title: Honda B engine

text: YS1 casing can take S80 Internals or a hydraulic conversion kit can be used to operate hydraulic transmissions in cable operated models, however A1/S1/J1/Y1 internals do not swap into the later model YS1 or hydraulic casings due to different shaft diameters.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Houthi movement (; "al-Ḥūthīyūn" ), officially called Ansar Allah (' "Partisans of God" or "Supporters of God") and colloquially simply Houthis, is an Islamist political and armed movement that emerged from Saada in North Yemen in the 1990s. The Houthi movement is a predominately Zaidi Shia force, whose leadership is drawn largely from the Houthi tribe.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Houthis have a complex relationship with Yemen's Sunni Muslims; the movement has discriminated against Sunnis, but also recruited and allied with them. Under the leadership of Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, the group emerged as an opposition to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. They accused him of corruption and criticized him for being backed by Saudi Arabia and the United States. Hussein accused Saleh of seeking to please the U.S. at the expense of the Yemeni people and Yemen's sovereignty. Resisting Saleh's order for his arrest, Hussein was killed in Sa'dah in 2004 along with a number of his guards by the Yemeni army, sparking the Houthi insurgency in Yemen. Since then, except for a short intervening period, the movement has been led by his brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Houthi movement attracts its Zaidi-Shia followers in Yemen by promoting regional political-religious issues in its media, including the overarching U.S.–Israeli conspiracy theory and Arab "collusion". In 2003, the Houthis' slogan, "God is great, death to the US, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory for Islam", became the group's trademark.


title: Houthi movement

text: The movement's expressed goals include combating economic underdevelopment and political marginalization in Yemen while seeking greater autonomy for Houthi-majority regions of the country. They also claim to support a more democratic non-sectarian republic in Yemen. The Houthis have made fighting corruption the centerpiece of their political program.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Houthis took part in the 2011 Yemeni Revolution by participating in street protests and by coordinating with other opposition groups. They joined the National Dialogue Conference in Yemen as part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative to broker peace following the unrest. However, the Houthis would later reject the November 2011 GCC deal's provisions stipulating formation of six federal regions in Yemen, claiming that the deal did not fundamentally reform governance and that the proposed federalization "divided Yemen into poor and wealthy regions". Houthis also feared the deal was a blatant attempt to weaken them by dividing areas under their control between separate regions. In late 2014, Houthis repaired their relationship with the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and with his help, they took control of the capital and much of the north.


title: Houthi movement

text: In 2014–2015, Houthis took over the government in Sanaa with the help of the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and announced the fall of the current government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. Houthis have gained control of most of the northern part of Yemen's territory and since 2015 have been resisting the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen that claims to seek to restore the internationally recognized Yemeni government to power. Additionally, the Islamic State militant group has attacked all of the conflict's major parties including Houthis, Saleh forces, the Yemeni government, and the Saudi Arabian–led coalition forces. The Houthis have launched repeated missile and drone attacks against Saudi cities. The conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.


title: Houthi movement

text: According to Ahmed Addaghashi, a professor at Sanaa University, the Houthis began as a moderate theological movement that preached tolerance and held a broad-minded view of all the Yemeni peoples. Their first organization, "the Believing Youth" (BY), was founded in 1992 in Saada Governorate by either Mohammed al-Houthi, or his brother Hussein al-Houthi.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Believing Youth established school clubs and summer camps in order to "promote a Zaidi revival" in Saada. By 1994–1995, 15–20,000 students had attended BY summer camps. The religious material included lectures by Mohammed Hussein Fadhlallah (a Lebanese shia scholar) and Hassan Nasrallah (Secretary General of Lebanon's Hezbollah Party)."


title: Houthi movement

text: The formation of the Houthi organisations has been described by Adam Baron of the European Council on Foreign Relations as a reaction to foreign intervention. Their views include shoring up Zaidi support against the perceived threat of Saudi-influenced ideologies in Yemen and a general condemnation of the former Yemeni government's alliance with the United States, which, along with complaints regarding the government's corruption and the marginalisation of much of the Houthis' home areas in Saada, constituted the group's key grievances.


title: Houthi movement

text: Although Hussein al-Houthi, who was killed in 2004, had no official relation with Believing Youth, according to Zaid, he contributed to the radicalisation of some Zaydis after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. BY-affiliated youth adopted anti-American and anti-Jewish slogans which they chanted in the Saleh Mosque in Sanaa after Friday prayers.


title: Houthi movement

text: According to Zaid, the followers of Houthi's insistence on chanting the slogans attracted the authorities' attention, further increasing government worries over the extent of the al-Houthi movement's influence. "The security authorities thought that if today the Houthis chanted `Death to America', tomorrow they could be chanting 'Death to the president [of Yemen]".


title: Houthi movement

text: 800 BY supporters were arrested in Sanaa in 2004. President Ali Abdullah Saleh then invited Hussein al-Houthi to a meeting in Sanaa, but Hussein declined. On 18 June 2004 Saleh sent government forces to arrest Hussein.


title: Houthi movement

text: Hussein responded by launching an insurgency against the central government, but was killed on 10 September 2004. The insurgency continued intermittently until a ceasefire agreement was reached in 2010. During this prolonged conflict, the Yemeni army, and air force was used to suppress the Houthi rebellion in northern Yemen. The Saudis joined these anti-Houthi campaigns, but the Houthis won against both Saleh and the Saudi army. According to the Brookings Institution, this particularly humiliated the Saudis, who spent tens of billions of dollars on their military.


title: Houthi movement

text: Later, the Houthis participated in the 2011 Yemeni Revolution, as well as the ensuing National Dialogue Conference (NDC). However, they rejected the provisions of the November 2011 Gulf Cooperation Council deal on the ground that "it divide[d] Yemen into poor and wealthy regions" and also in response to assassination of their representative at NDC.


title: Houthi movement

text: As the revolution went on, Houthis gained control of greater territory. By 9 November 2011, Houthis were said to be in control of two Yemeni governorates (Saada and Al Jawf) and close to taking over a third governorate (Hajjah), which would enable them to launch a direct assault on the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. In May 2012, it was reported that the Houthis controlled a majority of Saada, Al Jawf, and Hajjah governorates; they had also gained access to the Red Sea and started erecting barricades north of Sanaa in preparation for more conflict.


title: Houthi movement

text: By 21 September 2014, Houthis were said to control parts of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, including government buildings and a radio station. While Houthi control expanded to the rest of Sanaa, as well as other towns such as Rada', this control was strongly challenged by Al-Qaeda. The Gulf States believed that the Houthis had accepted aid from Iran while Saudi Arabia was aiding their Yemeni rivals.


title: Houthi movement

text: On 20 January 2015, Houthi rebels seized the presidential palace in the capital. President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi was in the presidential palace during the takeover, but was not harmed. The movement officially took control of the Yemeni government on 6 February, dissolving parliament and declaring its Revolutionary Committee to be the acting authority in Yemen. On 20 March 2015, The al-Badr and al-Hashoosh mosques came under suicide attack during midday prayers, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant quickly claimed responsibility. The blasts killed 142 Houthi worshippers and wounded more than 351, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in Yemen's history.


title: Houthi movement

text: On 27 March 2015, in response to perceived Houthi threats to Sunni factions in the region, Saudi Arabia along with Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Sudan led a gulf coalition airstrike in Yemen. The military coalition included the United States which helped in planning of airstrikes, as well as logistical and intelligence support.


title: Houthi movement

text: According to a 2015 September report by Esquire magazine, the Houthis, once the outliers, are now one of the most stable and organised social and political movements in Yemen. The power vacuum created by Yemen's uncertain transitional period has drawn more supporters to the Houthis. Many of the formerly powerful parties, now disorganised with an unclear vision, have fallen out of favour with the public, making the Houthis—under their newly branded Ansar Allah name—all the more attractive.


title: Houthi movement

text: Houthi spokesperson Mohamed Abdel Salam stated that his group had spotted messages between the UAE and Saleh three months before his death. He told Al-Jazeera that there was communication between Saleh, UAE and a number of other countries such as Russia and Jordan through encrypted messages. The alliance between Saleh and the Houthi broke down in late 2017, with armed clashes occurring in Sanaa from 28 November.


title: Houthi movement

text: Saleh declared the split in a televised statement on 2 December, calling on his supporters to take back the country and expressed openness to a dialogue with the Saudi-led coalition. On 4 December 2017, Saleh's house in Sanaa was assaulted by fighters of the Houthi movement, according to residents. Saleh was killed by the Houthis on the same day.


title: Houthi movement

text: In January 2021, the United States designated the Houthis a terrorist organization, creating fears of an aid shortage in Yemen, but this stance was reversed a month later after Joe Biden became president.


title: Houthi movement

text: On 17 January 2022, Houthi missile and drone attacks on UAE industrial targets set fuel trucks on fire and killed three foreign workers. This was the first specific attack to which the Houthi admitted, and the first to result in deaths. A response led by Saudi Arabia included a 21 January air strike on a detention centre in Yemen, resulting in at least 70 deaths.


title: Houthi movement

text: There is a difference between the al-Houthi family and the Houthi movement. The movement was called by their opponents and foreign media "Houthis". The name came from the surname of the early leader of the movement, Hussein al-Houthi, who died in 2004.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Houthis avoid assuming a singular tribal identity. Instead, the group strategically draws support from tribes of the northern Bakil federation, rival to the Hashid federation which had been a traditional ally of the central government. The Houthis' lack of centralised command structure allows them to generate immense support, as Yemenis from diverse backgrounds have joined their cause.


title: Houthi movement

text: Membership of the group had between 1,000 and 3,000 fighters as of 2005 and between 2,000 and 10,000 fighters as of 2009. In 2010, the "Yemen Post" claimed that they had over 100,000 fighters. According to Houthi expert Ahmed Al-Bahri, by 2010, the Houthis had a total of 100,000–120,000 followers, including both armed fighters and unarmed loyalists.


