My favorite time in history is feudal Japan. Now for those who don’t know what this time line was about I will elaborate, but before I explain why I love this time period. First I read a lot of history books and most are on this time period. So I will give you a quick over view of the time. Warning this might be very boring and seem like a history lesson to some people.
The feudal period of Japanese history ruled by powerful military warlords called the shogun and this time period ran from the 12th to the 19th century. This time is usually divided into periods following the reigning family of the shogun.
The Kamakura period, 1185 to 1333, is the first period that marks the governance of the Kamakura shogunate and the transition to the Japanese medieval era, a nearly 700-year period in which the emperor, and central government were left intact but were mainly for ceremonial functions. All military, matters were controlled by the bushi or as most people know them samurai. And the person who controlled the samurai was the shogunate they belonged to. The Kamakura period ended in 1333 with the destruction of the shogunate and the short reestablishment of imperial rule.
In 1467 the period known as the Sengoku period, or the Warring States period reestablished the shogun rule, and was a time of intense warfare, and marks the first contacts with the West, with the arrival of Portuguese In 1543. Firearms were introduced by Portuguese and would bring the major innovation to combat ranks of samurai. And change the warfare in Japan forever
The Azuchi-Momoyama period runs from 1568 to 1600. It marked the reunification of the country under a single ruler,
During the Edo period, also called the pre-modern era, the ruling of the country was shared by over two hundred rulers. The Tokugawa clan, was the most powerful, with their headquarters at Edo. (Present-day Tokyo).
The shogunate made a number of laws, like they placed the samurai class above the commoners like the farmers and merchants. They made laws limiting hair style, clothing, and to enforce these laws they would hold five responsible for the acts of each individual. To prevent rebelling,
During the 17th century, the shogunate thought that the traders and missionaries were actually forerunners of a military conquest by Europeans. This led to a revolt by persecuted peasants and Christians in 1637 where 30,000 Christians and peasants faced a massive samurai army of more than 100,000. The rebellion was crushed at a high cost to the shogun's army.
Then Meiji Restoration Renewed contact with the West The shogun resigned and soon after the Boshin War, the emperor was restored to power. The Meiji Restoration made many changes like the feudal system was abolished, the military was modernized, and many Western ideas helped rebuild the county into a unified and modern country.
Sorry for it being so long and boring but you need to know this stuff for next weeks where I tell you why I love this time period. Once again sorry for the history lesson but I got into this and could not stop. I even left things out to cut down on length if you ever get bored look this up and give it a good read.
wow you really know your stuff on Japan! The country is obviously full of history, seems like it was constantly changing and I'm sure still is today. I really like how you use pictures in your blog too, puts everything into perspective for me. So how did you become so interested in Japan?
ReplyDeleteYeah, you could be a historian of Japan as one of your majors. It was interesting to see how their military operated and how they confused traders as enemies. I think it is funny for them to use guns because I always think of the sterotype of the the Japanese to use swords back the fedual era.
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