Why Japan is the first country of rising sun?

Why is Japan called the “land of the rising sun”?

Japan-the Land of the Rising Sun

Japan is often called “the land of the rising sun”.  Many people from around the world wonder why Japan is called the land of the rising sun. Is this because Japan is the first country to see the sun?  In Japanese, the country is called Nihon (Nippon). Both Nihon and Japan originate from the same words; they literally mean “where the sun rises”.

Marco Polo, the Italian trader and explorer, introduced Japan to the Western world during the 13th century. He never actually traveled to Japan but instead went to the Southern part of China. There, the people told him about Japan. To the people in South China, where Marco Polo had traveled, Japan lies in the direction where the sun rises. Therefore, people called it Ji-pang or Zu-pang, which can be translated as “the sun’s origin”, i.e. where the sun originates.  The Japanese write 日本 to represent the country of Japan in Japanese. It is pronounced Nippon or Nihon. The Chinese use the same characters to represent Japan although it is pronounced differently.

There is more to the story of how the Chinese started calling Japan Ji-pang or Zu-pang – written as 日本 meaning “the sun’s origin”. To be more accurate, around the end of the 7th century (the exact year isn’t known), the government in Japan started calling the country Nihon. Until the 7th century, Japan was called “Wa” or “Yamato” using the Chinese character 倭, which has a connotation of “tiny” or “insignificant”.

When the Japanese government sent a sovereign message to the Chinese government around the beginning of the 7th century, it used a term meaning “the land where the sun rises”. The exact phrase in the message was “From the Emperor of the land of the rising sun to the Emperor of land of the setting sun.”

The Japanese government changed the country’s name from Wa (Yamato) to Nihon (Nippon) in the early 8th century. 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.

Japan’s national flag is called “the rising sun flag” in English. 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. Then it was used in many other places.

Although it has a very long history, the rising sun flag didn’t become Japan’s national flag until 1999.

• The words, Japan, Nippon, Nihon all means “the origin of the sun” i.e. where the sun rises and that it is the reason why the country is often called the land of the rising sun.
• To the eyes of the Chinese people, Japan is in the direction where the sun rises. ( Japan is on the east of China.)

Japan is called the land of rising sun in the languages other than English as well. e.g. French, Hindi, etc.

In which  country does the sun rise first?- Among the major countries, New Zealand is the country  where the sun rises first. It is not Japan. Depending on the time of the year, the sun rises first in a small island country named “Kiribati” located in the Pacific and also in Russia.  Learn more on this page.

Noah asks: Why is Japan called the land of the rising sun?

With such a powerful influence, it stands to reason that, when Japan was described early in its development, it was from a Chinese perspective. And when the Chinese looked east to Japan, they looked in the direction of the dawn.

Early Japanese History

By the time the first Japanese ambassador was sent to the Chinese Han eastern capital in 57 AD, Japan was called Wa (Wo), a name that also designated the Japanese people. According to contemporary Chinese accounts, these early Japanese:

Lived on raw vegetables, rice and fish . . . had vassal-master relations, collected taxes, had provincial granaries and markets . . . [and] had violent succession struggles.

In the first century AD, one clan, the Yamato, began to dominate its neighbors, and by the 5th century AD, Yamato became a synonym for Japan. As a single, central government emerged, Japan increasingly followed Chinese culture, including its methods of administration.

By about 600 AD, the Prince Regent of Japan, Shotoku (574-622 AD), who was a big fan of Chinese culture, introduced a wide array of Chinese influences to Japan:

Under Shotoku’s direction, Confucian models of rank and etiquette were adopted . . . [He also] adopted the Chinese calendar, developed a system of highways, built numerous Buddhist temples, had court chronicles compiled, sent students to China to study Buddhism and Confucianism, and established formal diplomatic relations with China.

In addition, Shotoku is widely credited in Japan with coining the name Nippon (“Sun Origin”) for Japan:

Prince Umayado [Prince Shotoku], in the year 607, at the time of the first embassy to the Sui dynasty, sent a letter to the Sui emperor, Yangdi, ‘from the Son of Heaven in the land where the sun rises to the Son of Heaven in the land where the sun sets.

Apparently, the Chinese were offended that Shotoku tried to put himself as “Son of Heaven” on the same plane as the Chinese emperor, also “Son of Heaven.”

Regardless, in 645 AD, according to Japanese history, a palace coup led to the introduction of the Taika (meaning “great change”) Reform. Intended to further centralize the government, the reform eliminated private ownership of lands and put them under the control of the centralized government – with the “people direct subjects of the throne.” As part of this reform, Nippon, Nihon (both meaning “origin of the sun”) and Dai Nippon (Great Japan) were used “in diplomatic documents and chronicles” in place of Wa (Wo).

In Chinese records, the change of the name was less well received and their accounts differ:

Nippon appeared in history only at the end of the 7th century. Old Book of Tang, one of the Twenty-Four Histories, stated that the Japanese envoy disliked his country’s name Wonguo and changed it to Nippon, or “Origin of the Sun.” Another 8th century chronicle, True Meaning of Shiji, however, states that the Chinese Empress Wu Zetian ordered a Japanese envoy to change the country’s name to Nippon.

Another Chinese account of the transformation, found in the official history of the Tang dynasty, the Xin Tang Shu, reported:

In . . . 670, an embassy came to the Court [from Japan] to offer congratulations on the conquest of Koguryo. Around this time, the Japanese who had studied Chinese came to dislike the name Wa and changed it to Nippon. According to the words of the Japanese envoy himself, that name was chosen because the country was so close to where the sun rises.

In any event, the name stuck, and for the last 1400 years or so, the world has referred to Japan as Nippon, the land of the rising sun.

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Bonus Facts

• Many countries the world-over have interesting nicknames. Canada is sometimes called The Great White North, and China is often referred to as The Red Dragon.
• Ireland’s nickname, the Emerald Isle, is presumed to come from its lush landscape that is so vibrant, the green can be seen from outer space!
• Israel and Palestine are frequently referred to as The Holy Land because important events in the early histories of Christianity, Islam and Judaism happened there. For Christians, it is the place Jesus’ birth, ministry and resurrection. In Islamic tradition, both Moses and Jesus were prophets, and Jerusalem was its first Qibla (direction of prayer). In Judaism, Israel is explicitly referred to as the “holy land” in Zechariah: “The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion of the holy land, and the LORD will again choose Jerusalem.”
• “Fertile black soil [and] vast fields of wheat, barley, rye, oats, sunflower, beets and other grain & oil crops” account for the Ukraine’s nickname as the Bread Basket of Europe.
• During the United States’ War of 1812, meat packer Samuel Wilson would stamp “U.S.” (for United States) on barrels of beef supplied to hungry American soldiers. Over time, the GIs began to refer to the supplies as “Uncle Sam’s.” The iconic picture of the white-bearded man dressed in the stars and stripes was created during the 1860s and 1870s by cartoonist Thomas Nast.

Expand for References

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