Aryan Brotherhood, notoriously violent white supremacist group and organized crime syndicate. It is the oldest, largest, and deadliest prison gang in the United States. It was founded in 1964 in the San Quentin State Prison in California by Irish immigrants in reaction to prison desegregation. The

Aryan Nations, prominent Christian Identity-based hate group founded in the United States in the 1970s. In the 1970s and ’80s the Aryan Nations developed a strong network comprising neo-Nazi, skinhead, Ku Klux Klan (KKK), white supremacist, and militia groups, many of which congregated and

Hystaspes: …the Avesta (the Zoroastrian scripture) Aryana Vaejah, which may have been a Greater Chorasmian state abolished by the Achaemenid king Cyrus II the Great in the mid-6th century bc.

Darius I: Ascent to monarchy: …the insubordination of its satrap, Aryandes, whom he put to death.

race: Gobineau’s Essay on the Inequality of Human Races: …a new dogma of “Aryanism” that was to expand and become the foundation for Nazi race theories in the 20th century.

Arya Samaj, vigorous reform movement of modern Hinduism, founded in 1875 by Dayananda Sarasvati, whose aim was to reestablish the Vedas, the earliest Hindu scriptures, as revealed truth. He rejected all later accretions to the Vedas as degenerate but, in his own interpretation, included much

aryballos, small, narrow-necked, spherical or globular Greek vase. Commonly used as a scent or oil bottle, particularly by athletes at the baths, the aryballos derives from the globular wine pourer (oinochoe) of the Geometric style (9th century bc), evolving its distinctive shape in the early

Leone Modena was an Italian rabbi, preacher, poet, scholar, gambling addict, and polemicist who wrote an important attack on the Sefer ha-zohar (“Book of Splendour”), the chief text of Kabbala, the influential body of Jewish mystical teachings. By the time Modena was 12, he could translate portions

speech: Vocal cords: …the laryngeal vestibule, forming the aryepiglottic folds. These folds extend from the apex of the arytenoids to the lateral margin of the epiglottis. Laterally from this ring enclosing the laryngeal vestibule, the mucous membrane descends downward to cover the upper-outer aspects of the larynx where the mucous membrane blends with…

organohalogen compound: are subdivided into alkyl, vinylic, aryl, and acyl halides. In alkyl halides all four bonds to the carbon that bears the halogen are single bonds; in vinylic halides the carbon that bears the halogen is doubly bonded to another carbon; in aryl halides the halogen-bearing carbon is part of an…

zinc group element: Toxicity of the elements: The behaviour of aryl salts—as for example phenylmercuric acetate—in the body is similar to that of inorganic compounds. Both groups if ingested cause vomiting, colic, and diarrhea, and both are skin irritants. No fatal case of aryl salt poisoning has been reported; however, exposure to alkyl salts has…

bladder cancer: Risk Factors, Causes, and symptoms: …class of organic chemicals called arylamines. People who work in the leather, rubber, printing, and textiles industries or with large quantities of paint are often exposed to these chemicals and should exercise caution in their use.

metachromatic leukodystrophy: …called arylsulfatase A (ASA), or cerebroside sulfatase. Arylsulfatase A deficiency allows certain harmful sulfur-containing lipids, known as sulfosphingolipids (also called sulfatides), to accumulate in nerve tissues of the central nervous system instead of being broken down. Sulfatides can also accumulate in nerve tissue in organs, such as the kidneys and…

skate: …25 genera across three families—Rajidae, Arynchobatidae, and Anacanthobatidae—while others place all skates into family Rajidae.

human respiratory system: The larynx: …pyramidal pieces of cartilage, the arytenoid cartilages. The vocal ligaments are part of a tube, resembling an organ pipe, made of elastic tissue. Just above the vocal cords, the epiglottis is also attached to the back of the thyroid plate by its stalk. The cricoid, another large cartilaginous piece of…

