History of Japan. The history of Japan encompasses the history of the islands of Japan and the Japanese people, spanning the ancient history of the region to the modern history of Japan as a nation state. Following the last ice age, around 12,000 BC, the rich ecosystem of the Japanese archipelago fostered human development. The earliest-known pottery found in Japan belongs to the Jōmon period.
The first known written reference to Japan is in the brief information given in Twenty-Four Histories in the 1st century AD. The main cultural and religious influences came from China.[1] The first permanent capital was founded in 710 at Nara, which became a center of Buddhist art, religion and culture. The current imperial family emerged in about 700, but until 1868 (with few exceptions) had high prestige but little power.
The U.S. occupied Japan until 1952. Japanese prehistory[edit] Paleolithic Age[edit] Jōmon period[edit] A Middle Jōmon vessel (3000–2000 BC) The Jōmon period lasted from about 14,000 until 300 BC. Edo period. The Edo period (江戸時代, Edo jidai?) , or Tokugawa period (徳川時代, Tokugawa jidai?) , is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japanese society was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional Daimyo. The period was characterized by economic growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies, environmental protection policies,[1][2][3][4] and popular enjoyment of arts and culture.
The shogunate was officially established in Edo on March 24, 1603, by Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period came to an end with the Meiji Restoration on May 3, 1868, after the fall of Edo. Consolidation of the shogunate[edit] Ieyasu's victory over the western daimyo at the Battle of Sekigahara (October 21, 1600, or in the Japanese calendar on the 15th day of the ninth month of the fifth year of the Keichō era) gave him virtual control of all Japan.
The daimyo hierarchy[edit] From openness to seclusion[edit] Itinerary and dates of the travels of Hasekura Tsunenaga. Meiji Restoration. The Meiji Restoration (明治維新, Meiji Ishin?) , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Renovation, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under the Meiji Emperor. The goals of the restored government were expressed by the new emperor in the Charter Oath. The Restoration led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure, and spanned both the late Edo period (often called Late Tokugawa shogunate) and the beginning of the Meiji period. The period spanned from 1868 to 1912 and was responsible for the emergence of Japan as a modernized nation in the early twentieth century.
Alliances and allegiances[edit] The formation in 1866 of the Satsuma-Chōshū Alliance between Saigō Takamori, the leader of the Satsuma domain, and Kido Takayoshi, the leader of the Chōshū domain, built the foundation of the Meiji restoration. End of the Shogunate[edit] Motives[edit] Effects[edit] Throughout Japan at the time, the samurai numbered 1.9 million. Yayoi period. The Yayoi period (弥生時代, Yayoi jidai?) Is an Iron Age era in the history of Japan traditionally dated 300 BC to AD 300.[1] It is named after the neighborhood of Tokyo where archaeologists first uncovered artifacts and features from that era. Distinguishing characteristics of the Yayoi period include the appearance of new pottery styles and the start of an intensive rice agriculture in paddy fields.
Techniques in metallurgy based on the use of bronze and iron were also introduced in this period. A hierarchical social class structure also emerged in this period. Features of Yayoi culture[edit] The Yayoi period is traditionally dated from 300 BC to AD 300.[1] The earliest archaeological evidence of the Yayoi is found on northern Kyūshū,[2] though this is still debated. As the Yayoi population increased, the society became more stratified and complex. History[edit] Origin of the Yayoi people[edit] A Yayoi period Dōtaku bell, 3rd century AD. Some scholars[who?]
Yamataikoku[edit] See also[edit] Kofun period. The Kofun period (古墳時代, Kofun jidai?) Is an era in the history of Japan from around 250 to 538. It follows the Yayoi period. The word kofun is Japanese for the type of burial mounds dating from this era. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes referred to collectively as the Yamato period. The Kofun period is the oldest era of recorded history in Japan; as the chronology of its historical sources tends to be very distorted, studies of this period require deliberate criticism and the aid of archaeology.
