Japan

Japan

Many of ancestors of the Japanese came from Korea and some from Malaysia. It was through Korea that Chinese civilisation reached Yamato (Yamato was the original name of Japan). The original inhabitants of the country (aborigines) are known as “Ainus.” The original religion of Japan was Shinto. It was a mixture of nature and ancestor worship.

Japan remained in isolation for many centuries. This gave them the benefit of enjoying freedom from invasions.

Buddhism came through Korea. In 555 AD (CE), the ruler of one of the three kingdoms in Korea sent Buddhist missionaries to Yamato with a gift of a golden image of Buddha to its ruler. Initially there was a conflict between the new Buddhism and the old Shinto. But soon they began to coexist. During the Tang dynasty, there were constant contacts between China and Japan. In Japan also the leading families opposed and fought each other to gain power. Their emperor Mikado was an autocrat but a puppet in the hands of a few powerful families. The first great family that controlled the state was the Soga family. Shotuku Taishi was the leader. He made the central government strong. By 600 AD (CE) he had made the various clan chiefs and nobles subordinates to the Emperor.

After the death of Shotuku Taishi, his family was driven out by Nakatom no Kamatari, the founder of the Fujiwara family. Kamatari adopted many Chinese methods and made the central government further strong. He made Nara the capital. From 794 AD (CE) Kyoto remained the capital for more than one thousand years until it was replaced by Tokyo. Fujiwara family emperors in later years retired to monasteries and lived as monks. Yet they continued to exercise authority.

During the two -hundred-year rule of Fujiwaras, a new class of large landholders emerged. These landholders were also military men, called Daimyos (meaning great names-lords). The Daimyos became powerful with their retainers and armies. Involved in personal fights, they ignored the central government in Kyoto. Out of the fight between two chief families, the Tara and the Minamota, Yoritomo emerged successful. In AD (CE) 1192, the emperor gave him the high sounding title of Sei-i-tai-Shogun, which means the Barbarian-subduing-Great-General. The title carried full power to govern hereditarily. The Shogun became the real ruler. In this way began the rule of Shogunate.

Yoritomo established his military capital at Kamakura. Therefore, the first Shogunate is called the Kamakura Shogunate. Japan followed China in all spheres of life but in its own way. The emperor became a ceremonial head. The government was a feudal military government administered by samurai or warriors. The Mongols, who changed the course of history in Asia and terrified Europe, were successfully repulsed by the Japanese under this Shogunate. Yet the decline of the ruling dynasty started and in 1338 AD (CE), the Kamakura Shogunate ended. A new line of Shogunate came to power known as Ashikaga Shogunate that lasted for 235 years. But this was a period of conflict and war. Three men ultimately rescued Japan from the prolonged civil war. They were Borbunaga, a Daimyo or noble, Hideyoshi, a peasant and Tokugawa Iyeyasu, one of the distinguished nobles of the time. By the end of 16th century the whole of Japan was again united.