The rise and spread of Buddhism in the early middle ages led
to the establishment of influential monastic foundations and clergy. Buddhism arose in the sixth century BC by
followers of the mystic preacher Gautama Buddha in Northern India. Buddha’s teachings and disciples established
principles for their followers set around the Four Noble Truths (Life is full
of sorrow; the cause of all misery is
desire; one must break away from craving
and extinguish the desire of the self or ego; this can only be achieved by an
eight-fold path of conduct and moral codes.
Buddhism accordingly provided a social set of morals that was useful for
social, mercantile and state formation across a number of Asian regions that
were to be linked by the so-called Silk Routes.
The Asuka Period (538-710 AD)
Japan, 500-1000
A.D. [Timeline of
Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art]
Asuka and Nara Periods [Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art]
Early Statecraft and Buddhism: Structures of Power and Faith [Princeton University Art Museum] Includes Asuka,Kofun, Hakuho, and Nara periods.
Asuka and Nara Periods [Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art]
Early Statecraft and Buddhism: Structures of Power and Faith [Princeton University Art Museum] Includes Asuka,Kofun, Hakuho, and Nara periods.
Early Japan (50,000 BC - 710 AD) [About Japan: A Teacher's Resource]
See section 5 for the Asuka or Yamato period
See section 5 for the Asuka or Yamato period
The arrival in Japan
of Buddhism found a patron in Prince Shotoku (574-622). In 604 he issued what is known as a “Constitution
of Seventeen Articles,” that set forth moral guidelines for government officials
and also established the authority of the imperial house (Hane 29). These articles also established principles
that warned against excess levies by provincial authorities. A number of reforms in the following decades
fused principles of Confucian political philosophy with the administrative
needs of the state. These measures were
convenient in a period of broadened contact and exchange of embassies and
Buddhist clergy and students with China, during its “T’ang period (Hane
30). By the mid 7th century
these developments led to a series of modifications known as the Taika
Reforms. The imperial government’s
attemps to centralize authority was met with resistance by lesser nobility and
regional clans. There were also concerns
about the T’ang dynasty’s pressure on Korea, as three attempts by Japanese
rulers of the Sui dynasty had failed. By
644 the T’ang overran Korea with a large invasion and Japanese forces on the
Korean peninsula suffered a defeat in 663.
These moves forced reforms in Japan initiated by Prince Naka-no Oe, the so-called
Taika Reforms of 646,
that inaugurated a series of law codes and decrees that led ot the penal and administrative
codes passed in 702, the Taiho Code. A
large scale attempt at the nationalization of land and redistribution was
attempted based around the function of the state census. However the reconsolidation of family
holdings and those of small producers was allotted within a system of communal
and jurisdictional control of local leaders, which led to a greater consolidation
in landholdings among the imperial family and the nobility. Interestingly, the monasteries were exempt
form taxation allowing a period of wealth accrual for these institutions (Hane
33). This is worth comparing with a similar function and growth of monastic
foundations in Europe from this time forward.
Thee Taiho codes also instated conscription or the military draft. Further a system of prohibiting freedom of
movement was instated through a system of checkpoints that restricted peasant
mobility. The administrative decision to
establish a new capital at Nara which combined administrative and monastic
foundations inaugurates a new period of Japanese rule that reflects the
consolidation of Buddhism and the state.
Nara and Heian Japan (710 AD - 1185 AD)
For this course, our second phase is the Nara and Heian period
and the establishment of court aristocracies, beginning with the rise of the
Emperor Kammu (737-807). The new capital
at Nara dominated court and administrative life in Japan from around 710-784
and its population reached a peak of around 200,000. The monastery complex of Horyuji, founded in 607 is
illustrative of the importance and centralization of Nara. The complex is
distinguished by its layout and its wooden architecture, among the oldest
preserved wooden structures in the world.
Various schools of thought and varying Buddhist sects emerged form this
complex and affiliated spread of Buddhism throughout the country. This is not an uncommon phenomenon, we see a
similar differentiation occur in Islam in around this same period, with the
division between Sunni and Shia, and later with the rise of Sufism.
Another key feature of the evolution of Buddhism in Japan
was its syncretism with the ancient native religious philosophy and practice of
Shintoism, which had more popular appeal.
The spread of Buddhist monks acted as missionaries who attempte dot
provide appeal to the mass population, and we find in this period a sumptuary
display of Buddhist temple architecture in scale and mass, attesting to the
relative wealth of Buddhist institutions that now rivaled the poorer Shintoists
(Hane 37).
Some key contemporary sources for administrative history are
the official annals or chronicles of the court, collected as the Kojiki (‘Records of Ancient Matters) and the Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan). These need to be read with caution as they
are from the perspective of the central state.
The exemplary work of court literature from this period that provides
insight into the lives of the women nobility, is Mursaki Shikibu’s (978-c.
