ABSTRACT
Aesop's Fables is the first Western literature introduced to the Japanese people. Japan is sometimes called Akitsushima. Akitsu is the ancient term for dragon-fly which is often used as the country's symbol. Hinomaru or Rising Sun was made officially the national flag of Japan in the fifth year of Meiji or 1872. Iemoto (headmaster) is a unique institution of Japan. Every school of Japanese singing, dancing, tea ceremony, flower arrangement, and many other arts has its iemoto. Seirei, the Chinese characters for dragon-fly, has also been used to signify Japan quite often, particulary in old literature and writings. Originally military men were called bushi, the term coming from China. But samurai has been more commonly used to represent Japanese feudal warriors than bushi. Edo firemen's bravery and chivalrous spirit that brought them into fight with samurai strongly appealed to the popular sentiment of the Edokko who regarded them as their heroes.
