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Utamaro

(Encyclopedia)Utamaro (Kitagawa Utamaro) kētäˈgäwä o͞otäˈmäro [key], 1753–1806, Japanese color-print artist, best known for his portrayals of women. Although he enjoyed enormous success during his lifeti...

Fortune, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Fortune, Robert, 1813–80, British botanist. He traveled in Asia for the Royal Horticultural Society and later for the East India Company and brought back to England a number of chrysanthemums, the J...

Ohira, Masayoshi

(Encyclopedia)Ohira, Masayoshi, 1910–80, Japanese political leader, prime minister (1978–80) of Japan. After serving in the house of representatives, he became foreign minister (1962–64, 1972–74) and minist...

Takaoka

(Encyclopedia)Takaoka täkäˈôkä [key], city (1990 pop. 175,466), Toyama prefecture, W central Honshu, Japan, on the Sho River. A center for the Japanese aluminum industry, Takaoka also produces paper, copper, a...

Nakasone, Yasuhiro

(Encyclopedia)Nakasone, Yasuhiro yäˌso͝ohēˈrō näˌkäsōˈnā [key], 1918–2019, Japanese political leader and prime minister (1982–87). He served in the Diet after 1946. A political ally of Kakuei Tanaka...

Kahn, Herman

(Encyclopedia)Kahn, Herman kän [key], 1922–83, American military strategist. b. Bayonne, N.J. After graduate work in physics at the California Institute of Technology, he joined the Rand Corporation. Unlike scho...

D'Aquino, Iva Toguri

(Encyclopedia)D'Aquino, Iva Toguri, 1916–2006, American citizen of Japanese descent, best-known of some dozen women who, during World War II, made English propaganda broadcasts to American troops on Radio Tokyo; ...

ronin

(Encyclopedia)ronin rōˈnĭn [key], in Japanese history, masterless samurai. Ronin were retainers who were deprived of their place in the usual loyalty patterns of Japanese feudalism. The daimyo they had served mi...

Kuril Islands

(Encyclopedia)Kuril Islands kyo͝orˈēlz, kyo͝orēlzˈ [key], Jap. Chishima-Retto, Rus. Kurilskiye Ostrova, island chain, c.6,020 sq mi (15,590 sq km), Sakhalin region, E Russia. They stretch c.775 mi (1,250 km) ...

Honda, Soichiro

(Encyclopedia)Honda, Soichiro, 1906–91, Japanese automobile executive. A mechanic and race car driver, he was a self-taught engineer. Honda founded a motorcycle company in the 1940s and began producing cars in th...