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  • Yisraʾel, Museʾon (museum, Jerusalem)
    museum in Jerusalem opened in 1965 and consisting of the Bezalel National Art Museum, the Samuel Bronfman Biblical and Archaeological Museum, a Youth Wing, the Shrine of the Book, and The Billy Rose Art Garden. The Shrine of the Book houses the Dead Sea Scrolls in a building whose pagoda-like dome is reminiscent of the shape of the ancient jars in which the sc...
  • Yitzḥaqi, Rabbi Shlomo (French religious scholar)
    renowned medieval French commentator on the Bible and Talmud (the authoritative Jewish compendium of law, lore, and commentary). Rashi combined the two basic methods of interpretation, literal and nonliteral, in his influential Bible commentary. His commentary on the Talmud was a landmark in Talmudic exegesis, and his work still serves among Jews as the most substantive introduction to biblical an...
  • YIVO bleter (American publication)
    ...of Yiddish literature were Der morgnzhurnal (“The Morning Paper”) and Der tog (“The Day”). YIVO bleter (“YIVO Journal”) has been an important forum for scholarship in Yiddish studies since 1931. Its primary headquarters moved from Vilna to New York in 1940, togeth...
  • YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (international research institution)
    ...whatever could be rescued, first from the Nazis and then from the Soviets. His efforts were not in vain; thousands of volumes and documents survived and were eventually reclaimed in the 1990s by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research....
  • Yixian (Chinese leader)
    leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang [Pinyin: Guomindang]), known as the father of modern China. Influential in overthrowing the Qing (Manchu) dynasty (1911/12), he served as the first provisional president of the Republic of China (1911–12) and later as de facto ruler (1923–25)....
  • Yixin (Chinese official)
    leading official in the closing years of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12), who tried to repair a weakened government and to effect a rapprochement with the West....
  • Yiyang (China)
    city, northern Hunan sheng (province), southeast-central China. The city is situated approximately 47 miles (75 km) northwest of Changsha (the provincial capital) on the Zi River, to the south of Dongting Lake, on the main highway from Changsha to Changde farther to the northwest....
  • Yizernitsky, Yitzḥak (prime minister of Israel)
    Polish-born Zionist leader and prime minister of Israel in 1983–84 and 1986–90 (in alliance with Shimon Peres of the Labour Party) and in 1990–92....
  • Yizhar, S. (Israeli writer)
    Israeli writer and scholar (b. Sept. 27, 1916, Rehovot, British-mandated Palestine [now in Israel]—d. Aug. 21, 2006, Meishar, Israel), was one of Israel’s earliest and most richly lyrical Hebrew novelists. Although Yizhar was a devout Zionist, he did not shy away from portraying the painful and often cruel effects that the creation and defense of Israel had on the Palestinian people,...
  • Yizhou (China)
    city and capital of Sichuan sheng (province), China. Chengdu, in central Sichuan, is situated on the fertile Chengdu Plain, the site of Dujiangyan, one of China’s most ancient and successful irrigation systems, watered by the Min River. The system and nearby Mount Qingcheng, an early centre of...
  • Yizhu (emperor of Qing dynasty)
    reign name (nianhao) of the seventh emperor of the Qing (Manchu) dynasty (1644–1911/12) of China. During his reign (1850–61) China was beset internally by the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64) and externally by conflicts with the encroaching European powers....
  • Yizhuan (Confucian text)
    ...in the development of Confucian thought in this context was the prominent rise of the metaphysically significant Confucian texts, notably Zhongyong (“Doctrine of the Mean”) and Yizhuan (“The Great Commentary of the Classic of Changes”), which appealed to some Buddhist and Daoist thinkers. A sign of a possible Confucian turn in the Tang was Li Ao’...
  • yizkor (Judaism)
    (Hebrew: “may he [i.e., God] remember”), the opening word of memorial prayers recited for the dead by Ashkenazic (German-rite) Jews during synagogue services on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), on the eighth day of Passover (Pesaḥ), on Shemini Atzeret (the eighth day of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles), and on the second day of Shavuot (Feast of Weeks...
