| A | B |
|---|
| ring of fire | region of the Pacific ocean prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions |
| archipelago | chain of islands |
| tsunami | killer tidal waves set off by earthquakes |
| Shinto | worship of the forces of nature |
| selective borrowing | adopting some ideas and culture from another civilization |
| Yamato clan | Japan’s first and only dynasty who claim direct descent from the Sun Goddess |
| Lady Murasaki | author of Tale of Genji |
| Tale of Genji | the world’s first full length novel |
| kana | Japanese writing that used phoenetic symbols representing syllables |
| shogun | a supreme military commander in Japan |
| daimyo | great Japanese warrior lords who were vassals to the shogun |
| samurai | Japanese lesser lords who were the fighting aristocracy (knights) |
| bushido | a Japanese warrior’s code of values |
| kabuki | a form of drama in Japan based on Noh plays |
| haiku | a Japanese type of poetry with only three lines |
| Zen Buddhism | form of Buddhism that became very popular among warriors and artists in Japan |
| Seppuku | ritual suicide among the Samurai |
| centralized feudalism | Japan kept the outward form of feudal society but imposed central government control |
| Tokugawa | shogunate that ruled Japan after a violent period that followed Mongol invasions rule lasted until 1868 |
| hangul | an alphabet using symbols to represent the sounds of spoken Korean |
| literacy rate | percentage of people who can read or write |
| celadon | a porcelain with an unusual blue-green glaze |