The Kofun period is divided from the Asuka period by its cultural differences. Kofun tombs[edit] Daisenryō Kofun, Osaka, 5th century. Kofun are defined as the burial mounds built for the people of the ruling class during the 3rd to 7th centuries in Japan,[3] and the Kofun period takes its name from these distinctive earthen mounds. Kofun come in many shapes, with round and square being the simplest. Development[edit] Yamato court[edit] Territorial expansion of Yamato[edit] Asuka period. The Asuka period (飛鳥時代, Asuka jidai?) Was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710 (or 592-645), although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the Asuka region, about 25 km south of the modern city of Nara. Artistically, the period can be further divided into two periods: the Asuka period (up to the Taika Reforms), when early Buddhist cultural imports and influences from Northern Wei are prevalent; and the Hakuhō period (after the Taika Reform), in which more Sui and Tang influences appear.[1][2] Naming[edit] The term "Asuka period" was first used to describe a period in the history of Japanese fine-arts and architecture.
It was proposed by fine-arts scholars Sekino Tadasu (関野貞?) The Yamato polity[edit] The Yamato polity, which had emerged by the late 5th century, was distinguished by powerful great clans or extended families, including their dependents. Nara period. The Nara period (奈良時代, Nara jidai?) Of the history of Japan covers the years from AD 710 to 794.[1] Empress Gemmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capital of Japanese civilization until Emperor Kammu established a new capital, Nagaoka-kyō, in 784, before moving to Heian-kyō, or Kyoto, a decade later in 794. Most of Japanese society during this period was agricultural in nature and centered around villages. Most of the villagers followed a religion based on the worship of natural and ancestral spirits called kami.
The capital at Nara was modeled after Chang'an, the capital city of Tang China.[2] In many other ways, the Japanese upper classes patterned themselves after the Chinese, including adopting Chinese written characters (Japanese: kanji), fashion, and the religion of Buddhism. Nara period literature[edit] Seated Yakushi Nyorai (Bhaisajyaguru) Events[edit] Heian period. The Heian period (平安時代, Heian jidai?) Is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185 A.D.[1] The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height. The Heian period is also considered the peak of the Japanese imperial court and noted for its art, especially poetry and literature. Although the Imperial House of Japan had power on the surface, the real power was in the hands of the Fujiwara clan, a powerful aristocratic family who had intermarried with the imperial family.
History[edit] The Heian period was preceded by the Nara period and began in 794 after the movement of the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (present day Kyōto), by the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu.[3] It is considered a high point in Japanese culture that later generations have always admired. Fujiwara regency[edit] As culture flourished, so did decentralization. Kamakura period. The Kamakura period (鎌倉時代, Kamakura jidai? , 1185–1333) is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 AD in Kamakura, by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo. The period is known for the emergence of the samurai, the warrior caste, and for the establishment of feudalism in Japan. The Kamakura period ended in 1333 AD, with the destruction of the shogunate and the short reestablishment of imperial rule, under Emperor Go-Daigo by Ashikaga Takauji, Nitta Yoshisada, and Kusunoki Masashige. Shogunate and Hōjō Regency[edit] The Kamakura period marks the transition to land-based economies and a concentration of advanced military technologies in the hands of a specialized fighting class.
Once Minamoto Yoritomo had consolidated his power, he established a new government at his family home in Kamakura. Despite a strong beginning, Yoritomo failed to consolidate the leadership of his family on a lasting basis. Mongol invasions[edit] Kenmu restoration. The Kenmu (or Kemmu) Restoration (建武の新政, Kenmu no shinsei?) (1333–1336) is the name given to both the three-year period of Japanese history between the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period, and the political events that took place in it.[1] The restoration was an effort made by Emperor Go-Daigo to bring the Imperial House and the nobility it represented back into power, thus restoring a civilian government after almost a century and a half of military rule.[2] The attempted restoration ultimately failed and was replaced by the Ashikaga shogunate (1336–1575).[2] This was to be the last time the Emperor had any power until the Meiji restoration of 1867.[2] The many and serious political errors made by the Imperial House during this three-year period were to have important repercussions in the following decades and end with the rise to power of the Ashikaga dynasty.[2] Background[edit] Objectives of the restoration[edit] Emperor Go-Daigo Failure of Go-Daigo's policies[edit] Civil war[edit]
Muromachi period. The Muromachi period (室町時代, Muromachi jidai? , also known as the Muromachi era, the Ashikaga era, or the Ashikaga period) is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1337 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (Muromachi bakufu or Ashikaga bakufu), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi shogun, Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kemmu restoration (1333–1336) of imperial rule was brought to a close.