title: Houthi movement

text: As of 2015, the group is reported to have attracted new supporters from outside their traditional demographics.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Houthi movement follows a mixed ideology with religious, Yemeni nationalist, and big tent populist tenets, imitating Hezbollah. Outsiders have argued that their political views are often vague, contradictory, and many of their slogans do not accurately reflect their aims. According to researcher Bernard Haykel, the movement's founder Hussein al-Houthi was influenced by a variety of different religious traditions and political ideologies, making it difficult to fit him or his followers into existing categories. The Houthis have portrayed themselves as national resistance, defending all Yemenis from outside aggression and influences, as champions against corruption, chaos, and extremism, and as representative for the interests of marginalized tribal groups and the Zayidi sect.


title: Houthi movement

text: Haykel argued that the Houthi movement has two central religious-ideological tenets. The first is the "Quranic Way", and which encompasses the belief that the Quran does not allow for interpretation and contains everything needed to improve Muslim society. The second is the belief in the absolute, divine right of "Ahl al-Bayt" (Prophet's descendants) to rule, a belief attributed to Jaroudism, a fundamentalist offshoot of Zaydism.


title: Houthi movement

text: The group has also exploited the popular discontent over corruption and reduction of government subsidies. According to a February 2015 "Newsweek" report, Houthis are fighting "for things that all Yemenis crave: government accountability, the end to corruption, regular utilities, fair fuel prices, job opportunities for ordinary Yemenis and the end of Western influence". In forging alliances, the Houthi movement has been opportunistic, at times allying with countries it later declared its enemy such as the United States.


title: Houthi movement

text: In general, the Houthi movement has centered its belief system on the Zaydi branch of Islam, a sect of Islam almost exclusively present in Yemen. Zaydis make up about 25 percent of the population, Sunnis make up 75 percent. Zaydi-led governments ruled Yemen for 1,000 years up until 1962. Since its foundation, the Houthi movement has often acted as advocates for Zaydi revivalism in Yemen.


title: Houthi movement

text: Although they have framed their struggle in religious terms and put great importance in their Zaydi roots, the Houthis are not an exclusively Zaydi group. In fact, they have outright rejected their portrayal by others as a faction which is purportedly only interested in Zaydi-related issues. They have not publicly advocated for the restoration of the old Zaydi imamate, although analysts have argued that they might plan to restore it in the future. Most Yemenis have a low opinion of the old imamate, and Hussein al-Houthi also did not advocate the imamate's restoration. Instead, he proposed a "Guiding Eminence" ("alam al-huda"), an individual descended from the Prophet who would act as a "universal leader for the world", though never defined this position's pregioatives or how they should be appointed.


title: Houthi movement

text: The movement has also recruited and allied with Sunni Muslims; according to researcher Ahmed Nagi, several themes of the Houthi ideology "such as Muslim unity, prophetic lineages, and opposition to corruption [...] allowed the Houthis to mobilize not only northern Zaydis, but also inhabitants of predominantly Shafi'i areas." However, the group is known to have discriminated against Sunni Muslims as well, closing Sunni mosques and primarily placing Zaydis in leadership positions in Houthi-controlled areas. The Houthis lost significant support among Sunni tribes after killing ex-President Saleh.


title: Houthi movement

text: Many Zaydis also oppose the Houthis, regarding them as Iranian proxies and the Houthis' form of Zaydi revivalism an attempt to "establish Shiite rule in the north of Yemen". In addition, Haykel argued that the Houthis follow a "a highly politicised, revolutionary, and intentionally simplistic, even primitivist interpretation of [Zaydism]'s teachings". Their view of Islam is largely based on the teachings of Hussein al-Houthi, collected after his death in a book titled "Malazim" (Fascicles), a work treated by Houthis as more important than older Zaydi theological traditions, resulting in repeated disputes with established Zaydi religious leaders. The "Malazim" reflect a number of different religious and ideological influences, including by Khomeinism and revolutionary Sunni Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood. Hussein al-Houthi believed that the "last exemplary" Zaydi scholar and leader was Al-Hadi ila'l-Haqq Yahya; later Zaydi imams were regarded as having deviated from the original form of Islam. The Houthis' belief in the "Quranic Way" also includes the rejection of "tafsir" (Quranic interpretations) as being derivative and divisive, meaning that they have a low opinion of most existing Islamic theological and juridical schools, including Zaydi traditionalists based in Sanaa with whom they often clash.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Houthis have asserted that their actions are to fight against the alleged expansion of Salafism in Yemen, and for the defence of their community from discrimination. In the years before the rise of the Houthi movement, state-supported Salafis had harassed Zaydis and destroyed Zaydi sites in Yemen. After their rise to power in 2014, the Houthis consequently "crushed" the Salafi community in Saada Governorate and mostly eliminated the al-Qaeda presence in the areas under their control; the Houthis view al-Qaeda as "Salafi jihadists" and thus "mortal enemies". On the other side, between 2014 and 2019, the Houthi leadership have signed multiple co-existence agreements with the Salafi community; pursuing Shia-Salafi reconciliation.


title: Houthi movement

text: In general, the Houthis' political ideology has gradually shifted from "heavily-religious mobilisation and activism under Husayn to the more assertive and statesmanlike rhetoric under Abdulmalik", its current leader. Due to strong support received by Houthis from the predominantly Zaydi northern tribes, the Houthi movement has often been described as tribalist or monarchist faction in opposition to republicanism. Regardless, they have managed to rally many people outside of their traditional bases to their cause, and became a major nationalist force.


title: Houthi movement

text: When armed conflict for the first time erupted back in 2004 between the Yemeni government and Houthis, the President Ali Abdullah Saleh accused the Houthis and other Islamic opposition parties of trying to overthrow the government and the republican system. However, Houthi leaders, for their part, rejected the accusation by saying that they had never rejected the president or the republican system, but were only defending themselves against government attacks on their community. After their takeover of northern Yemen in 2014, the Houthis remained committed to republicanism and continued to celebrate republican holidays. The Houthis have an ambivalent stance on the possible transformation of Yemen into a federation or the separation into two fully independent countries to solve the country's crisis. Though not opposed to these plans "per se", they have declined any plans which would in their eyes marginalize the northern tribes politically.


title: Houthi movement

text: Meanwhile, their opponents have asserted that the Houthis desire to institute Zaydi religious law, destabilising the government and stirring anti-American sentiment. In contrast, Hassan al-Homran, a former Houthi spokesperson, has said that "Ansar Allah supports the establishment of a civil state in Yemen. We want to build a striving modern democracy. Our goals are to fulfil our people's democratic aspirations in keeping with the Arab Spring movement." In an interview with "Yemen Times", Hussein al-Bukhari, a Houthi insider, said that Houthis' preferable political system is a republic with elections where women can also hold political positions, and that they do not seek to form a cleric-led government after the model of Islamic Republic of Iran, for "we cannot apply this system in Yemen because the followers of the Shafi (Sunni) doctrine are bigger in number than the Zaydis". In 2018, the Houthi leadership proposed the establishment of a non-partisan transitional government composed of technocrats.


title: Houthi movement

text: Ali Akbar Velayati, International Affairs Advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stated in October 2014 that "We are hopeful that Ansar-Allah has the same role in Yemen as Hezbollah has in eradicating the terrorists in Lebanon". Mohammed Ali al-Houthi criticized the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates as "betrayal" against the Palestinians and the cause of pan-Arabism.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Houthis' treatment of women and their restrictions on the arts has also been subject of debate. On one side, the movement has stated that it defends women's rights to vote and take public offices, and some feminists have fled from government-held areas into Houthi territories as the latter at least disempower more radical Jihadists. The Houthis field their own women security force, and have a Girl Scouts wing. However, it has been also been reported that Houthis harass women and restrict their freedoms of movement and expression.


title: Houthi movement

text: In regards to culture, the Houthis try to spread their views through propaganda using mainstream media, social media, and poetry as well as the "Houthification" of the education system to "instil Huthi values and mobilise the youth to join the fight against the coalition forces". However, the Houthis have been inconsistent in regards how to deal with forms of artistic expression which they disapprove of. The movement has allowed radio stations to continue broadcast music and content which the Houthis view as too Western, but also banned certain songs and harassed artists such as wedding musicians. In one instance which generated much publicity, the Houthi policemen conditioned that music could be played at a wedding party if it was not broadcast by loadspeakers; when the party guests did not conform to this demand, the main wedding singer was arrested. Journalist Robert F. Worth stated that "many secular-minded Yemenis seem unsure whether to view the Houthis as oppressors or potential allies." In general, the Houthis' policies are often decided on a local basis, and high-ranking Houthi officials are often incapable of checking regional officers' powers, making the treatment of civilians dependent on the area.


title: Houthi movement

text: The group's slogan reads as following: ""God Is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam"". This motto is partially modelled on the motto of revolutionary Iran, which reads "Death to U.S., and death to Israel".


title: Houthi movement

text: Some Houthi supporters stress that their ire for the U.S. and Israel is directed toward the governments of America and Israel. Ali al-Bukhayti, the spokesperson and official media face of the Houthis, rejected the literal interpretation of the slogan by stating in one of his interviews that "We do not really want death to anyone. The slogan is simply against the interference of those governments [i. e., U.S. and Israel]". In the Arabic Houthi-affiliated TV and radio stations they use religious connotations associated with jihad against Israel and the US.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Houthis have been accused of expelling or restricting members of the rural Yemeni Jewish community, which had about 50 remaining members. Reports of abuse include Houthi supporters bullying or attacking the country's Jews. Houthi officials, however, have denied any involvement in the harassment, asserting that under Houthi control, Jews in Yemen would be able to live and operate freely as any other Yemeni citizen. "Our problems are with Zionism and the occupation of Palestine, but Jews here have nothing to fear", said Fadl Abu Taleb, a spokesman for the Houthis. But despite insistence by Houthi leaders that the movement is not sectarian, a Yemeni Jewish rabbi has reportedly said that many Jews remain terrified by the movement's slogan. As a result, Yemeni Jews reportedly retain a negative sentiment towards the Houthis, who they allege have committed persecutions against them. According to Israeli Druze politician Ayoob Kara, Houthi militants had given an ultimatum telling Jews to "convert to Islam or leave Yemen".


