Here comes the bride....

Marriages are often arranged. There would be a matchmaker who would arrange both sides of the marriage. The man would sometimes get a say in who he wanted to marry. If the woman's parents approve of the man, then he would be invited to a ceremony called Tokoro-arawashi. They would eat rice cakes. A special kind of rice cake called mochi. She would only be considered the "wife" once a baby had been born, or a love one had died. the man would move in with the wife's family to do a certain amount of labour.

Hair? ok.

Hairstyles were big. Short hair was big. well, small. but big. got it? Bobs were popular for women with long oval faces. Normally women with thick hair would avoid this. Jagged hair cuts, ending around the chin were also common. The face of the person made it so that the hair would change. Not all haircuts looked good on all people. Something was very trendy and attractive on one woman, might look absolutely terrible on another.

NEWSFLASH!

So, today, my parents asked me a very good question "when was ancient Japan?" I replied "a long time ago" but they kept on persisting and wanted to know the exact dates...
so i was able to track something down.
so there is the Jomon Period (14,000-300 BC), Yayoi Period (300BC-300AD), and the Yamato Period (300-710). These are the periods of Ancient Japan.

Jomon Period
Ok, so they used lots of cord, marked pottery, and hungting to gather their food.
Jomon means "cord-patterned"



Yayoi Period
named after a city in in tokyo where artifacts were found. The society became richer. The society started to get more and more complexed. The culture quickly spread to other parts to the main island of Japan. There were many farming villages that were permanently planted. They started to make buildings of wood and stone.


Yamato Period
The people of Japan were ruled from an imperial court.

Vrrom Vrrooooommm VROOM!!!!

Ok, so cars weren't popular. Actually, they were unkown. well, not anymore. you get the picture. Main transportation source..Oh yea, we are talking about trasportation. The main source of transportation was the source that God gave us, OUR LEGS! :)Wagons and carts were common for market trips ect. But that was the bulk of the vehicles. The first railroad was in 1872.

In the water they used boats, so they could get across the water bodies.

Music

There were 2 very common instruments, shakuhachi and koto. They would incorporate puppets and dramas.
There isn't a lot of information to be found about Ancient Japanese music. however, there is history of musicians, which proves their must have been music. As far as way back when, both poetry and music were very important. There is no specific destinction between the differences.

The above is a koto. A koto was a fairly large, stringed instrument. There are 13 strings, and you pluck the strings to make the music. The original koto only had 5 strings, was soon increased to 7, and has worked its way up to 13. IT was originally a Chinese instrument, and was introduced to Japan in the 7th century. The koto is made of Paulownia wood, well traditionally anyway. The bridges on it were ivory, they were often easily broken. The strings are typically silk or plastic. Silk sounds better, but isn't as stable.


The above is a Shakuhachi, it is a type of flute. Typically made from bamboo.The pitch is dependant on how covered the holes are. They blow into a piece called the "fipple", this blowing motion is like how you would blow into a beer bottle to make a cool noise. These fluts are rather pricy, maybe make one istead of buying one :P
In Ancient Japan, for awhile the playing of the shakuhachi was forbidden for years. When the goverment allowed it to be played again, it was more of an accompinayment. Eventually it was played solo again.The Shakuhachi was generally playe by men.

The Children

Children were expected to respect. Mom's were often stay-at-home mom's and would take care of the children. A child would not be born where the husband was. The custom was that approximately a month before the baby was due to be born, the mother would return home to her parents for the birth of the baby. After the baby is born she will return home to her husband.
As soon as they were old enough, the chilren would start to help with the hunting and food gathering. All were expected to help in a village.
Families would work together, though the children had to do most of the work. opposed to getting beat for doing something wrong, the children would just get spanked and sent to bed early with no dinner.

Follow up

Hey, so i would like to encourage people once again to let me know what they want to learn about! I am posting things that I to am learning, but I would be happy to write about a topic, or go more into depth about a topic that readers are interested in!