Download Lecture 9—Japanese History to 1467 AD

Lecture 9—Japanese History to 1467 AD
Japanese Origins and the Yayoi Revolution:
Pre-Historic Japan: The earliest indication of humans dates from 30,000 BC,
Pottery from 10,000 (the oldest in the world), and Jomon style (cord-pattern
pottery) from 8,000 BC. This was a semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer society with
limited horticulture.
Yayoi Culture: 300 BC. The Yayoi culture (which had a distinct hard, pale
orange pottery) receives agriculture, bronze working, and iron working all
simultaneously from Korea. By the first century AD, states emerged fighting for
the best land. By the third century, a hegemony over these states emerged.
Tomb Culture, the Yamato State, and Korea: 300-600 AD, a tomb culture
which copied Korean models developed in Japan. Japan emerges in Chinese
chronicles of the time as a set of regional aristocracies pledging fealty to a 'great
king' who dwelled on the Yamato plain (where modern Osaka lies). The Great
Kings awarded Korean style titles to the major aristocrats. This state was based
on Western Honshu and Northern Kyuushu.
The Uji: The main unit of aristocratic society was the extended family, the Uji.
Groups of specialist workers and peasants known as he were attached to each Uji.
There were free peasants as well.
The Court: The court was the site of ongoing aristocratic power struggles and
campaigns to control the out-lying border regions. Japan allied itself to Pakeche,
one of three competing countries in the Korean peninsula. Chinese culture,
weapons, and artisans all flowed into Japan from Korea. Chinese writing was
adopted. Confucianism arrived in 513 AD and Buddhism in 538.
Religion: Indigenous Japanese religion was an animistic worship of the forces of
nature, given the name Shinto, the Way of the Gods, after the arrival of
Buddhism. Natural features were venerated as fonts of natural power and beauty.
The more powerful forces of nature became personified as deities; aristocratic
clans tied themselves to these deities. When Japan was unified, the Yamato clan
goddess became the ruler of the gods in Shinto mythology. And the Imperial line
was seen as descended of Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun.
The introductions of writing in the 5th century and Buddhism in the 6th century
from the Korean Peninsula had a profound impact on the development of a
unified system of Shinto beliefs. In the early Nara period the Kojiki (680 AD) and
the Nihon Shoki (720 AD)were written by compiling existing myths and legends
into a unified account of Japanese mythology. These accounts were written with
two purposes in mind: the introduction of Taoist, Confucian, and Buddhist themes
into Japanese religion; and garnering support for the legitimacy of the Imperial
house, based on its lineage from the sun goddess, Amaterasu.
Nara (710 to 794 AD) and Heian Japan (795-1185 AD)
Adoption of Chinese Culture: Between the 7th to 12th centuries, the Japanese
studied and assimilated Chinese culture, causing a major transformation of
Japanese society. In this period, the Japanese switched from the national name
'Wa' to 'Nihon'.
Court Government: Between 607 to 680, the Japanese sent students to study in
China. In 645, a coup led to the Taika Reforms, a series of changes to Japanese
government consolidated by Emperor Temmu in the 680s. Temmu instituted a
Chinese law code and styled himself Heavenly Emperor, Tenno. He structured
his government after the model of the Tang. He also carried out a survey of
agricultural lands and a census to increase revenues. The first permanent capital
was laid out at Nara in 710 on a checkerboard grid like the Chinese capital of
Chang'an. In 794, it was moved to Heian (later called Kyoto) to escape Buddhist
intrigues. It remained there until its relocation to Tokyo in 1869.
Culture Clash: While aristocrats and Emperors lived the high life in silks and
palaces, drinking wine and eating delicacies, the average peasant lived in a pit
dwelling and either used slash and burn agriculture or built crude rice paddies.
Small Government: Since Japan had only 4-5 million people, the bureaucracy
numbered only about 6,000 to govern them; it was controlled by competing
aristocratic clans under an Emperor who had little effective power, especially
after the mid-ninth century. The Fujiwara clan held power from 856 to the second
half of the 11th century.
Provinces: There were 60 provinces subdivided into districts and villages, with
court-appointed governors.
Land and Taxes: This followed the equal field system; the Emperor owned all
land and allotted it out to his subjects. Every six years, it was redistributed among
all able-bodied individuals, who paid personal taxes. Over time, the
recordkeeping failed and they began using a quota system for taxes for each
province. Governors set quotas for each district; district magistrates collected as
much as they could, paid the quota and pocketed the difference; this created a new
aristocracy. Nobles and temples used money and influence to get exempted from
the system. From the ninth century, small farmers began commending their lands
to the nobles to evade taxes; the nobles appointed stewards to oversee their lands.
Rise of the Samurai: In 792, the government abandoned fforts at conscript
armies and began giving tax emptions to groups of mounted warriors in return for
military service. They were the samurai (derived from samurau, 'to serve').
