ESPIRIT Chart
You must include main ideas and details in each category
Civilization/Nation/Group_______________Japan__________________
Time Period__________________200 B.C.E. – 1400 C.E.________________________
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S
P
- Production of silk, hemp, paper, dyes, and vegetable oils were promoted; they were
marketable and highly profitable.
- Guilds were created to promote marketing and to protect merchants in times of political
insecurity and weakness.
- New capital; changed how trade networks were formed.
- Traded with alliances/allies; a feudal network/system.
- Nobles enjoyed luxuries, and followed strict codes of politeness.
- Love affairs and gossip were popular.
- Women were equally artistically creative as their male counterparts, and they often tried to
gain political power as well.
- Warriors were high up on the social pyramid due to being valued for their protection
against bandits.
- Rise of samurais turned peasants into serfs.
- Women had independent power in feudal era; they managed guilds and other businesses
and passed it on to their daughters.
- Primogeniture in the elite class however limited the power of women.
- Women were taught to kill themselves if they were captured by other soldiers; obeyed their
husbands; fulfill and anticipate their desires.
- Introduced Taika reforms to change the imperial administration to match the one set in
China.
- Tried to ensure that women never ruled Japan.
- Feared the power + influence of Buddhist monks.
- New capital at Kyoto/Heian. Banned Buddhist monasteries, but monks built them on the
hills surrounding Kyoto.
- Families with high political power further increased that power through increasing the
number of estates that they controlled.
- Small “kingdoms” were created; they were self-sufficient and wary of other “kingdoms”
attacking them. Bushi, or military leaders, ruled these forts or “kingdoms”.
- Samurais, mounted troops, were loyal to bushis, not the royal court. They still protected
members of the court however.
- As local lords’ powers grew, the court and imperial administration decreased in power.
- Genpei Wars ravaged farmlands of peasants and forced them to fight against each other.
- Feudal era began when the Minamoto emerged victorious with their samurai warriors in
the Genpei Wars.
- Collapse of central government caused by civil wars against feuding factions.
- Chinese imports weakened as imperial administration weakened; scholar-gentry elite lost
power, and a centralized government and heavenly mandate became ludicrous. Also, China
was in a state of turmoil and political chaos as well.
I
R
I
T
- Imported ideas, products, traditions, from China.
- Growth of Zen Buddhism led to an increased interaction with China again.
- Buddhism had tried to gain large amounts of political power within the government, but
met opposition.
- Peasants/Serfs turned to pure land Buddhism in hopes of salvation.
- Zen Buddhism appealed to the warrior elites due to its stress on simplicity and discipline.
- Nobles and the government officials tried their best to adopt Chinese ideas; they tried to
learn the language, combine both ideas, and believe in Confucianism.
- Peasants admired the nobles, the temples, and went to Buddhist monks for remedial cures.
- Poetry was popular, with the simplification of the Chinese script.
- Stressed honor and death rather than retreat/defeat. Seppuku was used to commit suicide
whenever dishonor occurred.
- Developed scroll paintings that were original from their Chinese influence.
- New tools, crops (soybeans), and effective use of draft animals contributed to the wellbeing of peasants in feudal Japan.
- Samurai swords were developed.
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Surprise: Seppuku; samurais committing suicide if their honor was lost by splitting their bellies open.
Large emphasis on honor, willing to die for honor.
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Main Idea: Japan drew a large portion of their culture from China’s society, often combining their ideas
and thoughts with the ones originating from China. They modeled concepts such as the way government
should rule after China’s own society, but soon transformed their society to a form of feudalism.