Japanese cultural history definitions

Mishima Yukio

(1925 - 1970) (pseudonym of Hiraoka Kimitake) Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, film director, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai.

Hanami

(花見, "flower viewing") is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the transient beauty of flowers; flowers ("hana") are in this case almost always referring to those of the cherry ("sakura") or, less frequently, plum ("ume") trees.

Medieval Japan

1170-1573

Kamakura Period

1185-1333 Ascendance of samurai, feudalism, capital moved east to Kamaura, Zen buddhism

Muromachi Period

1333-1568 The Ashikaga move capital back to Kyoto, Zen-inspired Higashiyama refinement, weakening central government, the Onin War (1467-77) destroys Kyoto and begins a period of even greater instability

Edo population 1634

150,000

Wabicha and Sen no Rikyū

1521-1591): tea based on the aesthetics of wabi, or wabisabi: Simple and unpretentious beauty Imperfect and irregular beauty Austere and stark beauty Externally impoverished and withered, internally brimming with vitality 'A beauty of non-being, but latent with unlimited energy and change.' (Haga Koshirō)

Azuchi-Momoyama Period

1568-1600 Protracted civil wars among feudal lords, gradual consolidation of land and power, castle building, urbanization, popular uprisings, Jesuits and firearms, invasion of Korea, innovation in the arts

Tokugawa or Edo period

1600-1868 Peace accomplished by oppresive measurs, stability and relative isolation, flourishing of urban bourgeoisie culture, commercial printing of books and woodblock prints, Neo-Confucianism, Nativism, Dutch Studies, tight control of foreign relations gradually erodes as foreigners appear with increasing frequency, Millenary revlt as Tokugawa government weakens

Japan opened to the world in what year?

1854

Japanese Modernisation in the Meiji period in what year?

1868

Meiji period

1868-1912 Samurai from Western Japan overthrow the Tokugawa, Japan in a new context of competing nations, survival of the fittest, learning from the West, emperor as symbol of the nation, conservative reaction in the 1890s, Confucianism reasserted, empire building, imperialist waes, control of Formosa (Taiwan) and Korea

Imperialist wars with China during Meiji Period

1895

Imperialist wars with Russia during Meiji Period

1905

Taisho Period

1912-26 'Roaring Twenties' prosperity, brief party-led democratic governance, formation of zaibatsu conglomerates, Marxist crituque of capitalism and modernity as wealth gap widens and race-relations worsen, Japanese immigrants in the United States resented as economic competitors

Showa Period

1926-89 Worldwide depression, patriotic societies and agrarian fascism from bottom up, military takes lead, fascism from top down, State Shinto

Japan's invasion of China during Showa Period- what year?

1937

Spread of Joaanese Empire to include Southeast Asia and the islands of the South Pacific, Pearl Harbour during Showa period- what year?

1941

Heisei period

1989-present Collapse of bubble economy, pro-U.S pro business Liberal Democratic Party survives temporary setback Creeping remilitarization Globalization of Japanese popular culture

Kofun Period

250-538 CE Horses introduced, powerful clans, huge burial mounds, immigration and cultural influences from the Continent (including writing, Confucian texrs)

What % of Japanese identify as Shintoist

4-6%

Mahayana Buddhism came how far after Buddhism

500 years later Buddha has different forms

Edo population 1720

500,000

Asuka Period

538-710 Yamato clan dominates, Buddhism (538) introduced, land and governmental reform after Chinese model, continued influence of power elites

Nara Period

710-94 First permanent capital, intense patronage of Buddhism, ritual poetry gives way to lyricism, Japanese writing develops

Heian Period

794-1185 Capital moves to Heian-Kyo, flourishing of sophisticated court culture, romances and diaries written by women, gradual shift of power from court to provincial warrior families, development of popular Buddhism

Bunmei Kaika

A slogan applied during the Meiji Restoration in Japan signaling the need to modernize the country to assist in competition with Western countries.

Ryunosuke

Akutagawa, In a Grove

What are the Four truths of Buddhism?