  • Yizong (emperor of Tang dynasty)
    In the second half of the 9th century the central government became progressively weaker. During Yizong’s reign (859–873) there was a resurgence of the eunuchs’ power and a constant fratricidal strife between eunuchs and officials at court. From the 830s onward the first signs of unrest and banditry had appeared in the Huai valley and Henan, and trouble spread to the Yangtze v...
  • Yizong (emperor of Ming dynasty)
    reign name (nianhao) of the 16th and last emperor (reigned 1627–44) of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644)....
  • Yizreʿel, ʿEmeq (region, Israel)
    lowland in northern Israel, dividing the hilly areas of Galilee in the north and Samaria (in the Israeli-occupied West Bank) in the south. Esdraelon is the Greek derivation of the Hebrew Yizreʿel, meaning “God will sow” or “May God make fruitful,” an allusion to the fertility of the area....
  • ylang-ylang (plant)
    (Cananga odorata), South Asian tree of the custard apple family (Annonaceae), in the order Magnoliales. A penetrating but evanescent perfume is distilled from its flowers....
  • ylang-ylang oil (essential oil)
    ...of flowers,” derives from the exceedingly delicate and evanescent fragrance of the yellowish green, bell-shaped flowers. The fragrance is highly valued in the manufacture of perfumes. Ylang-ylang, or cananga, oil is derived by simple distillation from the petals of fully opened flowers. Although the tree blossoms throughout the year, the flowers picked in May or June yield the......
  • ylang-ylang vine (plant)
    Ylang-ylang vine (Artabotrys odoratissimus), also in the family Annonaceae, produces masses of small greenish white flowers in spring and clustered, long-stalked, yellow, plumlike, two-seeded fruits in fall. It is a source of commercial perfume. A 2- to 3.5-metre (about 6.5- to 11.5-foot) woody climber, it supports itself by hooks formed at the middle of the flower (and later fruit)......
  • YLE (Finnish company)
    The state-run Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yleisradio Oy [YLE]; established 1926) operates a number of nationwide television networks—both public service and commercial—along with several digital channels and offers programming in Swedish. YLE also owns Radio Finland, which broadcasts in Finnish, Swedish, English, and Russian. Jointly owned by Finland, Sweden, and Norway,......
  • ylide (chemical compound)
    In investigating reactions involving carbanions, negatively charged organic species, Wittig discovered a class of organic phosphorus compounds called ylides that mediate a particular type of reaction that became known as the Wittig reaction. This reaction proved of great value in the synthesis of complex organic compounds such as vitamins A and D2, prostaglandins, and steroids....
  • YMBA (Myanmar nationalist organization)
    The new leaders first turned their attention to the national religion, culture, and education. In 1906 they founded the Young Men’s Buddhist Association (YMBA) and through it began establishing a number of schools supported by private donations and government grants-in-aid (the YMBA was not antigovernment). Three years later the British, attempting to pacify the Indian National Congress (a....
  • YMCA (Christian lay movement)
    nonsectarian, nonpolitical Christian lay movement that aims to develop high standards of Christian character through group activities and citizenship training. It originated in London in 1844, when 12 young men, led by George Williams, an employee in, and subsequently the head of, a drapery house, formed a club for the “improvement of the spiritual condition of young men in the drapery and ...
  • Ymir (Norse mythology)
    in Norse mythology, the first being, a giant who was created from the drops of water that formed when the ice of Niflheim met the heat of Muspelheim. Aurgelmir was the father of all the giants; a male and a female grew under his arm, and his legs produced a six-headed son. A cow, Audumla, nourished him with her milk. Audumla was herself nour...
  • Yn y lhyvyr hwnn (Welsh book)
    ...abandoned by the Renaissance humanists. The new prose they fashioned was based on bardic language and classical authors, enriched by new formations and borrowings. The first Welsh printed book, Yn y lhyvyr hwnn (1547; “In This Book”), consisted of extracts from the Scriptures and the prayer book: from this time modern Welsh prose began to assume definite form....
  • Ynglinga Saga (Scandinavian literature)
    ...to Snorri is the Heimskringla (“Orb of the World”), a history of the kings of Norway from the beginning to the mid-12th century. The first section of this book, the “Ynglinga saga,” is of particular interest, for in it, Snorri described the descent of the kings of Norway from the royal house of Sweden, the Ynglingar, who, in their turn, were said to.....
