Japan, Mongols, and China

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Prince Shotoku

Japanese regent, he was one of Japan's greatest leaders. He was influential in bringing Buddhism and Chinese ideas to Japan.

Clan

a group of related families

Prince Shotoku

Japanese regent, he was one of Japan's greatest leaders. He was influential in bringing Buddhism and Chinese ideas to Japan.

Clan

a group of related families

Shinto

"Way of the Kami"; Japanese worship of nature spirits

Japan

Land of the Rising Sun

Hokkaido

Japan's northernmost and second largest island.

Honshu

Japan's largest island

Kyushu

the southernmost of the four main islands of Japan

Shikoku

Japan's smallest and least populated major island

Vassal

A knight who promised to support a lord in exchange for land

Feudalism

A political system in which nobles are granted the use of lands that legally belong to their king, in exchange for their loyalty, military service, and protection of the people who live on the land

Kamakura

shogun's headquarters

Kyoto

the ancient capital of Japan

Shogun

A general who ruled Japan in the emperor's name

Daimyo

A Japanese feudal lord who commanded a private army of samurai

Samurai

Class of warriors in feudal Japan who pledged loyalty to a noble in return for land.

Shrine

a place where people worship

Kami

a divine being in the Shinto religion.

Kamikaze

Japanese suicide pilots

Bushido

The Feudal Japanese code of honor among the warrior class.

Minamoto Yoritomo

Founder of the first shogunate, the Kamakura Shogunate

Genghis Khan

Founder of the Mongol Empire.

Kublai Khan

(1215-1294) Grandson of Genghis Khan and founder of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty in China.

Marco Polo

Venetian merchant and traveler. His accounts of his travels to China offered Europeans a firsthand view of Asian lands and stimulated interest in Asian trade.

Steppes

Treeless plains, especially the high, flat expanses of northern Eurasia, which usually have little rain and are covered with coarse grass. They are good lands for nomads and their herds. Good for breeding horses: essential to Mongol military.

Yurt

Mongol houses

Yuan Dynasty

Dynasty in China set up by the Mongols under the leadership of Kublai Khan, replaced the Song (1279-1368)

Zheng He

An imperial eunuch and Muslim, entrusted by the Ming emperor Yongle with a series of state voyages that took his gigantic ships through the Indian Ocean, from Southeast Asia to Africa.

Census

A complete enumeration of a population.

Ming Dynasty

Succeeded Mongol Yuan dynasty in China in 1368; lasted until 1644; initially mounted huge trade expeditions to southern Asia and elsewhere, but later concentrated efforts on internal development within China.

Treason

Betrayal of one's country