All life is suffering Suffering is caused by human desire and acquisitiveness-our worldly desires Something can be done to end suffering The achievement of enlightenment or Buddhahood- following a prescribed programme- the 8 fold path

Kuge

Aristocratic nobility

Ukiyo-e

Art depicting the "floating world" in the middle of the 19th century in art history.

perishability What are the 3 marks of existence

Buddhist understanding of existence Impermanence, Suffering, Emptiness

waka

Classic Japanese poem

Kare-Sunsai

Dry landscape garden

Three outclasses in social system

Eta Burakamin- undertakers- new citizens, modern production Hinin

Hakanasa Mujo

Evanescence- Nothing is permanent

Hiroshige

Everything subordinated to the setting, the insignificance of man against nature

Toshio Matsumoto-

Everything visible is empty (1975)

Mono No Aware (Japanese)

Fall is when we most feel the sadness of things

torii

Gate/Arch

The Ainu

Hokkaido remained an internal colony rather than a prefecture until 1882, land appropriated, inferiority institutionalized

Shinto kamidana

Household altar instilling awe or wonderment

Hakanai

Impermanent, changeable, fleeting

Emancipation Edict 1871

In 1871, the Meiji government issued an edict legally abolishing the derogatory names of eta (polluted ones) and hinin (nonhumans)—two common names for the burakumin—and stipulating that they be treated as "new common people." No follow-through measures were provided to implement their emancipation, however, and they continued to be relegated to "unclean" work while at the same time losing their monopoly on the more lucrative leather-crafts industry. The emancipation edict had little effect on the Japanese people in general and only worsened economic conditions for the burakumin.

Haru wu hana

In spring the flowers Hana- blossoms

Buddhist art of China amalgam of many influences such as wshich countries? Court welcomed visitors from India and other parts of Asia.

India, Persia

Bunka

Japanese culture The way that life there has been patterned

Matsuri

Japanese festivals

Kyushu and central Honshu divided into a number of territories rules by aristocratic clans (uji) when?

Mid 6th century

What process was key in shaping the Yayoi period (300BC-A.D. 300-250)

Migration and/or continental influencesi n all spheres of life Rice agriculture; permanent settlements; settled agricultural community Pottery very different: polished and refined - new technologies, new influences from the continent on visual values. The importance of pottery in Japan and the aesthetic values of naturalness, preference for things in their original, unaltered state, the beauty of the imperfect, staying true to materials

Kimigayo

National Anthem of Japan before 1945 Was associated with miitarialism and fascism

Three great unifiers of Japan

Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) Tokugawa leyasu (1542-1616)

Chanoyu (tea ceremony)

Origins of tea drinking Powdered tea (maccha) used only in tea ceremony; use of bamboo scoop (chasen) to stir it. 15c adoption of rules for preparation, serving and consumption. The tea room. Japanese taste: rough, muted, textured wares, again naturalness and irregularity

Kakibe

People who perform denigrated professions

The first two decades of Meiji saw what?

Rapid westernization

Shintoism

Religion located in Japan and related to Buddhism. Shintoism focuses particularly on nature and ancestor worship.

The 8 fold paths

Right views Right intention Right speech Right action Right livelihood Right effort Right mindfulness Right concentration

Bacchaemono

Something that transforms Rise of the figure of the ghost- parallel rise in ghostly culture- theatre of ghosts= samuri as a ghost retelling their suffering

Six elements of the Japanese Garden

Spaciousness, Secluded Space, Suggestion of Antiquity, Evidently Aritficial, Showing an Abundance of Water, Offering a Panoramic view

5 traditional principles of Zen

Special transmission outside the scriptures No dependence on the written word Direct pointing at the soul of man Seeing one's nature and attaining Buddhahood Meditation upon oneself to see one's true nature

Four aesthetic qualities

Suggestion, Irregularity, Simplicity, Perishability

Contact with the West and Christianity

Tanegashima, Kyushu: Portuguese traders arrive in 1543 Missionaries - the Jesuits ( St Francis Xavier, 1506-1552) 1587 Hideyoshi issues an edict to expel the missionaries Western guns, knowledge, dictionaries, etc.

