Craig10e ch09 ppt_ops_final

Copyright © 2016, 2011, 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The Heritage of World Civilizations
Tenth Edition
Chapter 9
Early Japanese
History

A Twelfth-Century Japanese Fan

Learning Objectives
9.1 Japanese Origins
• Discuss the premodern history of Japan, from the Jōmon
to the Yamato state.
9.2 Nara and Heian Japan
• Discuss Nara and Heian Japan, its government, culture,
and religion, and the Chinese influence.
9.3 Japan’s Early Feudal Age
• Summarize Japan’s history, society, economy, culture, and
religion between the late twelfth century and 1467.

Introduction
• Japanese history has three main turning points.
• The first came during the third century B.C.E.
when an Old Stone Age Japan became an
agricultural, metalworking society.
• The second came during the seventh and eighth
centuries C.E. as Chinese culture entered Japan.
• The third turning point came in the nineteenth
century, when Japan encountered the West.

Global Perspective: East Asia (1 of 2)
• In East Asia, Chinese civilization spread to Japan,
Korea, and Vietnam.
• When we speak of East Asia, we refer as much to
culture as to geography.
• The appeal of Chinese civilization was irresistible,
but specific needs and conditions shaped its
adoption.
• Countries that took in Chinese political culture
used it to develop their own political identities.

Global Perspective: East Asia (2 of 2)
1. How does Japanese history illustrate the
relationship between a “heartland
civilization” and adjacent areas?
2. Why did Korea, Vietnam, and Japan become
independent nations in recent times? What
other nations on the periphery of China did
not?

9.1 Japanese Origins (1 of 2)
Learning Objective:
Discuss the premodern history of
Japan, from the Jōmon to the Yamato
state.

9.1 Japanese Origins (2 of 2)
• On the island of Japan, the temperate zone
has always been the axis of Japan’s culture,
economy, and polity.
• Early Japan was remote and was not well
known, even to China.

9.1.1 The Jōmon, Japan’s Old Stone Age
• The earliest evidences of human habitation are
finely shaped stone tools dating from about
30,000 B.C.E.
• About 10,000 B.C.E., pottery developed within this
hunting and gathering society.
• Scholars call this society the “Jōmon” after the
ropelike, cord-pattern (jōmon) designs on the
pottery.
• Japan had a sparse population of about 200,000.

Jōmon Pottery Figure

9.1.2 The Yayoi Revolution
• At the beginning of the third century B.C.E., the
bronze, iron, and agricultural revolutions
began in Japan simultaneously.
• Early Yayoi “frontier settlements” were
located next to their fields. Their agriculture
was primitive.
• By the first century C.E., Yayoi settlements had
so expanded that wars were fought for the
best land.

9.1.3 Tomb Culture, the Yamato State,
and Korea
• Emerging directly from Yayoi culture was an era
(300–680) characterized by giant tomb mounds.
• Regional aristocracies under the loose hegemony
of Yamato “great kings” characterize the period.
• The great kings awarded Korean-type titles to
court and regional aristocrats.
• Relations with Korea were critical to the Yamato
court.

Japanese Tomb Painting

Map 9–1: Yamato Japan and Korea
(ca. 500 C.E.)

9.1.4 Religion in Early Japan
• The indigenous religion of the Yamato
Japanese was an animistic worship of the
forces of nature known as Shintō, or “the way
of the gods.”
• Early Shintō had a connection with the state
and the ruling aristocracy.

Document: Darkness and
the Cave of High Heaven
• What does this myth suggest regarding the
social relations of the Shintō gods?
• Entering a cave and then reemerging signifies
death and rebirth in the religions of many
peoples. Compare this passage to “Mark
Describes the Resurrection of Jesus” in
Chapter 6.

The Itsukushima Shrine

9.2 Nara and Heian Japan (1 of 2)
Learning Objective:
Discuss Nara and Heian Japan, its
government, culture, and religion, and
the Chinese influence.

9.2 Nara and Heian Japan (2 of 2)
• The second major turning point in Japanese
history came with the inflow of Chinese
civilization between the seventh and twelfth
centuries.
• By the eleventh century the reworking of
Chinese elements had led to distinctive
Japanese forms.
• The ruler of Japan was considered the
“heavenly emperor,” or tennō.

Prince Shōtoku (574–622)

9.2.1 Court Government
• In 794 the capital was moved to Heian (later
Kyoto) on the plain north of Nara.
• All Japanese history constitutes a single dynasty,
although there were succession disputes.
• Below the emperor, a modified Chinese pattern
prevailed in the central and local governments.
• In Japan, unlike China, there was little tension
between the emperor and the bureaucracy.

9.2.2 People, Land, and Taxes
• The life of the common people of Japan
remained harsh during the Nara and Heian
periods and population grew slowly.
• For the peasants, land was difficult to acquire
and taxes were a burden.
• The tax system shifted and developed over
time.

9.2.3 Rise of the Samurai (1 of 2)
• Japan faced no powerful nomadic armies on
its borders. Its military had only to police
Japan.
• In 792 the court began a system of military
service that came to rely on local mounted
warriors known as samurai.
• From the mid–Heian period, the officially
recruited local warriors were replaced by
nonofficial private bands of local warriors.

9.2.3 Rise of the Samurai (2 of 2)
• In the early tenth century, regional military
coalitions or confederations began to form.
• By the middle of the twelfth century, there
were regional military bands in every part of
Japan.

