Culture and History

Gakuu - Real Japanese: This is a website that offers explanations on Japanese language and culture by using things encountered in daily life as learning materials

Japanese Posters and Coloring Pages – A selection of drawings of objects and symbols related to Japanese culture. Each is available in colour to print out as a poster or in black and white to print out and use as a colouring page.

Colouring pages on kotoba.littlestar.jp – There are hundreds of colouring pages on this Web site including some relating to Japanese festivals.

Japan National Tourist Organization – History and Culture – A large number of articles on Japanese festivals, cultural events, religions, food…

Nipponia – “a quarterly Web magazine that introduces modern Japan to people all over the world.” Beautifully illustrated articles under the following headings: Life and Culture; Travel and History; Arts and Entertainment; etc.

Kids Web Japan – Articles and resources on Japanese geography, history, language, education, sports, government, regions . . . This web site is also available in Japanese and in French.

Learning about Our World Japan (Ohio Japan Project Lesson Plans, IJS/OSU)

Lesson Plans on Japan – This page on the Website of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia – Ohio offers a large number of lesson plans on various aspects of Japanese culture, history, society, politics, religion...

National Palace of Japan – Download wallpapers for your computer or send e-card with Japanese art graphics.

Daily Japanese Cooking – Bob & Angie – Japanese recipes and cooking tips for kids. There is also an English version of this Web site.

The Emperor's Birthday (天皇誕生日, Tennō tanjōbi) – A Wikipedia article on this Japanese national holiday.

Festivals of Japan – Photos and explanations of some of the great festivals of Japan.

BBC - Languages - Japanese - A Touch of Japanese – Facts about the Japanese language and culture

Japan: Country Facts, Information, Photos, Videos -- National Geographic Kids

Guide to Japanese Historical Periods – The Art of Asia – History and Maps:  This guide to Japan's historical periods describes its major eras in terms of artistic production and significant political developments.

The Virtual Museum of Japanese Arts – Learn about the culture of Japan by studying Japanese fine art, crafts, performing arts, martial arts and other forms of art at this site.

Click Japan — presents topics of interest to elementary and secondary school students from two points of view (culture and people), with pictures & text, classroom ideas, and sound files.

The World of Haiku - Lesson Plan: In this lesson, students explore the traditions and conventions of haiku, comparing this classic form of Japanese poetry to a related genre of Japanese visual art and composing haiku of their own.

High School Students Photo Galore! —learn culture through photos taken by high school students in Japan.

Podcasting Juice –  useful site to search podcasts which may be useful to learn Japanese language and culture.

Bunraku Bay Puppet Troup — traditional Japanese puppetry in the U.S, with information on booking Bunraku Bay.

Wikimedia Commons – Public Domain Japanese Art

Japanese Traditionnal Music – History of Japanese Traditional Music. This Web site is also available in Japanese.

Kyoto National Museum – Archeaology, ceramics, sculpture, painting, calligraphy, textiles, laquerware, metalwork, architecture.

Civilization.ca - Landscape Kimonos of Itchiku Kubota

Japanese Symbols – Black and white drawings.

Kyudo Association of Canada – information on Japanese Archery

Tanka Canada – Tanka, Japanese short poems by Dr. Kozue Uzawa

MIT Visualizing Cultures – learn cultures of modernization by visual materials reconstructed by new technology.

Kansai-ben – Kansai dialect self-study site for Japanese language learners. Now students can prepare for their study abroad programs in Kansai area by watching video clips, studying basic grammatical structures and interesting culture!

Encyclopedia of Shinto

On Demand Japanese Photo Archives - Japanese pictures for your lesson. See also: オンデマンド日本語教育用写真 (日本語) - photo bank site with many free downloadable photos categorized in subjects such as "Daily life", "School", "Tradition" and "Food".

Overview - Japan | Centre for Intercultural Learning