Running head: HEALTHCARE STRESSORS  1 HEALTHCARE STRESSORS 3 HEALTHCARE STRESSORS Name Institutional affiliation Course Date A healthy nation is a wealthy nation, the truth of this saying can clearly be seen in various aspects of relationships expressed by countries between their exonomic wellbeing and the health of their people. There is no country that can thrive without a good health. Poor health in a country means that people are spending a lot of resources and also wasting a lot of time in seeking for treatment which probably does not work, on the other hand for a healthy nation, limited time is spent searching for effective medication and this also translates that little’s time is wasted and also apt of resources used in constructive agenda. For instance for when a –person is weighing out to invest resources or getting treatment, it is possible to do all of them at the same time owing to the efficiency that a good healthcare system may create. Healthcare system however faces a plethora of issues or stressors as identified in this course. These stressors have been deemed to inhibit the desired effectiveness of healthcare in this country in order to compete effectively with other developed nations in offering quality healthcare to the people. According to research, stressors in healthcare have negative impact in the overal rendering of cost effective and efficient healthcare services to the patients. (Judge & Rayman, 2001). However the challenges t times have proved to be hard to deal with and this has prompted the need to have a better understanding of the measures that can be implemented at organizational level to deal with the same, the stressors affecting the healthcare sector usually revolve around internal and external factors. Internal factors basically bring stressors that healthcare providers can try to address while external stressors are usually imposed on healthcare facilities by the external factors hence hard for healthcare providers to deal with. For this assignment the identified stressor affecting the healthcare in the high cost of accessing the healthcare in the country. According to the research the cost of healthcare in the US is the highest in the world with an individual spending about ten thousand dollars per year. This this is quite high owing to other countries budgets. For many people they would also anticipate that the quality of healthcare in the country also to match the high cost but this is quite opposite. Among the developed countries, US has the lowest quality of healthcare as rejected y other healthcare indicators such as life expectancy, access to healthcare, mental health, mortality rate among others. It is clear that the cost of healthcare is a major issue surrounding the healthcare in the country. However there are various measures that can be taken to address this stressor to quality healthcare among the Americans the ever raising cos.

1. Running head: HEALTHCARE STRESSORS
1
HEALTHCARE STRESSORS 3
HEALTHCARE STRESSORS
Name
Institutional affiliation
Course
Date
A healthy nation is a wealthy nation, the truth of this saying can
clearly be seen in various aspects of relationships expressed by
countries between their exonomic wellbeing and the health of
their people. There is no country that can thrive without a good
health. Poor health in a country means that people are spending
a lot of resources and also wasting a lot of time in seeking for
treatment which probably does not work, on the other hand for a
healthy nation, limited time is spent searching for effective
medication and this also translates that little’s time is wasted
and also apt of resources used in constructive agenda. For
instance for when a –person is weighing out to invest resources
or getting treatment, it is possible to do all of them at the same
time owing to the efficiency that a good healthcare system may

2. create.
Healthcare system however faces a plethora of issues or
stressors as identified in this course. These stressors have been
deemed to inhibit the desired effectiveness of healthcare in this
country in order to compete effectively with other developed
nations in offering quality healthcare to the people. According
to research, stressors in healthcare have negative impact in the
overal rendering of cost effective and efficient healthcare
services to the patients. (Judge & Rayman, 2001). However the
challenges t times have proved to be hard to deal with and this
has prompted the need to have a better understanding of the
measures that can be implemented at organizational level to
deal with the same, the stressors affecting the healthcare sector
usually revolve around internal and external factors. Internal
factors basically bring stressors that healthcare providers can
try to address while external stressors are usually imposed on
healthcare facilities by the external factors hence hard for
healthcare providers to deal with.
For this assignment the identified stressor affecting the
healthcare in the high cost of accessing the healthcare in the
country. According to the research the cost of healthcare in the
US is the highest in the world with an individual spending about
ten thousand dollars per year. This this is quite high owing to
other countries budgets. For many people they would also
anticipate that the quality of healthcare in the country also to
match the high cost but this is quite opposite. Among the
developed countries, US has the lowest quality of healthcare as
rejected y other healthcare indicators such as life expectancy,
access to healthcare, mental health, mortality rate among others.
It is clear that the cost of healthcare is a major issue
surrounding the healthcare in the country. However there are
various measures that can be taken to address this stressor to
quality healthcare among the Americans the ever raising cost of
getting treatment has been one of impeding factor to the access

3. of quality healthcare. According to the article, the high cost
limits the number of people especially the low income earners
from seeking quality healthcare. As a result, people who cannot
afford such high costs result from using researched medicine
while other stay at home without knowing the dangers of letting
the disease to advance (Ceric, 2013). The authors give the case
of treating obesity as a major challenge facing the US
healthcare sectors. The ever increasing cost of treating obesity
in the country has led to many people ignoring their conditions
while other result to homemade methods which frequently
provide not only to be ineffective bus also a major health hazard
as there is no science or certainty behind the home methods
used. The article stresses on the need for government and
stakeholders interventions to bring the cost of healthcare to be a
bit lower and affordable to all.
Orszag (2016) on the other hand explore some healthcare
reforms that are crucial in bringing down the cost of healthcare
in the country. According to the article, high cost in the
treatment and access to healthcare services is attributed to the
wasted in the healthcare. Wastages emanates from ineffective
system strain of resources as well as negligence and wasteful
nature of healthcare facilities. The need to improve on the
quality of the healthcare as explained in the article also is an
important element that would see the cost significantly come
down. Many cases of misdiagnosis as reported in various
healthcare facilities have significantly led to the increase in the
cost of healthcare as healthcare facilities have to pay for the
damages and injuries that patients incur. There is therefore a
need to address this challenge with a lot of urgency in order to
save the country from looming challenges that have revolved
around the provision of this essential services of health.
Organizations have a great impact in dealing with this stressor,
this usually comes in form of taking responsibility in offering

4. healthcare at optimum level to avoid unnecessary delays or
costs that would overburden the patients seeking for treatment.
For instance an organization needs to employ qualified staffs to
offer quality health services to reduce the instances of
misdiagnosis which has been a major driver of healthcare costs
in the country. Highly qualified doctors have a higher chances
of offering the best healthcare service to the patients and this
can be seen in the areas of early detection of diseases which can
be treated at a lesser cost during their early stages instead of
waiting for them to reach their advanced stages which are hard
and expensive to treat, in when it comes to use of organizational
resources, a clear strategy needs to be laid on how they should
be used to reduce wastage and hence have the same translated in
reducing the cost of offering healthcare service to the people
Dealing with the stressor at organizational level requires
implementation of strategies to deal with this problem. For this
organization, there is a need to have a scrutiny over the services
offered. The main objective of this is to ensure that the cost
incurred in the treatment process is matched by the quality of
services offered. Through the implementation of total quality
control mechanism, it is possible for the organization to keep
watch of the services offered. Reviewing of the cost is another
important thing that also needs to be implemented in order to
make the healthcare affordable to all. Reducing the cost of
healthcare is likely to impact the organization both negatively
and positively. First, by reducing the cost, it is possible to offer
quality and affordable healthcare service. On the other hand,
this may lead to attracting many patients to visit the facility
which may lead to straining of the resource.
In summary the cost of the healthcare remains to be one of the
major stressor in the healthcare of US, there is a need for
healthcare providers to devise ways in which this issue can be
addressed. Government agencies need to work hand in hand
with pirate sector to see that healthcare becomes affordable to
all regardless of their income. The strategies recommended

