Early Japan and Korea - Eastern Upper Peninsula ISD
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Transcript Early Japan and Korea - Eastern Upper Peninsula ISD
Chapter 8, Section 3
The Geography of Japan
Four main islands:
Hokkaido (hah-KY-doh)
Honshu (HAHN-shoo)
Kyushu (kee-OO-shoo)
Shikoku (shih-KOH-koo)
Mountainous [volcanic in origin]
(11% can be farmed)
Isolation
Rise of the Japanese State
First clans settled in the modern cities of Osaka and
Kyoto.
Clans
Local ruler offered protection in exchange for a share of the
harvest [FEUDALISM]
Yamato clan leader achieved supremacy over all.
Chinese Influences
Shotoku Taishu (574-622)
Prince who wanted to unify clans to
resist the Chinese invaders.
Learned about the Chinese structure of government and
brought those ideas back to Japan.
Centralized government with a supreme ruler.
To limit the power of the aristocrats.
Ruler was a divine figure and symbol of Japanese nation.
New tax system
Village was the basic unit of government
Farmland belonged to the state.
The Nara Period
Fujiwara clan brings changes:
New capital @ Nara.
Emperor began to use the title “son of Heaven”
Aristocrats became stronger.
They kept the taxes for themselves.
The Heian Period
794 capital moved to Heian [HAY-ahn] (Kyoto).
Real power was with the Fujiwara clan.
Powerful families had the power. [FEUDALISM]
Used military force to protect their interests.
Samurai (“Those who serve”)
Resembled knights.
Lived by a strict warrior code = BUSHIDO
“Way of the warrior”
Loyalty to his lord.
The Kamakura Shogunate,
1192-1333
Minamoto Yoritomo
Defeated rivals and set up his power near Tokyo.
Centralized government
Shogun = general
Shogunate – emperor remained ruler in name only.
Kublai Khan invaded Japan with 150,000 men.
Almost the entire fleet was destroyed by a typhoon.
http://www.historytoday.com/blog/2011/10/13th-century-mongolian-invasion-ship-discovered-under-japaneseseabed
1333 overthrown by another family.
Collapse of Central Rule
Power of aristocrats grew during the 14th – 15th
centuries.
Daimyo
Heads of important families.
Controlled the land; owed no taxes
By 1500 there was a lot of chaos.
Onin War, 1467-1477
Central authority disappeared.
Armies burned temples and palaces in Kyoto .
Life in Early Japan
Japanese made the most of limited resources:
Farmed limited land available.
Trade grew; markets appeared in larger towns.
The Role of Women
Certain level of equality with men.
Inheritance, could divorce if abandoned
Subordinate to men.
Aristocratic women at court.
Often appear in paintings of
the period.
Religion in Early Japan
Worshipped spirits, called kami
In trees, rivers, streams and mountains.
Believed that sprits of ancestors were present in the air
around them.
Shinto: “The Sacred Way” or “the Way of the Gods”
Divinity of the emperor
Sacredness of the nation
Some followed Buddhism which Buddhist monks brought
to China in 6th century A.D.
Zen was very popular (became part of Samurai code).
Different ways to achieve enlightenment.