1
The exonym “Japan” came either from early Mandarin or Wu Chinese, first written of
in the west by Marco Polo as “Cipangu.” This was then borrowed by Malay, which
wrote it as “Jepang.” Portuguese traders encountered the word in Malacca in the 16 th
century and probably brought it back to Europe, with the first English reference a
1565 letter spelling it “Giapan”
2
3
Cord patterned, markings with sticks wrapped in cords on pottery
Though the among the first in the archeological record, most believe pottery
production invented on mainland Asia
Because of pottery, it can be concluded that these people were semi-sedentary,
which also led to a expansion and population increase by 4000BC
4
11th millennium daggers, jade, combs made of shells and other items suggest trade
with places as far as Okinawa and China, but trade and migration really picked up in
the final part of the period, with new arrivals from the continent invading Japan,
bringing with them new technology.
5
Jomon skeletons are shorter with longer forearms, lower legs, more wide-set eyes,
shorter wider faces, raised brow, nose and nose bridges. Yayoi era skeletons are an
inch or two taller with close-set eyes, high, narrow faces and a flat brow and nose.
Genetically, if not culturally, the ethnic group today associated with Japan and
“Japanese” can be traced to this time
Similarities between Yayoi skull and limb segments and early Han Dynasty (202 BC)
Chinese skeletons from coastal Jiangsu Province. DNA base segments also matched,
suggesting common origin shared with mainland Chinese.
6
Introduction of irrigation and wet rice agriculture occurred during this time, as well as
new pottery styles (vessels made on a potters wheel rather than by hand), bronze
and iron working, new types of polished stone tools, weaving, ceramic storage jars
and bronze mirrors and bells. The introduction of rice paddy agriculture and
irrigation allowed for explosive population growth as well as permanent farming
settlements. Yayoi era people wore cloth, constructed buildings of wood and stone,
accumulated wealth through land acquisition and grain storage, and developed
distinct social classes (eg: aristocracy)
“Beyond Lo-Lang in the sea, there are the people of Wa. They comprise more than
one hundred communities. It is reported that they have maintained intercourse with
China through tributaries and envoys.” 24 Histories, Record of Three Kingdoms, Book
of Han
7
generally accepted as oldest pottery vessels, thought to have been used in fire to
cook food; later pots also used for storage. elaborate tops. made by women coiling
clay without the use of a wheel. cord/braid wrapped around sticks imprinted on damp
clay or stick carvings to create patterns. fantastic, flamboyant, dynamic impact on
viewer.
8
if you want to know about their pottery, it was simpler and created on a wheel.
9
-Yoshinogari Iseki is one of the largest Yayoi excavation sites (one of two highly
probable sites of Yayoi capital), now interactive in Saga! Go there and check out Yayoi
awesomeness.
10
-Yayoi saw the introduction of bronze mirrors. Backs of mirrors elaborately decorated
with deities and animals from Chinese mythology. A later form of these mirrors used
by Ame-no-Uume to coax Amaterasu (arguably Japan's most important Shinto
god[dess]) out of her hiding place, now supposedly stored at Ise Jingu as a symbol of
Imperial right.
11
Chinese sources c. 297 24 Histories Book of Wei first mentions Yamatai, describing
Wa based on Chinese envoys traveling through the region in the 3rd century, as the
domain of the Shaman Queen Himiko, who supposedly assumed the throne after a
long civil war as a spiritual leader, whose younger brother ran the affairs of state.
Important to note that this is from the Chinese interpretations, and thus quite
possibly mistaken as to her true role. Nevertheless demonstrates a federated or
fractured Japan ruled by various kings/queens/chieftains absent a united imperial
system
12
Kofun period saw the rise of a powerful clan, Yamato, that would come to control
most of Honshu and the Northern half of Kyushu, eventually creating the Imperial
House.
13
Picture on the right is Hashihaka, suspected burial site of Himiko.
14
No one knows how Yamato achieved this. There are numerous possibilities: They
could have been more powerful militarily or economically, they could have benefited
from their location and the potential external threats suffered by their rivals, they
could have been the best administrators and effectively managed an expanding
empire, or all of the above. What’s odd is that they were further removed from the
mainland than, for example, the Kibi kingdom positioned in the west and controlling
the trade routes from the continent, and who therefore benefitted greatly from trade
and influx of new technology, and so should have been in a better position to gain
ascendency over their neighbors. However, it was Yamato which ultimately
succeeded, meaning that there was some destabilizing element in the other
kingdoms or some advantage to Yamato that allowed them to achieve this.
15
They developed this by incorporating subordinate clans and chieftains as aristocracy
under a common king.
Adoption of a writing system is a significant factor that greatly aids in the
administration of a government
Toraijin “foreigner who crossed the sea” –By 800’s, 10% of the noble and aristocratic
families in highest echelons of Japanese society originated from immigrants settled
between 300-600 A.D.
Evidence in the form of the adoption of Chinese writing, sericulture, weaving, haniwa,
swords with written inscriptions, buddhism, and bronze mirrors on both sides of the
Tsushima strait cast from the same mold
16
Noted for these things at the start of the period. First historical emperor: 22nd
Emperor Kimmei, born 509, reigned 539-571, probably back to 10th Emperor Suijin
could have existed
Nihon used in correspondence carried by Japanese emissaries to the Chinese court
“From the Son of Heaven in the Land of the Rising Sun, to the Son of Heaven in the
Land of the Setting Sun.” A change from Kofun era, where five kings of Wa sent
emissaries seeking approval of their domains by the Chinese, now showing Japan
asserting itself regionally by placing themselves on equal footing
17
Yamato (Kofun/Asuka):
1st I want to contrast Ise Jingu and Horyuji slash (maybe) Todaiji
(Ise) Jingu (located in Ise, Mie Prefecture) actually a complex of shrines. Iconic and
premier shrine of Shintoism. Shrine grounds were first established as sacred in 4 BC.
Emperor Temmu built the first Naikaku (Ise's main shrine building which holds
Amaterasu's bronze mirror) in the Kofun period. Based around the Shinto concept of
"wabi-sabi" (aesthetic sensibility: find the beauty transience, melancholy, spiritual
longing) the shrine buildings and bridge are completely rebuilt every 20 years in the
exact same architectual style and with the same use of materials that they have always
used since the 600's. Thus perpetually keeping Jingu ancient and new.
18
Horyuji (Nara) one of the oldest wooden buildings in the world. Founded by Shotoku
Taishi (writer of Japan's first primitive constitution!) he promoted Buddhism within
Japan. 5 story pagoda is striking in appearance and the original structure. Iconic
Buddhist temple within Japan. Filled with works of art and the noted Shaka Triad.
Also of interest architecturally are the cloud-shaped hybrid bracket supports.
19
-Haniwa: terracotta clay figures similar to the world-renowned Terracotta Warriors of
China, Army of the First Emperor. Haniwa were thought of as containers for souls.
They served a tri-part role: as a wall to mark and enclose the impressive kofun (tombs
and architectural marvels in their own right!), in place of court-vassals to serve and
protect their lord in the next life, and to prevent erosion of the kofun sides with their
deeply buried bases! (wow they were so clever. i hope to shake my head in wonder at
this point time permitting)
20
Go ki shichi do: Five Provinces, Seven circuits, were the administrative units organized
during the period, based on Tang Dynasty administration and legal systems, with five
provinces administering the heart of the Yamato state and seven roads connecting
and uniting the outlying regions. The Saikaido 西海道 “western sea road”
connected Kyushu to Yamato
Society organized into occupation groups such as farmers, fishers, weavers, potters
and so on—early predecessors of the class-based society to emerge later on
17 Article Constitution published 604 outlines morals and virtues expected of officials
and subjects under the emperor. “Harmony is to be valued, and the avoidance of
wanton opposition to be honored.” “When you receive the Imperial commands, fail
not scrupulously to obey them.” “Turn away from that which is private, and turn
towards that which is public.” “Decisions on important matters should not be made
by one person alone.” One can conclude therefore that the introduction of Buddhism
and the use of Buddhist beliefs in the document was a strategic/beneficial/marketing
choice for the leader of a court presiding over a conglomeration of formally
independent peoples and territories, as it promoted harmony and unity amongst
their subjects and allowed the leader to, in theory, peacefully consolidate control of
the new state.