1016) Tale of the Genj. Written
in a poetic style it provides insight into the life of the aristocracy through
women’s experiences. It also revealing
of the extent of education and training extended to Japanese aristocratic
women, including their knowledge of classical Chinese. This is also a period rich in poetry and the
development of painting and calligraphy.
For a collection of
poetry, see the Kokin Wakashu
(original Japanese text here) a
compilation from the 10th century.
A key decision by the Emperor Kammu was to
move his administrative capital away from Nara to free the state from the
influence of the Buddhist clergy. It was
in Kammu’s interest to promote and encourage rival sects of Buddhist monks to
defray the centralized authority of Buddhist institutions at Nara. A feature of this period was the rise of the
Shoen in the wake of the failed land reforms.
The pattern of court nobility to accumulate landholdings arose as the
court also granted tax exempt status to the landholdings of the imperial
court. These tax free estates were known
as shoen. Over time this created tensions over the
granting of Shoen status and privileges,and the question of residual rights of
landownership, occupation or tillage by peasant families who had residual and
traditional use of these lands.
Increaingly a system of tenant farming was instated in which tentant farmers
rented lands and provided land labor.
Some incentives to reclaim and occupy areas requiring land reclamation
were given to independent farmers known as myoshu (Hane 56). By the 12th century the expansion
of Shoen ownership led to significant imbalances between absentee Shoen owners
and peasants on the land. The rise of
the Shoen also resulted in a decline in the authority of the central
government. Tax collection and resitance
became problems. The state and Shoen
owners relied more upon local elites , bands of chieftains who acted as vassals
and military lords. Increasingly they
relied upon the creation of a warrior class to govern and enforce power. These came to be formed as the Samurai, a warrior
class of military men, who were analogous to knights in service to the courts
of European kingdoms, or the Mamluks in Egypt.
The Kamakura Period
The Kamakura period marks the ascendance
of the Samurai as a military class in the late middle ages and as the dominant
political class of Japan leading into the modern period. Two major families, the Taira (Heike) and the
Minamoto (Genji) dominated the power for the countryside. By 1156 a major dispute at the court allowed
the Taira clan to become the dominant force at the palace capital complex at
Kyoto. A civil war ensued and the Taira
family under Kiyomori (1118-1181) defeated their rivals. After much court intrigue and palace
bloodshed that is analogous to the War of Roses in England, two successor
families the Kiyomori arose to claim power in 1159 after they eliminated the
Yoshitomo. The Taira family remained in power with Kiyomori assuming the role
of dictator. One of our most insightful
sources for this period is the Tale of the Heiki, a historical romance
that describes the appearance of patrolmen on the streets and security
apparatus of the state (Hane, 62). By
1180 a series of revolts against Taira rule broke out, followed by a severe
famine in 1181-1182 that led to the overthrow of the Taira by Yoritomo in 1185
and the establishment of a Kamakura Shogunate that ruled from 1185-1333.
Yoritomo established an administrative
system known as the Bakufu that relied on a system of division of offices. The Office of the Samurai supervised and
approved promotion of the Samurai military class. The Administrative Office managed executive,
legislative and legal matters. The Court
of Appeals settled civil disputes and land transactions. Overseeing this administrative apparatus was
the figure of the Shogun who acted as a military dictator.
This system was disrupted by the Mongol
invasions that began in 1274 that inaugurated a series of attacks and required considerable
marshalling of military forces to defeat it and the second invasion by the
Mongols in 1281. The effects of the
Mongol invasions weakened and exposed flaws in the Kamakura Bakufu system, and
despite an attempt to return the imperial system to power in the Kamakura
Restoration (1333-1336), it led to a new order.
The Ashikaga Period (1335-1573)
After the Hojo family of the Kamakura imperial aristocracy were
overthrown, the new Emperor Godaigo assumed power and consolidated rule by strengthening
the role of the Samurai. From 1335
Godaigo consolidated rule by relying on the ties to this military order. This new shogunate, known as the Ashikaga
shogunate broke up the Shoen system and redistributed it to various constables
(Hane, 90). This built loyalty between
local notables and military samurai and the Ashikaga state. However as the local constabulary gained
power it expected greater autonomy and we find open rebellions in 1416 in the
province of Kanto and a resulting civil war known as the Onin war,
1467-1477. The results of this civil war
gave rise to new military rulers, the daimyo, as local military war chiefs who
held power over their provinces. This
led to a period known as the Warring States period and a general period of
unrest through the end of the 15th century.
The Tokugawa Period (1600-1867)
The ascendance of the powerful Tokugawa
shogunate after the victory of Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara
marks a long period of consolidation in Japan.
The rise of the Tokugawa occurs as Japan is exposed and emerges into a
broader world system of expanding global trade, colonization and imperialism.
By 1639, faced with internal revolts, the Tokugawa decide to issue a ban to
outside trade. Only gradually does this
embargo wear off and the purpose must be seen in the light of internal Japanese
agricultural, commercial and technical developments. The Shogunate as a military caste with regional prefectures or
provinces also relied upon an internal class of merchants and samurai to
administer and finance its internal empire.