Erzurum, city, eastern Turkey. It lies 6,400 feet (1,950 metres) above sea level in a fertile plain surrounded by high mountains. On a caravan route from Anatolia to Iran, Erzurum has been a major commercial and military centre since antiquity and is now a major rail station on the route between

Arzamas, city, Nizhegorod oblast (province), southwestern Russia, on the Tesha River, a tributary of the Oka River. First mentioned in a manuscript in 1366 and again in 1552, Arzamas was chartered in 1578. Agricultural equipment and food processing are the main economic activities, and there are

Arzamas society, Russian literary circle that flourished in 1815–18 and was formed for the semiserious purpose of ridiculing the conservative “Lovers of the Russian Word,” a group dominated by the philologist Aleksandr S. Shishkov, who wished to keep the modern Russian language firmly tied to Old

Yuly Borisovich Khariton: …KB-11, Arzamas-16, and currently the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics, which was responsible for designing the first Soviet fission and thermonuclear bombs.

Erzurum, city, eastern Turkey. It lies 6,400 feet (1,950 metres) above sea level in a fertile plain surrounded by high mountains. On a caravan route from Anatolia to Iran, Erzurum has been a major commercial and military centre since antiquity and is now a major rail station on the route between

Arzawa, ancient kingdom of western or southwestern Anatolia (its exact location is disputed). Although Arzawa was for long periods a rival of the Hittite kingdom, it was occasionally conquered and made a vassal by some of the more powerful Hittite kings, such as Labarnas I (c. 1680–c. 1650 bc).

Boğazköy: Excavations: …with that of the so-called Arzawa letters found in Tell el-Amarna in Egypt was soon recognized. This led the Berlin Assyriologist Hugo Winckler to undertake excavations in 1906 together with Theodore Makridi (Bey) of the Istanbul Museum. This first season yielded 2,500 fragments of tablets from the west side of…

Arzew, port town, northwestern Algeria. Arzew lies near the mouth of the Wadi Mehgoun. Its natural harbour on the Mediterranean Sea is sheltered by a mountainous promontory between the gulfs of Oran and Arzew. Arzew was an Almohad port in the 1100s. It was visited by Italian merchants in the 14th

Arzew, port town, northwestern Algeria. Arzew lies near the mouth of the Wadi Mehgoun. Its natural harbour on the Mediterranean Sea is sheltered by a mountainous promontory between the gulfs of Oran and Arzew. Arzew was an Almohad port in the 1100s. It was visited by Italian merchants in the 14th

Yuly Markovich Daniel was a Soviet poet and short-story writer who was convicted with fellow writer Andrey D. Sinyavsky of anti-Soviet slander in a sensational 1966 trial that marked the beginning of literary repression under Leonid I. Brezhnev, general secretary of the Communist Party. After being

Dave Wottle: Yevgeny Arzhanov, a Soviet runner who had not lost an 800-metre race in four years, was leading down the stretch. Less than 20 metres from the finish, Wottle made his final move and caught up to Arzhanov. As the two athletes neared the finish line,…

Asilah, city on the Atlantic coast of northwestern Morocco, south of Tangier. While some attribute its founding to the Phoenicians, others believe its origins date back to the Roman period; perhaps each account refers to a slightly different location on this busy coastal strip not far from Europe.

Dorothy Arzner was an American filmmaker who was the only woman directing feature-length studio films in Hollywood during the 1930s. From 1927 to 1943 she was credited with directing 17 films, including Christopher Strong (1933) and Dance, Girl, Dance (1940), both influential works of feminist

Álvaro Arzú was a Guatemalan businessman and politician who served as president of Guatemala (1996–2000). He helped the country take the first steps toward recovery from its decades-long civil war. Arzú also served as mayor of Guatemala City (1986–90, 2004–18). Descended from Basque immigrants,

