Shogun Japan
Essential Questions
• Why did Japan copy so much of China’s religious traditions, culture,
and political institutions at various times early in its history?
• Why did Japan’s emperor, who was seen as divine, lack much real
political power from the Heian era on?
• Why was Japan until the mid-1800s so often divided into regions ruled
mainly by aristocratic clans or powerful individual leaders,
the daimyos?
• What role(s) have the samurai played in Japan’s long history? How
important was the code of honor, bushido, in maintaining or
undermining order in Japan’s feudal systems?
• Why were the shoguns, rather than the emperor, the key national leaders
for so many centuries prior to the late 1800s?
• What forces led to the decline of the Tokugawa Shogunate and its
ultimate end during the Meiji Restoration in 1868?
Chinese Influence on
Japanese Identity
• Japan borrowed many
Chinese ideas and
innovations
• Chinese writing script
and literature
• Governmental
organization
• Buddhism
• Persistence of Shinto
The Yamato State
• In its early history, Japan
was organized around
the uji
• The Yamato State
developed as a
consolidation of several uji
• Chinese-style government
• Prince Shotoku and
the SeventeenArticle Constitution
Prince Shotoku
Taika Reforms
• Elites unhappy with
Yamato policies,
installed Tenchi
• Emperor moved to curb
power of elite families
• Taika Reforms (646)
• Land restribution
• Taxation system
• Taiho Code (701)
Nara Period
•
•
•
•
710–794
New capital established
Buddhist temples built
The Sutra of the
Golden Light
• Power struggles continued
within Japanese
government
• Capital moved to Heian
Discussion Questions
1. What key aspects of social, political, and cultural life
did the Japanese borrow from China in forming their
national identity and political system early in the
Common Era?
2. How did the Nara period (710–794) show the
continuing influence of China on Japan’s political
rulers and their political system?
3. What showed the continuing strengths of native
Japanese traditions during this time when much was
borrowed from China?
Heian Japan
• 794–1185
• Emperor as divine, not to
be bothered with ruling
• Cultural contributions
• Courtly life in Heian Japan
• Social and political
organization
The Tale of Genji
Land and the Heian
• Land became
consolidated in the
hands of a few
powerful families
• Tax burden fell more
and more on
the peasants
• Shoen: private estates
that operated as small,
local states
Military and the Heian
• Powerful families in
the government
organized armies
relying heavily on
mounted cavalry
• Samurai emerged
• Contending armies
grew in power