FEUDAL JAPAN
EARLY HISTORY
 Migrants from
via
 Strong clans on Honshu
 Religion:
o
– kami
o Shintoism – “way of the kami”
o Early emperors =
ERAS OF POST-CLASSICAL JAPAN
 Taika (645-710 CE)
o
 Nara (710-784 CE)
o
 Heian (794-1192 CE)
o
o Sinification rejected
o Begin
SINIFICATION IN JAPAN

(
CE)
o China as a model for change…
 Strong




(kanji characters)


RESISTANCE TO SINIFICATION
 What groups caused signification to be hindered in China?
o
o
 Results::
o Taika reforms
o Capital moved from Nara to
(
)
o Aristocrats strong again
o Emperor’s power
o Aristocrats gained power in
o Rural leaders established
COURTLY LIFE OF THE HEIAN
 Elaborate, highly-refined etiquette
 Personal diaries
o
by
(10th C)
 Great novel
o
by
 Description of superficial life inside
 Some Chinese artistic styles continued
o Writing
, Buddhism (
)
BREAKDOWN OF CENTRAL POWER
 Emperors without true power again until

influence over imperial court gains:
o
:
 Policy makers, administrators, marriages
 Banditry & crime grows
 Local powers dominant in rural provinces:
o Deny
to imperial court
o
o
= warrior elite
 personal armies of
:
 loyal to
 protect
& capital
 duels of champions
 samurai code of honor:
.

: ritual suicide
o honorable to die in this way.
 Prove
 Protect family’s
JAPAN’S FEUDAL ERA: 800-1500 CE
 Families competed for imperial control
o
(1180-1185 CE)

vs.
 Hardships to peasants
&
o Minamoto established military gov’t = _____________
 led by

established =
ruling from Heian
 Emperor & court preserved
 Feudalism on the rise
o Ashikaga Age: 1338-1573 CE
 Minamoto overthrown by
 Ashikaga
created
o Civil war over claims of new shogunate


destroyed

dismantled

kingdoms ruled by warlords (
 Samura loyal to rival daimyo

&
countryside
 Feudalism becomes order of the day
)
FEUDAL STRUCTURE in JAPAN:
_________
Land - Shoen
Land - Shoen
Protection
Loyalty
Loyalty
Food