Álvaro Arzú was a Guatemalan businessman and politician who served as president of Guatemala (1996–2000). He helped the country take the first steps toward recovery from its decades-long civil war. Arzú also served as mayor of Guatemala City (1986–90, 2004–18). Descended from Basque immigrants,

Álvaro Arzú was a Guatemalan businessman and politician who served as president of Guatemala (1996–2000). He helped the country take the first steps toward recovery from its decades-long civil war. Arzú also served as mayor of Guatemala City (1986–90, 2004–18). Descended from Basque immigrants,

ʿArʿar, city, northern Saudi Arabia, situated in the Northern region at an elevation of 1,854 feet (565 metres). ʿArʿar was developed in the early 1950s by seminomadic people who were attracted by water made available around the Trans Arabian Pipeline (Tapline). Agriculture and livestock raising

Arabia: Northern Arabia: …the largest of these are Wadi ʿArʿar and Wadi Al-Khurr.

African literature: Ethiopian: …Tekle Hawaryat wrote the novel Araya (1948–49), about the journeying of the peasant Araya to Europe to be educated and his struggle to decide whether to remain there or return to Africa. One of Ethiopia’s most popular novels, it explores generational conflict as well as the conflict between tradition and…

coin: The beginnings: …marks of value, from the as (weighing one pound) down to its 12th, the uncia; the obverses showed the head of a deity, the reverses a ship’s prow. These were paralleled at mints elsewhere by similar cast coins; their types showed not, as at Rome, Latin deities but rather Greek…

arsenic (As), a chemical element in the nitrogen group (Group 15 [Va] of the periodic table), existing in both gray and yellow crystalline forms. atomic number 33 atomic weight 74.921595 melting point (gray form) 814 °C (1,497 °F) at 36 atmospheres pressure density (gray form) 5.73 g/cm3 at 14 °C

Italo Svevo: …was its successor, Senilità (1898; As a Man Grows Older), featuring another bewildered hero. Svevo had been teaching at a commercial school, and, with Senilità’s failure, he formally gave up writing and became engrossed in his father-in-law’s business.

Canadian literature: Modern period, 1900–60: …category fall the Prairie novels As for Me and My House (1941) by Sinclair Ross, Who Has Seen the Wind (1947) by W.O. Mitchell, and The Mountain and the Valley (1952) by Ernest Buckler, set in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis valley. These novels strain the bonds of conventional narrative structures as…

James L. Brooks: …Brooks scored another hit with As Good As It Gets (1997), which presented a romance between an aging curmudgeon (played by Jack Nicholson) and a single mother (Helen Hunt) and garnered Oscars for both of its leads. His later films included Spanglish (2004), which explored class and cultural differences between…

Alicia Keys: Musical success: …2007 Keys released the soul-infused As I Am, which featured the Grammy-winning single “No One.” The following year she teamed with Jack White of the White Stripes on “Another Way to Die,” the lead single on the soundtrack to the James Bond film Quantum of Solace. As I Am continued…

Sarashina nikki, a classic of Japanese literature of the Heian period (794–1185), written about 1059 by a woman known as Sugawara Takasue no Musume (“Daughter of Sugawara Takasue”), also called Lady Sarashina. The work was translated into English as As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams. One of four

As I Lay Dying, novel by William Faulkner, published in 1930. It is one of the many novels that Faulkner set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha county, Miss., U.S. The story unfolds by means of fragmented and intercut narration by each of the characters. These include Addie Bundren, to whom the title

Laurie Lee: …what became an autobiographical trilogy, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969), a description of his walk to London and then across Spain just prior to that country’s civil war; and A Moment of War (1991), an account of his experiences in Spain during that war. Lee’s other works…

philosophy of as if, the system espoused by Hans Vaihinger in his major philosophical work Die Philosophie des Als Ob (1911; The Philosophy of “As If”), which proposed that man willingly accept falsehoods or fictions in order to live peacefully in an irrational world. Vaihinger, who saw life as a

David Storey: … (1984), A Serious Man (1998), As It Happened (2002), and Thin-Ice Skater (2004).

