Early and Feudal Japan Flashcards

Vocabulary terms and definitions related to the history, culture, and feudal structure of early Japan as described in the lecture notes.

Jomon

A name meaning rope marks, given to early Japanese people who created clay pottery for storing water and food and wore tree bark as clothes.

Yayoi period

A time beginning with new ideas from mainland Asia where people used iron for tools and weapons and discovered irrigation methods from China for rice farming.

Emissaries

Representatives sent from Japan to China to exchange information, as noted in the earliest Chinese records of Japan.

Yamato

A group that began to emerge in A.D. 400s; legends claim their first emperor was a descendant of the sun goddess.

Taika reforms

Laws that established a central government in Japan similar to the Chinese system, with the modification that the emperor's family claimed rule for all time.

Regents

People who govern in place of the official ruler, such as the Fujiwara who gained the right to rule in the emperor's name.

Daimyous

Meaning great names, these were the most powerful nobles in the Japanese feudal system who took part in governing and military command.

Samurai

Soldiers who protected peasants in exchange for a portion of their crops; they were often sons of nobles who trained to endure freezing cold weather barefoot.

Shogun

A term meaning leading general, referring to the head of a military government first set up in the late 1100s.

Yoritomo

A leader who established a system of giving land to loyal daimos in exchange for sending soldiers to the shoguns during times of war.