Japan: Notable Concepts (inc. Political, Economic, Social, Technological, etc.) and Notable Groups

Japanese (in 57 CE)

• They had a taste for strong drink
  They decorated their bodies with elaborately patterned tattoos and scarlet coloring

• They showed respect before a person of higher rank by kneeling with both hands on the ground

Soga (All Facts)

• Family of clans in Japan in the 500s who supported Buddhism but had friction with the contemporary clan

Mononobe (All Fact)

• Family of clans in Japan in the 500s who supported the supremacy of the indigenous “kami” deities and had friction with the contemporary clan 

640s CE - Taika Reforms (All Facts)

• Instituted by Emperor Kotoku

• Brought all private land under public ownership

• Centered power on the Emperor in imitation of the Chinese system

• Eventually shifted the capital of Japan to Nara

• Until their passage, the choice of the capital of Japan had been influenced by the ancient Shinto belief that a dwelling place is polluted by death and so, each time a ruler died, his successor had to move to a new place

701 - Taiho Code (All Facts)

• Covered civil and criminal matters

• It was largely an adaptation of the governmental system of China's Tang dynasty

701 - Ommyoryo (All Facts)

• Also known as the Ministry of Divination by Yin and Yang

Fujiwara Clan (All Facts)

• Great clan / family of landowners that became the most powerful family in Japan with the appointment of Yoshifusa as the Sessho (regent) of Seiwa

  • This appointment set many precedents, for

    • Seiwa was the first child emperor and the first male ruler to be placed under the wing of a regent

    • Yoshifusa was the first regent not of royal blood

• Clan whose rise was accomplished by careful politics rather than violence

  • Wealth, land, and the marriage of their daughters into the royal line had brought them close to the throne

• They strengthened their power with a major victory by the Minamoto clan

Taira Clan (All Facts)

• Clan which defied the Kyoto imperial court, creating disorder in the provinces

• Clan which had charge of the emperor and the regalia, the symbols of imperial legitimacy

• They had been beaten in a land campaign by the Minamoto Clan

• They were accomplished seaman

Minamoto Clan (All Facts)

• Clan consisting of a powerful land-owning family which took charge of Japan following the decline of the Heian Court

• Clan which defied the Kyoto imperial court, creating disorder in the provinces that would not be restored until the 1600s via the shoguns

• Clan which installed their own shogun by 1192

• Clan known as the “claws and teeth of the Fujiwara”

• Clan which defeated the rebellious Abe family by acting on imperial orders and destroying their last fortress on the banks of the Kuriyagawa River in the northern province of Mutsu

Printing (All Facts)

• The namesake type of process used with blocks from which the letters stand out in relief was invented in Japan in the 700s

Japanese Feudalism (All Facts)

• Economic system of Heian Period Japan that had existed for hundreds of years without a centralized government, with “daimyo” (landowning aristocrats) battling each other for control of the land

• Economic system of Heian Period Japan during which the majority of people worked as rice farmers

• Economic system which featured very little social mobility and built upon hereditary hierarchies

Daimyo (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the landowning aristocrats of Japan, they were born into lives of privilege

• They enjoyed much more power than the nobles in Europe at the time under European Feudalism

• They ruled over vast stretches of land and were more powerful, in reality, than the emperor or shogun

Serfs (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the peasants or lower class in Japan, who were born into lives of economic dependency

Samurai (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the class of Japanese who were born into their roles as protectors

Bushido (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the Japanese equivalent of the European code of chivalry, it stressed frugality, loyalty, the martial arts, and honor unto death

Shogun (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the military leader of Japan

• By the 1600s, they revived their power to create a strong central government and unify the country