Why Is Japan The Land Of The Rising Sun?

Images from Google Maps, Google Earth, and me!

After a much more positive than anticipated reception I am very happy to have another Name Explain ready! I have taken a lot of the feedback given to me from the last and I hope this is a more pleasant viewing and listening experience. :)

"Ishikari Lore"
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

[GothicEU]

Hi China - said Japan
Hi dipshit - said China

[dargriphax]

Land of the rising sun?Because the sun rises on the east, and Japan is on the east.Easy.

[tomatodamashi]

It's interesting because 和 or "wa" is still used to this day in the Japanese language when refering to Japanese clothing, rooms, food and culture. "Yamato" is also used when refering to language and national spirit as in the phrase "Yamato damashi"

[frankeinstein]

It's funny, because Morocco means "land of the sunset" in arabic!!!

[idndyzgaming]

1:49 "Hi dips*it" said China.
"Hey, can you call us something other than dips*it?"
"Like what?"
*"HOW ABOUT SUNRISE LAND..."*

[williamcfox]

The Chinese are funny. Their name for themselves means, "Middle Kingdom", and their name for the U.S. Means, "Beautiful country", which is flattering I guess.

[GegoXaren]

My mother is from the Land of a Thousand Lakes (Finland), my father From the Land of the Midnight Sun (Sweden)... I live in the Land of the Midnight Sun, even if you can only see the midnight sun up north... Way up north...

[qwertyuiopzxcfgh]

Maybe you could make a video about why Germany has so many different names in different languages?
The English "Germany", the German "Deutschland", the French "Allemange", the Finnish "Saksa", the Lithuanian "Vokietija" and the Polish "Niemcy" are all very different. Would make for a very interesting video :)

[kaisermuto]

In AD 607, prince Shotokutaishi sent a official brief to Sue dynasty. The letter was written as following, Prince of the land of rising sun wrote a letter to the land of sun set. Do you have any complain about? The dynasty king got angry but he was patient as he was. This is true history. Recorded on chinese anscient book and japanese old record.

[otomodachifan]

0:47 the Japanese text on the sign reads "Welcome back"

[RajarshiBandopadhyay]

Most English country names are Exonyms, including "India", "Egypt", "China", the old name "Ceylon", names like "Gold Coast", "Ivory Coast" and so on.

[Pining_for_the_fjords]

I always assumed it was because Japan is so far east and the sun rises in the east (unless you're close enough to the international date line in the Pacific ocean where the sun rises in the west).

[taihuugo]

The etymology of Japan seems to be that Nihon's reading in Chinese was "Jippon" "Jippin".

Chinese etymology.
It seems to be because Indians have been reading Shiena in the old days of 支那-Shina.
(However, it is completely different from modern China)

In French, it is Chine (Ciene).

In Japanese reading, it is "支那-Shina".

This is the word traditionally used by Chinese people.
(Sun Yat-seng, Chiang Kai-shek and Zhou Enlai were also used normally)
However, FB makes Shina a contempt word for Chinese.
And, FB, only the Japanese who used it, account is suspended.

支那-Shina, 中華-chuka, 中国-chugoku.
These kanji meanings indicating China are "the center of the world"

[原田涼平-hi]

And Morocco means the kingdom of the land where the sun sets. 🌇 It ’s very emotional.🇲🇦🇯🇵

[yousefalkhezam]

opposite with Morroco. Morroco in Arabic is Maghrib(مغرب) which stands for sunset.

[promontorium]

The Japanese still refer to their culture was "Wa" apparently. While living in Japan I met another American who had been there a couple decades and he tried to describe the "Wa" to me. He said it was their way of not specifically being obedient, but doing what is expected of you. He likened it to the English phrase "go with the flow". The Wa is Japan's flow. He brought this up because he said he made it a point in his life to "disturb the Wa" like by challenging people's choices or to get them to consider ideas or decisions they hadn't before. I had never heard any other reference to this until this video.

[SuperSamStuff]

Dude, this was such a good watch! Your new mic is really showing too, awesome stuff :)

[DAngelCM]

I choose "Nippon" because it is a similarity to other languages. However, using "Nihon" it is the same definition of the name of Japan either. So both words are great.

[sandoval]

Great video, bro!! The narration was great, the humor was spot on and the drawings are really cool :) I'm surprised you have so few suscribers

[kitcutting]

This idea of the "easternmost east" and "sunrise land" (thank you bill wurtz) also more distantly explains why Japanese kids color their suns red, and not yellow/orange like kids from other typical countries do.

The name "Yamato" is also the collective and ideal name for the ethnic Japanese people you're most likely familiar with - there are also the Ryukyuans and the Ainu who live in Japan but are ethnically separate from the Yamato people.

A good watch, looking to see more content coming from this channel in the future.