1. Medieval Japan

2. Japanese Middle Ages Japan started as a grouping of clans
Chinese influence affected the Japanese way of government
500 C.E. Under Shotoku Taishi, the Japanese gained a centralized government with an Emperor at it’s head
Also gained a new tax system

3. Location, Location, Location
After Taishi, emperors traditionally were of Yamato descent, but were “influenced” by other clans.
First of these “influential” clans was the Fujiwara
First order of business was to establish a capital at Nara in 710AD

4. Got to pay your taxes!
Once Taishi established the Yamato Emperor he also started a system of taxes that sounds like feudalism
However, after the establishment of Nara problems occurred

5. Moving out!
In 794 AD the capital was moved to Heian (modern day Kyoto) due to corruptive influence of nobles there.
However, at this time the government was starting to become decentralized

6. “The Way of the Warrior”
As the emperor lost more and more power local nobles started to use samurai
These men were like knights in Medieval Europe but used swords and bows on horseback in place of lances
Also like knights, samurai lived under a strict code called Bushido or “way of the warrior”
Bushido code: honor, bravery, loyalty

7. Kamakura Shogunate
By the end of the 1100s the emperor was only that in name. Local warlords had begun to carve out their own lands in a time of great civil war
In 1192 Minamoto Yoritomo established the shogunate system after defeated most of his rivals
See diagram on pg. 392
Emperor (high rank/little to no power) shogun (ruler)  Daimyo (large landowners)  Samurai  Peasants, merchants, artisans

8. Life in Early Japan Role of Women Religion Culture
Were seen as almost equal to men
Faced easy divorces
Religion
Shinto (nature)
Zen (self-reliance, meditation)
Zen Buddhism
Culture
Female authors
Landscape art and architecture

9. Chaos in Japan
The time before the Edo period was marked by weak shoguns and fighting within & b/w Mongols (mid-1200s – 1500s)
This was all to change at the end of the 16th century

10. The Three Unifiers Oda Nobunaga Toyotomi Hediyoshi Tokugawa Ieyasu
By 1550 Oda was the most powerful daimyo with control of Kyoto and the central plans of Japan
Toyotomi Hediyoshi
After a very bloody civil war, Toyotomi was able to take control and persuade most of the other daimyo to follow him
But like Oda did not make himself shogun
Tokugawa Ieyasu
Like Toyotomi before him Tokugawa violently took power and moved the capital to Edo (present day Tokyo)
Naming himself shogun Tokugawa effectively took control of Japan – created central gov’t
Dynasty lasted until 1868

11. Nanban: European Encounters
In 1543 AD the first Europeans, the Portuguese, landed in Japan
Like in China, the Japanese accepted the Europeans at first, especially the Unifiers who used the firearms they brought with them

12. Nanban cont.
With trade also came Jesuit missionaries, who were at first tolerated
When they started to destroy Shinto shrines however, they severely damaged Japanese/European relations

13. Economic Changes in Edo
Unlike with the han system, Japan stopped strictly following Confucian ideals
The Tokugawa found that trade was important to the country
Out of this came a new merchant class and a period of peasant revolts

14. Social Changes cont.
Like in China women were very restricted in Edo Japan
Though they were valued in the home as child bearers and homemakers, women have very little rights