Soga clan monopoly lead to the Taika reforms
21
Go ki shichi do: Five Provinces, Seven circuits, were the administrative units organized
during the period, based on Tang Dynasty administration and legal systems, with five
provinces administering the heart of the Yamato state and seven roads connecting
and uniting the outlying regions. The Saikaido 西海道 “western sea road”
connected Kyushu to Yamato
Society organized into occupation groups such as farmers, fishers, weavers, potters
and so on—early predecessors of the class-based society to emerge later on
17 Article Constitution published 604 outlines morals and virtues expected of officials
and subjects under the emperor. “Harmony is to be valued, and the avoidance of
wanton opposition to be honored.” “When you receive the Imperial commands, fail
not scrupulously to obey them.” “Turn away from that which is private, and turn
towards that which is public.” “Decisions on important matters should not be made
by one person alone.” One can conclude therefore that the introduction of Buddhism
and the use of Buddhist beliefs in the document was a strategic/beneficial/marketing
choice for the leader of a court presiding over a conglomeration of formally
independent peoples and territories, as it promoted harmony and unity amongst
their subjects and allowed the leader to, in theory, peacefully consolidate control of
the new state.
Soga clan monopoly lead to a coup in 645 and the Taika reforms
22
The aim of the reforms was to enhance the power of the court and bring about
greater centralization of the state. Emperor Koutoku (aka Emperor Taika) began by
redistributing the land and destroying control of the great clans and the landholding
system over domain and people. Land was no longer passed hereditarily, but
reverted to the state upon death. Hereditary titles of chieftains abolished, and in its
place, the caste system was introduced with Ryoumin “Good Citizens” upper class
and Senmin “low citizens” lower class/servants/slaves. Thus, while you might not be
a clan chieftain anymore, you could still be one of the highest, most elite “upper
class” members of the highest caste. The country was divided into Provinces ruled by
governors appointed by the court, and the provinces themselves were divided into
districts and then villages.
Taxes were levied on harvests, silk, cotton, cloth, thread and other products. Corvee
tax created for military conscription and public works.
The Emperor became the “Emperor of Japan.” People essentially went from private
subjects of the aristocratic lords to public subjects of the Emperor. More importantly,
they became public property. Subjects were assigned land by the state, and it
reverted back to the state at their deaths in something called the Handen Shuju
system. Thus, people as well as land became the direct public domain of the state.
23
Taika reforms also evidence of first implementation of the Ritsuryo system, an
administrative code and penal from the Tang Dynasty that codified governmental
administration and the penal system, which essentially tried to transpose the
workings of a Chinese dynasty into the realities of a Japanese state with some illfitting results.
This was also the point when the building of large kofun were banned
First Japanese coin minted 708 Wadoukaichin
24
25
Capital moved from Fujiwara-kyo to Heijo-kyo, present day Nara. This was Japan’s
first urban center, and had a population of 100,000 to 200,000 people. Before the
Taika reforms and the introduction of Buddhism, the capital was moved at the death
of each emperor on the belief that the previous place was polluted by the death.
Nara was also a strategic choice. It was a planned city, relatively centralized in terms
of the rest of the country, and allowed for a necessary expansion and centralization of
the bureaucracy and the administration of the country.
Centralization of government also concentrated the upper class, leading to increased
infighting and conflict over control of the Imperial throne. This saw power being
seized by Prince Nagaya, then his arrest and succession by Emperor Shomu backed by
the four influential sons of Fujiwara no Fuhito, followed by their deaths by smallpox
and the five year upset with the movement of the capital between 740-45. Later
Empress Koken abdicated in 758, came to favor Buddhism and deposed her
successor. Favor of a Buddhist faith-healer then caused influential court members to
rise against her, and led directly to the exclusion of women from Imperial succession.
Because of the Taika reforms making land the public domain of the state, there was
no incentive for anyone to reclaim new land. Why waste years of work clearing a
field and making it productive only to have it revert to the state at your death, when
you could just let the state assign you a plot anyway? Thus by early Nara, a growing
population and stagnant land resources led to food shortages. In order to solve this
26
problem as well as placate/buy the support of the upper aristocracy at court, rights to
reclaimed land was extended back three generations in 723. In 743 (right in the
midst of the most major court infighting and upset) an even broader allowance was
made that allowed cultivation rights to pass through succession, thus spurring
massive reclamation by the wealthy elite and ultimately the near complete
privatization of Japanese land by the end of the Heian period.
Decline of central authority—privatization of land led to increased financial burdens
on the state, forcing higher taxes, dismissal of nonessential officials and creation of a
transient population abandoning land to avoid taxation. Abandonment of universal
conscription, allowing district heads to form their own private militia to maintain
public order.
27
First works of literature and poetry, resulting out of efforts by the Imperial court to
record and document its history.
28
Three major works
1) Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters) written by Imperial commission in 712 in
Manyogana (Chinese characters used to convey Japanese sounds). Oldest book of
Japanese classical "history"/mythology
29
Nihon Shoki/Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan) finished in 720. written in Classical
Chinese. *includes the story of Urashima Taro, the earliest example of a story using
the idea of time travel! The Nihon Shoki was based on earlier Imperial documents
(now destroyed by fire) dating back to the Kofun jidai.
30
These two works established the written mythology of Shintoism including the
Japanese creationism myth. Izanagi-no-Mikoto (male) and Izanami-no-Mikoto
(female) go to the heavenly bridge, and take a jeweled naginata and drop water to the
earth to create an island. They go live there. They have kids who later become the
other islands in the chain. Their first two children are deformed (one grows up to
become Ebisu! You've seen him on your beer can.) Izanami later dies in childbirth and
goes to Yomi (underworld). Izanagi descends to the underworld and after a failed
rescue attempt purifies himself and creates Amaterasu (god(dess) of the sun/light)
arguably the most important Shinto god, Tsukuyomi (moon) and Susanoo (all around
annoying brat).
31
Manyoshu (Collection of 10,000 Leaves) completed in 758 AD
oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry. Some poems actually date back to
347 AD. noted for its refined romantic sense, sentimental appeal to its writing, and
singular "Japanese" literary spirit. Shinto values of wabi-sabi and mokoto
(forth-right/will of the kami) extolled. written in manyogana. poems by men and
women. most famous is an exchange between two former lovers then over 40.
32
*poem by Prince Shiki at the site of the abandoned (in 694) Asuka Palace:
侍女たちの袖を
ひるがえした明日香の風は、
いまは都も遠くなったので、
ただ空しく吹いている。
Winds of Asuka that used to flutter the sleeves of court maidens
are blowing in vain, now that the capital is far away.
excellent example of the ideals of wabi-sabi, melancholy, longing sensibility keenly
expressed, at the same time, a bit of fun in the image of the waving sleeves of young
women (symbolizes lovers) which only intensifies of bittersweet appreciation for the
past.
33
First works of literature and poetry, resulting out of efforts by the Imperial court to
record and document its history.
During the divisive second reign of Empress Koken, she had printed 1 million Buddhist
prayer charms, many of which survive to this day and represent some of the earliest
known printed works in the world.
34
Todaiji and the Great Buddha.
35
Artwork and treasure, both imported and domestically produced, are archived at
Todaji temple, and show influences of the Silk Road as far as the Islamic Empire.
More then 10,000 official government documents from this time survived as reused
wrapping or were used on the back of reprinted prayer sutras, giving insight into the
evolution of the Japanese writing system as well as political and social events
documented throughout the country.
36
Present day Kyoto. This was due partly to the overwhelming influence and
encroachment of Buddhist institutions, and also the desire of Emperor Kammu to
strengthen his authority and improve the seat of government. The city like Nara was
patterned on the Tang Dynasty capital at Chang’an (present day Xi’an) but on a larger
scale. It was also better situated on the land routes from the eastern provinces, and
had good river access to the sea.