5. above are crucial in the sense that they show what organizations
needs to co do to address the problem and also help the
government in driving low the cost of healthcare while at the
same time improving on the quality of healthcare. Emphasis of
disease prevention needs to be prioritized as it helps in reducing
the overal costs of treating diseases that have already advanced
in stages
References
Biener, A., Cawley, J., & Meyerhoefer, C. (2017). The high and
rising costs of obesity to the US health care system.
Ciric, I. S. (2013). US health care: a conundrum and a
challenge. World neurosurgery, 80(6), 691-698.
Judge, W. Q., & Ryman, J. A. (2001). The shared leadership
challenge in strategic alliances: Lessons from the US healthcare
industry. Academy of Management Perspectives, 15(2), 71-79.
Orszag, P. R. (2016). US health care reform: cost containment
and improvement in quality. Jama, 316(5), 493-495.
PREMODERN
JAPAN
2
3

6. Westview Press was founded in 1975 in Boulder, Colorado, by
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7. Group, 2300 Chestnut
Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hane, Mikiso.
Premodern Japan : a historical survey / Mikiso Hane, late of
Knox College, Louis G.
Perez, llinois State University. — Second edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8133-4970-1 (e-book : alk. paper) 1. Japan—
History—To 1868. I. Perez,
Louis G. II. Title.
DS850.H36 2014
952—dc23
2014032427
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
4
http://www.westviewpress.com
mailto:[email protected]
Contents
Preface
Introduction

8. 1 THE EARLY YEARS
Geographic Setting
The Mythological Origins of Japan
Japanese Prehistory
Japan’s Neighbor: Korea
Early Yamato Society: Fourth and Fifth Centuries
The Indigenous Cults
Social Practices and Conditions
Architecture
2 THE ADVENT AND ASSIMILATION OF CHINESE
CIVILIZATION
The Introduction of Chinese Civilization
Buddhism
Prince Shōtoku
The Taika Reforms
Culture of the Seventh and Eighth Centuries
Social and Economic Conditions
Marriage and Gender Relations
Internal and External Foes
3 THE HEIAN PERIOD
The Age of Court Aristocracy
The Central Government
Culture
Nara-Heian Buddhism
The Rise of Shōen
The Emergence of the Warrior Class (Samurai)
The Triumph of the Samurai
The Rivalry of the Taira and Minamoto Clans
5
4 THE KAMAKURA PERIOD

9. The Kamakura Shogunate (1185–1333)
The Hōjō Regency
Foreign Relations: The Asian Continent
The Mongol Invasions and the Decline of the Kamakura Bakufu
The Ethos of the Samurai
Women and Inheritance
Kamakura Buddhism
Culture
5 THE ASHIKAGA PERIOD AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE
DAIMYŌ
Political Developments
Ashikaga Rule
The Decline of the Shōen
The Onset of the Time of Troubles
The Rise of the Daimyō and the Warring States
The Peasantry
Economic Growth
The Influence of Zen Buddhism on Culture
Other Cultural Developments
6 THE RESTORATION OF ORDER
Oda Nobunaga
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Hideyoshi’s Domestic Policies
The Ninja
Azuchi-Momoyama Culture
Gender and Sexuality
Contact with the West
Christianity in Japan
The Introduction of Western Things
7 THE EARLY TOKUGAWA PERIOD
The Triumph of Tokugawa Ieyasu
The Power Structure
Administrative Structure

10. The Administration of Justice
6
Social Structure
The Samurai
The Peasants
The Townspeople
Other Classes
Family Hierarchy and Women
8 INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS IN
TOKUGAWA
JAPAN
Neo-Confucianism
The Zhu Xi School in Japan
The Wang Yang-Ming School
Ancient Learning
National Learning
Agrarian Egalitarianism
The Culture of the Townspeople
Prose Fiction
Theater
Woodblock Printing and Painting
Haiku
Education
The State of Buddhism
9 THE LATE TOKUGAWA PERIOD
Political Developments
Economic Problems
The Pleasure Quarters
The Lot of the Peasants

11. Population Control
Peasant Uprisings
Agricultural Improvements
Forestry
Intellectual Currents: Reformers and Critics
10 THE FALL OF THE TOKUGAWA BAKUFU
Sakoku
The Arrival of Commodore Perry
The Immediate Consequences
7
The Mentality of Sonnō Jōi
The Rise of the Anti-Bakufu Forces
The Meiji Restoration
Appendix A: The Internet
Appendix B: Chronological Chart
Appendix C: List of Shōguns
Selected Bibliography
Index
8
Preface
In many ways this revision is decades overdue. My late good
friend Mikiso Hane
first wrote the early half of a two-volume history (Japan: A
Historical Survey) in
1972. Then he revised it somewhat to stand alone as Premodern

12. Japan: A
Historical Survey. In 1991 he revised it again. That version has
not been revised
since. Miki once told me that he intended to bring it up to date
“at the turn of the
twenty-first century.” He never got around to it; he passed away
in 2003.
I rewrote Miki’s modern Japan half of the textbook—twice, in
fact. After a
decade, I took up the premodern half. You have the results in
your hands. Generally
speaking, I have tried to retain Miki’s voice wherever I could.
His work on
religion, the arts, and culture are still magnificent. Students tell
me that his prose is
still clear and easy to understand after four decades. Unless
there has been a
significant change in consensus, I have retained his words and
interpretations.
A Word About Sources and Citations
I have chosen to put source citations and clarifications at the
end of each chapter
for quick and easy reference and to avoid cluttering up the flow
of the narrative. I
have retained almost all of Miki’s citations except for those
clearly out of date. His
translations from Japanese are retained. Miki was a great
translator; we owe much
to him for access to some great Japanese scholars, Maruyama
Masao especially.
Translation is a tough job; most of us have tried it, if only
because our dissertations
required it. In my own case, I always feel like the shade-tree
mechanic in that I find

13. leftover parts and pieces after I am done.
I have used the endnotes to cite sources for new quotations I
have employed but
also to suggest particularly good sources that a student might
consult to flesh out
what I have suggested. Long ago (in the previous century) when
I was an undergrad,
I valued most those histories that provided suggested readings
right in the footnotes.
Regarding the new bibliography, I have found that recent
scholarship has nearly
doubled since Miki’s last edition. This is mostly due to the
explosion of higher
education in the last half century. In former times only wealthy
people could afford
to send their children to college, and then few would “waste”
the effort by allowing
them to pursue esoteric topics like Japanese history. The idea of
the first child of a
Chicano illegal immigrant farm worker family to graduate from
high school
spending much time in college puzzling out Japanese history
was unimaginable. By
far the best of the “new stuff” is in what has been called the
“subaltern voice.” The
influx of women into the profession has profoundly changed it.
We must remember
9
that Miki was among the very first to include discussions on
gender, sexuality, and

