical records of the Tang dynasty Book of Tang in the late 7th century.

There was a different word used to describe Japan, "倭国," which means "wa country." However, the Japanese government disliked the previous characters and chose new ones, "日本," which means "the land of the rising sun."

Before "Nihon" and "Nippon," Japan was known as "Yamato," "Wa," or better yet, "wakoku." The Chinese people who first met the Japanese people in southern China chose these characters.

At the time, Japan had several provinces, with Yamato being the main one. It was Yamato that established the imperial palace in Nara. Over the years, the ideogram "倭" was simplified to "和," which means "harmony" and "peace." "和" is part of many Japanese words related to the country and the people, such as "washoku" (Japanese cuisine), "wafuu," or "wagashi."

Why is Japan called as Land of Rising Sun?

From China's perspective, the Japanese islands are to the east, the same side from which the sun rises. The existence of the Goddess of Sun Amaterasu might also be responsible for the naming. We can also see in the time zone, where Japan is 12 hours ahead of us.

Marco Polo coined the term Nippon in 1300

Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant, explorer, and writer who traveled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. The book "The Adventures of Marco Polo" tells stories about his adventures. Marco Polo explored China around the year 1300. He found references in Chinese books to a mysterious country called "日本." The Japanese pronunciation was "Nippon." However, the Chinese pronunciation of the same characters was more like "Z" for the character "日" and "pun" for the character "本."

Marco Polo did his best to pronounce these characters in Italian. He spelled them as "Zi Pun," which became "Japan."

He never explored Japan, but he gave clues to the explorers in that time, and in the end, many explorers discovered countries in the world that took 200 hundred years after Marco Polo. Japan at that time was hard to reach. It is almost 1800 miles apart from China and enclosed by frequent typhoons.

Development of Nihon and Nippon

We can see a trend of absorbing foreign words in Japanese. 日本 script has evolved into several ways of saying.

1. nitɨpoɴ → nip̚poɴ nippon

2. nitɨpoɴ → nip̚poɴ → niɸoɴ → nihoɴ

3. zitʉpon → zip̚pon→ ʑip̚pon

There is also another way of reading the characters as hinomoto 日の本 - meaning sunrise. Particle no の is sometimes not explicitly written.

Note: For example, 下関市 is read as 下の関市 shimo-no-seki shi, meaning Shimonoseki city or 井上 read i-no-ue, means above the well. In Japan, there are three character sets, Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. In this case, Hiragana and katakana letters used are almost the same. The difference is Nippon uses to change the H in P and a small tsu っ to lengthen the pronunciation of P. No more readings, other than the ideogram 日本, to pronounce Japanese names.

The use of the words Nippon and Nihon in ancient times

The first pronunciation used in the ideogram 日本 was Nippon. The term came into use around 640, and it made sense to use P concerning the word Japan. Edo period in the Kanto region. And the commercial district of Tokyo was called Nihonbashi, then the commercial district of Osaka was called Niponbashi.

The use of the words Nippon and Nihon in present day

Reading Nippon is usually used in formal matters, like the country name, stamps, and international sports events. Meanwhile, we use Nihon in daily conversation.

Where is the word Japan used?

The word Japan is not a Japanese word. The Japanese word for Japan is Nippon (日本). The Portuguese were the first country to trade extensively with Japan. They were also the first (in 1603) to represent the Japanese language using Latin letters (English alphabet).

The first transcription-or-translation of Nippon (日本) was Jippon. Many European languages adopted the mispronunciation of the word Jippon. French adopted Japon. In English, it becomes Japan.

In the end, repeated mistranslation gave birth to the word Japan.

In the 16th century, the Portuguese absorbed information about Japanese pronunciation from Malay. Luís Fróis, a Portuguese missionary, wrote the word Japao to refer to Japan in his letter. In the English translation, it became Giapan. These reasons made the international name currently being used in Japan, not Nippon or Nihon.

Spread during trade relations

On the Malay Malacca Peninsula, the name became Japun or Japang. Historians believe these terms are from a dialect on the southern coast of China. According to the geographical records, they traded indirectly with the intermediaries of the Chinese on the Southern coast. The pronunciation of 日本 in the respective language, such as Hokkien Ji̍t-pún (本 pún or as pńg). It is important to remember that the rules of transcription were not standardized, so the variation of writing varied depending on the listener's perception.

History word Nippon during World War II

The word Nippon came into prominence during World War II. This word is part of the development of the Japanese word Dainippon (大日本) means Great Japan, just like Great Britain. The Japanese occupation government did not use another language but transcription in Latin letters. The use of the word Nippon in Japanese diminished due to the dark past of World War II - as the name of the country dai Nippon teikoku 大日本帝國 means the great Japanese empire.