Japan is a maritime neighbor with us, just as the so-called "mountains and rivers are exotic, the wind and moon are the same day", when it comes to Japan, many people think of the colorful cherry blossoms, the picturesque Mt. Fuji, and the Tang Zhaoti Temple.
In addition, Bushido in Japan is also very famous and has a long history. Interestingly, there was a group of photographs of samurai from a hundred years ago that were exposed, and the height of the samurai was somewhat disappointing.
Samurai figure
In film and television dramas, we often see some Japanese samurai. They often wear a small braid, a small beard in the middle, wear a white coat, a pair of black pants, and tie the clothes firmly into the pants, and when the wind blows, the clothes and pants will be blown to the fullest by the wind.
On their feet is a pair of clogs, and the sound of tuk tuk clogs is also frightening. At the same time, they had a dignified expression and a fierce look in their eyes, holding a long knife in their hands, and bent over as if they were ready to attack at any time.
It is often heard that Japan has the spirit of Bushido, that is, loyalty, faithfulness, honesty, martial arts, and reputation. Speaking of this, I believe that in the impression of many people, the samurai should be tall and mighty, brave and good at war.
Unfortunately, with the exposure of a set of japanese samurai photos from 100 years ago, the samurai have once again entered our field of vision, but this time we found that japanese samurai are not the same as what we see in film and television.
In the photo, the Japanese samurai are not tall and powerful, but they are short, even a bit like dwarfs, which is very different from what we imagined, and through consulting the information, we found that the average height of Japanese samurai is indeed very short.
Low samurai height
For example, we know Takeda Shingen, who was a famous politician and military figure in Japan during the Sengoku period, fought five battles with Uesugi Kenshin on Kawanaka Island, and defeated the Tokugawa Oda Alliance in the Battle of Mikatahara, which can be said to be invincible, and he was also known as the "Tiger of Kai" by later generations.
However, such a heroic samurai, his height is only 153. Oda Nobunaga was also a very famous person in Japan, and he took the unification of all of Japan as his goal, breaking the "Nobunaga Encirclement Network" twice, breaking through the powerful enemy daimyo one by one, and seizing more than half of Japan's territory.
However, such a person's height is only 169. At that time, Oda Nobunaga, who was 169 tall, was already a "giant", which was unbelievable. What is even more unexpected is that the Tokugawa Fifth Generation General Tokugawa Tsunayoshi is only 124, which can be said to be the height of a child.
Japan and China had a long history, and when the Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu saw the Japanese emissaries, he called them the Uighurs, and then crowned their king as the Uighurs. The word 倭 and the short character are very close, and its meaning naturally does not need to be expressed.
Later, with the prosperity of Japan, they often harassed us along the coast, and we also called them Wokou during this period. Throughout history, whether it is in Japan or in our country, it is not difficult for us to find that Japanese people are generally very short in height.
Not only samurai, but also japanese citizens as a whole are relatively short in height, so what makes them so short? This is related to Japan's geographical environment and historical development.
Demystify the reason for height
First of all, from the perspective of geographical environment, Japan is an island country, and their land area is not large, let alone cultivated land. Even in China, which is vast and has a lot of arable land, famines often occurred in ancient times, not to mention Japan, which has little arable land.
They are not allowed to grow crops in large quantities, which leads to the problem of starvation. There is no doubt that if a person is in a state of hunger for a long time, his height must not be too high.
Some people may say, but Japan is surrounded by the sea on all sides, they do not grow crops, they can also go out to sea to fish? However, fishing at sea has a certain randomness and luck component, and it is very likely that you will eat a meal without a meal. And eating only fish at each meal, nutrition is not up to date.
At the same time, in ancient times, people's ability to cope with natural disasters was very weak, and when faced with disasters, they often had to be helpless. Japan is also at the junction of plates, and natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis often occur. This also leads to their food often being in short supply.
Interestingly, the kings of ancient Japan did not reflect and did not make some changes to vigorously develop planting and animal husbandry, but instead ordered the common people not to eat meat.
Speaking of this, we must talk about a state of affairs during the Southern and Northern Dynasties of our country. At that time, Buddhism was relatively prosperous, Japan had close contacts with our country, and buddhism was also introduced to Japan with the exchange of envoys.
In Buddhism, it is forbidden to kill, and this view also deeply influenced the Japanese emperor, so he ordered the Japanese people not to eat animal meat, only some fish, this rule lasted in Japan for more than 1,000 years.
The Japanese people, who originally had no food, and could not eat meat, which was even worse, so their nutrition was more and more unable to keep up, so we can see that the Japanese people are generally relatively short.
Of course, some people living in more remote mountainous areas can't stand hunger, and often go hunting in the mountains, and if they are lucky enough to catch some small animals, they will roast them on the spot and eat them, a phenomenon that only began to change after the Meiji Restoration.
After the Meiji Restoration, Japan vigorously studied the West, in addition to cultural, scientific and technological progress, their living habits, eating habits have also undergone earth-shaking changes. It can be said that after the Meiji Restoration, Japan's diet entered a diversified way.
Their ingredients became more abundant, their cooking skills increased, and in the 1950s, Japan accepted some milk gifts from the United States. It is well known that milk is rich in calcium, which can promote the development of bones.
Since then, the Japanese people have also begun to encourage children to drink more milk, and it is also after that Japan has slowly abolished the vegetarian rule, and meat and meat dishes have been slowly served on the table as a home-cooked dish, and their size has gradually increased.
With the development of science and technology and the times, people have higher requirements for a balanced diet, no longer blindly eat vegetarian or meat, but emphasize nutritional balance. Of course, Japan has also found that its own national height is generally short, and has also introduced a series of policies to help children grow and develop.
In addition to cultural knowledge, Japan now attaches great importance to quality education, and Japan's children's physical education classes and extracurricular activities are the most, which are to promote children's physical health and height development.
In this way, in a little change, the height of Japanese people also changes with the change of environment. However, we can still glimpse the "sense of shortness" in the early years from their overall height.