14. the “nonpeople” (variously called hinin and eta). As Jim
Huffman eloquently noted
in Miki’s obituary, he had “led the way for his American peers
in making women,
workers, and peasants a serious part of the narrative.”1
Because this revision is intended to make Japanese history more
readily
available to younger scholars, I have chosen to cite only
English-language sources.
Citations to Japanese-language sources are retained in the
endnotes for each
chapter to cite sources for Miki’s translations.
To facilitate the use of the bibliography, I have added new
subsections (The
Arts, Gender and Sexuality, Religion, etc.) for quick reference.
When in doubt
about a new source, I have repeated the entry in more than one
section. I have tried
to keep that to a minimum in the interest of space.
Illustrations
The folks at Westview Press have commissioned cartographers
to delineate
changes that I think can best be expressed in line maps. I chose
not to bring in new
full-color illustrations because they drive up the price for the
book beyond what I
believe to be reasonable. If one wants to see a plethora of
excellent color
illustrations, one only has to type in names and places
(Hiroshige, Utamaro,
Kabuki, Ise, etc.) into a decent search engine, and one has
access to scores of
examples. Please see the appendix on the use of the Internet at

15. the end of the book.
Names and Transliteration
The Hepburn system of transliteration of the Japanese language
will be employed.
This entails using the “shi” instead of “si,” using “n’” at the end
of some words to
indicate that sound (the only consonant without a vowel sound),
as well as the use
of macrons (small horizontal marks, as in “Chōshū”) to indicate
elongated vowels.
Surnames are written first (e.g., Tokugawa Ieyasu) followed by
the “given” or
personal name, but we will use the personal name when
differentiating between
two people with the same surname (e.g., Ieyasu and Nariaki,
both named
Tokugawa). The only exceptions will be when the person is
better known using the
Western system (Mikiso Hane or D. T. Suzuki). Also, place
names that should be
written with macrons that are now more commonly written
without (Tōkyō vs.
Tokyo or Ōsaka vs. Osaka) will appear in their modernized
form. We will employ
the new Pinyin style (Beijing) instead of the old Wade-Giles
(Peking) for Chinese
unless the latter system is used in a quotation or title (Peking
duck).
Thanks!
I wish to thank all the folks who contributed to this revision.
My good friend Betsy
Dorn Lublin kindly read the first draft, as did seven anonymous
reviewers
employed by Westview Press. I also wish to thank

16. (alphabetically) Sydney DeVere
10
Brown, Roy Hanashiro, Ethan Segal, James Stanlaw, and Roger
Thomas for ideas,
clarifications, and kind words of encouragement along the way.
Obviously, all the
editors at Westview over the decade are appreciated for their
patience. I know the
publication of textbooks is a vested-interest business, but these
folks have served
beyond the call of duty.
My students at Illinois State University have also provided me
with help and
suggested revisions during the last eighteen months. I taught
Premodern Japanese
History twice during that time, using this textbook. I often
asked them what they
liked and didn’t like and what wasn’t clear. I have employed
their suggestions. This
is the only credit they will get.
My long-suffering wife Karla is, as ever, to be thanked for her
patience. I’d
also like to thank Alexandra Mackey, who tended to Millie and
Gabby, giving me
some “space” and time to write.
LOUIS G. PEREZ
Normal (still!), Illinois
11

17. Introduction
Today Japan is the seventh–most populous country in the world.
More than 126
million people are crowded into an area slightly smaller than
the state of Montana.
The islands that make up the nation are mountainous, and only
slightly more than 14
percent of the land is farmed. Although the country is poor in
natural resources, it is
the world’s third–most productive industrial nation.
Japan’s position in the world was not always as prominent as it
is today. In the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Japan was a significant
presence in world
affairs. In the first half of the twentieth century, Japan emerged
as a major military
power in East Asia. However, following defeat in World War II,
the country
renounced militarism and began concentrating on economic
development.
Prior to the middle of the nineteenth century, Japan was
relatively isolated from
the external world, with contact restricted primarily to Korea
and China and to the
Dutch, although relations with the other European countries did
prevail briefly from
the mid-sixteenth to the early seventeenth century. In a sense
Japan was a cultural
satellite of China, remaining under its influence for centuries
following the

18. introduction of Chinese culture in the fifth and sixth centuries.
By adopting,
adapting, and assimilating the fruits of Chinese civilization,
Japan developed a
culture and way of life and established institutions and values
that were distinctly
its own. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Japan was
exposed to Western
civilization, and another period of importation and assimilation
ensued. Yet the
traditional attitudes, ways, and institutions persisted;
consequently, contemporary
Japan cannot be adequately understood without an examination
of its early history.
Before the massive influx of Chinese culture that started in the
fifth century,
Japan had indigenous beliefs, institutions, and practices; some
survived the
“Sinification” (made more Chinese, “Sino” is the shorthand for
China) process and
persisted to the present. Among these were hundreds of
indigenous cults that in the
medieval period became known as Shintō. Shintō became an
animistic folk religion
that acknowledges the presence of sacred beings—gods and
spirits—in nature.
Myths about creator deities and the belief that the imperial
dynasty was founded by
the descendants of the Sun Goddess (Amaterasu-no-Omikami)
were propagated by
the clan that gained political hegemony. These beliefs formed
the basis of state
Shintō, which was used by the leaders of modern Japan to unify
the people under
the imperial family.

19. The emperor system came to be intimately associated with
Shintō. The
ancestors of the current imperial family established their
political dominion around
12
the late fifth or early sixth century; this family remains the
central political entity
today. This is not to say that it remained the actual source of
power through the
ages, but it did persist as an institution to which even the actual
wielders of power,
the shōgun (military deputy), had to pay at least pro forma
honor. Thus loyalty to the
imperial court was stressed as a quintessential principle of
Japanese behavior by
proponents of imperial rule.
Another characteristic of the Japanese that persisted through the
ages is a strong
sense of group identity, whether it be with the clan, the family,
or the community.
Thus, individualism in traditional Japan never developed into an
acceptable mode
of behavior. This suppression of individual interests for the
good of the group was
reinforced by the advent of Confucianism around the fifth
century, which built its
moral code around the family system. The emphasis on group
interests led to an
idealization of values such as submissiveness, obedience, self-
sacrifice,

20. responsibility, and duty. The emphasis on group interests also
resulted in a
parochial outlook with a strong demarcation between the “in-
group” and the
outsiders. This attitude structured not just the relation of the
family, clan, or village
to others but also ultimately that of “we, the Japanese,” to
foreigners. This insular
mentality, a product of the island geography of the country,
fostered a pronounced
ethnocentrism and a belief in the homogeneity and uniqueness
of the Japanese
people. This mode of thinking is manifested in the modern age
as militant
nationalism; traces of nationalism first began to surface from
time to time after the
seeds of cultural nationalism began to sprout in the Heian
period (794–1185).
The Confucian emphasis on preserving the hierarchical order of
“superior” and
“inferior” persons and the maintenance of proper relationships
to ensure social
harmony (that is, the “inferior” person should behave in
accordance with his or her
station in the family and society) came to be strongly embedded
in Japanese mores.
This social imperative was reinforced by the emergence of the
samurai as the
dominant force in the late twelfth century. The proper order of
things came to be
enforced by the edge of the sword, not simply by moral
rectitude inculcated by
learning, as the Confucian scholars taught.
The Confucian hierarchy based on gender and age came to