Though attempts were made to preserve the Chinese-style ritsuriyo system
implemented in the Taika reforms, allowances made in the Nara period to remedy
problems with land shortages as well as placate the aristocracy continued to
undermine the authority of the State. Imperial control of the provinces continued to
wane and much of its authority was lost to the great land holding families in the 8 th
and 9th century. People working on the land found it advantageous to transfer titles
to larger landholders in return for a percentage share and insulation from taxation,
increasingly moving beyond the control of the government’s regulatory and tax
entities. Increasingly, the nobility concerned themselves with land management,
turning inward and giving way essentially to a series of fiefdoms within a fragmented
Japan, where private families served as public lords within their own contained
realms.
Authority broke down. By 1000AD, the court no longer knew how to print money and
rice became the basis of the economy. Coupled with the breakdown of central
37
authority, safety and security also declined. With the inability of the Imperial court to
maintain authority in the land, and the easy access to manpower the estate holders
enjoyed, landlords formed their own militias and private armies, first at the bequest
of the state to maintain order in their areas, and then for their own interests. Thus
the upper class, particularly in the provinces where imperial control was weakest and
the first to disappear, gradually transformed into a military elite, with military service
becoming part of the life of an estate tenant.
Thus the meaning to samurai “one who serves.” In a very real sense, the first samurai
were the ones who served as tenant farmers and conscript military or militia for their
estate lords.
38
1. The Kokin Waka-shu (Collected Japanese Poems of Ancient and Modern Writing) is
the first of 11 Heian Period poetry collections compiled by Imperial request. It was
edited by the monumental poet Ki no Tsurayuki, who created Japanese literary criticism,
and was immeasurably influential on Japanese writing, setting the standards for poetic
imagery, tone, and subject. This structure is can be traced to the present day
supremacy of the seasonal haiku.
39
-Included in the Kokinshu and singled out by Ki no Tsurayuki, Ono no Komachi, was
a truly astounding poetess. In her personal life she is the subject of legend, rumored to
have been the consort of as many as four emperors, and born with unparalleled beauty.
Her name is now equivalent with the symbol of Japanese feminine beauty. As a writer,
she is noted for her keen portrayal of anxiety and loneliness, as well as her passion.
*花の色は・うつりにけりな・いたづらに・わが身世にふる・ながめせしまに
The color of this flower / Has already faded away / While in idle thoughts /
My life goes by / As I watch the long rains fall
(Nagame and Iro are examples of kakekotoba [pivot words, or words used in poetry
which when read differently or in different combinations of surrounding words create
different meanings.] Nagame = long persistent rains OR longing gazes. Iro = color OR
something similar to sex appeal.) Ono no Komachi is known as the master of
kakekotoba.
40
2. The great persisting works of Heian literature are predominantly written by women.
The world's first novel, or the world's first classical novel, the Genji Monogatari, was
written by the noblewoman, Murasaki Shikibu, and completed in 1021. It has since
been hailed as a masterpiece world-wide. Much of the "prose" and dialogue is actually
written in studied and structured poetry. Incidentally, a famous scene from the book is
depicted on the Japanese 2000 yen note. (picture time!) note the yamato-e artistic
style (also developed during the Heian Period as unique and distinct from the Chinese
"kara-e" style).
41
3. Sei Shonagon. It is difficult to mention Murasaki Shikibu without mentioning
Shonagon, Murasaki's contemporary. Sei Shonagon was Murasaki Shikibu's bitter rival
(fascinating Shonagon diss by Murasaki in her diary) professionally, artistically, and
personally. Shonagon was a literary genius in her time as well as regarded as such by
contemporary critics. She is most famous for producing the Pillow Book (Makura no
Soshi) a sort of diary and commentary on Heian court life. Shonagon was also the
hugely successful anti-thesis of the demure noblewoman ideal of the time. Instead she
was popular and known for her directness, passionate love affairs, and insurmountable
sarcastic wit.
(possibly use on a slide?)
Words That Look Commonplace but That Become Impressive When Written in Chinese Characters:
Strawberries
A dew-plant
A prickly water-lily
A walnut
A Doctor of Literature
A Provisional Senior Steward in the Office of the Emperor's Household
Red myrtle
Knotweed is a particularly striking example, since it is written with the characters for "tiger's
stick." From the look on a tiger's face one would imagine that he could do without a stick.
[Morris, 1967; p.159]
42
or
[From a list of "things that give you pleasure":]
You've read the first volume of a tale you hadn't come across before, and are longing to
go on with it --- then you find the other volume. The rest of it can sometimes turn out
to be disappointing, however....
It's also wonderfully pleasing when you're in a large company of people in the presence
of someone great, and she's talking, either about something in the past or on a matter
she's only just heard about, some topic of the moment, and as she speaks, it's you she
singles out to look at.....
When a poem that you've composed for some event, or in a exchange of poems, is
talked of by everyone and noted down when they hear it. This hasn't happened to me
personally, but I can imagine how it would feel....
When someone you don't like meets with some misfortune, you're pleased even
though you know this is wicked of you.
[McKinney, pp. 210-12]
43
Three most powerful military clans at the time were the Fujiwara, Taira and
Minamoto families, with the Fujiwara the most powerful—essentially dictators able
to enthrone and depose emperors at will and orchestrate governmental affairs
through their own private administration, turning the throne into a figurehead.
Eventually by about 1060, the Fujiwara had themselves become factionalized and
their authority declined as members fought amongst themselves. This allowed for a
brief reassertion by Emperor Go-Sanjo (1068-1073), who obscured imperial authority
behind a figurehead himself by abdicating and then ruling through his predecessor,
beginning the use of the Cloistered Emperor system. This in essence turned the de
facto ruler into a kind of private warring noble in and of themselves, with their
authority resting in their own private army, and placing the dominance of
government in the hands of the military opposed to civil authority.
This led to the Hogen Rebellion of 1156, with the Fujiwara and the Cloistered
Emperor allied against the Figurehead emperor backed by the Minamoto and Taira
clans. The Minamoto and Taira clan’s victory in this rebellion at one stroke eliminated
the power of the cloistered emperor, the Fujiwara clan, and imperial authority, as the
victorious emperor remained as nothing more than a figurehead of the two
militarized families that had supported him. In this way, the military lords took
complete control of the court. Taira and Minamoto then fought amongst themselves
for ultimate control three years later in the Heiji Rebellion, with Taira emerging
victorious. Their 20 year reign as Regents however were marked by self absorption
44
and a turning inward to enjoy the trappings of court life at the expense of completely
ignoring the worsening situation in the Provinces. They executed numerous rivals
and abolished entirely the cloistered emperor system, leading to anti Taira sentiments
Finally, with their choice of enthroning the two year old Emperor Antoku in 1180
over the Emperor’s son from the older generation, the bypassed heir allied with the
Minamoto to rise against the Taira, leading to Minamoto no Yoritomo and his forces
defeating the puppet emperor and the Taira regents in the Genpei War of 1180 -1185
A.D.
Colors of Japan, Red and White, are derived from the Taira and Minamoto standards.
45
46
Kamakura period marks the governance of the Kamakura shogunate, the transition to
land-based economies and the concentration of military in a specialized warrior class.
After his victory in the Genpei War, Yoritomo consolidated his power and established
a new governing body at his family home in Kamakura called a bakufu. He appointed
constables—essentially governors—to manage and oversee the administration of the
private estates in each Province. At this point, it was not technically a national
institution, but rather the most powerful military presence and a holder of vast
private estates.
Though a strong ruler, by his death in 1199, Yoritomo was unable to completely
consolidate his leadership and subdue conflict within the Minamoto. Thus, the
shogunate began to factionalize, and his successor was unable to exert complete
control. By the early 1200’s, the Hojo family had managed to create a regency, just as
the Taira had earlier over the emperor.