title: Houthi movement

text: In March 2016, a UAE-based newspaper reported that one of the Yemeni Jews, who emigrated to Israel in 2016, was fighting with the Houthis. In the same month a Kuwaiti newspaper, "al-Watan", reported that a Yemeni Jew named Haroun al-Bouhi was killed in Najran while fighting with the Houthis against Saudi Arabia. The Kuwaiti newspaper added that the Yemeni Jews had a good relationship with Ali Abdullah Salah, who was at that time allied with the Houthis and were fighting in different fronts with the Houthis.


title: Houthi movement

text: Al-Houthi has said through his fascicles: “Arab countries and all Islamic countries will not be safe from Jews except through their eradication and the elimination of their entity.” A "New York Times" journalist reported being asked why they were speaking to a "dirty Jew" and that the Jews in the village were unable to communicate with their neighbors.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Houthis have been accused of detaining, torturing, arresting, and holding incommunicado Baháʼí Faith members on charges of espionage and apostasy, which are punishable by death. Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi has targeted Baháʼís in public speeches, and accused the followers of Baháʼí Faith of being "satanic" and agents for the western countries, citing a 2013 fatwa issued by Iran's supreme leader.


title: Houthi movement

text: During their campaigns against both the Saleh and Hadi governments, Houthis used civil disobedience. Following the Yemeni government's decision on 13 July 2014 to increase fuel prices, Houthi leaders succeeded in organising massive rallies in the capital Sanaa to protest the decision and to demand resignation of the incumbent government of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi for "state-corruption". These protests developed into the 2014–2015 phase of the insurgency. Similarly, following 2015 Saudi-led airstrikes against Houthis which claimed civilians lives, Yemenis responded to the Abdul-Malik al-Houthi's call and took to streets of the capital, Sanaa, in tens of thousands to voice their anger at the Saudi invasion.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Houthis have also held a number of mass gatherings since the revolution. On 24 January 2013, thousands gathered in Dahiyan, Sa'dah and Heziez, just outside Sanaa, to celebrate Mawlid al-Nabi, the birth of Mohammed. A similar event took place on 13 January 2014 at the main sports' stadium in Sanaa. On this occasion, men and women were completely segregated: men filled the open-air stadium and football field in the centre, guided by appointed Houthi safety officials wearing bright vests and matching hats; women poured into the adjacent indoor stadium, led inside by security women distinguishable only by their purple sashes and matching hats. The indoor stadium held at least five thousand women—ten times as many attendees as the 2013 gathering.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Houthis are said to have "a huge and well-oiled propaganda machine". They have established "a formidable media arm" with the Lebanese Hezbollah's technical support. The format and content of the group's leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi's televised speeches are said to have been modeled after those of Hezbollah's Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah. Following the peaceful youth uprising in 2011, the group launched its official TV channel, Almasirah. "The most impressive part" of Houthi propaganda, though, is their media print which includes 25 print and electronic publications.


title: Houthi movement

text: Houthis also utilize radios as an effective means of spreading influence, storming radio stations and confiscating equipment of radio stations that do not adhere to what they're allowed to broadcast by the Houthis. A Houthi fundraising campaign through a radio station affiliated with Iran-backed Houthi rebels has collected 73.5 million Yemeni rials ($132,000) for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.


title: Houthi movement

text: In 2009, US Embassy sources have reported that Houthis used increasingly more sophisticated tactics and strategies in their conflict with the government as they gained more experience, and that they fought with religious fervor.


title: Houthi movement

text: Late in 2015, Houthis announced the local production of short-range ballistic missile Qaher-1 on Al-Masirah TV. On 19 May 2017 Saudi Arabia intercepted a Houthi-fired ballistic missile targeting a deserted area south of the Saudi capital and most populous city Riyadh. The Houthi militias have captured dozens of tanks and masses of heavy weaponry from the Yemeni Armed Forces.


title: Houthi movement

text: In June 2019, the Saudi-led coalition stated that the Houthis had launched 226 ballistic missiles during the insurgency so far.


title: Houthi movement

text: The 2019 Abqaiq–Khurais attack targeted the Saudi Aramco oil processing facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais in eastern Saudi Arabia on 14 September 2019. The Houthi movement claimed responsibility, though the United States has asserted that Iran was behind the attack. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that "Yemeni people are exercising their legitimate right of defence ... the attacks were a reciprocal response to aggression against Yemen for years."


title: Houthi movement

text: In course of the Yemeni Civil War, the Houthis developed tactics to combat their opponents' navies. At first, their anti-ship operations were unsophisticated and limited to rocket-propelled grenades being shot at vessels close to the shore. After seizing power in Sanaa, the Houthis took control of numerous coastal missile batteries and patrol boats belonging to the Yemeni military. From 2015, these were gradually converted, adapted and modernized to be effectively used in combat. The Houthis increasingly began to employ specialised anti-ship missile and naval mines, some of them taken from old Yemeni arsenals, others newly constructed or imported from outside supporters such as Iran.


title: Houthi movement

text: Patrol boats were fitted with anti-tank guided missiles, about 30 coast-watcher stations were set up, disguised "spy dhows" were constructed, and the maritime radar of docked ships used to create targeting solutions for attacks. One of the most notable features of the Houthis' naval arsenal became its remote-controlled drone boats which carry explosives and ram enemy warships. Among these, the self-guiding Shark-33 explosive drone boats originated as patrol boats of the old Yemeni coast guard. In addition, the Houthis have begun to train combat divers on the Zuqar and Bawardi islands.


title: Houthi movement

text: Former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh had accused the Houthis of having ties to external backers, in particular the Iranian government. Saleh stated in a New York Times' interview that "The real reason they received unofficial support from Iran was because they repeat same slogan that is raised by Iran -- death to America, death to Israel". He also said "The Iranian media repeats statements of support for these Houthi elements. They are all trying to take revenge against the USA on Yemeni territories". Tehran has denied allegations of Houthis receiving arms support from Iran.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Houthis in turn accused the Saleh government of being backed by Saudi Arabia and of using Al-Qaeda to repress them. Under the next President Hadi, Gulf Arab states accused Iran of backing the Houthis financially and militarily, though Iran denied this, and they were themselves backers of President Hadi. Despite confirming statements by Iranian and Yemeni officials in regards to Iranian support in the form of trainers, weaponry, and money, the Houthis denied reception of substantial financial or arm support from Iran. Joost Hiltermann of "Foreign Policy" wrote that whatever little material support the Houthis may have received from Iran, the intelligence and military support by US and UK for the Saudi Arabian-led coalition exceed that by many factors.


title: Houthi movement

text: In April 2015, the United States National Security Council spokesperson Bernadette Meehan remarked that "It remains our assessment that Iran does not exert command and control over the Houthis in Yemen". Joost Hiltermann wrote that Iran does not control the Houthis' decision-making as evidenced by Houthis' flat rejection of Iran's demand not to take over Sanaa in 2015. Thomas Juneau, writing in the journal, "International Affairs", states that even though Iran's support for Houthis has increased since 2014, it remains far too limited to have a significant impact in the balance of power in Yemen. The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft argues that Teheran's influence over the movement has been "greatly exaggerated" by "the Saudis, their coalition partners (mainly the United Arab Emirates), and their [lobbyists] in Washington."


title: Houthi movement

text: A December 2009 cable between Sanaa and various intelligence agencies disseminated by WikiLeaks states that US State Dept. analysts believed the Houthis obtained weapons from the Yemeni black market and corrupt members of the Yemenis Republican Guard.


title: Houthi movement

text: On the edition of 8 April 2015 of "PBS Newshour", Secretary of State John Kerry stated that the US knew Iran was providing military support to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, adding that Washington "is not going to stand by while the region is destabilised".


title: Houthi movement

text: Phillip Smyth of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy told Business Insider that Iran views Shia groups in the Middle East as "integral elements to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)". Smyth claimed that there is a strong bond between Iran and the Houthi uprising working to overthrow the government in Yemen. According to Smyth, in many cases Houthi leaders go to Iran for ideological and religious education, and Iranian and Hezbollah leaders have been spotted on the ground advising the Houthi troops, and these Iranian advisers are likely responsible for training the Houthis to use the type of sophisticated guided missiles fired at the US Navy.


title: Houthi movement

text: For Iran, supporting the revolt in Yemen is "a good way to bleed the Saudis", Iran's regional and ideological rival. Essentially, Iran is backing the Houthis to fight against a Saudi-led coalition of Gulf States fighting to maintain government control of Yemen. The discord has led some publishers to fear that further confrontations may lead to an all-out Sunni-Shia war.


title: Houthi movement

text: In 2013, photographs released by the Yemeni government show the United States Navy and Yemen's security forces seized a class of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles not publicly known to have been out of state control.


title: Houthi movement

text: In April 2016, the U.S. Navy intercepted a large Iranian arms shipment, seizing thousands of weapons, AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The Pentagon stated that the shipment was likely headed to Yemen.


title: Houthi movement

text: In August 2018, the United Nations had found out the North Korean government had armed the Houthis via Syria after a meeting between a Houthi member and a North Korean government official.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Houthis have repeatedly used a drone that is nearly identical to Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company's Ababil-T drone in strikes against Saudi Arabia.


title: Houthi movement

text: In 2013, an Iranian vessel was seized and discovered to be carrying Katyusha rockets, heat-seeking surface-to-air missiles, RPG-7s, Iranian-made night vision goggles and artillery systems that track land and navy targets 40 km away. That was en route to the Houthis.


title: Houthi movement

text: In March 2017, Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Quds Force, met with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps to look for ways to what was described as "empowering" the Houthis. Soleimani was quoted as saying, "At this meeting, they agreed to increase the amount of help, through training, arms and financial support." Despite the Iranian government, and Houthis both officially denying Iranian support for the group. Brigadier General Ahmad Asiri, the spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition told Reuters that evidence of Iranian support was manifested in the Houthi use of Kornet anti-tank guided missiles which had never been in use with the Yemeni military or with the Houthis and that the arrival of Kornet missiles had only come at a later time. In the same month the IRGC had altered the routes used in transporting equipment to the Houthis by spreading out shipments to smaller vessels in Kuwaiti territorial waters in order to avoid naval patrols in the Gulf of Oman due to sanctions imposed, shipments reportedly included parts of missiles, launchers, and drugs.