Being a samurai was expensive—armor and horses and weapons didn't come
cheap. The bow was the primary weapon. Samurai originally functioned as
police, but sometimes caused disorder.
Regional military coalitions: Regional coalitions of samurai began to form; in
935-40, one such led by a relative of the emperor appeared, leading a tax revolt
and seizing six provinces. The Kyoto court adopted another group which crushed
it, but now it became increasingly hard to keep the Samurai in check, subject to
civilian authority. In 1156 AD, Taira Kiyomori led one coalition to seize the
capital and the Emperor, taking over. The age of civilian control of the state was
effectively over.
Aristocratic Culture and Buddhism:
Massive Cultural Gap: Aristocratic culture was totally alienated from the
masses; Aristocrats made up less than one tenth of 1% of the population, the rest
of which had a culture of blended folkways, Shinto, and agriculture. The
aristocrats lived a life of art and music which few peasants even knew existed.
Heian high culture was sustained by taxes and aristocratic wealth, a sort of greenhouse culture.
Chinese Tradition in Japan: Education in the Nara and Heian periods largely
consisted of reading Chinese books and learning to write poetry and prose in
Chinese. From the Nara period to the 19th century, most serious literature was
written in Chinese. Chinese history provided stock figures for Japanese fiction
and a mirror for Japan to look at and understand itself.
Birth of Japanese Literature: The Japanese soon began producing poetry in
Japanese, but this posed problems of converting Japanese sounds into the Chinese
script. In the ninth century, the system known as Kana emerged, a phonetic
script. Women now came for a time to dominate Japanese literature. Sei
Shonagon (daughter of a provincial official) wrote The Pillow Book of Sei
Shonagon, a collection of sharp satirical essays and literary commentary that
illustrated the aristocratic taste and mores in the early 11th century Heian court.
The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu, around 1010 AD, is the world's
first novel. It tells the life story of Prince Genji, son of a royal concubine and his
son Kaoru as they idle their way through life. If you ever wanted to know the
correct kind of paper to use to write a love poem to a woman from Kyuushu, this
is the book for you. It presents aristocratic life in sometimes excruciating detail.
Nara and Heian Buddhism: The Six Scects of the Nara period were part of the
tradition of Mahayana Buddhism. As in China, temples were tied to the state and
supported by tax revenues. What appealed to the early Japanese in Buddhism was
the colorful and fantastic aspects: gods, devils, heavens and hells, and the beauty
of Buddhist art. Buddhism was soon assimilated into Japanese life and retained
its vitality longer than in China.
The Tendai Sect: Championed by a monk named Saichō (767-822 AD), who
studied in China in 804 AD, then returned in 805 to spread the sect.
Philosophically, the Tendai school did not deviate substantially from the beliefs
that had been created by the Tiantai school in China. However, what Saichō
transmitted from China was not exclusively Tiantai, but also included Zen,
esoteric Mikkyō, and Vinaya School elements. He taught salvation could be
attained by all willing to lead a life of contemplation and moral purity.
Tendai is rooted in the idea, fundamental to Mahayana Buddhism, that Buddhahood, the capability to attain enlightenment, is intrinsic in all things. Also central
to Mahayana is the notion that the phenomenal world, the world of our
experiences, fundamentally is an expression of the Buddhist law (Dharma). This
notion poses the problem of how we come to have many differentiated
experiences. Tendai Buddhism claims that each and every sense phenomenon just
as it is is the expression of Dharma.
Tendai doctrine allowed Japanese Buddhists to reconcile Buddhist teachings with
the native religion of Japan, Shinto, and with traditional Japanese aesthetics. In
the case of Shinto, the difficulty is the reconciliation of the heavenly pantheon of
Japanese gods, as well as with the myriad spirits associated with places, shrines or
objects, with the Buddhist doctrine that one should not concern oneself with any
religious practice save the pursuit of enlightenment. However, priests of the
Tendai sect argued that Kami are simply representations of the truth of universal
buddha-hood that descend into the world to help and teach mankind. Thus, they
are actually equivalent with Buddhas.
By claiming that the phenomenal world is not distinct from Dharma, Tendai
doctrine allows for the reconciliation of beauty and aesthetics with Buddhist
teachings. Poetry, which once was a sin to be cast away, now in fact can lead to
enlightenment. Contemplation of poetry, provided that it is done in the context of
Tendai doctrine, is simply contemplation of Dharma. This same thing can be said
of every other form of art.
It became a very popular faith, spawning many others. Eventually, Tendai
became a military force with armies of warrior monks, until eventually suppressed
by Oda Nobunaga as part of his campaign to unify Japan, though that only
destroyed its military power.