In 1221, the Jokyu War saw a very odd conflict between the Hojo regents and the
remnants of the Cloistered emperor as a sort of gambit to somehow regain imperial
control. This war therefore was waged essentially between two shadowy
powerbrokers each concealed behind their respective puppets. The Hojo won easily,
and thus brought the imperial court under the direct control of the Shogun. The
Shogun’s private constables thus gained greater civil powers, and the imperial court
was now required to seek the approval of the shogun before they could take any
action.
47
The Hojo regency managed to finally curtail the disunity and conflict at court by
creating the Council of State in 1225, which gave other military lords a voice in the
legislative and judicial matters of state in an administrative body that united the
warring factions with collective leadership.
First military code of law the Goseibai Shikimoku, 1232, which created a clear and
concise document that outlined the duties of stewards and constables, the manner of
settling land disputes, and the governing of inheritance, and remained in effect for
another 635 years.
Mongol invasions after Japan refuses to pay tribute to Kublai Khan and the Chinese
Mongol Dynasty. First invasion lands 23,000 troops at Hakata Bay, fought in close
grouped cavalry formations that were disastrous for the samurai used to fighting light
infantry and one-on-one duels. However, decided to reembark at the onset of a
storm rather than being marooned on land, and ultimately destroyed. Second
invasion saw an even larger force of 40,000, plus an additional 100,000 from
southern China. However, the smaller force landed first, and though again managed
to overwhelm the defense, they decided not to pursue absent the arrival of second
larger army. After roughly 7 weeks, another sudden storm again destroyed the
invading forces.
Kenzo Hayashida discovered wreckage of the second invasion fleet near Takashima
48
and determined the fleet was comprised primarily of hastily constructed or
requisitioned vessels more suited to Chinese rivers than the open sea. If they had
used boats with a keel as opposed to a flat bottom, they quite possibly would have
conquered Japan.
This is the origin of the Kamikaze and the belief that Japan, and by extension the
Japanese people, were protected by a divine will. This was later perverted by
national shintoism during the early 20th century to justify extreme nationalism and
military expansion.
The Mongol Invasions greatly weakened the shogunate. Because of the drain on the
economy and the need to create defenses to guard against future attacks, new taxes
had to be levied. This, coupled with the overextension of the military, division of land
through inheritance resulting in a loss of wealth for each succeeding generation, and
roving bands of ronin all worked to threaten the stability and authority of the Shogun.
This paved the way for a strong Emperor to attempt to reassert imperial control in the
Kemmu Restoration, eventually allying with rebelling forces and a former Hojo
Constable Ashikaga Takauji to defeat the Hojo regents. The emperor then attempted
to institute reforms to strengthen his position over the military class, but
miscalculated the fact that those allies that helped him defeat the Hojo were more
interested in destroying the Hojo regents than to support the emperor, and were
summarily alienated by this move against the very warrior class that brought him to
power.
This led to a lengthy civil war and the eventual installation of a figure head and the
continued dominance of the warrior elite under a new shogun, the former constable
Ashikaga Takauji
49
The Ashikaga shogunate was weaker than the Kamakuras. Unlike the Kamakura
which existed in tandem with the imperial court, the Ashikaga took over at a time
when the imperial court was in tatters, and were additionally forced to endure a long,
protracted civil war between the two warring bloodlines of the northern and
southern imperial line that only really ended in 1392. They also came to power with
the need to balance their own consolidation of power with the military constables
and allies that had united with them against Emperor Kemmu.
Thus, the Kamakura were unable to check the expansion of the regional governors,
and it was a trend under this shogun to allow for these former constables to gain
considerable influence and military might within their own realms. Soon, these
Daimyo as they came to be called were incorporated directly into the balance of
power by rotating the three most powerful families through Kyoto as the Shogun’s
deputies.
This paved the way for the succession crisis of the mid 1460’s to drive a stake through
the shogunate and divide the country into warring factions, where the current
shogun, absent a male heir, named his brother as his successor, and then rescinded
this proclamation a year later at the unexpected birth of a son. This sparked conflict
between the two brothers, with the various daimyo arrayed behind them.
This familial conflict grew to become the Onin War, with significant fighting in and
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around Kyoto, leading to ruination of that city by September of the first year. After
ten years, Kyoto was essentially a dead city, filled with looters and mobs of crazed,
starving people, while the shogun blissfully secluded himself, read poetry, planned
the building of ginkakuji, and watched as the country burned around him.
There was no clear winner of the war. Rather, the two sides basically just fought
themselves to exhaustion. Additionally, due to the complacency of the Shogun,
other, smaller, regional conflicts between daimyo were allowed to erupt, spreading
violence and civil war throughout Japan in a period that is now known as sengoku, or
the warring states.
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By the end of the Onin war, the authority of the Shogun had essentially ceased to
exist, and it its place, the shogunate was controlled by the deputy shogun at the time,
the Hosokawa family. This family would become important later as far as Kumamoto
was concerned, as they were forcibly moved to the prefecture during the Tokugawa
reorganization.
The lasting legacy of the Onin War is that it sparked an unending period of civil war,
rebellion, and regional violence across the country, where these powerful military
Daimyo fought each other to exhaustion. By the end of the period, only a few
remaining Daimyo were actually powerful enough to mount a significant resistance,
paving the way for the three great figures of the time: Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi
Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu to unify the country.
The common people during this period descended into a state of serfdom, where the
tenant farmers of the vast estates were done away with and people on the Daimyo’s
land became property, their lives given over entirely to the regional lord in return for
protection.
Interestingly, this period also stimulated the growth of transportation and increased
communication out of the need to move and coordinate these numerous warring
armies throughout the country.
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Finally, 1543 A.D. saw the first contact with the Portuguese, which added a new,
deadly element to the ongoing conflict in the form of firearms, empowering the
regional daimyo in Kyushu trading with the Portuguese and transforming battles
between armies into far more brutal affairs. This had a significant effect a few
decades later when Oda Nobunaga was the first to truly understand and revolutionize
the use of firearms in Japan towards achieving his aims.
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First contact with the Portuguese.
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Oda Nobunaga responded to a rival lord’s assassination of the 13 th Ashikaga shogun
and the installation of their own puppet by marching to Kyoto and defeating the rival
daimyo. After installing his own Ashikaga shogun, he refused to become the shogun’s
deputy, and instead immediate embarked on a bid to limit the shogun’s power and
consolidate his own authority around Kyoto by defeating the rival lords. He then
expanded this to the provinces in an effort to bring all warring daimyo under his
authority.
He modernized the economy by shifting from an agricultural base to a manufacturing
and service industry, developed castle towns and roads which facilitated and
regulated trade as well as the movement of his armies.
He revolutionized warfare in Japan, by developing new strategies for the use of
firearms, pikes, infantry, and fortifications, and modernized his army based on the
technology being imported from the West.
Nobunaga was the first to truly understand and utilize the new ideas and technology
being introduced to Japan by trade with the west, and the first to effectively levy
these things against his opponents. He was also the first truly cosmopolitan
Japanese, collecting western art, arms and armor, supported the establishment of the
first Christian church in Kyoto though not a Christian himself, and is considered one of
the first Japanese in history to wear western clothes.
Finally, his greatest success, and the thing which ultimately led to his death, was the
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creation of a meritocracy. This allowed people to rise through the ranks based on
ability, rather than on land or lineage. Thus, the meteoric rise of Toyotomi Hideyoshi,
a leading general of Nobunaga’s born into a family of rural farming peasants. This
lead to other generals growing resentful of his treatment of Hideyoshi, and was
ultimately killed by two of his generals after ordering them to support Hideyoshi’s
campaign in Shikoku caused them to rise up in rebellion.
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Hideyoshi’s move to defeat the assassins of Nobunaga secured his place as the most powerful
of his remaining generals, and was thus in the position to recommend the next Nobunaga
heir, appointing Nobunaga’s infant grandson to the post and himself as guardian. This led
forces arrayed behind the elder generation’s son of Nobunaga to move against him, and with
their defeat, established Hideyoshi as the undisputed ruler of Nobunaga’s former
possessions.
He then went on and by 1590 had defeated the last of the independent daimyo still allied
against him, thus reunifying Japan.
