Why is Japan called “the land of the rising sun”?
Actually, there is a famous anecdote about this very question. As the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, and consequently most Japanese live on the eastern side of Japan, they see the sun rise from the fertile womb of the sea, only to see it disappear into the western mountains. Only the ‘backwards’ (ura-nihon) Japanese ever saw it sink into the Japanese Sea. 1500 years ago, a Japanese representative from the Japanese Empire visited the Chinese Empire with the greetings “To the Kingdom of the Setting of the Sun, from the Kingdom of the Rising of the Sun….” Needless to say, the Chinese ruler at the time took grave offense at the notion that the Sun was somehow borne in Japan, yet died in China. Nevertheless, every New Year’s, millions of Japanese will climb to the highest point nearest their home and watch the first sunrise of the year. The symbolism, as well as the feeling of actually being bathed in the sun on a cold winter morning, brings strength to the soul.