Clement Attlee: Prime ministership and later years: His memoirs, As It Happened (1954), are distinguished more for their laconic discretion than their revelatory interest.

Manuel dos Santos Lima: …de Janeiro, and his second, As Lagrimas e o Vento (1975; “Tears and Wind”), in Lisbon. The latter work is a fictional account of the war of liberation that resulted in independence. Lima also published a volume of poems, Kissange (1961), and a play, A Pele do Diabo (1977; “The…

Jürgen Klinsmann: …left the team to join AS Monaco of the French Ligue 1 in 1992. He led Monaco to an appearance in the 1994 Champions League semifinals, a feat that—combined with the five goals he scored in that summer’s World Cup—contributed to his earning German Player of the Year honours. In…

AS Roma, Italian professional football (soccer) team based in Rome. AS Roma has been an almost constant presence in Italy’s top league, Serie A, throughout its history. It is one of the best-supported teams in the country. AS Roma was founded in 1927 and joined Serie A upon the league’s formation

Olympe Bhêly-Quénum: …novel C’était à Tigony (2000; As She Was Discovering Tigony), in which a geophysicist begins to question her life and views, especially those concerning global capitalism.

Wong Kar-Wai: Wonggok ka moon (1988; As Tears Go By) was Wong’s first film as a director. A young man is torn between his love for his cousin and his friendship with his impetuous Triad “brother.” The film is Wong’s most conventional in terms of style and narrative but presents some…

Canadian literature: Modern period, 1900–60: …she published her first collection, As Ten as Twenty (1946), which includes the evocative renowned poem “Stories of Snow.” Page’s later work increasingly reflected her interest in esoteric places, forms, and religions, from Sufism (Evening Dance of the Grey Flies, 1981) to the glosa, a Spanish poetic form (Hologram: A…

Julianne Moore: Early life and career: …arc on the soap opera As the World Turns in 1985. Her portrayals of a psychologist and, eventually, her half sister, earned her a Daytime Emmy Award in 1988. Meanwhile, she had appeared in Caryl Churchill’s Serious Money at the New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater (1987) and trod the…

Hans Werner Grosse: Grosse’s record-breaking glider, an AS W-12, weighed 324 kg (716 pounds) and had a wingspan of 18.95 metres (62.2 feet) and a top speed of 220 km (137 miles) per hour. On January 4, 1981, he set a world record of 1,306.856 km (811.56 miles) for distance around a…

As You Like It, five-act comedy by William Shakespeare, written and performed about 1598–1600 and first published in the First Folio of 1623. Shakespeare based the play on Rosalynde (1590), a prose romance by Thomas Lodge. The play has two principal settings: the court that Frederick has usurped

Kenneth Branagh: …2006 he directed the film As You Like It. He also directed and acted in the motion pictures Dead Again (1991) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994).

rocket and missile system: Antiship: …antiship missiles, beginning with the AS-1 Kennel. The destruction of an Israeli destroyer by two SS-N-2 Styx missiles fired by Soviet-supplied Egyptian missile boats in October 1967 demonstrated the effectiveness of the Soviet systems, and the Western powers developed their own guided missiles. The resultant systems began entering service in…

rocket and missile system: Air-to-surface: … and AS-9, and the television-guided AS-10 Karen and AS-14 Kedge (the last with a range of about 25 miles). These missiles were fired from tactical fighters such as the MiG-27 Flogger and attack helicopters such as the Mi-24 Hind and Mi-28 Havoc.

rocket and missile system: Air-to-surface: …the television-guided AS-10 Karen and AS-14 Kedge (the last with a range of about 25 miles). These missiles were fired from tactical fighters such as the MiG-27 Flogger and attack helicopters such as the Mi-24 Hind and Mi-28 Havoc.

