Transcript Japan in the Era of European Expansion

Japan in the Era of European Expansion
SSWH14:d
Time and Geography
POLITICAL
Japan
• Japan became collection of provinces
ruled by warrior-nobles (daimyo) in
shogunate system
• First European contacts in mid-1500s
– Brought firearms and Christianity
– Japanese distrusted Christianity
– Began period of enforced isolation from the
rest of the world
RELIGIOUS
First European Contacts Christianity
• Christianity arrived with Jesuits
• Some of daimyo were sympathetic, converted
• Most Japanese practiced Shinto or Buddhism
Shinto symbol
First European Contacts Christianity
• Other changes were underway
– Oda Nobunaga captured most of Honshu Island
– Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea
– Tokugawa Ieyasu began 250 years of the Tokugawa
Shogunate
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
(left)
Tokugawa Ieyasu
(right)
POLITICAL
THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE
• Only warrior class (samurai) and daimyo could
own weapons
• Began to withdraw Japan into isolation
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Missionaries evicted
Japanese pressured to re-convert to Buddhism
Severed mercantile contacts
No foreigners could come to
Japan or Japanese live abroad
– Isolation (sakoku) lasted to
mid-18th C
Takanawa
shogunate soldiers
Shogun, Emperor, and Daimyo
• Shogunate at Edo, Emperor at
Kyoto
– True military and political
power rested with
shogunate
– Daimyo were key players,
so constant threat to
shogun
– Shogun played daimyo
against each other through
intervention, competition
Shogunate at Edo
Shogun, Emperor, and Daimyo
• Economic Advances
– Growth of population, domestic trade
– Merchants became more prominent
• Not well respected, but increasingly wealthy
• Money economy replaced barter
– Banks, credit became more common
Emperor Meiji moved
the imperial capital from
Kyoto to Edo
SOCIAL
Peasants and Urbanites
• Conditions for peasants
improved little
– Some protection from
exploitation
– Heavy taxes
– Increasing misery led to
rebellions
Japanese villiage
Peasants and Urbanites
• Cities grew rapidly
– Edo had about 1million population
– Clear urban class structure
Peasants and Urbanites
• Most Japanese still lived in small towns
– Farming, timbering, fishing occupations
– Country life, rice culture were dominant images
Small
Japanese
town
Taming the Samurai
• Samurai had lost most of their
prestige
• Literally nothing for them to do
• Not allowed to become merchants
• Mass bankruptcies, social disgrace
• Bureaucracy took place of feudal
barons
• Samurai ill-equipped for transition,
sank into poverty, loss of status
Samurai
AESTHETIC
Tokugawa Arts and Learning
• Literature and its audience
– Literacy rates were high because was popular form of
entertainment
– Haiku poems very popular
– Kabuki drama
• Realistic, satirical, sometimes violent
• Wildly popular among upper classes
Kabuki was
wildly popular
Tokugawa Arts and Learning
• Adaptation and
originality
– Fine arts
• Specifically
Japanese
• Playful humor
• Consciously close
to nature
– Merchants became
important as
patrons
The Great Wave by Katsushika Hokusai
POLITICAL
Response to Western Challenge
• Main emphasis of thought changed to Confucian ideals –
concern with this world
– Japanese Confucianism different from Chinese
– Prepared daimyo for invasion of Western ideas, who showed
little confusion or resistance
• Educated classes familiar with science, technology at
beginning of shogunate
– But isolation meant no Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment
– Western medicine was fairly well-known
• Arrival of Matthew Perry
– Absorbed ideas by choice, not force
– West did not overwhelm Japanese
– Rather, they adapted what they thought they could use
Southeast Asia
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Little early contact
Limited to coastal towns, mainly commercial
Insular Asians were mostly Muslim
Bali was Hindu
Philippines had a Christian element
Mainland populations even less touched by
Europeans
Southeast Asia
• In 1700s, Thailand, Burma, and Vietnam dominated
• Thailand and Burma were Hinayana Buddhist
• Vietnam under Chinese influence remained
Mahayana Buddhist
• Khmer state of Cambodia divided between Thais
and Viets
• No visible European influence as late as 18th C
Discussion Questions
1. How did their enforced isolation impact
Japanese culture and history? What
advantages can you see to such isolation?
What disadvantages?
2. The Tokugawa period is often referred to as an
era of feudalism in Japan. How does the
Japanese experience compare to the model of
feudalism based on European history? What
are the similarities and differences?