title: Houthi movement

text: In May 2018, the United States imposed sanctions on Iran's IRGC, which was also listed as a designated terrorist organization by the US over its role in providing support for the Houthis, including help with manufacturing ballistic missiles used in attacks targeting cities and oil fields in Saudi Arabia.


title: Houthi movement

text: In August 2018, despite previous Iranian denial of military support for the Houthis, IRGC commander Nasser Shabani was quoted by the Iranian Fars News Agency as saying, "We (IRGC) told Yemenis [Houthi rebels] to strike two Saudi oil tankers, and they did it," on 7 August 2018. In response to Shabani's account, the IRGC released a statement saying that the quote was a "Western lie" and that Shabani was a retired commander, despite no actual reports of his retirement after 37 years in the IRGC, and media linked to the Iranian government confirming he was still enlisted with the IRGC. Furthermore, while the Houthis and the Iranian government have previously denied any military affiliation, Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei openly announced his "spiritual" support of the movement in a personal meeting with the Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdul Salam in Tehran, in the midst of ongoing conflicts in Aden in 2019.


title: Houthi movement

text: Houthis have been accused of violations of international humanitarian law such as using child soldiers, shelling civilian areas, forced evacuations and executions. According to Human Right Watch, Houthis intensified their recruitment of children in 2015. The UNICEF mentioned that children with the Houthis and other armed groups in Yemen comprise up to a third of all fighters in Yemen. Human Rights Watch has further accused Houthi forces of using landmines in Yemen's third-largest city of Taizz which has caused many civilian casualties and prevent the return of families displaced by the fighting. HRW has also accused the Houthis of interfering with the work of Yemen's human rights advocates and organizations.


title: Houthi movement

text: An HRW researcher, quoted in 2009 US embassy report, has downplayed the allegations by the former government of Yemen accusing the Houthis of using civilians as human shields, by saying that they did not have enough evidence to conclude that the Houthis have been intentionally using civilians as human shields.


title: Houthi movement

text: According to the Human Rights Watch, the Houthis also use hostage taking as a tactic to generate profit. Human Rights Watch documented 16 cases in which Houthi authorities held people unlawfully, in large part to extort money from relatives or to exchange them for people held by opposing forces.


title: Houthi movement

text: The United Nations World Food Programme has accused the Houthis of diverting food aid and illegally removing food lorries from distribution areas, with rations sold on the open market or given to those not entitled to it. The WFP has also warned that aid could be suspended to areas of Yemen under the control of Houthi rebels due to "obstructive and uncooperative" Houthi leaders that have hampered the independent selection of beneficiaries. WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel stated "The continued blocking by some within the Houthi leadership of the biometric registration ... is undermining an essential process that would allow us to independently verify that food is reaching ... people on the brink of famine". The WFP has warned that "unless progress is made on previous agreements we will have to implement a phased suspension of aid". The Norwegian Refugee Council has stated that they share the WPF frustrations and reiterate to the Houthis to allow humanitarian agencies to distribute food.


title: Houthi movement

text: UN-funded investigators have uncovered proof that Houthis conscripted tens of teenage girls as informants, nurses, and guards; an unusual phenomenon in a society as conservative as Yemen. Twelve girls suffered sexual violence, arranged marriages, and child marriages as a result of their recruitment. It alleged the Houthis recruited children as young as seven years old with monetary incentives. The report cited hundreds of accounts and took place between summer 2019 and summer 2020.


title: Houthi movement

text: According to the 2009 US Embassy cable leaked by WikiLeaks, Houthis have reportedly established courts and prisons in areas they control. They impose their own laws on local residents, demand protection money, and dispense rough justice by ordering executions. AP's reporter, Ahmad al-Haj argued that the Houthis were winning hearts and minds by providing security in areas long neglected by the Yemeni government while limiting the arbitrary and abusive power of influential sheikhs. According to the Civic Democratic Foundation, Houthis help resolve conflicts between tribes and reduce the number of revenge killings in areas they control. The US ambassador believed that the reports that explain Houthi role as arbitrating local disputes were likely.


title: Houthi movement

text: The Houthis exert "de facto" authority over the bulk of North Yemen. As of 28 April 2020, they control all of North Yemen except for Marib Governorate. The Houthis' direct administration includes the following territories:


title: PK machine gun

text: The PK (, transliterated as "Pulemyot Kalashnikova", or "Kalashnikov's machine gun"), is a belt-fed general-purpose machine gun, chambered for the 7.62×54mmR rimmed cartridge.


title: PK machine gun

text: Designed in the Soviet Union and currently in production in Russia, the original PK machine gun was introduced in 1961 and the improved PKM variant was introduced in 1969. The PKM was designed to replace the SGM and RP-46 machine guns that were previously in Soviet service.


title: PK machine gun

text: The weapon remains in use as a front-line infantry and vehicle-mounted weapon with Russia's armed forces and has also been exported extensively and produced in several other countries under license.


title: PK machine gun

text: The Main Artillery Directorate of the Soviet Union (GRAU) adopted specification requirements for a new 7.62 mm general-purpose company and battalion-level machine gun that was to be chambered for a rifle cartridge in 1955.


title: PK machine gun

text: In 1958 a machine gun prototype, developed by G.I. Nikitin and Yuri M. Sokolov, successfully passed field tests. Based on the results of the tests it was decided in 1960 to manufacture a batch of Nikitin-Sokolov machine guns for service tests and then put the machine gun into production at the Kovrov Mechanical Plant. However, when the Nikitin-Sokolov machine gun was almost completed, a team of Izhevsk Mechanical Plant designers, headed by M.T. Kalashnikov, and further consisting of V.V. Krupin, V.N. Pushchin, A.D. Kryakushin, as well as Startsev, Kamzolov, Koryakovtsev, Yuferev, joined the competition. Their machine gun prototype was based on the well-proven gas-operated rotary-bolt design of the Kalashnikov-pattern arms.


title: PK machine gun

text: The Kalashnikov and the Nikitin-Sokolov prototypes underwent service tests in the Central Asian, Odessa, and Baltic Military Districts, as well as at the Vystrel officer training courses in late 1960. The Main Missiles and Artillery Directorate and the Ministry of the Defence Industry preferred the Kalashnikov design. The Kalashnikov design was found to be more reliable and cheaper to manufacture than the design of Grigory Nikitin and Yuri Sokolov.


title: PK machine gun

text: The PK/PKS was put into production at the Kovrov Mechanical Plant and used the tripod mount and an ammunition belt boxes originally designed for the Nikitin-Sokolov prototype machine gun.


title: PK machine gun

text: Nikitin's and Sokolov's machine gun design was later used in the 12.7 mm NSV heavy machine gun that was put into production in 1971.


title: PK machine gun

text: The original "PK" was a development of Kalashnikov's AKM assault rifle and the accompanying RPK light machine gun design that featured stamped receivers. The PK uses the 7.62×54mmR Eastern Bloc standard cartridge that produces significantly more bolt thrust when compared to the Eastern Bloc 7.62×39mm and 5.45×39mm intermediate cartridges.


title: PK machine gun

text: The bolt and carrier design are similar to the AK-47 and other modernized Kalashnikov-pattern weapons, as is the stripping procedure performed to remove those mechanisms from the gun for cleaning. The bolt and bolt carrier are however oriented upside down compared to the AKM, with the piston and gas system being underneath the barrel.


title: PK machine gun

text: Unlike the AKM and RPK the PK machine gun series is an open bolt design, which improves heat management during automatic fire compared to closed bolt designs and helps avoiding the dangerous phenomenon known as "cook-off", wherein the firing chamber becomes so hot that the propellant contained in a chambered round unintentionally ignites, making the weapon fire until the ammunition is exhausted. Open bolt designs typically operate much cooler than closed bolt designs due to the airflow allowed into the chamber, action and barrel during pauses between bursts, making them more suitable for constant full-automatic weapons such as machine guns. General-purpose machine guns like the PK are further normally issued with several quick change barrels that during prolonged intense use are swapped out allowing one barrel to cool while the machine gun fires with the other.


title: PK machine gun

text: The rimmed 7.62×54mmR cartridges are set in a metal ammunition belt and are held against the shoulder inside non disintegrating looped links, leaving the rim exposed at the rear. The belt is mounted from the right side into the feedway of the PK machine gun. The PK uses a non-reciprocating charging handle on the right side of the receiver to charge the gun. Since the PK uses a rimmed rifle cartridge and closed-link belts used for feeding, a two-stage feed mechanism with a preliminary extraction of a cartridge from a belt link was preferred over a direct ammunition feed design often used for rimless cartridges.


title: PK machine gun

text: The PK machine gun is equipped with a lever-type feed mechanism introduced in Czechoslovak machine guns like vz. 52 and vz. 59, which is operated by the feed lever. The lever is mounted on the right wall of the receiver and wraps around the bolt carrier with its feed pawl and roller. The rest of the mechanism is mounted either on the receiver cover or on the ammunition feed tray cover hinged under it. The PK feed mechanism pulls the rimmed 7.62×54mmR cartridges out from the back of the ammunition belt and drops the cartridges down into the feed way, allowing the bolt to strip and feed the cartridges into the chamber for firing.


title: PK machine gun

text: The PK feed mechanism is radically different from that of 7.62×51mm NATO machine guns based on the MG 42 feed mechanism that typically incorporate a much larger (and therefore much heavier) articulated feed cam, lever, and pawl assembly that pushes rimless cartridges out forward from their links directly into the chamber for firing.


