Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Janus ... jasmine

Janus: in Roman religion, the animistic spirit of doorways (januae) and archways (jani). The worship of Janus traditionally dated back to Romulus and a period even before the actual founding of the city of Rome. There were many jani (i.e., ceremonial ...
Japan: country lying off the east coast of Asia. It consists of a great string of islands in a northeast-southwest arc that stretches for approximately 1,500 miles (2,400 km) through the western Pacific Ocean. Japan has a total land area of ...
Japan Air Lines Co., Ltd.: Japanese airline that is one of the largest air carriers in the world. The airline was founded in 1951. It was originally a private company but was reorganized in 1953 as a semigovernmental public corporation. The airline was again privatized ...
Japan Communist Party: leftist Japanese political party founded in 1922. Initially, the party was outlawed, and it operated clandestinely until the post-World War II Allied occupation command restored freedom of political association in Japan; it was established legally in October 1945.
Japan Railways Group: principal rail network of Japan, consisting of 12 corporations created by the privatization of the government-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR) in 1987.
Japan Series: in baseball, a seven-game playoff between champions of the two professional Japanese baseball leagues, the Central League and the Pacific League. Baseball in Japan was established on a professional basis in 1934, and by 1936 seven professional teams had been ...
Japan Trench: deep submarine trench lying east of the Japanese islands, in the floor of the western North Pacific Ocean. It is one of a series of depressions stretching south from the Kuril Trench and the Bonin Trench to the Mariana Trench. ...
Japan, Sea of: marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded by Japan and Sakhalin Island to the east and by Russia and Korea on the Asian mainland to the west. (The Korean name means "East Sea.") Its area is 377,600 ...
Japanese Alps: mountains, central Honshu, Japan. The term Japanese Alps was first applied to the Hida Range in the late 19th century but now also includes the Kiso and Akaishi ranges to the south.
Japanese baseball leagues: professional baseball leagues in Japan. Baseball was introduced to Japan in the 1870s by teachers from the United States, and, by the end of the century, it had become a national sport. The first professional leagues were organized in 1936, ...
Japanese beetle: (species Popillia japonica), an insect that is a major pest and belongs to the subfamily Rutelinae (family Scarabaeidae, order Coleoptera). It was accidentally introduced into the United States from Japan about 1916, probably as larvae in the soil around imported ...
Japanese cedar: a coniferous evergreen timber tree and only species of the genus Cryptomeria of the family Cupressaceae (sometimes classified in the so-called deciduous cypress family Taxodiaceae), native to eastern Asia. The tree may attain 45 m (150 feet) or more ...
Japanese Civil Code: body of private law adopted in 1896 that, with post-World War II modifications, remains in effect in present-day Japan. The code was the result of various movements for modernization following the Meiji Restoration of 1868. A legal code was required ...
Japanese deer: hoofed mammal, a subspecies of sika (q.v.).
Japanese language: one of the world's major languages, ranking ninth in terms of the number of speakers with 125 million. It is primarily spoken throughout the Japanese archipelago; there are also some 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and their descendants living abroad, mainly ...
Japanese law: the law as it has developed in Japan as a consequence of a meld of two cultural and legal traditions, one indigenous Japanese, the other Western. Before Japan's isolation from the West was ended in the mid-19th century, Japanese law ...
Japanese literature: the body of written works produced by Japanese authors in Japanese or, in its earliest beginnings, at a time when Japan had no written language, in the Chinese classical language.
Japanese Orthodox church: autonomous body of the Eastern Orthodox church, in canonical relation with the patriarchate of Moscow, which confirms the election of the metropolitan of Tokyo. The Japanese Orthodox church was created by the efforts of an outstanding missionary, Nikolay Kasatkin (1836-1912), ...
Japanese philosophy: . The term philosophy has been considered somewhat misleading in reference to Japanese thought, since Japanese premodern thinking tended to be directed more toward the realm of existence than toward that of essence. Japanese philosophy is not generally indigenous; Japanese ...
Japanese Red Army: militant Japanese organization that was formed in 1969 in the merger of two far-left factions. Beginning in 1970, the Red Army undertook several major terrorist operations, including the hijacking of several Japan Air Lines airplanes, a massacre at Tel Aviv's ...
Japanese spaniel: breed of toy dog that originated in China and was introduced to Japan, where it was kept by royalty. The breed became known in the West when Commodore Matthew Perry returned from Japan in 1853 with several dogs that had ...
Japanese torreya: an ornamental evergreen timber tree of the yew family (Taxaceae), native to the southern islands of Japan. Although it is the hardiest species of its genus and may be 10 to 25 m (about 35 to 80 feet) tall, it ...
Japanese yew: an ornamental evergreen shrub or tree of the yew family (Taxaceae), native to Japan and widely cultivated in the Northern Hemisphere. Rising to a height of 16 m (about 52 feet), it resembles the English yew but is hardier and ...
Japanism: aesthetic cult that had a major impact on Impressionist painting. Japanism began in the mid-19th century, just after Japanese trade with the West was opened, and lasted for a generation in France and England. Japanism depended upon the careful study ...
japanning: in the decorative arts, process popular in 18th-century Europe for finishing and ornamenting wood, leather, tin, and papier-mache in imitation of the celebrated lacquerwork of the Japanese. In modern industry, the term refers to the decoration and protection of the ...