After this, he moved to consolidate power, eliminating unnecessary or redundant military
strongholds, creating a hostage system where the wives and heirs of the daimyo lived with
him in Osaka castle, establishing three administrative bodies that kept the peace and
regulated policy and administration, and rearranged the daimyo holdings to his advantage,
particularly by moving the powerful Tokugawa far away from the capital to the east and Edo.
He then turned his sights outward in an attempt to conquer the Ming Dynasty of China,
invading unsuccessfully and summarily being bogged down in Korea from 1592 until his death
in 1598.
Finally, he froze the class distinctions, meaning that from then on, there could be no mobility
between the different classes. Thus, he closed off the means by which he himself under
Nobunaga’s meritocracy rose from the ranks of the peasantry to the shogunate.
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After Hideyoshi’s death, Tokugawa was appointed as one of the five lords governing
the Hideyoshi domains until his infant son came of age. Tokugawa was arguably the
strongest of these lord, benefitting greatly from the move by Hideyoshi forcing them
east to Edo, a strategic castle town with vast agricultural land and 38 immediate
vassals under him. With the death of one of the lords, a power struggle erupted that
saw Tokugawa, already continuously agitating and attempting to undermine the
Hideyoshi clan and the other lords, accused of treason and facing a powerful force of
allied daimyo, culminating at the battle of Sekigahara. Ieyasu was outnumbered in
this battle, but thanks to keen political maneuvering and superior tactics, was able to
defeat his rivals and lay claim to the shogunate.
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- Beginning of Kano school of painting's reign over the Japanese art world!!! (whoo)
*Kano Eitoku was the greatest master and innovator of the Kano school style.
-Chinese Guardian Lions Byobu
- Hinoki-zu Byobu Cypress Tree Screen
(Taiga) Big Painting Style ..see^
(Saiga) small landscape style
Osaka Castle, Azuchi Castle, Nijo-jo in Kyoto are the best examples of Kano style art
Pine, Plum, Bamboo: 3 Worthies of Asian Art. Influen. Confucism. "Three Friends of
Winter"
-Pine (longevity)
-Bamboo (flexibility)
-Plum (pruity of spirit, perserverance)
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- Beginning of Kano school of painting's reign over the Japanese art world!!! (whoo)
*Kano Eitoku was the greatest master and innovator of the Kano school style.
-Chinese Guardian Lions Byobu
- Hinoki-zu Byobu Cypress Tree Screen
(Taiga) Big Painting Style ..see^
(Saiga) small landscape style
Osaka Castle, Azuchi Castle, Nijo-jo in Kyoto are the best examples of Kano style art
Pine, Plum, Bamboo: 3 Worthies of Asian Art. Influen. Confucism. "Three Friends of
Winter"
-Pine (longevity)
-Bamboo (flexibility)
-Plum (pruity of spirit, perserverance)
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- Beginning of Kano school of painting's reign over the Japanese art world!!! (whoo)
*Kano Eitoku was the greatest master and innovator of the Kano school style.
-Chinese Guardian Lions Byobu
- Hinoki-zu Byobu Cypress Tree Screen
(Taiga) Big Painting Style ..see^
(Saiga) small landscape style
Osaka Castle, Azuchi Castle, Nijo-jo in Kyoto are the best examples of Kano style art
Pine, Plum, Bamboo: 3 Worthies of Asian Art. Influen. Confucism. "Three Friends of
Winter"
-Pine (longevity)
-Bamboo (flexibility)
-Plum (pruity of spirit, perserverance)
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Arranged the daimyo by degrees of loyalty, with his relations the closest followed by
his allies at Sekigahara and other supporters arranged near the seat of government in
Edo, enjoying the most active participation in administration. On the fringe of the
country, particularly the west and Kyushu, were those who opposed him at
Sekigahara as well as newly allied lords, who had no voice in government but were
nonetheless treated exceptionally generously and cautiously to maintain their
loyalty.
Cultivated relationship with the imperial court, impoverished by the end of the
warring states period, by rebuilding its palaces, granting the court new lands, and
ultimately intermarrying, with the granddaughter of Ieyasu becoming an imperial
consort in 1619
Tokugawa undertook a massive reorganization of the country, first with the land
redistribution, continuing with a regulatory code of laws that governed the daimyo,
limited the number of castles per domain to one, and required the daimyo to pay
contributions to military upkeep, public works projects, and expensive processions to
and from Edo, and finally dispossessed samurai of their land, concentrating
ownership in the hands of roughly 300 daimyo. These regulations had the effect of
weakening the power of the military lords while simultaneously enhancing the
Tokugawa’s. Finally, people were reduced to groups of five, and held accountable for
the actions of all.
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Christianity increasingly became a problem as the fringe daimyo in Kyushu gained
power through their interaction with the west and Tokugawa sought to curtail their
authority. If these Christian daimyo opposed the shogunate, it calls into question the
loyalty of any Christian in the country. Might they not too rise up against the shogun
in support of those Christian lords? Thus, to reduce these daimyo’s power base, the
shogunate began attacking Christianity itself. This ultimately led to the Shimabara
Rebellion in which 37000 peasants and ronin rose against the oppression of the
regional rulers in Shimabara and Amakusa. There were numerous causes of this
rebellion, including discontent of the newly masterless samurai, overtaxation and
famine, but historically it has been cast as a primarily religious rebellion, and was
used as justification by the shogunate to curtail Christianity and foreign influence in
Japan.
As a result, the Portuguese were expelled from the country and the Dutch, though for
their help in putting down the rebellion were allowed to stay, were summarily
confined to Dejima in Nagasaki.
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-Katsura Imperial Palace: (also called Villa) built in imitation of Genji's palace. It is
owned by the Imperial Household Agency and is not a world heritage or National
Treasure because designating it as such would mean they would have to allow public
access and cede some rights. Built around 1615AD. Its gardens are masterpieces of
Japanese gardening and its buildings are one of the greatest achievements of Japanese
architecture. There is a moon-viewing platform overlooking a lake (aristocratic
past-time, moon reflection in still water). Simplistic, minimal design evokes the Shinto
values of wabi-sabi. Understated elegance belies the fact that everything is made of
the finest quality materials. Seems to incorporate natural features but actually highly
structured. Open spaces and quiet beauty for self-reflection.
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-Nikko Toshogu: (Tochigi Prefecture) completed ni 1617 a Shinto Shrine but
incorporates many Confucianist themes (Samurai-built as it is) and Chinese design
elements. UNESCO wolrd Heritage site and so many buildings and objects are
designated National Treasures that it takes too long to list. Dedicated to Tokugawa
Ieyasu and houses his mausoleum! Later enlarged by Iemitsu (grandson) Ieyasu
wanted to be a god. Emperor is one, and he is the Shogun, so he will be one too.
So he built Nikko and is enshrined there. Richly decorated Yomeimon. Ostentatious
everything bold, lacquerored, or gold-leafed. Samurai had to impress and had to
show-off to prove their strength. Everything heavily ornamented. Everything eyecatching. All done with great skill. Elephants, flowers, monkeys (Confuciast), nemurineko (peaceful, life-like image by master carver Hidari Jingoro, possible inspiration for
the maneki-neko). Yakushi Nyorai (Buddhist healing god) Ieyasu incarnation dragon
painting.
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-The conscious effort of the aristocratic elite to imitate their admired Heian
predecessors and a longing for the past. While the Samurai elite fought to assert
themselves as the all-powerful in quite an impressive manner.
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Seclusion was a means of consolidating and maintaining control over the country by
excising destabilizing foreign influences.
The early period saw massive economic development, urbanization and construction
as people relocated to cities and manufacturing centers, and merchants gained
increasing influence.
Between 1720 and 1820 however, there was virtually no population growth and
numerous serious, widespread famines fueled by drought, crop shortages, peasant
unrest, and 40% taxation to support local construction and public works projects.
Kokugaku movement arose during this time, emphasizing a turn inwards towards
traditional Japanese study and away from out side, primarily Chinese influence. A
main point of this movement held that Japan and the Japanese people were naturally
pure, divinely gifted by the kami, and would only reveal its true potential and
character by excising a thousand years of foreign influence. Source of later
nationalistic sentiment.