title: PK machine gun

text: The breech is locked by a rotating bolt, with two locking lugs engaging locking recesses in the receiver. The gas piston is hinged to the bolt carrier assembly, and its vertical travel makes it possible to bend the group making machine gun assembly and disassembly for maintenance easier. The protruding rear part of the bolt carrier assembly features spiral shaped cuts, which provide a controlled rotation of the bolt. The mainspring is accommodated in the bolt carrier assembly slide channel. A cartridge extractor with a latch is mounted in the rear part of the bolt carrier assembly. The cocking lever, mounted on the right, is not integral with the bolt carrier and does not reciprocate as the gun fires.


title: PK machine gun

text: The gas cylinder is mounted under the barrel and fitted with a gas regulator with three fixed positions. The gas regulator opens corresponding holes to change the amount of expanding propellant gases bled off out of the gas cylinder into the atmosphere, thus varying the amount of energy transferred on to the long-stroke piston.


title: PK machine gun

text: The PK general-purpose machine gun U-shaped receiver is stamped from a smooth sheet of steel that is supported extensively by pins and rivets. For additional rigidity and strength the PK receiver features double walls made from 1.5 mm steel plates that are welded together with the U-shaped stamping. The receiver top cover is also stamped from 1.5 mm sheet metal and hinged on the front of the receiver and locked at the back with a spring-loaded latch.


title: PK machine gun

text: The quick detachable barrel assembly slides into the receiver and attaches by a barrel-lock. On the original PK it was partially fluted to increase rigidity and improve heat dissipation. The barrel-lock also regulates the gap between the breech face and the breech end of the barrel. PK barrels have a folding carry handle/grip that is positioned to the left of the receiver and is used to transport the weapon and quickly and safely change-out barrels to prevent barrel overheating. The bore is chrome-lined and features four right-hand grooves at a 240 mm (1 in 9.45 in) rifling twist rate. The muzzle is threaded for the installation of various muzzle devices such as a flash hider. The muzzle was normally equipped with a conical flash suppressor that added to the barrel and later a long slotted flash suppressor that added to the barrel. Later when the PKM variant was introduced the PK series barrel fluting was omitted and the muzzle device was changed to a shorter cylindrical slotted flash suppressor that added to the barrel. The PKM barrel assembly weighs and can fire up to 400 rounds in rapid fire scenarios before it has to be replaced for another barrel or allowed to cool down to prevent unacceptable wear of the bore. The sustainable effective rate of fire is about 250 rounds per minute.


title: PK machine gun

text: The rear sight assembly is riveted onto the receiver cover and consist of a square notched rear tangent iron sight calibrated in increments from and includes a "point-blank range" battle zero setting corresponding to a zero. It is identical in design to the AKM and Mosin–Nagant, except that it is oriented backwards with the notch forward and the hinge behind. The iron sight line has a sight radius. Like the RPD rear sight, the PK rear sight also features full windage adjustment in the form of small dials on either side of the notch.


title: PK machine gun

text: The front sight assembly is mounted near the end of the barrel and consists of a protected open post adjustable for elevation in the field.


title: PK machine gun

text: PK machine guns that feature a Warsaw Pact side-rail bracket on the left side of the receiver can mount various aiming optics. The standard Russian side rail mounted optical sight was the 4×26 1P29 Universal sight for small arms, an aiming optic similar to the British SUIT and SUSAT and Canadian C79 optical sights. When mounted, the 1P29 sight is positioned centered above the receiver at a height that allows the use of the iron sights. It weighs 0.8 kg, offers 4× magnification with a field of view of 8° and 35 mm eye relief. The 1P29 is issued with a canvas pouch, a lens cleaning cloth, combination tool, two rubber eyecups, two eyecup clamps and three different bullet drop compensation (BDC) cams for the AK-74, RPK-74 and PK machine gun. The 1P29 is intended for quickly engaging point and area targets at various ranges. On the right side of the field of view a stadiametric rangefinder is incorporated that can be used to determine the distance from a tall object from . The reticle is an inverted aiming post in the top half of the field of view and is tritium-illuminated for low-light condition aiming. A later designed similar optical sight suitable for the PK machine gun series is the 4×24 1Р77.


title: PK machine gun

text: The trigger assembly, mounted inside the receiver, is operated by the mainspring and suitable for automatic fire. It has no single shot mode of fire. The manual rotating type safety locks the sear, which engages the sear notch of the bolt carrier assembly, and the trigger lug does not allow the bolt earner assembly to go all the way back.


title: PK machine gun

text: The skeletonized buttstock, pistol grip and folding carry handle/grip on the barrels were originally manufactured from birch plywood laminates. Such engineered woods are stronger and resist warping better than the conventional one-piece patterns, do not require lengthy maturing, and are cheaper. The wooden furniture was finished with the Russian amber shellac finishing process. Small accessories and an oil-solvent container can be stored inside butt recesses. Later the buttstock was fitted with a hinged butt-rest. More recent PKM machine guns and barrel assemblies are equipped with a new black glass-filled polyamide buttstock, pistol grip and barrel carry handle/grip shaped like the previously used laminated wooden stock and grips.


title: PK machine gun

text: PK machine guns are belt-fed, using non-disintegrating metal belts, which have links that wrap around the cartridge case shoulder all the way around, and are linked by a coiling wire on each side. The links are made of thick high carbon stamped steel sheet metal that is zinc phosphated and varnished for protection. These belts are preloaded at ammunition factories in 25-round connectable belt lengths and can be linked to any length necessary. Factory connected PK ammunition belts are available in 25, 100, 200 and 250 rounds lengths. Typical of Soviet machine guns, the PK feeds from the right and ejects its spent cases via an ejection port on the left side of the weapon, contrary to the right side ejection port seen in most Western machine guns.


title: PK machine gun

text: For the light machine gun role, the PK is used as the standard squad automatic weapon of the Russian Army. The PK uses a 100-round non-disintegrating belt contained in a metal box made from an aluminium frame and steel cover that can be attached under the gun's receiver. The 100-round belt "assault" box has a folding lid in its cover for feeding the ammunition belt when the box is attached under the machine gun receiver and weighs or for the modernized all aluminium lightweight variant. When the machine gun is fired from a bipod, the 100-round ammunition box is normally attached to the underside of the receiver.


title: PK machine gun

text: For the medium machine gun role, there is also a 200/250-round ammunition box made from an aluminium frame and steel cover available which can be mounted on the tripods used for the PK machine gun series. A 200/250-round ammunition box containing a 250-round non-disintegrating belt weighs and containing a 200-round non-disintegrating belt weighs or for the modernized all aluminium lightweight variant. Both metal ammunition boxes have canvas carry handles.


title: PK machine gun

text: All openings on the machine gun, particularly the ejector port on the left and the belt feed entrance on the right, are covered with spring-loaded dust covers so that the openings are only exposed when they need to be.


title: PK machine gun

text: The PK is equipped with a simple detachable bipod mounted to the gas cylinder beneath the barrel and in that setup is used as a squad-level support weapon. The right bipod leg accommodates links of a cleaning rod. Other accessories include a sling and storage covers.


title: PK machine gun

text: The PK machine gun is also suitable for installation on tripod mounts, vehicle mounting and can also be used as a light anti-aircraft weapon against slow flying aircraft when it is put on an AA mount.


title: PK machine gun

text: As with all general-purpose machine guns, tripod and vehicle mountings offer a higher degree of accuracy and control than when used on a less stable bipod. The PK machine gun, firing short bursts from a bipod, as a light machine gun has the following accuracy of fire: a mean deviation of at a range of , at , and at . The Russian and other European militaries use a circular error probable method that assumes a 50% hit probability (R).


title: PK machine gun

text: For heavier employment, the PKS ("PK Mounted") is based on the Samozhenkov 6T2 tripod mount. The PK and 6T2 tripod weigh .


title: PK machine gun

text: The 6T2 Samozhenkov tripod mount was designed by E. S. Samozhenkov and entered service in 1961 and weighs . The 6T2 Samozhenkov tripod mount was earlier envisioned for the Nikitin-Sokoiov machine gun that was not adopted by the Soviet Union. All types of ammunition belt boxes are carried and mounted separately. The Rakov device is used for loading ammunition belts. The PK machine gun is attached to a cradle on the 6T2 Samozhenkov mount. The cradle is hinged to a plug-in swivel equipped with a rack-and-pinion traversing mechanism, and a rod-and-screw elevation mechanism. The traversing mechanism is fitted with stops to limit the field of fire. For anti-aircraft fire or fire against ground targets from a kneeling position the cradle mounts a collapsible pole with a pivoting bracket. The mount features non-digging-in spades — sliding spades affect the accuracy of fire less than a "jumping" tripod with dug-in spades. There is an extra folding spade on the front leg for slippery and moving ground. Hinged tripod legs allow a gunner to fire the machine gun from a prone, a sitting, or a kneeling position.


title: PK machine gun

text: The PKS machine gun, firing bursts from its tripod with fixed traversing and elevation mechanisms, as a medium machine gun has the following accuracy of fire: mean deviation of at a range of , cm at , and at . The Russian and other European militaries use a circular error probable method that assumes a 50% hit probability (R) and cannot be converted and is not comparable to US military methods for determining small arms accuracy. When the R results are doubled the hit probability increases to 93.7%.


title: PK machine gun

text: The PKM (ПК Модернизированный: "Kalashnikov's Machine-gun Modernized"), was adopted into service in 1969. The PKM is a modernized, product-improved version of the PK. The upgrades are primarily aimed at reducing the weight, simplifying production, and facilitating easier operation. The receiver cover became more rigid due to lengthwise ribs. The butt was fitted with a hinged butt-rest. The barrel fluting was omitted and the flash hider was changed. Later on the PKM was equipped with a new black glass-filled polyamide buttstock and pistol grip shaped like the previously used laminated wooden stock and grip.


title: PK machine gun

text: The PKMN (ПКМ Ночной: "PKM Night-Vision") is a variant that can mount a night sight for low-visibility operations. The PKMN-1 can thus mount the multi-model NSPU-3 (1PN51) night vision scope while the PKMN-2 can mount the multi-model NSPUM (1PN58) night vision scope. It can also be fitted with the 1PN93 series passive night sights.