Wabicha and Sen no Rikyo

Tea based on the aesthetics of wabi, Simple and unpretentious beauty, Imperfect and irregular beauty, Austere and stark beauty

Tōdaiji

Temple

Kinkakuji

Temple of the golden pavillion Kyoto

Edo period- when and what

The Edo period or Tokugawa period is the period between 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when Japanese society was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional daimyō

shi-nô-kô-shô): What are the 4 social classes?

The Four social classes Shi-Warrior caste No-Farming peasants Ko- Craftsmen and artisans Sho-Merchant class

Jōmon Period

The Jōmon period is the time in Japanese prehistory, traditionally dated between c. 14,000-300 BCE, recently refined to about 1000 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a hunter-gatherer culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism and cultural complexit

Mono no aware

The aristocratic aesthetic ideals- being moved by beauty, transient beauty

Koromo gae

The changing of seasonal wardrobes

3 different kinds of Buddha Yakushi Miroku Amida

The healing Buddha The Buddha of the future The Buddha of the boundless light

Horyuji Temple in Nara

The oldest surviving Buddhist temple in Japan (607)

Mono no aware

The sadness of things, transience

Edo culture

This worldly, hedonistic, focused on the body, parodying and laughing at somre samurai and Buddhist codes.

The Japanese emperor

Throughout history emperor reigned, but did not rule

________ is undesirable. Leaving something __________ makes it interesting and gives one the feeling that there is room for growth.

Uniformity

A matrilocal marriage

after marriage, the husband lives with his wife's family.

Last century of Muromachi Period called

age of warring kingdoms/provinces'

Burakumin

an outcast group at the bottom of the traditional Japanese social order that has historically been the victim of severe discrimination and ostracism.

Yayoi Period

ca.500 BCE Wetlad rice cultivation, wheel-turned pottery, metal tools

4 points about the The Jōmon period 4000BC-500BC: ceramics and society Hunting, gathering and fishing Classless society Very striking, expressive pottery

ceramics and society Hunting, gathering and fishing Classless society Very striking, expressive pottery

Iro

colour

Shaman

communication with the gods - still one of the most important functions of the Japanese sovereign

Excessive ______ and ______ is a deterrent from salvation Salvation is achieved through _________

desire attachment detachment

Sabi

desolate nature The mos precious thing in life is uncertainty. Nothing lasts, Nothing is fiished. Nothing is perfect

The boddhisatvas

even more revered beings - those who have achieved all requirements for Buddhahood, but have postponed their entry into Nirvana in order to help others break the cycle of life and death

Important Landmarks of the Nara Period Kojiki 古事記(712, Records of Ancient Times

more mythology than history, forgotten but rediscovered in 18th century by the nativist scholar Motoori Norinaga.

2 Examples of merging of Shinto and Buddhism

principal kami of Shinto came to seen as Buddhist deities; Buddhist temples often have shinto shrines. complementing each other: Shinto - a direct and simple love of nature and its vital reproductive forces, death simply one out of many forms of defilement. Birth and marriage - shinto, death- Buddhism, even now.

Chinese was seen as the language of what?

public realm, law, politics, administration

Buddhist principle- ___ is overattachment, overattachment leads to ___

sin

Kujome

street cleaners- lowly in profession

Bakupu- Curtain government

the emperor is im charge but behind the scenes there is a military clan who is controlling the country

Shinto

this world, here and now Purification very important

Mahayana

universal love, infinite compassion (cf. Hinayana)

Meiji Civil Code of 1896

women not legal subjects, banned from participation in political activities.

Nihon shoki 日本書記(720, Chronicles of Japan)

written in Chinese, widely read. Repositories of the extraordinary rich shintō mythology, derived from songs, legends, place name etymologies, religious rites. The narrative of the myths which tell of the descent of the imperial family from the Sun Goddess (Amaterasu) and its assumption of eternal rule on earth - myth, not history. Explicit ideological purposes - to justify the claim of sovereignty of the reigning dynasty. Kojiki : antiquity and lustre to the genealogies of the leading court families. Nihon shoki: apart from the mythology, a generally reliable history of the 6th and 7th centuries.