Transcript Feudal Japan - Alena Pettit / FrontPage

Question # 3
• What is a samurai? What is his job?
What does he look like?
Reflection # 3
• How does the code of Bushido guide the
samurai? Do you think a similar code
would work today with our soldiers?
Question # 6
• What is a shogun? What is a shogunate?
Reflection # 6
• What significant changes did Tokugawa
bring about in Japan during his rule?
The Nara Period
700’s new capital-Nara
Center of government and religion
Appointed officials by connections, not civil
service exams.
Emperor’s power came from control of land.
Used a census-based on results all people
who held land had to pay taxes in rice or
silk.
The men counted in the census had to serve
in the army.
Heian Period: 794-1156
• Emperor Kammu built a new capital
city called Heian-offical capital for
1000 years.
• Emperor’s power weakened-many
were children when they became
emperor and had regents to rule for
them.
• Regents-refused to give up power.
• Most were from the Fujiwara clan.
The Fujiwara
• Under the Fujiwara emperors were honored but
had no real power.
• Other powerful nobles gained control of much of
the land in the provinces of Japan.
• Land was given as gifts to the nobles for their
work.
• In order to make the nobles happy-they no
longer had to pay taxes.
• Nobles began to collect taxes from peasants
working the land.
Heian Period: 794-1156
Characteristics:
 Growth of large landed estates.
 Arts & literature of China
flourished.
 Elaborate court life [highly refined]
 ETIQUETTE. 
 Personal diaries
 The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon [10c]
 Great novel
 The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki
Shikibu [1000 pgs.+] 
 Moving away from Chinese models in
religion, the arts, and government. 
Heian Period:
Cultural Borrowing
1.Chinese writing.
2.Chinese artistic styles.
3.Buddhism [in the form of
ZEN].
4.BUT, not the Chinese civil
service system! 
Heian Court Dress
The Pillow Book
by Sei Shonagon (diary)
The Pillow Book
by Sei Shonagon (diary)
Tale of Genji (first novel)
Tale of Genji Scroll
(first novel)
Lady Murasaki Shikibu
She contributed much to the Japanese
script known as kana, while men wrote
with Chinese characters, kanji.
The Samurai
• To protect land and enforce the law,
nobles formed private armies.
• To create armies they gave land to
warriors who agreed to fight for them.
• Samurai means “one who serves.”
• Were not suppose to care for wealth.
Full Samurai Attire
Early Mounted
Samurai Warriors
Samurai Sword
Underpinnings: Basic Steps
in Self Defense
A COTTON BREECH CLOUT
that extended up over the
chest was the basic
undergarment of a samurai’s
costume
A SHORT SLEEVED KIMONO,
or “armor robe,” was tied
snugly at the waist with a
special knot (lower right)
BILLOWING
PANTALOONS,
worn over the
armor robe,
fitted loosely in
the legs to
allow freedom
of movement
STURDY
SHINGUARDS
of cloth or
leather were
reinforced with
strips of iron
to give
protection
from the front
AN EXQUISITE
BROCADE, richly
worked with a
design of peonies,
was one of the
extravagant
materials used in
an armor robe
that may have
been made for a
14th Century
imperial prince
Samurai Charging
Code of Bushido
* Fidelity
* Politeness
* Virility
* Simplicity
Modern-Day “Samurai
Warriors”
Seppuku:
Ritual Suicide
It is honorable to
die in this way.
Kaishaku – his
“seconds”
What is a Shogun?
• By the early 1100’s the most powerful
Japanese families had begun fighting
each other using their samurai armies.
• They fought over land and to gain
control over the emperor and his
government.
• 1180-Gempei War
• Civil war between Taira and Minamoto
family.
Minamoto Yoritomo
• 1185-Minamoto forces won.
• Leader-Minamoto Yoritomo
• The emperor was afraid the Minamoto
family would replace the Yamato family
as the rulers of Japan-better to reward
him to keep him loyal.
• 1192-gave Yoritomo the title of
shogun-commander of all of the
emperor’s military forces.
The Shogun
• Created two governments in Japan.
• The emperor stayed in his palace at
Heian with his bureaucracy-still officially
the head of the country but had no
power.
• Shogun set up his own government in
Kamakura-known as a shogunate.
• Shoguns rule Japan for the next 700
years.
Minamoto Yoritomo
Founded the Kamakura Shogunate:
1185-1333
The Mongols Attack
• 1274 and 1281 Kublai Khan sent ships
and warriors to invade Japan.