title: PK machine gun

text: Besides the Shakhin and 1PN116 thermal sights and the 1PN119 anti-sniper special-purpose night vision sight are available for mounting on PK machine guns that like the PKMN model feature a Warsaw Pact side-rail bracket on the left side of the receiver for mounting aiming optics.


title: PK machine gun

text: For heavier employment, the PKMS (ПКМ Станковый: "PKM Mounted") is mounted on the Stepanov 6T5 tripod mount. The PKM and 6T5 tripod weigh .


title: PK machine gun

text: The tripod mount, designed by L. V. Stepanov for the PKM machine gun entered service in 1969 and weighs . It is a lighter mount for the PK(M) general-purpose machine gun without affecting the accuracy of fire. Besides, the Stepanov mount has 20 fewer components than the preceding Samozhenkov tripod and is 40% less labour-intensive. The Stepanov mount is based on a principle of multi-functional components: the elevation mechanism frame is also used as a pole for kneeled shooting or anti-aircraft fire; the base sleeve also serves as the axis for attaching rear legs of the tripod: the machine gun attachment is combined with the elevation mechanism frame lock for anti-aircraft fire; the fine elevation adjustment mechanism is integrated with the elevation mechanism axis. The ammunition belt box can be secured to the right rear tripod leg. This enables one crew member to carry and operate the gun in combat without having to unload the gun before repositioning the gun.


title: PK machine gun

text: The PKMSN (ПКМС Ночной: "PKMS Night-Vision") is similarly to the PKMN a special model of the tripod-mounted variant that can mount night sights for low-visibility operations.


title: PK machine gun

text: The PKMSN model can use NSPU-3 (1PN51) and NSPUM (1PN58) night sights. It can also be fitted with the 1PN93 series passive night sights.


title: PK machine gun

text: Besides that Shakhin and 1PN116 thermal sights and the 1PN119 anti-sniper special-purpose night vision sight are available for mounting on PK machine guns that like the PKMSN model feature a Warsaw Pact side-rail bracket on the left side of the receiver for mounting aiming optics.


title: PK machine gun

text: The PKT (ПК Танковый, "PK Tank") (1968) is a solenoid-fired coaxial version of PK to replace the SGMT Goryunov vehicle-mounted machine gun. Modifications include the removal of the stock, a longer and heavier barrel, a gas regulator and an electric solenoid trigger. The PKT is usually fed from 250-round ammunition boxes. The PKT barrel assembly weighs and can fire up to 500 rounds in rapid fire scenarios before it has to be replaced for another barrel or allowed to cool down to prevent unacceptable wear of the bore. Some PKTs have been converted to infantry machine guns.


title: PK machine gun

text: In the early 1990s, as part of the preparations to join NATO, the Polish armed forces were looking for a replacement for the PK-series machine guns then in service. The H. Cegielski - Poznań S.A. Works in Poznań modified the PK/PKS to feed standard 7.62×51mm NATO cartridges and use NATO standard ammunition belts. The new model received the code-name PKM-NATO. The modifications included a heavier barrel, a larger chamber, and a redesign of the lock, extractor, and the entire feeding mechanism. The prototype was tested from 1997 to 1999, but was rejected. The Polish Army adopted the UKM-2000 machine gun instead – which was also based on the PKM.


title: PK machine gun

text: The Zastava M84 is a Yugoslav/Serbian-made licensed copy of the PK/PKS. The Zastava M86 is a copy of the solenoid-triggered PKT. These variants can be easily recognised by their unhollowed stock.


title: PK machine gun

text: The Zastava M09 is a copy of the PKM with black synthetic furniture, chambered in 5.56x45 NATO ammo. The Zastava M10 is a variant of the M09 with a solid stock.


title: PK machine gun

text: Arsenal originally produced the MG, modeled after the original Russian PK model. The MG-M1 is a licensed copy of the PKM with a synthetic buttstock and pistol grip. The MG-M1S only differs from the MG-M1 model due to the use of a tripod by the M1S model, where as the M1 model uses the original bi-pod design. The MG-1M, an improved Squad Automatic Weapon variant, has improved features, such as a redesigned barrel that allows for better cooling. The MG-M2 and MG-M2S are the M1 and M1S model that were chambered in 7.62×51mm NATO.


title: PK machine gun

text: The Mayak KM-7,62 is a copy of the PKM, made to be lighter and easier to handle. It first appeared in 2011. The KT-7,62 and KTM-7,62 are copies of the PKT, first appearing in 2011.


title: PK machine gun

text: The PKM and other variants are in production in Russia and are currently exported to many nations. Additionally, various models are manufactured locally around the globe. Zastava Arms produces the PK under license as the M84 (along with the PKT as the M86), and it remains in use with many of the former Yugoslav successor states. The most recent modification is the Russian PKP Pecheneg, which features a forced air cooling barrel that cannot be removed in the field for quick replacement, unusual for a modern machine gun.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese: ) is based on rice with miso soup and other dishes; there is an emphasis on seasonal ingredients. Side dishes often consist of fish, pickled vegetables, and vegetables cooked in broth. Seafood is common, often grilled, but also served raw as sashimi or in sushi. Seafood and vegetables are also deep-fried in a light batter, as "". Apart from rice, a staple includes noodles, such as soba and udon. Japan also has many simmered dishes, such as fish products in broth called , or beef in and .


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Historically influenced by Chinese cuisine, Japanese cuisine has also opened up to influence from Western cuisines in the modern era. Dishes inspired by foreign food—in particular Chinese food—like ramen and , as well as foods like spaghetti, curry and hamburgers, have been adapted to Japanese tastes and ingredients. Some regional dishes have also become familiar throughout Japan, including the taco rice staple of Okinawan cuisine that has itself been influenced by American and Mexican culinary traditions. Traditionally, the Japanese shunned meat as a result of adherence to Buddhism, but with the modernization of Japan in the 1880s, meat-based dishes such as and have become common. Since this time, Japanese cuisine, particularly sushi and ramen, has become popular globally.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: In 2011, Japan overtook France to become the country with the most 3-starred Michelin restaurants; , the capital of Tokyo has maintained the title of the city with the most 3-starred restaurants in the world. In 2013, Japanese cuisine was added to the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: The word is now the common word for traditional Japanese cooking. The term is synonymous with "cooking", but became a reference to mostly Japanese cooking, or restaurants, and was much used in the Meiji and Taishō eras. It has come to connote a certain standard, perhaps even of the highest caliber, a restaurant with the most highly trained chefs. However, is generally seen as an eating establishment which is slightly more casual or informal compared to the .


title: Japanese cuisine

text: The is tied with the Japanese tea ceremony. The is considered a (simplified) form of , which was formal banquet dining where several trays of food was served. The homophone term originally referred to a gathering of composers of haiku or , and the simplified version of the dishes served at the poem parties became . However, the meaning of degenerated to become just another term for a sumptuous carousing banquet, or .


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Japanese cuisine is based on combining the staple food, which is steamed white rice or , with one or more , "main" or "side" dishes. This may be accompanied by a clear or miso soup and (pickles). The phrase refers to the makeup of a typical meal served but has roots in classic , , and cuisine. The term is also used to describe the first course served in standard cuisine nowadays.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: The origin of Japanese "one soup, three sides" cuisine is a dietary style called Ichiju-Issai (一汁一菜, "one soup, one dish"), tracing back to the Five Great Zen Temples of the 12-century Kamakura period (Kamakura Gozan), developed as a form of meal that emphasized frugality and simplicity.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Rice is served in its own small bowl (), and each main course item is placed on its own small plate () or bowl () for each individual portion. This is done even in Japanese homes. This contrasts with Western-style home dinners in which each individual takes helpings from large serving dishes of food placed in the middle of the dining table. Japanese style traditionally abhors different flavored dishes touching each other on a single plate, so different dishes are given their own individual plates as mentioned or are partitioned using, for example, leaves. Placing main dishes on top of rice, thereby "soiling" it, is also frowned upon by traditional etiquette.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Although this tradition of not placing other foods on rice originated from classical Chinese dining formalities, especially after the adoption of Buddhist tea ceremonies; it became most popular and common during and after the Kamakura period, such as in the . Although present-day Chinese cuisine has abandoned this practice, Japanese cuisine retains it. One exception is the popular , in which toppings are directly served on rice.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: The small , literally "tea bowl", doubles as a word for the large tea bowls in tea ceremonies. Thus in common speech, the drinking cup is referred to as or for the purpose of distinction. Among the nobility, each course of a full-course Japanese meal would be brought on serving napkins called , which were originally platformed trays or small dining tables. In the modern age, faldstool trays or stackup-type legged trays may still be seen used in , i.e. tatami-mat rooms, for large banquets or at a type inn. Some restaurants might use the suffix as a more sophisticated though dated synonym to the more familiar , since the latter basically is a term for a combo meal served at a , akin to a diner. means a meal of fixed menu (for example, grilled fish with rice and soup), a dinner "à prix fixe" served at or , which is somewhat vague ( can mean a diner-type restaurant or a corporate lunch hall); writer on Japanese popular culture Ishikawa Hiroyoshi defines it as fare served at , and comparable diner-like establishments.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Rice is a staple in Japanese cuisine. Wheat and soybeans were introduced shortly after rice. All three act as staple foods in Japanese cuisine today. At the end of the Kofun Period and beginning of the Asuka Period, Buddhism became the official religion of the country. Therefore, eating meat and fish was prohibited. In 675 AD, Emperor Tenmu prohibited the eating of horses, dogs, monkeys, and chickens. In the 8th and 9th centuries, many emperors continued to prohibit killing many types of animals. The number of regulated meats increased significantly, leading to the banning of all mammals except whale, which were categorized as fish. During the Asuka period, chopsticks were introduced to Japan. Initially, they were only used by the nobility. The general population used their hands, as utensils were quite expensive.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Due to the lack of meat products Japanese people minimized spice utilization. Spices were rare to find at the time. Spices like pepper and garlic were only used in a minimalist amount. In the absence of meat, fish was served as the main protein, as Japan is an island nation. Fish has influenced many iconic Japanese dishes today. In the 9th century, grilled fish and sliced raw fish were widely popular. Japanese people who could afford it would eat fish at every meal; others would have to make do without animal protein for many of their meals. In traditional Japanese cuisine, oil and fat are usually avoided within the cooking process, because Japanese people were trying to keep a healthy lifestyle.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Preserving fish became a sensation; sushi was originated as a means of preserving fish by fermenting it in boiled rice. Fish that are salted and then placed in rice are preserved by lactic acid fermentation, which helps prevent the proliferation of the bacteria that bring about putrefaction. During the 15th century, advancement and development helped shorten the fermentation of sushi to about one to two weeks. Sushi thus became a popular snack food and main entrée, combining fish with rice. During the late Edo period (early-19th century), sushi without fermentation was introduced. Sushi was still being consumed with and without fermentation till the 19th century when the hand-rolled and nigri-type sushi was invented.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: In 1854, Japan started to gain new trade deals with Western countries when a new Japanese ruling order took over (known as the Meiji Restoration). Emperor Meiji, the new ruler, staged a New Years' feast designed to embrace the Western world and countries in 1872. The feast contained food that had a lot of European emphases. For the first time in a thousand years, people were allowed to consume meat in public. After this New Years feast, the general population from Japan started to consume meat again.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Emphasis is placed on seasonality of food or , and dishes are designed to herald the arrival of the four seasons or calendar months.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Seasonality means taking advantage of the (for example, bamboo shoots in spring, chestnuts in the autumn) as well as the as they come into season. Thus that arrives with the Kuroshio Current has traditionally been greatly prized.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: If something becomes available rather earlier than what is usual for the item in question, the first crop or early catch is called "hashiri".