21. define the place of
women in Japan. Despite some evidence that early Japan may
have been a
matriarchal, or at least matrilineal, society, the Chinese
philosophy emphasized
male dominance. The acceptance of the Confucian social
philosophy and the
ascendancy of the samurai class resulted in a steady decline in
women’s social
standing, although women were still accorded property rights
even after samurai
rule was established in the late twelfth century. It was not until
the Tokugawa era
(1600–1867) that gender discrimination came to be enforced
stringently among the
samurai class; as noted in Chapter 7, however, relationships
between men and
women among the townspeople remained less rigid.
The emergence of the samurai, and their ascendancy from the
late twelfth to the
13
mid-nineteenth century, was a significant factor in the
formation of the Japanese
way. The militaristic side of Japan emerged as the antipode to
the civilian side,
which had been nurtured and fostered by the Heian court
aristocrats who had
adopted the Chinese code of propriety, decorum, moderation,
and composure. The
samurai favored direct action and decisiveness. The code of the
warriors

22. (Bushidō) that came to be idealized in the years of shōgunal
rule stressed such
ideals as loyalty, self-sacrifice, courage, martial valor, honor,
integrity, and other
Spartan virtues. Such values functioned as counterpoints to the
genteel ways of the
court aristocrats as well as to the freer and more hedonistic
ways of the
townspeople in the Tokugawa era. Likewise, the disdain for
materialism fostered
by Confucian and samurai value systems was offset by the
townspeople’s
unabashed pursuit of riches. We shall see that the pursuit of
wealth during the
Tokugawa era became institutionalized among the merchant
class. Contemporary
Japan’s economic success is not surprising in light of this
tradition. Thus, the
Japanese value system, like those of virtually all other societies,
evolved in a
multifaceted manner from its origins.
In addition to affecting Japan’s social and political institutions,
Chinese
civilization also influenced Japanese cultural, intellectual, and
literary realms,
which included the writing system, philosophical schools, and
arts and crafts. Most
of these influences entered by way of Korea, after having gone
through some
modification there. Similarly, Korean arts such as pottery,
painting, and sculpture
evolved radically from the Chinese ideals. Nationalist scholars
later asserted that
before the advent of Chinese influence, with its emphasis on
artificial rules of

23. propriety, decorum, and rectitude, the cultural artifacts of Japan
reflected the free
and natural sentiments of the people. Here too we can see the
two faces of
traditional Japan: one that is more naturally Japanese and
another that is heavily
infused with Chinese culture. The influence of Chinese art and
culture and the
development of a distinctively Japanese style in art and
literature—with aesthetic
sensitivity toward nature that is reinforced, some would say, by
Zen aesthetics—is
discussed in Chapter 5.
Buddhism, which came to Japan at about the same time that
Chinese culture
began to inundate the country, also shaped the Japanese outlook
and culture in
significant ways. Although it did not become a state religion
(the Japanese, like the
Chinese, believe that one can worship many gods and
participate in many different
religious practices at the same time), Buddhism did eventually
permeate the entire
land.
A significant economic factor that molded Japanese society and
outlook is the
near-total reliance on agriculture as a means of subsistence in
traditional Japan.
Rice culture, which entered Japan in the Yayoi period (circa 250
BCE–CE 250),2
determined the style of farm work through the ages. Working
the handkerchief-sized
paddies and rugged hillside terraces to produce the necessary
crops to feed the

24. 14
population taught the peasants patience, diligence, frugality,
and discipline. These
qualities were later reinforced by the samurai, who bound the
peasants to the soil
and insisted on a strict adherence to the virtues of frugality,
hard work, and
obedience to meet the economic needs of the medieval order.
These characteristics
persisted into the modern age and contributed to the creation of
the modern
economic “miracles” of the mid-nineteenth century and later the
postwar mid-
twentieth century.
But the peasants did not always remain docile and submissive:
periodically
they rose up in protest. Hence the revolutionary tradition is not
totally absent from
Japanese history. Widespread and large-scale peasant uprisings
broke out in the
Ashikaga (1336–1573) and Tokugawa years, even when such
nonviolent acts as
submitting petitions to the ruling class led to certain death.
Despite the resulting stress on Japan’s harmony, propriety, and
hierarchical
order, the pattern of its political history is one of constant
conflict and bloodshed,
beginning with the struggle to establish a dynastic order from
the third to fourth
century CE. This pattern continued through the power struggles

25. in the Heian years,
the emergence of the samurai in the outlying regions and the
sanguinary power
struggle among them, the establishment of military rule by the
Minamoto clan, the
conflict with the imperial forces, the struggles that continued
into the Ashikaga
years, and the Age of the Warring States of the latter part of the
fifteenth century and
throughout most of the sixteenth century. It was not until the
Tokugawa family
established its hegemony that peace and stability ensued for
almost two and a half
centuries. While the struggle for power was taking place in the
political arena
during the entire military era (1180–1868), the peasants
continued to work the land,
suffering privation, famines, epidemics, and repression. The
townspeople were
busy perfecting the arts and crafts.
During the years of turmoil and disaster, literature and the arts
survived and
enjoyed peaks of creative splendor. This is seen in the art and
architecture that
followed the introduction of Chinese culture and its
Japanization in the Heian
period. The result was the golden age of literature produced by
great Heian women
writers like Lady Murasaki and Sei Shonagon and the
production of Japanese
poems, diaries, essays, and military romances. The profound
influence of Zen
aesthetics is reflected in painting, architecture, landscape
gardening, Nō (sometime
written Noh) theater, ceramics, the tea ceremony, calligraphy,

26. the construction of
multistory picturesque castles, and the production of fine armor
and swords in the
Kamakura (1185–1333) and Ashikaga (1336–1573) years. In the
Tokugawa era the
culture of the townspeople flourished with woodblock prints,
haiku, Kabuki
theater, puppet theater, novels, and folk art.
Japanese history, like the history of all societies, is an
unfolding of multifaceted
developments, a montage of political, social, economic,
cultural, and intellectual
elements. But to give a coherent structure to this kaleidoscopic
phenomena, some
15
sort of framework is required. The most convenient schema in a
general historical
survey is still a chronological sequence centered on political
developments. This
historical survey of pre-Meiji Japan is organized in this
conventional manner.
NOTES
1. Jim Huffman, “Mikiso Hane: 1922–2003.” Journal of Asian
Studies 63 (2004): 571–
572.
2. Instead of the Judeo-Christian system of dating, the following
will be used: what used
to be referred to as “BC” (before Christ) will now be “BCE”

27. (before the Common Era);
“CE” (Common Era) will replace “AD.”
16
17
1
The Early Years
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING
The Japanese archipelago, consisting of the four main islands of
Hokkaido, Honshu,
Shikoku, and Kyushu and more than one thousand smaller
islands, juts into the
Pacific Ocean in a convex arc. The total area of Japan is
145,834 square miles,
which is slightly larger than Germany and smaller than
Zimbabwe. It is about the
size of the state of California in the United States. To the north
the Russian-
administered Kuriles, a large number of small volcanic islands,
extend to
Kamchatka Peninsula, while to the south the Ryukyu Islands
stretch out toward
Taiwan.
The Japanese islands are mountainous, with considerable
volcanic activity.
Offshore on the eastern side are great deep-water trenches, five