Those in the cities in the first time in Japanese history had the means and the time to
support mass culture, giving rise to ukiyo-e, kabuki and bunraku, poetry, art and
literature, Geisha, music, popular storytelling, as well as seedier elements like
organized prostitution.
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Ukiyo-e (the floating world)
genre of wood-block prints featuring landscapes, history, kabuki theatre, and the
pleasure quarters. Ukiyo-e refers to a conception of an evanescent and impermanent
world of fleeting beauty. Actually stems from the Heian Period Buddhist concept of
mujo and the impermanence of the physical world (thus beauty, think sakura) but
while the Heian Buddhists lived in fear of the year 1052 (mappo, or the end of the
world, "predicting" the sengoku-jidai, earthquakes, and fires) Edo period folk took the
concept as, well teh world is impermantent, might as well party while we can! Thus
ukiyo usually refers to the entertainment world.
-Ukiyo-e were originally mass produced for the common man, like the Sunday comics,
peeps collected them.
*Hokusai's 36 Views of Mt. Fuji collection most famous (1831)
*Hokusai's pupil Hiroshige also noteworthy
-Interestingly Ukiyo-e were not originally prized as artwork, but after Europeans saw
the prints (used as packing material), the style influenced Impressionist, Cubist, and
Post-Impressionist artists like van Gogh, Monet, and Degas
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Matsuo Basho
-The most famous poet of the Edo Period. He was the master of haiku. In 1686 he
composed his most famous haiku:
furu ike ya / kawazu tobikomu / mizu no oto
an ancient pond / a frog jumps / the splash of water
1. scene and stillness simplicity
2. sudden movement enters the picture frame of the first scene
3. engaging the senses, sound, but doesn't explicitly show the frog land, yet we know
what has occurred. the focus is on the water. each line is something different, brings
something different, and focuses movement in a different way.
*check out his "The Narrow Rode to the Interior" 奥の細道
**Note the stylistic differences in comparison with Ono no Komachi. Lack of kigo
and kakekotoba
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The Tokugawa shogunate by the end of the era demonstrated a profound lack of
understanding of the reasons behind the growing resentment and unrest in the
country. A one day peasant revolt in Osaka in 1837 from frustration over high taxes,
food shortages and an increasing gulf between peasants and merchants saw the
government respond in a manner that, rather than attempting to rectify these very
real problems, instead sought to curtail what it saw as the moral decay that led to the
conflict by suppressing Rangaku, imposing more restrictions on foreign trade,
censoring literature, eliminating luxury and evoking a return to the “martial spirit” of
times past.
The appearance of Admiral Perry’s 4 ship armada in 1853 destabilized the
government and lead to numerous warring factions clamoring for 1: compromise
with the foreigners, 2:a rejection of the foreigner’s demands and a continued ignoring
of their presence, and 3: the declaration of war. Faced with all of these contradictory
choices, the government was forced to compromise, leaving no one happy and
severely undermining the authority of the shogun. This incident showed it had no
real answer to the foreign problem, and drove support for the emperor and the
nationalistic movement that would quickly coalesce into a serious threat against
them. In the meantime, the treaties forced on Japan were unequal, allowing
extraterritoriality, low tariffs that destroyed Japanese merchants, forceful opening of
trade ports and consulships, and other concessions that bred widespread
resentment.
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This led to a power struggle between the Shogun and the emperor, with the emperor
issuing orders counter to the shogunate’s to “Expel the invaders.” This in turn led to
wide-spread violence against foreigners in Japan by daimyo inclined to listen to the
emperor and military confrontation with foreign forces protecting their interests in
Japan, such as the shelling of Shimonoseki and the Anglo-Satsuma War 1863.
Ironically, those same (western) daimyo who initially followed the emperor’s
command to attack foreigners ultimately found it increasingly beneficial to work with
the foreign traders against their own government; using their armaments to
modernize their forces, giving them the confidence to challenge the Shogunate
directly and forcefully install the now newly crowned 15 year old emperor Meiji,
backing his declaration of imperial restoration, and defeating the now antiquated
forces of the Shogun in the Boshin War.
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I forgot to mention this in the presentation, but an excellent book, if you are
interested in what life was like before and during World War II for Japanese at this
time and one I highly recommend anyone read is “Japan at War” by Haruko Taya Cook
and Theodore F. Cook. A reprinted edition was just published in 2010 and is available
on Amazon.jp. This is really the first and only work of its kind that seeks to compile
accounts of people from all levels of Japanese society, from Japanese brides of
colonists in Manchuria to school children to right-wing officers during the fall of
Nanking, and paints an extraordinary picture of what life was like in the country and
out of it at that time. The accounts are recorded in chronological order, and
separated at points by commentary by the historians detailing the larger historical
picture at the time. One of the best works of its kind, and I can’t recommend it
enough.
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Meiji
Higuchi Ichiyo! was the pen name of Natsu Higuchi. Born into a very low-ranking
titled samurai family, higuchi became the head of her family at 17 with the death of
her father and brother. she decided to become an author at the age of 20 to support
her family while also taking in laundry and mending and running the family sweet/toy
shop. She died at the age of 24. She is considered a literary genius of caliber perhaps
equal to Murasaki Shikibu, and is remembered for the quality of her work, the
melancholy accessibility she injected into her stories of the struggling working class,
and the beautiful simplicity of her prose (which like Murasaki in the Tale of Genji)
would sometimes include poetry.
-Takekurabe -Nigorie - Ootsugomori -Juusanya
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The imperial house moved to consolidate and unify the country beneath their rule
after the defeat of the Tokugawa. This saw the movement of the capital from Kyoto
to Edo, then renamed Tokyo, and drastic restructuring of the old Tokugawa system.
Domains were abolished and daimyo eliminated in lieu of governors appointed by the
emperor to manage the newly created prefectures.
The samurai class was abolished, freeing many samurai to pursue administrative or
entrepreneurial enterprises outside of the traditional limits of their class, but also
bankrupting and destroying many others reliant on the vassalage system for their
livelihood. This, plus the creation of a conscript army of commoners trained as riflewielding infantry drove many to rebel against the progressive tendencies of the
emperor and his attack on their traditional domains, class status and livelihood.
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The alienation manifested itself in the samurai rebellions of the mid to late 1870’s,
culminating in the Satsuma Rebellion that saw fighting in and around Kumamoto, the
castle, Yatsushiro and Hitoyoshi. Led by Saigo Takamori of Kagoshima, a former
leading official of the Meiji court who broke with the emperor over foreign policy and
returned to Kagoshima to create essentially a paramilitary, secessionist state. His
eventual defeat at the hands of the imperial conscripts demonstrated the superiority
of this new army over the traditional samurai fighting model.
It is important to remember though that not all samurai were alienated by these
reforms. A significant percentage of them, because of their education and
experience, were able to find gainful employment in the government, as teachers,
merchants, manufacturers, and most importantly military officers
The Meiji era saw the adoption of a formal constitution based on the German
Imperial model created with the unification of Germany in 1881, marking the official
founding of the Empire of Japan, the creation of the Imperial Diet, and a detailed list
of the rights of citizens effective November 29th, 1890. The adoption of this
document, coupled with the increasingly nationalistic and jingoistic movement, was
the primary contributing factor behind the onset of totalitarianism and World War II
fifty years later. The constitution was founded on the principal that the sovereignty of
Japan rests in the person of the Emperor based on his divine descent, as opposed to
the people. Parts of it are vague and contradictory; left open to interpretation in
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order to balance the need to maintain the Emperor’s supremacy while still appearing
open to popular governance. For example, One article states that the Emperor
commands the army and navy, leading hardliners within the military to conclude that
they obey only the Emperor and do not answer to the cabinet or the diet. However,
another article states that the emperor had no legal backing behind any of his
commands until they were ratified by a minister of state, though these ministers were
only appointed by the emperor alone and the civilian authority had no say in their
retention or dismissal. Other articles state that the Emperor’s command is both
sacred and inviolable, leading to the belief that he was not subject to the constitution
and could if he wanted do away with it entirely, while the next article states he
exercises his powers in accordance with the provisions of the present constitution.