  • Yngre, Per Brahe den (Swedish statesman)
    nobleman, soldier, and statesman who served as a member of the regency councils ruling Sweden during the minorities of the monarchs Christina and Charles XI....
  • Yngvi (Norse mythology)
    in Norse mythology, the ruler of peace and fertility, rain, and sunshine and the son of the sea god Njörd. Although originally one of the Vanir tribe, he was included with the Aesir. Gerd, daughter of the giant Gymir, was his wife. Worshiped especially in Sweden, he was also well-known in Norway and Iceland. His sister and female coun...
  • Yngvi-Freyr (Norse mythology)
    in Norse mythology, the ruler of peace and fertility, rain, and sunshine and the son of the sea god Njörd. Although originally one of the Vanir tribe, he was included with the Aesir. Gerd, daughter of the giant Gymir, was his wife. Worshiped especially in Sweden, he was also well-known in Norway and Iceland. His sister and female coun...
  • Ynys Byr (island, Wales, United Kingdom)
    island in Carmarthen Bay of the Bristol Channel, Pembrokeshire (Sir Benfro) county, Wales. It lies 2.3 miles (3.7 km) south of the port of Tenby. The island is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long and 1 mile (1.6 km) across at its widest. From at least the 6th century, when it was inhabited by Celtic monks, Caldey has been associated with religious communities. In 1906 it was bought by Angli...
  • Yo (poetry by Grade)
    ...Vilna”), a group of avant-garde Yiddish writers and artists, Grade began publishing poems in Yiddish periodicals. His first published book was the poetry collection Yo (1936; “Yes”): it includes poems of spiritual struggle and the destruction of Jewish life and conveys Grade’s premonition of the Holocaust, a concern that informed much of his....
  • yo (Japanese musical scale)
    ...the earlier periods. The tunings used in the Edo koto traditions, however, reveal new, apparently indigenous, tonal systems. These concepts were eventually categorized under the two scales called yo and in, shown in notation XIII-A. The tunings in XIII-Band XIII-Creflect the new kinds of pentatonism of the period with their use of half steps. The hira-joshi tuning appears i...
  • yō (Japanese labour system)
    Similar labour obligations have existed in other parts of the world. In Japan the yō system of imposing compulsory labour on the farmers was incorporated in the tax system in the 7th century. The Egyptians used the corvée for centuries to obtain labour to remove the mud left at the bottom of the canals by the rising of the Nile River. In various times and places the......
  • “Yo, el supremo” (book by Roa Bastos)
    Roa Bastos’s most ambitious work, the novel Yo, el supremo (1974; I, the Supreme, in bilingual edition), is based on the life of Francia and covers more than a hundred years of Paraguayan history....
  • Yo’ Ol’ Swingmaster (American disc jockey)
    Critic and historian Nelson George called Al Benson, who worked at several Chicago radio stations beginning in the mid-1940s, one of the most influential black deejays of all time. While many of his African-American peers were indistinguishable from white deejays over the airwaves, Benson, who was nicknamed “Yo’ Ol’ Swingmaster,” never tried to mask what he called ...
  • Yŏ Un-hyŏng (Korean politician)
    ...they had a common goal: the immediate attainment of self-government. As early as Aug. 16, 1945, some Koreans organized a Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence, headed by Woon-hyung Lyuh (Yŏ Un-hyŏng), who was closely associated with the leftists. On September 6 the People’s Republic of Korea was proclaimed by delegates attending a “national......
  • yo-yo (toy)
    ...that may have been toys have been found in deposits from ancient Sumer dating to 2600 bc. The earliest-known written historical mention of a toy comes from about 500 bc in a Greek reference to yo-yos made from wood, metal, or painted terra-cotta. It is believed, however, that the yo-yo originated in China at a much earlier date. In addition, the kite, still a popular...
