new warrior class came to power, with the shogun ruling in the name of the emperor.
1192 Yoritomo became shogun. 1281 An invading Mongol force of 140,000 men destroyed in a furious storm called kamikaze, literally "divine winds."
Yayoi pottery often depicted people and animals.
The figurine called Venus of Jomon, at 10.6 inches tall, was larger than most and probably prized.
A great statesman of the Asuka period, Prince Shotoku (574-622) was active as a government administrator, political theorist, and promoter of Buddhism.
Jomon Period
ca. 8000-300 B.C.
Neolithic hunters and gatherers made rope-patterned pottery.
660 B.C. Traditional date of accession of first emperor, Jimmu.
Yayoi Period
ca. 300 B.C.-A.D. 300
Agriculturalists forged tools and made pottery on a wheel.
A.D. 57 First recorded Japanese mission to China.
Tumulus Period
ca. 300-552
Dominated by a martial dynasty; named for massive burial mounds.
Asuka Period
552-710
Extensive revision of laws and regulations, based on Buddhism and Confucianism,
552 Buddhism introduced into Japan.
Nara Period
710-794
Court moved to Heijokyo (now Nara), a new capital modeled on the Chinese capital at Changan.
712 Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters) compiled.
720 Nihon Shoki (Chronicle of Japan) compiled.
752 Great Buddha at Nara dedicated.
Heian Period
794-1185
Institution of the court reached its zenith during the period, which saw a flourishing of art and high culture.
794 Emperor Kammu established new capital in Heian-kyo (now Kyoto), ca. 1015 The Tale of Genji, the world's first novel, completed.
Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-1199) led the campaigns in which his Minamoto clan defeated its archenemy, the Taira. Yoritomo was the first to take the title of shogun, initiating seven centuries of feudal warrior-government rule.
Daily life at the Heian court at its zenith, shown here in Lady Murasaki's Diary Scroll, saw a preoccupation with the minutest details of cultural, aesthetic, and ceremonial matters. The period also witnessed the transition from the wholesale adoption of Chinese models to the development of a distinct and highly refined Japanese culture.
Nagasaki was first opened to the outside world in 1571, initially as a trading post with the Portuguese, later with the Chinese, English, and Dutch. The screen shows a Japanese painter's exaggerated portrait of foreigners wearing strange hats and baggy pants.
Kyoto's Aoi Matsuri, which originated in the 7th century, features ox-driven carriages, a means of transportation for the nobility of the Heian period.
THE YAMATO NATION
ACCORDING TO ancient chronicles, the largest of the islands created by the gods Izanagi and Izanami was dubbed Yamato. Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, later dispatched her grandson Ninigi to rule over this land, bestowing upon him three symbols of divine authority: a mirror, sword, and jewels, regalia which are still identified with the imperial family. Ninigi's grandson Jimmu finally succeeded in conquering Yamato, ascending the earthly throne in 660 B.C. While Jimmu may have been an actual historical personage, it is certain that this account of his deeds was fabricated at a much later date, probably to endow Japan with an antiquity comparable to that of neighboring China.
The original meaning or the name Yamato is unclear; one theory is that it derives from the Japanese for "mountain gate." The name probably first designated a single tribe or village in western Honshu, only later coming to be applied to the entire island, and finally to all of Japan as more and more territory was brought under control. The mid-6th century B.C. marks the verifiable, rather than the mythical, ascendancy of the Yamato tribe. Nevertheless, the true origins of this people, the forebears of today's Japanese, remain obscure.
The earliest inhabitants of Japan were Paleolithic groups that wandered into the area when it was joined to the mainland during the last glacial age. Although it is certain that the Japanese are a Mongoloid race, ethnically related to other East Asians, many cultural elements, among them architectural styles and the myth of the Sun Goddess as divine progenitrix, point to strong Polynesian influences.
Japan's earliest people were capable of shaping crude stone implements but were unable to make pottery. Sometime around 8000 B.C. Japan's inhabitants evolved from a "nonpottery" people to a Neolithic people able to make pottery that is impressed with rope patterns. The Japanese term for this distinctive pottery lends its name to the period, the Jomon, which lasted until around 300 B.C.
The Yayoi period that followed marked another distinct cultural shift. While Jomon pottery was shaped, Yayoi pottery was turned on a wheel. Jomon people were nomadic hunters and gatherers, while Yayoi people were wet-rice farmers who were able to forge tools and weapons of bronze and iron.
Wet-rice farming demands intensive labor, organization, and cooperation, and it is credited with fostering the values of diligence, loyalty, and group cohesion often remarked as characteristic of modern Japanese. It is not certain whether this shift from hunters and gatherers to farmers was due to the natural evolution of a single people or to new migrations from outside of Japan.
The 4th century A.D. marks the beginning of the Tumulus period, so named for the enormous burial mounds that are its archaeological legacy. The largest of these, located near Osaka, dates from the 5th century and is about 1,600 feet long. Pottery called haniwa, many pieces simple cylinders but others depicting warriors, houses, horses, and other animals, was often arranged around the mounds. It has been suggested that these mound builders were tribes of mounted warriors from the mainland who conquered Japan around A.D. 300, and the similarity of their tomb designs to those of Korea and China lends support to this theory. However, the mounds might also be the work of the highly organized Yamato tribes under the sway of styles from the Asian mainland, with which there was ongoing contact.
Meotoiwa, the 'wedded rocks" near Ise, are joined by a rope and symbolize the male and female deities Izanagi and Izanami, the mythical creators of Japan.