rocket and missile system: Antiship: …aircraft included the 50-foot, swept-wing AS-3 Kangaroo, introduced in 1961 with a range exceeding 400 miles. The AS-4 Kitchen, a Mach-2 (twice the speed of sound) rocket-powered missile with a range of about 250 miles, also was introduced in 1961, and the liquid-fuel, rocket-powered Mach-1.5 AS-5 Kelt was first deployed…

tactical weapons system: Air-to-surface systems: The Soviet AS-4 missile is more than 36 feet (11 m) long and is launched by a Tupolev bomber. It is presumed to be inertially guided until it approaches its selected target, when it homes in on the target. The French Belouga system is a cluster of…

rocket and missile system: Antiship: 5 AS-5 Kelt was first deployed in 1966. The Mach-3 AS-6 Kingfish, introduced in 1970, could travel 250 miles.

rocket and missile system: Antiship: The Mach-3 AS-6 Kingfish, introduced in 1970, could travel 250 miles.

rocket and missile system: Air-to-surface: …among these was the radio-command-guided AS-7 Kerry, the antiradar AS-8 and AS-9, and the television-guided AS-10 Karen and AS-14 Kedge (the last with a range of about 25 miles). These missiles were fired from tactical fighters such as the MiG-27 Flogger and attack helicopters such as the Mi-24 Hind and…

rocket and missile system: Air-to-surface: …radio-command-guided AS-7 Kerry, the antiradar AS-8 and AS-9, and the television-guided AS-10 Karen and AS-14 Kedge (the last with a range of about 25 miles). These missiles were fired from tactical fighters such as the MiG-27 Flogger and attack helicopters such as the Mi-24 Hind and Mi-28 Havoc.

rocket and missile system: Air-to-surface: …Kerry, the antiradar AS-8 and AS-9, and the television-guided AS-10 Karen and AS-14 Kedge (the last with a range of about 25 miles). These missiles were fired from tactical fighters such as the MiG-27 Flogger and attack helicopters such as the Mi-24 Hind and Mi-28 Havoc.

Sudan, country located in northeastern Africa. The name Sudan derives from the Arabic expression bilād al-sūdān (“land of the blacks”), by which medieval Arab geographers referred to the settled African countries that began at the southern edge of the Sahara. For more than a century, Sudan—first as

consumer advocacy: Controls on advertising: …Internet is regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), an independent body. The ASA enforces an industry-written code on behalf of a statutory regulator, the Office of Communications (OFCOM). The ASA bans the use, for instance, of subliminal advertising (methods by which the listener or viewer might be influenced without…

Judaism: The period of the divided kingdom: King Asa (reigned c. 908–867 bce) is credited with a general purge, including the destruction of an image made for the goddess Asherah by the queen mother, granddaughter of an Aramaean princess. He also purged the qedeshim (“consecrated men”—conventionally rendered as “sodomites,” or “male sacred prostitutes”).

metachromatic leukodystrophy: …called arylsulfatase A (ASA), or cerebroside sulfatase. Arylsulfatase A deficiency allows certain harmful sulfur-containing lipids, known as sulfosphingolipids (also called sulfatides), to accumulate in nerve tissues of the central nervous system instead of being broken down. Sulfatides can also accumulate in nerve tissue in organs, such as the kidneys and…

motion-picture technology: Film: The ASA (American Standards Association) scale is an arbitrary rating of film speed; that is, the sensitivity of the film to light. If everything else is kept constant, the required exposure time is inversely proportional to the ASA rating. Negative films designed for original picture exposure are…

Euclidean geometry: Congruence of triangles: Following this, there are corresponding angle-side-angle (ASA) and side-side-side (SSS) theorems.