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Use of tree leaves and branches as decor is also characteristic of Japanese cuisine. Maple leaves are often floated on water to exude coolness or ; sprigs of nandina are popularly used. The "haran" ("Aspidistra") and sasa bamboo leaves were often cut into shapes and placed underneath or used as separators.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: A characteristic of traditional Japanese food is the sparing use of red meat, oils and fats, and dairy products. Use of ingredients such as soy sauce, miso, and umeboshi tends to result in dishes with high salt content, though there are low-sodium versions of these available.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: As Japan is an island nation surrounded by an ocean, its people have always taken advantage of the abundant seafood supply. It is the opinion of some food scholars that the Japanese diet always relied mainly on "grains with vegetables or seaweeds as main, with poultry secondary, and red meat in slight amounts" even before the advent of Buddhism which placed an even stronger taboo. The eating of was spoken of as taboo, unclean or something to be avoided by personal choice through the Edo period. The consumption of whale and terrapin meat were not forbidden under this definition. Despite this, the consumption of red meat did not completely disappear in Japan. Eating wild game—as opposed to domesticated livestock—was tolerated; in particular, trapped hare was counted using the measure word , a term normally reserved for birds.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: In 1872 of the Meiji restoration, as part of the opening up of Japan to Western influence, Emperor Meiji lifted the ban on the consumption of red meat. The removal of the ban encountered resistance and in one notable response, ten monks attempted to break into the Imperial Palace. The monks asserted that due to foreign influence, large numbers of Japanese had begun eating meat and that this was "destroying the soul of the Japanese people." Several of the monks were killed during the break-in attempt, and the remainder were arrested. On the other hand, the consumption of meat was accepted by the common people. Gyūnabe (beef hot pot), the prototype of Sukiyaki, became the rage of the time. Western restaurants moved in, and some of them changed their form to Yōshoku.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Vegetable consumption has dwindled while processed foods have become more prominent in Japanese households due to the rising costs of general foodstuffs. Nonetheless, Kyoto vegetables, or Kyoyasai, are rising in popularity and different varieties of Kyoto vegetables are being revived.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Generally speaking, traditional Japanese cuisine is prepared with little cooking oil. A major exception is the deep-frying of foods. This cooking method was introduced during the Edo period due to influence from Western (formerly called ) and Chinese cuisine, and became commonplace with the availability of cooking oil due to increased productivity. Dishes such as tempura, aburaage, and satsuma age are now part of established traditional Japanese cuisine. Words such as "tempura" or "hiryōzu" (synonymous with ganmodoki) are said to be of Portuguese origin.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Also, certain rustic sorts of traditional Japanese foods such as kinpira, hijiki, and "kiriboshi" daikon usually involve stir-frying in oil before stewing in soy sauce. Some standard "osōzai" or obanzai dishes feature stir-fried Japanese greens with either age or , dried sardines.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Traditional Japanese food is typically seasoned with a combination of dashi, soy sauce, sake and mirin, vinegar, sugar, and salt. A modest number of herbs and spices may be used during cooking as a hint or accent, or as a means of neutralizing fishy or gamy odors present. Examples of such spices include ginger, perilla and red pepper.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Intense condiments such as wasabi or Japanese mustard are provided as condiments to raw fish, due to their effect on the mucus membrane which paralyze the sense of smell, particularly from fish odors. A sprig of mitsuba or a piece of yuzu rind floated on soups are called "ukimi". Minced shiso leaves and myoga often serve as "yakumi", a type of condiment paired with tataki of katsuo or soba. Shichimi is also a very popular spice mixture often added to soups, noodles and rice cakes. Shichimi is a chilli-based spice mix which contains seven spices: chilli, sansho, orange peel, black sesame, white sesame, hemp, ginger, and nori.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Once a main dish has been cooked, spices such as minced ginger and various pungent herbs may be added as a garnish, called "tsuma". Finally, a dish may be garnished with minced seaweed in the form of crumpled nori or flakes of aonori.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Inedible garnishes are featured in dishes to reflect a holiday or the season. Generally these include inedible leaves, flowers native to Japan or with a long history of being grown in the country, as well as their artificial counterparts.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: The is boiled green-leaf vegetables bunched and cut to size, steeped in dashi broth, eaten with dashes of soy sauce. Another item is , which could be made with wakame seaweed, or be something like a made from thin toothpick slices of daikon and carrot. The so-called vinegar that is blended with the ingredient here is often which is a blend of vinegar, mirin, and soy sauce. A adds katsuo dashi to this.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: An is another group of items, describable as a sort of "tossed salad" or "dressed" (though "aemono" also includes thin strips of squid or fish sashimi ("itozukuri") etc. similarly prepared). One types are where usually vegetables such as green beans are tossed with white or black sesame seeds ground in a suribachi mortar bowl, flavored additionally with sugar and soy sauce. adds tofu (bean curd) in the mix. An "aemono" is tossed with vinegar-white miso mix and uses "wakegi" scallion and as standard.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Different cooking techniques are applied to each of the three "okazu"; they may be raw (sashimi), grilled, simmered (sometimes called boiled), steamed, deep-fried, vinegared, or dressed.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: In , the word has the basic meaning of "vegetable", but secondarily means any accompanying dish (whether it uses fish or meat), with the more familiar combined form , which is a term for any side dish, such as the vast selections sold at Japanese supermarkets or .


title: Japanese cuisine

text: It figures in the Japanese word for appetizer, ; main dish, ; or (formal synonym for "okazu"), but the latter is considered somewhat of a ladies' term or "nyōbō kotoba".


title: Japanese cuisine

text: "Kaiseki", closely associated with tea ceremony ("chanoyu"), is a high form of hospitality through cuisine. The style is minimalist, extolling the aesthetics of wabi-sabi. Like the tea ceremony, appreciation of the diningware and vessels is part of the experience. In the modern standard form, the first course consists of "ichijū-sansai" (one soup, three dishes), followed by the serving of sake accompanied by dish(es) plated on a square wooden bordered tray of sorts called . Sometimes another element called is served to complement the sake, for guests who are heavier drinkers.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Strictly vegetarian food is rare since even vegetable dishes are flavored with the ubiquitous dashi stock, usually made with katsuobushi (dried skipjack tuna flakes), and are therefore pescetarian more often than carnivorous. An exception is "shōjin-ryōri" (精進料理), vegetarian dishes developed by Buddhist monks. However, the advertised "shōjin-ryōri" at public eating places includes some non-vegetarian elements. Vegetarianism, was introduced from China by the Ōbaku sect (a sub-sect of Zen Buddhism), and which some sources still regard as part of "Japanese cuisine". The sect in Japan was founded by the priest Ingen (d. 1673), and is headquartered in Uji, Kyoto. The Japanese name for the common green bean takes after this priest who allegedly introduced the New World crop via China. One aspect of the fucha-ryōri practiced at the temple is the wealth of , one example being mock-eel, made from strained tofu, with nori seaweed used expertly to mimic the black skin. The secret ingredient used is grated "gobō" (burdock) roots.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Masakazu Tada, Honorary Vice-President of the International Vegetarian Union for 25 years from 1960, stated that "Japan was vegetarian for 1,000 years". The taboo against eating meat was lifted in 1872 by the Meiji Emperor as part of an effort towards westernizing Japan. British journalist J. W. Robertson Scott reported in the 1920s that the society was still 90% vegetarian, and 50–60% of the population ate fish only on festive occasions, probably due to poverty more than for any other reason.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Rice has historically been the staple food of the Japanese people. Its fundamental importance is evident from the fact that the word for cooked rice, "gohan" or "meshi", also stands for a "meal". While rice has an ancient history of cultivation in Japan, its use as a staple has not been universal. Notably, in northern areas (northern Honshū and Hokkaidō), other grains such as wheat were more common into the 19th century.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: In most of Japan, rice used to be consumed for almost every meal, and although a 2007 survey showed that 70% of Japanese still eat it once or twice a day, its popularity is now declining. In the 20th century there has been a shift in dietary habits, with an increasing number of people choosing wheat-based products (such as bread and noodles) over rice.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Japanese rice is short-grained and becomes sticky when cooked. Most rice is sold as "hakumai" (白米, "white rice"), with the outer portion of the grains (糠, "nuka") polished away. Unpolished brown rice (玄米, "genmai") is considered less desirable, but its popularity has been increasing.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Japanese noodles often substitute for a rice-based meal. "Soba" (thin, grayish-brown noodles containing buckwheat flour) and "udon" (thick wheat noodles) are the main traditional noodles, while ramen is a modern import and now very popular. There are also other, less common noodles, such as "somen" (thin, white noodles containing wheat flour).