  • Yoake mae (work by Shimazaki Tōson)
    Tōson began research in 1928 for Yoake mae (1935; “Before the Dawn”), his greatest work and one of the masterpieces of modern Japanese literature. This is a story of the struggle for the Imperial Restoration in the 1860s as mirrored in a rural community. The tragic hero of the novel, modeled after the writer’s own father, eventually dies an embittered deat...
  • Yoalli Ehécatl (Aztec god)
    god of the Great Bear constellation and of the night sky, one of the major deities of the Aztec pantheon. Tezcatlipoca’s cult was brought to central Mexico by the Toltecs, Nahua-speaking warriors from the north, about the end of the 10th century ad....
  • Yoan of Rila (Bulgarian saint)
    ... The first Christian monastery in Bulgaria, Rila was founded by the hermit John of Rila (Yoan of Rila, in Bulgarian Ivan Rilski), who is the traditional patron saint of Bulgaria. Rila grew rapidly in power and influence from the 13th to the 14th century. After a devastating fire, it was rebuilt and fortified (c. 1334–35) in its present location by the feudal lord Khrelio (also......
  • Yobe (state, Nigeria)
    state, northeastern Nigeria. It borders the Republic of Niger to the north and the Nigerian states of Borno to the east, Bauchi to the southwest, and Jigawa to the northwest. Yobe state was created in 1991 from the western half of Borno state....
  • Yoccoz, Jean-Christophe (French mathematician)
    French mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1994 for his work in dynamical systems....
  • yodel (music)
    type of singing in which high falsetto and low chest notes are rapidly alternated; its production is helped by the enunciation of open and closed vowels on the low and high notes of wide intervals. Yodeling is also used as a means of communicating over moderate distances by the inhabitants of mountainous regions. It is associated with the Alpine peoples of Switzerland and the A...
  • Yodo River (river, Japan)
    river, central western Honshu, Japan. The Yodo is the sole outlet of Lake Biwa, the country’s largest freshwater lake, from which it issues in a southwesterly direction to Osaka Bay, connecting the Kyōto Basin with the Ōsaka Plain. It was a major means of transportation and communication during the Tokugawa period (1603–1867). The river is dammed for...
  • Yodo-Gawa (river, Japan)
    river, central western Honshu, Japan. The Yodo is the sole outlet of Lake Biwa, the country’s largest freshwater lake, from which it issues in a southwesterly direction to Osaka Bay, connecting the Kyōto Basin with the Ōsaka Plain. It was a major means of transportation and communication during the Tokugawa period (1603–1867). The river is dammed for...
  • Yodogawa azalea (plant)
    ...1 to 2 metres (3 to 6.5 feet) high, with pink to whitish flowers. Hundreds of horticultural forms have been bred from the Ghent azalea (R. gandavense); the molle azalea (R. molle); the Yodogawa azalea (R. yedoense); and the torch azalea (R. kaempferi)....
  • Yoelson, Asa (American singer)
    popular U.S. singer and blackface comedian of the musical stage and motion pictures, from before World War I to 1940. His unique singing style and personal magnetism established an immediate rapport with audiences....
  • Yoga (philosophy)
    (Sanskrit: “Yoking,” or “Union”), one of the six orthodox systems (darshans) of Indian philosophy. Its influence has been widespread among many other schools of Indian thought. Its basic text is the Yoga-sūtras by Patañjali (c. 2nd century bc?)....
  • Yoga (tantra classification)
    ...all duality. The four stages in the process are described in four different groups of tantras (the Kriya-tantra, Carya-tantra, Yoga-tantra, and Anuttarayoga-tantra) that are compared with the fourfold phases of courtship (the exchange of glances, a pleasing or encouraging smile, the holding......
  • Yoga-sutras (work by Patañjali)
    The Yoga-sūtras of Patañjali (2nd century bc) are the earliest extant textbook on Yoga. Scholars now generally agree that the author of the Yoga-sūtras is not the grammarian Patañjali. In any case, the Yoga-sūtras stand in close relation to the Sāṃkhya system, so much so that tradition regards the two systems as on...
  • Yogācāra (Buddhist school)
    (“Doctrine of Consciousness”), an important idealistic school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Yogācāra attacked both the complete realism of Theravāda Buddhism and the provisional practical realism of the Mādhyamika school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The name of the school is derived from the title of an important 4th- or 5th-century text of t...
