A Teachers' & Textbook Writers'(Brief Outline of Japanese History)

Brief Outline of Japanese History

Period Century Century

Pre-earthen-ware Period B.C.15000-5000 Nomadic hunting, fishing and gathering

Jomon Pottery Period B.C. 5000-200

Yayoi Pottery Period B.C. 200- 200 A.D. Change to rice cultivation, and formation of settlements. Development of small independent kingdoms. By end of period, some tendency towards unification.

Burial Mound Period Latter 3rd C.- late 6th C. Yamato kingdom establishes dominance over western half of Japanese archipelago, and also southern Korea. Later, control over southern Korea weakens, and disputes in Imperial family over succession to throne threaten Yamato power. Buddhism and Confucianism are introduced.

Asuka Period Late 6th C.- Early 8th C. Yamato power restored by Prince Shotoku. First attempts at establishing a constitution and a system of official ranks. Shotoku promotes Buddhism. Numerous Buddhist temples built. Soga family becomes increasingly powerful, but is later overthrown by Fujiwara-no-Kamatari under Prince Naka-no-Oe. The Taika Refoms follow the ideals set forth by Prince Shotoku. Japanese administration of Korea ends. Spirit of the Taika Reforms embodied in a code known as the Ritsuryo under Emperor Temmu, later improved further under his gradson, Mommu.

Nara Period Early Heian 8th C.- Late 8th C. Nara becomes capital. Ritsuryo fully implemented. Imperial authority high. T'ang Chinese culture absorbed. Buddhism flourishes. Two national histories, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, compiled, as well as the Man'yoshu, an anthology of Japanese poems. A high level of culture is achieved from the blending of Chinese and Japanese elements. Silver and copper coins minted. Numerous temples are built.

Heian Period Early Heian Late 8th C.- Late 9th C. Seat of government transferred to the new capital of Heian-kyo (Kyoto). Founding of new Japanised Buddhist sects (i.e. Tendai and Shingon - mainly preoccupied with obtaining worldly advantage). Ritsuryo system modified. Chinese verse-and-prose-writing flourishes at court. Rise of the Fujiwara family to power behind the throne.

Middle Heian Late 9th C.- Late 11th C. With increasing Fujiwara power, government by regents become the rule. Court comes to occupy a merely ceremonial role, losing control over country. Public welfare increasingly disregarded. In provinces, governors become corrupt and lazy. Owners of manorial districts (shoen) form bands of warriors for self-defence, creating the beginnings of the samurai. (armed retainer) system. Steady development of Japanese poetry, especially the waka (31-syllable verse). Kokinshu and other waka anthologies compiled. Other written works include world's first 'novel' the Genji Monogatari, by a court lady, and the Ise Monogatari, the Tosa Nikki, and the Makura-no-Soshi.

Late Heian Late 11th C.- Late 12th C. Beginning of a century of government by cloistered emperors. Government degenerates to an unrealistic despotism peoccupied with the proliferation of temples and Buddhist images, while public welfare is ignored. Court aristocracy ineffective and useless. Jodo ('Pure Land') Buddhist sect develops. Local clans become increasingly powerful on basis of samurai system. Among them the Minamoto (Genji) and Taira (Heike or Heishi) families lead. Monasteries also maintain military forces. Imperial struggles for power and other factors finally bring ascendancy to the Taira family, but after a quarter of a century's power, Taira are in turn defeated by Minamoto.

Kamakura Period Late 12th- Early decades of 14th C. Minamoto-no-Yoritomo appointed Seii-Taishogun ('barbarian-quelling generalissimo'). Founding of the first bakufu or shogunate at Kamakura. Agricultural progress through use of draught animals. Semiannual crops. Shugo and jito appointed. Jodoshin Buddhist sect develops. Zen sect brought from China. After Yoritomo's death, Hojo family become regents within the shogunate. Minamoto line soon dies out, but Hojos continue as regents, controlling both emperors and shoguns. Nichiren (or Hokke) Buddhist sect develops. Heike Monogatari produced. Samurai retainers become more and more powerful element in the manorial areas. At end of this period, Emperor Godaigo briefly restores imperial rule, but fails to achieve proper control and is overthrown by his former supporter,the warrior Ashikaga Takauji, who sets another emperor, Komyo, on the throne. Godaigo flees, and establishes a court at Yoshino in rivalry to Komyo's court in Kyoto. Subsequently two courts - the Northern and Southern - cintinue for 57 years.