The Shingon Sect was begun by Kūkai (774-835 AD), who went to China with
Saicho. He returned 2 years later with the Shingon doctrines and founded a
monastery on Mount Koya. He was a bridge builder, a poet, an artist, and a
master calligrapher, one of the greatest of his age. Some Japanese tradition
credits the kana to him. Shingon doctrine centers around a higher cosmic buddha
of whom all historical buddhas are just manifestations. According to Shingon,
enlightenment is not a distant, foreign reality that can take aeons to approach but a
real possibility within this very life, based on the spiritual potential of every living
being, known generally as Buddha-nature. If cultivated, this luminous nature
manifests as innate wisdom. With the help of a genuine teacher and through
properly training the body, speech, and mind, we can reclaim and liberate this
enlightened capacity for the benefit of ourselves and others. Shingon means 'True
word' or 'mantra', a verbal formula with mystical powers. Kūkai held, along with
the Huayan (Jp. Kegon) school that all phenomena could be expressed as 'letters'
in a 'world-text'. Mantra, mudra, and mandala are special because they constitute
the 'language' through which the Dharmakaya (i.e. Reality itself) communicates.
(Mandalas were forms of ritual art designed for use in meditation practices,
which represent symbolic truths.) It was an esoteric sect, which is to say its
doctrines were secret, passed from master to disciple, not public.
Assimilation of Buddhism: Over time, Buddhist ideas spread down to the
masses and elements of Shinto and Buddhism were combined. This lasted until
the mid-nineteenth centuries.
Japan's Early Feudal Age
Fall of Civilian Rule: From 1185 AD (1160 AD if Taira rule is included) until
the nineteenth century, military rule by warlords replaced civilian rule by
bureaucratic aristocrats. It was the time of the bakufu ('tent government') headed
by the Shogun (the supreme military leader).
The Kamakura Era (1185-1331 AD): Taira rule failed to deal with the roving
military bands outside the capital. In 1180 AD, Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199)
responded to a call to arms by a disaffected prince and seized control of eastern
Japan (the Kanto plain), then by 1185 AD, took Kyoto and suppressed the Taira.
He set up his HQ at Kamakura in the Kanto Plain and forced all other military
forces into vassalage. He appointed a small central government and military
governors and stewards over the rest of the country. Internal troubles soon
created a system in which warriors were most loyal to the bakufu which
guaranteed their revenue, not to the Shoguns themselves, who became the puppets
of the Hojo family.
The Mongols: In 1266, Kublai Khan demanded Japan's surrender. In 1274, a
Mongol invasion failed; in 1281, the Mongols launched an invasion of 140,000
men. After initial success, heavy storms, the so called 'Kamikaze', divine winds,
destroyed part of the Mongol fleet, forcing a withdrawal.
The Question of Feudalism: Historians still argue over whether the Shogunates
were feudal in the European sense. If Feudalism = lord-vassal relationships, land
given for military service, and a warrior ethic, then it can be seen as such. But in
Kamakura times, civilian power continued to exist at the imperial court, and the
bakufu was very small compared to the population (2-3,000 people. Imagine 100
Samurai trying to rule Massachusetts). The civil government still raised taxes and
granted honors. Civilian local government continued to function.
Ashikaga Era (1336- 1467 AD): By 1331 AD, the Kamakura shogunate was
torn by tensions between ambitious Samurai and the Hojo leadership and by the
poverty of many samurai. In 1331, Emperor Go-Daigo attempted the Kemmu
restoration, an attempt to restore Imperial authority. A short period of civil war
ensued, ending with the creation of the Ashikaga shogunate by Ashikaga Takauji.
He set up his bakufu in the central Kyoto region, with semi-independent vassals
set up to govern the rest of the country—the daimyos. The relative power of
bakufu and daimyo fluctuated locally and over time as a whole.
The Onin War: The Ōnin War (1467–1477 AD), a conflict rooted in economic
distress and brought on by a dispute over shogunal succession, brought about the
collapse of the Ashikaga Shogunate and initiated the Sengoku, or Warring States
period, a time of anarchy and conflict.
Women in Warrior Society: At times, strong women were able to seize
substantial power in Shogunate society; Japanese mythology itself gave the rule
of the universe to a woman. Over time, though, opportunities for warrior women
declined as it became customary to pass all of one's inheritance to the eldest male
son, so as to keep it intact.
Agriculture, Commerce, and Guilds: In 1200 AD, Japan had 6 million people.
In 1600 AD, it had 12 million. Advances in farming made this possible—clearing
of wilderness, improved strains of rice and vegetables, winter farming of
vegetables, better tools, etc. In the Heian and Nara period, the economy was
largely agricultural with taxes paid in crops. Under the Shogunates, more goods
were commercialized and traded over long distances. Merchants emerged and
marketplaces arose in towns; some BECAME towns.