  • yōgaku (Japanese history)
    (Japanese: “Dutch learning”), concerted effort by Japanese scholars during the late Tokugawa period (late 18th–19th century) to learn the Dutch language so as to be able to learn Western technology; the term later became synonymous with Western scientific learning in general. With the exception of the Dutch trading post on the island of ...
  • Yogananda, Paramahansa (Indian guru)
    spiritual society founded in the United States by Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952), a teacher of yoga, who was one of the first Indian spiritual teachers to reside permanently in the West. His lecturing and teaching led to the chartering of the fellowship in 1935, with headquarters in Los Angeles; there are now centres worldwide, as well as several independent groups influenced by his......
  • Yogeśvarī (Hindu deity)
    ...Indrāṇī, and Cāmuṇḍā, or Yamī. (One text, the Varāha-Purāṇa, states that they number eight, including Yogeśvarī, created out of the flame from Śiva’s mouth.)...
  • yoghourt (milk food)
    semifluid fermented milk food having a smooth texture and mildly sour flavour because of its lactic acid content. Yogurt may be made from the milk of cows, sheep, goats, or water buffalo. Cow’s milk is used in the United States and north-central Europe; sheep’s and goat’s milk are preferred in Turkey and southeastern Europe; milk from the water buffalo is most commonly used in...
  • yoghurt (milk food)
    semifluid fermented milk food having a smooth texture and mildly sour flavour because of its lactic acid content. Yogurt may be made from the milk of cows, sheep, goats, or water buffalo. Cow’s milk is used in the United States and north-central Europe; sheep’s and goat’s milk are preferred in Turkey and southeastern Europe; milk from the water buffalo is most commonly used in...
  • yogi (practitioner of yoga)
    The great Buddha myth is a combination of the ideals of universal kingship and universal religious preeminence. This is clearly expressed in the myth of the prophetic utterance of future greatness by the sage Asita, who examined auspicious signs on the infant Gautama and determined that he was a Mahapurusha (a Great Man capable of attaining universal rulership or Buddhahood) who was destined to......
  • yogin (practitioner of yoga)
    The great Buddha myth is a combination of the ideals of universal kingship and universal religious preeminence. This is clearly expressed in the myth of the prophetic utterance of future greatness by the sage Asita, who examined auspicious signs on the infant Gautama and determined that he was a Mahapurusha (a Great Man capable of attaining universal rulership or Buddhahood) who was destined to......
  • yogurt (milk food)
    semifluid fermented milk food having a smooth texture and mildly sour flavour because of its lactic acid content. Yogurt may be made from the milk of cows, sheep, goats, or water buffalo. Cow’s milk is used in the United States and north-central Europe; sheep’s and goat’s milk are preferred in Turkey and southeastern Europe; milk from the water buffalo is most commonly used in...
  • Yogyakarta (special district, Indonesia)
    daerah istimewa (special district), south-central Java, Indonesia. It is bounded on the west, north, and east by Jawa Tengah provinsi (“province”) and fronts the Indian Ocean on the south. The district includes the city of Yogyakarta....
  • Yogyakarta (Indonesia)
    kotamadya (municipality) and capital, Yogyakarta daerah istimewa (special district), Java, Indonesia. It lies 18 miles (29 km) inland from the southern Java coast and near Mount Merapi (9,551 feet [2,911 m])....
  • “Yōhai taichō” (work by Ibuse Masuji)
    ...No Consultations Today), characterizing a town by the patients who come to the doctor’s office, and Yōhai taichō (1950; A Far-Worshiping Commander), an antimilitary satire, were especially well received. Ibuse received the Order of Culture for the novel Kuroi ame (1966; ......
  • Yohannes IV (emperor of Ethiopia)
    emperor of Ethiopia (1872–89). Like his predecessor, Tewodros II (reigned 1855–68), Yohannes IV was a strong, progressive ruler, but he spent most of his time repelling military threats from Egypt, Italy, and the Mahdists of the Sudan....
