Until the 1850’s Japan was a very isolated country. This is due to its culture and geography. This article will describe the time period from 1000 AD- 1850 AD. Japan had always borrowed things from the Chinese and Koreans, but they never joined with them. Japan practiced what is known as Isolationism, this means that they borrowed what they wanted for their culture, but they would not allow anyone else to join it. They did not explore other places and since they were an island, it was hard for other empires to attack them successfully. The geography of Japan is an archipelago, the islands are all very mountainous and their main food source was rice. The rice was grown in a process called Steppe or Terrace Farming in which they would cut into a mountain and make steps to grow their food.
Japan was ruled by an emperor and the rich, which were known as nobles or aristocrats. The nobles always wanted to take power from the emperor and the emperor always wanted to take power from the nobles. A military class called the Samurai, the samurai would either fight for the nobles, or for the emperor. In 1192 the noble’s samurai defeated the emperor’s samurai and the nobles took power, though he was now powerless, they left the emperor alive as a matter of tradition.
This began the time period known as Feudal Japan. The different groups of samurai began to fight each other for control. The leaders of these groups became known as Daimyo. The Daimyo controlled many samurai and fought amongst each other for control of precious farmland. For about 300 years the Daimyo fought for hegemony of Japan. In 1590 a powerful general named Toyotomi Hideyoshi brought several power Daimyo under his control. After his death a man named Tokugawa Ieyasu took this great samurai army and conquered all of Japan. In 1603, Tokugawa went to the emperor’s palace in Edo (Tokyo) and the emperor named Tokugawa the first Shogun , which means the supreme commander of all samurai in Japan, and the most powerful man in Japan.
Ieyasu was a very smart man. He made all of the Daimyo and nobles he conquered live in Edo instead of on their own land so that they could not raise an army to fight him. The Shoguns also would keep the Daimyo fighting amongst each other. The Shoguns controlled taxes, the economy and lawmaking. The samurai themselves lived by the warrior code of Bushido, a strict and hard life of service to the ones they are protecting. They did not allow much contact with the outside world.
The Shoguns ruled Japan until the 1870’s.
Triangle of Power
1.) How is Feudal Japan similar and different from Feudal Europe?
2.) What can we tell about Japanese culture and geography by looking at the way they farmed?
3.) How did the Shoguns keep the Daimyo/nobles at bay?
4.) Is isolationism a good policy? Why? Why not? What do you think will be a result of isolationism in the future of Japan?
Source: https://www.southbuffalocs.org/cms/lib/NY01001376/Centricity/Domain/17/Feudal.doc
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