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Japanese noodles, such as soba and udon, are eaten as a standalone, and usually not with a side dish, in terms of general custom. It may have toppings, but they are called . The fried battered shrimp tempura sitting in a bowl of tempura-soba would be referred to as "the shrimp" or "the tempura", and not so much be referred to as a topping ("gu"). The identical toppings, if served as a dish to be eaten with plain white rice could be called "okazu", so these terms are context-sensitive. Some noodle dishes derive their name from Japanese folklore, such as kitsune and tanuki, reflecting dishes in which the noodles can be changed, but the broth and garnishes correspond to their respective legend.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Hot noodles are usually served in a bowl already steeped in their broth and are called "kakesoba" or "kakeudon". Cold soba arrive unseasoned and heaped atop a "zaru" or "seiro", and are picked up with a chopstick and dunked in their dip sauce. The broth is a soy-dashi-mirin type of mix; the dip is similar but more concentrated (heavier on soy sauce).


title: Japanese cuisine

text: In the simple form, "yakumi" (condiments and spices) such as shichimi, nori, finely chopped scallions, wasabi, etc. are added to the noodles, besides the broth/dip sauce.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Udon may also be eaten in "kama-age" style, piping hot straight out of the boiling pot, and eaten with plain soy sauce and sometimes with raw egg also.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Japanese noodles are traditionally eaten by bringing the bowl close to the mouth, and sucking in the noodles with the aid of chopsticks. The resulting loud slurping noise is considered normal in Japan, although in the 2010s concerns began to be voiced about the slurping being offensive to others, especially tourists. The word "nuuhara" (ヌーハラ, from "nuudoru harasumento", noodle harassment) was coined to describe this.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Traditional Japanese sweets are known as "wagashi". Ingredients such as red bean paste and mochi are used. More modern-day tastes includes green tea ice cream, a very popular flavor. Almost all manufacturers produce a version of it. Kakigōri is a shaved ice dessert flavored with syrup or condensed milk. It is usually sold and eaten at summer festivals. A dessert very popular amongst children in Japan is dorayaki. They are sweet pancakes filled with a sweet red bean paste. They are mostly eaten at room temperature but are also considered very delicious hot.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Green tea may be served with most Japanese dishes. It is produced in Japan and prepared in various forms such as matcha, the tea used in the Japanese tea ceremony.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Beer production started in Japan in the 1860s. The most commonly consumed beers in Japan are pale-colored light lagers, with an alcohol strength of around 5.0% ABV. Lager beers are the most commonly produced beer style in Japan, but beer-like beverages, made with lower levels of malts called "Happoshu" (発泡酒, literally, "bubbly alcohol") or non-malt Happousei (発泡性, literally "effervescence") have captured a large part of the market as tax is substantially lower on these products. Beer and its varieties have a market share of almost 2/3 of alcoholic beverages.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Small local microbreweries have also gained increasing popularity since the 1990s, supplying distinct tasting beers in a variety of styles that seek to match the emphasis on craftsmanship, quality, and ingredient provenance often associated with Japanese food.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Sake is a brewed rice beverage that typically contains 15–17% alcohol and is made by multiple fermentation of rice. At traditional formal meals, it is considered an equivalent to rice and is not simultaneously taken with other rice-based dishes, although this notion is typically no longer applied to modern, refined, premium ("ginjo") sake, which bear little resemblance to the sakes of even 100 years ago. Side dishes for sake are particularly called "sakana" or "otsumami".


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Sake is brewed in a highly labor-intensive process more similar to beer production than winemaking, hence, the common description of sake as rice "wine" is misleading.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Sake is made with, by legal definition, strictly just four ingredients: special rice, water, koji, and special yeast.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: As of 2014, Japan has some 1500 registered breweries, which produce thousands of different sakes. Sake characteristics and flavor profiles vary with regionality, ingredients, and the styles (maintained by brewmaster guilds) that brewery leaders want to produce.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Sake flavor profiles lend extremely well to pairing with a wide variety of cuisines, including non-Japanese cuisines.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: "Shōchū" is a distilled spirit that is typically made from barley, sweet potato, buckwheat, or rice. "Shōchū" is produced everywhere in Japan, but its production started in Kyushu.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Japanese whisky began commercial production in the early 20th century, and is now extremely popular, primarily consumed in . It is produced in the Scottish style, with malt whisky produced since the 1980s, and has won top international awards since the 2000s.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: A domestic wine production exists since the 1860s yet most wine is imported. The total market share of wine on alcoholic beverages is about 3%.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Japanese cuisine offers a vast array of regional specialties known as "kyōdo-ryōri" (郷土料理), many of them originating from dishes prepared using traditional recipes with local ingredients. Foods from the Kantō region taste very strong. For example, the dashi-based broth for serving udon noodles is heavy on dark soy sauce, similar to soba broth. On the other hand, Kansai region foods are lightly seasoned, with clear udon noodles. made with light soy sauce.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: The traditional Japanese table setting has varied considerably over the centuries, depending primarily on the type of table common during a given era. Before the 19th century, small individual box tables ("hakozen", 箱膳) or flat floor trays were set before each diner. Larger low tables ("chabudai", ちゃぶ台) that accommodated entire families were gaining popularity by the beginning of the 20th century, but these gave way to Western-style dining tables and chairs by the end of the 20th century.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: The traditional Japanese table setting is to place a bowl of rice on the diner’s left and to place a bowl of miso soup on the diner’s right side at the table. Behind these, each "okazu" is served on its own individual plate. Based on the standard three "okazu" formula, behind the rice and soup are three flat plates to hold the three "okazu"; one to far back left, one at far back right, and one in the center. Pickled vegetables are often served on the side but are not counted as part of the three "okazu". Chopsticks are generally placed at the very front of the tray near the diner with pointed ends facing left and supported by a chopstick rest, or "hashioki".


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Many restaurants and homes in Japan are equipped with Western-style chairs and tables. However, traditional Japanese low tables and cushions, usually found on tatami floors, are also very common. Tatami mats, which are made of straw, can be easily damaged and are hard to clean, thus shoes or any type of footwear are always taken off when stepping on tatami floors.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: When dining in a traditional tatami room, sitting upright on the floor is common. In a casual setting, men usually sit with their feet crossed and women sit with both legs to one side. Only men are supposed to sit cross-legged. The formal way of sitting for both sexes is a kneeling style known as "seiza". To sit in a "seiza" position, one kneels on the floor with legs folded under the thighs and the buttocks resting on the heels.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: When dining out in a restaurant, the customers are guided to their seats by the host. The honored or eldest guest will usually be seated at the center of the table farthest from the entrance. In the home, the most important guest is also seated farthest away from the entrance. If there is a tokonoma, or alcove, in the room, the guest is seated in front of it. The host sits next to or closest to the entrance.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: In Japan, it is customary to say "itadakimasu" ("I [humbly] receive") before starting to eat a meal. When saying "itadakimasu", both hands are put together in front of the chest or on the lap. "Itadakimasu" is preceded by complimenting the appearance of food. The Japanese attach as much importance to the aesthetic arrangement of the food as its actual taste. Before touching the food, it is polite to compliment the host on his artistry. It is also a polite custom to wait for the eldest guest at the table to start eating before the other diners start. Another customary and important etiquette is to say "go-chisō-sama deshita" ("It was a feast") to the host after the meal and the restaurant staff when leaving.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: In some regions, on every first and fifteenth day of the month, people eat a mixture of rice and azuki ("azuki meshi" (小豆飯); see Sekihan).


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Japan has a long history of importing food from other countries, some of which are now part of Japan's most popular cuisine. Ramen is considered an important part to their culinary history, to the extent where in survey of 2,000 Tokyo residents, instant ramen came up many times as a product they thought was an outstanding Japanese invention. Believed to have originated in China, ramen became popular in Japan after the Second Sino-Japanese war (1937–1945), when many Chinese students were displaced to Japan.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Curry is another popular imported dish and is ranked near the top of nearly all Japanese surveys for favorite foods. The average Japanese person eats curry at least once a week. The origins of curry, as well many other foreign imports such as "pan" or bread, are linked to the emergence of "yōshoku", or western cuisine. "Yōshoku" can be traced as far back as the late Muromachi period (1336–1573) during a culinary revolution called "namban ryori" (南蛮料理), which means “Southern barbarian cooking”, as it is rooted in European cuisine. This cuisine style was first seen in Nagasaki, which served as the point of contact between Europe and Japan at that point in time. Food items such as potatoes, corn, dairy products, as well as the hard candy "kompeito" (金平糖), spread during this time. This cuisine became popular in the Meiji period, which is considered by many historians to be when Japan first opened itself to the outside world. Today, many of these imported items still hold a heavy presence in Japan.


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Japan today abounds with home-grown, loosely Western-style food. Many of these were invented in the wake of the 1868 Meiji Restoration and the end of national seclusion, when the sudden influx of foreign (in particular, Western) culture led to many restaurants serving Western food, known as "yōshoku" (洋食), a shortened form of "seiyōshoku" (西洋食, "Western cuisine"), opening up in cities. Restaurants that serve these foods are called "yōshokuya" (洋食屋, "Western cuisine restaurants").


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Many "yōshoku" items from that time have been adapted to a degree that they are now considered Japanese and are an integral part of any Japanese family menu. Many are served alongside rice and miso soup, and eaten with chopsticks. Yet, due to their origins these are still categorized as "yōshoku" as opposed to the more traditional "washoku" (和食, "Japanese cuisine").


title: Japanese cuisine

text: Chinese cuisine is one of the oldest the most common foreign cuisines in Japan, predating the introduction of Western food dishes into the country. Many Chinese dishes have been altered to suit Japanese palates in a type of cuisine known as "chuka ryori". Iconic dishes of chuka ryori include ramen, gyoza, and chukaman.