9.2.4 Aristocratic Culture and Buddhism
• The culture of Nara and early Heian Japan was
largely one of Shintō religious practices and
village folkways.
• Only the tiny aristocracy was involved in the
routines of court life, as were Buddhist monks
in the rounds of their monastic life.

In the Heiji War of 1159–1160

9.2.5 Chinese Tradition in Japan
• Education at the Nara and Heian courts largely
involved acquiring Chinese learning.
• From the Nara period until the nineteenth
century, as well as most philosophical and
legal writings, histories, essays, and religious
texts in Japan, were written in Chinese.
• Chinese history, Buddhist stories, and
Confucian classics were heavily influential
within Japan.

9.2.6 The Birth of Japanese Literature
• The Japanese began to compose poetry in
their native tongue, compiling the first
anthology in about 760.
• Kana, a new syllabic script, used certain
Chinese ideographs as a phonetic script.
• The invention of kana opened the gate to the
most brilliant developments of the Heian
period.

Overview: Development of
Japanese Writing

Document: Aristocratic Taste at the Fujiwara Court:
Sei Shōnagon Records Her Likes and Dislikes
• In what sense can a literary work such as this
also be considered a historical document?
• What kind of information does it provide
about court life?

9.2.7 Nara and Heian Buddhism
• As in China, Japanese monasteries and
temples were involved with the state.
• The Japanese came to Buddhism from the
magic and mystery of Shintō.
• During the Heian era, the two great new
Buddhist sects were Tendai and Shingon.
• During the later Heian period, Buddhism
became assimilated.

Chronology: Early Japanese History

9.3 Japan’s Early Feudal Age (1 of 2)
Learning Objective:
Summarize Japan’s history, society,
economy, culture, and religion
between the late twelfth century and
1467.

9.3 Japan’s Early Feudal Age (2 of 2)
• The late twelfth century marked another
turning point in Japanese history.
• It included the formation of the bakufu and
the emergence of the shōgun.

9.3.1 The Kamakura Era
• In 1180, Minamoto Yoritomo (1147–1199)
responded to a call to arms by a disaffected
prince.
• He achieved a national victory over most of
Japan.
• Afterward, he established a government, the
bakufu, comprising his vassals.
• Attempted Mongol invasions of Japan failed,
in part because of kamikaze.

Minamoto Yoritomo

9.3.2 The Question of Feudalism
• Japanese society in the Kamakura era was
feudalistic in some ways, such as the warrior
ethic, and less so in others.
• The role of fiefs is somewhat ambiguous.

Map 9–2: Medieval Japan and
the Mongol Invasions

A Closer Look: The East Meets the East

Japanese Sword

9.3.3 The Ashikaga Era
• Between 1331 and 1336, tensions developed in
late Kamakura society, leading to a series of
revolts.
• What emerged was a new bakufu in Kyoto and a
variety of semiautonomous regional states in the
rest of Japan.
• A lord, now called a daimyo, governed each
regional state.
• Formally, all regional lords (daimyo) were the
vassals of the shōgun; the relationship was often
nominal.

9.3.4 Women in Warrior Society
• The status of women in Japan declined as
fighting became more common.

Chronology: Government by
Military Houses

9.3.5 Agriculture, Commerce, and
Medieval Guilds (1 of 2)
• Population figures for medieval Japan suggest
6 million for 1200 and 15 million for 1600.
• The increase was brought about by land
reclamation and improvements in agricultural
technology.
• In the Nara and early Heian periods, the
economy was almost exclusively agricultural
and had no currency.

9.3.5 Agriculture, Commerce, and
Medieval Guilds (2 of 2)
• During the Kamakura period, merchants and
some trade networks spread over Japan.
• From the Kamakura period onward, markets
were held periodically in many parts of Japan.

9.3.6 Medieval Culture
• Medieval Japanese culture was a direct
outgrowth of the classical age, unlike medieval
Europe.
• New forms of literature appeared in medieval
Japan.
• A new wave of culture entered from China.
Medieval Japan was shaped by Song culture.
• The medieval centuries were Japan’s age of
Buddhist faith.

9.3.7 Japanese Pietism: Pure Land and
Nichiren Buddhism
• As a result of distinguished teachers, doctrinal
simplicity, and a reliance on piety, Pure Land
Buddhism became the dominant form of
Buddhism in Japan.
• A second devotional sect was founded by
Nichiren (1222–1282), who believed that the
Lotus Sutra perfectly embodied the teachings
of the Buddha.

Kūya Invoking Buddha

9.3.8 Zen Buddhism
• Zen was a religion of paradox. Its monks were
learned, yet it stressed a return to ignorance.
• In Japan the Zen sect included many samurai
whose duty it was to kill the enemies of their
lord.
• Zen influenced the arts of medieval Japan.

Document: The Arts and Zen Buddhism
• Could the same theory be applied to baseball
or any other sport?
• If so, what effect would this have on how they
are played?

9.3.9 Nō Plays
• Another vital product of Ashikaga culture is
the Nō play, a kind of mystery drama unique
to Japan.
• Buddhist ideas, such as impermanence and
suffering, are found in many plays.
• Some plays are close to fairy tales.

Two Seated Buddhas

Tibetan Buddhist Nuns

Craig10e ch09 ppt_ops_final

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