This invited numerous interpretations and essentially set up a constitutional crisis at
some point down the road similar to Germany. Like Germany, the government was
essentially cobbled together by numerous factions and interests, each trying to
balance the voice of the people with the contradictory belief of supreme Imperial
authority or hereditary aristocratic privilege. Like Germany, it allowed for an
authoritarian and a Liberal Democratic interpretation, leading to conflict between
these two extremes throughout its existence. And, like Germany, this constitution
began to break down almost as soon as it was created.
Unlike Germany, Japan never faced a point as Germany did in World War I that saw
this constitution entirely broken under the extreme rule of a military dictatorship, and
was thus allowed to continue on through the 30’s and World War II in Japan with
increasingly violent, debilitating results.
The country was turned over to rapid industrialization in an effort to catch up to the
western world, turning Japan into a major manufacturing and industrial power, but
one dependent upon overseas resources and raw materials to supply this economy.
This fueled the desire for expansion and a form of colonialism that saw Japan
attempting to exert control over Korea in the 1880’s and early 1890’s. Korea at this
time was a tributary state of China, which by this point had been weakened by two
Opium Wars and encroaching foreign interests. Thus Japan, in a bid to replace
Chinese control with its own and in a mirror of what happened to it during the
forceful end of seclusion, itself forced open the Korean kingdom and imposed
unequal treaties that gave Japanese interests preferential treatment. In the mid 80’s,
China and Japan stood on the brink of war, but ultimately signed the Convention of
Tientsin that settled the conflict diplomatically. As per the terms of the treaty, China
and Japan agreed to remove all of their expeditionary forces from Korea, and further
to notify the other before sending their armies into the country.
1894, the Tonghak Rebellion, Korean emperor request Chinese forces be sent to aid in
putting down the rebelling forces. China, as per the terms of the convention, notifies
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Japan that it will be sending forces into the country. Japan, in turn, essentially
looking for a reason, determined that this was a violation of the Convention and
responded with an invasion that seized control of Seoul, the Korean Emperor, and
installed their own puppet government loyal to Japan. They then had this
government pass an order asking the Japanese to expel all Chinese forces from Korea.
China responded, and the Sino-Japanese War began. After defeating the Chinese in
Korea, the Japanese invaded Manchuria and seized Port Arthur. The Treaty of
Shimonoseki on April 17th, 1895 gave Japan control of Taiwan, the Liaodong Peninsula
and the Penghu Islands in perpetuity, plus required China to pay massive indemnities.
However, at this time, Russia had its own designs for Asia, and moved to enlist the
support of Germany and France in the Triple Intervention to pressure Japan to return
Port Arthur and the Liaodong Peninsula to China in exchange for a larger indemnity.
Japan reluctantly agreed. However, within three years, Russia itself had established a
presence in the region by leasing the Peninsula for 25 years and fortifying Port Arthur.
This essentially humiliated Japan at the hands of the European powers, convinced
them to further strengthen their armed forces, and was a direct cause of the RussoJapanese war of 1904-1905, in which Japan, alarmed at Russia’s expansion into
Manchuria and the threatening of its interests in Korea, was the final catalyst that
launched the war.
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Contracting cerebral meningitis at the age of three, Emperor Taisho spent most of his
reign in seclusion, and by about 1918 or 1919 had largely relinquished all direct
control of the government and policy making, allowing for the Diet to step in and
enjoy a brief period of, if not quite Liberal Democracy, than at least a significant step
in that direction. However, the start of his reign was notable for the political crisis of
the early Taisho period, which saw conflict between the civil authority and the
military, establishing the precedent that saw the ability of the military to force the fall
of a cabinet by withholding active duty officers from the posts of the Minster of War
and the chief of the General Staff. This was a key step that in the late 20’s and 30’s
paved the way for the onset of military control.
World War I enriched Japan in their role of supplying industrial products and raw
materials to the west, and ratified their conquests of German holdings in China and
its north Pacific colonies. It more than probably any other nation was the clear
“winner” of the war, as it gained practically everything it possibly could without
sacrificing anything. However, after the war, it was an instrumental participant in the
disastrous Siberian invasion, backing the White Russian forces against the communist
regime in an attempt to expand its influence north. That, plus inflation and a
persistent economic crisis, the increasing threat of communism and other western
ideals invading the minds of the common populace and driving calls for increasingly
liberal, democratic reform, and the disastrous Kanto earthquake all combined to lead
a move to curtail the military by the civilian government and cut defense spending.
This built resentment in military circles and fueled the underground conservative
nationalistic belief that the civil government was undermining the safety and security
of the nation by allowing foreign influence to erode the unity of nation.
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By the late 20’s and early 30’s, younger officers in the military who viewed it as their
obligation to protect the state and guard against outside influence, began increasingly
to interpret their duty as one of upholding and eliminating—violently if necessary—
any and all opposition standing in the way of Japan’s interests. Assassination,
subterfuge and a complete subversion of the civil authority were deemed necessary
and even understandable actions as long as it was done in service of the state. Thus
saw the secret assassination of the Chinese Warlord Chang Tso-lin in 1928, the
attempted assassination of the Japanese Prime Minister in 1930, and other violent
actions committed against officials in the Japanese government, liberals, socialists
and others who were thought to harbor left-leaning sentiments or were in someway
judged to have undermined Japan’s superiority in concessions to the west. This
culminated in the Manchurian Incident of 1931, which saw two Colonels in the
Kwangtun Army charged with railroad security in Manchuria blow up a section of
railway and use it as pretext to invade the rest of the province. This was done
without the consent of the civil authority or the imperial general staff back in Japan,
but once orchestrated, could not be undone in time to halt the army’s response.
Incidents like this one occurred numerous times in China throughout the 30’s, with
the Imperial army using minor skirmishes or completely falsified reports of enemy
actions to seize more territory, culminating in the Marco Polo Bridge incident in 1937
that opened the second Sino-Japanese war.
Throughout this period, there was this general disconnect between the younger
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generations of radicalized officers who had come of age post Russo-Japanese War,
indoctrinated in the belief of Japan’s divine supremacy, the ideals of national
shintoism and disillusioned with the ungrateful and subversive civil authority; and the
older generation staff officers in nominal command of the armies. For example, the
Manchurian Incident occurred when it did in a direct response to the threat of a
visitation by the commanding officer of the security forces to the region posed on the
conspirator’s ability to execute their plan in direct violation of their commander’s
orders and authority. An even greater example occurs during the tragic events of
Nanking, where the commanding officer of the army, a five foot tall Buddhist
suffering from Tuberculosis ordered his forces from his sickbed to act honorably when
taking the city and threatening severe punishment to anyone caught committing acts
that did not ascribe to the ideal conduct of the Japanese soldier. One historian
describes what happened next: “Upon recovering enough to travel to the former
Chinese Capital, he found that the worst of the atrocities had ended, but he learned
what had happened and scathingly rebuked the responsible officers. They openly
laughed at him”
Finally, the military and the nationalist movement permeated every aspect of
Japanese life by the thirties. Everyone was conscripted or part of a reserve
association, an officer’s association, a neighborhood association run by the military,
were being educated by teachers indoctrinated at military schools in lieu of
compulsory service. Anyone critical of the military, the emperor or the country was
quickly silenced, often times violently. Failure to remove one’s hat in the movie
theatre at the sight of the emperor during a newscast could lead to arrest. In this
way, the militant nationalists managed to indoctrinate an entire generation of
Japanese, imposing their ideals and beliefs of the superiority of Japan and the rightful
duty of the country to secure its interests abroad and unite the world under the
beneficial divinity of their rule.