  • yohimbe tree (plant)
    ...on contact, and attempts to ingest it as an aphrodisiac are considered extremely hazardous. Yohimbine is a crystalline alkaloid substance derived from the bark of the yohimbé tree (Corynanthe yohimbe) found in central Africa, where it has been used for centuries to increase sexual powers. Although it has been promoted as an aphrodisiac, most investigators feel that any......
  • yohimbine (drug)
    ...as alcohol or marijuana, which may lead to sexual excitation through disinhibition, modern medical science recognizes a very limited number of aphrodisiacs. These are, principally, cantharides and yohimbine, both of which stimulate sexual arousal by irritating the urinary tract when excreted. Cantharides, or cantharidin, consists of the broken dried remains of the blister beetle (q.v.).....
  • Yohkoh (Japanese satellite)
    Japanese satellite that provided continuous monitoring of the Sun from 1991 to 2001....
  • Yoho National Park (park, British Columbia, Canada)
    national park in southeastern British Columbia, Canada. The park occupies 507 square miles (1,313 square km) of the western and central slopes of the Rocky Mountains and is adjacent to two other national parks—Banff to the east and Kootenay to the south. Known for the B...
  • Yoi (people)
    an official minority group inhabiting large parts of Guizhou province in south-central China. They call themselves Jui or Yoi. There are also some 50,000 Buyei living in Vietnam, where they are an official nationality. They had no written script of their own until 1956, when the Chinese communists supplied them with one based on the Latin alphabet. Most Chinese Buyei are bilingu...
  • Yoido Full Gospel Church (Korean religious organization)
    ...period sparked not only Christian churches—almost 50 percent of Koreans are Christian—but the development of radical forms of Christianity and quasi-Christianity. David Yonggi Cho’s Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul is the world’s largest congregation, with more than 700,000 parishioners. It belongs to the Assemblies of God, the major Pentecostal denomination in the ...
  • “Yoidore tenshi” (film by Kurosawa)
    ...the war. Of the many postwar films criticizing Japanese militarism, this was the most successful, both artistically and commercially. It was Yoidore tenshi (1948; Drunken Angel), however, that made Kurosawa’s name famous. This story of a consumptive gangster and a drunken doctor living in the postwar desolation of downtown Tokyo is a melodrama......
  • Yojimbo (film by Kurosawa Akira)
    ...however, he was continually embarrassed by economic difficulties. Throughout the 1960s, Kurosawa made a number of entertainment films, mainly with samurai as leading characters; Yojimbo (1961; “The Bodyguard”) is a representative work. Akahige (1965; Red Beard) combines elements of entertainment with a......
  • Yojoa, Lake (lake, Honduras)
    lake in northwestern Honduras. The nation’s largest inland lake, Yojoa has an area of 110 square miles (285 square km). It is volcanic in origin and nestles at an elevation of 2,133 feet (650 m) amid forested mountains. The region is a popular tourist resort, with fishing and duck shooting on the lake and hunting in the surrounding hills. Yojoa is easily accessible, lying on the main highwa...
  • yoke (harness)
    wooden bar or frame used to join draft animals at the heads or necks so that they pull together. In the early Middle East and in Greece and Rome, oxen and onagers were yoked across the horns or necks. Control of a team of yoked beasts was difficult. Furthermore, ancient yokes pressed against a hard-pulling animal’s windpipe, choking it. The invention of the horse collar solved this problem...
  • Yoke of Life, The (novel by Grove)
    ...(1892–1912), as a teacher in Manitoba (1912–24), and as an editor in Ottawa before retiring to a farm near Simcoe. Grove’s series of prairie novels, Our Daily Bread (1928), The Yoke of Life (1930), and Fruits of the Earth (1933), were most successful. Though somewhat stiff in style and clumsy in construction, they live by virtue of the honesty of Grove...
  • yoke riveter (device)
    ...to control the speed and force of the blows. In a compression riveter the compression, or squeezing action, on the rivet is obtained from an air piston connected to a cam, wedge, or toggle. A yoke riveter has an air-operated clamp or vise that holds the work in place; the yoke absorbs the hammering action and thus reduces operator fatigue. Hoists operated by compressed air are employed in......
