Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

Kawasaki ... Kearney

Kawasaki: city and port, Kanagawa ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, between Tokyo and Yokohama. Kawasaki is included in the Keihin Industrial Zone. Almost completely destroyed in World War II, the city has since been rebuilt. There are ...
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.: major Japanese manufacturer of transportation equipment and machinery and an important member of the Kawasaki group of industries. It is headquartered in Kobe.
Kawasaki Steel Corporation: major Japanese steel manufacturer and leading member of the Kawasaki group of industries. Headquarters are in Kobe.
Kawasaki syndrome: rare, acute inflammatory disease of unknown origin that is one of the leading causes of acquired heart disease in children.
Kawatake Mokuami: versatile and prolific Japanese dramatist, the last great kabuki playwright of the Tokugawa period (1603-1867).
Kawm Umbu: town and valley of Upper Egypt, situated about 30 miles (48 km) north of the Aswan High Dam in Aswan muhafazah (governorate). The town, an agricultural marketplace and a sugarcane-processing and cotton-ginning centre, lies on the east bank of the ...
Kay, John: English machinist and engineer, inventor of the flying shuttle, which was an important step toward automatic weaving.
Kay, Ulysses: American composer, a prominent representative of the Neoclassical school.
Kay-Shuttleworth, Sir James, 1st Baronet: original surname Kay physician, public-health reformer, and chief founder of the English system of publicly financed elementary education.
Kaya: tribal league that was formed sometime before the 3rd century AD in the area west of the Naktong River in southern Korea. The traditional date for the founding of the confederation is given as AD 42, but this is considered ...
kayak: one of the two common types of canoe used for recreation and sport. It originated with the Eskimos of Greenland and was later also used by Alaskan Eskimos. It has a pointed bow and stern and no keel and is ...
kayakeum: musical instrument, a Korean board zither with 12 silk strings, movable bridges, and a convex upper surface. It is a rectangle about 5 feet (1.5 m) in length. Although related to similar Chinese and Japanese instruments, such as the cheng, ...
kayal: in Hindustani music (q.v.), a musical form based on a Hindi song in two parts that recur between expanding cycles of melodic and rhythmic improvisation. In a standard performance a slow (vilambit) kayal is followed by a shorter, fast (drut) ...
Kayan: indigenous people of central Borneo, grouped with the Kenyah and several lesser groups under the general name Bahau. Numbering about 27,000 in the late 20th century, the Kayan are settled mainly along the middle reaches of the Baram, Bintulu, and ...
Kaye, Danny: energetic, multitalented American actor and comedian who later became known for his involvement with humanitarian causes.
Kaye, Nora: American dramatic ballerina, called the "Duse of the Dance."
Kayes: town, western Mali, western Africa. It lies along the Senegal River. Kayes is both the terminus of Senegal River traffic and an important stop on the Mali Railway (Regie des Chemins de Fer du Mali; in Senegal, Regie des Chemins ...
Kayser, Heinrich: German physicist who discovered the presence of helium in the Earth's atmosphere.
Kayseri: city, central Turkey. It lies at an elevation of 3,422 feet (1,043 m) on a flat plain below the foothills of the extinct volcano Mount Ereiyes (ancient Mount Argaeus, 12,852 feet [3,917 m]). The city is situated 165 miles (265 ...
Kayseri rug: floor covering handwoven in or around the city of Kayseri in central Turkey. The best-known rugs from this district are those produced in the 20th century, largely for sale to tourists and undiscriminating collectors.
Kaysone Phomvihan: Laotian political leader and revolutionary who was a communist leader from 1955 and, following the overthrow of the 600-year-old monarchy (1975), ruler of Laos.
Kazak: an Asiatic Turkic-speaking people inhabiting mainly Kazakstan and the adjacent parts of the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang in China. The Kazaks emerged in the 15th century from an amalgam of Turkic tribes who entered Transoxiana about the 8th century ...
Kazak language: member of the Turkic language family (a subfamily of the Altaic languages), belonging to the northwestern, or Kipchak, branch. The Kazak language is spoken primarily in Kazakstan and in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang in China but is also ...
Kazak Uplands: hilly upland in central and eastern Kazakstan, occupying about one-fifth of the republic. It is a peneplain, the mountainous Paleozoic foundation of which had already been worn down into an undulating plain by the beginning of the Mesozoic Era, beginning ...
Kazakh rug: floor covering woven by villagers living in western Azerbaijan and in a number of towns and villages in northern Armenia and the adjacent southern part of Georgia. The weavers are probably mostly Azerbaijanian Turks, although it is clear that both ...
Kazakov, Yury Pavlovich: Soviet short-story writer who worked in the classic Russian lyrical style of Anton Chekhov and Ivan Bunin.