Buddhism and Medieval Culture
Classical vs Medieval: The Nara and Heian Period is the 'classical' age of Japan;
the Shogunates are referred to as its 'medieval' period. As always, applying
European history derived ideas to other areas is never a perfect fit. Unlike
Europe, for example, there was no massive disruption between the 'classical' and
'medieval' eras. Rather, Japanese culture has a great deal of continuity. The new
era of warriors did produce new forms of literature: tales of military aadventure
and heroism. Sung China brought new influences and Buddhism peaked.
Japanese Pietism: Pure Land Buddhism: Pure Land Buddhism developed out
of the Tendai sect, teaching that evil times were upon the world and that only faith
would suffice to save. It began to spread in the 10th-11th century AD. Honen
(1133-1212 AD) was the first to say that faith alone, through calling on the name
of the Amida Buddha, could save a person's soul. This claim marked the
emergence of Pure Land as a seperate sect. Shinran (1173-1262) taught that a
single invocation of the Buddha, offered with perfect faith, was enough to save.
But pure faith was a gift from the Amida Buddha. Pride was an obstacle to
salvation; thus a wicked man aware of his sins might be more easily saved than a
'good' man who could not admit his own need for salvation. Shinran's emphasis
on faith alone led him to abandon many monastic Buddhist rules: he ate meat and
got married. All occupations were equally heavenly if performed with a pure
heart. He organized a formal system of congregations to guide and protect
believers. In the 15th century, some groups raised their own armies, only to be
crushed in the 16th century. It is the dominant form of Japanese Buddhism today.
Japanese Pietism: Pure Land and Nichiren Buddhism: Nichiren (1222-82)
believed the Lotus Sutra perfectly embodied the teachings of the Buddha. (The
Lotus Sutra (short form) or Sutra on the White Lotus of the Sublime Dharma
(long form) was written in Kashmir in the first century AD during the fourth
Buddhist Council of the Mahayana sects. It is written in the form of a discourse
by Siddhārtha Gautama, the Buddha himself, and rejected by many Buddhist
sects, including the Therevada Buddhists. It conveys the central idea that the
Buddhas known in this word are manifestations of an eternal Buddha who is
reborn periodically to help others to enlightenment.) Nichiren taught that all
people have an innate Buddha nature and are therefore inherently capable of
attaining enlightenment in their current form and present lifetime. It is also noted
for positioning itself in opposition to other forms of Japanese Buddhism—in
particular the Zen, Pure Land, esoteric Shingon, and Ritsu schools, which
Nichiren saw as deviating from the orthodoxy of Mahayana Buddhism. Nichiren
himself departed standard Buddhist practice by an emphasis on the achievement
of ecstatic states through the recitation of the phrase "Praise to the Lotus Sutra of
the Wonderful Law" to rapid drumbeats. Most Nichiren schools also recite the
Lotus Sutra (in Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese text) to varying degrees in
their respective versions of the often daily or twice-daily gongyō service.
(Gongyō is a Japanese word that means "assiduous practice" and refers to a
formalized service performed by followers of nearly every Chinese, Korean, and
Japanese Buddhist denomiation. It is often done once or more times a day and
consists of the recitation of a sutra passage or passages, a mantra or matras, or a
combination of both. Gongyo can be done at a temple or at home, almost always
in front of an object or objects of veneration and accompanied by offerings of
light, incense, and food.) He was very intolerant and nationalistic; he passed this
on to his followers, who quickly divided into rival schools which wasted their
strength as much on fighting each other as anyone else.
The Wisdom Of Silence: Zen Buddhism: Zen was brought to Japan from Sung
Dynasty China. Zen was a religion of paradox—its monks were learned but
taught a return to the uncultured 'original mind'—a state attained ina flash of
intuitive understanding. It put an emphasis on religious experience, not on words
and thought structures. Its monks followed rigid obedience and schedules but
also tested each other's minds with koans, parables to force intuition. Many
samurai practiced Zen to learn focus and dedication despite Buddhist emphasis on
compassion. It most strongly influenced Japanese art, especially gardening.
No Plays: In this period, the No play, a form of musical theatre, emerges. It was
performed by actors on a nearly square wooden stage by male actors wearing
beautiful robes and carved, painted masks of enigmatic expression. The words of
the chorus were chanted to music and action was stylized. By tradition, Noh
actors and musicians never rehearse for performances together. Instead, each
actor, musician, and choral chanter practices his or her fundamental movements,
songs, and dances independently or under the tutelage of a senior member of the
school. Thus, the tempo of a given performance is not set by any single performer
but established by the interactions of all the performers together. Further,
performers are not restricted to a single character, but may at times turn into
narrarators or even speak for another character. The main prop is the fan, which
may represent almost anything. Stage hands swathe themselves in black and
wander in and out as needed, treated as invisible by those on stage and the
audience.