28. or six miles below
sea level. Along the coast on the same side, the mountaintops
reach two miles
above sea level. This great range of elevation from sea bottom
to mountain peak
causes enormous geological strains and stresses, resulting in
constant shifts in the
rock masses.
The archipelago was created when a portion of Asia broke off
the continent. It
now sits astride two continental plates that push in opposite
directions, creating a
tremendous uplift that has scoured the islands, forcing up
mountains along its spine.
Moreover, the archipelago contains about five hundred
volcanoes, and earthquakes,
a related phenomenon, are commonplace occurrences, with an
average of about
1,500 tremors annually. Since 1596 there have been twenty-
three major
earthquakes, each resulting in the death of more than a thousand
people. The latest,
in March 2011, called the Great Tohoku Earthquake, measured
9.0 on the Richter
scale and was the fifth-largest earthquake in the world since
modern record keeping
began in 1900. More than 20,000 were estimated killed by the
earthquake and
subsequent tsunami.1
Seventy-two percent of the country is hilly or mountainous,
with an average
slope of more than fifteen degrees. But nearly 65 percent of the
land with a slope of
fifteen degrees or less is tilled. The total area under cultivation,

29. however, amounts
to less than 14.3 percent of the landmass. The highest elevations
are located in the
Gifu Node in central Honshu. A dozen or more mountains
measuring 10,000 feet are
located in these highlands, known as the Japanese Alps,
including Mt. Fuji (12,461
18
feet).
There are no extensive lowlands in Japan. The typical plain is a
small isolated
area in a coastal indentation or mountain basin. The largest of
the plains, the Kantō
Plain, where Tokyo and Yokohama are located, has an area of
only 5,000 square
miles, or 3.2 million acres. Other major plains are the Nōbi
Plain at the head of Ise
Bay, where Nagoya is situated (450,000 acres), and the Kinai
Plain at the head of
Osaka Bay, where Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe are located (310,000
acres). These are
the most important plains, on which six of Japan’s largest cities
were built. Other
fairly large plains are the Ishikari in southwestern Hokkaido,
the Echigo in
northwestern Honshu, the Sendai in northeastern Honshu, and
the Tsukushi in
northwestern Kyushu. This lack of flat land suitable for
agriculture has made Japan
the fifth–most densely populated country (which includes land-
locked Singapore,

30. Hong Kong, or Gibraltar) in the world, with a population of
about 126 million. The
average for the whole country is 343 persons per square
kilometer, but for the
Tokyo metropolitan area it is an astounding 5,751!2 About
three-quarters of its
population is jammed into about 14 percent of its landmass.
Rivers water most of these plains, but they are generally short,
swift, and
shallow, and therefore not suitable for navigation. The two
longest rivers are the
Ishikari in Hokkaido (227 miles) and the Shinano in central
Honshu (229 miles).
The mountain rivers are important as sources of irrigation for
the rice fields and for
hydroelectric power.
The mountains are unusually susceptible to erosion and
landslide. The steep
slopes are covered by a thick canopy of conifers that blocks
sunlight to the forest
floor, inhibiting the natural soil building common to broadleaf
deciduous forests.
The thin soil often contains large amounts of slick volcanic ash,
which does not
hold well, particularly after logging or fire has stripped the
mountains of their
natural vegetative cover. Volcanic and seismic activity
routinely shakes the country,
making landslides and erosion a natural part of Japanese
existence. Because the
Japanese have crowded up to the very edge of these mountains,
landslides and
erosion have tumbled down on small villages with great
regularity and great cost in

31. human life.
Japan proper has a remarkably long coastline, about 17,000
miles, or one linear
mile of coast for each 8.5 square miles of area. Although the
coastline contains few
natural harbors, most of the lowlands have sea frontage. Along
with the extensive
coastline, this has fostered a strong maritime outlook in the
Japanese. Virtually all
Japanese have grown up within a short distance from the
seaside. A large part of
the coastline has indentations and irregularities that, together
with the many tiny
islands along the coastline, make the landscape strikingly
beautiful and diverse.
Because the Japanese archipelago extends from 31 to 45 degrees
north latitude,
there is a marked contrast in the climate between the …
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
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Hane
Perez
M
o
d
e

32. r
n
J
a
Pa
n
“The late scholar Mikiso Hane firmly believed that the story of
modern Japan should
not be just about political leaders, business tycoons, and
military commanders,
but should include the rural population, urban workers, the
poor, and the story of
women. Perez has both retained the essential spirit of Hane’s
vision and provided
insights from recent scholarship.”
—Parks Coble, University of nebraska
“Lou Perez has performed a heroic service to keep Mikiso
Hane’s highly readable
Modern Japan in print and updated. Professor Hane’s
commitment to bringing the
voices of Japan’s dissident and downtrodden women and men to
our attention,
contextualized within detailed narratives of political and
international developments,
permeates the entire text. Both authors not only make Japan
intelligible to general
readers but also make clear that, along with its benefits,

33. modernity came with
attendant costs that the Japanese people continue to bear.”
—e. taylor atkins, northern illinois University
Integrating political events with cultural, economic, and
intellectual movements, Modern Japan provides
a balanced and authoritative survey of modern Japanese history.
A summary of Japan’s early history, em-
phasizing institutions and systems that influenced Japanese
society, provides a well-rounded introduction
to this essential volume, which focuses on the Tokugawa period
to the present.
The fifth edition of Modern Japan is updated throughout to
include the latest information on Japan’s
international relations, including secret diplomatic
correspondence recently disclosed on WikiLeaks. This
edition brings Japanese history up to date in the post-9/11 era,
detailing current issues such as: the
impact of the Gulf Wars on Japanese international relations; the
March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and
subsequent nuclear accident; the recent tumultuous change of
political leadership; and Japan’s current
economic and global status. An updated chronological chart,
list of prime ministers, and bibliography are
also included.
The late Mikiso hane was Szold Distinguished Professor
Emeritus of History at Knox College.
Louis G. Perez is Distinguished University Professor of History
and Women’s and Gender Studies at
Illinois State University.
Cover Image © Tokyo/PoodlesroCk/CorbIs

34. Cover desIgn: mIguel sanTana & Wendy HalITzer
Modern
JaPan
Mikiso Hane and
Louis G. Perez
Fifth
Edition
Fifth
edition
a HIsTorICal survey
MODERN
JAPAN
0813346946-Hane_Layout 1 5/14/12 2:08 PM Page i
0813346946-Hane_Layout 1 5/14/12 2:08 PM Page ii
MODERN
JAPAN
A Historical Survey
FIFTH EDITION
MIKISO HANE

35. late of Knox College
LOUIS G. PEREZ
Illinois State University
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
0813346946-Hane_Layout 1 5/14/12 2:08 PM Page iii
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hane, Mikiso.
Modern Japan : a historical survey / Mikiso Hane, Louis G.
Perez.—5th ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8133-4694-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-
8133-4695-3
(e-book) 1. Japan—History—19th century. 2. Japan—History—
20th century.
I. Perez, Louis G. II. Title.
DS881.H36 2012
952'.025—dc23
2012016444
0813346946-Hane_Layout 1 5/14/12 2:08 PM Page iv