  • Yokihi (play by Komparu Zenchiku)
    Typical of a number of nō plays that are dramatizations of Chinese history and legends is the 15th-century Yōkihi, by Komparu Zenchiku, based on the 9th-century narrative poem Ch’ang hen ko (“The Song of Everlasting Sorrow”) by Po Chü-i. The original describes Emperor Hsüan-tsung’s love for his concubine Yang Kuei-fei (Yō...
  • Yokkaichi (Japan)
    city, Mie ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It lies facing Ise Bay, southwest of Nagoya. The city developed around a castle built in 1470. By the Tokugawa period (1603–1867), it had become an important trade centre, with markets open on the fourth day of each month (yokka means “fourth day in the month,” and ichi means “market...
  • Yoknapatawpha cycle (works by Faulkner)
    ...his reputation and career. When the novel eventually did appear, severely truncated, as Sartoris in 1929, it created in print for the first time that densely imagined world of Jefferson and Yoknapatawpha County—based partly on Ripley but chiefly on Oxford and Lafayette county and characterized by frequent recurrences of the same characters, places, and themes—which Faulkner...
  • Yokohama (Japan)
    city and port, capital of Kanagawa ken (prefecture), Japan, and part of the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area, which is the largest urban agglomeration in Japan....
  • Yokohama Mainichi (Japanese newspaper)
    ...and the suppression of newspapers were common in the 1870s, but several giants of contemporary Japanese journalism nevertheless originated during the decade. In 1870 the Yokohama Mainichi, the first daily in Japan, was started; it was also one of the first to use lead type. Two years later the Tokyo Nichi-Nichi appeared as one of......
  • Yokohama-e (Japanese print style)
    ...block of economic support from the traditional print publishers. Print artists nevertheless continued to document the remarkably varied moods of the period. For example, a type of print known as Yokohama-e, named after the Japanese port city with a large resident foreign population, offered glimpses of the customs and appearances of the recently arrived visitors. Brutal, grotesque, and......
  • Yokoi, Gumpei (Japanese inventor)
    Japanese inventor and entrepreneur who was best known as the chief designer of Game Boy, an electronic toy that sold nearly 60 million units and established the Nintendo Co. as one of the world’s leading computer game developers (b. September 1941--d. Oct. 4, 1997)....
  • Yokomitsu Riichi (Japanese writer)
    Japanese writer who, with Kawabata Yasunari, was one of the mainstays of the New Sensationalist school (Shinkankaku-ha) of Japanese writers, influenced by the avant-garde trends in European literature of the 1920s....
  • Yokomitsu Toshikazu (Japanese writer)
    Japanese writer who, with Kawabata Yasunari, was one of the mainstays of the New Sensationalist school (Shinkankaku-ha) of Japanese writers, influenced by the avant-garde trends in European literature of the 1920s....
  • Yokoo Tadanori (Japanese graphic designer)
    ...from diverse mass media—including comic books (manga), popular science-fiction movies, and newspaper photographs—provided a rich vocabulary for Yokoo Tadanori, whose work beginning in the 1960s inspired a new generation of Japanese designers. In his early posters and magazine covers he utilized a variety of contemporary techniques; for......
  • Yokosuka (Japan)
    seaport, Kanagawa ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It lies on the western shore of Tokyo Bay, about 15 miles (24 km) south of Yokohama. Its site on the Miura Peninsula was occupied by a small fishing village until a shipyard was established there in 1865. By 1884 it had become a major naval station and, after World War II, served as a base for the U.S. Navy and later also...
  • Yokoyama Mitsuteru (Japanese artist)
    Japanese manga artist (b. June 18, 1934, Kobe, Japan—d. April 15, 2004, Tokyo, Japan), created the characters Tetsujin 28 (known as Gigantor in the United States) and Giant Robo. Basing his designs on the American bombers that flew over his childhood home, Yokoyama almost single-handedly created the giant robot or “mech” school of manga. His Tetsujin 28 Go series...
  • Yokoyama Taikan (Japanese painter)
    Japanese painter who, with his friend Hishida Shunsō, contributed to the revitalization of traditional Japanese painting in the modern era....
