Category: Japan

Tradition and Etiquette

Still a powerful symbol of the transience of our own existence and continuing to epitomise Japanese tradition- from ancient poems to wedding ceremonies- over 600 varieties ofさくら Sakura (cherry blossoms) play their starring springtime role in numerous aspects of Japanese culture, much as they did 1000 years ago.

A little more than 2000 years ago, the Chinese emperor Qin Shihuang, concerned by assassination plots and treachery from his subjects and wildly consumed by his own mortality, commanded his people to set to work creating an 8000 strong army of terracotta warriors that would accompany him into the next world; this however, was far from his first attempt at ensuring eternal sovereignty. Some years before, emperor Qin had ordered alchemist Xufu to set out on an intrepid odyssey across exotic faraway lands in order to secure the Elixir of life– a sacred blade of enchanted…