37. v
Contents
A Note on Japanese and Chinese Names
viii
Preface
ix
1 Japan Before the Seventeenth Century 1
Early History of the Japanese People 1 ° Traditional Culture and
Institutions of the Pre-Tokugawa Years 6 ° Notes 15
2 Establishment of the Tokugawa Bakufu 17
The Shōgun of the Tokugawa Bakufu 17 ° Tokugawa
Institutions 20 °
The Structure of Tokugawa Society 25 ° The Culture of the
Tokugawa
Period 32 ° Notes 35
3 The Late Tokugawa Period 37
Political Developments 37 ° Economic Problems 40 ° The Lot
of the Peasants 45 ° Peasant Uprisings 49 ° Agricultural
Improvements
52 ° Intellectual Currents: Reformers and Critics 54 ° Notes 60
4 The Fall of the Tokugawa Bakufu 63
Arrival of Commodore Perry 63 ° The Immediate Consequences
66 °
The Mentality of Sonnō Jōi 69 ° The Rise of the Anti-Bakufu
Forces 72 ° The Meiji Restoration 78 ° Notes 82
5 The Meiji Restoration: The New Order 83
Political Changes 86 ° Local Government 89 ° Social Reforms
90 °

38. Pensions for the Kazoku and Shizoku 92 ° Revision of the Land
Tax and the Plight of the Farmers 93 ° Legal Reforms 94 ° The
Police System 95 ° The Army and the Navy 95 ° Economic
Developments 96 ° Education 100 ° Civilization and
Enlightenment 104 ° Religion 106 ° Notes 108
0813346946-Hane_Layout 1 5/14/12 2:08 PM Page v
vi Contents
6 The Continuing Meiji Revolution (I):
Political Developments 111
Political Reactions 113 ° Agrarian Unrest 117 ° The Movement
for
Popular Rights 120 ° Fortification of the Central Government
129 °
The Constitution 131 ° Notes 133
7 The Continuing Meiji Revolution (II):
Cultural, Economic, and Social Developments 135
Cultural Nationalism 135 ° Initial Modern Economic Growth
143 °
The Plight of the Workers 147 ° Social Conditions 151 ° Notes
153
8 Political Developments in Later Meiji 157
Partisan Politics: 1887–1894 159 ° The Korean Question and
the Sino-Japanese War 163 ° Postwar Domestic Political
Developments 168 ° Notes 176
9 The Conclusion of the Meiji Era 179
The Russo-Japanese War 179 ° Foreign Affairs After the War
187 °
Internal Affairs After the War 188 ° The Death of Emperor

39. Meiji
191 ° Meiji Japan: An Assessment 194 ° Notes 199
10 The Era of Parliamentary Ascendancy (I) 201
Internal Political Affairs: 1912–1918 202 ° Foreign Affairs 207
°
Economic Developments: 1906–1930 215 ° Social Reform
Movements: Labor 218 ° Agrarian Reform Movements 220 °
The
Outcastes and the Suiheisha 221 ° Movement for Women’s
Rights 222 °
Democratic and Socialistic Political Movements 224 ° Notes
228
11 The Era of Parliamentary Ascendancy (II) 231
Culture of the Taishō Era 231 ° Political Developments:
1918–1932 239 ° Notes 255
12 The Ascendancy of Militarism 257
Radical Nationalists and Militarists 257 ° Conspiracies and
Assassinations 263 ° The Manchurian Incident 266 ° Internal
Political Developments: The Triumph of the Militarists 271 °
Economic Developments 283 ° Notes 286
0813346946-Hane_Layout 1 5/14/12 2:08 PM Page vi
13 The Road to War 289
China Policy to 1937 289 ° The China Incident 294 ° Internal
Developments 301 ° Further Foreign Entanglements 305 °
Negotiations with the United States 312 ° The Occupation of
Southern
French Indochina 314 ° The Decision for War 316 ° Notes 327
14 War and Defeat 329

40. The Offensive War 329 ° The War at Home 333 ° The Defensive
War 338 ° The Allied Strategy: “Island Hopping” 339 ° The
Transference of Leadership from Tōjō to Koiso 344 ° The
Beginning
of the End 346 ° The Battle for Leyte Gulf 347 ° The End of the
Fighting: The Kamikaze 349 ° The Economics of Warfare 351 °
The Finale 352 ° Notes 359
15 The Postwar Years (I): Reform and Reconstruction 363
The MacArthur Era 363 ° Political Developments During the
Occupation Years 376 ° Notes 381
16 The Postwar Years (II): Political Developments
After Independence 383
The Yoshida Years 383 ° After Yoshida: The 1955 System 385 °
End
of LDP Dominance 391 ° Foreign Relations 401 ° Economic
Developments 415 ° The Japanese Economy in the Early 1990s:
Recession 430 ° Notes 430
17 Social and Educational Developments 437
Social Developments 437 ° Education 458 ° Notes 466
18 Cultural Developments 471
American Influence 471 ° Survival of the Traditional Outlook
474 °
Religion 476 ° Literature 478 ° Cinema 485 ° Art and
Architecture 488 ° Popular Culture 490 ° Baseball and Other
Sports
492 ° Revival of Nationalism? 494 ° Yasukuni Controversy 496
°
End of the Shōwa Reign 500 ° Three Strikes 504 ° Notes 520
Appendix A: The Internet
527
Appendix B: Chronological Chart

41. 532
Appendix C: List of Prime Ministers
538
Selected Bibliography
540
Index
583
Contents vii
0813346946-Hane_Layout 1 5/14/12 2:08 PM Page vii
A Note on Japanese and Chinese Names
personal names
Japanese and Chinese family names are listed first, followed by
the personal
name (e.g., Yamagata Aritomo), except when the individual is
well-known by
the Anglicized version (e.g., I. M. Pei or Akira Iriye).
Similarly, certain historical figures are better known by their
Anglicized
names than by their actual names (e.g., Ch’iang K’ai-shek is
better known than
Jiang Jieshi; Sun Yat-sen is better known than Sun Zhongshan).
An attempt
will be made to use the Pin-yin version but indicate the
Anglicized name in
parentheses the first time it is used.
place names
The Pin-yin system will be used except when a quotation is
made from an-

42. other source or when the old Wade-Giles system is so familiar
that using the
new system would seem to be an affectation (e.g., “Beijing
Duck” or the Japa-
nese “Guangdong Army”).
viii
0813346946-Hane_Layout 1 5/14/12 2:08 PM Page viii
Preface
The quarter-century since Mikiso Hane’s first edition of Modern
Japan: A His-
torical Survey was published in 1986 has not been particularly
good for Japan.
Since then, Japan has slipped from its newly acquired status as
the world’s
number-one economy to what many consider third place behind
the United
States and China. The last ten years of the twentieth century and
the first ten
years of the twenty-first have been justly called the “Lost
Decades” in Japan.
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which had ruled Japan
since its incep-
tion in 1955, encountered a political groundswell that ousted it
from power in
the early 1990s and cracked it open like an eggshell in the mid-
2000s. Leftist
political movements coalesced briefly in the 1990s but fell apart
shortly and
were stymied by other political forces in the 2000s.

