Japan


 * 1. ESPIRIT Chart on Japan**


 * E || * Daimyos introduced regulated tax collection, public works
 * People were encouraged to settle unoccupied areas
 * Silk, hemp, paper, dyes, and vegetable oils were major industries
 * Establishment of guilds
 * Rise of powerful merchants connecting markets around the islands and across to China ||
 * S || * Chinese culture was imported during the Taika, Nara, and Heian periods (645-857)
 * Exemplified by the **Taika reforms** that introduced Confucian philosophy, pagoda architecture, Buddhist art, and increased Buddhist influence
 * Similar hierarchy to China except birth did not determine rank and there was little mobility
 * Social status and image meant everything for the nobles
 * Nobles lived together in a complex of palaces and gardens
 * Aristocratic women were rival pursuers of the arts and expected to preserve their image like men
 * They did not partake as much as the men in cultural imports
 * During 1000~1110, lack of government control led to widespread civil strife
 * The emperor and the court families hired the samurai of local lords as bodyguards
 * Monasteries hired them as guards and mercenaries to attack others
 * Samurai became the warrior class
 * Practiced **bushido** and **seppuku**
 * Solely warriors
 * Chinese influences wanned by the 9th century
 * Bushido faded away by 15th~16th century
 * Fortresses were upgraded
 * Stone walls instead of wood
 * Spying, murder, betrayal was common
 * The conscripted peasants led periodic revolts and pillaged incessantly
 * Women lost power in the Daimyo era except for merchant and artisan families
 * Women were given away in arranged marriages
 * Practiced bushido
 * Raised to please men
 * Replaced by men in theater ||
 * P || * Taika reforms revamped the imperial system
 * Court scholars needed to know mandarin and a new set of etiquette rules
 * The goal of the Taika reforms was to establish divine kingship, professionalized bureaucracy and peasant conscript army
 * Women could not be empress after the issue with Empress Koken
 * Emperor Kammu's attempted to curb Buddhist power after the scandal with Koken
 * He made Heian the capital in 794 and forbade monasteries within the capital
 * Monks build monasteries around the capital and retained their power in the imperial court
 * Repealed the Taika reforms
 * Empowered the aristocratic families by restoring their right to build up rural estates
 * Created a peasant conscript army by having local leaders create militias
 * Bureaucracy was slowly dominated by the aristocratic families, namely the **Fujiwara** the 850s
 * These families built large estates, especially around the capital
 * Cooperated with monastic orders to increase both their influences
 * Feudalism (characteristics began as early as the 11th ~ 12th centuries but was truly established in 1185)
 * Local lords established self-sufficient fortresses
 * These lords, the **bushi**, could come form aristocracy, but most were just estate managers, landowners, or local state officials
 * Warriors who administered law, supervised public works, and collected taxes for themselves
 * Controlled the samurai
 * Summoned to protect the emperor from time to time
 * Trained in archery and swordsmanship
 * The fortresses were surrounded by walls and a moat
 * Contained granaries, forges, wells, and armories
 * Peasants were reduced to serf like conditions to provide for the bushi and samurai
 * Lead to the creation of ninjas and conversion to pure land
 * Prohibited from riding horses or wielding weapons
 * Feudalism weakened the imperial power
 * The families had to depend on regional alliances
 * The Taira and Minamoto civil disputes
 * Minamoto prevailed due to their alliances
 * The **Bakufu**
 * Destruction of the Taira faction during the **Gempei Wars** (180-1185) allows the Minamoto to establish the **bakufu**, military feudal government, based in Kamakura
 * Severely weakened by its leader **Yorimoto** since he had many of his household murdered or exiled
 * Military leaders were called **shoguns**
 * Establishment of three-their system after Yorimoto
 * 1) **Hojo** family controlled the
 * 2) Minamoto shoguns who controlled the
 * 3) Kyoto Emperor
 * The **Ashikage Shogunate** (1336-1573)
 * Led by **Ashikaga Takuaji**, a revolt of the bushi overthrew the Kamakura regime
 * The Kyoto emperor refused to recognize the new shogunate
 * Driven to Yoshino where the emperorship and other warlords fought against the Ashikaga faction and puppet emperors
 * The civil strife, lasting most of the 14th century, resulted in victory for the Ashikaga, but had severely weakened the faith and loyalty to shogunate and the emperor
 * Bushi warlords freely attacked other factions
 * Captured land from the peasantry, old aristocracy, and other warlords
 * Nearly wiped out the court aristocracy
 * Rival successors destroyed Kyoto and the shogunate
 * Rise of nearly 300 kingdoms ruled by **daimyos**
 * 838 ~ Japan stopped embassies to the Tang Court
 * The political hierarchy
 * 1) Emperor
 * 2) Court families
 * 3) Shogun
 * 4) Daimyo
 * 5) Samurai
 * 6) Serfs
 * After the fall of the Ashikage, victory was decided by size and organization of army and not samurai champions
 * Primary unit was the peasant pikeman ||
 * I || * Confucianism
 * Adapted Chinese characters by simplifying it
 * Lady Murasaki's **//The Tale of Genji//** represents the outburst of literary and poetic expression that is distinctively Japanese
 * Poetry was the highest regarded art form
 * Presumably Haiku
 * Zen Buddhism and Shintoism influenced the art
 * Nature painting from Song
 * Pagoda architecture
 * Ponds and gardens
 * Tea ceremony
 * Monochrome ink drawings ||
 * R || * Shintoism remained an important cultural aspect of society
 * **Kami**, spirits of natures, were venerated alongside Buddhist gods
 * Buddhists were extremely powerful
 * Subdued the aristocrats and the emperors
 * Cooperation with the nobles allowed Buddhists to write secret texts and create new meditation techniques/prayers revolving around diagrams and hand positions ||
 * I || * Imported Chinese culture ||
 * T || * Creation of the katana
 * Soybean ||