• Both times the Mongols were defeated
because of violent Pacific storms
smashed many of their ships.
Mongol
“Invasions
”
of Japan
4,400 ships and 140,000 men, but kamikaze
winds stopped them.
Ashikaga Age:
1338-1573
► Shoguns fought for power.
 Laws are unclear.
 Less efficient than the
Kamakura.
 Armies of samurai protected
the country. 
Ashikaga Age:
1338-1573
• Many samurai had become resentfulsamurai had gotten less and less land has
it was passed down to their sons.
• Many samurai had gotten poor. And no
longer felt they owed loyalty to the
shogun.
• 1331- emperor rebelled and may samurai
came to his aid-was a success but could
not gain control because he would not give
up land.
• General Ashinkaga turned against the
emperor and make himself shogun.
The Daimyo
• The Ashikaga shoguns were weak rulers
and revolts broke out.
• The country was divided into a number of
small territories which were headed by
powerful military lords known as daimyos.
• The daimyo pledged to the emperor and the
shogun.
• Ruled their land as individual kingdoms.
• To protect these kingdoms-created their own
local armies made up of samurai warriors.
Feudalism
• Many samurai became vassals of a daimyo.
• A vassal-a noble who held land from and
served a higher-ranking lord and in return
was given protection.
• The samurai gave an oath of loyalty to his
daimyo and promised to serve him in times
of war.
• This bond of loyalty between a lord and a
vassal is known as feudalism.
• Feudalism-a political system based on
bonds of loyalty between lords and vassals.
The emperor
reigned, but did
not always rule!
Feudal
Society
Feudalism
A political, economic, and social
system based on loyalty, the
holding of land, and military
service.
Japan:
Shogun
Land - Shoen
Land - Shoen
Protection
Samurai
Peasant
Daimyo
Loyalty
Daimyo
Samurai
Peasant
Loyalty
Samurai
Peasant
Food
Peasant
Onin War 1467-1477
• The breakdown of central government,
Japan’s warriors fought each other.
• The city of Kyoto (Heian) was almost
completely destroyed.
• For 100 years after the Onin War a series
of weak shoguns tried to reunite Japan.
• Powerful daimyo resisted control and
fighting spread throughout the country.
• The violence broke down the Ashikaga
shogunate in 1567.
The Age of the Warring States:
(1467 - 1568)
 Castles built on hills in different
provinces.
 Power shifts from above to
below.
 Europeans arrive in Japan 
bringing firearms & Christianity.
 Christianity & foreign trade
flourish.
Catholic Jesuits in
Japan
St. Francis Xavier
[First Catholic Missionaries in Asia]
Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582)
 Banishes the last Ashikaga shogun.
 Unifies a large part of Japan.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
(1536-1598)
 Becomes suspicious
of European
territorial ambitions.
 Orders all European
missionaries expelled
from Japan. 
 Tries to invade
Korea, but fails.
First Christian Martyrs
(1597): Shrine in Nagasaki
Today
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616)
 Appointed shogun by
the Emperor.
 Four-class system
laid down with
marriage restricted
to members of the
same class! 
 Warriors.
 Farmers.
 Artisans.
 Merchants.
Tokugawa Shogunate Period
 Japan closed off to all trade






[except to the Dutch and Chinese]. 
 The Dutch were restricted to a
small island in Nagasaki harbor.
Japanese Christians persecuted
and Christianity is forbidden.
The government is centralized with all
power in the hands of the shogun.
Domestic trade flourishes.
Towns, esp. castle towns, increase.
Merchant class becomes rich! 
New art forms  haiku poetry, kabuki
theater.
R
O
E
N
S
Feudalism
A political, economic, and social
system based on loyalty, the
holding of land, and military
service.
Europe:
King
Land - Fief
Land - Fief
Protection
Knight
Peasant
Lord
Loyalty
Lord
Knight
Peasant
Loyalty
Knight
Peasant
Food
Peasant
Code of Chivalry
* Justice
* Loyalty
* Defense
* Courage
* Faith
* Humility
* Nobility
Medieval Warriors
vs.
European knight
Samurai Warrior
Medieval Warriors
vs.
Knight’s Armor
Samurai Armor
C
A
S
T
L
E
S
Osaka Castle
Main Gate of
Hiroshima Castle
Caernorfon Castle,
Wales
Warwick Castle, England