43. The national economy that had soared in the 1980s burst like a
child’s soap
bubble in the 1990s. Japan’s financial class, which had
arrogantly acquired
iconic markers of European and American power (e.g.,
Rockefeller Center in
New York City and countless works of art) when Japan’s land
prices skyrock-
eted in the 1980s, ignominiously sold them off in the 1990s
when Tokyo land
prices collapsed. Suddenly the “Japan Inc.” that had smugly
preached Japanese
quality control to the American automobile industry no longer
strutted about
as if it really believed that Japan was “Number One,” as one
American aca-
demic had claimed a decade before.1
Japan had piously preached world peace by virtue of its Peace
Constitution,
which eschews war as an extension of diplomacy. In the early
1980s Japan’s
diplomats began a concerted effort to have Japan installed as a
permanent
member of the United Nations Security Council. Beginning in
the early
1990s, however, it sheepishly contributed huge sums to support
the United
Nations in quixotic military ventures into Bosnia, Iraq (twice!),
and Afghani-
stan. The other members of the Security Council (Great Britain,
Russia,
France, the United States, and the People’s Republic of China)
firmly re-
minded Japan that in order to become a permanent member, one
had to

44. ix
0813346946-Hane_Layout 1 5/14/12 2:08 PM Page ix
pledge the nation’s military forces to staff the UN peace-
keeping forces. Be-
cause Japan’s constitution prohibits military forces, Japan could
not pledge its
Self-Defense Forces to that service.
The smug, self-satisfied Japan of the 1980s was hoist on its own
petard in
the 1990s and early 2000s. Praised and feted by the world press
when it was an
economic giant, it now cowered when criticized for its desultory
enforcement
of its women’s rights laws; its treatment of Ainu, zainichi
Koreans, and buraku-
min; and its failure to learn the lessons of its war guilt. These
were bitter pills
to swallow.
Japan changed dramatically over that quarter-century, but the
reasons Miki
had in 1986 for writing this textbook have not changed very
much. Despite its
economic power, Japan remains an enigma for most Americans.
College stu-
dents come to its study remarkably ignorant of Japanese history.
The knowl-
edge that they bring to our classes have more to do with samurai
“chop-socky”
movies, video games, and anime than with the brief chapter of

45. high school
world history that they endured.
The fact that Miki’s textbook is now in its fifth edition has
much to do with
Miki’s timeless prose and his abiding sense of humanity. As I
wrote in the pref-
ace to the fourth edition, I had taken on the task of revising the
book with
deep humility, but also with a sense of obligation to Miki for
having produced
a readable history that students could and would actually read.
As Jim Huff-
man eloquently noted in Miki’s obituary, Miki had “led the way
for his Amer-
ican peers in making women, workers, and peasants a serious
part of the
narrative.”2
Many of my colleagues have thanked me for keeping Miki’s
voice in the
foreground of the revised fourth edition. When approached by
Lindsey Zahu-
ranec, associate acquisitions editor at Westview Press, with the
idea of a new
edition, I thought long and hard whether it was necessary. I
asked a number of
my colleagues, including Roy Hanashiro, Michael Lewis, Betsy
Dorn Lublin,
and Michael Schneider, and they urged that I do it. None of
them said so in so
many words, but the tacit understanding was that I update the
book but not
disturb its essence. I hope that I have done so. I have brought
the domestic
politics and foreign affairs sections into the current era and

46. added a narrative
of the cataclysmic “Three Strikes” of earthquake, tsunami, and
nuclear melt-
down of March 2011. The bibliography also has been updated,
and new cate-
gories added when it seemed appropriate. I was astounded to
discover that I
have added almost 200 monographs published since the previous
edition.
Happily, the term post-modern has almost completely
disappeared from titles
of those new works. I suspect that a decade from now it will
have as much rel-
evance as the term Marxian.
x Preface
0813346946-Hane_Layout 1 5/14/12 2:08 PM Page x
I thank the editors at Westview, particularly Lindsey Zahuranec
for her pa-
tience and assistance with the revision. Also, those friends I
have mentioned,
and many whom I have not, have helped me tremendously.
Several have of-
fered advice or pointed out previous errors. I am grateful to
them all. As al-
ways, my wife has remained long-suffering and supportive, and
I thank her as
well.
Finally, I wish to thank two friends for their support,
regrettably posthu-
mously. Sharon Sievers and Sidney DeVere Brown both died

47. recently. Sharon
was my mentor at California State University-Long Beach; she
has been my
model as a teacher, writer, and person. I will miss her good
humor and contin-
ued encouragement. Sid was my good buddy in the Midwest
Japan Seminar,
Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, and in many jazz dives
here and in Ja-
pan. Like Miki, he taught thousands of Midwest students in his
career at the
University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. He was
a good friend
to hundreds of us in Japanese studies all over the world. He
introduced me to
scores of my heroes in Japanese history and also to my friend
and benefactor
Ian Mutsu. Sid was what I want to be when (if?) I grow up.
Louis G. Perez
Normal (still!), Illinois
October 2011
Notes
1. Ezra Vogel, Japan as Number One (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1979).
2. Journal of Asian Studies 63, 2004, pp. 571–572.
Preface xi
0813346946-Hane_Layout 1 5/14/12 2:08 PM Page xi
0813346946-Hane_Layout 1 5/14/12 2:08 PM Page xii

48. 1
Japan Before the
Seventeenth Century
early history of the japanese people
There is no definitive evidence concerning when and from
whence the original
inhabitants arrived in Japan, but it is assumed that they came
from different
areas of the Asian continent and the South Pacific region. The
predominant
strain is Mongoloid, including a considerable mixture of people
of Malayan
origin. The Japanese language appears to be related to both the
Polynesian and
the Altaic languages. Evidence suggests that as early as 200,000
years ago, pale-
olithic humans (who used chipped stones for tools) inhabited
the islands. Also
among the early inhabitants of Japan were the ancestors of the
Ainu, a people
of proto-Caucasian origin who live in Hokkaido today.
Currently only about
50,000 Ainu remain. Their early history and their relationship
with the ne-
olithic people who inhabited the islands are not known.
Jōmon and Yayoi Periods (ca. 8000 BC to AD 250)
The early stage of the neolithic age in Japan is known as the
Jōmon period. It
is believed that Jōmon culture started as far back as 7000 or
8000 bc and sur-

49. vived until about 250 bc. The term Jōmon (meaning cord-
marking) describes
the type of decoration found on potteries of this age. The people
of the period
were hunters and food gatherers, and they lived in pit-
dwellings.
The next stage in neolithic Japan was the Yayoi period, which
extended
roughly from 250 bc to ad 250. This culture is believed to have
been the
product of a new wave of immigrants of Mongoloid stock who
came to the is-
lands in the third century bc. Yayoi pots (named after the place
in which they
were first found in 1884) were wheel-made and less elaborately
decorated than
1
0813346946-Hane_Layout 1 5/14/12 2:08 PM Page 1
Jōmon pots. They were fired at a higher temperature and are
technically supe-
rior to Jōmon pieces. Around the second century bc bronze and
iron tools fil-
tered into Japan from the continent. The rice culture, which
originated in
South China or Southeast Asia, filtered in around 100 bc. This
latter develop-
ment revolutionized the entire Japanese way of life, for it
established the basis
for the economy until the industrial age.