The period ended in 1573 when the 15th and last shogun of this line, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, was driven out of the capital in Kyoto by Oda Nobunaga. From a cultural perspective, the period can be divided into the Kitayama and Higashiyama periods (later 15th - early 16th). The early years from 1336 to 1392 of the Muromachi period are known as the Nanboku-chō or Northern and Southern Court period. Ashikaga bakufu[edit] Hana-no-gosho palace Muromachi samurai (1538) Economic and cultural developments[edit] Azuchi–Momoyama period. The Azuchi-Momoyama period (安土桃山時代, Azuchi-Momoyama jidai?) Or the Shokuho period (織豊時代, Shokoho jidai?)
At the end of the Warring States Period (also known as Sengoku period (戦国時代, Sengoku jidai?)) In Japan, when the political unification that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate took place. It spans the years from approximately 1573 to 1603, during which time Oda Nobunaga and his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, imposed order upon the chaos that had pervaded since the collapse of the Ashikaga Shogunate. Although a start date of 1573 is often given, in broader terms, this period begins with Nobunaga's entry into Kyoto in 1568, when he led his army to the imperial capital in order to install Ashikaga Yoshiaki as the 15th, and ultimately final, shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate, and lasts until the coming to power of Tokugawa Ieyasu after his victory over supporters of the Toyotomi clan at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.[1] Rise and fall of Oda Nobunaga[edit] Japanese Paleolithic.
Japan at the Last Glacial Maximum in the Late Pleistocene about 20,000 years ago black outline indicates present-day Japan The Japanese Paleolithic period (旧石器時代, kyūsekki jidai?) Began around 50,000[1] to 30,000 BC, when the earliest stone tool implements have been found, and continued to around 14,000 BC,[2] at the end of the last ice age, which corresponds to the beginning of the Mesolithic Jōmon period.
The 35,000 BC date is most generally accepted:[3] any date of human presence before 30,000–35,000 BC is controversial, with artifacts supporting a pre–35,000 BC human presence on the archipelago still being of questionable authenticity.[3] The earliest human bones were discovered in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka. Radiocarbon dating has shown that the fossils date back to around 14,000 - 18,000 years ago. Ground stone and polished tools[edit] Polished stone tools or axes.
Paleoanthropology[edit] Archaeology of the Paleolithic period[edit] See also[edit] References[edit] Further references[edit] Jōmon period. Characters for Jōmon (meaning "cord marks" or "cord-patterned") The Jōmon period (縄文時代, Jōmon jidai?) Is the time in Prehistoric Japan from about 12,000 BC[1] and in some cases cited as early as 14,500 BC[2] to about 300 BC, when Japan was inhabited by a hunter-gatherer culture which reached a considerable degree of sedentism and cultural complexity. The name "cord-marked" was first applied by the American scholar Edward S. Morse who discovered sherds of pottery in 1877 and subsequently translated it into Japanese as jōmon.[3] The pottery style characteristic of the first phases of Jōmon culture was decorated by impressing cords into the surface of wet clay. Chronology[edit] The very long—approximately 14,000 years—Jōmon period is conventionally divided into a number of phases: Incipient, Initial, Early, Middle, Late and Final, with the phases getting progressively shorter.
Incipient and Initial Jōmon (14,000–4,000 BC)[edit] Earliest pottery[edit] Population expansion[edit] Tohoku District.