uromachi Period Early 14th C.-Late 15th C. Ashikaga (or Muromachi) shogunate begins with granting of title Seii-Taishogun to Ashikaga Takauji by the Northern court. Headquarters established at Muromachi in Kyoto. With the later reunification of the Northern and Southern courts in 1392, this shogunate is fully recognized. Samurai, however, continue to erode power of aristocracy in the shoen or provincial manors. Shogunate appoints shugo, as had the Kamakura shogunate, but not being Ashikaga retainers, they act in their own interests, developing into shugo-daimyo - leaders of local samurai in their own right. Shogunate authority progressively weakens under effete court influence. The arts, however, flourish flower arrangement, tea ceremony, etc. develop. Full maturity reached in Noh plays, Kyogen, etc. Rise of ink monochrome painting, and of contrasting, florid, Kano school of painting. The end of this period sees the Onin War. Subsequently the shogunate virtually loses all control, leading to the Age of Civil Wars. Despite all this, the period has seen development in fishing, mining, trade, etc. Towns grow up around castles, temples and shrines, harbours, etc.

Azuchi-Momo-yama Period Late 15th C.- End of 16th C. The Age of Civil Wars. Authority shifts progressively from above to below - Shogun Hosokawa family (the shogun's subordinates), Miyoshi family (Hosokawa subordinates), Matsunaga family (Miyoshi subordinates). Local shugo-daimyo increasingly powerful, replacing the aristocracy originally controlling the shoen. Entrenching themselves in their own districts, each seeks to extend his own power. This eventually produces a trend towards national reunification, under the most powerful such leader. At this period, Europeans first arrive in Japan, bringing firearms, Christianity. Overseas trade begins. Eventually, Oda Nobunaga banishes last Ashikaga shogun and succeeds in unifying a significant area of the country. After his death by treachery, his work is completed by a loyal retainer, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Christianity and foreign trade flourish under Nobunaga, and at first under Hideyoshi, but the latter eventually becomes suspicious of European terriorial ambitions, and orders expulsion of missionaries. Trade cotinues. Hideyoshi send army to invade Korea. Expedition fails. Kano-school painting and the tea ceremony reach their zeniths. After Hideyoshi's death, power is seized by Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Edo Period Early Edo Early 17th C.- Early 18th C. Tokugawa Ieyasu appointed shougun by the emperor (neither Nobunaga nor Hideyoshi had tried to become shogun, maintaing power only through offcial positions at court). All daimyo hostile to Tokugawa family are moved to fiefs in outlying areas and forced to spend most of their wealth on road-building and other projects, and also to pass alternate years in different places - one in Edo and one in own fiefs, leaving families permanently as hostages in Edo. Fiefs held only as retainers of shogun, but authority within fiefs great. Legal code for noble families established, to facilitate shogunate control of court and emperor. Four-class system (1. warriors, 2. farmers, 3. artisans, 4. merchants) laid down, with marriage restricted to members of same class. Within each class, feudal master-servant relationships established. Tokugawa shogunate becomes firmly established on this system, known as 'bakuhan (shogunate-fief)'. Trade and Christianity both flourish again for a while, but Ieyasu, like Hideyoshi, eventually sees the threat to the future within Christianity, and begins repressive measures. Increasing gradually, by time of third Tokugawa shogun prohibitions against Christianity and trade become virtually complete. Japanese Christian believers executed. All traders except Dutch and Chinese forbidden to visit Japan, and Dutch restricted to a small island in Nagasaki harbour. With shogunate's power secured, and administration centralised, industry and crafts develop greatly, and communications improve, producing a flourishing domestic trade and commerce. Towns increase and flourish, especially castle towns. The merchant class becomes rich, and from its midst appear new art forms, including haiku poetry (Matsuo Basho), genre novels (thara Saikaku), puppet dramas (Chikamats Monzaemon), ukiyoe woodcut prints, etc. Kabuki play first produced in Kyoto early in this period, and later restricted to male performers, are begun in Edo and Osaka in the latter seventeenth century.

