{"id":329,"date":"2021-12-20T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/his111\/?post_type=chapter&p=329"},"modified":"2022-02-09T23:03:51","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T23:03:51","slug":"6-1-japan","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/his111\/chapter\/6-1-japan\/","title":{"raw":"6.1 Japan","rendered":"6.1 Japan"},"content":{"raw":"

Chronology<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Year(s)<\/th>\r\nEvent(s)<\/th>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
c. 8000 \u2013 300 BCE<\/td>\r\nJ\u00f5mon Period<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
c. 300 BCE \u2013 300 CE<\/td>\r\nYayoi Culture<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
c. 300\u00a0 \u2013 680 CE<\/td>\r\nTomb Culture<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
680 CE \u2013 850 CE<\/td>\r\nTang & Early Heian<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
784 CE<\/td>\r\nHeian Period Begins<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
1160 \u2013 1180 CE<\/td>\r\nTaira Rule in Kyoto<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
1185 \u2013 1333 CE<\/td>\r\nKamakura Era<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
1338 \u2013 1573 CE<\/td>\r\nAshikaga Era<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
1467 CE<\/td>\r\nWarring States Period Begins<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n \r\n\r\nEast Asia can be defined in two different ways. Geographically speaking, it can be defined as the eastern region of the Asian continent and the countries located there, principally China, North and South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. But historians also define East Asia as a broader cultural realm, and include countries that both shared close historical relations with China and were impacted by China\u2019s political and legal institutions, and Confucian and Buddhist traditions. When defined in this way, Vietnam is also included.\u00a0 We will look at East Asia with the exclusion of China which we examined previously.\r\n\r\n
\"Map<\/center>
Full-size image of Map 4.1 - East Asia<\/a><\/center>\r\n

Geography of Japan<\/h2>\r\nJapan is an island country consisting of four main islands and many smaller ones located off the Pacific coast of the Asian continent. At 400,000 square kilometers, Japan is slightly smaller than California, although the terrain is more rugged. Because Japan is covered by mountains and traversed by numerous rivers, only fifteen percent of the land is suited to agriculture. Much of that was concentrated in two plains\u2013the Kinai Plain and Kanto Plain\u2013making them particularly important to Japan\u2019s early history. Japan is also located along the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates composing the earth\u2019s crust frequently move and collide. That is why earthquakes and volcanic activity have been a constant threat to populations living on these islands.\r\n\r\nThe Japanese monarchy is the oldest continuous one in the history of the world and traces its beginnings to at least the fourth century CE. Japan\u2019s early historical development presents \u00a0unique characteristics because of its geography. The island archipelago was close enough to Chinese and Korean states to borrow from them and benefit from migration and yet far enough away so that invasions were never a sudden impetus to change. Therefore, although we can also speak of secondary state formation for Japan, that is largely because of the conscious choice on the part of ruling elites to adopt political ideas and cultural patterns from China and Korea.\r\n

J\u00f5mon Period, c. 8000 \u2013 300 BCE<\/h2>\r\n \r\n\r\n
\"Figure<\/center>But even during the prehistoric period, geography impacted Japan\u2019s development in other ways. The first evidence for Paleolithic hunter-gatherers dates back to c. 30,000 BCE. \u00a0During the last ice age, a land bridge connected Japan to Asia. Due to its volcanic nature, no skeletal remains of the period survive. Archeologists are still unsure of the origins of the ancient pottery fragments that use a \u201ccord\u201d or J\u00f5mon pattern, but the evidence indicates that between 10000 and 8000 BCE, peoples, probably from Southeast Asia, moved into Japan establishing the J\u00f5mon culture. These artifacts are the oldest pottery fragments in the world.\r\n\r\nIn the resource-rich environments of mountainous and forested Japan, small bands of mobile, multi-generational families were able to thrive on game, shellfish, fruits, tubers, and nuts. Evidence shows shows that this culture practiced hunting and fishing. In fact, foraging strategies were so successful that even when sedentary village communities first formed, they thrived without agriculture. This period of time is known as the J\u014dmon [joe-moan] Period. The archaeological record reveals that, up and down the archipelago, foragers had settled into permanent base camps. These were hamlet communities made up of pit dwellings for homes and raised floor structures for holding community functions. This case is one of the few in prehistory where a culture invented and used pottery long before farming.\r\n\r\nComplete this<\/a> brief reading on the J\u00f5mon Culture from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and this one<\/a> on the Japanese origin myth and then watch the video clip on the origin of the Samurai that follows.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n