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The Second Sino-Japanese War is a conflict little known outside of Asia, but one
absolutely critical to the understanding of how and why the war spread. It was an
utter quagmire for Japan from the beginning, one which drained scarce resources and
bogged down over a million men in the occupation of the country. Started as a
means of securing Japanese interests in the area, particularly in Manchuria, by a year
later it had broadened into the all-encompassing goal of the divine right of Japan to
unite the world under its rule, secure “Asia for the Asians,” and impose the infamous
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere that was little more than rhetoric used to
justify puppet regimes and the brutal exploitation of conquered populations. Some
of the absolute worst atrocities occurred in this theater, including the Rape of
Nanking, the frequent use of poison gas on civilian populations, and the medical
vivisection of still-living Chinese prisoners for research purposes. The brutal lessons
learned by the Japanese army in this theater were then carried out countless times in
other conquered domains as they moved to quell the newly conquered population.
These horrific experiences in turn also fueled the Japanese soldier’s own concept of
surrender and treatment by the allied armies, and the associated propaganda
exploited the idea that one should rather die than be taken prisoner.
The Sino-Japanese War is also a measure of the army’s complete irrationality and
utter lack of strategic comprehension. In no way, enduring a four year long conflict to
conquer China and all the associated demands that placed on their forces and their
strategic resources, should the Japanese army have widened the war. Instead
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however, Japan, already hurting for resources and manpower, determined that the
only way to victory in China and the only way to secure the resources necessary for
that victory was to further expand the war, stretch their forces and resources beyond
the breaking point, and attack the West—among them America, an industrial
powerhouse that was, even before Pearl Harbor, out-producing Japan on every front.
Though Japanese generals, among them most famously Yamamoto Isoroku, who had
studied in America and saw the potential of American military and industrial might,
warned that Japan would have only six months before the war irrevocably turned
against them, these fears were swept aside in the apparent necessity of the war, the
irrational belief in the superiority of the Japanese forces and the idea that they could
never fail, the failure or inability of checks that should have existed in government to
curtail the military fervor, and finally the Japanese leaders and the Japanese
themselves who were blinded by nationalistic ideals of unity and unquestioning faith
in the divine righteous of their Emperor and their country.
World War II thus required the concept of total war, where every aspect of society
was turned over and contributed to the singular goal of waging war. Political parties
were dissolved, villages across Japan were emptied of men conscripted into the army,
and children as young as the third grade were employed in factories or as auxiliaries,
digging trenches and watching for Allied bombers. Any dissent was suppressed, and
the country was taken over by a fanatic zeal that grew beyond any rational degree of
proportions as the suicidal “victories” of the Japan’s island garrisons crept slowly
closer to the home islands.
Japan should have surrendered in 1943. The strategic situation was such that it was
clear there was absolutely no chance for victory. The destruction of the four carriers
at Midway at a stroke exposed the complete miscalculation of widening the war. In
their sudden, unexpectedly incredible victory at the onset of the war, Japan so
overextended itself that it was all but impossible to manage and logistically supply its
forces. With the irreplaceable deaths of their aircrews and the sinking of their
carriers, Japan was thrust on the defensive and had absolutely no conceivable way of
checking the allied advance, defending and supplying their fortified positions, or
withdrawing from these islands. Rather, instead of facing the strategic situation at
the time and surrendering—saving millions of lives and quite possibly still walking
away with some territorial concessions—the Japanese leaders declared that “the real
war was just beginning,” and ordered their forces to stand and die on barren rocks
throughout the Pacific. As the Japanese soldier had been ingrained with the belief
that surrender was worse than death and that their life was owed in defense of the
Emperor, this meant a very bleak future for those waiting in fortified caves for the
inevitable allied landing. As one historian puts it, this was essentially “the formula for
the suicide of an army.”
And it didn’t stop there. In Japan itself, the country was being prepared to sacrifice
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itself in a glorious bloodbath; its citizens transformed into “one hundred million
bullets of fire” in defense of the emperor, who would watch his country burn around
him from the safety of the imperial bunker complex in Nagano. Japanese civilians
were expected to drive back the invaders or die in defense of the emperor. Women
armed with bamboo spears would stand on the invasion beaches and gore the allies
as they came ashore, as suicide divers in diving helmets waited under the waves with
explosives attached to ten foot poles poised to detonate under the allied landing
craft. This was the culture and mentality of the Kamikaze, and even after the
dropping of the atomic bombs, there were those in power who still believed in
nothing other than the continuation of the war and the complete annihilation of
Japan. The attempted coup at the end of the war, in which various military officers
attempted to seize the imperial tape directing the surrender of Japan, is a prime
example of this insane mentality, where these officers were so indoctrinated that it
ultimately brought them to attempt to protect Japan and the Imperial will of the
emperor from the emperor himself.
The War Crimes Tribunal Far East was a manufactured production designed in
collaboration with the Japanese defendants to secure the innocence of the Emperor
and essentially clear the entirety of the Japanese state of guilt at the sacrifice of the
military. It was a solution necessitated by circumstances at the time, a decision that
worked and ONLY worked for that one particular moment and purpose, and the
results have had far-reaching ramifications. Emperor Hirohito was monumentally
guilty and complicit in the onset and continuation of the war. He signed over three
hundred orders for the use of poison gas in China to cite just one example. Others
were executed for far less. However, the person of the emperor and the belief that
he was the embodiment of the country meant that to remove the emperor, try the
emperor, convict the emperor of crime, was in essence an irrevocable attack on the
entirety of Japan and the Japanese themselves. It was an untenable prospect in a
country long indoctrinated and radicalized to propose such a course, and
undoubtedly, if the Allies had done away with the emperor and the emperor system
in its entirety, they may very well have quickly found themselves facing not a docile,
quelled populace, but a country of partisans and a mass uprising that would have
made occupation and reconstruction far more bloody and next to impossible to
achieve. However, in taking this stance that the Emperor was an innocent pawn of a
rampant military, it in essence exonerated the country of any guilt or self-examination
on the social or even individual level. In creating a scapegoat to placate the
country—propping the military up as this radical faction that destroyed Japan through
no fault of the people—the Allies allowed the Japanese to ignore or forget their own
culpability, and created this culture—particularly resented among Japan’s former
enemies, especially Korea, China, Singapore, and other south Asian nations—that
they too were a victim. That they too had suffered this horrible catastrophe, and
that, almost like a natural disaster, the war simply happened, and there was nothing
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they could have done to stop it or alter their conduct during its execution. Thus,
while the military force was excised from the country, the latent factors that
contributed to the rise of militarism and ultra nationalism remained unexamined and
were allowed to remain dormant in society well after the end of the war. It’s no
coincidence today that the first thing new ichinensei learn when they enter
elementary school is “attention, at ease,” or that all students march to martial music
during undokais. These things are holdovers from the period when students were
essentially conscripted auxiliaries digging trenches on the school grounds, and while
the instructors in the military uniforms and the nationalistic message has
disappeared, the teachings still tend to linger. This is also why everyone in Japan
observes the day the bomb fell on Hiroshima and why such stories like the little
mother in the sannensei New Horizon textbook find such traction in Japan and are
repeated over and over again, while the start of the war and all that came before
Japan’s descent into madness is obscured, obfuscated and ignored. Historically, this
trend can be traced to the War Crimes Tribunals as well: when those criminals
convicted of war crimes who weren’t executed emerged after their prison terms, they
were treated more as martyrs valiantly sacrificing themselves for the sake of the
country, and immediately resumed their old posts in government and industry—
spurring the conservative elements of Japan for the next 60 years and contributing to
this tendency to ignore their own history, most recently seen in the excising from
Japanese history textbooks of the role Japanese forces played in the murder and
forced suicide of Okinawans during the war’s final days. That’s the ultimate tragedy
and the lasting legacy of this war in Japan: general, willful ignorance of their history
and a failure to learn from past mistakes, a continuation of underlying social elements
(the idea of Japanese homogeneity and uniqueness in point of fact, erroneously
championed by certain Japanese sociologists and conservative elements of Japanese
government to justify stagnant immigration reform and other movements resisting
the ingress of foreign elements into the country) that ill serve it in the 21st century,
and the lasting hatred and suspicion of its neighbors, of which Japan remains still
largely ignorant and blissfully unaware.
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