50. The first written accounts about Japan are found in two
historical records of
ancient China: The History of the Kingdom of Wei (a kingdom
in north China,
ad 220–265), written in ad 297, and History of the Later Han
Dynasty, com-
piled around ad 445. According to these histories, Japan
underwent a period
of civil strife in the second century ad, but the land was
eventually unified un-
der a queen named Pimiku (Himiko in Japanese). Pimiku, as The
History of the
Kingdom of Wei relates, was a shaman who “occupied herself
with magic and
sorcery, bewitching the people.” Whether Pimiku was related to
the clan that
established hegemony over Japan is impossible to verify, but in
the years after
the Second World War a great deal of speculation has taken
place about the
origin of the early Japanese rulers, in particular their links to
Korea.
Yamato Period (ca. 300–710)
The period in which regional forces began to emerge in the
Yamato area to
roughly the time when a fixed capital was established in Nara is
known as the
Yamato period (ca. 300–710). It is also referred to as the age of
Tomb Culture
because huge keyhole-shaped tombs were constructed to bury
the chieftains of
the time. Numerous artifacts such as ornaments, tools, and
weapons, as well as
clay figurines known as haniwa, were buried with the dead.

51. From the fifth century on, Japan was exposed steadily to
Chinese and Ko-
rean culture as immigrants from these countries arrived in fairly
large num-
bers. Refugees from advancing Han Chinese armies probably
displaced
Koreans down that rocky peninsula. Some of those displaced
Koreans proba-
bly migrated across the narrow Tsushima Straits to Japan. The
social, material,
political, intellectual, and cultural life of the Japanese was
profoundly influ-
enced by these immigrants. Prince Shōtoku Taishi (574–622) is
traditionally
credited with having played a major role in adopting Chinese
civilization,
strengthening the imperial authority, and propagating
Buddhism. He is also
credited with promulgating the “Constitution of Seventeen
Articles,” a series
of moral injunctions.1 In 645 Nakatomi-no-Kamatari (614–669),
the founder
of the Fujiwara family, removed his rivals from the court and
gained political
supremacy. His descendants dominated the court down through
the ages.
Nakatomi and his followers are credited with having instituted
the Taika Re-
forms, which involved the adoption of Chinese (Tang and
Northern Wei) po-
litical institutions and policies as well as their land and tax
policies.
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52. Nara and Heian Periods (710–1185)
One of the practices adopted from China was the construction of
a fixed capi-
tal city. In 710, Nara was made the seat of the imperial court,
and it remained
so until 784, when the capital was moved briefly to a
community near Kyoto.
In 794, the capital was moved again—this time to Kyoto, then
known as
Heiankyō. From then until 1868 the emperors resided in this
city. The period
from 794 to 1185 is known as the Heian period, or the era of the
court aristoc-
racy, because the court nobles led by the Fujiwara family
dominated the politi-
cal and cultural life of the society. Eventually cadet houses of
the Fujiwara
would dominate the imperial government during the feudal eras
to follow.
During the Nara and Heian periods Japan continued to adopt and
assimilate
Chinese culture and institutions as well as Buddhism. The Heian
court aristo-
crats cultivated a highly refined taste in art and literature, and
placed great em-
phasis on form, appearance, and decorum. Extravagant luxury,
ostentatious
display, and decadent sensuality prevailed at the court in its
heyday.
Among the measures adopted from China during implementation
of the
aforementioned Taika Reforms was nationalization and

53. equalization of land-
holdings. But this policy was not fully implemented, and land
soon came to be
concentrated in the hands of the court aristocrats and Buddhist
monasteries.
Eventually privately controlled estates, or shōen, came into
existence. The es-
tates were not taxed; they were also free from the jurisdiction of
government
officials. Estate managers, district officials, and local estate
owners began to
emerge in the form of local magnates with private coteries of
warriors. Eventu-
ally major military chieftains, with large circles of warriors,
managed to con-
trol numerous estates and challenge the authority of the central
government.
In the 1160s, one of the samurai chieftains, Taira-no-Kiyomori
(1118–
1181), gained control of the imperial court and had himself
appointed chan-
cellor. The Taira clan (also known as the Heike) soon found its
supremacy
challenged by the leader of a rival military clan known as the
Genji (or Mi-
namoto) family, led by Minamoto Yoritomo (1147–1199).
Kamakura Period (1185–1333)
After Minamoto defeated the Taira forces, he established his
headquarters in
Kamakura in 1185. Theoretically, he performed the role of
supreme military
commander (shōgun) in the service of the emperor, a post to
which he was ap-
pointed in 1192. But his Bakufu (tent headquarters) became the

54. actual locus
of power. He controlled a large part of the land as his own
shōen and acquired
the right to appoint constables and land stewards (whose chief
function was to
collect taxes) throughout the land. Minamoto’s assumption of
the position of
shōgun, then, marked the beginning of rule by the warrior, or
samurai, class.
Early History of the Japanese People 3
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Thenceforth, except for brief periods, power was retained by the
shōgun until
1867, while the emperor remained in Kyoto as the nominal ruler
and high
priest of the Shinto religion.
After Minamoto died in 1199, actual power of the Bakufu was
taken over
by his wife’s family, the Hōjō clan. Until 1333, the head of the
Hōjō family
wielded power as regent to the shōgun. Following an abortive
attempt by the
imperial court to regain power in 1221, the Hōjō family
consolidated its con-
trol over the land both by confiscating the shōen of those who
had supported
the imperial cause and by tightening its surveillance over the
imperial court.
With the emergence of the warrior class in the last years of the

55. Heian
period and during the years of warrior rule in the Kamakura
period, political,
social, and economic institutions and practices similar to those
associated
with European feudalism began to evolve. In 1232, the Hōjō
government is-
sued the Jōei Code, which defined property rights, land tenure,
inheritance,
and other social economic rights and obligations, thus laying
the basis for
later feudal laws and practices.
In the Kamakura period, popular Buddhism emerged and the
code of the
warriors began to take form (see Chapter 2). It was also during
this period that
the Mongols attempted to invade Japan in 1274 and again in
1281. Both at-
tempts failed because devastating typhoons (known as
kamikaze, or divine
winds) destroyed the Mongol fleet.
Between 1333 and 1336, the imperial court led by Emperor
Godaigo man-
aged to regain power briefly with the assistance of certain
disaffected military
chiefs. But in 1336, one of these chiefs, Ashikaga Takauji (a
relative of the
Hōjō; 1305–1358), decided to take power himself; it was then
that he drove
the emperor out of Kyoto and established his own Bakufu.
Godaigo fled south
to the mountains of the Kii Peninsula, while Ashikaga placed
another member
of the imperial family on the throne. As a result, until 1392

56. there were two im-
perial courts—one in the north and one in the south. In 1392,
the two courts
merged with the understanding that the two branches would
alternate in occu-
pying the throne. But this agreement was not kept, and the
Northern Court
members hold the throne to this day.
The Muromachi Period and the Era of Warring States (1336–
1590)
The Ashikaga shogunate, also referred to as the Muromachi
Bakufu (after the
district in Kyoto where the shōgun resided), remained in
existence until 1573.
In that year the last Ashikaga shōgun was driven out by Oda
Nobunaga
(1534–1582), a military chief who aspired to become shōgun
himself. The
Ashikaga family had failed to gain a …