Middle Edo Early 18th C.- Early 19th C. Bakuhan system is progressively weakened by concentration of wealth in hands of merchant class; shogunate experiences financial difficulties, and samurai and farmers sink into poverty. Intermittent efforts at reform by shogunate, but laissez faire and decadence gradually prevail. Famines and natural disasters, compounded by heavy taxes (in rice) imposed by shogunate and daimyos, reduce farmers, etc. to misery. Peasant risings. In cultural field, a last flowering of Edo culture is seen. Novelettes about the gay quarters, historical romances, Kabuki acting, various painting and woodblock print developments including the nishiki-e or polychrome print. Education spreads among merchans and even farmers, means of terakoya. Rise of kokugaku (natoinal learing) and education trend a way from Chinese influenc e back to national traditions. Also gradual rise of rangaku ('Dutch learning'), the study of various translated,scientific words from west through Dut merchants-geography, medicine, astronomy, physics, chemistry, etc.

Late Edo Early 19th C.- Latter 19th C. During earlier Edo period, various foreigners had landed in Japan, but following Commodore Perry's arrival in 1853, demanding the opening of the country to trade in the name of the U.S. president, forces within and without Japan gradually push the country to abandon its policy of isolation. The shogunate decides for trade with other nations, and though a struggle for power between sho-gunate and imperial forces is won by the imperialists, apparently opposed to this policy- after the fall of the shogunate the imperialists themselves support the policy of overseas trade and general modernisation.

Meiji Period Early Meiji Latter 19th C. Feudal fiefs abolished and replaced by a prefectural system. Feudal social ranks abolished. National army and conscription system, new tax system, decimal coinage, railways, and mailing, telephone and telegraph systems established. Modern industry initiated by government-built and government-managed factories, later transferred to private ownership. Considerable opposition to reforms, but this is quelled. Trade relations established with Korea and China, and vigorous efforts made to secure revision of the unequa treaties concluded with western nations. Buddhism and Shintoism, long merged, are officially separated, Shintoism being made the ideological basis for imperial rule. Ban on Christianity repealed. New schools, on western lines, established for all, without distinction of rank, wealth or sex. Ideas of freedom, socialism, equality, etc. also come in from west, and flourish temporarily. Dress and many items of daily life influenced by west. Call for constitutional government leads to establishment of National Diet and promulgation of a constitution. Diet, however, has little real power.