World Heritage site: Growth of the World Heritage List and challenges to preservation: Syrian scholar Khaled al-Asaad, who had served as Palmyra’s chief archaeologist for 40 years, was publicly beheaded by ISIL for refusing to divulge the location of relics associated with the site. UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova characterized ISIL’s actions as a war crime, and she called upon…

ancient Iran: Invasion of the Parni: …crowned in the city of Asaak, and the tribe took the name of the Parthians, their close relatives, which was derived from a word meaning “exiled.” Their language was closely related to Scythian and Median. The dynasty these people produced never broke its links with the people, and rare was…

Asaba, town and capital of Delta state, southern Nigeria. It lies on the west bank of the Niger River (opposite Onitsha) and on the road to Benin City. A traditional market centre (cassava, yams, palm oil and kernels, kola nuts) for the Igbo (Ibo) people, it was the place where Richard and John

Ibn Khaldūn: The Muqaddimah: Ibn Khaldūn’s philosophy of history: …by his central concept of ʿaṣabiyyah, or “social cohesion.” It is this cohesion, which arises spontaneously in tribes and other small kinship groups, but which can be intensified and enlarged by a religious ideology, that provides the motive force that carries ruling groups to power. Its inevitable weakening, due to…

Romanian literature: The national renaissance: …taken up in Moldavia by Gheorghe Asachi, who introduced the historical short story, wrote verses in Romanian and Italian, and founded a periodical, Albina Românească. The outstanding literary personality among a galaxy of minor poets and translators who enriched the Romantic heritage was Grigore Alexandrescu. Alexandrescu wrote Poezii (1832, 1838,…

Kindah: …kingdom split up into four tribes—Asad, Taghlib, Qays, and Kinānah—each led by a Kindah prince. The tribes feuded constantly, and, after about the middle of the 6th century, the Kindah princes were forced by the local tribesmen to withdraw once more to southern Arabia.

Afghanistan: The Hotakis: …Persians and under their leader, Asad Allāh Khan, succeeded in liberating their province. Maḥmūd, Mīr Vays’s young son and successor, was not content with holding Kandahār, and in 1722 he led some 20,000 men against Eṣfahān; the Ṣafavid government surrendered after a six-month siege.

North Africa: The Aghlabids: …the army to the qāḍī Asad ibn al-Furāt.

Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī was a Muslim politician, political agitator, and journalist whose belief in the potency of a revived Islamic civilization in the face of European domination significantly influenced the development of Muslim thought in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Very little is known

Isaac ben Solomon Luria: …Will Sing on the Praises”), “Asader seʿudata” (“I Will Order the Festive Meal”), and “Bene hekh-ala de-khesifin” (“Sons of the Temple of Silver”). They are mystical, erotic songs about “the adornment (or fitting) of the bride”—i.e., the sabbath, who was identified with the community of Israel—and on the other partzufim:…

Persian literature: The proliferation of court patronage: …(today in northwestern Iran) by Asadī, who had migrated to Azerbaijan from his native town of Ṭūs (now Mashhad) in Khorāsān. As a poet, he had become the most important successor to Ferdowsī through his Garshāsp-nāmeh, a heroic epic in masnawi form telling about the adventures in India and Sri…

Nizam al-Mulk: …1713 it was conferred on Chīn Qilich Khan (Āṣaf Jāh) by the Mughal emperor Muḥammad Shah and was held by his descendants, the rulers of the princely state of Hyderabad, until the mid-20th century. The head of a ruling family was commonly known as the nizam.

India: The government of Lord Wellesley: …listless though cultured rule of Āṣaf al-Dawlah; on his death in 1797 a succession dispute and an Afghan invasion of the Punjab gave Wellesley a welcome opportunity for interference. He pressed the nawab to disband his troops and increase his payment to the company for his subsidiary force. When the…

asafoetida, gum resin prized as a spice in India and Iran, where it is used to flavour curries, meatballs, and pickles. Acrid in taste, it emits a strong onionlike odour because of its organic sulfur compounds. It is commonly sold in powdered form and is said to enhance umami flavours in savory

