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• Japan is located at the eastern edge of the Eurasian Continent, with boundaries defined by the Pacific Ocean, the Sea of Japan, and Russia.
• Major Islands in Japan include Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa.
• Around 75% of Japan is mountainous with Mt. Fuji as the highest peak.
• Japan has long coastlines with rocky shores, sand hill shores, and coral reef shores.
• Instead, these structures use various kinds of joinery and tongue ad groove construction.
• Many traditional structures such as castles are built without nails.
• A heavy roof holds the structure together and stabilizes the swaying.
• Scattered plains and inter-montane basins, where the population is concentrated, cover only about 25% of Japan.
• Nagoya, Honshu and Tokyo are major cities in Japan.
• Major tectonic lines (fault zone) run through Japan.
• Islands in Japan were the result of several large oceanic movements occurring over hundreds of millions of years.
• Japan is situated in a volcanic zone on the Pacific Ring of Fire.
• Over 90% of the ancient Japanese islands were covered with forests.
• Traditional structural materials in Japan came from coniferous trees such as cedar, pine, cypress and fir.
• Cypress is resistant to moisture, strong, and has an attractive grain, making it the preferred wood for structural members such as posts, beams and flooring.
• Cedar (Sugi) is softer and damages easily but it has a more attractive grain and coloration, making it ideal for the construction of moveable interior partitions.
• The abundance of wood in Japan has historically determined methods of construction.
• Deciduous trees such as oak and chestnut were used for furniture and fixtures.
• Mulberry paper, known as shoji, is a sliding paper that forms a "movable wall".
• Bamboo was used as wall lathing coated with a mixture of clay, sand and straw fibers, or with a variety of hydrated lime made of limestone or oyster shells.
• Rice straw was used for Tatami mats, the floor covering.
• Stone was mainly of volcanic origin, used for foundation work for posts and pillars or in polygonal form for the lower partition of walling.
• Granites and porphyries, lime and sandstone, and clay were used extensively in Japan.
• Climatic influences in Japan are influenced by cold winds from Asia in winter and by the spread of warm moist air from the Pacific in summer.
• Japan has a temperate, humid climate which makes the land arable and comfortable for a lot of people to live.
• The middle of Japan is too dry or cold.
• Southern regions in Japan are tropical where it is too hot.
• Houses facing south have deeply projecting eaves to provide protection from the sun and high court yard walls to screen the northern part from cold winds of winter.
• Wooden construction in Japan is interior wood columns receive the loads, while the thin exterior walls are of woodwork and plaster.
• Shinto, Kami-no-michi, is the indigenous religion of Japan.
• Christianity was introduced to Japan in 1549 by St. Francis Xavier.
• Japan and its people were brought into being by special divine creation and their emperors were descendants of the Sun Goddess.
• Framing in Japan is almost exclusively a system of uprights and horizontals.
• Zen Buddhism observes the Buddhist's teachings in everyday life through the arts - poetry, painting, calligraphy, and garden design.
• Shogun, Feudalism, and the code of conduct or way of the warrior (Samurai) developed a combination of Shinto and Confucianism.
• Prehistoric structures include Yoshinogari, a large Yayoi site containing 2 smaller areas reconstructed in 1986, and pit dwellings.
• Architecture in Japan uses natural materials such as wood (cypress and cedar), reeds, barks, and clay for roofing, and stone for supporting pillars, surfacing building platforms, and holding down board roofs.
• The Empire of Japan experienced political, economic, and cultural transformations as a state, contact with the west, and ancient Japan.
• Classical Japan saw the introduction of Buddhism, a strong Japanese state, the Golden Age, and the peak of the Imperial Court.
• Pure Land Buddhism follows Amida Buddha, considered as godly and of infinite good, and focuses mainly on humility, devotion, and charitable work rather than personal enlightenment.