Period Century	Century
Pre-earthen-ware Period	B.C.15000-5000	Nomadic hunting, fishing and gathering
Jomon Pottery Period	B.C. 5000-200
Yayoi Pottery Period	B.C. 200- 200 A.D.	Change to rice cultivation, and formation of settlements. Development of small independent kingdoms. By end of period, some tendency towards unification.
Burial Mound Period	Latter 3rd C.- late 6th C.	Yamato kingdom establishes dominance over western half of Japanese archipelago, and also southern Korea. Later, control over southern Korea weakens, and disputes in Imperial family over succession to throne threaten Yamato power. Buddhism and Confucianism are introduced.
Asuka Period	Late 6th C.- Early 8th C.	Yamato power restored by Prince Shotoku. First attempts at establishing a constitution and a system of official ranks. Shotoku promotes Buddhism. Numerous Buddhist temples built. Soga family becomes increasingly powerful, but is later overthrown by Fujiwara-no-Kamatari under Prince Naka-no-Oe. The Taika Refoms follow the ideals set forth by Prince Shotoku. Japanese administration of Korea ends. Spirit of the Taika Reforms embodied in a code known as the Ritsuryo under Emperor Temmu, later improved further under his gradson, Mommu.
Nara Period Early Heian	8th C.- Late 8th C.	Nara becomes capital. Ritsuryo fully implemented. Imperial authority high. T'ang Chinese culture absorbed. Buddhism flourishes. Two national histories, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, compiled, as well as the Man'yoshu, an anthology of Japanese poems. A high level of culture is achieved from the blending of Chinese and Japanese elements. Silver and copper coins minted. Numerous temples are built.
Heian Period Early Heian	Late 8th C.- Late 9th C.	Seat of government transferred to the new capital of Heian-kyo (Kyoto). Founding of new Japanised Buddhist sects (i.e. Tendai and Shingon - mainly preoccupied with obtaining worldly advantage). Ritsuryo system modified. Chinese verse-and-prose-writing flourishes at court. Rise of the Fujiwara family to power behind the throne.
Middle Heian	Late 9th C.- Late 11th C.	With increasing Fujiwara power, government by regents become the rule. Court comes to occupy a merely ceremonial role, losing control over country. Public welfare increasingly disregarded. In provinces, governors become corrupt and lazy. Owners of manorial districts (shoen) form bands of warriors for self-defence, creating the beginnings of the samurai. (armed retainer) system. Steady development of Japanese poetry, especially the waka (31-syllable verse). Kokinshu and other waka anthologies compiled. Other written works include world's first 'novel' the Genji Monogatari, by a court lady, and the Ise Monogatari, the Tosa Nikki, and the Makura-no-Soshi.
Late Heian	Late 11th C.- Late 12th C.	Beginning of a century of government by cloistered emperors. Government degenerates to an unrealistic despotism peoccupied with the proliferation of temples and Buddhist images, while public welfare is ignored. Court aristocracy ineffective and useless. Jodo ('Pure Land') Buddhist sect develops. Local clans become increasingly powerful on basis of samurai system. Among them the Minamoto (Genji) and Taira (Heike or Heishi) families lead. Monasteries also maintain military forces. Imperial struggles for power and other factors finally bring ascendancy to the Taira family, but after a quarter of a century's power, Taira are in turn defeated by Minamoto.
Kamakura Period	Late 12th- Early decades of 14th C.	Minamoto-no-Yoritomo appointed Seii-Taishogun ('barbarian-quelling generalissimo'). Founding of the first bakufu or shogunate at Kamakura. Agricultural progress through use of draught animals. Semiannual crops. Shugo and jito appointed. Jodoshin Buddhist sect develops. Zen sect brought from China. After Yoritomo's death, Hojo family become regents within the shogunate. Minamoto line soon dies out, but Hojos continue as regents, controlling both emperors and shoguns. Nichiren (or Hokke) Buddhist sect develops. Heike Monogatari produced. Samurai retainers become more and more powerful element in the manorial areas. At end of this period, Emperor Godaigo briefly restores imperial rule, but fails to achieve proper control and is overthrown by his former supporter,the warrior Ashikaga Takauji, who sets another emperor, Komyo, on the throne. Godaigo flees, and establishes a court at Yoshino in rivalry to Komyo's court in Kyoto. Subsequently two courts - the Northern and Southern - cintinue for 57 years.
uromachi Period	Early 14th C.-Late 15th C.	Ashikaga (or Muromachi) shogunate begins with granting of title Seii-Taishogun to Ashikaga Takauji by the Northern court. Headquarters established at Muromachi in Kyoto. With the later reunification of the Northern and Southern courts in 1392, this shogunate is fully recognized. Samurai, however, continue to erode power of aristocracy in the shoen or provincial manors. Shogunate appoints shugo, as had the Kamakura shogunate, but not being Ashikaga retainers, they act in their own interests, developing into shugo-daimyo - leaders of local samurai in their own right. Shogunate authority progressively weakens under effete court influence. The arts, however, flourish flower arrangement, tea ceremony, etc. develop. Full maturity reached in Noh plays, Kyogen, etc. Rise of ink monochrome painting, and of contrasting, florid, Kano school of painting. The end of this period sees the Onin War. Subsequently the shogunate virtually loses all control, leading to the Age of Civil Wars. Despite all this, the period has seen development in fishing, mining, trade, etc. Towns grow up around castles, temples and shrines, harbours, etc.
