Japan and the West

1
Japan and the West
2
Distinguishing Characteristics

• Small island
• Mountainous
• Little unification
• Feudalism
• Regimentation
• Receptivity to Chinese influences

3
Matriarchy to Patriarchy

• Murasaki Shikibu (Lady Murasaki)
• ca. 978 ca. 1015
• House of Fujiwara
• The Tale of the Genji

4
Early Links to China

• Buddhism, 552
• Pure Land Buddhism, 1175
• Chan (Zen) Buddhism, 1191
• Emperor Shotoku
• Seventeen Article Constitution, 604
• Emmisaries to China
• Copying of Tang Dynasty styles
• Architecture
• Language the kana
• Poetry the tanka / haiku

5
The Heian Period, 794-1185

• Capital at Heian (Kyoto), 794
• Decline of Chinese influence
• Weakening of the central government
• The Shoen (landed / feudal estates)
• Private armies
• Buddhist armies
• Environmental pressures

6
Bushido (The Way of the Warrior)

• The bushi (warrior)
• The samurai (retainer)
• Hereditary elites
• Death before dishonor

7
Medieval Japan

• Many wars and rebellions, until 1180
• Minamoto Yoritomo, Seii-tai-shogun, 1185
• Failed rebellion, 1221
• New legal codes, 1232

8
The Mongol Invasions

• Korea in 1258
• Kublai Khan mission to Japan, 1268
• First Invasion, 1274
• Second Invasion, 1281
• kamikaze
• Third invasion, 1288 (?)

9
A Period of Disorder

• Aristocratic samurai
• The Onin War, 1467-1477
• Last shogun deposed, 1573
• The daimyo
• Samurai-led armies

10
Progress Amidst Disorder

• Increased agricultural productivity
• Increased trade
• Increased labor specialization
• Barter economy to cash economy
• Growth of Kyoto

11
New Cultural Traditions

• Architecture the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto,
  1397
  
• Shibui

12
New Cultural Traditions

• Tea ceremonies

13
New Cultural Traditions

• Gardens

14
New Cultural Traditions

• Noh drama

15
The Portuguese Arrive

• Kyushu 1543
• Trading posts by 1545
• Francis Xavier, 1549
• Nagasaki, 1562

16
Reunification

• Oda Nobunaga, 1534-1582
• Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 1536-1598

17
Reunification

• Tokugawa Ieyasu, 1543-1616
• Shogun in 1603
• The Tokugawa Period, 1603-1868

18
Tokugawa Japan

• Edo (Tokyo), 1606
• Tribute from outer daimyo
• sankin kotai (Alternate Attendance)

19
Class Stratification

• Warrior-administrators (6 percent)

20
Class Stratification

• Warrior-administrators (6 percent)
• Peasants (80 percent)

21
Class Stratification

• Warrior-administrators (6 percent)
• Peasants (80 percent)
• Artisans

22
Class Stratification

• Warrior-administrators (6 percent)
• Peasants (80 percent)
• Artisans
• Merchants
• Mitsui
• Sumitomo

23
Increasing Isolation

• Initial curiosity (Dutch Learning)
• Disruptive to the social order
• First anti-Christian decrees, 1606
• Restrictions on travel, weapons
• Thriving internal trade
• Osaka
• Urbanization
• Literacy

24
Tokugawa Culture

• Kabuki Drama

25
Tokugawa Culture

• Bunraku

26
Tokugawa Culture

• Ukiyo (The Floating World)
• Gesihas (Art People)

27
Tokugawa Decline, Internal

• Too many in the upper class
• Sweet-Potato samurai
• Ronin (masterless samurai)
• Increasing disorder

28
Tokugawa Decline, External

• Growing western influence
• Anatomy, especially
• Awareness of the outside world
• Awareness of western superiority
• Sense of self-doubt

29
Contact with the U.S.

• Commodore Matthew Perry, 1853
• Yokohama, 1854
• Reactions

30
Japan vs. China

• Modernization theory says
• Japan stronger than China
• Japan less Confucian than China
• Japan smaller more centralized than China
• World System theory says
• Western nations initially had little interest in
  Japan
  
• Japan learned from the Chinese experience

31
The Meiji Restoration

• Civil war begins, 1863
• Matsuhito becomes Meiji (Enlightened Rule) in
  1867
  

32
Meiji Rule

• Charter Oath, 1868
• Abolished class distinctions
• Reduced power of daimyo
• Capital moved to Edo (Tokyo) in 1869
• New (peasant) army in 1871
• Power taken away from samurai
• Excellent timing

33
The Meiji Mystique

• Hyper-nationalism
• The cult of the divine emperor
• State Shinto, 1868
• Rich Country, Strong Army

34
Japanese Imperialism

• Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa), 1874
• Korea
• Gunboat diplomacy, 1876
• Peasant uprising, 1894-1895
• Annexed in 1910
• Remaking Korea and Manchuria
• Growing tensions with Russia
• Japanese British alliance, 1902

35
The Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905

• Capture of Port Arthur
• Destruction of Russian Navy
• Treaty of Portsmouth, 1905

36
The Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

• Korea and Manchuria
• Coal
• Iron
• Timber
• Rice
• Heavy industry
• Taiwan
• Sugar
• Rice
• Ultra-nationalism
• Black Dragon Society, and others
• Political Assassinations

37
Industrialization

• Business - government cooperation
• Ministry of Industry, 1870
• Target industries
• Low taxes
• Zaibatsu
• Mitsubishi
• The costs of industrialization
• For the samurai and daimyo
• For women
• For democracy