Fante: …also determines membership in the asafo, a military organization. Allegiance to the asafo takes precedence over that to the matrilineage. The functions of the asafo are political (as the medium through which commoners express political sentiment and criticism of the chief), social (formerly as a cooperative labour unit and as…

asafoetida, gum resin prized as a spice in India and Iran, where it is used to flavour curries, meatballs, and pickles. Acrid in taste, it emits a strong onionlike odour because of its organic sulfur compounds. It is commonly sold in powdered form and is said to enhance umami flavours in savory

Asahara Shoko was the founder of AUM Shinrikyo (“Supreme Truth”; renamed Aleph in 2000), a millenarian new religious movement in Japan. Asahara was born partially blind and was sent to a school for the blind. After graduating in 1975 and failing to gain admission to medical school, he studied

Philippe Starck: His best-known works are the Asahi Beer Hall (1990) in Tokyo, an austere blocklike granite building topped with a bulbous orange shape resembling a flame, and the Unhex Nani-Nani office building (1989), also in Tokyo, which has been described as a biomorphic shed. In 1997 he received the Excellence in…

Son Masayoshi: …a 21 percent share of Asahi National Broadcasting Co., Ltd., a major Japanese commercial television station. A segment of the media called the announcement an unexpected foreign capital invasion of the Japanese broadcasting world. Softbank and News Corporation sold their share in 1997.

Asahi shimbun, nationwide Japanese daily newspaper, one of the “big three” in influence and circulation, printed in Tokyo, Ōsaka, and several other regional centres and also as an English-language-edition daily in Tokyo. Asahi was founded in Ōsaka in 1879 and has been in the hands of the Murayama

Kitami Mountains: …metres]) to the southwest and Mount Asahi (7,516 feet [2,291 metres]) to the northwest, the latter being the highest peak in Hokkaido. All in the group are within Daisetsu-zan National Park, which has an area of 873 square miles (2,260 square km) and is Japan’s largest national park.

Bunraku: …(Bunraku Association), based at the Asahi-za (originally called the Bunraku-za), a traditional Bunraku theatre in Ōsaka. Today performances are held in Kokuritsu Bunraku Gekijō (National Bunraku Theatre; opened 1984) in Ōsaka. In 2003 UNESCO declared Bunraku a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Asahikawa, city, northwest-central Hokkaido, northern Japan. It lies along the Ishikari River in the agriculturally important Kamikawa Basin. The area was settled in 1889 and organized as a village in 1893, after which Asahikawa became the railway, marketing, and industrial centre for northern

Japanese art: Western-style painting: …seen in the works of Asai Chū, who later studied in Europe. Asai’s contemporary Kuroda Seiki studied in France under Raphael Collin and was among the most prominent exponents of a style that was strongly influenced by Impressionism in its informality and its use of lighter, brighter colours.

Japanese literature: Early Tokugawa period (1603–c. 1770): …is associated with the kana-zōshi—Asai Ryōi, a samurai who became the first popular and professional writer in Japanese history. Thanks to the development of relatively cheap methods of printing and a marked increase in the reading public, Ryōi was able to make a living as a writer. Although some…

Afar: Two distinct classes, the Asaimara (“Red Men”) and the Adoimara (“White Men”), constitute the landowning, titled nobles and the lower-class tenants, respectively.

Asaka, city, southeastern Saitama ken (prefecture), east-central Honshu, Japan. It lies along the Kurume River just northwest of Tokyo. It was a post town known as Hizaori during the Edo (Tokugawa) period (1603–1867). Its name was changed to Asaka in 1932. The city has been a centre of the

Tokyo-Yokohama Metropolitan Area: The premodern period: The ancient Sensō Temple (popularly called the Asakusa Kannon), east of Ueno station and near the Sumida, dates from perhaps the late 7th century (although nearly all its structures are postwar). The name Edo means something like “estuary” or “inlet.” The clan in possession of the area…