Japan – Chapter 9
Setting
- Japan is an island country: protected by the water from outside invasions
- The sea provided fish & created sailors (and pirates too)
- China deeply influenced Japan
- Iron work, Confucian philosophies, Buddhism
- Chinese immigrated bringing pottery & intermarrying
- In the 6th & 7th centuries Japan modeled a central government on China
- Civil service based on merit, not birth
- rulers based on families and clans (like China) – each rising to
greater influence from time to time
- emperors can trace their roots back to the first emperor (even today)
- emperors carry out ceremonial & religious duties
- similar to feudal Europe & separate from the strong central government
of China
- clans often struggled against one another (civil war)
Shoguns
- “commander in chief”
- ruled on behalf of the emperor
- military society (virtues of loyalty, endurance, & bravery)
- warriors bound themselves to lords
- warriors (samurai) were most respected (next to the lords) in Japan’s
feudal society
- belief of military superiority
- held off two Mongol attacks (second was destroyed by a Kamikaze “divine
wind” that sank the fleet)
Shinto
- the way of the kami (divine) or the way of the gods
- it was a tribal religion, not a state one
- Individual clans, which were simultaneously political, military, and religious
units, worshipped a single kami in particular which was regarded as the founder
or principal ancestor of the clan
- Kami first of all refers to the gods of heaven, earth, and the underworld,
of whom the most important are creator gods
- kami also are all those things that have divinity in them to some degree:
the ghosts of ancestors, living human beings, particular regions or villages,
animals, plants, landscape—in fact, most of creation, anything that
might be considered wondrous, magnificent, or affecting human life
- all Shinto involves some sort of shrine worship
- Shinto shrines are usually a single room (or miniature room), raised from
the ground, with objects placed inside
- One worships a Shinto shrine by "attending" it, that is, devoting oneself
to the object worshipped, and by giving offerings to it: anything from vegetables
to great riches
- Shinto prayer (Norito ) is based on koto-dama , the belief that spoken
words have a spiritual power; if spoken correctly, the Norito would bring
about favorable results