Japura River: river that rises as the Caqueta River east of Pasto, Colombia, in the Colombian Cordillera Central. It meanders generally east-southeastward through the tropical rain forest of southeastern Colombia. After receiving the Apaporis River at the Brazilian border, it takes the ...
Jaques-Dalcroze, Emile: Swiss music teacher and composer who originated the eurythmics system of musical instruction.
jarabe: folk dance for couples, popular in central and southern Mexico, notably in Jalisco state. Derived in colonial times from Spanish popular music and such dances as the seguidillas and fandangos, it was also influenced by native Mexican couple dances imitating ...
Jarbah: island in the Gulf of Gabes, Mediterranean Sea, off the Tunisian mainland, to which it is connected by a causeway. Jarbah island is about 17 miles (27 km) long by 16 miles (26 km) wide and has an area of ...
Jardin des Plantes: one of the world's foremost botanical gardens, located in Paris. It was founded in 1626 as a royal garden of medicinal plants and was first opened to the public in 1650. Under the superintendence of G.-L.L. Buffon (1739-88) the garden ...
Jari River: river, northern Brazil, rising on the southern slopes of the Tumuc-Humac Mountains and flowing in a generally southeasterly direction for about 350 miles (560 km) to join the Amazon River at Boca do Jari, opposite Grande de Gurupa Island. The ...
Jarid, Shatt Al-: large saline lake in southwestern Tunisia, occupying a salt-flat basin of about 1,900 square miles (4,900 square km). The lake is covered with water only in the lowest areas, except after periods of heavy rains. The lake forms, together with ...
Jarir: one of the greatest Arab poets of the Umayyad period, whose career and poetry show the continued vitality of the pre-Islamic Bedouin tradition.
Jarmo: prehistoric archaeological site located east of Kirkuk, in northeastern Iraq. The site is important for revealing traces of one of the world's first village-farming communities. The approximately dozen layers of architectural building and renovation yield evidence of domesticated wheats and ...
Jarnach, Philipp: German composer who was a follower of the pianist-composer Ferruccio Busoni.
Jarnefelt, Armas: composer and conductor who introduced Richard Wagner's operas into Finland and who is known for his works for small orchestra.
Jarnes, Benjamin: Spanish novelist and biographer.
Jarratt, Devereux: American Anglican clergyman and preacher who emulated the Methodism of John Wesley and initiated a religious revival throughout North Carolina and southern Virginia.
Jarrell, Randall: American poet, novelist, and critic who is noted for revitalizing the reputations of Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, and William Carlos Williams in the 1950s.
Jarrett, Keith: American jazz pianist, composer, and saxophonist considered to be one of the most original and prolific jazz musicians to emerge during the late 20th century. He was also a noted classical pianist.
Jarrow: North Sea port town, South Tyneside metropolitan borough, metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, historic county of Durham, England. It lies along the south bank of the River Tyne. Jarrow's St. Paul's Church (dedicated 685 CE) is situated close to ...
Jarry, Alfred: French writer mainly known as the creator of the grotesque and wild satirical farce Ubu roi (1896; "King Ubu"), which was a forerunner of the Theatre of the Absurd.
Jars, Plain of: dissected inner region of the Xiangkhoang Plateau in north-central Laos. Drained principally by the Ngum River, a southward-flowing tributary of the Mekong River, the plain is characterized by narrow river valleys and limestone and sandstone hills ranging from 3,000 to ...
Jarta, Hans: Swedish political activist, administrator, and publicist who was a leader of the 1809 coup d'etat that overthrew Gustav IV, king of Sweden. He was the main author of Sweden's constitution (1809).
Jaruzelski, Wojciech Witold: army general and communist leader of Poland, chief of state from 1981 to 1989 and president from 1989 to 1990.
Jarvis Island: coral atoll, unincorporated territory of the U.S., in the Northern Line Islands, in the west central Pacific Ocean, 1,000 mi (1,600 km) southwest of Honolulu. The atoll has an area of 1.6 sq mi (4.1 sq km). Sighted in 1821 ...
Jarvis, John Wesley: American painter considered his era's leading portraitist based in New York City.
Jashar, Book of: ancient Israelite collection of poems quoted in various books of the Old Testament. Of uncertain etymology, Jashar may mean "victorious" or "upright." The victory hymn that describes how the Sun and Moon stood still when the Israelites defeated the Amorites ...
Jashpur Pats: physical region of eastern Chhattisgarh state, central India, extending over Jashpur Tahsil (northeastern Raigarh district) and forming part of the Chota Nagpur Plateau. The pats are a complex of small, flat-topped plateaus and hills, separated from each ...
Jasmin, Jacques: French dialect poet who achieved popular fame for his touching verse portraits of humble people and places.
jasmine: any member of the genus Jasminum of the olive family (Oleaceae), which contains about 300 tropical and subtropical species of fragrant, flowering, woody shrubs. The plants are native to all continents except North America.