Why is japan the land of the rising sun

It is pronounced Nippon or Nihon. An interesting point is that when naming the country, the Japanese took the Chinese government into consideration, possibly to show its esteem for the Chinese, as Japan is located where the sun rises for the Chinese, not for the Japanese.

Some people wonder why Japan is called the land of the rising sun, not New Zealand. As you see, the reason is not because the sun rises first in Japan. At the beginning of the 7th century, the Japanese flag with the sun in the center was first used.

However, it is said that the combination of colors on the flag was different from what it is now. The original combination of colors was a yellow sun and a red background. Toward the end of the Edo Era, this flag was used on ships to show their nationality.

The first Europeans to arrive in Japan were the Portuguese though as we will later find out, the Italians technically discovered it. After a while, a base was set up in Nagasaki for envoys, trade, and most importantly study to be completed from. After some time, the Vocabvlario da lingoa de lapam was completed. The first Portuguese-Japanese dictionary. In the beginning half of the 13th century, Marco Polo visited southern china. Fast forward to the beginning of the 7th century, a Japanese sovereign was sent from Japan to China.

Pictured above is the flag of Japan. The name also indicates the location of Japan with relation to China. It is directly east of the Chinese coastline. During Japan's early development, China had a large influence on the emerging Japanese culture. It is believed that the Japanese took the name Nihon for their country because of how the country was seen from a Chinese perspective.

I'm pretty sure that Asian world maps place themselves in the centre rather than in the "far East"? Nippon means "sun origin" or "land of the rising sun". From the direction and point of view of the older, larger civilisation of the continent to the West - China - the island of Japan were in the general direction of where the sun rises, with no known lands further East beyond them. China was a powerful cultural influence for Japan.

I don't know if Japanese or Chinese historically understood that Earth was a globe but suspect it was largely irrelevant to that naming. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

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