Asia Past and Present. Peter P. Wan

who have Caucasian features 300 BCE–300 CE Yayoi people arrive from Korea and conquer the Ainu, bring new advanced methods of agriculture, and utilize bronze and iron. They are seen as the ancestors of the modern Japanese people 4th–7th centuries Yamato period: Great Kings rule the tribes on the Yamato Plain 538 Korean King Seong of Baekje introduces Buddhism to Japan 604 Prince Shotoku (574–622) promulgates the Seventeen‐Article Charter to officially adopt Confucianism and Buddhism; sends first mission to Tang Dynasty China 646 Taika Reform of Emperor Kotoku (596–654) introduces institutional reforms to transform Japan into a centralized state under the emperor, based on the Chinese model 7th century Traditional Japanese state is formed on the Yamato Plain, the title “emperor” replaces “king,” and gradually the government and culture of the Yamato people spread across Japan 710–794 Nara period reflects Japanese borrowing from China, including the capital Nara, which was based on China’s then‐capital Chang’an 754 Chinese Buddhist monk Jianzhen (Gajin) arrives in Japan 794–1185 Heian period finds the emperor’s role in government usurped by the Fujiwara family, which marries into the imperial family and controls it 839 Last envoy to Tang China ca. 1010 Fujiwara court life told in the novel The Tale of Genji 12th–16th centuries Age of the Shoguns: Emperors reign, Shoguns rule 1185–1333 Kamakura Shogunate, where the Shogun rules over a feudal political and social order, although the Hojo family does marry into the Shogunate after 1203 and controls it 1274, 1281 Mongol invasions turned back by kamikaze, or “divine wind” 1336–1573 Ashikaga Shogunate troubled by the emergence of northern and southern imperial courts and the arrival of the Europeans, and with them the beginning of Nanban Trade 14th century During the Ashikaga period, the peasant foot soldier begins to displace the elite mounted samurai 1467–1603 Warring States period when Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu struggle to unify Japan 1603–1868 Tokugawa Shogunate unifies Japan, creates a centralized feudal society, closes the country to foreign contact, and lays the foundation for modernization from its capital at Edo (today’s Tokyo) 1853–1854 Americans end the seclusion of Japan and sign a treaty with the Shogunate, which begins a rebellion against the Tokugawa 1868 The Meiji Restoration ends the Tokugawa rule and the feudal system, and launches a rapid, successful modernization program

      By 300 BCE, the Yayoi people had migrated from the Korean Peninsula to the Japanese islands and conquered the Jomon people. They would become the ancestors of the modern Japanese people. They were like the Koreans in that they had originated in Siberia and Manchuria and migrated to Korea; but unlike the Koreans, they had kept going until they landed in Japan. They spoke an Altaic language related to Korean, but not to Chinese. The Yayoi culture emerged on the Japanese islands with amazing suddenness. They brought with them an advanced New Stone Age agriculture, and employed bronze and iron. These technologies had originated in China, spread to Korea, and now settled in Japan. They built huge earthen mounds over the tombs of their prominent men, which was a typical Korean practice. They were still essentially the same as the Koreans, but had absorbed some of the indigenous Ainu population through intermarriage, and driven the rest northward. In modern times, the Ainu people have lived a relatively primitive way of life on reservations on the northernmost island of Hokkaido, and are suffering from a shrinking population.

      The Age of the Kings and Emperors (Seventh–Twelfth Centuries)

      The Japanese have a “creation myth” just like other civilizations. In their mythology, the Japanese people (the Yamato people) are descended from the Sun Goddess Amaterasu and her brother‐husband. Traditional Japanese historiography claims that Emperor Jimmu founded the State of Japan in 660 BCE. Verifiable history puts the appearance of the first Japanese state on the Yamato Plain at the seventh century BCE. The earliest reliable information on early Japanese life is found in post–Han Dynasty Chinese sources. They describe Japan as an agricultural society made up of clans that are in transition from matriarchal to patriarchal society; the clans control territories and are headed by a man or woman who combines the functions of chieftain and high priest, and the Yamato clan dominates the various other clans.

      The indigenous religion of Japan is Shinto, the “Way of the Gods.” It celebrates the kamis, who are nature spirits who dwell in unique natural objects, such as a magnificent mountain, a gnarled tree, or a clear creek. Shinto has simple rituals, a cheerful spirit, exuberant holidays, and an emphasis on cleanliness. It has no sacred scripts, doctrinal demands, or theoretical elaborations. Its simplicity may explain its staying power.

      The Yamato clan gradually developed a Yamato State on the Chinese model replete with a ruler called the “great king,” a royal court, and a centralized administrative structure, but it had no permanent capital. The “great king” was a military overlord who dominated over the regional lords, and held land and granaries throughout the country. He allowed those clans that yielded to his authority to maintain local autonomy, appointed their chiefs to serve as officials at his court, and placed their gods in a pantheon of gods with the Yamato Sun Goddess at its pinnacle. He ruled over a hierarchic sociopolitical structure that included regional lords, peasants, craftsmen, and slaves. A warrior class dominated the commoners. Over time, the Yamato kings extended their rule over the entire land, and the “Yamato” name came to stand for all of Japan.

Chinese culture and Buddhism reached Japan via Korea in the fifth and sixth centuries. Prince Shotoku (574–622) promoted cultural exchange with China. He sent regular missions to China composed of students, Buddhist monks, merchants, and government officials to study and learn, and they returned to inform the Japanese of Chinese culture. He officially embraced Chinese culture with the promulgation of the Seventeen‐Article Constitution of 604, whose purpose was to establish a Chinese‐style government to strengthen the position of the “great king,” and he urged conversion to Buddhism. Later, the Taika Reforms in 646, introduced by Emperor Kotoku, created institutional reforms to transform Japan based on the Chinese political model. Significantly, he changed his title from “great king” to “emperor,” and rewarded his supporters with titles and positions in a government bureaucracy. The Japanese built their first real city, Nara, on the model of Tang China’s capital Chang’an in 710. Japanese emperors would rule from their capitals at Nara and nearby Heian for the next 600 years.

      The Nara period was a time of wholesale cultural borrowing from China. The emperor even tried to adopt China’s “equal fields system,” but abandoned the