I realised that there was a link between NORWAY/SWEDEN and the JAPANESE upon that 'school trip' up the Norwegian fjords in my second year at LANGLEY SENIORS 1975...after being taken to see that VIKING CHURCH which struck me as 'really Eastern' in design...it was inconceivable to my young mind that there hadn't been some 'cultural exchange' early on...the early seafaring merchants/military naval classes...and the CHINESE were big on that one (as I was to find out decades later on)...and at the time I figured it must have been the Chinese but I am not sure why...but who knows...it could easily have been a more Japanese influence...I have no experience of 'design' in either country...and so many centuries ago... both cultures in terms of 'design' - look very similar to me...i could never tell the difference between the warrior class 'uniforms' of either country for example...even though, as a young child and in HENRY mode...TODDY had dressed me up as a 'minature SAMURAI warrior'...in an ancient costume...and MARTINE had nearly died laughing...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Shōtoku

Shōtoku responded by sponsoring a mission led by Ono no Imoko in 607. The Prince's own message contains the earliest written instance in which the Japanese archipelago is named "Nihon", literally, sun-origin. The salutation said:

"From the sovereign of the land of the rising sun (nihon/hi izuru) to the sovereign of the land of the setting sun."[5]
He is said to be buried at Shinaga, in the former Kawachi province (today Osaka prefecture).[6]