Japan: Kamakura & Warring States

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JapanKamakura Warring States

• 11
• 1185 -1600 CE

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Kamakura A New, Less Gentle Japan

• Gempei Wars Taira vs Minamoto clans 1158-1185
  AD

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Kamakura A New, Less Gentle Japan

• Shogun (pronounced show goon)
• Minamoto Yoritomo Officially the Emperors
  Military Leader
• In Reality the Emperors Military Overlord
• New leadership rejects the effete culture of Heian

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Kamakura Bakufu(tent government)

• Military might and military virtues win the day
  for Kamakura
• Focus on Military Virtue
• New government center at Kamakura
• Away from emperors court at Heian

Kamakura Period Samurai Warrior
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Kamakura Bakufu GovernmentLord-Retainer System
Japans system fits the patron-client pattern

• Patron provides leadership, resources, and
  membership in a protective group
• Client reciprocates with loyalty, obedience and
  service
• Example Godfather (the movie)

Except The Emperor-Shogun link is only a facade
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Kamakura Bakufu GovernmentLord-Retainer System

• Shoguns government structure
• Classic Patron-client, or Lord-retainer system
• Shogun accepts allegiance (oaths of loyalty) from
  lesser lords
• Each lord supported by corps of samurai retainers
  who swear allegiance to him.
• Lords provide leadership and resources
• Retainers provide military service, loyalty, and
  obedience to their lord

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Samurai CultureEmergence of Bushido

• Bushido the way of the warrior
• Japans chivalry code
• Discipline
• Loyalty
• Self-cultivation
• Martial arts, philosophy, and literary arts

Painting representing the Gempei Wars
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Samurai CultureEmergence of Bushido

• Loyalty is the core virtue of Bushido
• During Kamakura period loyalty may not have been
  as absolute
• Lords paid retainers with grants of land from
  their han (domain or fief)

• Samurai became independent landowners with
  financial incentives separate from the interests
  of their lord
• During times of severe stress the clash between
  ideological loyalty and financial interest
  becomes obvious

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Samurai CultureEmergence of Bushido
Kamakura Samurai Armor

• Bushido Japan's code of chivalry
• Emphasis on loyalty and self cultivation
• Different values system from European chivalry

• Unlike European chivalry
• No concept of special place for women
• No gentlemanly respect for, protection of, or
  deference to the weaker sex

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Bushido Culture

• Strong sense of responsibility
• Ritualistic and formal
• Seppuku
• Ritual suicide to accept responsibility for
  grievous error

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Samurai

• Weaponry
• Swords
• Bow and Arrow
• Also Spears
• For mounted samurai

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Kamakura Japan under attack

• Mongol invasions
• 1274 1281
• Divine Winds or Kamikaze save Japan at the last
  moment

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Kamakura PeriodContinues 1281-1467

• Remaining 200 years of Kamakura Japan relatively
  stable
• 1467 Kamakura system collapses into Civil War
• Major lords battle for dominance and power

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Warring States Period1467-1568 CE

• 100 years of civil war
• Changes in Bushido and lord-retainer system
• Dramatic changes in social structure
• Change in economic structure

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Changes in Lord-retainer System Bushido

• Early on Samurai retainers rewarded with land
• Creates incentive to protect personal property
• To preserve property for heirs
• Ideological commitment to LOYALTY conflicts with
  self interest
• Self-interest often wins
• Samurai not always loyal

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Changes in Lord-retainer System Bushido

• By the end of Warring States
• Samurai paid with stipends not land
• Stipends only paid so long as lord and lords
  estate remain intact
• Samurais ideological loyalty reinforced by
  financial self interest
• Loyalty becomes far more absolute

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Changes in Lord-retainer System Bushido

• 0nly 200 Daimyo (great names) remain
• All surviving Daimyo swear allegiance to new
  Shogun

• Daimyo Japans feudal Lords from 1600s forward
• Han The autonomously governed fief or domain of
  a Daimyo

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Social and Economic Change

• War with Swords, Bows, and Spears
• Siege tactics
• Castles emerge
• Castle towns
• Japan Urbanizes

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Castle Towns and Urbanization

• New Castle towns
• Produce markets
• Merchants
• Cash-crop agriculture

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Castle Towns and Urbanization

• Service sector develops
• Craftsmen
• Sword smiths
• Blacksmiths
• Artisans
• Artists
• Education
• Entertainers
• Geisha
• Kabuki Theater
• No Puppet Theater

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Arts

• Kabuki Theater

• Wood block printing

No Puppet theater
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Warring States Results

• Japan as a nation of cities
• Castle
• Market Towns built around castles
• Japan developing formal arts
• Japans Bushido culture aligning ideas of loyalty
  with reality of financial self-interest
• Strong military ethic dominates culture