Kazakstan: country of Central Asia. It is bounded on the northwest and north by Russia, on the east by China, and on the south by Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and the Aral Sea; the Caspian Sea bounds Kazakstan to the southwest. Kazakstan's ...
Kazan: capital city, Tatarstan republic, western Russia. It lies just north of the Samara Reservoir on the Volga River, where it is joined by the Kazanka River. The city stretches for about 15 miles (25 km) along hills, which are much ...
Kazan, Elia: Turkish-born American director and author, noted for his successes on the stage, especially with plays by Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, and for his critically acclaimed films.
Kazankina, Tatyana: Soviet athlete who won three Olympic gold medals and set seven world records in women's running events during the 1970s and '80s.
Kazanluk: town, central Bulgaria. It lies in the Kazanluk basin, 2 miles (3 km) north of the Tundzha River. The area is famous for its roses, which are made into attar of roses for the perfume industry. This industry, which developed ...
Kazantzakis, Nikos: Greek writer whose prolific output and wide variety of work represent a major contribution to modern Greek literature.
Kazaure: town and traditional emirate in Jigawa state, northern Nigeria. The town has been the emirate's headquarters since 1819. It was founded by Dan Tunku, a Fulani warrior who was one of the 14 flag bearers for the Fulani jihad (holy ...
Kazembe: the largest and most highly organized of the Lunda kingdoms (see Luba-Lunda states) in central Africa, and the title of all its rulers. At the height of its power (c. 1800), Kazembe occupied almost all of the territory now included ...
Kazerun: town, southwestern Iran. It is situated on a plain among high limestone ridges on the north-south trunk road. The town is extensive, with well-built houses. It is surrounded by date palms, citrus orchards, and wheat and tobacco fields; rice, cotton, ...
kaziasker: (from Arabic qadi, "judge," and 'askar, "army"), the second highest officer in the judicial hierarchy of the Ottoman Empire; he ranked immediately after the shaykh al-Islam, the head of the 'ulama' (men of religious learning).
Kazin, Alfred: American critic and author noted for his studies of American literature and his autobiographical writings.
Kazinczy, Ferenc: Hungarian man of letters whose reform of the Hungarian language and attempts to improve literary style had great influence.
Kaziranga National Park: national park in Sibsagar district, Assam state, northeastern India, situated on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra River, 60 mi (97 km) west of Jorhat on the main road to Gauhati. Established in 1908 as a game reserve, it became ...
kazoku: in Japan, the unified, crown-appointed aristocracy of the period 1869-1947, which replaced the feudal lords. The kazoku ("flower family") class was created in 1869 as part of the Westernizing reforms of the Meiji Restoration. In this class the old feudal ...
Kazvin: city, Markazi (Tehran) ostan (province), north-central Iran, in a wide, fertile plain at the southern foot of the Elburz Mountains. Originally called Shad Shahpur, it was founded by the Sasanian king Shapur I about AD 250. It ...
Ke Ga, Point: the easternmost point of Vietnam, lying along the South China Sea. The promontory, rising to 2,316 feet (706 m) above the sea, lies southeast of Tuy Hoa and is a continuation of a massive southwest-northeast-trending granite spur of the Annamese ...
ke-yi: (Chinese: "matching the meaning"), practice by Chinese Buddhists of borrowing from Taoist and other philosophical texts phrases with which to explain their own ideas. According to tradition, ke-yi was first used by Chu Fa-ya, a student of many religions of ...
kea: New Zealand parrot species of the subfamily Nestorinae. See parrot.
Kea: westernmost of the Cyclades (q.v.) group of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. Kea lies about 13 miles (21 km) east of the southern tip of Attica. With an area of 50.4 square miles (130.6 square km), it rises gradually ...
Kean University: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Union, New Jersey, U.S. It comprises schools of Business, Government and Technology; Education; Liberal Arts; and Natural Sciences, Nursing and Mathematics. Master's degree programs are available in education, psychology, business, liberal studies, speech ...
Kean, Charles: English actor-manager best known for his revivals of Shakespearean plays.
Kean, Edmund: one of the greatest of English tragic actors, a turbulent genius noted as much for his megalomania and ungovernable behaviour as for his portrayals of villains in Shakespearean plays.
Kean, Ellen: nee Ellen Tree one of the finest English actresses of her day and the wife of the actor Charles Kean, with whom she performed.
Keane, Molly: Anglo-Irish novelist and playwright whose subject is the leisure class of her native Ireland.
Kearney: city, seat of Buffalo county, south-central Nebraska, U.S. It lies on the north (left) bank of the Platte River. The first settlers were Swedish immigrants who came there in 1865. The city was founded in 1871 at the junction of ...