Azuchi-Momo-yama Period	Late 15th C.- End of 16th C.	The Age of Civil Wars. Authority shifts progressively from above to below - Shogun Hosokawa family (the shogun's subordinates), Miyoshi family (Hosokawa subordinates), Matsunaga family (Miyoshi subordinates). Local shugo-daimyo increasingly powerful, replacing the aristocracy originally controlling the shoen. Entrenching themselves in their own districts, each seeks to extend his own power. This eventually produces a trend towards national reunification, under the most powerful such leader. At this period, Europeans first arrive in Japan, bringing firearms, Christianity. Overseas trade begins. Eventually, Oda Nobunaga banishes last Ashikaga shogun and succeeds in unifying a significant area of the country. After his death by treachery, his work is completed by a loyal retainer, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Christianity and foreign trade flourish under Nobunaga, and at first under Hideyoshi, but the latter eventually becomes suspicious of European terriorial ambitions, and orders expulsion of missionaries. Trade cotinues. Hideyoshi send army to invade Korea. Expedition fails. Kano-school painting and the tea ceremony reach their zeniths. After Hideyoshi's death, power is seized by Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Edo Period Early Edo	Early 17th C.- Early 18th C.	Tokugawa Ieyasu appointed shougun by the emperor (neither Nobunaga nor Hideyoshi had tried to become shogun, maintaing power only through offcial positions at court). All daimyo hostile to Tokugawa family are moved to fiefs in outlying areas and forced to spend most of their wealth on road-building and other projects, and also to pass alternate years in different places - one in Edo and one in own fiefs, leaving families permanently as hostages in Edo. Fiefs held only as retainers of shogun, but authority within fiefs great. Legal code for noble families established, to facilitate shogunate control of court and emperor. Four-class system (1. warriors, 2. farmers, 3. artisans, 4. merchants) laid down, with marriage restricted to members of same class. Within each class, feudal master-servant relationships established. Tokugawa shogunate becomes firmly established on this system, known as 'bakuhan (shogunate-fief)'. Trade and Christianity both flourish again for a while, but Ieyasu, like Hideyoshi, eventually sees the threat to the future within Christianity, and begins repressive measures. Increasing gradually, by time of third Tokugawa shogun prohibitions against Christianity and trade become virtually complete. Japanese Christian believers executed. All traders except Dutch and Chinese forbidden to visit Japan, and Dutch restricted to a small island in Nagasaki harbour. With shogunate's power secured, and administration centralised, industry and crafts develop greatly, and communications improve, producing a flourishing domestic trade and commerce. Towns increase and flourish, especially castle towns. The merchant class becomes rich, and from its midst appear new art forms, including haiku poetry (Matsuo Basho), genre novels (thara Saikaku), puppet dramas (Chikamats Monzaemon), ukiyoe woodcut prints, etc. Kabuki play first produced in Kyoto early in this period, and later restricted to male performers, are begun in Edo and Osaka in the latter seventeenth century.
Middle Edo	Early 18th C.- Early 19th C.	Bakuhan system is progressively weakened by concentration of wealth in hands of merchant class; shogunate experiences financial difficulties, and samurai and farmers sink into poverty. Intermittent efforts at reform by shogunate, but laissez faire and decadence gradually prevail. Famines and natural disasters, compounded by heavy taxes (in rice) imposed by shogunate and daimyos, reduce farmers, etc. to misery. Peasant risings. In cultural field, a last flowering of Edo culture is seen. Novelettes about the gay quarters, historical romances, Kabuki acting, various painting and woodblock print developments including the nishiki-e or polychrome print. Education spreads among merchans and even farmers, means of terakoya. Rise of kokugaku (natoinal learing) and education trend a way from Chinese influenc e back to national traditions. Also gradual rise of rangaku ('Dutch learning'), the study of various translated,scientific words from west through Dut merchants-geography, medicine, astronomy, physics, chemistry, etc.
Late Edo	Early 19th C.- Latter 19th C.	During earlier Edo period, various foreigners had landed in Japan, but following Commodore Perry's arrival in 1853, demanding the opening of the country to trade in the name of the U.S. president, forces within and without Japan gradually push the country to abandon its policy of isolation. The shogunate decides for trade with other nations, and though a struggle for power between sho-gunate and imperial forces is won by the imperialists, apparently opposed to this policy- after the fall of the shogunate the imperialists themselves support the policy of overseas trade and general modernisation.
Meiji Period Early Meiji	Latter 19th C.	Feudal fiefs abolished and replaced by a prefectural system. Feudal social ranks abolished. National army and conscription system, new tax system, decimal coinage, railways, and mailing, telephone and telegraph systems established. Modern industry initiated by government-built and government-managed factories, later transferred to private ownership. Considerable opposition to reforms, but this is quelled. Trade relations established with Korea and China, and vigorous efforts made to secure revision of the unequa treaties concluded with western nations. Buddhism and Shintoism, long merged, are officially separated, Shintoism being made the ideological basis for imperial rule. Ban on Christianity repealed. New schools, on western lines, established for all, without distinction of rank, wealth or sex. Ideas of freedom, socialism, equality, etc. also come in from west, and flourish temporarily. Dress and many items of daily life influenced by west. Call for constitutional government leads to establishment of National Diet and promulgation of a constitution. Diet, however, has little real power.

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