  • Yokozuna (sports)
    ...sport. Six great championships are held annually, attracting immense crowds, and several hundred athletes make their living at this sport. A complex system of ranking leads to the designation of Yokozuna, or “grand champion.” The list of men awarded this title commences with Akashi Shiganosuke, victor in 1632. Specially selected youths are brought up into the profession and...
  • Yokuntown (Massachusetts, United States)
    town (township), Berkshire county, western Massachusetts, U.S. It lies in the Berkshire Hills, just south of Pittsfield. Settled about 1750 and originally called Yokuntown, it was set off from Richmond in 1767 and was probably named for Charles Lennox, 3rd duke of Richmond and a defender of colonial rights. Early industries included an iron ...
  • Yokuts (people)
    North American Indians speaking a Penutian language and who historically inhabited the San Joaquin Valley and the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada south of the Fresno River in what is now California, U.S. The Yokuts were traditionally divided into tribelets, perhaps as many as 50, each having a dialect, territory, and name of its own....
  • Yokutsan languages
    ...the families are Wintun (two languages), Miwok-Costanoan (perhaps five Miwokan languages, plus three extinct Costanoan languages), Sahaptin (two languages), Yakonan (two extinct languages), Yokutsan (three languages), and Maiduan (four languages)—plus Klamath-Modoc, Cayuse (extinct), Molale (extinct), Coos, Takelma......
  • yōkyoku (Japanese music)
    The music of nō as it is performed today consists of vocal music (yōkyoku) with an instrumental ensemble known collectively as the hayashi. The singing is done by the actors or by a unison chorus (jiutai). The four instruments of the hayashi are a flute (Nō-kan), the taiko stick drum described earlier, a small hourglass drum......
  • Yola (people)
    ...along the Niger, the Mossi are in the Volta basin, and a variety of smaller groups, such as the Dogon, Lobi, and Bobo, survive within the great bend of the Niger. Other small groups, such as the Diola (Jola), Landuma, and Baga, are to the southwest. The Hausa are concentrated largely in northern Nigeria, though they are scattered in all the major trade centres of western Africa. The Fulani......
  • Yola (Nigeria)
    town, capital of Adamawa state, and seat of the traditional Adamawa emirate, eastern Nigeria. The town is served by the port of Jimeta (5.5 miles [9 km] north-northwest) on the Benue River, about 500 miles (800 km) above its confluence with the Niger, and by an airfield. Yola also has road connections with Numan, Jalingo, ...
  • Yolande de Brienne (queen of Jerusalem)
    queen of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem (1212–28) and consort of the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II....
  • Yolande of Aragon (queen of Naples)
    ...invaded the Hôtel Saint-Paul, where he lived. Toward the end of that year, he was betrothed to Mary of Anjou, the nine-year-old daughter of Louis II of Anjou, king of Naples, and his wife, Yolande of Aragon. Charles went to live in Anjou, where Yolande, energetic and accustomed to rule, established her influence over him. In 1416, he became captain general of Paris and began to......
  • Yolande of Dreux (daughter of Beatrice de Montfort)
    John de Montfort (d. 1249), Amaury’s son and successor, left only a daughter, Beatrice (d. 1312), who was married in 1259 to Count Robert IV of Dreux. Their daughter Yolande (d. 1322) was married first, in 1285, to Alexander III of Scotland and second, in 1294, to Arthur II of Brittany, to whom she brought the Montfort lands. Their son John de Montfort (d. 1345), whose elder brothers accord...
  • Yoldia Sea
    ...Epoch glaciations. Some 14,000 years ago, ice covered all of northern Europe as far south as the present German-Polish coastline; by 7700 bc glacial meltwater had formed the Yoldia Sea, which stretched east from the present Skagerrak across what is now lake-strewn southern Sweden as far as the present Lake Ladoga, beyond the bend of the Gulf of Finland. A thousa...
  • yolk (embryology)
    the nutritive material of an egg, used as food by a developing, embryonic animal. Eggs with relatively little, uniformly distributed yolk are termed isolecithal. This condition occurs in invertebrates and in all but the lowest mammals. Eggs with abundant yolk concentrated in one hemisphere of the egg are termed telolecithal. This occurs in many invertebrates and in all vertebrat...
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