Intro to Japanese Culture Keywords

Yamato

Name of a time period in Japanese history. Moment in history where Japan really became Japanese. Associated with “Yamato words” (Yamato Kotoba) or native Japanese vocabulary

Kunimi

ritual act done by early emperors to look out over the country; an aesthetic mode of power

Sankin-kotai

An alternate attendance system requiring daimyo to spend alternate years in Edo. Weaken and control the daimyo

Shi No Ko Sho 

Tokugawa four class system (Samurai, Farmers, Artisans, Merchants)

Fudai 

Inside lords, loyal to Tokugawa before the Battle of Sekigahara. Had less land but more centralized political power

Keisei Saimin

phrase meaning “order the world, save the people”, relates to economics 

Ukiyo

“Floating World”, refers to pleasure quarters; also a Buddhist concept signifying sorrow and transience; rejection of wordly pleasures 

Samurai

warriors whose power comes from serving others. Concept of service is flexible and can shift according to the moment. Earth Samurai = farmer samurai

Kyoka Poetry

“Mad” or “crazy” poetry. Originated from the pleasure quarters and written by samurai. Nonsense poems parodying imperial aesthetics. Birth of science. Look at the world based on how you perceive it and experience it. The world is only the way it is based on how you experience it, not because of god or Confucianism 

Shishi

Ronin/unattached types. Individuals who are in service of their own ideals. A group of people that came out of the samurai class. Moving away from a really long history of service. Also includes people who want to revive emperor as a political force. But also others who want a different shogun. By in large, they just want to leave what they currently have 

Datsu-A

Leaving Asia. Creates the idea that there is an east and a west. Thinking of itself as an agent of history 

Zaibatsu

Vertically integrated business monopoly

Bunmei Kaika

Civilization and enlightenment, refers to the phenomenon of Westernization in Japan during the Meiji era 

Moga

Modern girl. Spread the idea that a woman could be a representative figure of a social political era is striking. Looks western, not traditionally Japanese. Known for smoking and drinking alone, chooses her own boyfriends, has premarital sex, goes to Ginza, reverses male and female roles. 

Jomon

The enduring people often translated as “the folk”. Closely tied to ideas of Minzoku or folk/ethnic identity in Japanese historical and cultural studies 

White Birch Society (Shirakaba-ha)

Western person has become too individualized, loss of social connection, social alienation (split between public and private selves) Mission to spread western art and western civilization into Japan, but feel dissatisfied with modern life. Romantic critique and want community engagement.

Tenko 

Enforced ideological conversion of lefist intellectuals, communists and socialists in Japan during the late 1920s through the 1930s. 

Tozama Daimyo

Outside lords. Feudal lords who had not been hereditary vassals of the Tokugawa family before the Battle of Sekigahara. Often controlled the largest domains, but excluded from central political power.