Many old societies at a point had been ruled by semicentralized powers in which a supreme ruler claimed sovereignty but derived his power from loyalties from regional sources. Feudalism can be used to encompass these semicentralized rules, but in regards to the system that developed in Western Europe and Japan, feudalism needed to incorporate a sociopolitical hierarchy and practices. In both Western Europe and Japan, unlike Russia, Zhou China or the Sudanic states, the aristocratic lords (Lords and shoguns and daimyos) were the true sources of power, who answered to a central authority (King or Emperor) and controlled the masses (Serfs). Also, a common characteristic of both these nations was a militant disposition. Warfare was rampant during the feudal times when warlords waged war against each other. Codes like chivalry and bushido rose because of the constant warfare and inhibited attempts create centralized governments. The practices of these warrior codes also created a warrior elite class that became hard to subdue and control after the feudal period. In Japan, samurai were hard to control while in Western Europe, wars were constantly waged to show the prowess of military leaders. One of the greatest examples of the powers of former feudal lords was the Magna Carta who forced King John to sign the Magna Carta. Another example can be drawn from World War II; Japan’s participation in the war and its unwillingness to surrender came from militant leaders that, according to bushido, refused surrender. Feudalism can be used to trace the similarities between Western and Japanese cultures that emerged in the 1900s. Both powers were involved in imperialism and they have a tendency to resolve to violence to settle disputes. The Japanese and the West are also very successful industrialists and the Japan can attribute that success to the group cohesion developed in the feudal era while the West can attribute the political and legal expertise they developed from contractual relationships.
 * 2. Comparing Feudalism Summary**


 * 3. Chinese influence on Japan, Korea, and Vietnam**
 * || Borrowed from China || Unique ||
 * Japan || * Mandarin, written and oral
 * Confucianism
 * Buddhism
 * Bureaucracy
 * Lofty gentry
 * Affinity to poetry
 * Pagoda
 * Tea ceremonies
 * Metal working || * Bushido
 * Shogunate Feudalism
 * Simplified Chinese script (Japanese)
 * **//Tale of Genji//**
 * Monochrome ink artwork
 * Fancy gardens
 * Katana ||
 * Korea || * Metal working
 * Buddhism
 * Pagoda
 * Nature artwork
 * Mandarin, written and oral
 * Han law code
 * Confucianism
 * Bureaucracy
 * Symmetrical cities
 * Porcelain manufacturing || * Advanced porcelain manufacturing
 * Oxide glazes
 * More effective metal-type printer using honey as a glue ||
 * Vietnam || * Confucianism
 * Chinese-style schools
 * Mandarin, written and oral
 * Bureaucratic professionalization
 * Extended family model within the elite
 * Chinese-style palaces || * Weak scholar-gentry
 * Weak regional bureaucracy ||

Summary: Sinification occurred primarily through political and cultural changes. At the time, the Chinese bureaucracy was the best time-tested political system of the area. Japan, Kora, and Vietnam all established a bureaucracy with varying effectiveness. In Japan, the bureaucracy was held in high esteem so that they would pass the **Taika reforms**, while Korea and Vietnam established weaker bureaucracies. Underlying the bureaucracy was Confucianism. Japanese, Korean, and Viet elites had to learn mandarin, its script, and master the Confucian classics. The adoption of Confucianism created new cultural pursuits in the empires. For example, the gentry of all the societies pursued lavish lifestyles exemplified by the pagoda architecture.